99 luftballons

well, seeing as our internet connection here at home can leave one quite frustrated, i decided to just upload new posts and photos every so often (i.e. when our connection goes above 30kbps!!! it's sad.)

anyway, on to my doings -- i was at the hot-air balloon festival in clark air base a couple of months back. ok, ok i admit, i'm lazy. and our lousy internet connection isn't helping either. excuses aside, let's get on with it.

it was feb. 11, a sunday, and the last day of the 4-day festival. my brother and i left the house at around 4 in the morning and proceeded helter skelter to clark field in pampanga, a good one and a half hour's drive away from makati. i can tell you though that driving down the north luzon expressway was one of the highlights of that trip. at 4 in the morning, there's hardly a soul in sight. and that whole stretch of asphalt is the finest in the land, bar none. without exaggerating, driving easily became a pleasure again. so much so that we could have easily reached 160kph in a few seconds if we weren't conscious of the speed limit.

clearly, the excellent road conditions were a tremendous help -- we arrived at clark field right on time. it was dusk and the balloons were ready to fly off into the horizon. this was the only time i've been to a hot-air balloon festival. and true to pinoy form, it was truly festive. and what's a festival without food? food stalls were everywhere hawking anything from the ubiquitous tenderjuicy hotdogs to the once-popular-and-now-making-a-comeback shawarma. another interesting find -- a stall manned by a couple of german guys selling bratwurst and sauerkraut.

needless to say, the food variety was pretty eclectic and the food selection process was rather satisfying. i've never had shawarma for breakfast until that day. strangely enough, i actually recommend it.

with our tummies stuffed, my brother and i just wandered around taking photos and browsing through the other non-food stalls. lots of people were at the event and most of them brought kids. a good consumer insight for any stall operator there. and apparently, one of them thought of that and was smart enough to sell kites. so, while all the balloons were cast off into the sky, the landlubbers down below were entertained by paragliders and skyjumpers and kite-fliers of
all ages. to give you an idea of how many people there were, take a look at this:

while i was taking photos of some kites, i bumped into a couple of friends who i haven't seen in ages. we did a little catch-up and then right before it got intolerably hot, my brother and i decided we'd had enough for the day and so we said our goodbyes and then we took off, rather satisfied.

pasyal

for my birthday weekend (first weekend of february) we spent virtually the whole day in tagaytay. i like tagaytay. it's the nearest place you can visit where you can still feel like you're getting far far away from the big bad city. away from all the greyness, the pollution, the drabness of our cement-encrusted city. even the 50-minute drive can be pleasant -- especially as you take the smaller lesser known roads. immediately you see the difference. you start seeing green -- beautiful trees, lots of grass, lovely flowers.

and then you get to the ridge where you see this view:

lunch at mano's taverna was great, save for the fact that you couldn't pay by credit card. the moussaka and the gyros were great. and special mention goes to the home-made yoghurt drizzled with honey from the neighboring farm. the olive oil was great too -- mano, the owner, claims it comes from his very own olive plantation in crete.

after polishing off two gyros and a small pot of yoghurt by myself (and sampling everbody else's food, of course), i was ready to move. needed a breath of fresh air so i suggested we visit the site of our future town home. all the roads are done. check. all the cables and wires were laid underground. check. nice view of taal. check. country club. check. all that's missing is our house. haha. which i'm planning to design myself. not that i'm an architect or anything. i just have an eye for things, if i do say so myself. it has to have a spanish meditteranean look (as per the building code in the village) so i'm thinking clay tiles and wood. kinda like the clubhouse:

and after that bit, it was time to go home. back to the big bad city. but not before we stopped at the roadside to buy fruits.

it was a great sunday, all in all.

hello digital

and so it was that i made the switch from film to digital. with much deliberate hesitation, i took one look forward and leaped. and much to my surprise, it was relatively painless.

hello convenient digital world.

i'm loving my nikon d80. and this captured moment over the pacific waters makes me think that it loves me back.

To explain

"Tout casse, tout passe, tout lasse, excepté le souvenir*."

For the disinclined, here is a rough translation: Everything breaks, everything passes, everything wears out, except the memories.

In other words, my blog shalt outlivest all! ... Woohoo!!! (cue maniacal laughter. and cut.)

*souvenir n.m. <> : 1. memory n. (~ of a specific event) 2. recollection n. 3. remembrance n. 4. souvenir n. (objet)