Hason Shout It Out Album Launch

Right after our shift from the office, Tapioca and I headed to SM North Edsa for the Shout It Out album launch.

At the Astroplus.

Met up with Fanson Friends and had some catching up . . .

. . . and picture taking moments

Club admins cooked up some fun games for the event and gave away cool customized Hanson shirts.

They said early birds will get some goodies. Got a Mossimo canvas bag and a poster as freebies.

Early bird or not everyone got all the same stuff.

This album was release in the US back in 2010 (see my previous Hanson post here). Reading back that post made me so nostalgic and for the record, I still care. Very much. I swear that dream is never going to happen. Here I am after 2 freakin' years, holding the album at last.

Nope, I'm not hosting the event. Just trying out my luck on winning those coolness shirts.

Trip to Jerusalem

So many neat Hanson stuff to win. Gotta try harder to win it.

They had this fun game for the Thinkin' 'Bout Somethin' dance tutorial. Whoever dances the best will win. Obviously, I didn't join this. I'd rather take the video. Kill joy me.



Please pardon the shaky video. I was thinking of editing it but my netbook can't seem to handle video editing software. Tsk tsk. And besides I don't think there's even a software possible to edit the shakiness hahaha.

If there's dancing of course there's singing involved, too.



Nice our voices noh? Walang sintunado. Charrrr!!!!

The lucky gal who got the Taylor shirt. Waaahhhh!!!!

With fanson friends and the SIO replicated icons . . .

PEG: The Shout It Out Hanson album cover.
I'm representing Taylor with the megaphone icon :-)

Before we left we made a mark.

You can see mine below. It should have been on Taylor's heart but that space was already taken so I placed it on the other side.

. . . jellybean was here

Though the CD jacket print was of a lesser quality, still big thanks to PolyEast Records for releasing the album here in the Philippines. Believe it or not the album reached the top spot for Astrovision/Astroplus top selling album from March 26 to April 1, 2012 (see it here).

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Heaven And Eggs

I love breakfast places especially those that serves breakfast all day. Heaven and Eggs is one of my faves. I used to frequent their branch in Eastwood before attending the Sunday mass. It's a good thing though that Tapioca had the chance to try H&E before they closed down.

. . . tower of onion rings

soup of the day . . .

We started of with the onion rings and a soup. As you all know the soup is a must in my every meal LOL. I forgot what soup we had but it was very creamy, piping hot and delicious. The onion rings had the right crunch and not too oily. They weren't kidding when the said tower of onion rings. It was a lot that Tapioca and I had a hard time consuming the entire thing.

. . . rockin' benedict

English muffin, Canadian ham, asparagus, poached egg topped with Hollandaise sauce and a mound of shoestring potatoes. Everything went so well together. I swear I died and went to egg heaven after eating this. Back then the only place I knew that serves eggs benedict was The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I was very happy when I found out this was included on the menu.

aren't they pretty?

Here's another shot of the eggs ben from a different angle. It's a feast not just on the eyes but also on the palate.

jeproks slammer . . .

Crispy adobo flakes, lucban longganiza and US angus tapa with adobo rice, pickled veggies, crispy egg and salted egg salsa. Tapioca had a feast too but he was not so happy with the crispy adobo flakes. He said it was dry as hell and not crunchy. The rest of them were just okay.

It was a hit and miss but still H&E has more to offer like pancakes and waffles, breakfast steaks, sandwiches and burgers, etc etc. Too bad there's no more H&E Eastwood. Now we needed to travel all the way to Makati to get our H&E fix.

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Outback Steak House

From Enchanted Kingdom we finally manage to catch their shuttle service ( we made sure we're at the parking lot before 7pm). At the parking lot we were the first passengers to arrive and surprise surprise, we saw the guy who gave us instructions on how to get to EK. He was indeed part of the shuttle service. When I saw him I wanted to bury my face sa hiya. LOLz.

After hours of walking and roaming around the theme park it felt so good to know that we didn't have to experience the haggardo moments of commuting back to Manila. We can just relax and wait til we're back in Manila. And relax we did. Never mind the strangers inside the van. Tapioca and I was able to take a nap. Manong driver was good. His driving was superb. It was not too fast nor too slow. I hate heavy footed drivers. They make me dizzy and stress out. He's definitely not like those annoying drivers.

In less than 30 minutes we reached EDSA which was experiencing heavy traffic due to the rush hour. The shuttle dropped us off in Glorietta. We're expecting that it will be hard to hire a cab during this time so we decided to kill time and have dinner at Outback Steakhouse for steak and maybe some booze.

While browsing the menu for drinks I got interested on this non-alcoholic drink and ordered it instead . . .

. . . sparkling citrus cooler

It's a mixture of red sangria, pomegranate flavouring, lime, orange and cucumber then topped with sprite. Something new to try but the cucumber did not work for me. Next time I will order a real cocktail.


Tapioca wanted to dine in the smoking room. No more tables available so we sat at the bar where there's a huge TV showing the ESPN channel. Tapioca was please with our spot as he likes to watch TV while eating. We can also see the bartenders at work :-)

Since we're both tired already we ditched the idea of having steak and ordered something that is easy to eat. This was Tapioca's pick . . .

typhoon burger . . .

It's a massive burger with fried onion rings on top and typhoon special sauce. He liked this a lot as the burger was juicy and his request was granted. It was a perfect medium rare.

fish and chips . . .

This was my order. A huge fish with generous serving of chips on the side. I was not able to finish the entire thing. Don't get me wrong. Their fish and chips was pretty good. I just realized I'm becoming weary of fried cream dory dishes.

sleepy jellybean and tapioca

And we called it a night.

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The Enchanted Kingdom Story

Warning: Photo heavy post.

Here goes the continuation of our EK adventure.

We arrived in Enchanted Kingdom at exactly an hour and a half after opening. Still there were long lines at the entrance. It was a weekday and most of the visitors were students on their field trip. After our exhausting journey all we really wanted was to get some lunch and rest a bit.

. . . midway boardwalk

This area isn't crowded yet but you can tell the mighty sun was up torturing us.

a bench and some shade . . .

Finally, a shaded area. Here I freshen up a bit so I won't look so haggard on the photos.

While looking for a place to eat, Tapioca spotted this . . .


We still haven't had lunch yet but he's determined to give this a shot. The students were cheering up on him. Go Tapioca !!!


First strike, it was sooo close to hitting the bell. Second strike, same thing. Tapioca then asked me if he should try it again for the third time. I was like "No way, those 2 strikes cost Php100 already!" But the kids wanted him to try it again and they're willing to pay for it. Awww! Anyway, he declined the offer. He said there's prolly a cheat on those things masayang pa yung pera nila.

We continued to walk around and spotted this . . .

wazzup?!?!

The food court was all the way at the back. When we found out it's not air-conditioned we looked for another place na may aircon and ended up here . . .

. . . Amazon Grill

Amazon grill = cafeteria with aircon plus free wifi to boot. In fairness malakas ang aircon. Sarap mag-chill :-)


As most of the visitors of EK were students, they have this student promo which to my surprise, they let Tapioca ordered. Feeling student lang hekhek!

sweet and sour pork . . .

. . . fish fingers

100-peso meal with free iced tea. I'd say serving size was so kawawa. If on a budget I'd suggest to go back to Waltermart and buy food from Jollibee or any fast food places with cheaper value meals. But then again if you don't have a car and you will need to take a trike to go to Waltermart, it would still prolly cost you around the same price. The good thing though is you'll have plenty of choices.

microwaveable roast beef . . .

This was overpriced as well but not that bad for a microwaveable meal.

. . . mushroom soup

This was the last dish that arrive on our table. It was piping hot like they just made it when I placed the order. It was a wrong choice. I should have ordered dessert like halo-halo since it was too hot that day.

EKstreme Tower Ride, Wheel of Fate and the Space Shuttle Max

From Amazon Grill we can already see the thrilling Space Shuttle Max. It has triple loops and will turn you upside down 6 times! Me likey. Tapioca was pretty excited to take a ride but we just got on eating. Tapioca was like, 'Hurry up and let's fall in line at the space shuttle!' And I was like 'Ano ka ba kakakain lang natin. Baka mamaya masuka ko. Kakahiya.'

We moved on to look for other rides. Tapioca saw the EKstreme Tower Ride and hooray no lines. We told the guys on the entrance that we wanted to take a ride and showed them our yellow bracelets. Apparently, this ride is not included in the ride-all-you-can day pass. Oh well, that's why there's no line. Sorry but we are so not willing to pay extra for this. Prolly next time.

Brooklyn

We walked around some more and ended up in Brooklyn. I love this place. Very retro like we're in New York back in the 1940's. Tapioca and I loved the vintage feel. I wanted to take more pictures but Tapioca was becoming impatient because we haven't tried any rides yet.

jellybean at New York's iconic Grand Central

Let's go-karting baby!

Finally! Nakasakay din. Yet one of those rides not included on the day pass. At this point we didn't care any more if we have to pay extra. For the longest time we've been wanting to do go-karting and we're glad we got the chance here at EK. This was an expensive ride. Almost 500php for 10 minutes in a 2-seater go kart but it was all worth it. Tapioca had so much fun driving around a really nice race track. I can't remember how many laps he did (it was a lot) and he even busted the tire for driving way too fast. Thankfully nothing bad happened except I thought I'll ended up with a stiff neck hahaha.


After the awesome ride, Tapioca wanted to smoke. The entire EK is a smoke free zone and if he wanted to smoke we will have to go outside but my smarty pants guy had an idea.

huff and puff on the Wheel of Fate . . .

He suggested to take the Wheel of Fate so he can smoke while we're up in the air where no one can see him except moi. It was very windy and he had some challenges lighting up the cigarette but he managed. Good job. Hahaha.


From the top we got to see the entire EK area and also the lovely view of Mt. Makiling.


And cyempre pa camwhoring moments with the 50-peso sunnies we bought from a sidewalk vendor in Alabang :-)


After our sight-seeing from the Wheel of Fate, Tapioca and I was able to figure out what rides we wanted to try next. The Rio Grande Rapids has amazing water trail that encouraged us to be more patient with the never ending line. We though the line from the outside was long enough but wait till you see the other line inside which goes into a zigzag. Thank God there was proper ventilation and we got lucky enough to cut the line and pass over a hundred students in line. Somebody was looking for a couple who will join a lesser group and that was us.

Sorry but we didn't have a picture of the Rio Grande ride as we were trying all our might not to get our stuff (and ourselves) wet from the entire duration of the fun ride. Though EK had a camera man taking pictures of us we did not avail of the service. The huge plastic bag we brought was very useful in keeping our stuff and camera dry while going through the water rapids. Tapioca was also lucky as he was able to got off the ride dry from head to toe unlike me. At least I was wearing a cotton shorts and that's all that got wet. We saw other people who took the same ride and it was like they were thrown into a pool. All the clothes, shoes and socks were soaking wet.


Para matuyo yung shorts ko, we took the Flying Fiesta.

. . . my turn

weeee!!!!!

with the Grand Carousel . . .

. . . at the Boulderville where the kiddie rides are

tapioca and jellybean . . .

This was one the few pictures we had together. We really need to get a tripod or better yet a monopad.

Meet Eldar, EK's famous wizard (and mascot)

Had to have a picture with him. It's a must LOL!

. . . night time

This is how EK looked like at night. Too bad they closes at 7pm on weekdays and we have to be at the parking lot for the shuttle service before 7pm. Sigh. It'll be more fun to roam around EK at night as you will not worry about the heat from the afternoon sun.

Wheel of Fate with lights on . . .

one last shot at the EK's facade . . .

Overall, we had fun. We wish to go back some other time so we can try the Space Shuttle Max (yeah we missed it and it sucks) and hopefully we can get more people to join us on the next visit.

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Enchanted Kingdom

Our supposed Singapore trip failed but we still decided to take a vacation leave from the office (we needed so badly) and set off to proceed with Plan B. We didn't want to waste our precious days off work and we'd like to do something or go somewhere we have never been to before.

Actually, it was a toss between Ocean Park and EK (Enchanted Kingdom) but the latter won. I did a little research on how to get there cos believe it or not I haven't been to EK ever. I know, I know it's about time. Years ago, my college friends and I made some plans to go there but all the plans ended up to be drawings. Well it's meant to be that Tapioca and I, both first timers pay the famous theme park in the Philippines a visit.

We called Enchanted Kingdom's office in Makati and we were told that they have a shuttle service near SM Makati, specifically at the ground floor of the Edsa Car Park. The shuttle goes directly to the theme park and it leaves at exactly 11:30 am so we have to be there early. They also had a booth in there where we can pay and claim a day pass for the park.

Our adventure started when we arrived 10 minutes late after the departure of the shuttle. I was very disappointed. We kept asking anyone who might know the exact location of the shuttle. The Edsa Car Park was huge and it held several shuttle services and FX taxis.

Until this guy approached us and confirmed that the shuttle has already left. He said they have another one going there but they need to fill up the empty seats or else lugi daw sila. And I was like "Are you sure you're the official shuttle service for Enchanted Kingdom?" Sorry ha but as far as I know Enchanted Kingdom has a huge bus with the huge EK logo on it. What they had is an L300 van. Ni wala sign na it's going to Laguna or whatevs. Parang colorum lang.

Sadness. I was pretty excited pa naman to ride that bus (I always get to see that big EK bus when I used to work in Makati some 6-7 years ago) but darn we missed it. Still the guy was very nice (despite my being doubtful of him almost to the point I sounded rude na) and gave us instructions on how to get to EK.

So we followed the guy's instructions. Took a bus going to Alabang. Then from Alabang he said to take another bus or jeep going to Sta. Rosa. But when we arrived in Alabang we couldn't see any buses going to Sta Rosa. We asked some random stranger and we were told to go to this terminal. At the terminal, there was only one jeepney going to EK. I tell ya it was so freakin' hot that day. I swear hotness to the nth level. The jeep took forever to be filled with passengers. Worse, the jeep was park right outside the street without any shades or obscuration from the glaring heat of the sun. It felt like we're baking inside an oven. Bad trip pa we didn't bring our sunnies with us. Buti na lang there were sidewalk vendors selling 50-peso sunglasses.

After 20 years the jeep finally took off and some air finally get into the jeep. We forgot that we were suppose to drop off at Waltermart. Eng-eng lang at nagpakalayu-layu pa kami until we realized kami na lang passengers sa jeep. We decided to get off and hired a tricycle to EK. To our surprise, the trike dropped us off at Waltermart. The trike driver said his trike is not allowed inside EK so we have to take another trike. Nyak. *slapping my forehead*

. . . sooooooo glad we made it!

Lesson learned: Be on time if you're going to avail of the shuttle service. Apparently they do not follow Filipino time. When we arrived at EK the first thing we did was get our day passes and pay for the shuttle service going back to Manila. The price was pretty steep but considering the hassle we went thru I think it's a good deal.

More of our Enchanted Kingdom story on the next post.

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Araneta Center's Green & Go Electric Buses

These electric buses can be seen roaming around Araneta Center. Tapioca said it was created for those people who are lazy to walk from Ali Mall to Gateway or vise-versa. He said walking the entire length of these two malls were pretty much doable without exhausting yourself. Well, I just felt the need of trying it out just to kill my curiosity. Imagine seeing the darn thing everyday? I persuaded Tapioca to go ride the bus with me and we lined up.


So my curiosity made me discover things about this Eco tram. There's no fare or charge to ride the tram but if you bought something or anything from the stores and restos in Gateway or Ali Mall you will get priority seats. You just have to present your receipts to manong guard who manned the line. Also the lines for these trams can be found where the taxi bays are located so if you are hiring a cab instead, double check which line is which.



Happy face. Cyempre I got my wish. But Tapioca looked soooo napilitan lang on this pic. Well he really didn't want to try this ride. In fairness, the manong driver was driving the thing very carefully. Though there were seat belts I couldn't help but get paranoid whenever some fast driving vehicles passed us by. You never know how these reckless drivers can do on the road. Mahirap na.

So much for my Eco tram experience. I'm now convinced it's for lazy people. Yeah, kailangan ma-experience to say that with conviction. LOL. Anyway, what's more earth friendly than to walk, debah? But if you have too much baggage, I think this is fine.

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