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Happy New Year!!!

I spent most of the evening alternating between web surfing, channel surfing, and cooking pasta while waiting for my sister to stop playing Dungeon Siege II so I can take over. I was eventually able to play when she stopped long enough to make fruit salad, wash some dishes, and roast the baby back ribs.

Later, we (brother, sister, and I) climbed up the roof deck and watched the fireworks. I recorded some of the display with my K700i. After that, we went back down and had noche buena of spaghetti bolognese, roasted baby back ribs, fruit salad, and red wine. Yummy.

Happy new year everyone! :)

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Racer Dudette > Racer Dudes

Racquel, Rein, and I went to SpeedZone earlier this evening for another [rather unexpected] go at karting. I was planning to go back but not THIS soon. But since there’s nothing else to do I decided to go.

When we got there, we did the usual registration, gearing up, and waiting our turn. Then Racquel proceeded to soundly trounce both Rein and I. Her best time of 1:12.868 was almost 2 seconds and 5 seconds quicker than my and Rein’s best times respectively. Those are huge margins! It’s the genes I tell you :P

Afterwards, we went to Blue Wave to meet up with Eeya and watch the World Pyro Olympics 2005. Unfortunately, due to the severe traffic congestion, we missed the first show and just glimpsed the second show from afar. We had to content ourselves with just dinner at this forgettable place where the food is not worth it.

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Race Day

The whole IT Department went to Fort Bonifacio for karting at SpeedZone followed by our Christmas dinner.

We left the office early but got delayed because I missed a turn and decided to take a route through Makati. Big mistake. We lost 30 minutes stuck in traffic. We eventually got out of the mess and finally got to our destination.

We quickly registered at the counter, got our racing gear, and geared up. The suits were a bit moist, from the sweat of the previous user no doubt. The balaclavas were freshly laundered. You can still smell the fabric softener on them. That was great relief since the helmet paddings were also a little bit moist.

Once everyone was geared up, we went over to the pit where the carts stood waiting. After a short briefing by the track master, we climbed into the tight padded seats of our assigned karts. When we were all seated, the marshals started our motors and waved us one by one into the track. One by one, we stomped on the gas pedal and zoomed off into the track.

I didn’t expect it to be so much fun! At first we were a bit clumsy with the foot pedals and the steering wheel but as soon as we got the hang of it, we started zooming through the straights and twisting around the corners. I even accidentally went into a short drift or two :D You can see the background blur as you focus on the track and the other karts, hear the whine of the tiny engines, feel the wind even from under the helmet and suit… It was exhilerating!

Unfortunately, it was all over much too soon. A marshal flagged us down one by one and directed us back to the starting point where they shut down our engines. We clambered off the karts, heads buzzing from the adrenaline rush, and headed to the changing room to gear down.

Then it was dinner to talk about “the race” over food and a drink or two.

Will I be back? You bet!

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King Kong

Final exams were just done and I was looking for something to spend my time on. Enter King Kong. I decided to watch it because apparently people feel it is good: tons of cinemas were showing it (in Eastwood it was showing in ALL cinemas). Much more than any movie in recent memory. I went into the cinema with pretty high expectations.

I wasn’t disappointed.

The movie started off a bit slow: The background is set and the characters and their relationships built up. Then they stumble upon a mysterious island and it was non-stop action from there all the way to the ending in New York. You have to see the action scenes: from the dinosaur stampede, to the monster rumble, to the insect attack, to the city rampage, and finally to the battle up at the top of the Empire State Building.

It would seem like the movie got a lot of ideas from other movies. But remember that the original King Kong was where lot of other movies got ideas from in the first place.

And the acting is not bad either. Naomi Watts was gorgeous in a breathless 30s actress kind of way. Adrien Brody did well as the unexpected hero. He’s supposed to be Watts’ love interest but there seem to be more chemistry between her and the ape. Andy Serkis as the big ape himself almost outdid his Gollum. The only one who seem out of place is that comedy guy from Shallow Hal, but that’s because I saw that movie (as well as a few others). Otherwise he probably would have seemed great to me.

A classic in the making? Looks like that to me ;)

Rating: 4/5

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Dencio’s, Metrowalk

The other day, my former colleagues and I had our traditional Christmas get together. We decided to do it at Dencio’s in Metrowalk instead of at Congo Grill at El Pueblo where we usually go. We should have known better.

As usual in big gatherings, people took their time and trickled in gradually. While waiting for them, one of the staff approached me and asked how many we are in the group. I told her the number. She asked what time they are coming. I told her soon. She said they don’t reserve on fridays. I told her we’ve already ordered their food. I don’t know what the problem was. Whether it’s one person or twenty, if I order food for twenty people, I deserve space for twenty people. Good thing she didn’t push the issue and the bulk of the group arrived soon after.

Then while we were eating, some of the waiters were removing plates without asking. And this is when we still had pending orders which are taking too long. Maybe they didn’t know there are still pending orders. But that’s not even an excuse. At the least, they should ask if it is okay to remove the plates. What it seemed to me is that they were running out of plates because when we asked for replacement plates and utensils, they would take their time bringing the plates and sometimes bring only a spoon or a fork with it.

Throughout the ordeal, I didn’t feel welcome nor attended to. Granted it’s dinner time on a friday and it’s the Christmas season to boot. But they should have anticipated that. So it’s no excuse. Besides, this is not the first time I’ve experienced poor service in this specific branch. So maybe they really suck at the service department. I don’t know why I still went back. But I definitely won’t again.

Rating: 1/5