Friday, March 29, 2024
The dry season (Pagasa weather bureau does not refer to it as summer) is particularly blistering this year with El Nino phenomenon rearing its ugly head. With heat indices in Iloilo reaching 44C, it’s definitely a brutal season for many especially for heat intolerant folks like myself. Everybody dreads the humidity and the heat that triggers all sorts of bodily ailments and irritable situations. How do breeze through this season without losing our sanity?
1. Take a cool shower twice or thrice a day if it is possible. This is the fastest way to keep our system cool and free from overheating. Try products like Human Nature cooling body cleansers for a refreshing twist.
2. Slather on the sunscreen and wear a hat!
3. Keep hydrated! On particularly hot days, drinking electrolyte added water like Pocari Sweat helps replace lost salts and minerals due to excessive sweating.
4. Treat yourself to your favorite cold drinks like iced coffee, juices and slushes.
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| Cheap but yummy popsicle treat from Aice Ice Cream |
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| The best strawberry bingsu in town is from Cafe Seoul. Available on Grab Food. |
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| They say Filipinos drink hot coffee even on hot days. Not in this crazy weather. Affogato is the best alternative if you are craving caffeine. CPlex Cafe near Jaro Plaza serves amazing affogato. |
5. Activities that require strenuous effort such as exercise should be done early morning or late evening. Haha, avoid all strenuous activities altogether. It's a season to be laaazzzzy!
6. Invest in a portable misting handheld fan to stay cool wherever you are. Cooling blankets, mats and products such as Biore cooling mists and body sheets are especially helpful.
7. Install windchimes such as Japanese furin in your garden or balcony to enjoy the cooling, gentle ringing sounds. Bamboo chimes have a cooling effect as well.
8. Wear light colored, comfortable clothing made of cotton fabric. Of course, the dry season is a reason to wear flip flops, yay!
9. Flowers are abloom so safely enjoy outdoor picnics under a cool shady tree. Be mindful of staying outdoors when UV level and heat indices are high. There is no reason to be miserable this season. Warmer weather can have its perks!
10. Budget permitting, the best way to escape the dry season for urban dwellers is to hie off to cooler destinations like mountain retreats (and the malls if you don’t have aircon at home).
In the meantime, enjoy the dry season. Stay cool!
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Coffee, tea or biscuit cat?
It’s bring your cat to school day!
Macky: Forever Meowmy’s little angel
Check out Snow, my fave web portrait AI app! Download on Google Play or Apple App Store.
Saturday, March 16, 2024
It was my first time to vist Mitsukoshi in Bonifacio Global City during my Ed Sheeran concert weekend. Since I ony had 48 hours to spare before going back to Iloilo City, I decided I wanted to see the Japanese department store branch in the Philippines and see how it compares with Mitsukoshi Ginza which I visited in Tokyo last summer. Of course, that’s a silly preposition since Mitsukoshi Ginza is a flagship store and the one here in the PH is a sampler of a Japanese lifestyle store so to speak.
Anyway, Mitsukoshi BGC did not disappoint. I actually love it. The store occupies 2 floors and a basement area. A good size for a mall I should say unlike the mammoth ones that take a week to explore. It has all the shops that I fancy and gives one a taste of Tokyo. There’s Daiso, Kinokuniya, Bandai Gachapon store (which unfortunately was emptied out of toys), Key Coffee and other Japanese name brands. My favorite would have to be the Mitsukoshi Fresh grocery which filled with Japanese products, snacks, confectionery and everything right up to my alley. That alone deserves another trip to Manila soon!
Thursday, March 14, 2024
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| Not really a Swiftie but a Sheerio ;) |
All roads led to Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour 2024 at SMDC Festival Grounds last Saturday, March 9, 2024. I missed his Manila concert back in 2018 and this year, I didn’t want to miss it for the world. So without a blink of an eye, I jumped on the earliest available Air Asia flight last Saturday to catch the concert in the evening. My sister treated me to CAT3 reserved seat tickets at the open air venue so I was super thrilled and grateful to see Ed Sheeran a little bit closer than I imagined. Our vantage point allowed us to fully appreciate the monumental stage set-up, a circular LED screen held up by laser sourced Ayrton lighting rigs and a fully automated, TAIT navigated revolving stage that gave the audience a full unobstructed view of the beloved British singer-songwriter. The immersive light and sound technology employed in this concert definitely blurred the lines between live performance and digital art wizardry. Mathematics Tour 2024 is all that it adds up to be and more.
Crowd favorite local indie folk pop band Ben & Ben was the front act for the evening. Bloody excellent choice, Ed! I was doubly stoked as Ben & Ben is my fave local artist and I've always wanted to see and hear them play live. I am a fan of their music genre and it was refreshing to hear the 9-piece band play their popular songs like Leaves, Kathang Isip, etc to an adoring crowd. The highlight of the evening would have to be Ed Sheeran sharing the stage with the B&B twin brothers Miguel Benjamin and Paolo Benjamin Guico (hence Ben & Ben) for a duet of their hit song Maybe the Night. Ed singing the lyrics of Maybe the Night gave us all the warm fuzzies!
Ed Sheeran opened the show with fireworks and an electrifying rendition of Tides, the first song in his 28 song setlist that ended with an equally charged song Bad Habits. A curtain of fireworks closed the stage, a fitting culmination to an unforgettable night. Almost all of my favorite songs were in the setlist- The A Team, Lego House, Shape of You, Galway Girl, Castle on the Hill and Afterglow so I was one happy Sheerio. Perfect is one song I often play on my guitar so I felt really surreal when Ed Sheeran sang it to a gently swaying crowd, their mobile phones lighting up the night like a swarm of fireflies. At the start of the show, Ed assured the audience that everything in the concert is performed live. He emphasized that no single concert of his sounds exactly the same. With guitar in hand and his signature loop pedal, Sheeran was a one-man rock band, his every move amplified and transformed into mesmerizing, almost hypnotic thematic MTV style LED board videos. I've been to many rock concerts (in my youth, hehe) and I can say Sheeran's rotating stage platform is a breakthrough in audience engagement. In whatever seat tier you are, you are given the equal opportunity to see the performer in 360 degree glory.
My favorite part of the concert aside from Ed’s duet with Ben & Ben is his heart stirring rendition of Tenerife Sea, a song which I particularly adore and that never fails to give me goosebumps. The excited crowd fell into a hushed spell when he reached the bridge of the song and softly crooned "Lumiere darling, lumiere over me, lumiere darling, lumiere over me." Ah, my heart slayed by this ginger-haired Brit.
Ed's set started at 8:15 pm and ended at 10:40 pm. Another front-act was Calum Scott, a fellow Brit and alumnus of Britain's Got Talent. We missed his performance since we got entangled in the Pasay City traffic jam (I meant it literally when I said all roads led to SMDC). As expected going home after the concert is another story in itself. Despite the challenging post-concert traffic situation, Pinoy Sheerios went home happy, bathed in a warm concert afterglow.
The cool breeze and pleasant weather (so untypical of summer nights) made the concert more enjoyable and memorable. In the night sky, the new moon shone, the lumiere that Ed Sheeran's music makes us feel.
We can't wait for Ed to come back! Don't make us wait for another 6 years, please!
Thursday, March 7, 2024
February rolled by so swiftly, a contrast to how painfully long January was. It's my favorite time of the year as the weather is cool and mellow. For two weeks in a year, we get to enjoy below 30C weather which is quite a welcome break from the usual 34C temperature we live with all year long. It’s also a month for planting seeds of hope dreams.
In the meantime here are some random weekend projects...
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Weekends are awesome for sunset chasing. Once in a while, a beautiful lavender hued sunset makes a grand display. It reminds me of Taylor Swift’s song Lavender Haze. |
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After extending my Photobook voucher three times, I finally got to finish my photobook of an autumn trip to Tokyo last November. |
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