Abuhan Dos in Cebu

Dinner with the FTV peeps ( Jia flew in from Singapore ) and our friends from Marketing and Creatives at Abuhan Dos was an experience in itself. Abuhan-the original on Ramos Street I remember from way back in 2001 when I first ventured out to Cebu. It was known for it's pochero-sort of like bulalo which was really good and quite cheap. Perfect after partying fare. This time around almost 7 years later I find myself in Abuhan Dos which is also on Ramos Street but in what could possibly have been an old house. It's got two floors and even an outdoor karaoke section (shudder). Thank goodness we just went there to eat and not to exercise and torture our vocal chords. Filipino comfort food (read: not healthy) as the group ordered pochero (the house specialty-what we Manileños would call bulalo) and sizzling pochero. There was also callos, lengua, grilled taningue, kangkong and chicken salad. The area of Ramos street is not the nicest with a lot of homeless and "women/ trannies" of the night abound. We did have an interesting experience when a woman holding a cellphone approached us and asked if she could be our friend. We waved her away since we had no idea who she was and she proceeded to the bar and eventually sat down with a man (who looked like he hadn't eaten or showered in days) on the other side of the restaurant. After they ate the man left right away and she even went back to us and said "See you later". We thought, 'Ok, weirdo, but a friendly one' her companion was more sketchy looking to be honest, but we were glad that he left without paying us any attention. After she left, we asked the waiter what was going on and apparently this was part of the woman's M.O. she comes in, approaches a big group and pretends to befriend them. She then sits with her companion (or perhaps someone else) and proceeds to order food, then they leave and she tells the waiters that she's part of the big group and to just add her orders to THEIR bill. Thankfully, the watiers and the staff had had experiences with her before so they actually asked her to pay BEFORE she ordered and when she had a receipt they served her her food.
I must say that the whole incident made everyone uncomfortable and I could tell that there was tension even when we were digging into the food. (Which was very tasty by the way, but how can you go wrong with fatty pork). I don't know if Abuhan Dos can "control" something like that since it's not in a great area and they shouldn't really discriminate ( after all the woman did pay for her meal ) but it did bring down the dining mood. Perhaps if we had stayed on the 2nd floor the whole situation would have not come to pass.
Moving forward, I can say that the group enjoyed the get together and despite the threats about hitting the gym the next day or moans about not wanting to eat another bite ever, we still proceeded to La Marea for dessert. Dietary hypocrites we are indeed.

Earth Rat Welcome!

The last time I formally celebrated Chinese New Year was a good 9 years ago. I remember specifically that we had to dress in either white, silver or red and that we had to follow an auspicious "route" recommended by the late Paul Lao of the Mandarin Hotel. It seemed like a fun thing to do, from what I can recall we all had to be inside a white, silver or red car and we had to pass through certain parts of Metro Manila ( and Old Manila)-in some parts we had to circle a landmark three times! We were a big group of friends and even my mom was game enough to participate. The last "stop" was at the Mandarin Hotel ( surprise surprise) and there was a dragon dance and a buffet ( that you had to pay for) and a gazillion people. In fact, just the people on the road doing the route was already a lot. Not sure if that year turned out to be particularly lucky but I had fun and my friends had fun and that's enough happy energy to make any year good right?

This year though is "my" year, being born in the year of the Rat. I had been invited by Joy Lim, proprietor of Charms and Crystals to her condo to celebrate the Eve of Chinese New Year. Apparently she only invites certain clients, family and friends to partake of a specially prepared selection of food ( each have their own meaning) and rituals to welcome in 2008. We started out writing our wishes on wishing paper and folding 8 pieces of lucky money. These would all be burned in a big fire in front of the altar of dieties on the roofdeck of the condo. As we started throwing our wishes and money into the fire (lit by three sticks of sandalwood incense that were also later placed in front of the altar) the fireworks started at the stroke of midnight Joy explained would "open" up the heavens since the next step was to write our wishes on red balloons that would be released (all at the same time) and would now "enter" the opened heavens. Pretty cool huh? Almost everyone was in red and the wishing writing was pretty much a frenzy but you could tell that everyone had hope in their hearts and were really praying for a much better new year.

"About 80% of wishes come true" winked Joy to her guests and she started handing out lucky money in red ampao envelopes "You keep this in your wallet so you will attract wealth" were her instructions. I now have a bright red and gold envelope sticking out of my wallet, who knows right? Am not going to complain if my bank statements reveal more $$$ in the coming months.

So to everyone who believes in Feng Shui or thinks this is all Feng-phooey, I would like to wish you all a very, very Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Learning for Living

As part of the work I do for my family's foundation I took a trip recently to visit two of the projects that we have been funding. One of them I've taken a personal interest in and it's one that we have been giving money too for the last five years. In fact, for my birthday about 3 years ago I actually spent it there with the kids and had friends and colleagues donate what they wanted to the kids and a clown act donated their services to entertain the kids for the day. There was food and some toys and of course money that was given that day and since then I've been getting regular reports of the progress and status of the Living for Learning Foundation. Last week when I went I was happy to see that the overall environment was still very clean and that the children were all very well-groomed, clean and eating a healthy diet. Patricia MacAuliffe, a Canadian lady who has been in charge of the foundation for many years makes sure that their diets consist mainly of vegetables and fish while meat and fast food are kept to a strict minimum-which is rare for most filipino diets.

She reported that they have been increasing their enrollment and are getting more and more children by the year and now the foundation is sadly lacking in funds. They do get donations but because of the growth in their classrooms they are going to have to make a hard choice of turning away kids, or even parents ( who attend vocational seminars to have a sustainable livelihood) or even worse, cut down their much needed staff (teachers, caretakers etc) When I asked her for a breakdown she said that they need a minimum of Php 2M a year in order to just stay afloat. If they could get more than that in a year then they could add more vocational programs for the parents ( mostly the mothers) and perhaps have more food for the feeding program or even teachers. This broke my heart because they currently have Nursery, Kindergarten and Prep classes, plus they try and have a sustainable 'Alumni Kids Program' for the older kids who can no longer participate in the classes-and without additional funds they will have to pare down many things. Living Learning doesn't make any profit for itself it just stays afloat from year to year. Right now they are taking care of about 200 children, and are hoping to still be able to maintain that or increase it ( with more funding in the coming years).

To give a quick breakdown, to keep ONE kid in school costs Php 10,000 a YEAR which is Php 833 a month! So this blog is a quick shout out to anyone and everyone who would like to make slight difference in a kid's ( and his or her parent's) life. Plus, you can be sure that you will get regular reports of where your money is going ( I have decided to donate a minimum amount on a monthly basis) as Learning for Living can issue receipts and you can always go and visit the facility in San Jose, Rodriguez in Rizal.

Donations can be made via their peso account: Living for Learning Foundation Inc. BPI Family Bank, acct # 5843-1609-31 or through their dollar account BPI Family Bank # 687-400-5191. I know everyone must have their own charities of choice but this is a chance to also contribute to the growth of a small community month after month so giving is a consistent regular thing, rather than just giving and forgetting. I do hope that even spreading the word about this program to other interested parties will help, as money is something that they are in dire need of for the near and far off future.

Learning for Living Foundation is located at the Tipanan Hose, Camia St. San Jose, Rodriguez, Rizal, Philippines. their email is learningforlivingph@yahoo.ca and tel. 948-4415.

A Road with A View

(published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer Nov. 17, 2007)

Text and photos by Katrina A. Holigores


It was almost like a rite of passage. An escapade up north that started in the dead of night. The end point was Baguio, one day before the end of February three years ago. My professional career had hit a speed bump and I was dating a guy who could best be described as a dead end. Going nowhere it seemed, I was then asked by an indie-hero to come along to shoot a “roadtrip” travelshow. The invitation was like a kiss from an angel, and at a red-eyed hour we set off for the NLEX and up, up and away we drove to the city of Pines. The plan was to cover the floral festival known as Panagbenga, but before that, indie-hero intimated, he wanted to show me a road he had discovered. It looked deserted and abandoned at ungodly hours but was traffic jammed virtually impassable as soon as the sun came up. “You have to see it right before the sun rises, it’s magnificent.” Having been nursed on National Geographic fodder I held my breath and kept my cynicism inside my camera bag. Four, five, six hours passed and I was amazed that the darkness did not intimidate our driver as I couldn’t even make out a single street sign. It was an endless black snake of asphalt but eventually we came to a clearing and all traces of sleepiness left me in a single breath-which was just as quickly taken away by what I saw. It was as if the skies were smoldering, rich with the colors of rising flames and framed against thick white smoke. For the next ten minutes all we could do was watch in silent awe as the sun slowly waded through the clouds as if coming out of a rich foamy bath. Once sunlight streamed in from all directions, the glamour of the surroundings disappeared and the road was revealed as nothing extraordinary, just a means to get from one end to the other and so we continued on our journey. I look back on that trip as a turning point in my life. Soon after, my career shifted gears and I found a detour out of Mr. Dead End. Funny, all this from an unremarkable road with an unforgettable view.

Aman's Art

It's funny how people can take you by surprise. While at Maribago Bluewater Resort my friends were talking about a up and coming painter, Aman Santos, they were complimenting his style and also the fact that he was in his 30s but could pass for a teenager. I was looking forward to meeting him and seeing his art at the Bluewater Gallery. Lo and behold, turns out AMAN is really DINGDONG Santos from my highschool! He was one batch below me and we were both on the Student Council (yes, laugh now) together in the 80s! Ha ha ha! Too funny, of course being me, I ripped his ego to shreds by calling him Dingdong in front of everyone, he was a good sport anyway and he laughingly defended his name change by saying "Who would buy a painting by an artist named DINGDONG?!" The Aman has a po-wint. He walked me to the gallery and showed me his work, part of the three man exhibit and suffice to say I was taken aback by what I saw. I would never have expected it out of him, not because he wasn't smart or creative back in highschool, but I certainly didn't think he would ever be a painter, shows you how much you know when you're that young. I guess school doesn't make aMan. I then found out that he was one of BenCabs apprentices and even if he studied to be a PT he went back to UP for Fine Arts and is now even teacher in their VizComm department. Take at look at some of his work. If you're in Cebu drop by the Bluewater Gallery at Maribago Bluewater Resort to check out the Art of Three Exhibit that runs until November 20. The resort is in the Mactan side of Cebu province you can call Juliet Amazona (032) 492-1808 or 232-5411 if you're a non-resort staying guest for an exhibit viewing appointment.

Au Natural

Discovering something new is irreplaceable, especially when it's a place you want to share with friends and, in this blog's case, the rest of the cyberworld. A Wednesday afternoon found me in a new gallery on Quirino Ave (athough people of a different generation will firmly identifu the area as Tambo) to see a series of photographs of children during playtime. Before the Michael Jackson in you comes out take note that the photos connote a joy and abandon that kinds lose themselves in during their endeavors. Hey, even sleeping is done with so much enthusiasm it take a rather cruel heart to want to stir them from their slumber. The photos were even arranged in a way that it made you want to look at them, and when I say arranged...I mean you have the opportunity to do some neck and back stretches. Congratulations to Chit and Eileen Ramirez who put up this gallery which I hope will pump in more work and even more interesting styling curator style. "Natural Lang" is the current exhibit at Blankspace, 0431 Quirino Ave, Paranaque tel. (02) 851-2647. Take a couple of hours out of a "usual" weekend and go view something new, which will probably bring more than a smile to your face. To the arts, and to those who still have the spirit for it in the Philippines. The battle isn't over they say til the soldiers stop fighting.

Old loves

I write this particular blog after having just "published" my Madrid photos early this morning. It's almost like I'm fully accepting that my Europe trip is over and the Madrid album ( since it was the country of my last stop ) is the closing of a door. Hopefully a door that can be opened more often than it has in the last 6 years. I lived in Madrid from 1997-1999, I had a small but well located flat, right in the heart of the Paseo de la Castellana. There were tapas bars around me, schools and every form of transportation that could get me from one end of Madrid City to the other. Seeing my old friends, some married and with kids and some still single and enjoying themselves in my former country of residence made me a tad sentimental. I kept on asking myself if I could live in Madrid again, if I could start from scratch ( the way I did 10 years ago) and just immerse myself in a land that was fueled by passion, and a certain stubborness to be more modern, and perhaps perform better in the world economy. The answer right now, is probably not, only because if I return to Madrid it's to be able to sit back and fully enjoy the city without having to worry about where the next Euro is coming from.I was able to watch a fantastic bullfight on TV, went to the rastro, watched Jesus Christ Superstar in Spanish and reconnect to this wonderful, wonderful place that hosted me for over two years and never once made me miss my country of birth. How many times in a life can you actually say you don't miss where you come from even if where you come from is a place that is not bad at all? I still remember as my plane was about to touch down in Barajas how my heart sped up and my adrenaline went ballistic, for about 2 whole, extraordinary minutes I was in total euphoria at just the thought of being in Madrid again. My dream is still to buy a 2 bedroom flat there and use it as my base every summer either to stay and chill or travel the rest of Europe. Porque no? Quizas, quizas, quizas.