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Monterey Bay Aquarium
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
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trying on a metaphor
Love Begins
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JBB: An Artblog!
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let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
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@rainbowramareads
These two books make me very happy. Food Rules was originally Php895 but I got it for only a hundred pesos. It was the last copy, and was hidden under other books and I whooped out loud when I found it. I’m a huge Maira Kalman fan and this was a pleasant surprise. It pays to rummage and...
This book has been on my wishlist for the longest time, being a huge Danny Gregory fan. Surprise, surprise, a tres generous and kindly fairy godmother sent me a copy yesterday, along with these two other items in my booklust list. Merci beaucoup!
I finished it in one sitting, I did not want...
This Is A Great Place For Reading Thursday: Casa Rap, Batangas
Technically, it’s a resto though. But a friend is right in calling it “charming”. From the footpath embedded with handmade leaf-shaped stoneware to the edible flowers in your salad, the place is inviting you to slow down and relax. Perhaps savor a good meal, a good book, and bask in the wondrous generosity of nature.
Posted by rainbowramareads
This Is A Great Place for Reading Thursday: Estrellas de Mendoza Playa Resort, Batangas
That’s the view from where I was sitting, cradling The Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and secretly wishing time would slow down so I’d have more time to savor the book with this view.
Posted by rainbowramareads
Foodie Friday: Comfort Food
There’s nothing like pairing food with a nourishing read. When my wallet’s particularly sad, I prepare myself a simple sandwich for dinner, and trick my appetite by eating it while reading a foodcentric piece of literature. I reach for MFK Fisher’s The Art of Eating when I want to feel like a gourmet, but tonight I wanted something more soothing. I was not fond of fish (quite sad if you grew up in Malabon), but I knew I needed to eat some for health reasons, so I opened a jar of spanish sardines in olive oil, got some wheat bread, slathered the bread with creamy sweet Queensland butter, and toasted it. When it was done I placed the sardines atop the toast, drizzled it with apple cider vinegar (to minimize suya), sprinkled it with parmesan cheese and freshly ground pepper. Then I proceeded to read this book, which made me crave tinola and surprised me with what people consider to be their “comfort food”. I personally associate comfort food with nostalgia, and the book inspired me to list down my favorites. 1. Homemade Milo dinosaur: I miss the old Milo, it seemed to have larger chunks before, unlike the powdery version now. I would put three spoonfuls of Milo in a glass, pour water on top of it and stir it vigorously. Then I’d place several cubes of ice in the glass and then top it again with several spoonfuls of Milo. I’d enjoy the Milo shrapnel while watching Cartoon Network late at night. I usually did this when I felt hungry in the middle of the night or when I felt anxious. I remember how my dad used to wait outside the classroom with my thermos filled with cold Milo when it was my first day in school, back when I was in grade one. The other kids were crying (one was even throwing up red Jolly spaghetti beside me) and I cried too (because of peer pressure mostly haha), and I was allowed to go outside to my waiting dad and drink Milo when my crying caused me to have a hard time breathing. I remember playing at my cousin’s house after lunch, bringing my thermos filled with Milo and placing it inside their ref. We were forced to sleep but we didn’t, and we pretended to close our eyes whenever an adult would check up on us, but we’d continue playing with our Romnick Sarmienta , Sheryl and Jennifer Sevilla Barbies when they left the room. When it was waking time I’d rush to their ref and get my Milo, now cold. I love the plasticky smell of the thermos while I gulped the drink, awaiting the chocolatey sludge at the bottom. 2. Boiled corn: They sold it at school, in a cup, with bright orange cheese powder and margarine. I tried recreating it using popperoo cheese powder but it didn’t taste as good. There would be several ways of enjoying it at home: My lola would roast corn on the cob using our gas stove, piercing it at the end with a knife or a fork and twisting it till the kernels turned black. My tita would prepare a dipping sauce of calamansi and patis and she’d dip each kernel into the sauce. My mom and dad would smear butter on it. If I felt lush, I’d do the same, but if I missed my tita I would dunk my cob in a platito filled with lots of calamansi juice and a dash of patis. 3. Suman: Always present during our Noche Buena feast, I looked forward to eating this with mangoes and sugar, or with halayang ube. During Christmas morning, my mother would fry some of the leftover suman in a pan with browned butter and I’d gobble up the sticky sweet treat with leche flan (if someone gave us a tin that year—we never cooked leche flan, for some reason). 4. Leche flan: This was in my bucket list of food items to cook. I love anything with leche flan, and for my 18th birthday I was sincere when I requested my lola nanay to cook a bucketful of leche flan for me as their birthday gift, which they thought was a joke, sadly. I attempted to cook it using an electric steamer and it was such a gloopy disaster that I swore never to cook it again. My lola nanay’s leche flan was dense, rich and infused with dayap rind. There was a time when the leche flan atop Razon’s halo-halo was like that, and I’d order an extra sliver because it was so good. I ate it slowly, a miniscule bite each spoonful of halo-halo, and did not mix it because I have this crazy fear that I won’t be able to taste the flan when mixed. I still can’t forget that episode of Sabrina the teenage witch involving a giant flan. That was AWESOME. 5. Ice cream: If my memory was to be trusted, there was a Magnolia house along Edsa across our school and I can still remember the red curtains, the high stools and the colorful menu with the Bert and Ernie banana split. I was taken there just once by my dad when he fetched me from school and I was so overwhelmed by the choices and how whimsical everything was that I can’t remember what I ordered, for the life of me. Remember those Magnolia ice cream sticks that are clown-shaped (choco banana), and boat-shaped (bubblegum)? How about that dip cone from mamang sorbetero with that choco shell (a bit sour) that hardened? I remember being sick and having no appetite at all, (except for ice cream) and how wonderful it was for I was allowed to eat rocky road for several days. I enjoyed having my teeth extracted because I was allowed to have twin popsies afterwards. In high school I’d brave the dark seedy Victory Terminal in Caloocan because they had a small Rustan’s there which sold pints of Arce Dairy ice cream. I’d save up for one pint in every two or three months and savor each spoonful at home while reading, utter bliss. I’d eat just a few spoonfuls so I could prolong the experience to more than a day. We’d buy ice candy plastic and try to imitate the sold ones but failing because of having only orange juice powder or Milo in the house. My memories of travel often involve ice-y products. Remember Tivoli ice cream and Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches? I guess the ice candies (2 pesos for the Milo one with munggo, 1 peso for avocado, buko, melon, mango), frosties, ice cream sticks, ice buko and fruit salad sticks fall under this category too. Cold sweet hugs. 6. Pastillas: Condensed milk and powdered milk, when mixed together, will give you a quick “pwede na” pastillas. I spiked some with Milo, some with coffee and rolled each ball in sugar. The best memory I have of pastillas involves being sick with asthma and having my dad give me a pasalubong of a mixed pack from Goldilocks which had the usual white one, and yema and ube variants. It was a very happy day for me. My personal favorites are those from Mr. Moo, Zambales and Pampanga. 7. Mom’s chicken and pork adobo: This is what I requested for my birthday last year, which thankfully, I got a tupperware of. I could never recreate this, even if I follow her recipe. Hers is perfect: Garlicky, savory goodness, made rich with liver. The taste of home and of family lunches together, or dinner while watching The Simpsons or 3rd rock from the sun. Lazy, carefree Sundays. 8. Black Gulaman: I was the gulaman slicer. While waiting for the water for the arnibal to boil, I’d slice the gulaman blob into circles, then hack the circles into cubes. My love affair for gelatinous things is probably rooted in this relaxing ritual. 9. Mangoes: While my father peeled green mangoes, I’d open a jar of Barrio Fiesta or Golden Hands bagoong, fry it in a pan with golden brown garlic, and add teaspoonfuls of vinegar (careful not to mix it before it boils) and sugar to the mixture. Our house would stink of bagoong for days but we didn’t mind. I would pretend that the mango half I was eating was the one from school, and I’d top the whole mango cheek with the bagoong and nibble it slowly. 10. Lugaw: I’m not sure if the store is called Lugaw ni Ogoy but it’s always a nice surprise when my dad or lolo brings home several orders of lugaw, tokwa and lumpiang prito from there. We’d customize our bowls with toyo or patis and calamansi, and enjoy the hot soothing bowls with sweetish sour fried tokwa. We joked among ourselves that our lolo would bribe us to go to our church (We’re Spiritists and we have what we call “Sentro”) using lugaw and halo-halo. True enough, my memories of going to Sentro always involved a stopover at this old lugawan, with the meter-long bangkos and dirt floor. I’d watch my lola pour a glass of cold water on her lugaw so it would cool up faster, while I burned my tongue because of my eagerness.  What do you consider as your “comfort food?”
Posted by rainbowramareads
Got this copy from the Anvil Warehouse Sale for only Php5! :)
What I'm Reading Wednesday: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson I keep on stopping every few paragraphs because there are so many beautiful passages here that I'd like to commit to memory, such as:
We always think the thing we need to transform everything -- the miracle -- is elsewhere, but often it is right next to us. Sometimes it is us, ourselves. The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance. A book is a magic carpet that flies you off elsewhere. A book is a door. You open it. You step through. Do you come back? So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn't be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language -- and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers -- a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It's a finding place. Fiction and poetry are doses, medicines. What they heal is the rupture reality makes on the imagination.
I do not want to finish this book yet.
Posted by rainbowramareads
This is random: Painting book covers
This book cover fascinates me because I feel the people staring at me (probably thinking I’m a bit of a perv) when I read it in public places. It’s mysterious and sexy and intriguing, and the book is by Winterson, so it’s quite perfect. Spent this rainy day trying to paint it.
Posted by rainbowramareads
P.S. This is a new section, if you want to share something book/reading related, or if you’re feeling rebellious and just really, really want to make a post but it’s not that “day” yet. Hello to all the new members/followers! :)
The lettering was the hardest part. I experimented with using real calligraphy but it just blended with the background. Ended up hand-painting the text using gouache.
Show and Tell Sunday: Anvil Warehouse sale
Checked out Anvil’s warehouse sale and nearly hyperventilated (or I actually did). Books for as low as Php1! Carried two huge crates and came home with 36 books which only set me back Php260. Got the Nick Joaquin books for only Php5, slightly damaged, but still readable. Read more about the sale here.
Posted by rainbowramareads
So many books so little time heh.
What I’m Reading Wednesday: Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg
Goldberg wrote books about helping writers defeat writer’s block, often through simple yet exciting prompts. My Goldberg books have post-it tentacles because I mark exercises I find interesting, and that’s almost the entire book.
This is why I’m delighted to find this Goldberg book in Booksale, for only Php25, filled with post-its of various colors (predominantly gray and yellow—have you ever seen gray post-its before?) used by the previous owner as markers. Since I’m a post-it and ephemera fan, consider me ecstatic. How serendipitous is our post-it connection?
At the back is a curious summary: “a journey of awakening from the profound sleep of a suburban childhood”, which instantly brings “memoir” and “spiritual journey” to mind, so this seems pretty awesome to me.
Also at the back, a memorable quote from inside, I presume: “Every moment is enormous, and it is all we have.”
Posted by rainbowramareads
I can't get over how much fun the "free" gray post-its are, heh.
Flail Friday! Influence by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
The reason why I am now broke is because I saw this in Booksale. I actually didn’t see it at first, but two women were talking about the books they wanted to buy and they mentioned a Warhol book and this one. I kept seeing it in Fully Booked eons ago and I’m not really a big MK and Ashley fan, but it looked interesting enough (but was too expensive!).
MK and Ashley interview people who’ve influenced them, and they ask these people who/what inspires them. It’s actually very inspiring.
Back to the story. I was thinking of asking them where the book was but I was suddenly attacked by shyness and hesitation (what if they figure out that they want it and buy it instead?). So I kept on looking at the shelves a bit desperately until I found it. It was still expensive by Booksale standards, but still relatively cheaper than a brand-new copy. I bought it and now I have this urge to interview all of my heroes.
It gives me a happy.
Posted by rainbowramareads
What I’m Reading Wednesday: The Moon by Whale Light by Diane Ackerman and Stories by Rob Cham
I love Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses, and I was just hoping I could stumble upon a book of hers one day in Booksale, and I kid you not, I found this gem a few minutes later, which is a little miracle right there, because I rarely see her books in Booksale. I got it and savored it while waiting for the doctor in the hospital because of an asthma attack and found that Ms. Ackerman’s beautiful way with words helped me breathe a bit easier.
Like this bit:
Tonight the moon is invisible, darkness itself has nearly vanished, and the known world, which we map with families, routines, and newspapers, floats somewhere beyond the horizon. Traveling to a strange new landscape is a kind of romance. You become intensely aware of the world where you are, but also oblivious to the rest of the world at the same time. Like love, travel makes you innocent again.
I’m not really fond of bats, or crocodiles, and I’m a bit scared of whales, but she writes with giddy enthusiasm that you can’t help but feel affection and even a sense of connection with said animals. She also reveals how her childhood was like, how she talked to herself often (enough to have their neighbor inform her mother), how she tried to convince a cousin to fly like a bird using a towel tucked into his shirt, how they made a gruesome concoction of unmentionable fluids which they planned on having their friend drink to see if he’ll die for it, and other quirky anecdotes.
I also love this part about living dangerously and learning to fly:
Being ecstatic means being flung out of your usual self. When you’re enraptured , your senses are upright and saluting. But there is also a state when perception doesn’t work, consciousness vanishes like the gorgeous fever it is, and you feel free of all mind-body constraints, suddenly so free of them you don’t perceive yourself as being free, but vigilant, a seeing eye without judgment, history or emotion. It’s that shudder out of time, the central moment in so many sports, that one often feels, and perhaps becomes addicted to, while doing something dangerous.
Best savored slowly.
P.S. S also lent me her Rob Cham comics, which I also plan to finish in a bit. Thanks S! :)
Posted by rainbowramareads
I'm also quite happy that the Ackerman book only costs Php20. :)
What I’m Reading Wednesday: 365: A Daily Creativity Journal-Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! by Noah Scalin
From The Book Depository, another surprise from the gf. This time the order arrived in less than a month. I want to start doing the activities here but am still deciding if it’s better to start it next year (if 2012 isn’t the end of the world, heh).
Posted by rainbowramareads
Thinking of a theme: Cats or pandas or both?
Magazines I could not resist: AUS/NZ loot
This is why I am broke right now. These mags (except for Yen and Wonderland) were in my AUS/NZ bucket list, and what is AUS/NZ without some Frankie lovin'?
I had to massacre that Wonderland magazine because of excess baggage fears so I got to take home some pages. There was an article about Miranda July but the rest of the magazine was just okay, nothing spectacular. I kind of regret the impulse purchase, and wish I bought two back issues of Frankie instead for the same price, but, oh well.
I wish we had a public library like the one here in Taupo, NZ. Here are just some of the graphic novels I was able to read today. One day is not enough to explore that library, it was magical. Highlights: The graphic novels/comics section, the friendly staff, the plush seats near the window, the magazines section and their artsy books section. Just--wow.
Got an advanced V-day gift from the gf! I loved Lynda Barry's memoir/book about writing entitled "What It Is" and was so excited to hear about her latest book about making "art" called "Picture This", which is now the latest addition to my Lynda Barry shrine collection.
Also, I've been hearing a lot of great things about The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and I scored one for only Php45 at Booksale. Huzzah!
I was obsessed with these magazines/I might be a hoarder/You completed me before (part 6):
I first read NYLON in my first job at an advertising agency. This very hot, very cool girl owned it and let me read it and my mind was blown by it. It was unlike the other fashion mags that I've read at that time--edgy and celebratory of the DIY aesthetic. I collected it after that and read each issue religiously. Sadly the last time I read one, I felt a tad too..old and felt that I couldn't relate anymore to their articles or the artists/designers they featured. Or maybe I was pms-ing that last time. I still buy NYLON though, when I like the person in the cover, or someone featured inside. Or when it's cheap.
I am obsessed with these magazines/I might be a hoarder/You complete me (part 5):
Martha Stewart is a DIY queen, where did she get all those ideas? Real Simple is a great beach read, and perfect for relaxing "me" time because the ideas are actually deceptively simple, but they work. The layout of this magazine is clean and the colors look fresh and sunshiny. A feel-good mag.
Martha Stewart Living is filled with gorgeous styling and delectable-looking treats and treasures. These are both more pricey so I don't have as many of these mags as I would like to have in my collection. Boo.
