"Roberta, remember, you're a lady."

My brother and I caught Dante's Peak on Cinemax earlier this week. That got us reminiscing on cheesy 90s movies that we love: Daylight, Beethoven, Mrs. Doubtfire, etc. And then we started to talk about the merits of Volcano vs Dante's Peak then we got to Gaby Hoffman then I remembered "Now and Then." So I downloaded the movie and watched it last night.

Gaby Hoffman, Christina Ricci, Thora Birch & Ahsleigh Aston Moore as young versions of Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Melanie Griffith & Rita Wilson. Add  Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azaria, Brendan Fraser and my ultimate love, Devon Sawa to the mix and you get a great ensemble!

I had so much fun re-watching this movie. How tempted am I to write to each of these actresses and tell them how much I love each of them in this movie with all its campy dialogue and predictive acting.

But I digress.  Here is the point of this entire post: I did not know how much biking there was in this movie! I can almost imagine how much fun those girls had riding the bikes. All those old, vintage bikes!

Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Ashleigh Aston Moore & Gaby Hoffman

Dos Ciclos short film: why I ride in the city

Here's a beautiful short film from Mexico that was initially thought for the Bicycle Film Festival, but has now made its rounds in 5 international film festivals.



Every time I watch this, I am reminded of why I love biking in the city.

campagnolo brakes

I need help. I need to know the year and make of my Campy parts.

Front brakes

Million Kilometers Project

Crowd-sourcing bike commuting: 1 million kilometers cycled on Philippine roads by the end of 2012.

Check it out!

Let's get riding!

Black Saturday biking

It's been an incredibly hot Holy Week, tempting everyone to stay indoors with the aircon cranked up or just stay at home with a good book in hand. But I wanted to take advantage of Manila's streets as these are one of those rare moments that all roads are traffic-free.

Ortigas Ave. on the way to Greenhills. The lane going to EDSA has no cars!

I could afford a few minutes of hands-free biking

Even this skater took advantage of Ortigas Center's car-free streets.

A cup of coffee and a slice of cake before I ride to work

One of my dearest biker/ultramarathoner friends, Pen, recently came home from Baguio and presented me with a delightful bag of Kalinga ground coffee. Since anything new gets me excited, I decided to brew it at home. After much searching through all our storage cabinets, I finally found a complete coffee-maker set, (I previously found at least 2 that had missing pieces) and attempted to make myself coffee. It's been a while since I last brewed coffee so I was still getting the measurements mixed up. The finished product of my first few cups resembled dark-colored water but was sorely lacking in taste.

I have to get better at this, so I bought myself a portable french press from Starbucks. I'm not quite sure how a portable french press would make me a better brewer, but it seemed like a good thing to go with my new bag of coffee.

Anyway, after a few more pale attempts at black coffee, I finally managed to get it right this morning.

4 teaspoons of coffee

Pour hot water and stir. Leave it alone for a few minutes til the top resembles Milo.

Slowly press down. The picture doesn't show it, but there's a slight difference in color.

Pour into a cup and savor.

Best served with a slice of Death By Tablea by Chocolat.

Needless to say, this was a very good morning and totally set the tone for the bike ride to work.

Freedom

Biking in Ortigas Center. Life is good.

Folding Bikes on the MRT

Congrats to the Tiklop Society of the Philippines and all those who worked tirelessly to allow folding bikes to go aboard the MRT (as of February 2012 - Yippee!). This is certainly quite a leap forward.

That's Ethel Fortuno - first folding bike commuter on the MRT. Photo by Pio Fortuno.

Tired of shifting gears

Tired of shifting gears while climbing hills, going down hills and racing on flats, I decided to simplify my life and rewarded myself at the end of 2011 with a nice white single-speed, with some fine blue detail.I wanted to get the one in orange, but that was sold out. And little wonder. This baby costs so little. So far, this is the only picture that's been taken of it. Taken during the Gig Talks, held early January.

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