As promised, here are pictures of the more unusual balloons at the 18th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Enjoy! 
“Humpty Dumpty had a great flight.”
More Hot Air
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Tag Archives: photography
Pre-View: More Hot Air
While I work on a personal project and do some urgent digital files organizing (my laptop crashed recently, gaaah!), I’ll give you three guesses as to what’s on top of that balloon yonder.
(There’s a hint somewhere on my Facebook page, hehe.)
Hot Air
Last weekend, we drove to Clark Field in Pampanga (a province north of Manila) for the 18th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. We arrived early enough but there was already a huge crowd milling about. As I fiddled with the camera, I enviously eyed the ones who were able to secure a good spot for the expected photo ops and complained to the husband that everyone around me seemed too tall! 
snap-happy: Vietnamese Take Out
Yes, I usually transfer takeout fare from their boring boxes to nicer (albeit mismatched, hehe) plates. Why not, right? It’s food.
*****
[*snap-happy: takes pictures of anything and everything]
Extra Shots: San Francisco
Here are some more photos from our trip to San Francisco, some of them taken while driving down those hilly streets, while waiting to cross the street, while crossing the street, or from the parking lot at Best Buy.
At Boudin Bakery, San Francisco
If there’s one kitchen skill I’d like to master, it’s breadbaking. I simply enjoy watching and learning the process and really, who doesn’t love the smell and taste of freshly-baked bread? I know how to make only the most basic of loaves and I am in awe of anyone who knows her sourdough and who is not confounded by starters, active yeasts and such.
In search of dinner on our second night in San Francisco, we were enticed by the wonderful smell coming from the famous Boudin Bakery. They have a shop and cafe area called Bakers Hall where one can stop for a quick meal and a cup of coffee and load up on kitchen supplies (or be sorely tempted to).
Chocolate. Heaven.
Instructions for reading:
1. Break off a piece of chocolate. 2. Get comfy. 3. Breathe and enjoy.
Late Night at Pier 39, San Francisco
Sometimes, it pays to arrive late.
San Francisco’s Pier 39, considered by many to be the city’s premier tourist trap, is usually teeming with both out-of-towners and locals. But we got there on a late night, famished after some poorly thought-out shopping and desperate for dinner. Some watering holes and family restaurants were still open but with most shops closed or about to close, the place was practically deserted.
We had no intention of buying anything and enjoyed just looking through shop windows at some gorgeous displays. I walked around and took lots of pictures — as anyone would, I think, who had been given access to a theme park after everyone else had gone home.
snap-happy: fortune cookie
*snap-happy ≈ takes pictures of anything and everything.
Fruits from a Southeast Asian Garden
My memories of childhood summers always include the tambis. One of the bigger trees in our garden, the tambis or macopa (water/rose apple) was also the only one in our street and bore so much fruit that it gave us our version of a lemonade stand. Every summer afternoon, my sisters and I would set up a small table in front of our gate, arrange the tambis in pyramids and sell them to neighborhood kids for about ten centavos per three pieces.
We also had aratiles and guava trees and our playmates were free to pick a few from those. (I remember that guava tree. I kept peeling off the top layer of its trunk because it was always smoother underneath — a victim of my misdirected quest for neatness even in nature.)
The fruit trees in my mother’s garden are especially prolific now that it’s summer. Around this time, neighborhood kids regularly come around and ask if they can pick aratiles or hagis or tambis. Ma always says yes but also always with a warning for them to leave some on the trees or else, heh. Some things never change.
