abspeak

discovery weekend

the sun may have evaded us this weekend with my tukayo caloy bringing summer to a halt. however it was a great weekend for me and bernz as we made some great discoveries...

+SHANG CINEMA. i reconsidered my earlier plan to boycott tom cruise's M:I:3 over his annoying tomkat antics and boy was i glad i did. the movie was a great two hours of escapist heaven. the storyline was simple yet the execution and the action scenes were great. michelle monaghan and maggie q were more than just eye candy and in general, the whole cast was great--even tom. kudos to jj abrams who made it feel like "alias" during its heyday. what made the experience even more enjoyable was we were watching it at shangri-la plaza's cinema. it was my first time to watch in since they majorly renovated it. the screen was clear and big, (makes me wonder how big the imax in mall of asia would be) it wasn't too crowded, the seats were comfy especially for the neck and the legroom was very spacious. just choose your movie well as it can set you back 170 bucks. i only wish that holy kettle corn was available coz it would've been perfect with the movie.

+CHOC.NUT. at sm makati there's this tsokolate batirol cafe that i've been curious to try out and i finally did yesterday. for 55 bucks you can have great tasting pinoy tsokolate made the old style. had a brownie with walnuts to go with it and for 20 bucks it's a steal! they also serve other pinoy food to go with that cup of heartwarming hot choco. next time, i plan to try the suman and mangga and chorizo hubad (like how they do it at home in bacolod) with rice. if you're sick of coffee, this is worth a try especially with the rainy days. it's a great place to relax after scouring the neighboring surplus shop's great bargains.

+LOTUS SPA. thank god bernz had to go to a video editing studio on perea street in makati this weekend. we stumbled on this little piece of eden called lotus with their tagline "my massage place." its main pull is that almost all their massages cost 350. wow bacolod spa prices in the heart of makati! for the price, the ambience was really nice and relaxing. the thai decor, the dimly lit setting, soothing music and the great foot massage on a comfy chair had me dozing off in no time. i had originally wanted to try their thai massage (they have 3 kinds--traditional, royal and a combination of the two called wat po--hmmm interesting) but the masseuses who specialized in this type of massage were all busy so we got an aromatherapy massage instead. this one costs 450 but we were very happy with the strokes and the oil. as i mentioned earlier, we had a 30 minute thai foot massage for 175 only (it's cheaper when paired with a body massage) we'll certainly be back for more in this well kept secret spa in makati.

+PIZZA HUT. i was never a fan of pizza hut or their pizzas--except in college when they had that eat all you can for 79 bucks promo. i'm really a thin crust shakey's sorta guy. however me and the missus discovered that you can have a great meal in pizza hut WITHOUT pizza. if you haven't eaten there in a long time, you'll be happy to know that their menu is more diverse now.

the service isn't fastfood too as they've become more of a casual dining place. the service is very attentive. while waiting for our meal, they served us breadsticks with sour cream plus they gave us a tic-tac-toe toy to play with. the bread sticks weren't great but it was the thought behind it that we appreciated. we had a tomato and cream penne and barbeque ribs with rice and it was satisfying for the price.

posted by absession @ 11:22 AM