halfwhiteboy

I know, how odd, right? When we say Christmas we most certainly think of snow and pine trees and all that. Yet here I am in full tropical gear-- tropical print shirt , linen shorts , and boat shoes. And what a major mismatch with the backdrop! Haha!

Inside Felix Restaurant at Greenbelt 5. Felix Restaurant is a casual dining restaurant at Greenbelt 5 in Makati City. Been here a few times and here's a roundup of my experiences so far. Interiors and ambiance Four plain, circular chandeliers hang from the restaurant's high ceiling, providing warm, ambient light to the space. The walls are painted white, with some dark brown accents. This color scheme seamlessly extends throughout the cushioned wooden chairs and marble-top tables, interrupted only by the bright blue couch-style seating lining up its walls. Nice touch actually.

I don't know why blue is associated with sadness when it's such a beautiful and happy color. I mean, think of blue skies and the ocean. I think gray communicates gloom much better, all the more when you throw in some brown to reflect the color of death. In plants, that is. But why all this despondency? Because it's Monday!

This one is my wife's actually and is in fact listed as a woman's fragrance on Fragrantica . I tried it and was surprised to find it quite masculine. The classification is definitely off in my opinion. I've worn it a couple of times now to test it, and I must say that Alizarin EDP by Penhaligon's is a love for me.

I see that Lush has been steadily repackaging its fragrances of late. Gone are the quirky artworks adorning each bottle and we now have a generic rectangular bottle sporting a generic white label with a uniform hip font in its stead. Fine. But there's still love in Lush as I realized after seeing a bunch of their fragrances (in their new packaging) in a circular display at one of their stores. Despite the move towards uniformity, the attraction is still there. Or I simply love fragrances. The last Lush fragrance I had was Dear John , which was pretty decent and inexpensive. It was time to get acquainted with other stuff. After sniffing through everything, one of the purchases we ended up with is Sikkim Girls . My wife and I were meant to share them, having all been branded as unisex.

End of the week. Time to loosen up and relax. Here I went for what are essentially still joggers but in a fabric with patterns typically seen only in business wear, like plaid . The fabric is very soft, so you feel very relaxed in it, more so with the pants's loose construction. Okay, they may not technically be joggers after all, so let's just call them drawstring pants. 😉

Another spate of blind buys. After going through my not-so-short shortlist I took a chance with a Japanese name this time— Hanae Mori HM EDP . Packaged in a tall, slender bottle of frosted glass, with a plastic cap resembling a bolt and nut, Hanae Mori HM already looks promising at the onset.

Why so serious? I don't get to wear them often but I'm really loving these kimono cardigans from House of Nippon , which come in a variety of prints that it feels like I can never have enough. They're very fashionable and perfect for lightweight layering. This time we go brown and with a stiffer fabric so the sleeves stay in form. This one's also a little long for that extra swag as you saunter your way around town. In direct contrast to all this stiffness, I wore some loose-fitting trousers that are a little high-waisted and ankle-length . Not that I had had enough of fitted pants but let's just say we also need to expand our horizon a bit, try something we're not accustomed to.

Vial Trials  are my reviews of sample fragrances given out by sales people from various store purchases. Compared to my posts about full bottles--which are mostly positive because I already like them in the first place, that's why I bought them--Vial Trials are hopefully less one-sided since they were just given to me; I didn't pick them. This sample, Tempo EDP by Diptyque , has been with me for several months now. I love that it's a 10ml sprayer, which is quite generous for a freebie (I must be a very good customer then). I love it so much that I still haven't used it, as if it were something so precious I didn't want to part with. But I have to use it, so here goes.