The Mango Farm

W E L C O M E

2010-03-16T19:52:00.003+08:00

Once upon a time, in some God-awful place, Lady Luxuria uttered in disgust..."It's so hard to find men here. Most of them think MONOGAMY is some kind of WOOD!" But here in the land of hearts-optimistique, THAT statement's only but a footnote categorized under the heading "The Jaded Lady's Futile Attempts at Settling Down."

W E L C O M E to The Mango Farm, our little verdant patch of wedding eden, where monogamy is de rigeur, and for Lady Luxuria's frustratingly vacuous admirers, a veritable garden of real wood! From time to time, interesting snapshots from recent Farm treks and events (not necessarily weddings) will be posted to the delight of the virtual Farm paparazzi. Have fun! - your fruity farmer

our foolish hearts

2009-11-07T10:54:00.007+08:00

There's always a song wafting in Fruity's head as he studies a picture album. Maybe, because we are innately musical, always associating an experience with a tune (at least, that's how it works with the stuck-in-the-60s people here at the Farm). For the couple of the moment, it's My Foolish Heart... (try hearing Stacey Kent or Julie London's version :)

The night is like a lovely tune, beware my foolish heart
How white the ever constant moon, take care, my foolish heart

There's a line between love and fascination,
That's hard to see on an evening such as this,
For they give the very same sensation.
When you are lost in the passion of a kiss.

Your lips are much too close to mine, beware my foolish heart
But should our eager lips combine, then let the fire start.

For this time it isn't fascination, or a dream that will fade and fall apart,
It's love this time, it's love, my foolish heart

Congrats A and I! Too bad, Fruity can only mime a song, not sing it :)

Dog MTV - Back to the Sun

2009-11-06T19:52:00.003+08:00

Donatelo is just almost 8 months (he turns 8 months next week!), and he's already showing the makings of le star. Howz about giving it up for le dog fantastique! Oh, the music is by Celilo - "Back to the Sun." Enjoy the view!

dreaming of sun

2009-11-04T12:47:00.003+08:00

Turnip takes a nappy, whiling the time away on the airy solehia. The rain continues pattering, as winds frisk the wet foliage.

In the meantime, amidst serious discussions, some minds are wandering off, like rain-fed rivulets, in a cacophony of incoherence. - A well-travelled seminar participant :)

How green can a farm get? Google Map Maker will show.

2009-11-02T15:29:00.005+08:00

When a place calls itself a "garden," the very least it can BE is a place with grass. And with today's compilation of satellite images, it is quite EASY to spot a "garden" or "farm" or "forest" or "nature preserve" or (insert something eco-friendly here) that is true to its claim. So, when the Mango Farm called itself The Mango Farm, it was actually just being up front about what it is, a mango farm! Let's google map the place ... (try this website: http://www.google.com/mapmaker and search for "Mango Farm")

Here's the actual map.

And here's the map, overlaid on top of the satellite image. The Mango Farm (highlighted in blue) and its neighbors, AANI and Orchard, literally form a contiguous green oasis in a field of concrete and tin roof! Pretty sad, but that's the reality - thanks to the twin evils of overpopulation and overdevelopment, with very little urban planning to begin with!

And here's a close-up of the Mango Farm, bound by yellow lines. So how green is Mango Farm's green? As green as nature intended it to be, a glaring reminder of how everyone should treat the environment - with respect and with foresight, always thinking of how we can preserve it for the unborn generations to enjoy.

Happy Dog Day

2009-10-30T13:13:00.003+08:00

Sun-crazy Donatelo gives a tour of the Farm.

Limewire Wednesday

2009-10-28T12:40:00.006+08:00

Fruity is tuning in, tuning out .... while there's Limewire music filling the office ether....

Cake, straight out of cartoonville.

The Farm in Lomo. This (!!) captures the happy-but-hushed effect of the recent typhoons on almost-postponed weddings.

Congrats D & C! May your ever-after be less eventful than the last week of September 2009.

regardez: red dots

2009-10-27T12:34:00.002+08:00

20091027blog01dots
Originally uploaded by RCMUmike

There's poetry in chaos, as well as poetry in order. But in weddings, we have a preference for the latter. We draw inspiration from seemingly disconnected experiences and try to achieve a cohesive, orderly, "art" : the banquet. Take for instance, this featured event. We can break it down to its components that make it successful -
A - spotless glassware and cutlery, crisp linen
B - non-obtrusive flowers. Guests from across the table can actually talk to each other. Imagine that!
C - table details that mark the event uniquely yours - you are invited to the event because, you, of all people, has an appreciation of the hosts' history, and the history they are making
D - of course, an exquisite caterer who loves her trade
E - a beautiful, unpretentious environment that continues to live green even in this age of urban over-development

Even shadows lend delicacy to the design.

Instead of ribbons, the couple chose to bag-tag the banquet chairs. Nice :)

All the pictures here were taken by Dylan Gozum. This banquet will be featured in a glossy mag, and thus Fruity has to hold back whatever else he wants to gab about regarding it.

..while the coffeemaker descales...

2009-10-26T13:59:00.002+08:00

Family night out
Originally uploaded by RCMUmike

why not post something family? hmmm... Ok, so here's my first attempt to use flickr's blog template for making photo blogs. Last October 23, the Mango Farm family had multiple reasons to celebrate - birthday, birthday, send-off and send-off. We had three baby cakes, five sumptuous entrees, candles x12, and a cool evening zephyr that wove its way through quaking branches. And here, Donatelo and Turnip were generally behaved!

Four Weddings and a Typhoon Ondoy

2009-10-09T22:11:00.009+08:00

One typhoon lingered over Manila, and four weddings got unceremoniously bumped to other dates, with hardly a wee whimper of complaint from fastidious sponsors who understood completely the gravity of this year's headline calamity.

The Mango Farm, being on significantly higher ground, was not affected by flood waters. And on that fateful day, September 26, it even became an impromptu shelter for 11 Tamayo waiters and 9 venue staffers as 80% of Manila was already submerged by the time the rain subsided. Thus, the office became the camp for venue staffers, while the Pavilion became the Tamayo's slumber hall - where the waiters spent the time listening to the only news source the Farm had that night, an AM radio blaring out of a stranded truck. There was no choice. The Farm became Noah's ark overnight.

The day after the typhoon, under shrouded skies, the Farm looked somber. The water-laden canopy of slouching trees was dripping tears, not for itself, but for flooded neighbors downhill. The Farm is exceptionally lucky, as it suffered no damage. But it cannot remain in isolation behind village gates while others are mired in new uncertainty. Just like the wedding sponsors, we completely understand the gravity of Typhoon Ondoy's aftermath, and as such, are willing to do more than just postpone wedding events to new dates. We will be active in community efforts to rebuild.

The Mango Farm opened its Pavilion for relief work. Shown here are Rotarians and friends who have collated and repacked donations from a hodge podge of generous donors from Hong Kong, Germany, the US, and of course, Philippines.

veiled

2009-09-19T10:10:00.006+08:00

September .... the burr months begin, and the farm is hushed by fog, mist, and the prayers that ask God to help the sun pick the grey clouds apart like warm bread. But these tense moments are what we live for: adult nerves fraying at the edges as kids run around adults, still carefree, albeit in the straightjacket of formalities. Oh September! The weather, the tension, the spontaneity, the formality, the joy ... an atypical brew for happy memories that just won't fade.

Kids in awe: "If Christmas trees used to be lit like these, how come the trees didn't catch fire?"

Baby break.

The sitting room and a pretty occupant.

Congrats J and A!

misty

2009-09-04T08:11:00.006+08:00

Whenever I see a wedding, I see and hear an extended MTV unfolding before me, in my mind. Perhaps because I'm such a child of the 80s (hello Cafe 80s!) that images affect me this way. Or simply because weddings, among all other rituals we go through, are the most lyrical with its accompanying breadth of emotions hitting all the happy major 7th chords. Even a stoic girl, seemingly forced to attend the social, can turn misty-eyed.

Color swirls on the ceiling. Unconsciously celebrating Indian Holi :)

Chega de saudade. Congrats J and D!

the fruity bureau

2009-08-28T09:42:00.003+08:00

Fruity recently bought a set of Reeve's poster colors from Office Depot, a completely unplanned purchase. So here are some of Fruity's desk artifacts, in matte colour jubilee!

the polvoron jar (yep, on la Fruity desk)

la computeria

the care bear (at the base of the desk lamp)

the farm that grows

2009-08-21T11:20:00.007+08:00

a water puddle
a prism that holds
the memory of colors
as they transit through ether
the eloquence of trees that whisper

As the Farm grows on Fruity, a poet's old lines are whispered back to life.

You'll find no new places, you won't find other shores.

The city will follow you. The streets in which you pace

will be the same, you'll haunt the same familiar places,

and inside those same houses you'll grow old.

You'll always end up in this city. Don't bother to hope

for a ship.

- Constantine, The City

a complete unknown

2009-08-17T10:54:00.003+08:00

"Once upon a time, you dressed so fine,
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?..."

Fruity was so fascinated with the news, that Bob Dylan, in his late 60's, has become physically obscure to most folks - even the ones who actually sing his songs in angsty times.

40 years gone, and yet his songs are as relevant as when they were freshly minted in the turbulent 60s (and that's about 10 B.F. - 10 years "before Fruity"). Thanks Bob Dylan for enriching our lives' soundtrack.

tunnel vision

2009-08-03T16:03:00.006+08:00

Tunnel vision isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's been slighted too many times and relegated to the bin of badness. In time-constrained projects, it's exactly what you need to get things moving! So, when you weigh all this semantics out, having tunnel vision is simply being single-minded (uhm, why this other compound word is viewed positively in planning sessions and the other, negatively, is beyond me and beyond the wisdom learned from The Far Side.)

So brides and grooms, it's very ok to keep focused! But always be realistic.

Tunnel 1. "It's vanishing.... where's MY point? Or did I even have one?"

Tunnel 2. "I can see the light... Hun. It's very verrrry bright."

Korean ambition. haha. Congrats P & O !

Short Notice!

2009-07-31T15:06:00.002+08:00

Mango Farm open house! Call to reserve seats - 6456993. If you've gotten yourself enlisted during the bridal fair, then just simply go and be yummazed... great food and great nature!

hello searcheeez?

2009-07-27T15:57:00.003+08:00

Being slightly techie affords Fruity the luxury of snooping into the search habits of Googlers. Would you believe that under the search string "jaded lady," The Mango Farm comes 4th in the list (PAGE ONE!). Uhm, thank yew Gewgle.

it's that time of the year...

2009-07-22T19:45:00.003+08:00

when we venture out of our cocooned existence..... come see us .... it's the Farm in the City this weekend!

The Wedding Congress, July 24-25-26, SM Megamall Megatrade Hall

turning Japanese

2009-07-20T11:41:00.007+08:00

Our fascination with minimalism is a reflection of how much we abhor... clutter. It isn't exactly a Japanese trait, but a predilection towards clean lines, crisp contrasts, and object-spacing that clearly considers physical human dimensions. That's why Fruity tells clients, way ahead, do not overdecorate. Or you'll miss the entire point of holding your wedding at the Farm.

Little lady carries a basket of flowers and succulents to the altar.

An ensemble of browns. Very well-put together, with yellow effectively humbled-down to "a light shade of brown."

Lighting the unity candle.

Uhm, Nakasone, is that you? Ha ha.

Congrats N and C!

surprise in stripes

2009-07-13T12:29:00.003+08:00

When Mr. Daddy underwent bypass surgery a year ago, the entire family became one international prayer network, fervently sending off prayers to heaven for his complete recovery. A thousand cranes flew back with the good news: Mr. Daddy is ok :). A year later, the family constellation descended on the Mango Farm on a rainy June evening to celebrate Mr. Daddy's health, AND birthday. It was a carefully orchestrated surprise (but of course!) that could have only been executed by people who truly know him.

There was rain. There were tears. It was joyful! Happy 58th Mr. F!

the manager takes a bath

2009-07-12T09:47:00.001+08:00

Donatelo sez:

me need bath. stinky me. i blame turnip. he stinky me up. help!

Green star

2009-07-09T10:46:00.009+08:00

It's difficult to be environmental. The discipline it entails can be overwhelming. It requires a change in behavior, an acceptance of a point-of-view that verges on fanaticism to some. When Fruity had that "light-switch" moment of turning the Farm into a green showcase, his good-natured naivete hit many walls of resistance - as each Farm worker had his/her personally convenient idea of environmentalism. Here are some of the more popular lines:

1. plastic burns, so let's gather them with raked leaves and burn 'em in a pile.

2. cigarette butts are tiny, let's toss 'em everywhere; they'll blend well with the rocks

3. Segregation? What da ... they're all trash so I'll put them all in one bin. Sue me.

Fruity had so many Dear God moments, because at every point of resistance, he was ready to wring a neck out of frustration. It wasn't a personal discipline, but a community discipline issue! If we were to succeed in greening our Farm, then everyone would have to "learn" the big picture. Here are some lessons:

1. DO NOT BURN PLASTICS/PVCs. You will release dioxins, more specifically TCDD (tetra-chloro-dibenzodioxin). This is a carcinogen, toxic to many animals, and causes a human skin rash termed "chloracne," among its health effects.

2. Cigarette butts are NOT biodegradeable. They contain plastic filters that enter sewers and storm drains, and get swept into rivers and then out to sea, where they can release toxic chemicals including nicotine, benzene and cadmium. (straight from NYT)

3. Let's make life easier for natural earth recyclers, shall we? Plastic, plastic-coated paper, tetra bricks, foam will not be degraded by your neighborhood microbacterial colony of decomposers. Food scraps, however, are welcome! If you want rich compost material, do not mix in non-biodegradables or you'll end up feeding plants toxic plastic juice, ok ok ok?

Huff.... and that concludes la Fruity morning. Meanwhile, here's a green star overlooking the beautiful marsh.

The world is for sharing. Keep it beautiful! Congrats C & J!

And here's one red star :)

stone yacht

2009-06-30T12:24:00.009+08:00

One clear-skied night, after an unusual week of torrential rains, the Mango Farm marsh re-emerged. And the pavilion transformed into a ... yacht! It literally looked berthed by a stone pier, ready for that journey to China :)

Diners on a journey.

Spoon puffs transformed into Warholesque puff art, err, pop art.

And the song goes...

I'd like to get you
On a slow boat to China
All to myself, alone.
TO get you and keep you
In my arms for evermore
Leave all your lovers
Weeping on the faraway shore.

Out on the briny
With the moon, big and shiny
Melting your heart of stone.
Darling, I'd love to get you
On a slow boat to China,
All to myself, alone.
- Frank Loesser

Congratulations M and S!

mayhem in the control room

2009-06-14T12:39:00.003+08:00

While Donatelo was conspicuously well-behaved, his two buddies were busy playing "Exchange Places."