You're Invited

You're invited to a very special tea party at the Suria KLCC mall near the Petronas towers!

We were very excited when we chanced upon the Alice in Wonderland movie display at the Suria KLCC this morning. They had a couple promotional dioramas set up in the mall.

The Cheshire cat and the White queen

the Red Queen

and of course the Mad Hatter

Let's play cards!

They're all waiting

I love you Cheshire cat!

I want some of that cake :)

Don't be late!

Kuala Lumpur day 1

We spent almost 3 hours waiting for my brother while he queued for his F1 tickets. The line was really long and to make things worse the computer at the office broke down. Good job Windows!

While waiting I watched these ladies make Pratas at the food stall outside.

I ordered a chicken and cheese prata for myself. Yum!

On our way to the hotel we spotted Mr. Silver. Btw, can you see the Petronas Towers in the background? :)

I also saw this sign. Yes, I will be careful of the "snatch thief"

We were hungry so we went to Isetan to have dinner at the food court

My little sister got an oyster omelet. Look at all these egg shells! I wonder what they do with all of these after...

I had a yummy plate of Thai Nasi Goreng (tom yum flavored) rice for 7.25 Ringgit (only P100!). I shared some of this with my mom since the serving was huge!

While walking home we saw these guys performing. They sounded really good so we put some money in their hat.

The store in front of the hotel had these crazy dolls on display. When I went inside to inspect I saw that they had cute tiger-cat dolls!

I got 4 of them. Yay :P

Dirty Nugget!

Nugget (like all cats) loves to sunbathe. When the sun is out, he spends a couple of hours a day sunning himself on our balcony. I think it's kind of cute that his fur gets really warm after. I wonder if cats get sunburned underneath the fur...

Lately though I've noticed that he looks darker than usual. His under part is grayish and his paws are black at times! We couldn't figure out why at first but then we discovered that he has been overturning a few plant pots.

Aside from damaging pots here he is hugging the trash bag...

and rolling on the dirt!

But it's so hard to get mad at him. I mean, look at that cute face :)

I really need to bathe him one of these days!

Fur Everywhere!

I just spent an hour vacuuming. I feel so blessed that I do not have asthma because 80% of the stuff inside the vacuum bag is fur!

I guess it's normal when you have a 23 pound furball with you at home...

who does nothing but sleep, eat and SHED fur.

Oh, I also cleaned the vomit you left me this morning! Blech.

29 on my 29th

I just turned 29 and instead of the usual birthday celebrations that I have each year, I decided that it would be really cool if I could visit Beth's 31 cats in Bulacan. I originally wanted to do a feeding session at Paws but I thought that Beth needed more help at this point.

Before heading to Bulacan, my friend (and fellow cat fan) Grace and I dropped by S&R to buy 2 20 pound bags of cat food. We also had 3 bags of Friskies that were donated by Grace's friend, Socs. Yay :)

This is Beth's House
I was expecting to see a lot of cats upfront but we were told that they kept the cats inside for safety reasons. They also covered the windows with tarp and scrap cardboard because sometimes the neighbors would throw stones or shoot the cats with pellet guns!I was speechless when the door opened and I saw ALL the cats cooped inside their small home! Once inside the cats started sniffing and rubbing up against our legs. Originally there were 31 cats in this house but thankfully 2 kittens were adopted by Beth's family leaving 29 cats at home. Yes, 29 cats on my 29th birthday :) What a coincidence!After a few minutes I think they sensed that they were going to be fed because they all headed to the corner near the kitchen.Yay! Finally eating :) They were all quite hungry because this was their first meal for the day.Cute inkblot faced cat

Yummy!Finished?!
The kitties finished 2 2.5kg bags of food! That means that the 2 sacks that we brought would only last for about 2 weeks :(I wish we could have brought more food!
cute cat looking out the window Beth was actually not home that day but we were welcomed by her partner, Micque. Here she is holding one of the cats that they rescued. She asked me how many cats I had at home... I was a bit embarrassed to say that I just had one. and after eating the cats went back to the thing that they do best... Sleeping!I think this one wanted to go home with me :(

We are planning to set up a cat food collection program for them. Please drop me a note if you are interested in helping out :)

Pampanga Culinary and Parol Tour (part 1)

I don't usually book package tours because of two things: I dislike being rushed and I have this impression that there is a money trap somewhere. I remember availing of a package tour when I went to Hong Kong and instead of going to the important sites, the guide brought us to a jewelry factory where we were encouraged to purchase the items. The next time around we bought a guidebook and tried exploring on our own. It was definitely a lot better :)

erman holding our lonely planet guide book :)

Last year though, a particular tour caught my eye. It was Ultimate Philippines' Pampanga Ligligan Parul Culinary tour! Ulitmate Philippines is run by 4 cool guys - Anton Diaz of OAP, Ivan Man Dy of Old Manila Walks, Ivan Henares of Ivan About Town and Spanx of Manila Boy. I have been a long time reader of these blogs and know that when they travel they do it right. I was also fortunate enough to join Anton during the Havaianas 7 waves event in Bohol a couple years back. I really enjoyed the itinerary that he planned for that trip so in a way I knew that the Parol tour would be a nice one. I started inquiring almost 3 months before the trip - yep, I was pretty excited :) I also did not mind that one of the main attractions was Lechon (I don't eat pork) I just really wanted to see Pampanga's Parols up close!We started the day right by having a nice hearty breakfast at Everybody's Cafe. I have good memories at this place. My dad loved going to Dau to shop when I was younger. We would always stop by at Everybody's for lunch. Our fave viand would be their morcon but since I don't eat pork and beef anymore...
I had the Pako salad instead :) I also had a nice cup of hot chocolate. Yum!

After breakfast we headed to the historic San Guillermo Church. At first glace you wouldn't really notice that half of the church is buried! Yes, buried by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1995. Here's a photo of how it looked like before. I'm so glad that a part of it survived because it's such a beautiful church.

The floor that they have now used to be a part of the ceiling.

Window by the floorIt was a really hot day and it was great that we had a huge tub of Buko sherbet in the bus! I think I had 2 cups that day :)

Our next stop was the church in Betis. I am a bit confused with the name of this church since there are 3 names on the sign - Betis (1572) The Church (1660-1770) and The Artesian Well (1868-1898). Just drop me a note if you know :)

Anyway, this church is beautiful! It's such a blessing that it was spared from Mt. Pinatubo's wrath :)The church is filled with intricate hard crafted ornaments and the ceiling is adorned with beautiful paintings. Our tour guide, Ivan even mentioned that this was our very own "Sistine Chapel" :) Beautiful :)

Next post on the 5 way lechon at Bale Dutung and of course, the parols!