What, where or who in the world is Batangala?

The Office of the President has suspended today, 27 September 2011, work in all government offices due to typhoon Pedring. With a lot of time in my hands, I tried googling the word batangala and found these entries:

I tried to click the first entry which, however, flagged a "trojan horse" so I didn't continue with it. It appears to be in Spanish though.

Angel's Violin Recital 2011

Angel had her last violin recital for this semester yesterday at the St. Scholastica's College of Manila - School of Music, in their newly built SOM Building. I think this was the biggest one we have attended as there were more than 20 students who played individually. There were also group performances according to their level. I am not sure but I think its beginner, intermediate, advance, etc.

Angel started her formal violin lessons last year when she was in Grade 3. She already had a violin when she was still in Kindergarten but we had a hard time finding someone to teach her. We did find someone from the ads but that didn't work well.

Jump for Joy

Through the years of our travels, I discovered that we had taken some jumping pictures. Inspired in part by Jumping Norman, I've tried browsing through our old digital pictures and rediscovered some of them. Surprisingly, I have no recollection of taking jumping photos during our more than 1 1/2 years stay in Australia from 2005 to 2006. And unfortunately, I have no photos taken prior to owning a digital camera since most of those "hard" copies were either lost or mutilated. 

Digital photography has made jump shots easier as you can immediately see if you took the right one and repeat it right away, if not. Of course, that is if the subjects are still willing to jump.

Good Shepherd, Baguio City, February 2007

Sound Scapes: PPO's 29th Season Concert

Last Friday, we went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines to watch the opening concert of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra's 29th Season entitled Sound Scapes. My wife, daughter and I bought subscription packages for 4 shows. Students and government employees get 50% and 20% discount, respectively.

I have to be honest that we are not into classical music but we bought the season passes just the same to encourage as well as inspire our daughter with her violin lessons.

Buon Giorno Don Henrico

It has been ages since we last ate at Don Henrico's (not counting the birthday party we attended at DH in Tomas Morato Avenue a couple of months ago). In fact, the last time we ate pizza here was when it had an "Eat All You Can Pizza" promo at the Festival Mall several years ago. We've always passed by the one in SM MOA but had never actually tried it.

Today, we finally had lunch there. The owner (I think because he was not in uniform and kept on giving instructions to the wait staff) greeted us at the door and asked us to take a seat while our table is being cleaned and prepared. He gave us a menu so that we can check out what we would order later.

CDO: On the road with Mang Lito

Mang Lito was someone we met on our last day in Cagayan de Oro. We hailed his cab just across the Vjandep Bakeshop along Bulua Highway to take us to Gaisano Mall (it opens at amazingly 9AM). When we were near the mall, I casually asked him how much it would cost to take us to the Divine Mercy Shrine in El Salvador, Misamis Oriental and just show us around CDO and finally take us to the airport for our flight back to Manila at 4:50 PM. He asked for P1000. I asked for his mobile number and told him that I will send him an SMS in case we need his services.

We waited for the mall to open and did some last minute shopping. We finally decided to txt him and asked that we be picked up at 10AM in a gasoline station near the mall. He answered back immediately that he can fetch us right away. But with some more things to buy, we stuck to our original schedule.

Panagatan: Lunch by the Sea

On our last day in Cagayan de Oro, we decided to squeeze in a visit to the Malasag Eco-tourism Village and the Shrine of the Divine Mercy.