2011!

This has been one of the best years so far. I've met so many people, I've seen some of my favorite bands and I've done things that I never thought I'd do. 2011 did not disappoint!

Looking back, these are some of the best moments of my year.

• LIV3. The Maine, We The Kings and Never Shout Never in Manila! I went to 3 out of 4 shows!!! I met The Maine and NSN and it was awesome. (I also made it to Pat Kirch's blog, didn't ya hear. LOLJK) 
• Good Charlotte. Fun hangs with my friends. We also got arrested by the mall guards lol. Good times, good times. -insert inside jokes w/ Aldea, Cla, Niki and Fiel here- 
• Novak Djokovic making it to the #1 rank. BEST THING EVER. So fucking proud. (This is yet another tennis appreciation post, just like more than 50% of my blog loljk)
• Maroon 5. Childhood favorite. VIP. Free. MMI is <3. Spent this special moment with one of my best friends. 
• 2nd yr in College. I met really really cool people! Probably some of the best people I've met in school.
• Mayday Parade. It was so amazing oh my god. I didn't meet them but the show was incredible!! 
• All Time Low. BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR. I MET ALL OF THEM, BAND AND CREW. OH MY GOD. THE SHOW WAS AMAZING. PARTY GIRLS AT THE BACK. IPAD. DANNY KURILY. AAAAAHHHHHH
• Grades. Omg. So good!
• Pioneer. So proud of The Maine. Amazing album. Self-released. Best people ever.

This year ends in a few days and you have no idea how excited I am for next year! Simple Plan, The Summer Set, A Rocket To The Moon, The Ready Set, Forever The Sickest Kids, A+ Droupouts, Four Year Strong, Cobra Starship, The Used, Dashboard Confessional, This Century. Maybe even The Cab, We Are The In Crowd and You Me At Six. I hope Every Avenue comes too, and that Panic! At The Disco and The Maine can come back omg please?

This is my favorite picture from this year. Credits: Ate Mary

So.fucking.stoked!

Ian Planet in Manila part 2!

Ian tweeted a few weeks ago that he’s touring with TRAIN! I decided that I’m gonna do EVERYTHING to meet him again, and this time have a picture with him.

So today I planned to go to their hotel after class w/ Ferj, Ate Mary and Eunice. But Ferj had to stay at school to watch a play and Ate Mary felt sick. But then Fiel sent me a text saying that she has no class anymore and she wants to come! So we met at TriNoma and waited for Eunice.

We arrived at the hotel around 2pm. We didn’t know what time their plane’s going to land, so we just waited there. Around 5pm we almost lost hope, so I sent Ate Mabel a text and I asked her to ask Dayly if Train’s here already. She told me that they are still at the airport, the band’s on their way to the mall, and the crew’s on their way to the hotel.

We waited for another hour.

And then….

3 vans arrived.

Big american guys came out of the first and second van. No Ian Planet!!! And then the door of the 3rd van opened, and THERE HE WAS OH MY GOD. We were inside lol we were just looking at them by the window haha. The other crew members went up, but Ian stayed outside with the Dayly people.

We decided to approach him already cos we’ve been waiting for FOUR HOURS. We were still far but omg he saw us and he smiled and waved.

Eunice introduced herself and omg Ian knows her! She tweets him a lot so I guess he remembers her… omg so lucky!

Eunice: Hi I’m jakbacarat on Twitter
Ian: Yeah I know :-)  

Then Eunice gave her gifts, Ian opened them and said thanks.

Omg Ian asked us why we know where he is staying

Ian: How did you know I was here?
Me: We just know :-)
Ian: -insert laugh-

He is perfect haha!

After that we asked for pictures!

I had to edit my picture cos it’s so blurred aw I blame the Dayly guy meep

We talked to him more I can’t really remember everything

And then omg Eunice

Eunice: We waited for more than 3 hours!
Ian: Really? That’s crazy!
Eunice: No, that’s love!

Omg win talaga Eunice!

Then Eunice asked Ian to sign her journal. Ian started with “Hey Eunice” omg she didn’t even mention her real name okay Ian knows her because she tweets him a lot. SO PROUD OH MY GOD. Ian knows Eunice. Damn it I was screaming inside.

HE REALLY DREW A PLANET OMG SO CUTE

Then Ian had to go upstairs so he said bye and he offered hugs aw so sweet :3

He said he wants to go back and I said I hope he comes back with ALL TIME LOW soon 

:———————-)

He was so nice ok today was perfect!!!!!!!!!!! 

This Century Philippines! :-)

Last Saturday, TC's official (Yes, it's official! We are in direct contact with TC, their management and the International Street Team!) street team here in the Philippines had its very first meet-up at Eastwood City, Libis!

I was late and when I arrived at Yellowcab, Ate Angela and Sir Alex were interviewing four teamers outside. I sat with Julienne, Nikita, Andrea and the others and we just talked (and ate free pizza! Thanks BBS!) until we were called in for the interview.

Basically we just talked about why BBS established this team, which is to gather all the TC fans and spread the word about TC's music, all in preparation for TC's future show here. I'm personally really really excited for the future tasks and everything that's going to happen! I know everyone will be stoked!

   

There's another meet-up next Saturday at MOA and I'm planning to go too! I really want to meet new people, especially the people who loves TC as much as I do!

Ate Angela said that the team will be open for a new batch of applicants by January! So if you missed the chance last time, don't waste this second one! 

All photos were taken by the very talented Karen De La Fuente of Shutter Panda Photography :)

Novak Djokovic: One of GQ's Men of The Year

I'm really really proud of Nole! :-) Last year people didn't even think that he's going to beat Roger and Rafa, he just used to be the person they beat in the semis, you know there had to be someone that gets beaten in the semis before the epic and cliche Roger-Rafa finale. But now he's number 1 and I couldn't be prouder! I know I've posted about him being number 1 so many times but this is just something that I'm really proud of. It's been a great year for him!

I just found out that he's one of GQ's Men of The Year! I'm going to share some parts of the article that made me smile. Actually the whole thing is so awesome but let me just choose a few sentences that made me feel like a proud mom~

...Tsonga even went on to win that set, before falling in the fourth. But fall he did. Djokovic scattered points and matches like that behind him all year long. It took another three days, and the final against Rafael Nadal, to elevate Djokovic to the ATP's No. 1 ranking. By then, however, the ATP's calculations were merely catching up to what was already true: Suddenly, amazingly, in 2011, Novak Djokovic became the most powerful force in tennis.

Tennis was not expecting this a year ago. Tennis did not see the need. Tennis already had written the script, and it was a perfectly satisfactory one, if you liked tennis.

They would play each other, Roger and Rafa, age trying to fend off youth with grace and guts. Their rivalry would be beautiful and moving; fans would choose sides, pull for Federer to bravely turn back the clock, tell themselves they were seeing the greatest tennis in history.

Novak Djokovic? Somebody had to lose to Federer or Nadal in the semis. So bring on the rawboned Serb: a nifty returner, a locker-room cutup, a guy one ineffable degree shy of championship material. 

Then the calendar turned over, and so did the sport. Djokovic beat Nadal on grass, on clay, and on hard court, in California, Miami, Madrid, Rome, London, and New York. He beat Federer in Australia, Dubai, California—three consecutive tournaments—lost an epic match to him at the French Open, then beat him again in Flushing. Roger and Rafa seemed as excellent as ever. But Djokovic had crossed over into the world of the '85 Bears, Pedro Martinez, Usain Bolt. It didn't matter how good anyone else was.

The most electrifying thing about watching Djokovic, the quality that pulls in a casual viewer, is that even while playing at the highest level ever attained in his sport, some piece of his mind seems still to be functioning on the normal human plane. He has not turned his back on lesser life-forms, in the manner of a Michael Jordan, and vanished into a rat tunnel of competitive rage. He places another shot improbably—yet certainly—inside the line. He turns away and pumps his fist, not in abandon but with a sort of narrow-eyed, thoughtful glee. It's as if he's as awed as we are by what he can get away with.

2011 is definitely Nole's year! I can't wait for Australian Open next year and see if he's got stronger or not. I hope he's better now, the last time I saw him on TV he retired because of an injury. I'm so excited for Nole and his future matches this 2012! Never going to miss any bit of those amazing matches for sure! x

Read more: Whole article of Novak Djokovic in GQ MEN OF THE YEAR

Chocolate Graham Cupcakes w/ toasted Marshmallow frosting!

I woke up really late today so I didn't get to go to the grocery store before lunch. After lunch, my aunt asked me if I wanted to go to the mall, I said yes and we (aunt, sis and myself) left around 3pm.

I showed her the mixer I want lol (see previous post) and she told me that she needs to buy a new washing machine first so I have to wait for my other aunt to give it to me or my dad or idk somebody else. DEEP SIGH.

Anyway, we went to Cooks Exchange to buy some disposable pastry bags, a tip and a coupler. The shop was small but they have tons of stuff that I want to bring home. Omg I wanted to get a kitchen blowtorch so I can just torch the marshmallow (s'mores effect lol) but welp it was php2,500 aw next time, next time!

So let's go to the fun part. Cupcakes!

So basically this cupcake was inspired by s'mores. It has a graham cracker and chopped chocolate base. You bake that for about 5 minutes just to get that crunch we all love. Then you add the chocolate batter, it's very easy to do, very thin batter too! Then you add a little bit of graham cracker mix and chocolate on top to give an extra chocolatey and crunchy top. To finish it off, we have a meringue frosting, it tastes a lot like marshmallow, and unlike the normal meringue (French meringue?), you actually put the white egg plus sugar mixture on a double boiler while you let the two things incorporate, and make sure the sugar is completely melted or else you will have lots of crystals on your frosting and that is not ideal at all okay lol. I think this is called Swiss meringue. We're supposed to torch the marshmallow frosting because it's supposed to be a s'mores cupcake, but I don't have a blowtorch. What I did was I put the frosted cupcakes back to the oven and just let it bake for another five minutes, just to make that frosting burn a little so it would be crunchy. Thank god the cupcakes are very moist (special thanks to the melted chocolates too!) and they didn't get overbaked. Lol I was savedddddddddddd!

This is the graham cracker crunch plus the chocolate chips before putting them in the oven :-)

Baked base + chocolate cupcake batter and extra crunchy top!

Frosting in the making :-)

I used a star tip but I recommend using a flat tip or a round tip because this kind of cupcake looks better with big, tall and fat frosting (fail tip lol)

I wanted the tall, big mountain of frosting but since the tip was too small, I ended up doing zigzag lines lol I suck omg

In the end we just had to use all the frosting (didn't want them to be wasted) so we just spread them on top of the cupcakes, then we baked all of them so they get toasted (we want them marshmallow crunchy rightttttt) 

The chocolate in the base melted and it was so delicious oh my god

I told you my grandpa loved it. He ate two lol.

Bonus cupcake! The Maine <3 PIONEER SOON HOLLA

Fun fun day. I love baking omg I want to learn more and it's so fun! If you wanna try it, you can find the recipe in Martha Stewart's site! It's an awesome recipe, you need to make these cupcakes!

xx

Ho ho hopefully.

It's almost Christmas! Christmas has always been one of the best days of the year because (1) it's cold, (2) family bonding, (3) fooooooood, and (4) gifts! My cousins will be spending Christmas with us again this year, just like every year! It's fun to have so many people at home even though they sometimes get on my nerves when they fight.

Let me just post a few things that I want to have this Christmas! I don't think I'll get these things... but hopefully I do lol

The first one is a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. It's $350! Lol. My hand mixer is broken so I really really want a new mixer, and well if I am gonna get one why would I ask for another hand mixer? I'd go for a bigger and better stand mixer! It looks so good oh my god I saw one in SM Dept Store and it's way too expensive (php 25,000) compared to its price on the site so idk maybe we should buy one from the US since it's cheaper *cough*TITA*cough* 

Another thing for baking lol. I want a bigger oven! This one's a Frigidaire 27" Single Electric Convection Wall Oven. It's $1,530 omg <///3 The oven I use is the small one lol that's why I bake in more than 3 batches every time... too small! Bigger oven please, Santa!

Last but not the least, a camera. I just really want one. I get to use my uncle's every time they come over and I want to keep it lol. Idk anything about cameras, which brand or model to buy etc etc but yeah I just want one cos I think it's gonna be really really useful ex. concerts and idk I wanna try to be ~creative~ so uhm yeah photography I wanna try you.

These are just some of the things I wanna have... I'm too lazy to think about the other ones. 

PS. I want him too

 

10-17-2011

It's my 18th birthday!

It started really good, around 11:30pm on the 16th I already got a lot of greetings and when the clock stroke midnight, my @replies exploded and our telephone rang oh my god. It was Cla aw she called me last year too! Love her <3

Dan Nickleski replied to me (again!!!!) lol I told him that it's my birthday and he replied with "Happy bday iPad girl" lol that's so awesome okay.

I felt quite sad during noon lol didn't hear from my friends and my family's too busy with their work and everything yada yada insert I-feel-so-unimportant-today rants blah

But then I left to meet up with Joan, Charmille and Yvon! I knew there was something going on, they all told me that they were going to be late haha. And their plan sort of failed because they were still preparing the surprise when I saw them and I was like "LOL GUYS WTF ARE YOU DOING HAHAHAHA FAIL!!!" and they were like "LOL SARAH PRETEND YOU DIDN'T SEE US LET'S DO THIS AGAIN" hahahaa so funny

They got me roses and balloons lol. I treated them at Sbarro and they gave me doughnuts, cupcakes, 18 band dudes! Lol it was great.

Yvon, Charmille and Joan got me a book aw I already read it but I wanted to get a copy and they gave me one aw <3 I still have 3 more books to read so idk when I'll be re-reading this hahaha

And my favorite omg I actually thought that those two guys already forgot about me but they were there and I missed them so much! Anjilo and Louise aw they got extra flowers too haha! And they bought me a pair of earphones from Philips and it's green!!! Perfect :----)


I love my friends! We're gonna meet again on Thursday for Louise's birthday! He's turning 18 too, we need to plan something for him haha! Dibs on 18 sampaguitas! xx

Great day. Great friends. Thank you.

PS. At home we just ordered food from Shakey's! Too much food I think I gained 5 lbs jk jk

PS. Andy Oliver tweeted me too! Awesome!!

Cravings!

I didn't eat lunch today so I was really hungry at around 4pm after my PanPil12 meeting. Met up with Charmille at the FC shed so we can go home and then while talking at the jeep I mentioned cake and we decided to go to Shang and eat!


We went to The Coffee Beanery/Cravings to try the Coffee and Cake All You Can.
First of all, I was disappointed because their tarp has like, 7+ types of cake there but there were only 3 flavors available. Anyway...


The first one I tried was the caramel one. Then the double chocolate. Then the devil's food cake. My favorite was the devil's food cake because I really loved the frosting. All 3 cakes had the same base though, chocolate. They just had different fillings in between layers and of course, frosting.


The cake slice was thinner than usual, which was great because people would want to try all flavors... so serving them in small amounts was a great idea!














After I ate my devil's food cake (and after finishing my second cup of coffee), the server asked us if we wanted a refill, and idk why but I said yes even though I was ~almost~ full.
So we had another cup of coffee and another piece of cake. I had the caramel one, idk why I chose that, I'm not even a big caramel fan but wth. I ended up not finishing that 4th slice, such a shame.


The cakes were average, I mean, they're not the best but I enjoyed the experience.. so yeah.





We were there for two hours, the best thing about it was probably just catching up, lol we haven't seen each other since the ATL show! So we talked about that and it was so much fun.


Great day.

AND IT FEELS LIKE I'M AT AN ALL TIME LOW~

I'm seeing All Time Low tomorrow! I actually have my gifts already and I can't wait to give them to the boys awww :')

This is unreal okay oh my god I can't believe I'm finally gonna see them aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

So here are my gifts to the band! :-) The gifts cost me 1000+php but it's okay cos it's for ATL :')

Tennis blog 2k11

It's Sept 14! Yesterday was the US Open Men's Finals and guess who won...

NOVAK DJOKOVIC!

       The year 2011 is Novak's best year so far. Just this Monday he won his very first US Open title, 3rd Grand Slam of the year and 4th Grand Slam of his career.

        Let's take this back '07. That was the first time Nole tried winning this title. Last year, he fought Nadal in the finals to win this but he didn't succeed. This year, he finally did it.

        So how did Nole do it? First of all, his tennis really improved. He used to have a lot of double faults, and compared to last year's finals, his records this year has definitely improved. His serves are way better than they used to be, and he's now powerful enough to turn defense to offense. One moment Nadal is controlling his serve, the next shot, Nole is already controlling it. His confidence level got higher too, I mean why wouldn't it? He's the world #1 right now and he has only lost 2 matches this year, one in French Open semis where Federer defeated him and the other just last month where he retired because of an injury.

       Nole is in his best shape and best state of mind right now. Nobody can stop him. He has defeated Nadal in all of their 6 encounters, and he won the US Open semis against Federer by breaking Roger's 2 match points and eventually winning the set.

      Many people used to think that he was just a lucky guy who happened to win AUS Open in '08, but this year he has really proven that he is the best player at the moment and that he deserves that #1 spot.

     Now he has 4 Grand Slams, 3 of which he won this year, and you have no idea how excited I am to see him win more. He's not done yet, he's just starting to be the best player and as what I'm seeing right now, he is unstoppable.

     HAJDE NOLE!