crossed out: spolarium

I crossed out another one in my list: see the spolarium (second on the list). Yesterday, me and my officemates toured our boss from New York around here in Manila and one of the itineraries was the National Museum.

Spolarium, itself, did not disappoint me. When we entered the room, it was majestically standing at the far end. With a dimension of 4m X 7m, it was overwhelming for the naked eye. It’s darker from what I saw on the net but the it’s very intricate.

We were, however, forbidden to take pictures which really sucked. We surrendered our cameras on the deposit counter but since I have my phone I thought I could sneak in and take some pictures from it. But alas, we were followed by one of the staff so my plan barely worked. The picture on the left was the only picture of Spolarium I got. Ugh.

list: things i’ve been dying to do here in manila

Back when I was a Yahoo! 360 blogger – I know, it’s more of social networking site but I kinda like it there. Not too crowded and ambience was quiet and easy. It took me a while to move my blogs to a new site ever since Yahoo! decided to pull the plug on 360. Anyway, I used to blog a lot of list there. You know, to-do lists, to-buy lists, to-go lists or anything that can put to number at all.

So I decided to have another since I haven’t got one lately.The things that I’ve been dying to do here in Manila. Check them out:

• See the ‘Spolarium’ – I think it’s currently in the National Museum in Luneta Park. I don’t know what’s on this painting but ever since Bob Ong mentioned it on one of his books (I can’t verify which one because somebody borrowed all of them and haven’t returned it yet, hehe), I was very anxious to see it. Well, it’s world-famous so it should be really good.
  
• See the Las Piñas Bamboo organ – Remember this? My vague memory of this is from the pages of my elementary books. Oh and from the story of my elementary teacher whom also I can barely remember. I think it’s from a HEKASI book. Hmm…  I could be wrong.
  
• Visit La Mesa Eco-park – This is a sneaky one. We’ve been planning on going here for a million times but its always being thwarted. It’s great that they’re doing something to keep some part of Metro Manila green.
  
• Visit Malacañang  – I have a confession to make. I haven’t been to or seen Malacañang. The 20-peso bill is the closest thing I could ever get to it. Ugh.
  
• Visit Club Dredd – I know it’s a bit off my list but I’ve been wanting to go to Club Dredd way back since early 90’s. And when I found out that it was re-opened, I know I have to go there this time. A lot of famous local bands played at Dredd during their early days.
  
• Find our own Mclaren’s - Mclaren’s is the club from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (Darn it, I can’t find any image). It’s kinda like a sports bar but it’s not. No bands just a little music at the background, has a very laid-back ambience, not at all formal and has a character – that’s the most important part. It’s the place where you’d go when you want to hang-out BUT you don’t want loud music that you could just talk to you friends without shouting. It’s like Starbucks that serves liquors. Oh minus those people who bring their books and/or laptops and pretend to study there. I mean, come on, seriously?

I hope I can cross them all off my list this summer. That’s a wishful thinking. Half of ‘em? Heh.
Pol, ano? tara na e!