Lunch at Breakfast at Antonio's, Opus Mall

We finally ate at the Breakfast at Antonio's at Opus Mall along C5, which incidentally is still part of Quezon City but near the border with Pasig City. Its quite popular is an understatement as we always find it full. We were somewhat lucky one Saturday and had a really good late lunch there.

Smoked pork baby back ribs

Portobello truffle tagliatelle

We also got a couple of packs of freshly made piaya aside from ice cream for dessert. We are already looking forward to the next meal there. It's addressed our cravings for their food that we only enjoyed if we go to Tagaytay, which is not that often.

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Another mentor passing away - Dr. Romeo Manlapaz

Another mentor passed away recently. Dr. Romeo Manlapaz was my teacher in Math 54. While he was supposed to be a terror teacher, I remember him more to be amusing. His terror reputation was somewhat tempered by his conversations with some of us students while we waited for our room to be vacated at the 4th floor of Palma Hall. Even as we were his students, we were surprised that he engaged us and shared with us many stories. I guess the other students were not as lucky and maintained a distance that they were not able to understand or appreciate the man. While he appeared to have been fond of a few of us engineering students, he trained his strict and firm manner towards others he seem to see differently. 

https://math.upd.edu.ph/2026/04/in-memoriam-dr-romeo-l-manlapaz-1939-2026 

It was later when I joined the College of Engineering as a faculty member that I came to discover his other contributions to the university. My senior colleagues like Dr Leony Liongson and Dr Evangel Quiwa shared their stories about Dr. Manlapaz, being his colleagues at the Engineering Science and Computer Science Departments.

While many of my blockmates probably don't have fond memories of him, I have many including some amusing ones in class. Those include the time he was gulping some cough syrup straight from the bottle as he claimed he had a bad case of coughs. He even teased some of the female students who were from Math and Chemistry. One of these of course was probably a crush in college or at least what we thought was his crush. 

I don't think he remembered me the last time I encountered him in the mid 1990s. I just joined UP at the time and was shy to introduce myself as a former student. Rest is peace, Dr. Manlapaz. You will be remembered by at least one of your former student who is thankful for the learning experience.

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More sanggumay in full bloom

I took these photos of the sanggumay on our Narra and Mango trees. They flowers last only a couple of days after the full blooming. The other sanggumay we got last year are still too young. Some actually perished already but I hope most would survive to eventually bear flowers.

The orchids on our Narra tree are wildly growing.

Close-up of the orchids on the Narra Tree at the front corner of our house.

Sanggumay strands on our mango tree

Close-up of the flowers

The sanggumay on our mango tree is quite prolific 

It's the time of year when most of our flowering plants are blooming. It is actually spring in temperate countries. And so we have lots of birds and insects benefiting from the flowers and fruits. I will post soon about our mangoes!

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