PSA: Don’t believe what’s on your plane ticket

You buy a plane ticket, get email confirmation regarding your booking, print out the tickets and you’re set for your flight, right?

As my cousins and I found out on our way to Caramoan, no. Hell to the NO.

Case #1:

My sister and I were booked on the Friday 5:45 am flight to Virac, Catanduanes on Cebu Pacific, the only Manila-Virac flight for that day. We paid almost double what we would’ve if we flew to Naga, but we wanted to maximize our time in Caramoan. We arrived at the airport about 1 hour and 2o minutes before our flight. We went to look for our check-in counters only to find out our flight didn’t have one. All Cebu Pac counters were open to all flights and each counter had a line of its own. A ridiculous set-up, even more so during a busy Friday before a long weekend.

We were in line for about half an hour in a queue that was not budging when an attendant started to call for passengers for our flight. My sister and I were relieved, since we were starting to get worried we would not make it to the front of the line before our check-in cut off. We handed our tickets to the attendant, giddy with excitement at the prospect of the start of our journey. He got back to us a few minutes after with words a passenger NEVER ever wants to hear: “Ma’am, we have a bit of a problem.”

That “bit” of a problem was that the flight was full and we could not be accommodated. The airline overbooked the flight, which they are within their rights to do, the attendant was careful to point out. So unless two passengers willingly give up their seats for us, then my sister and I had no choice but to board a 9:30 am flight to Naga.

Unsurprisingly, no one gave up their seats. My sister and I were stuck in the airport for 3 more hours, missed our resort’s boat from Naga and arrived at our destination at around 5pm. If everything went according to plan, we would’ve been there by 10am. But since a local airline was involved, of course it didn’t.

Yeah, like the news that you’re being kicked off your flight.

Case #2:

There are no flights to Virac on Saturdays, so my cousins were booked on a 5:30am PAL Express flight to Naga. They arrived at the airport at around 2am, anticipating the even bigger crowds and wanting to avoid what happened to me and my sister. They got to the check-in counter confident that they’ve done everything they could to ensure that they would be on the 5:30 am flight, only to find out that there is no 5:30 am flight. It was cancelled. In APRIL. The tickets were booked in March, the flight was cancelled way back in April and my cousins only found out about the cancellation on May 11th, the day of the flight.

They had to be re-booked on another flight to Naga at 8:30 am. To this day, PAL Express has yet to offer any sort of acceptable explanation as to why no one bothered to inform passengers that the flight they booked tickets for NO LONGER EXISTED.

I wish airlines were not allowed to overbook their flights, or at least flights on peak days and times (i.e. the Fridays before long weekends, the Monday of that long weekend, etc.). I wish they would remember to inform their passengers of changes to their flights, especially the major ones like, you know, cancelling a flight entirely. If my cousins were informed ahead of time of their flight’s cancellation, I’m sure there would’ve been less disappointment and frustration (and more sleep) for them. I wish Cebu Pacific would get their checkout counters in order.

But since this is the Philippines and this is the airline industry we’re talking about, we can’t rely on the airlines to improve their services willingly. It’s up to the passengers to act to make sure that they actually get on the flight they paid for. So, to help you along, here’s what my cousins learned from our ordeals:

1. If you’re flying on a particularly busy day (during a long weekend, for instance) and and/or on a once-a-day flight, be early. Like, international flight kind of early. These flights are more likely to be overbooked. Being three hours early for a domestic flight is less painful than being bumped off to a later flight to a different city.
2. Monitor flight schedules. I know this is not something we’re used to doing. But apparently, airlines forget to let passengers know that they’ve cancelled a flight a month before its schedule, so how else are we supposed to know? You can check their website for flight timetables or have your travel agent confirm it for you.
3. Know your rights. My sister and I are entitled to free domestic round trip tickets from Cebu Pacific because of what happened. We were also given PhP 500 transportation allowance. My cousins, however, are not so lucky. As of this writing, PAL Express has offered nothing in compensation for their cancelled flight. They are still checking the T&Cs of their tickets to see if they are entitled to anything, but you can bet that for their next flights (whenever they decide to risk getting screwed over by a local airline again) they will know what they will be entitled to in cases like this. It’s just so much harder to after run after and try to claim from these people after the fact. So it’s better to know what you can demand, just in case. With the current state of things, that info will come in handy eventually.

I hope, for all our sakes, that there will come a day when we don’t have to be at the airport 3 hours before a 1 hour flight, just to secure a seat in a flight that has been bought and paid for. But until that day comes then it’s best to be prepared and informed. Hopefully, the airlines we’ll get tired of us calling to double, triple and quadruple confirm their flights schedule that they’ll finally do something about their crappy service.

Handcrafted

I am constantly amazed by people who do things I can never dream of doing. That group includes Formula 1 drivers, ballet dancers, Beyoncé, figure skaters, gymnasts and artists. The newest member of that group is my cousin Isabel, because she can make these:

She makes and designs these cards with her own two hands. The fact that she can think these up is impressive enough. But she also cut these cards by hand. Each and every line and curve, circle and square.

Distinctive, intricate and delicate, I can only imagine the care, patience and precision that go into making these. These cards would be perfect for that heartfelt thank you note. They would also make perfect gifts for that person who’s impossible to shop for. They’re actually pretty enough to frame.

Whatever I decide to do with mine, all I know is that these cards will be treasured and taken care of, like little works of art. Because that’s what they are. And I’m not just saying that because my cousin made them.

To order these cards at PHP 120 each,  you can email my cousin Isabel  at isabelsbayani@gmail.com

Crazy, Stupid Love

It’s like that bad relationship you can’t shake off. You know it’s bad for you, you know you will get hurt again. But beyond all logic and reason you keep coming back for more.

Being a sports fan is like that bad relationship. Only 37 times worse.

All Most of us eventually move on from that bad relationship. After we’ve been burned 3 times, 11 times, 24 times, most of us will eventually get the neon-lit message from God that we are not meant to be with that person. That the said person is scum. That they are not who we thought they were and they never will be. That they are the devil incarnate. Or something like that.

That realization will never come for most ride and die sports fans. Most of us will never change allegiances in our lifetimes. Most of us will never abandon our teams. Most of us will remain loyal to our last breath, even after the most crushing 5-set defeat in the Gentlemen’s Final at Wimbledon or the 10th straight year of Champions League heartbreak.

Without exaggeration, I can say that I feel their pain.

And a lot of times, I wish I wasn’t one of those fans. I wish I wasn’t so heartbroken when Andy Roddick announced his retirement (that’s the thing with supporting a TEAM, the team will always exist, you’re hooked for life). I wish I wasn’t alternately on my knees, praying and on the couch, lying in a fetal position during the last 15 minutes of Real Madrid’s Champions League semifinal match against Borussia Dortmund.

I wish this doesn’t mean I’m crazy.

But I guess I am, a little. Every die-hard sports fan is. People give various reasons for supporting a team: it’s their home team, it was their father’s favorite as a child, it was the first team they saw play live, it was where all the hot players were playing. But all those reasons still don’t justify the tear-inducing, gut-wrenching, all-out love and support sports fans have for their team. It is illogical.

All love is, I suppose, but this love is even more bewildering than romantic love. Love for a sports team, in particular, is just bizarre because of the object of that love is an abstract concept, technically speaking. I love THE TEAM. The players will come and go, the coaches will change, but it will not matter to me and all the other fans. We will remain true to the team even if we hate the player the team just purchased (like I once did Ronaldo) or distrust the coach that will replace the beloved one. We will eventually love them all the same because they are Real Madrid.

And I will love Real Madrid all the same, even after this piss-poor La Liga season, even after that heartbreaking Champions League semifinal loss.

I just keep coming back. Like that bad relationship I just can’t quit.

PSA: The ridiculous parking fee scheme at Burgos Circle

I am no stranger to paying exorbitant parking fees. I work in Makati and it’s not unusual for me to pay more for parking that I do for my food in a day. However, the Burgos Circle parking management has taken it to the next level with their parking fees.

To summarize, if you park there for even a few seconds more than three hours, you will be liable to pay PhP 500 (you read that right, five hundred effin’ pesos) for parking if you don’t have a validated parking stub which you can only get if you spend PhP 1,000 or more in one of the Burgos Circle/Forbes Tower tenants.

You are also liable to pay overnight parking fees if you arrive before midnight and leave after it. So even if you arrived at 11:30pm to have coffee at CBTL and left an hour after, you have to pay either PhP 150 or PhP 500 PLUS the regular parking fee. I’m not clear if it’s the PhP 150 or 500 because the sign above is confusing. Also confusing, their definition of “overnight parking.”

If this isn’t motivated by pure greed, I don’t know what is. I can only imagine how many people will be duped by these rules. The overnight parking scheme alone will have the tills ringing given the number of bars in the area that are open until the wee hours of the morning.

Also screwed are the groups of people who might have come in multiple vehicles, but did not meet the minimum spending amount to get one validated parking stub per vehicle. They would either have to spend some more or pay the PhP 500 parking fee. Burgos Circle wins either way.

I read somewhere that this scheme was meant to deter people who work in the nearby offices to park at Burgos Circle and free up the slots for actual Burgos Circle patrons. But I don’t want to park (or even go to) Burgos Circle anymore if (1) I have to be paranoid about staying less than three hours or (2) I’ll be forced to spend a certain amount if I do stay even a minute after 3 hours.

I’d rather take my business and my car elsewhere.

Photo from the When In Manila Facebook page although it was originally from someone’s personal Facebook timeline. I’m just not publishing their names here because I’m not sure they would want that (although their names are in When In Manila’s post).

Tiong Bahru Bakery in Singapore

I am never one to resist a French carb, so when one of my friends suggested going to Tiong Bahru Bakery during my Singapore trip last week, I was definitely up for it.

Officially named Tiong Bahru Bakery by Gontran Cherrier, TBB is named after the relatively quiet neighborhood where its first branch opened early last year. I honestly have never heard of Gontran Cherrier before this, but according to my research he’s a third generation boulanger with a few bakeries in Paris. Apparently he is the “Brad Pitt of the Paris bakery scene” known for spicing up his breads with miso and other flavors. However, I put more stock in the fact that Dorie Greenspan called his chocolate tartlet “lovely“.

The smaller of the two branches, the original branch, was packed on Saturday lunch, but my friend and I only had to wait a short time for a table to clear up. We needed the time to decide what to have for lunch anyway:

My friend and I decided to split a Specialty Bun with Bacon (right) and a baguette with Arugula, Prosciutto and sun-dried tomatoes:

The baguette for the prosciutto sandwich was lightly spiced with curry, providing another layer of flavor after the saltiness of the prosciutto and the peppery kick of the arugula. If I had known beforehand that the bread was curry-flavored, I might not have gotten the sandwich, since I would have thought that there would be too many clashing flavors already. But surprisingly, it works. And even more surprising: a light smudge of apricot jam (made available by TBB in little dishes, along with strawberry jam and French butter) just ties everything together. The bright sweetness of the jam is just a great counterpoint for all the savory flavors the sandwich has going on.

The bacon is, in a lot of ways, similar to the prosciutto sandwich, just with varying degrees of flavors. The watercress is less peppery than the arugula, but the bacon is saltier than the prosciutto. The bun is less savory than the baguette, but it compensates for that with the sprinkling of curry powder on the the top bun. It all works together though, and, as with the previous sandwich, it’s even better with apricot jam. I just might start putting apricot jam on everything.

Jam aside, though, the real reason I agreed to go all the way to Tiong Bahru was for, of course, the desserts.

My friend decided on an Almond and Chocolate Croissant (bottom right corner). I chose the Lemon Tart, a vanilla choux pastry and a Kouign Amann for the road (not pictured).

The vanilla choux pastry (i.e. cream puff for the rest of us) filling was delicious and tastes just as you expect cream puff filling to taste: creamy, velvety and lush. The choux, though, is slightly different from what I expected: slightly heavier, denser and drier than your average cream puff. It also came with a strange crust on top, like the ones you would usually have on a coffee bun. Not a dealbreaker for me, but still strange.

Also slightly non-traditional would be the crust for the Lemon Tart. TBB uses a crust that is more like shortbread, versus a tart shell. No biggie for me, really, because I care more about the filling. I would have preferred the lemon filling to be a little silkier, smoother, to be honest. But what it lacks in the texture department, it more than makes up for in taste. If you like your citrus flavors subtle and mild, then I would not recommend this tart to you. Gontran Cherrier meant business when he made the filling for this: bold, strong, tart… almost too tart, and that’s something, coming from me, a lover of all things lemon-y and lime-y. But he just takes the lemon flavor up to line of “too much” without crossing it and the result is citrus-y heaven.

My favorite thing from the Tiong Bahru Bakery, though, is the one thing I don’t have a proper photo of: the Kouign Amman. Crisp, flaky, sweet, salty awesomeness. Traditionally a cake made with layers of salted butter, sugar and dough (don’t you just LOVE the French for thinking up things like this?), Monsieur Cherrier’s version is of the rolled type, like a cinnamon roll. I’ve never had the traditional version of this Breton dessert (something that will change on my next trip to Paris, obvs), so he won’t get any complaints from me. TBB’s Kouign Amman is wonderful: with the inside sometimes doughy and sometimes flaky, and a crispy outer shell topped with clear, buttery caramel. Le sigh. I’m getting depressed by the fact that I’m just writing about it and not actually eating it.

On the merits of the Kouign Amman alone, I highly recommend Tiong Bahru Bakery. But if caramelly, buttery French carbs are not your thing are you human?!?! there are still other things from TBB that would make it well worth the trip to the neighborhood (or Raffles City).

Tiong Bahru Bakery
56 Eng Hoon st. #01-70
Singapore 160056
Daily: 8am to 8pm

252 North Bridge Road
#B1-11/12 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Singapore 179103
Daily: 9am to 10pm

The Uniform: Work heels

I was pretty clear about what I wanted for my work heels:

(1) They have to be all-leather and well-made
(2) They have to be comfortable
(3) They have to be pointy
(4) And they should be reasonably priced (i.e. within 4 figures so the Jimmy Choo Agnes or the Manolo Blahnik BB are sadly out of the question).

Most shoes I found only met one or two of the criteria. Some shoes would be comfortable and well-priced and butt-ugly (seriously, what is it with the abundance of fugly shoes?). Others would be comfortable but made of synthetic leather, while the construction of a lot of shoes would be just downright shabby. I’ve gotten so desperate that I broke my own rule: not to buy shoes from a store that doesn’t primarily sell shoes.

I have that rule because I think that shoe-making, especially high-heeled shoe-making, is not something that a clothing brand might particularly do well on or focus on. Luxury brands are probably the exception, of course, but I wouldn’t know. But I don’t really trust, say Zara, to be able to consistently make well-made, comfortable, high-quality shoes when that’s not their forte to begin with.

So it was with some reluctance that I tried looking for shoes at Massimo Dutti. Not only did it break my aforementioned rule, but MD was also on the expensive side, with items routinely costing twice as much a similar item would cost at Zara. But I was desperate and I wasn’t too optimistic that I’d find anything anyway, so I went in.

Imagine my pleasant surprise (my wallet felt otherwise of course) when I found these: The Massimo Dutti Antik Leather Court Shoe.

 And these:

Both were all-leather, interior included, perfectly pointed and juuuuuust within my budget. They were reasonably comfortable (at least from the few times I circled the store in them), too. I bought the black ones on the spot and had my parents buy me the nude ones in Spain, where Massimo Dutti is roughly 30% cheaper than in Manila (yey!).

And I have no regrets. Massimo Dutti makes great shoes. Even the patent ones, with the 90mm heel, are comfortable. Both pairs  pretty much go with everything and their classic shape means they probably will never go out of style. The only thing I would say is that I wish the black ones were just a smidgen higher. At 70mm, I do sometimes think that the height is slightly awkward (my sister calls them “start heels”). Other than that, I think they’re pretty much perfect.

I alternate these shoes with each other and with my Anthology flats (because alternating shoes is essential to foot health!) and they are now essential parts of my self-imposed work uniform.

Not that I will be needing any new ones soon, but Massimo Dutti will now be the first place I look in case I want need shoes in the future.

Rule? What rule?

Jimmy Choo? Manolo? Who?

Okay that last one’s obviously a joke. Let’s not get too crazy over here.

Click on the pictures for their sources, if you must. But the photos are obviously stock photos from MD anyway.

My food Bucket List

I have a long, long list of recipes I want to try out, from cookbooks and from the internet. If I cooked one everyday, I would probably be cooking for the next few months. Some things I just noted in passing but some  things are just foods I really love and want to make my own version of.

Below is a list of the latter group. My food bucket list of sorts. Things I’m desperate to make but haven’t either because (1) I don’t have the tools to make them (i.e. food processor) or (2) I haven’t found the perfect recipe to take the plunge with or (3) I’m too daunted by how complicated they seem and, almost always, (4) they scare me sh*tless. Yes, I’m weird. We’ve long established that.

• Lemon Curd- it’s creamy, velvety and filled with lemon-y goodness. What’s not to love? I’ve had this with Greek yogurt at Breakfast at Antonio’s and it was really wonderful. Sunshine in a teaspoon. Another argument for making this is that I can use it for item #2 below:

• Lemon Meringue Cupcakes- Isabella, the first winner of Junior Masterchef Australia, made this on the show and all the judges went crazy for them. I wanted to reach through the screen and grab one from Isabella’s work station. Little Red Hen’s lime version of this is citrus-y perfection, and I’ve been dreaming of having something similar, if not exactly the same. Since I haven’t seen anyone offering lemon/lime curd-filled meringue topped wonders, then I really don’t have a choice but to make my own.

• Pierre Hermé’s Lemon Tart -So I guess there’s a theme. I keep kicking myself for not getting one of these in Paris. Dorie Greenspan sings praises of  this tart in her cookbook, making me even more desperate to make it. Alas, I don’t have the tools that I need to make it (food processor, tart pan). Nor do I have the guts (yet, at least) to take on a world-famous pastry from an even more famous pastry chef.
  

• Crack Pie – I don’t think we really need to go through why again.

• A really, really good burger – I kind of feel that a burger is something everyone should know how to make, like a steak. Or is that just burger-obsessed me? And I’m not talking fancy, gourmet style burgers stuffed with foie gras or blue cheese, even. Just a basic, medium-cooked burger on a generously buttered toasted bun, with  lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo, good cheddar and maybe a strip of bacon. Being able to make that should be a basic skill, right?

• Buttermilk Fried Chicken- I can’t count how many Food Network shows I’ve watched where they showed crispy, juicy and moist buttermilk fried chicken being touted as the best of Southern/comfort/diner/food truck/Soul food. And I want me some of that!

• Perfect French Fries - After burgers and fried chicken, I might as well complete the holy trinity of junk food. The Pioneer Woman’s Perfect French Fries require a lot of REALLY hot oil, a thermometer (anything apart from the oven that needs to be heated to a certain temperature is scary to me), frying the potatoes twice… basically it’s a lot of work. But apparently double-frying is key to get perfect fries (baked fries, while delicious, do NOT count as the real thing, in my book). Even the Queen of Goop says so. But before I get to experience the perfect french fry, I need to get over my fear of 400º oil splattering all over me.

I really don’t know when I will start tackling all of these. For some of these, I have valid reasons for not making them yet (for instance, the search for freeze dried corn powder for Crack Pie still continues). But mostly, I’m worried about messing up, wasting all that food and putting all that effort into something that may not turn out as good as I built them up in my head.

Hmmm, if I had a shrink, I wonder what he/she would say about thoughts like these?

But never mind that. Do you have things that you want but are scared to make?

Please click on the images for the sources.