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by Philipina A. Marcelo
No surprise
I did shout and "woot-woot" the whole time as I watched Chelsea battled Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on an English Premier League Super Sunday! The match was a "must-win" for both Clubs, as they tried to go up the League Championship Table - closer to the leaders, Manchester United (#1) and Arsenal (#2). Therefore, both sides started with their best men, with Chelsea
opening with their epically expensive Spanish acquisition from Liverpool, the gorgeous Fernando "El Niño" Torres. The Blues had home advantage... and the Stamford Bridge fans didn't disappoint - not a surprise, of course! While the Citizens put up a tough contest, mostly preventing El Niño from scoring, the Blues trashed them via a 2-0 victory in an action-packed match. Of course, El Niño is yet to make his first goal for the Blues. The Stamford Bridge action was followed by another tight match between Sunderland and El Niño's former Club, Liverpool, which the latter won, 2-0, out of sheer pride - again, no surprise. While there wasn't much surpise in the outcome of the matches, it was a satisfying afternoon of fantastic football!
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A 3D surprise
As my throat was parched from all the "whoa-ing" and "aaw-ing", two of my sisters and I refreshed with some shopping at the biggest Mall in the Philippines, SM City-North EDSA,
which is about five minutes away from our place - without the Parking wait, that is. :) While SM City has always been jampacked on weekends, there was an unusually big crowd at "The Block" - one of the newest additions to "The City". We went to check it out... and were pleasantly surprised to see that the United States Embassy's Roadshow, "America in 3D: Diplomacy, Development and Defense", stopped by and stationed for three days at "The Block". We were lucky to catch it on its third day. So, we made the most of it! :) We went around to check out the Show and Exhibits. My sisters and I found a mutual High School friend who worked for the US Embassy's Commercial Services Section manning one of the exhibits. It was a fun mini reunion... and then I was grabbed on the shoulders by someone. I turned to see who it was and I was thrilled to find my friends at the Philippine-American Educational Foundation
(PAEF)/Fulbright Commission of the Philippines! They invited me and my sisters inside the PAEF Booth with a "we have a surprise for you" teaser, and what I found sent me reeling in excitement! It was a "Wall" of Fulbright Alumni Testimonials... and my own "testimonial" was part of it. Beside my testimonial - a sentence from my post-Programme report, to be accurate - was a photo of mine from ten years ago... from my Fulbright application packet in 2001! It made me feel kind of nostalgic and felt a pang of longing for those exciting Fulbright/Cornell University days. Aaah, those were truly incredible days... exploring what one of the best Universities in the world had to offer under the auspices of the "Mother of all Scholarships" - absolutely surreal! Until now, I am still figuring out whatever good thing I've done to deserve such an incredible experience - I am so undeserving. Nevertheless, my sisters and I were so delighted to re-live those days through the "Wall"! We posed for a few souvenir shots beside my testimonial panel, chatted with my PAEF/Fulbright friends for a few more minutes... and then continued shopping. :) Hmmm... talk about Super Sunday!
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A cool surprise
As always, bonding time with my sisters culminated to a foodtrip. Our Sunday escapade was no exception. We voted unanimously for a "to-die-for" dessert... and ice cream got our triple nods. We escaped the heavily commercialized stores in the Mall though and went serching for a "unique" ice cream
concoction... and we were happy to find a little ice cream parlor close to where we live. It was simply called "Ice Cream Store" - a small, two-car parking, four-table store, with no airconditioning. They weren't just serving ice cream concoctions with a surprisingly wide range of choices, but they were also selling packed ice cream in an impressive variety of flavors and formulations that were absolutely unexpected given the store's size. The Food Scientist in me was very impressed to see their coconut milk and virgin coconut oil (VCO)-based formulations. I myself am working on stuff like this in my research work, and I understand the challenges in formulation, processing and overall quality... thus the fascination. My sisters and I ordered different Sundae concoctions, which were all reasonably priced and very satisfying in terms of taste and fun eating - truly to-die-for! And
then, we brought home several of the varieties they were selling - in pints and cups - and continued eating at home without feeling "robbed" since all products were reasonably priced! :) The coconut milk varieties were very good - light and tasty, with decent texture. But what was best about them was that there weren't lactose intolerance-induced stomach upsets after enjoying them, and that added to the sweetness of sisters bonding. :) Naturally, we vowed to return to the Ice Cream Store soon... and to spread the word about the store's existence.So, yeah, I had a Super Sundae, er, Sunday... uhm, both, actually!! :)
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Photo credits: (1) Fernando Torres during Chelsea's March 20, 2011 match against Manchester City in Stamford Bridge - Getty's Image, grabbed from the Zimbio website.
I own all other photos.
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