Thanks to President Noynoy for I got the pass for a day to spend a pre-birthday celebration with my family. As we all know, it's the first time that we had a Chinese New Year holiday in our country. Maybe because PNoy is a Chinese? I wouldn't know! Haha, but the holiday fell the day before my birthday, so yeah! After days of searching and searching of where we should celebrate my day, I finally found the perfect place for it -- Pino Bar and Restaurant! It's a lovely restaurant located at Kalayaan Ave., you'll love all their dishes I swear! 

I got to know PINO from Patty Laurel's blog. Haha, I got tempted with all the food photos, so I gave it a try. It was worth the shot, I have a happy tummy and a happy birthday! All the dishes are love, especially the Kare-kareng Bagnet!! Kare-kare is forever my favorite dish, and thank you for this delicious creation, I would love to go back and eat all of those food again. Fanaya loved the Chicken Breasts! We had Shrimp with Salted Egg, Longganisa topped Nachos, Adobong Tadyang with Red Wine! Yay, and the Chunky Choco Tempura? It is absolutely sinful and delisyoso! Also their Choco Innocence was a winner! Haaay, if only I could eat them over and over again, I would! Their food is perfect for family or barkada sharing. I loved the place, most especially because of the doodle painted on the wall... it was so fascinating to see it face-to-face when I knew that it was hand-painted! I wish I have a talent like hers who painted it. Ahaha! The sad part is, I don't have a birthday cake and a candle to make a wish with... but thanks to whoever created those cupcakes! Thank God they have a candle too! It was so funny that I blew the candle using my nose! Yuck, ang fail lang talaga nun! HAHAHA. I can't stop laughing whenever I remember it, I was trying so hard not to laugh because I might blow the light of the candle by laughing, then I blew it using the air from my nose!! I don't even know why it happened. I am giving you the permission to laugh at me now, I'm laughing at myself either. Hahaha.

Then I had to go to work on the day of my birthday! I admit I was really overwhelmed with the greetings I had that day, I turned off the notification of my birthday in Facebook just to see who really know when my day is, and I'm happy to see everyone I love remembering it. Alam ko naman na gumaya lang din yun iba, haha choosy pa ko! But thanks, I really appreciate all the greetings I had on Facebook, SMS, Skype and even all the phone calls. 12mn pa lang kasi nagiingay na yung phone ko eh! Funny how I almost got late to work on the day of my birthday! Thank You Lord for the not-late gift. Hehe. I feel like I am the only person who goes to work on a birthday. Usually kasi, my officemates would take a leave from work, because it's their birthday... due to kakuriputan to take a leave, and I have lots of work to do din kasi, I go to work on my birthday. I already celebrated it with my family already naman, so I have no problem with my birthday anymore. I just bought Amber's spaghetti and pancit malabon for my officemates to share with... I know it's not enough for them, but that's all I can afford!

My day was full of celebrations, it was stressful because of work but then I love it when I have something to look forward to at the end of a stressful day. Birthday dinner with bangenge at Bizu!! It's funny how we drool ourselves before whenever we pass by the Bizu stall at Glorietta 4. Ngenge and I told to each other that we will get to eat there one day when we got a spare time and the moolah to pay for the food, of course! I never knew that my birthday will be that day! So what do we got? A Raspberry Yogurt which I'm not really a fan of. It tastes good but I'm not a super fan of a sour taste in a drink. For our appetizer, we had the Tomato, Charizo and White Cheese Tartine. It was goooood good. I'm not a food blogger so I don't know how to describe foods that much. Haha. But it was a perfect mix for the tomato and cheese (my only problem is, I'm the person who looks at the picture of the food whenever it's my first time to eat there... they served the different look of the food! haha). Then we had Linguine with Shrimps! I've learned to love seafood pasta because of ngenge, so that pasta is a must try! I love shrimps also that it added the great excitement for me to eat it. For our main course, tandananan!!! The 10 hour roast beef. Man, it's a winner! I loved how tender the roast beef is, added with the yummy sauce it has! It was pricey but it's my birthday anyway... splurge!  I really don't eat veggies that much so I didn't care about the others with the roast beef plate. :p

Every dish was so hard to finish that we even had a room for dessert! Bwahaha, pwede ba yun mawala? Eh yun nga yung pinunta namin sa Bizu!! Bizu's cakes and macaroons was the first ever reason why we wanted to eat there. I let ngenge choose what should we have for dessert, and she chose Samba! It's a chocolate cake that melts in your mouth! *dies* I loved it so much. I even have 2 birthday cakes to make a wish with! Hahaha. (okei lang yun sa family ko, mas importante yung sa mismong birthday ko talaga! bwaha!) I am blessed to have ngenge until to this day. May birthday cake ako dahil sa kanya!! I never had time to buy my own birthday cake because my schedule won't permit me to... feeling busy lang! I would love to have the Red Velvet Cake from Karen's Kitchen. Yeah, so maybe next time na lang I'll have it. 

So there goes my two cakes for my birthday!! Thanks to ngenge for even decorating the cake with marshmallows! See how much she loves me? Hahahah. I am beyond thankful for she celebrated the day with me though I know her bestfriend shares the same birthday as I am and she could be anywhere that time. Thank you, as in. You don't know how much it meant to me.

I had a lot of happy birthday's and make a wish that day. I am even blessed to have a great set of family and friends in my life... in which I could not even ask for more. I have learned that simple celebrations are the ones that are for keeps. I am happy that I have intimate celebrations with the people I love. Thank You for this, for a happy, happy birthday. I'm growing old already! Haaaa. And I know that it comes with more responsibilities too. What's my wish? More love and happiness. Haha ang showbiz lang! Only God knows what my wish is on my birthday.:) Thank you everyone who remembered my day!! I love you all.

And to those who may be asking, yes. Jake Cuenca still greeted me on my birthday... but I chose not to upload it anymore! Someone made my day extra special just by greeting me like this: