四十一：Wensha Spa and All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

The reception.

 My friend invited me to go to Wensha Spa Antipolo sometime around summer. I haven't been to Wensha and I've heard some good and bad reviews and I thought why not come with her and check it out myself. We arrived at Wensha around 10PM and you don't need to worry about time because it's open 24/7. 

Price list of the services.

When we arrived we went to the reception and paid for the package that we chose. We chose the package with includes the Massage, use of jacuzzi, steam room, sauna and All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet. I think it was around 700. We were then given slippers and we surrendered the shoes that we were currently wearing and we were also given our locker keys which are in a bracelet form.

The lounge.

 There are seperate rooms for the ladies and the gentlemen. When we got inside we were given bathrobes which looks like kimonos and two large towels. The lockers are high tech, you just point the key on the door where the lock is located and it automatically opens and once you close it, after 10 seconds it automatically locks.

We changed clothes and a funny experience was when a door inside the ladies locker room flung open and us girls were all shocked especially the youngest among us which was my friend's sister who was only 15 years old. It was the jacuzzi room's door and when it opened we saw old ladies naked coming out of the jacuzzi. Our eyes enlarged from shock and we looked at each other as if stoned. I go to saunas but never have I seen a sauna room or jacuzzi room that is so well lit you can actually see every inch of skin of anyone inside there and it's their rule that you are not allowed to wear any clothing once you dip in the jacuzzi. Imagine how the guys would feel..

The dining area.

 Since we haven't eaten dinner, we went to the buffet room first. At first we thought they ran out of food but they were actually about to replenish it soon. There were rice, vegetables, noodles. dumplings, spring rolls and stews. There was a soft serve sundae machine as well and had two flavors, vanilla and taro. Their buffet includes drinks such as iced tea or orange juice. I grabbed a plate and filled it with the food that I wanted to eat. My friends decided to go for shabu shabu. I remember the last time I ate at a shabu shabu, I got so full because of the soup absorbed by the food that we boiled in it so I decided not to join them in eating shabu shabu. 

The food that I ate

Buffet area.

 We then went to check the bar. The buffet includes beer and a hard drink if I remember it correctly but we did not take advantage of it. The bar did look cool and outside the window is a view of Metro Manila since we're on top of Antipolo.

Nice lighting fixture.

 We then went to the spa to get a massage. We each have our own masseuse and they let us choose from different oils such as mint, ginger etc. The massage lasted for an hour. I think the masseuse did well but then after the massage we were presented with a paper for us to sign and give them a tip. It felt, for me, like they were trying to rob us because I thought it was already included in the package. I mean, I would gladly give a tip and they do not need to do that. They can just give the paper to us and let us give it at the counter freely but no they will really wait for you to sign the paper with the amount. So I felt like I was obliged to not give just a tip but to pay them. I gave my masseuse 100. 

My taro sundae.

 Last stop was the Jacuzzi. It was already midnight so the jacuzzi room only had us as its guests. We took a shower first. There were 2 jacuzzi tubs. One has hot water and one has cold water and take note it has hot not warm water. We dipped our foot and we can barely dip in it but we forced ourselves so our body can adapt to the temperature. What we noticed was that the water had some oils or conditioner in it because it seemed that our skin felt smooth. They also provide ice cubes for those who cannot stand the heat and those who want to go inside the sauna. They have mint and lavender oils that you can put on your ice cubes for aromatherapy.

View of Metro Manila from the bar.

 We tried both the steam and sauna room but both were too hot. I felt like I was going to faint inside the rooms and there is no way for any guest to control the temperature. Lastly we tried the cold jacuzzi tub to close our pores and it was ice cold it felt like the water was piercing our skin so we just jumped right in and got out right away.

We took our shower and they provide the shampoo and liquid soap and they have hot and cold water in their shower room. Back at the locker room they have disposable toothbrushes, toothpaste, cotton buds, hair dryer and even hair gel.

The bar.

Overall it was a so-so experience. Not good but quite okay. The place is nice but I feet like 800 pesos is too expensive for the so-so buffet and 1 hour massage but I do think one can enjoy the place if you can eat a lot because I don't or I can't. I think I'd rather get a massage then eat the food that I want at a restaurant and the cost might just be the same.

I think Wensha has two branches. The one that we visited was in Antipolo along Sumulong Hi-Way. It's about 15-30 minutes depending on the traffic from Masinag intersection going up to Antipolo. You won't miss it because it has a large sign along Sumulong.

四十：Time is literally Precious. Movie Review and Summary of In Time

Imagine a world where time is very precious that besides having to spend time queuing for your coffee, you also need to pay for it using your time, literally.

The movie stars Justine Timberlake as Willa Salas, a guy who lives in poverty therefore has literally little time left on him and Amanda Seyfried (Sylvia Weis) who came from a rich family of time lenders.

In their world, time is everything. You pay for everything using your time like your shelter, food, transportation etc. People are paid for their work with time. Time is transferred to or from a person through a box like device where they point their wrists at and it either sucks the time when payment is charged from the person or it transfers time to the person like when earning wages.

You either get paid or pay using this gadget. 

The amount of time a person has is shown on their wrists through a neon like colored light. When two persons would like to share or give one or the other time, they just hold hands making sure their wrists are in contact with each other.

The timer starts once a person reaches 25 years of age. Once you hit 25, your body will retain its physical appearance until you die. In Time's world does not allow dying due to old age, once your time on your arm runs out, your life ends there.

The grandmother, mother and daughter.

Since time is the currency in their world, robbers steal time and in our world where you kill the person to steal his belongings, killing in their world will mean losing that person's time. The robber would either scare or force you to give them you time or maybe tie your hands down so they can steal it from you until you run out of time and die.

In the movie, since Will Salas is a poor guy, he would usually run to save time when going to work. At the start of the movie, I got confused why Will's mother looked so young and it was because she stopped ageing at the age of 25 as I have explained earlier. 

Will meets a wealthy guy, with a century in his arm, being robbed at a bar and being a good guy that he is, saved the rich man from the robbers. The rich guy explained to him that he would have given his time to the robbers because he have lived too long and wanted to die already. As they sleep, the rich guy gave all his time to Will leaving just 5 minutes for himself to go to the bridge and die there. Will was too late to save the man and his presence was caught by a CCTV camera starting a chase with the police.

Will goes to a different sector and meets Sylvia, the daughter of the owner of the Time Weis, a time lending company. Will plays poker with the owner and wins 1000 years after betting all his time except for 30 seconds. Will was then invited by the daughter Sylvia to their party and he meets Sylvia's grandmother and mother who like them look really young since they too have stopped ageing at 25 years of age.

Will gets caught by the Time Keepers who are like the police but keeps track of the people's time. Only 2 hours was left for him since the Time Keepers took all his time. Fortunately for him he was able to escape and kidnaps Sylvia to take her as a hostage. They escape and gets into a car chase.

The story continues with Sylvia's time getting stolen by the Minute Men gang, the same gang who wanted to rob the rich guy from the bar. Will tries to get ransom from Sylvia's father but they were unlucky. The two get to know each other and Sylvia realizes how hard it was to live with a limited amount of time. The couple soon acted like Robin Hood stealing time from Sylvia's father's time banks. All of the time that they steal from each bank they give to the people thinking that it would solve their problem with time but the prices of the commodity only increases as the Time Keepers found out what they were doing.

The story ends when the two were about to cross the border onto the next time zone or sector and the lead Time Keeper, Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy) caught them unfortunately for him, he forgot to replenish his time and died on the spot as he was about to arrest them. Having too little time left, Will decides to give all of his time to Sylvia which is enough to let her cross the time zone which will give her more time to live. Sylvia of course did not want Will to die for her. As they were arguing on who will get the time, Will remembered that Time Keepers will always bring extra time with them and so Will ran to the dead Time Keeper's car and replenished his time along with Sylvia's. The last scene shows the couple preparing to rob yet another bank.

Review:

Time itself is already precious and the movie shows how it can be even more important to a human. In the movie the rich have so much time that they enjoy going to parties enjoying without thinking about going to work while the poor rush in the morning so they won't be late for their work and have no time to enjoy life because they do not have enough time for themselves. In our real world, the same thing happens.

Time and money are very well connected since we earn money by spending time taking care of ourselves to make sure we have time to go to work and do our job. Having not enough time to go to work and earn money means no time for leisure as well.

In the movie they have the privilege to become immortal and to stay young as long as they have time but no chance of dying the natural way except for getting killed or by running out of time which will stop your heart from beating. In our real world, we grow old and can die a natural death. Both world has its pros and cons but both cannot turn back time and change whatever happens in the past.

With our planet slowly dying, it's not too soon that time will become more precious than ever because time will become shorter for everyone. There would be so little time to do all the things that you would want to do in your lifetime.

Whether we live in the movie's fictional dystopian world or in our real world, time will always be and will be even more precious for living beings such as us humans.

三十九：Bravo! Restaurant Review of Conti's Pastry Shop and Restaurant

 The first time I learned about Conti's was when I attended a Christmas Party of one of my acquaintances. Her family ordered this cake and when I tasted it, it was like ice cream and cake in one and the texture was soft, crunchy and creamy with mangoes, meringue, chocolate mousse, chocolate syrup and fresh cream. It was like all the things that I wanted in a dessert. I found out it was called Mango Bravo and it was from Conti's Bakeshop. It's the cake that made this restaurant famous.

 The nearest Conti's restaurant from my place is at Katipunan near Libis, Q.C. It was the Christmas season and I asked my friends decided to have breakfast there. It was not my first time eating there since we went there before just to eat the famous Mango Bravo cake as well as some of their pasta dishes.

Crispy Fried Squidlets 135Php

 For our appetizer we ordered Crispy Fried Squidlets. I love seafood and I really like calamari. This one is really little squids with teeny tiny tentacles and they are deep fried whole. It has a sweet chili dip on the side. My friend, who is very picky when it comes to food took a microscopic bite from one of the squidlet's tentacles. For me it was good just like a calamari but smaller in size.

Strawberry Yogurt shake and Mocha Frappe 125Php

Strawberry Yogurt Shake 120Php

 The drinks that we ordered came next. My friend ordered strawberry yogurt shake and the rest ordered mocha frappe. The drinks tasted really good. It was creamy and not too sweet.

Chicken ala Kiev 285Php

Then the main dishes arrived. My friend ordered Chicken ala Kiev because as a picky eater, she only eats chicken.

Chicken rolled and stuffed with cheese and herbs and topped with cream sauce.

It was chicken rolled and stuffed with cheese and some herbs and it has cream sauce on top. It was delicious and creamy. It reminded me of Cordon Bleu but this one does not have ham inside.

Salmon Salpicao with Buttered Corn Rice and Potato Salad 315Php

Potato Salad

Next in line was Salmon Salpicao. I have no idea what salpicao means but it looked like adobo to me but not as satly or vinegary as adobo. It came with buttered corn rice and I think to balance the meal and the saltiness it came with a potato salad. Again it was delicious.

Tofu Steak with Crab Salad and Japanese Fried Rice 205Php

 The last one of the main dishes that we ordered was Tofu Steak. We imagined a large flat tofu with sauce on top mimicking a steak but this one came cubed in a little bowl and topped with shitake mushrooms.

Japanese Fried Rice

 Obviously this one is very Japanese inspired with the Japanese fried rice, shitake mushrooms and crab salad combined in just one dish.

Tofu Steak

 There was no meat in this dish except for the crab in the crab salad. It was a simple yet tasty dish which I think follows the Japanese principles of being simple yet beautiful or elegant.

The Star of the Day

 And so the main reason why we went to Conti's arrived on our table, the Mango Bravo.

Layers of meringue, mangoes, chocolate mousse, chocolate syrup and fresh cream

I am not sure with Mango Bravo's dimension as a whole cake but a slice is about 6 inches in length and about 1.5 inches thick. If you buy a whole cake you can choose from two sizes, a small one which is like the size of a regular cake that you buy from other cake shops and a bigger one which is huge! I think the bigger one is around 10 to 12 inches in diameter and 6 to 8 inches in height. The price is 900 and 1300 for the bigger one. I tell, you one slice of this cake isn't enough and surely it will make you go "Bravo!"

Conti's has numerous branches besides Katipunan. There is one in Trinoma, Connecticut Greenhills, BF Homes Paranaque, Serendra Taguig, Greenbelt 2, ATC Muntinlupa, Robinsons's Magnolia and Lakeside Laguna. When you're in Conti's don't forget to try their cakes because I've tried their cakes other than Mango Bravo and definitely all are worth a try.

http://www.contis.ph

KATIPUNAN BRANCH 

(Function Rooms Available)

224 Katipunan Ave. Extension, Brgy. Blue Ridge, Quezon City

Tel. No: 

(+632) 682-0812; (+632) 646-3306;

(+632) 439-1238

Mobile: 

(+63922)847-3065; (+63917)872-6132;

(+63908)886-8453

三十八：Hong Kong Street Foods

Lots of Variety

 During our trip to Hong Kong, we tried to save some money by eating some Hong Kong street foods. Street Food in Hong Kong is almost every where and it is as common as the 7/11 Store. You should see one beside every 7/11 Convenience Store.

Mini Sausages and Fried Squid

It's really tempting to eat one of these because of the variety and it's cheap. The price is from 3 HKD to 15 HKD only. That is about less than 20 PHP or 50 cents in USD to 50 PHP or a little more than a dollar per order.

Chocolate Egg Waffles

 Each stall sells a different variety. Some would sell grilled street foods and some would sell more of the fried ones. Some also sell noodles or soup with fish cakes and the famous curry fish balls and other ball shaped stuff like lobster, chicken, beef etc. Some sell my favorite takoyaki which is the ball shaped Japanese street food made with batter and vegetables with octopus inside but in Hong Kong it's big like the size of a golf ball and the octopus piece is also large and it's just 12 HKD for 4 large pieces.

Gigantic Takoyaki

Lobster Balls and Beef Balls and Spicy sauce

 There are also stalls that sell sweet stuff like the egg waffles which tastes like waffle cones that you use in sundaes or ice creams but it is round shaped like an egg and is hollow inside but taste good. It's around 10 - 12 HKD and has different flavors like Regular which is the normal batter, Chocolate and Black Sesame.

Mini Sausages with Curry Sauce

 Hong Kong people like spicy foods and curry so when you order, you have the option to choose whether you like your sauce sweet, spicy or curry. Curry is also sold in almost every restaurant even the famous fast food chains have curry in their menu. Curry is very common in Hong Kong and it's so common that you can smell it everywhere even on people. Don't go near people who just ate curry and smokes, it's deadly.

Fried Sausages

Food tripping in Hong Kong is fun but what I don't like when it comes to buying stuff in Hong Kong is the aggressiveness of the sellers. Hong Kong 's people are very business minded and when you buy something from a stall, make sure you don't buy the same stuff that they sell on the stall that is just beside them or you'll get cursed like what happened to me. What's even worse is that, you don't understand what they're saying because they speak Cantonese and speak very few English words.

Besides the language barrier and their aggressiveness, it's still fun to eat from the street food stalls in Hong Kong. Just pretend you understand whatever they're saying and enjoy your food. ^_^

三十七：Funny Asian Amnesia Movies

In the continuation of my funny movies marathon, I watched a Korean film that is about faking amnesia. The title of he movie is Sweet Lies. It's about a girl who fell in love with a guy from her high school years but she never expressed her feelings to him until they accidentally met after 10 years. By accidental I mean it literally.

Sweet Lies

Having fired from work due to her TV show's low rating, Ji-Ho's jinx did not stop there and on her way home,  her bag with no money left in it but IDs got snatched. Trying to run after the thief, she was accidentally hit by a car and passed out. She woke up at the hospital with two children asking for her name because the hospital cannot find any IDs to identify her. Ji-Ho did not answer right away until the guy who hit her came to check her. She soon found out that the guy was actually her high school crush Minwoo. When Minwoo asked her name, the children told him that she does not remember her name and Ji-Ho pretended to have amnesia so that she can try and get close to him. The doctor, Minwoo's uncle, believed that Ji-Ho might have a slight amnesia asked Minwoo to take her with him for the mean time since she cannot remember who she is and where she lives.

Ji-Ho is overwhelmed that she is at her long time crush's house.

Ji-Ho continued to pretend she has amnesia until she was seen by her childhood friend Dong-Sik at the supermarket. The story progresses into a love triangle. While Ji-Ho tries to get Minwoo's attention, Dong-Sik  tries to convince Ji-Ho that they had a relationship before she got into the accident. 

It's funny how Ji-Ho tries her best to lie and not get caught with her lies and same goes with her brother and her friend Dong-Sik trying to bring her memories back and winning her love.

The movie reminded me of the Filipino movie, My Amnesia Girl. Same with sweet lies, My Amnesia Girl has its lead actress pretending she has amnesia but not to win her man and instead, to shoo him away.

My Amnesia Girl

Having been left alone at the church isle on their wedding day by her groom, Apollo who had cold feet and ran away, Irene was able to move on and continued with her passion which is photography. After a few years, Apollo met Irene again by chance at her photography studio. Never wanting to see him again, Irene pretended she has amnesia and does not recognize Apollo at all. Apollo sees it as an opportunity to get close to Irene again believing that she is his true love.

As the two tries to get to know each other again, Irene cannot help but to eventually forgive Apollo seeing how he strives really hard from her challenges to win her back. Unfortunately for them, the challenges does not stop there.

The story is quite simple but got famous because of the chemistry between the two lead actors and the use of funny pick up lines.

三十六：Laughter is the best Medicine. Review of Detroit Metal City.

Just an update, I am still sick with a runny nose and a slight fever. I was planning to get a checkup at the clinic near our house unfortunately there are some issues with our health benefits at the office.

Anyways, so there is this saying that laughter is the best medicine and it might not be completely true but laughing can actually make you feel a bit better because you feel happier and you forget your problems. 

I was thinking of funny movies to watch and I remembered a friend suggesting Detroit Metal City. He told me that it's really funny. And so I searched for it in Youtube and just watching the trailer made me laugh.

I quickly searched for the movie and watching it made me cry.. from laughing too hard. ^_^ The movie is really funny and just thinking of the funny scenes in my head makes me laugh again.

Detroit Metal City is actually a manga turned anime turned movie. It's about this simple farm boy, Soichi Negishi, who loves music especially love songs and dreamed of being famous in the music industry. To pursue his dreams, he went to Tokyo and immediately got what he wished. Now in Tokyo, Negishi became really famous but unfortunately for him, he wasn't singing any love songs. Negishi, a shy farm boy with a p*nis haircut, once he steps onto the music stage turns into Johannes Krauser II, a death metal lead vocalist and guitarist most famous for his curses such as the 10 rapes a second and teeth guitar skills.

Krauser/Negishi

The show is really funny mainly due to the fact that the lead character is trying really hard to hide his alternate identity from the people who know him such as his family and his crush Aikawa for the fear of being rejected. There are scenes where he mixes the characters of Krauser II and himself which are very, very hilarious. Naturally kind, Negishi would sometimes use his popularity as Krauser II to help his fans or teach them how to be a better person, the Krauser II way.

Negishi as Krauser II inside the men's room helping another singer remove his nervousness.

Watching the movie did not cure me but it made me really happy. Somehow it relieved my stress and made me forget that I was sick even though I was sneezing and coughing while I watch the movie and its series. For those who want a good laugh, I recommend you watch not just the movie but the series itself.

三十五：Hiatus and Weather Changes

My blog was on hiatus the past few days due to my fever caused by the weather changes. It is mostly rainy during mornings and extremely hot by noon until the afternoon. I would go to work when it's cold drizzling outside then go home when the sun is at it's peak. How can you not get sick?

 

Just before the new year arrived, I took a shower and I knew I had the fever right after my bath. My body was aching and my head felt heavy. Minutes before 2013 I cannot even get up but I pushed myself just so I can watch the fireworks outside my window. Good thing people are either more careful or are saving money because the fireworks lasted for about 30 minutes only when during the past years they would start the fireworks at 11:00PM and end it at 1:00AM the next year.

 

I immediately went to sleep and my nose started clogging. When I woke up, my whole body was still aching and my throat was really sore. The next few days my head was still aching but I still went to work as no one was available to take over my shift. During my lunch break I slept and took medicines. Four days have passed and my head still hurts, it's even worse but my throat is less sore but I have no sense of smell or taste. I have no appetite which I take as a good thing because I can lose weight, but my throat feels really dry and my nose feels stuffy.

 

Even though I was sick, I still tried to go to my friend's father's wake because he died just after New Year. I am proud of my friend because she is a very strong person. We know she feels really sad losing her father but she never sobbed nor broke down in front of us when we visited. We were very close friends so even though I was sick, I still went to the wake to support her because I know she needs our presence. I know she would do the same for me and besides, I missed her too. It was sort of a mini reunion for us and our other high school friends.

 

I really want to add new posts soon but my head hurts a lot. I will continue most probably after a few days or a week or until I feel better.