There were a couple of Bencabs there, including his sketches. When we were in Baguio in 2017, we went to Bencab’s art museum to see his collection: he has some national artists like Arturo Luz and some newer artists.

There are Cesar Legaspi that I liked, better than the ones in Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) collection.

And this is the first time I saw HR Ocampo paintings that aren’t just blobs of color on a canvas. The collection in BSP/PICC (and also I think with BDO) are the common HR Ocampo ones.

I don’t understand Jose Joya but sometimes he evokes some emotions in me. His paintings at the National Museum are large, but the one in PICC is the biggest Joya I saw.

I sometimes see some Federico Alcuaz paintings but they don’t move me as much aw Ang Kiukok does even though I don’t understand him.

Some sculptures that caught my eye. Like this Abdulmari Imao. He often depicts Mindanao/Maranao art like the sarimanok.i can’t remember now where I usually see his sculptures but when I see one, I already know that it’s an Abdulmari Imao.

There is a gallery dedicated to Guillermo Tolentino, the sculptor who made the UP Oblation.

They are currently running the Philippine Art Deco, which is a significant period in the country. My kids asked why I keep on taking pictures of old buildings in Escolta and around the Binondo-Intramuros area. I told them, there are only a few Art Deco buildings left because most of them were destroyed during WW2 or destroyed by the commercial interests. The local government didn’t give a fuck about preserving such sites.

It was the time of vaudeville, flapper girls, and the rise of Philippine cinema.

I didn’t take many photos of the furniture and clothes of the Art Deco era because… I don’t know. Because I still see them around??? They remind me of my grandmas.

Our visit to the Fine Arts Museum in 2018 was hazy so I don’t remember the foyer to be like this.

And I don’t remember the Senate Hall to be like this.

And definitely, there was no coffee shop there on the 4th floor when we visited 8 years ago.

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From Fine Arts Building, we took the tricycle going to Divisoria.

We went to buy wholesale garments and some textiles for table cloth, curtains, and pillow cases. Because I still have this grand illusion that I have time to sew. 🤪

From Divisoria we took the tricycle again back to Red Planet, drove out of their parking space, and went straight to Mall of Asia, about 35 mins away, to finish our back-to-school shopping.

Got back home at around 10 pm. I was so exhausted that I was only able to enroll my kids for the next school year at around 2:30 pm the following day (yesterday).

Still exhausted today that I wasn’t able to come with my sister and mom to my uncle’s funeral this morning.

Tired.

My kids woke up late yesterday and we had brunch at Sincerity, known among locals for their Chinese fried chicken. I think we got to the National Museum for the Arts around noon.

It was a good day to be out; not too hot, not rainy. There were no long lines of children on a school trip, it’s just families taking time to see national treasures.

The last time we were here was in 2018 and the building was being renovated so we didn’t see much.

I thought I saw Spoliarium in Malacañang Palace but my memory is faulty. It was one of Juan Luna’s Blood Compact, not the Spoliarium that I saw.

Anyway, I fell in love with Luna’s boceto and that of Fernando Amorsolo’s. Twin A remarked that Amorsolo’s hand sketches are beautiful. We both know that it’s hard to draw hands.

Luna stayed in Japan briefly and he made paintings and sketches of daily life in Japan. His sketches and paintings were looser compared to his European ones like this below.

Given that his European/classical subjects require more details, he produced so many bocetos for me to ogle at.

I love seeing artists’ sketches and studies because I get a glimpse of their thought process.

Meanwhile, Felix Hidalgo is equally talented but we do not have as many boceto and paintings as Luna in the national collection.

Twin A is enamoured of Fernando Amorsolo. She fell in love with his color palette and fluidity of movement.

Amorsolo was a prolific artist. Aside from commissioned portraits, he left behind a lot of sketches and studies.

Twin A loves Amorsolo. I, on the other hand, think that he’s ok but not really charmed because he paints idealized scenes. Look at this painting of Bataan during WW2. Death and destruction shouldn’t be this beautiful. I hardly feel that ugliness of war. I don’t feel anything at all. And art is supposed to evoke emotions in me. Sadly, most of Amorsolo’s paintings don’t.

Another national artist I introduced to my children is Carlos “Botong” Francisco. I told them, Botong Francisco uses happy colors, whatever the subject is.

My heart aches whenever I see a Vicente Manansala painting because it reminsmds me of the Manansala mosaic that I lost. 😭

I never thought I will like cubist-esque style of art but here we are, gravitating towards Mananasala’s happy colors.

He wasn’t always a cubist. Look at his pen/pencil drawings, it shows his versatility.

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I showed Twin A Binondo Church so she can refresh her memory. I was able to bring them here when they were about 7 yrs old but that was a chaotic Binondo. Today, the streets are calmer and cleaner, hence, easier to navigate.

From here, we went to Escolta then we went to Yuchengco Plaza to reach Jones Bridge Esplanade.

We walked to the other side, the Intramuros side as I saw the walkway along the walls were also rehabilitated.

On the way back to Jones Bridge, we saw the New York City Bank all lit up and looking grandiose.

More than 14k steps upon reaching the Chinatown arch. I was too tired so we took the tricycle to David’s Tea house because I was craving congee and spareribs with tausi.

Wait, let me eat my dinner first. I’m famished and exhausted. I did more than 14,000 steps since lunch today.

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Left home an hour later than I planned, at around 10 am-ish and arrived at Red Planet Binondo at 11:30 am. Parked, dropped our bags, and off we went to have lunch. First stop is Chuan Kee and my cousin told me to order the xiao long bao.

Twin I said it was ok, like Din Tai Fung. I couldn’t tell the difference. I mean, the best xiao long bao I had was in Taiwan in 2007 and I could never find that same taste again.

After Chuan Kee, Twin I wanted dessert so we picked from among the options here:

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We ended up at Cafe 1919 because it was the nearest our hotel.

Then we walked farther along Ongpin to check out some gold jewelry and have my gold stuff cleaned and plated.

And we walked out of Ongpin to Escolta to check out Hub: Make Lab, a hub for startup artists.

We spent 30 mins or so at the photo studio to take photos of us being silly.

To be continued. I’m super tired.

It has been quite a while since I’ve been a passenger princess so it’s a welcome change, even for a short time. We hired my mom’s driver for her appointment with the pulmonologist at Manila Doctor’s today. I’m just too exhausted to drive and facilitate her check ups so better outsource the driving part and just worry about the doctor part. I have to sit through and take down notes because I do not fully believe my mom will remember all what the doctor will say.

I’m still not well. I still have the sniffles and my body aches because I have my period. Double whammy. But I have no choice, I need to bring my mom to the doctor. Her needs above my own.

Meanwhile, why didn’t I know that Danny O’Donoghue is in the streets of Manila (actually in QC, maybe just around in Cubao area) shooting a video for The Man Who Can’t be Moved?!

@thescripttok

It’s incredible seeing how many of you are making videos to The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. Massive thanks for all the love you keep showing this song ❤️ #Tmwcbm

♬ how can I move on – 🌀💁🏻‍♀️🔝🧼🚦

I knew they were returning for a concert but I couldn’t remember when exactly. I wasn’t able to think straight and was on the fence about watching them because I didn’t have the bandwidth to schedule well and not entirely sure if I would be too tired to queue and watch them.

It’s… *sigh* ageing is just. 🫠

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Oh damn. No diving this week. The National Museum of Art – Binondo – Escolta trip with my kids will be iffy as well. Rains and flood is on the calendar during my week-long PTO.

PAGASA has officially called this the start of the southwest monsoon (habagat) and this rainy week is already the signal that the dry season/ “summer” will soon be over.

Since tomorrow is a no-go for us, I might as well do my blood chem (in prep for my check ups with my doctors) and 10k km PMS with Toyota. Hopefully, Wed and Thurs will be more favorable.

I really want to do a food and shop crawl of Escolta, the oldest shopping district in the Philippines. It’s part of the Binondo/Chinatown, the oldest Chinatown in the world (because the Spanish drove out the Chinese outside of Intramuros/city early on). Manila is gentrifying Escolta again.

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I want to try the gentrified Jones Bridge esplanade. Praying for less rain on Wed or Thursday. 🙏 I want to be a tourist in my own country.

It rained last night; I didn’t know because I was knocked out last night after our late grocery shopping. I just woke up to a wet balcony. May is a month of hot weather peppered with rains that make everything more humid.

A maid whose wake is being held in the chapel near our place died of a heatstroke (sounds like heatstroke to me) a few days ago, my mom’s cook told me over lunch today. The weather has been unbearably hot that I don’t find it surprising.

They say that we will be having a super El Niño this year, so that means the southwest monsoon/typhoons will be more unforgiving. Makes me think twice about installing solar panels that may just get peeled off by a super typhoon.

Speaking of maid, our cleaning lady isn’t coming in so I’m stuck doing loads of laundry and house cleaning. It’s already 3 pm and I haven’t cleaned the bathroom. 😭 Instead of resting on weekends, I spend my off days just cleaning. 🫠

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