The Eat All You Can Rule

Eat All You Can

Last Wednesday, my friends and I got together to "brainstorm" about our plans on celebrating Jejo's birthday blowout.  Ever since we started working, we made it a point to celebrate each other's birthday doing something that we've never done before.  Last year we went bowling on my birthday, we went to a comedy bar on Jejo and Maude's birthday combined and we went to E.K. to celebrate Nhix's.  Noreen's birthday came in too early for this idea, but anyway, we went to ACE Water Spa for her late birthday celebration last month.  Our original plan for Jejo and Maude's birthday this year (supposedly to be combined again since their birthdays are only 4 days apart) was to go to Manila Ocean Park.  But due to her expensive lifestyle (haha :p), Maude can't afford to spend for us pa.  So we needed a Plan B.

Anyhoo.. this post is not about our Plan B (intro lang yun, haha), this is about what we did instead of thinking about plan B (haha) -- pigging out.

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We met at Alphaland Southgate Mall in Magallanes that night and instead of eating on the fastfood chains that we usually go to, we chose to eat at Chef D' Angelo.  We chose to eat there not because we are willing to spend a fortune for a dinner date that would only last for more or less 2 hours.  We were lured to dine there because of the "Eat all you can" tarp outside! Haha!  I don't know if they do that everyday, I've only seen it twice, but they offer an all you can eat buffet of pasta (spaghetti and carbonara), pizza (hawaiian, four cheese, pepperoni), caesar salad and soup for 150 pesos but for a limited time only (6pm to 9pm).

Our dinner date inspired me to create my 26th rule.

When you dine in to any restaurant and availed of an "all you can eat" promo, you should follow the instruction to just eat what you can.  Do not eat all you want, do not eat all you should, most especially do not eat what you think your money deserves.  The promo did not say that.  Why am I saying this?  Because I, and I guess my friends as well, did not follow what the tarpaulin said.  Although I know that there are consequences  if I wouldn't be able to chow down everything that was in my plate (they'll let you pay double the charge if you have leftovers), I never thought about it at the time,  I was just happy that I can put any amount of carbonara and salad and pizza on my plate.  I never stopped to think if I actually can eat all of them, I just threw them all in and that, my friends, was my first mistake.  I ate all I want. 

After I emptied my first plate, although I was so full, I still had the feeling that I should come back for more.  I was thinking "what the heck, I paid for an unlimited supply of italian goodies, why should I limit myself to just one plate?", and so I went back.  My second mistake.  I ate all (I thought) I should and what I thought my money deserved.

I guess anybody who's not always eating "buffet style" can relate to what I did.  Most especially for first timers, we wanted to have a taste of it all, right?  We don't think if everything is at our capacity, we just wanted to have even a little of everything.  We always want to have that "sulit na sulit" feeling when it comes to things like this.  Although it is not a crime to do so, still, it is wrong.  So wrong.  Why?  Because if you push yourself to have that sulit na sulit feeling, you will have a super full and super hard na belly afterwards!  

My karma?  I wasn't able to enjoy the desserts Maude and Noreen brought :(  It also came to a point that I felt a pang on my stomach when I laugh and believe me, it's hard not to laugh when I'm with my girls, because of the hilarious things we talk about each time we meet.  I swear to God, I have never been so busog all my life.  I felt so full until lunch time the next day!

So next time, when they say "eat all you can", I will believe them.  I will eat only what I can.  You do that too, no matter how delectable the food is, you do not have to put everything in your plate.  Believe me, it will save you a lot of tummy aches. Hihi. :)

The Proud to be Pinoy Rule

Proud to be Pinoy

Although I think it is a given na that we, Filipinos, are naturally proud of our race, it's still tickling when something or somebody shows himself to the internet world and screams (figuratively though) that he is a proud Pinoy.

I stumbled upon Mikey Bustos' video tutorials in youtube this weekend.  This fine young man (who is also downright humorous) shares the Filipino culture to the world thru his vlogs.  Yes he is Pinoy but he grew up on a foreign land.  But since he is with his Pinoy family, he still grew up to be Filipino by heart.

Cutting this boring intro short, let me share to you my top four favorite videos by no other than my new-found crush, Mikey. :)  

Warning: nakaka-in love

Filipino Accent Tutorial by Mikey Bustos

Filipino Dining Tutorial by Mikey Bustos

Traditional Filipino Courting Tutorial by Mikey Bustos

Uncanny Artistic Talents of Filipinos Tutorial by Mikey Bustos

Bonus: He sings too! *melts*

There are a lot of videos pa, but I guess after watching the above embedded, you'll search for him yourself na. :)

The Love Just Ain’t Enough Rule

Sometimes, love just ain't enough

I know, I know.. love conquers all, it can move mountains, hell, it makes the world go round.  But in relationships, even the most crazy-in-love type of couples get ticked off every once in a while.  One moment of disappointment, one moment of hurt can blow off everything a bf-gf has ever hardly built.  One snap of bad timing and boom, he's single, she's single.  Yes, they love each other, but sometimes other emotions grow much stronger. Pride takes over, anger takes over, love? Set aside.

So is it enough?  Your answer might still be yes, but you have got to admit, it is not (well at least not at all times).  Sometimes it needs a little help, too.  Love has friends you know and those are (but not limited to) maturity, honesty, the ability to compromise, communication, trust, understanding, fidelity, faith, patience, kindness, forgiveness, you get the picture.  Now when all else fails, love saves. Love saves everytime.

However, although love wants nothing but peace and happiness, it also has some enemies and boy are they strong.  Hate, jealousy, infidelity, immaturity, pride, selfishness, misunderstanding, prejudice, do the math.

When these "enemies" attack a relationship, you might think that love automatically comes to the rescue, but no.  Its friends are at the first line of defense.  Maturity tries to weigh things over, tries to think of the next move.  Sometimes it fails because another enemy (immaturity) is stronger and when it does, other friends of love gets defeated too.  But when maturity succeeds, other friends gain strength as well.  Trust and faith rebuild bridges that were burned, the ability to compromise and communication help them.  Understanding and forgiveness close the deal, hence, love is revived and becomes even stronger.

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To end this note, let me share to you one of my favorite quotes, I guess it tells everything I (think) I know about love and relationships.

"Relationships don’t work the way they do on television and in the movies. Will they? Won’t they? And then they finally do, and they’re happy forever. Gimme a break. Nine out of ten of them end because they weren’t right for each other to begin with, and half of the ones who get married get divorced anyway, and I’m telling you right now, through all this stuff, I have not become a cynic, I haven’t. Yes, I do happen to believe that love is mainly about pushing chocolate covered candies and, y’know, in some cultures, a chicken. You can call me a sucker, I don’t care, because I do believe in it. Bottom line is: it’s couples who are truly right for each other wade through the same crap as everybody else, but the big difference is they don’t let it take them down. One of those two people will stand up and fight for that relationship every time. If it’s right, and they’re real lucky, one of them will say something." - Dr. Cox, Scrubs.

:)