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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

My Affair with Bays

We spent the whole Saturday in Manila. I had a meeting in the morning near La Salle and then Husband wanted to check out the car show in Mall of Asia, so we headed out there afterwards. As usual, you'd have thought my daughter was running for office ("Hi!" "Hello!" "Bye!"). She got to meet new people, some of them even foreigners, while her dad and I trailed after her like an entourage. Husband puts down our own anti-social leanings on the fact that we were told not to talk to strangers. Digression: Up until I hit puberty I thought all men with a mustache were, first and foremost, kidnappers, then muggers, or the mayor's thugs (the influence of Philippine cinema)... Anyway, that was only my third time to go to MOA because it's just so far from where I live. Anyway, the outing was kind of marred by the fact that the last time we were there, Mom and Chip were also with us (Chip's bday, in fact - she had a lobster; Dad was set to come home from California in a few days...). Anyway, we'll all get to go back there soon, I know it.
So, the meeting went fine, the car show was okay, Husband spilled arroz caldo in Marguerite's diaper bag and I ended up with clean-up duty, ain't life fair... but what I really want to talk about is San Miguel by the Bay. I love it. It's clean and new and it seems to have been developed really well. Baywalk I didn't really like too much back then, probably because it was too close to the main road and there wasn't a lot of space and greenery. Anyway, San Miguel by the Bay had a nice playground with exercise equipment for adults, a nice marble(?) fountain, little parks scattered throughout the area, nice restaurants, a clean arcade... Only gripe, it was cloudy that day so we missed the spectacular Manila Bay sunset. There was still a nice play of color in the sky, so it wasn't so bad. Gosh, I love bays. I love San Francisco and then there was Santander (sigh). I'm glad many people are now interested in making the Manila Bay area more attractive. No, really, I grew up thinking the entire city of Manila was seedy, the only attraction of which was its historical offerings. I feel differently now. It's partly a more mature perspective on my part, but Manila has begun to capitalize on its assets, so there's really actual progress involved.



We went just a tad camera-crazy. Marguerite at the fountain, at the playground, at the arcade... I pointed at a yacht, exclaiming to Husband, "We have to get a boat!" and he answered with, "Look at that cool barge!" and took out his camera. The barge was rusty and ugly. Marguerite would have had to take sides, except that she felt compelled to pluck grass from between the tiles on the ground and was busy.

6 comments:

tin said...

Alf had a 12am arrival a few weeks ago. After MOA, we (Joi, Chesca and Jem) parked near Iceberg's and just sat by the sidewalk not even interested in exploring the area (it was late and we were tired).
We only saw the park after leaving the carpark and yeah, we did regret not checking it out.
Let's go back next time! Do you think we could walk dogs in that place?

spinninglovelydays said...

Yup, I remember seeing dogs. I'm just not sure if that was at the mall or at the park. I bet it's okay. Just bring a pooper-scooper.:)

maf said...

hi ivy,

nice dayout.
our last visit to MOA was sept2008 before my father left for abu dhabi.
antonella was just 3 months old then and was really frightened by the fireworks.
midge looks great and getting more charming everytime. :=)

tin said...

let's go back :)

spinninglovelydays said...

thanks, maf :)hugs to toni

Anne said...

sayang di tayo nagkita, i was at the hotter summer nights event din, mga noon til 4pm.

---anne