JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

SM Iloilo looks like every SM in Metro Manila—boxy, utilitarian, and on Saturday at the height of the Dinagyang festivities, packed. It has the same shops as your neighborhood SM, plus local businesses, most of them food-related.

My sister asked me to buy barquillos so I asked a teacher from Philippine Science High School-Iloilo to recommend the best kind. She said Deocampo’s or Biscocho Haus. Extreme self-control is required when buying the local sweets: they are lethal. Don’t even open a pack when you’re alone. Before you know it you are piaya.

The Trappist monks on Guimaras Island make mango-based delicacies such as biscocho, jam, and tarts. Ignore all other claims: the Philippines has the most delicious mangoes on earth.

The Iloilo Horticultural Society has a showroom in the mall—according to our host, they provide the flowers for SM events, so the space is rent-free. (Our tour guide Troy Camarista said the residents of Villa Street outside the city have beautiful gardens where you can walk around and buy flowers.)

I spotted an exhibition of terracotta sculptures made by the Gawad Kalinga Sooc Terracotta Youth Artists Group.

Proceeds from the sales go to the livelihood programs. They also recycle Smart tarpaulins into bags.

While we were watching other stuff the Australian Open has been rolling on. We catch up in the quarterfinals.

All the men’s singles matches promise to be tough.

Federer v Davydenko. Bit of a scare there. When he’s on Davydenko can beat anyone. Roger was down 2-6 in the first set and 1-3 in the second before he snapped out of it and won the second set. The third set was 6-0, but the fourth was not a foregone conclusion. Whew.
Nadal v Murray. Poor Rafa, it’s the knees again. He had to quit in the third set, and you know Nadal does not quit.
Djokovic v Tsonga.
Roddick v Cilic.

Serena v Azarenka
Venus v Li
Zheng v Kirilenko
Henin v Petrova

I don’t have to be the geriatric section at the concert, seeing as there is no concert!

Queen’s Cat Goddess Temple Found in Egypt
by Andrew Bossone, National Geographic Daily News

Photographs from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities

Thanks to PdeK for the alert.

From the NYT: The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now.

Those of you who edited your privacy settings prior to December’s change have nothing to worry about – that is, assuming you elected to keep your personalized settings when prompted by Facebook’s “transition tool.” The tool, a dialog box explaining the changes, appeared at the top of Facebook homepages this past month with its own selection of recommended settings. Unfortunately, most Facebook users likely opted for the recommended settings without really understanding what they were agreeing to. If you did so, you may now be surprised to find that you inadvertently gave Facebook the right to publicize your private information including status updates, photos, and shared links.

Or just don’t have a Facebook account. I don’t. I’m told there are a couple of dozen ‘Jessica Zafra’ on Facebook; none of them is me. If they are claiming to be me, tell them the rash will go away once they remove the account.

Dinagyang in Iloilo! Like the mutant spawn of Cecil B. DeMille and German Moreno ran amok, but in a wonderful way.

Iloilo is clean, the air is clear, the people are polite and considerate (Freedom Stadium was full but there was no jostling, everything was orderly, janitors swept the performance area after each number, and it was noon but quite cool), the traffic is manageable except in certain areas, the fish is fresh, the food is good, the Spanish colonial architecture is intact. We should all move there.