Theater Review: The Boy in the Bathroom by The Sandbox Collective

I got to watch The Boy in the Bathroom last night with my mom and I was so glad I tagged along. This spectacular musical by The Sandbox Collective will leave you filled with emotion and drama while, at the same time, get saved by hilarious comedic reliefs that will have you laughing out loud like I did!

The story is about a 25-year old guy named David (played by Topper Fabregas) who lives with his mom in the cold state of Michigan. He was diagnosed with OCD but has an extremely vivid imagination. He wasn’t able to finish school and has been living inside the bathroom for more than a year, refusing to come out until his college thesis is finished.

David constructed and built a home for himself inside the bathroom while being supplied with things his mom could slide underneath the bathroom door like half an inch meals, pages ripped from books and magazines, and an endless supply of toilet paper. 

For over a year, life was the same in Pam (played by Ms. Sheila Francisco) and David’s world until their less than normal life took an unexpected turn. Pam suffered a broken hip, which forced her to hire someone to clean the house. That someone was a girl named Julie (played by Caisa Borromeo) who dreams of getting a car so she could get out of Michigan to see the world.

The Boy in the Bathroom will have you get pulled by anger, love, laughter, and difficulties as the characters, played by really great actors, figure out a way to overcome their problems. At the same time, listen to the beautiful piano music played live, which adds value to the memorable songs sang throughout the musical.

Be prepared to really let your imagination take flight as you watch this unexpected and fascinating tale directed by Toff De Venecia. It will have one more run on February 21, 2015 at 5:30PM in CCP's Huseng Batute Theater. 

Food Tasting: Cravings' Sweets and Australia's Di Bella Coffee

Every morning, I start the day by having a cup of coffee. The same goes for most members of my family. We need that fresh cup of goodness to motivate us to bring ourselves out of bed. We usually drink the 3-in-1 coffee mixes though because we either don’t have much time for brewing or we’ve already ran out of ground coffee beans to brew. 

Di Bella Coffee

So it was a privilege to be able to try Di Bella Coffee during its launch at Epicurious in Shangri-La Mall the other day. When I first entered the venue, I was immediately enticed by the wide variety of desserts prepared by the Cravings Group displayed on buffet tables. The fragrance of those sweets along with the aroma of fresh brewed coffee were enough to make my stomach growl. 

But before the food and coffee pairing began, Di Bella founder Philip Di Bella shared his company’s story and his journey on finding the perfect cup of delicious coffee. Philip is a coffee entrepreneur who is passionate in his work. Known as Australia’s “Coffee King”, he inspires others by sharing his own experiences and finding ways to help coffee farmers and Australia’s coffee industry. 

Philip Di Bella

When it was time to give the food, desserts, and coffee a go, I found it hard to start because there were so many to to choose from! 

what to choose?!

Philip instructed us to drink coffee without the sugar, suggesting to drink it along with our desserts. I tried this technique and I was surprised that the blend of sugarless coffee and dessert was really good! 

with my mom and dad

It was exquisite to taste the bitterness of the coffee while the dessert maintained its sweetness at the same time. I was glad to have learned such an impressive style from an entrepreneur of coffee himself. It was a really fun experience to have tried a new combination in drinking coffee and sweets.

Father and Son Bonding at the Robinsons Fit & Fun Wellness Buddy Run

My dad is a running enthusiast who is actually a barefoot runner. He regularly joins many of the fun runs conducted in the Philippines. You can read his blog posts about running in Trails Unlimited.

This past weekend, the two of us joined thousands of other runners as Robinsons Supermarket celebrated its 7th Fit & Fun Wellness Buddy Run at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig. The activity encourages everybody to participate and promote health and wellness of the body as well to stay in shape. This time around though, they required that you and a buddy participate so you can both start and finish the race as a pair. Since I also enjoy running, my Dad encouraged me to join him in the 10k category.

It was my second time running 10k in an actual race. Unfortunately, since school has already started last month, I didn't have enough time to train for this particular run. Right before gun start, my first thoughts was that it was going to be a tough race for me. 

I was right. After running the first 3k, as we were running uphill at the Kalayaan Bridge, the exertion took a toll on my legs because I wasn’t accustomed to running on an upward slope. At 5k, the pain started to take over. 

After crossing the U-turn checkpoint, my legs couldn’t bear it anymore so I started walking. Even though I haven’t had any problems enduring my cardio, the pain in my legs kept me from running. Regardless, I still decided to sprint my way out of the pain just to cover the whole 10k distance. It took a while but my Dad and I finished the race together. It was a tough race for a beginner like me and  I realized that I really need more training in order for me to overcome hurdles like this one in future runs.

* Photos courtesy of RARMartinez Fotorun

My Oishi O'Wow Experience

It was a funtastic day at the Oishi O’Wow event yesterday at W Tower's Skye Lounge in Bonifacio Global City. Not only did I meet celebrities, received free Oishi products, and played exciting games; my team also won the Oishi O’Wow competition with the help of our very enthusiastic team leader, Phil Younghusband!

We were eating delicious food from the buffet while enjoying the open-air at the rooftop venue when suddenly Phil and James Younghusband arrived and sat across us at at our table. My mom asked the two football players if I could have a picture taken with them and they said yes. They are very nice and accommodating. 

After several minutes, more celebrities arrived wearing colored Oishi shirts like Ramon Bautista who wore Green, Slater Young who wore Yellow, and Elmo Magalona who wore Red. Together, they form the Oishi O’Wow team. Their newest member arrived last and it was no other than Daniel Padilla.

After lunch, event hosts RJ Ledesma and DJ Suzy came up on stage and showed us the famous “Kaleidescope World” music video by Mr. Francis Magalona that has been edited to include his son Elmo. We also watched several cool videos of Team O that showed them surprising and delighting people. 

For instance, Kuya Ramon went to a school with Oishi products stuck on his clothes. Then there was that video of Team O riding a jeepney and hiding their faces at first from their fellow passengers. When they revealed who they are, each ride ended up with happy screaming passengers.

After the video presentations, the competition started where each team has to go through several Oishi booths. Everyone needed to complete the whole course and had to finish each obstacle with a team picture in order to win. 

We were the yellow team and we were fortunate to have a strong and energetic team captain. Once the hosts gave the go signal, Phil was off and running, helping us with all the tasks needed. We finished obstacle by obstacle really fast and took pictures as a team in each one. 

When we reached the last challenge, we had to spell the old Oishi brand name using giant Scrabble tiles. Luckily, the answer, which was "Liwayway", was in our Oishi passport.

When all teams were able to complete the whole course, the hosts started announcing the winners for each category. After they have been announcing several teams already, we became worried why our team wasn't being called and thought we lost. But just when we thought it was over, RJ then announced the grand prize winners which was no other than Team Yellow! 

Of course we all shouted with joy because we couldn't believe we were really the fastest team! Too bad Phil was no longer around (they have a game that afternoon) when we received our prizes on stage from Daniel Padilla. But we sure were thankful for his presence and for being such a great team leader. 

Aside from enjoying all the activities, my mom, dad, and I, got to take home a lot of Oishi products. It was truly an Oishi O’Wow day being with my family and team!

If you want to have a chance to also meet some of the members of Team O, join Oishi's contest! Just think of an O'Wow moment you want Oishi to surprise people with and you'll get to see for yourself when they execute that! 

Have an O'Wow day everyone!

*To see more photos taken during the event, please click here and here.

  

Movie Review: The CROODS

Take a look at the world’s first and not-so-modern family, The Croods. Join them as they embark on a prehistoric road trip of funny family-filled adventures. 

Meet Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage), the over-protective father; Ugga (Catherine Keener), the lovingly concerned wife, Thunk (Clark Duke), the not so bright brother; Sandy, the dangerously cute child, Eep (Emma Stone), the teenage rebel, and Gran (Cloris Leachman), the grumpy mother-in-law.

The story starts in prehistoric times where the family struggles in isolation and fear from the outside world not knowing what awaits them. In the meantime, they hunt for food while trying to survive being eaten by predators and mostly spend their nights in a cave that they call home.

But their lives change when their cave is destroyed by a rockslide from what was supposed to be the beginning of the End of the World. Now the family goes on a road trip to find a new home and started discovering new places as well as finding new species of animals that are on the brink of extinction. Along the way, they met a modern human called Guy (Ryan Reynolds) and his trusty pet called Belt.

Their journey led them to find a new purpose for living while continuing to believe in themselves along with struggles and hardship. They were to find out that the joys (and sometimes sorrows) of having one another is the key to surviving together as a family.

I personally liked the movie because I found it very enjoyable, funny, and a great film to begin with. It shows how family and friendship can stand even in the most hardest of times and that the hope for a new beginning is even brighter once you believe in yourself. 

I definitely recommend everyone to watch this movie because I know that you will enjoy it as much as I did.

A Day Trip to Seafood Island Harbor Point and Zoobic Safari

I was invited to go to Subic to be part of the grand opening of Blackbeard's Seafood Island at Harbor Point Square. It took us around an hour and a half to reach the place from Quezon City. 

When we reached the venue, we were greeted with loud and energetic music played on tribal drums. It really boosted the fiesta-like theme and ambience of the restaurant.

The first food items I ate were appetizers. There was this kind of like a cross breed of a salad and nachos. Well, for me, it tasted like a salad with a crunchy twist. Anyways, it was delicious! 

The waiter also served us some fried squid rings. They were a little crispy and were the best fried squid snacks I've ever tasted.

Then I was introduced to the Boodle. I found out that this is a dish presentation where a lot of items are arranged artfully on a big container. This time, it's a nice boat that Chef Chang Magdaluyo filled with various foods.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the boat was filled with a lot of popular seafood like crabs, shrimps, and fish. It was really well decorated and the presentation was awesome. I couldn't wait to try that out and when I did, I was not disappointed.

Aside from eating food items I'm already familiar with, I discovered that seaweeds taste delicious! I'd never expected them to taste like that. I thought they would be bitter. The clams have a very unique flavor too. I was really full by the time we finished eating and there were quite a lot of leftovers from our table. I think they served us way too much food than we could handle.

After that sumptuous lunch, we were also invited to drop by Zoobic Safari since it's quite near. I've already been there during a school field trip a few years ago so this was my second time to visit. 

The place was exactly the same as I remembered it although the three o'clock show has some really fascinating animals to show during the parade. I really enjoyed our time there. It was better than the first time because I got to see other areas I've never been able to visit before. 

There were a lot of people visiting Zoobic Safari despite its distance from the city. It's really something one should see when they go to Subic. Drop by there soon!

Theater Review: Camp Rock The Musical by Repertory Philippines

Camp Rock instantly became a big hit when it was released as a Disney Channel Movie in 2008 and  people still love it today. 

Starring Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers, the iconic film definitely wowed viewers with its wonderful music and great dance choreography. Now it has been made into a stage musical. Thanks to Repertory Philippines and its great cast and crew of young and talented people, Filipinos get to watch Camp Rock The Musical live at Onstage, Greenbelt 1 in Makati.

All the actors did a great job in the show because I saw how much time and commitment they gave just to bring people joy and happiness through the songs and dances. The main characters are composed of Morissette Amon (who plays Mitchie Torres), Nacho Tambunting, Markki Stroem, and Jef Flores (who play the brothers and band members of Connect 3), Hans Eckstein (as Brown Cesario) and Rem Zamora (as Axle Turner). Camp Rock The Musical is directed by Audie Gemora and co-directed by Topper Fabregas.

The show is very enjoyable to watch and will surprise people of all ages with great performances because the actors had to sing, dance, and act from one production number to the next. The story mixes scenes from both Camp Rock 1 and 2 and it's kind of cool. With a cast of 35 talented actors and singers, you wouldn’t believe how much work they have put into this big staging. 

All of the lights and audio visuals are very good. Congratulations to the people behind the scenes! The choreography was also so well put together that I felt like I wanted to dance with the actors on stage.

I am amazed at how everything fit together to make this one hell of a show. 

I'm familiar with Camp Rock and am glad they used the songs from the TV-Movie version like “It’s on”, “This is Me”, “Wouldn’t Change a Thing”, and more. Go watch before the show run ends on December 16. I'm sure you'll have as much fun as I did.

* Photos borrowed from my mom's blog's Facebook fan page