catching up series: birthday weekend

It's another weekend and that means it's time for another throwback kwento! We're still in July 2016, by the way, and we're celebrating triple birthdays -- mine, my sister's, and my sister-in-law's. We're all July celebrants. ♡

Honestly, it's really not my thing to celebrate my birthday. I actually checked my old blog posts (via the labels), and I only found one birthday celebration with the family. That was back in 2012. But as I've said, 2016 was a special year, so we opted to celebrate. We decided to go bowling before dinner but before everything else, since we arrived at the mall first, Mithril had a little shopping sesh. 

Wait, lookie, that's lola! Nakakatuwa lang to look back at days like this because now, lola is a already bedridden. She had an accident New Year's eve of 2018 and she never got to walk again. It's been so nice to see photos of her since I re-started this catching up series. Even the kids get entertained seeing old photos as I blog. Being a "memory keeper" really isn't easy but definitely so worth it. I say this as I encourage myself to finish all my backlogs and to continue writing for as long as I can. :)

So anyway, I guess it's safe to say that aside from actually playing bowling, we also had fun posing with the bowling balls. Haha! People these days talaga. Photos or it didn't happen. :)) Partly, it's a good thing because we would have something to look back to. But of course, we should not forget to enjoy the moment too even as we try to "document", especially now that vlogging is the "IN" thing. 

After our pictorial, este bowling pala, we had dinner at Jay-J's. Again the usual Filipino food! Napaka-adventurous talaga namin when it comes to food, no? :P You really can't bring the parentals to a Korean, Chinese or Japanese resto. Filipino lang talaga, filipino lang! Haha! Our staples are Crispy Pata (dad's fave!), Sisig, Kare-Kare, Kaldereta, Roasted Chicken, Crabs and Shrimps, Pinakbet for veggies, and then Pancit or Pancit Malabon. Ayan ganyan. Paulit-ulit lang kami whatever the occasion is, whether we eat out or we cook at home. Haha! :))

And during this tough time (Read: Pandemic & ECQ!), I am definitely missing going out with the family. We had summer plans for the kiddos and looks like nothing will turn into reality at this point. But of course, we're still thankful and grateful that we are all safely stuck at home, with roof above our heads and food on our table. Really praying for this pandemic to be over soon.

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late night whatevers

Finally got to be with my college friends again. Yaayy! Guys, we got to give the credits to Jhov for bugging Jun to treat us. She started a few weeks ago with a simple puntahan-ka-namin-libre-mo-kami-SB threat {yes, I prefer to call it threat} but it got postponed several times so we ended up with a nightlong catching up. We last saw each other July of last year by the way, so it's understandable. Too bad Nok wasn't able to make it this time. We missed you loads, baks! :*

Anyway, I was the first one to arrive but Jhov showed up shortly after. She dragged me to places 'cause I had no business in the mall whatsoever. It was okay with me until she availed free trials in Watsons. Naloka akoo! First, she got her hair curled and then next.. free eyebrow shaping and eyebrow makeup tutorials. Hahaha! Muntik ko na syang iwan sa inip. :P

We then looked for a place to dine. It was almost 9pm and if we won't be able to look for a place, we had no choice but to leave the mall. We found out that Starbucks is open until 11 and Jay J's until 12. So, we were good! Jhov and I settled at Bake and Churn while waiting for the others.

this is why it's bad to make me wait :')

Next to arrive was Mhoi. To speed things up, we proceeded to Jay J's and placed our orders while waiting for Jun and Den. Fortunately, it didn't take long before the two arrived. It's funny how we were teasing Jun that we ordered a lot and that he'll be the one to pay for everything when prior to that night, he already said that only our coffees will be on him.

Contrary to what we were making him believe, we only got a group meal good for five persons. That's a platter of rice, crispy pata, kare kare, sinigang na bangus, pancit canton and a pitcher of iced tea. We got a bucket of beer and squid head for pulutan too.

Our food arrived on time, thank heavens. I initially wanted to take photos of everything, yah knoow, for documentary purposes.. but they were attacked by hungry dinosaurs. Hehehe. And speaking of the food, think Gerry's Grill and you'll have an idea of what to expect. I loved their kare kare the most. On nom noom.

And guess who paid for the bill? Jun, of course! Jhov shared too but it was mostly him. Thanks Kada!! Thanks a bunch to Den also for allowing Jun to feed our starving tummies. May the good Lord bless your bank account more.. para alam mo na! Hehehe.

Mhoi

Jun and Den ❤

We transferred to Starbucks to grab our coffees - courtesy of Mhoi this time. Jhov and I accompanied him in placing our orders and when we came back, Jun was playing Flappy Bird on his tablet. I've been reading tweets about it but I was never the type to jump right to the bandwagon. But this time, I got curious. I tried to play the game using Mhog's phone and I got so pissed. Nadagdagan na naman yung listahan ng frustrations ko sa buhay. My highest score while we were in the coffee shop was seven, Jun said I should at least make ten. Shusshh. 

Since the guys went all the way to SM Fairview from their far-flung places,  they didn't want to end the night as early as 12am.  Just how weird that phrase is? Night? Early? 12am?? Hehe. Anyway, Jun called my sister {yes, they are friends too!} to ask for another place that's open until past midnight. My sister suggested the commercial center Pearl Drive, so off we go!

We found the KTV Studio Five. They offered expensive packages at first but after we declined, a staff approached us to let us know of their hourly rate. If I'm not mistaken, that's P85 per person per hour, minimum of 2 hours and on top of that, you have to grab food/drinks worth P300. No problemooo, said my rich friends so we went on.

For the first thirty minutes or so, I was preoccupied by Flappy Bird. Pero ipinagpalit ko na't lahat yung mga kaibigan ko sa ibon na yun, di pa rin ako nakasampu. Bwisit! I made 9 though, 1 point short of my goal but I had to let it go.

As soon as I ditched the game, I started selecting fun songs for everyone to sing. The funniest was when we sang Uncle Kracker's Follow Me. At first aliw na aliw kami, then we realized sobrang paulit ulit na sya. Haha! The next song on queue was Waterfalls then Mhog and I sang in unison.. "Waterfalls and everything is alright." ♫♪♪ Hahahaha!! Tawang tawa kami sa mga sarili namin. Mhoi and I also kept dancing. We only had more or less three moves and we would adjust the tempo of our movements depending on the song that's playing. I can only imagine the riot if Nok was there.

Den.Mhoi.Apple

Den.Jhov.Jun.Mhoi

If there's one thing I didn't like about Studio Five, that would be the owner's rudeness. We were already told by a staff that our time was over when she passed by and knocked our open door several times. As in dumaan lang tas nangalampag. She didn't say anything, she didn't even check the room. By that time we were already preparing and Mhoi was just finishing his song. Dbaa??! It was made worse by the fact that I easily get annoyed with rude people. I mean, I'm never a goody two-shoes but rude.. never! Another staff pacified our my annoyance, apologized and explained that she's the owner and she has always been strict with time. Well, one can be strict without being rude. Anyway.. I just asked the staff to take our group picture so we can finally drag our butts away from Pearl Drive.

thanks a bunch, guys!

Got home past 2am and messed up my body clock for three freakin' days. Just today I'm back to normal so here yah gooo.. a blog post! :)

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