Mario's Aftermath, Arrival at the Book Fair and the Marian Exhibit

Part 1 of my posts on the Manila International Book Fair 2014. Since a lot happened, I decided to divide my posts on the event.

Wow... talk about a worst case scenario. Originally I was gonna go to MOA last Friday, but as we all know, Typhoon Mario just had to come in. As we've seen in the news, floods struck everywhere, families had to evacuate and places were submerged. Some even lost their lives during this calamity as well. Hoping for the best of those affected...

Also... best say a prayer and lend a helping hand to those affected.

Now, finally after plans have gone awry, I was able to push through to going to SM Mall of Asia yesterday for the last day of the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF2014). Originally, the plan was that I was gonna go there last Friday and again on Saturday, but you all know why things didn't push through. Sure, it didn't rain hard on Saturday, but I was still not allowed to go. I know it's cliche but as always, better late than never :). It's good to plan ahead, but also good to prepare for the possible worst case scenario.

Now, I went and attended the event all by myself. I left the house at about 11 AM and arrived at MOA about past 12 noon. On the way, the traffic at the last traffic light before MOA was rough. Not only that, probably due to thinking of so many things, I realized I forgot to bring my ID since students attending would have a discount. Good thing though when I came to SMX Convention Center, I still got a discount when I told the ticket sellers that I was a student, (albeit with no ID. At least I was honest, hehe). :) (Just so you know, tickets cost 20 pesos for adults, 15 pesos for students and kids. Difference is not much, but sometimes every peso counts.)

Souvenir program for the MIBF (et. al) I got two of them (one at the tickets and the other at one of the entrances). The 2nd came with a map of the book fair.

Entering the bookfair is overwhelming. People were all over, checking out books and all. I just went around quickly at first before I left the place and headed to the Main Mall because there was an exhibit (namely: Mary and the Popes Exhibit) there that featured Marian images and different memorabilias and relics of the popes. Of course, since I was already in MOA, why not check it out? Diba? :)

entrance

Inside the book fair. Kinda like Quiapo/Divisoria.

At first, I got lost. I entered the main mall and thought it was there, since I remembered that the exhibit was at the South Wing of SM-MOA. Note that I do not go here much, so I'm not that familiar with the place. I finally stumbled upon the exhibit later on at a place near the back of the mall.

The exhibit wasn't that big (but not small), but it was a beautiful and inspiring exhibit that featured images of the Virgin Mary under different titles and depictions, such as La Naval, Manaoag, Guadalupe, Antipolo, etc... . In addition to that, exhibited as well were images of the different popes of the Catholic Church and some of their relics. There were also a lot of papal memorabilia, such as the skullcap of St. John Paul II and other objects given by the popes. There was even a standfie of Pope Francis (and there were more of them at the book fair). It was a blessing to see this.

Our Lady of La Naval. This is personally my most favorite title of Mary.

Relics and memorabilia of St. John Paul II

Relics and Papal memorabilia

More pics of the Marian exhibit here.

After viewing the exhibit, I headed back to SMX for the book fair and other things.

MIBF coverage to be continued in another post... 

Stormy Lunch at The Porch (plus some plans)

Man, quite a stormy day today and it also happens to be my brother's birthday. To mark it, we and other relatives had lunch at The Porch by Casa Verde, located along Anonas street, in Sikatuna, QC. Today's the second time I ate there and last time I did was weeks ago, though back then, I wasn't feeling too well plus I didn't bring my camera (if I brought it though, then I might've blogged about this place already). I'll just be talking about the food and the restaurant and I wont go much into other things that happened. 

Anyways, the place is quite small, located past the grocery there along Anonas ext.. It looks like this small house but you'll know it when you see it. Although it's small and I find it tight, it has a good ambiance to it. One can eat inside or outside, depending on the availability of the seats. Personally, I might've preferred it if we ate inside (last time we did though) but this time, we were outside. Good thing that despite the winds, the weather didn't mess things up. :)

Now, on to the food. The restaurant serves American food such as ribs and the food's within the 150 to mid 300s range, so it isn't too expensive, but not cheap either. I have to say that the ribs here (Brian's Ribs) are tasty, and as one of their bestsellers, it's definitely worth a try. While I can't say if it's the best, since I don't eat ribs a lot, it's certainly good. A single serving's 250 Pesos, and by the way, that's a big serving since it's even good for sharing (that's how big it is). They also serve the ribs by the bucket (888 Php) for people that'll dine in bigger groups (kanina, we ordered 2 buckets, plus ordered 2 single servings! There were 12 of us). In addition to that, we ordered 2 servings of their Best Sampler(s) (one serving is 328 Php) which had potato skins, fried cheese and buffalo wings. By the way the wings here are one of the spiciest I've had. I'd say it is, but it's good though :D. Potato skins and cheese were great too, it's better with the dips that come with them. Other things we ordered today were a salad and spaghetti (dunno how much, I'll not comment on them). For desert we had their Death by Chocolate ice cream cake (188 Php) which had a rich taste, nice. We ordered 3 slices. One thing we didn't have this time unlike the last was the Fisherman's Platter. All in all, it made for a great lunch. :)

The Porch. I'm sure you can't miss it if you go by this place.

Iced tea and the salad

Salad and spaghetti. Both are good, I'd say. There was nothing we ate that I didn't like.

Best Sampler and Spaghetti.

Ribs by the bucket with rice. Wow, it's great. :)

Death by Chocolate cake. Ice cream's melting though... Still good. :)

The menu board. After choosing, you order at the counter. :)

After that I went home with my cousin and tito since the rest had other things to do. The weather's still bad though with all those strong winds and all. I was supposed to attend a retreat tomorrow but it got postponed :( ...

Anyways, it's gonna be some busy days ahead. Though our retreat was postponed, I still have plans for the week. Of course, I have my school work to deal with. In addition to that, I'll be heading to SM Mall of Asia for the Manila International Bookfair (MIBF) and if I go next weekend (which seems likely) I'm gonna drop by The Best of Anime (BOA) convention which was the first cosplay event I've attended (wow, it's almost been exactly a year ago). In addition, my birthday's fast approaching as well. Well, that's that and thanks for checking. :) Ingat! :D

FB page of The Porch

Classes at the Alumni Bldg, UST

I thought of posting this... In the last weeks or so, we've been having classes at UST's newest building, the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes O.P. Building, Thomasian Alumni Center or simply the Alumni Building. It's located at the P. Noval side of the university, where the old gym used to stand and you can't miss it since it's the tallest building in the campus. Though the building isn't totally finished yet, since there's still some work going on, it's already open, of course. As far as I know, AB (which is my college in UST by the way) and CTHM students occupy the building for classes. It's a cool, comfortable place to have classes (though it can get really cold though...) and the our floor (10th floor) provides a nice view of the Metro. :)

Here some pics I took the other day...

Alumni Building, UST.

@ the ground floor

Santissimo Rosario Parish, UST Church

Taken from the 10th floor, facing Espana.

P Noval street

Scene in the street below. P Noval gate

Facing Dapitan side.

Vending machines on the 11th floor

10th floor

Taken at one of the hallways on the 10 floor. Nice how it turned out. :)

From (what I assume) what was once the gym.