Monday Adventures: Food Trip, Galleries and Paper Towns

Yesterday, Kristel, Ian and I had a little hangout. Initially, we wanted to go to The Nook Cafe, a Harry Potter-themed place, at Mahinhawa St., but apparently they're closed on Mondays! Bummer. A lesson: before checking out a certain place, make sure they're open first to avoid disappointment and embarrassment in front of kuya tricycle LOL. 

The Nook Cafe when closed. Quite a sight.....

We decided on going to Katipunan instead and eat at Chubby Chicken. I literally screamed when I remembered the place. It has been more than a year since I last ate there (review days). I discovered the place through Hansel, who in fact celebrated his birthday yesterday but he's in the U.S. right now so we didn't get to meet at all.... Anyway, when we got there, only a few people were eating (and they were outside) so we kind of had the place all to ourselves. Yessss.

Kristel was extremely terrified of that cat that Ian had to scare it away HAHAHA 

"They say all atoms came from the belly of a star so maybe I was with you when we first came to life."

YUM. THE BEST.

After our little food trip, we went to Ateneo Art Gallery. Kristel and I planned to go there last week but we learned that visitors can't enter unless an Atenean is going with them. That time, Ian was in Canada so obviously, we were not allowed to enter :(

If I were an Atenean, I think I'd be here everyday. Perfect for reading and writing.

Lahar, 1993 by Conrado Mercado

Relative Nothing 

"In these images, the fabric of Buenconsejo's existence rendered in seemingly infinite loops on screen, case studies of how light conveys everything and nothing."

"With these new works, Buenconsejo does not only jokingly push his viewers towards getting sick of his digitized face, he also asks how it is possible that we are not yet sick of our digitized selves."

"In their gleaming surfaces - both a portal and void - we see our own faces staring back."

Sanctuary

"....indeed hope does spring in strange and odd sanctuaries such as assembled fallen twigs, abandoned nests, a single branch and a barren tree as suggested in his wall-bound and installation works."

"For him these kinds of spaces form an abode for mutual self-growth, in a way that interwoven human relations enrich each person, complementing each other without diluting one's identity."

"Each woven nest becomes a metaphor of stories shared, people encountered, places visited, and events attended."

"In this way, foreign places are spaces to be engaged in as an adventure of broadening horizons and deepening relations."

Matchy matchy

Details

"Thus, in this exhibition, Napay has explored the potential of art to make sense of various sanctuaries such as trees and nests as potential spaces of homeliness in one's itinerant experience of being in transit, between one's home/studio and another place."

Those braces....

After, we went to see Paper Towns. I liked the film. I just wish they extended the part where Margo and Q set out on an adventure in the middle of the night. Anyway, I looove the soundtrack. Sam Bruno's Search Party and Son Lux's Lost It To Trying are two of my favourites. 

Birthday Adventures

The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it. 

- Hubert H. Humphrey

PART ONE 

(I'm eight days late for this post. Yikes...)

Ian, Me, Kristel & Hansel

On the morning of my birthday, my best friends decided to surprise me. They left little gifts all over the house that had a clue on it for me to find the next one. Anyway, I woke up that day feeling all excited as I planned a little adventure for the four of us. 

I found this McDonald's breakfast sitting pretty on the table and then....I found a paper under. It led to the next gift which was a jar/mug. The paper had an instruction - to go to the bathroom in our old house since he/she was waiting there. Thinking that my father was the one who had kindly provided my first meal of the day, I didn't bother to check since he and my mother left early. So I went up to my room and listened to music to kill time....for two hours. TWO HOURS. I made them wait (unintentionally, of course) for two hours. God, I'm a terrible person... My father arrived before 12 and asked if I had found all the clues. "Meron pa po ba? Wala sa CR..." I hurriedly went to the bathroom and found an EFFICASCENT OIL. (If you didn't know, I have gastritis which makes me expel gas like there's no tomorrow.) Oh man, that gift was comic. Going back, I found the next gift/clue. Again, it had an instruction - to go to the place where I frequently take pictures of sunsets. There they are with a cake, a box of pizza and a bouquet of roses. They definitely succeeded because the whole thing left me in awe. I couldn't ask for more. Their mere presence was a gift in itself.

Laser tag at Market! Market! WE HAD THE MOST AMAZING TIME HERE. We were laughing uncontrollably. Kristel and I giggled so hard everytime we try to shoot each other because it felt like we were doing an act of betrayal on our friendship. LOL. 

Don't ask

Coffee, books, and best friends. What a way to spend the afternoon. 

"Keep anyone with whom you can read in silence." - Lemony Snicket

Then we went to Maginhawa St. Quezon City for late dinner.

PART TWO

My friends/classmates surprised me with a BOODLE FIGHT. Man, the food was just awesome. 

____

I've always been the one to plan out surprises/join them. And quite frankly, surprises don't really fascinate me mainly because I don't like it when I'm suddenly being put on the spot. But these two events are definitely an exception. What more can I say? The people behind them are the ones I treasure the most. So if you find yourself somewhere in these pictures, I just want to say thank you and I appreciate you.