Macarons with one Oh

The macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts' baker's oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base. (source: Wikipedia)

Months ago Claire recommended that I look for and try this French delight here. Little did I know that PAUL, a chain of French patisserie in UK, is selling it and they have a branch just a few blocks away from my London office. Tsk! Oh well, it’s better late than never as last weekend I finally had a taste of this little devil. And I have been craving for it ever since.

This afternoon I browsed their website for the nearest shop and what a joy!, I don’t have to go all the way to London. There is one just 20 minutes by train, in Richmond. I dashed to the nearest train station right away, got there as fast as my short legs could manage.

Oh there you are pareng PAUL!

These little devils may not be as fancy looking as the other sinful treats, but don’t be fooled. They’re good. It is expensive, the lot of them.

As soon as I sank my teeth into its soft and a little bit chewy crust and then reached that cold, creamy filling, well blimey! I forgot my name! I had to force myself to slowly savour it and it took every ounce of my self control not to rush to the counter to order another one. Don't I deserve a pat on the back?

Macaron pistache - perfect with my coffee.

Before I left the shop I saw this at the display window. A box of mini macarons of every flavour!

Hmmm diet? What diet?

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Our Dream Team

Though it is still 5 months until our wedding but we already have booked most of our suppliers. Below is the partial list. There are some suppliers missing as I still have to google their websites, pics or company logos (LOL). We are blessed with competent wedding suppliers. No one is giving us a headache yet. So far it's so amazingly smooth. Believe me it really pays to hire a very efficient wedding planner. I am an overseas bride but I am not stressed at all. What I am feeling currently is just pure, wonderful excitement. Thank God we have Cielo of Blushing Bride, she is absolutely heaven-sent! Gosh I just can't imagine how chaotic it will be without her.

After our wedding I will post our reviews and ratings of these suppliers. I hope this page will help Cebu brides or those who are planning destination weddings to Cebu in hand-picking their own dream team.

Sacred Heart Parish
CHURCH

242 D. Jakosalem Street P.O. Box 98 Cebu City PH
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Yes! I'm going to walk down the aisle and marry the man I love in this church (^-^)

Shangri-La's Mactan

RECEPTION VENUE

Punta Engaño Road Lapu-Lapu, Mactan Cebu PH
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Harley and I dream of celebrating our wedding under the stars, overlooking the clear blue sea... that's why we chose Shangri-La. And we believe we can never go wrong with Shangri-La in providing sumptuous food for our families and friends.


Mimi and Karl (Fotogra Weddings)
PHOTOGRAPHER

U303 Zaravel Business Center, 27 Congressional Ave. Quezon City PH
+63 2 925 2356 / +63 917 624 6464
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These guys are our dream wedding photographers. I am a lurker of their website, always admiring every work they post. We are absolutely excited to have them shoot our wedding.



Jason Magbanua
VIDEOGRAPHER

unit6 Star Centrum Condominium 317 Gil Puyat Ave. Makati PH
+63 2 817 1989, +63 920 960 2127
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Jason is simply the best wedding videographer there is. Need we say more? Just browse his site.


Cielo of Blushing Bride
WEDDING PLANNER

+63 917 322 4356 (for Cebu weddings)
Or email: inquires@theblushingbride.us
View Website

During our first meeting with Cielo it took us less than five minutes to decide we had to get her. We did the right thing, she was able to help us book and contact our dream suppliers in less than a week. On our next meeting she already showed us inspirations on how she envisions our wedding should look like... we adore her!





MALL
INVITATION DESIGNER/ILLUSTRATOR

La Union, Philippines
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We begged Mall (May Ann Licudine) to design our invitation and we were ecstatic when she said yes! Well of course it helps that Harley is one of her favourite cousins (maybe not anymore after using that as a "blackmail" =p). Oh just browse her site, and you'll understand why we really want her to design our invitation. No one else will do!







Jun Escario
BRIDE's, BRIDESMAIDS' AND MOTHERS' COUTURIER


#417 General Lim St. Villa Aurora Cebu City PH
+63 32 233 1172
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32-Year Old Jun Escario is the creative force that helped shape the fashion landscape in Cebu and will soon be influencing the direction of Philippine fashion itself. He is one of the few Cebuano designers who have risen from the region to gain national recognition for his vision, creative identity, and contribution to Philippine fashion.


Marissa R. Unchuan
CAKE DESIGN SPECIALIST


2nd Floor i2 Building, Asiatown, I.T. Park, Lahug Cebu PH
 +63 32 415 8056
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Tita Marissa brought her cake samples during our first meeting and just after the we instantly became her fan. Her cakes are to die for... simply heaven.





Pink Flora Flowers
FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS & RECEPTION DESIGN

369 D. Tojong St. corner Escario St. Lahug Cebu City PH

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Floral artistry at its best, Pink Flora creates magical and memorable event design for weddings, corporate events and private parties. From classic elegant settings to dramatic transformations, Pink Flora takes great care in providing only the finest of blooms and the very best in service


Weddings @ Work

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I surely do not regret joining this mailing list. This is a wonderful venue for brides-to-be to share their preparation ideas and for brides who just got married to share their supplier ratings. Active is an understatement to describe this list because I receive like hundreds of emails everyday!

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My blog is lovely and excited to meet M+K

My blog is not only gorgeous but also lovely, yey! =P Thanks Sis Carla for the tag. I am passing this on to my lovely friends Claire and Ria.


Great news, Harley and I finally have our leaves sorted out and plane tickets booked. We are all set to go home in July for two weeks to attend the Discovery weekend, have an initial gown fitting (scary), food tasting (droll) and book the suppliers that we still lack. When we realized that our schedule would be tight, we thought that fitting the prenup pictorial into it would be a wishful thinking. We only have just one day to spare for the prenup and the chance that Mimi and Karl are free on that day is very slim as they are of course very in demand in their field. But God is very generous to us, it turned out that they are free and they readily offerred to block the date for the prenup. Yey! It is going to be a "sulit" vacation after all =)

We will be having the prenup just within the Metro. Harley and I are still brainstorming where to do it (suggestions, please). Yes we are excited for it, and a bit apprehensive as both of us are camera-shy (hehe that's true, promise), but we are more looking forward of finally meeting M+K. We are fans of their works. Would it be jologs to ask for autographs? Haha

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Finally, Stonehenge!

When Barbs told me that she wanted to go to Stonehenge, I volunteered to tag along. I had long wanted to go there, really curious of those big stones after watching a BBC adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles (it's the book that Sharon's character received from a British oldie in the movie Caregiver - erm gets? hehe).

We booked a coach tour that not only took us to Stonehenge but Salisbury and Bath as well. It's an exhausting ride from London to Stonehenge and such a shame to just go there and see a bunch of bato (oh okay they're huge, but still bato :-|), we reckoned it's better to do some side trips. Here's the link of Stonehenge++ tours coach tour offered by Evan Evans Tours. I guess the tour we got was worth it, in just 10 hours we were able to visit 3 UNESCO World Heritage sites (Bath, Salisbury and Stonehenge).

Honestly, I think Stonehenge amazing. They say it was erected as a ritual site of druids. The first set of stones were laid down around 2400-2200 BC, an era when there were no machines yet capable of transferring large structures from one place to another. There were no steel so they had to carve those stones by sheer brute force using other hard stones. How those stones got there is still a mystery. Some claim they were built by aliens and that site is really intended for extraterresterial landings. Or maybe the druids just outsourced the job to the Egyptians? Hmmm interesting.

View our pics.

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No to Philippine Book Blockade!

Pardonnez-moi if I am a bit late to hear this absurd news - not the Hayden gate scandal but this, in my own opinion more important and more worthy of senate furor, 2009 Philippine book blockade - the BOC (Bureau of Customs) plan to impose higher taxes on imported books that they deem not educational.

Now how this all started, why this angered many book lovers like me, read on some excerpts from Timothy McSweeney's article.

The importer of Twilight made a mistake and paid the duty requested. A mistake because such duty flies in the face of the Florence Agreement, a U.N. treaty that was signed by the Philippines in 1952, guaranteeing the free flow of "educational, scientific, and cultural materials" between countries and declaring that imported books should be duty-free. Mr. Agulan told the importer that because the books were not educational (i.e., textbooks) they were subject to duty. Perhaps they aren't educational, I might have argued, but aren't they "cultural"?

No matter. With this one success under their belt, customs curtailed all air shipments of books entering the country. Weeks went by as booksellers tried to get their books out of storage and started intense negotiations with various government officials.

What doubly frustrated booksellers and importers was that the explanations they received from various officials made no sense. It was clear that, for whatever reason—perhaps the 30-billion-peso ($625 million) shortfall in projected customs revenue—customs would go through the motions of having a reasonable argument while in fact having none at all.

Customs Undersecretary Espele Sales explained the government's position to a group of frustrated booksellers and importers in an Orwellian PowerPoint presentation, at which she reinterpreted the Florence Agreement as well as Philippine law RA 8047, providing for "the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing." For lack of a comma after the word "books," the undersecretary argued that only books "used in book publishing" (her underlining) were tax-exempt.

"What kind of book is that?" one publisher asked me afterward. "A book used in book publishing." And she laughed ruefully.

I thought about it. Maybe I should start writing a few. Harry the Cultural and Educational Potter and His Fondness for Baskerville Type.

Likewise, with the Florence Agreement, she argued that only educational books could be considered protected by the U.N. treaty. Customs would henceforth be the arbiter of what was and wasn't educational.

"For 50 years, everyone has misinterpreted the treaty and now you alone have interpreted it correctly?" she was asked.

"Yes," she told the stunned booksellers.

Please help put a stop to this nonsense. Sign the online petition.

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Outerspace Wedding, anyone?

A beautiful friend of mine forwarded this unusual wedding that took place in Cebu. The bride and groom had to scale a wall to exchange their vows on top. Talk about making sure they get their guests’ attentions. Well not only that, they got the delightful bonus of the media's notice as well.



This idea is remarkably unique. Okay most probably they were not the first to have done this – as there are millions of wall climbing enthusiasts out there – but this is the first time I have heard of such in Cebu. Surely their non traditional wedding will never be forgotten by their guests.

Fancy having an unusual wedding? Well consider this, the most awesome wedding experience now available to mankind - an outerspace wedding all aboard the Virgin Galactic.

Now that is literally an out of this world wedding.

But how much would it cost? A space ticket is $200,000 per person. Times two that (unless you are just getting married to yourself), plus the officiant’s charge (maybe if Sir Richard Branson will perform it, it’s free. Or if you insist to bring your own priest, you’ve got to pay for his tickets too) and some additional fees to make sure the floral arrangements and the cake are securely tethered, well, the cost to aptly describe it, would be astronomical.

According to this article, Virgin Galactic has bookings involving a wedding this year, and another one, which is a honeymoon. How they will manage to do it - you know whatever couples normally do during honeymoon - floating around is beyond me.

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All That Jazz

There are a few theatre shows, especially the famous ones, which have movie versions. Like Oliver, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Les Miserables, Hairspray and Mamma Mia, to name a few. Well what is the difference between the theatre version and the movie version, which one is better? Though I have only thus far seen Phantom, Chicago and Les Mis, but I daresay, the difference is huge. Theatre is way better. Even if the stage effects can never compete with the digital technology of movie effects nowadays, but the acting is of another level, hearing the powerful live singing, actually seeing the actor cry and even noticing occasional showers of saliva as they deliver their lines in oozing emotions – going to a theatre is an experience one can never forget. IMHO it is more difficult to act on a stage, to connect to a live audience. It is more challenging. There’s no take two in theatre, that’s why I greatly admire the enormous talent and skill that every theatre actor must possess.

I took my guests, Erskine and Jake, to watch Chicago at West End last Saturday. I had booked the tickets one week ahead through LastMinute.com, where I got discounted best available seats. I was a bit worried at first that what if they would not fancy it, that paying a lot for one ticket would not be worth it. But the moment the show started and sexy ladies sang and danced and even performed splits in nothing but black fishnets, I knew I did not need to worry. During the break I still asked to confirm if they really were enjoying, though I was careful not to gloat. They were literally grinning when they answered that they (referring to the female actors in nothing but fishnets) did not have to sing. Oh well what can I say – boys will always be boys!


It was very enjoyable. Definitely better than the movie. One thing is still the same after having watched the theatre is that I still prefer the Velma Kelly character (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones in the movie) than Roxie Hart (played by Renee Zellweger in the movie). She has more kick and spunk.

So what’s next on my list? Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera again, Oliver!, Wicked, Les Miserables again and then, errm I am open to suggestions (anyone?). I will conquer the West End! God help my pocket...

List of West End theatres (from Wikipedia, scroll down)

• If no show is currently running, the play listed is the next show planned (dates marked with an *).
• If the next show planned is not announced, the applicable columns are left blank.

Theatre	Current show	Capacity	Opening date	Closing date
Adelphi Theatre	Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat	1500	2007-07-06July 6 2007	2009-05-30May 30 2009
Aldwych Theatre	Dirty Dancing	1200	2006-09-28September 28 2006	Open-ended
Ambassadors Theatre	Stomp	330	2007-10-04October 4, 2007	Open-ended
Apollo Theatre	Three Days of Rain	796	2009-02-10February 10, 2009	2009-05-02 May 2, 2009
Apollo Victoria Theatre	Wicked	2208	2006-09-27September 27 2006	Open-ended
Cambridge Theatre	Chicago	1231	2006-04-27April 27 2006	Open-ended
Criterion Theatre	The 39 Steps	588	2006-09-20September 20 2006	Open-ended
Dominion Theatre	We Will Rock You	2163	2002-05-14May 14 2002	Open-ended
Duchess Theatre	Plague Over England	479	2009-02-16February 16, 2009	2009-05-16May 16, 2009
Fortune Theatre	The Woman in Black	432	1989-06-07June 7 1989	Open-ended
Garrick Theatre	A Little Night Music	656	2009-03-28March 28 2009	2009-07-25July 25 2009
Her Majesty's Theatre	The Phantom of the Opera	1216	1986-10-09October 9 1986	Open-ended
London Palladium	Sister Act	2286	2006-11-017 May 2009*	2009-02-21Open-ended
Lyceum Theatre	The Lion King	2100	1999-09-24September 24 1999	Open-ended
New London Theatre	War Horse	1100	2006-06-28April 3rd 2009	2009-03-28Open-ended
Noël Coward Theatre	Calendar Girls	872	2006-06-28April 4 2009	2009-03-28Open-ended
Palace Theatre	Priscilla Queen of The Desert	1400	2007-07-24March 10 2009	Open-ended
Piccadilly Theatre	Grease	1232	2007-07-24July 24 2007	Open-ended
Phoenix Theatre	Blood Brothers	1012	1991-11-21November 21 1991	Open-ended
Prince Edward Theatre	Jersey Boys	1618	2008-03-18March 18 2008	Open-ended
Prince of Wales Theatre	Mamma Mia!	1160	2004-06-09June 9 2004	Open-ended
Queen's Theatre	Les Misérables	989	2004-04-03April 3 2004	Open-ended
Shaftesbury Theatre	Hairspray	1400	2007-10-11October 11 2007	Open-ended
St Martin's Theatre	The Mousetrap	550	1974-03-25March 25 1974	Open-ended
Theatre Royal	Oliver!	2196	2009-01-14January 14 2009	Open-ended
Victoria Palace Theatre	Billy Elliot	1550	2005-05-11May 11 2005	Open-ended

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Platform 9 3/4?

Erskine and his colleague Jake after a month of training in Ireland “stopped over” in London for two days before going back to our motherland. Of course I offered my services to show them around, in which I was paid with a packet of Chocnut and a box of Curly Tops. I had never thought that Erskine and I would hang out again in London, no less!, after all these years. Is the world shrinking or what?

Jake, a Harry Potter fan (Though I regard him as not a 100% HP fan because he has not completed all the films - just the books, he claimed. That's surprising, a guy who likes reading more than oogling at special effects?), asked me to take them to Platform 9 ¾. I agreed and then warned him not to expect anything because I had not been to platforms beyond 8 at King’s Cross. So yeah even if I read all the books and seen all films (and watched again Prisoner of Azkaban twice), I realized I was not a 100% fan either. Why I never had had any urge in my 1.5 years stay here in UK to go see if 9 ¾ did exist still baffles me!

So we went to King’s Cross Station last Sunday and got lost. But this sign was an indication that we were not the first HP fans to do so...


We followed the directions and voila, found it! Yipee yeah yey!

Kudos to King’s Cross Station’s management for wasting a good trolley just to make HP fans like us smile. I hope they can be persuaded to donate a good train and turn it into a Hogwarts Express.

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