Inner-city weekend retreat
The Rockwell Center Makati is one resounding inner-city gentrification success story; such that only the older ones among us will even remember that there literally once stood a Meralco power plant — and not the mall, or that we would head to the area for the Dog and Cat Hospital that existed by the power plant’s perimeter.
Today, we find high-rise luxury condos, office buildings, a graduate school and the mall; and it was only a matter of time before Rockwell Land would stake its claim in the hotel or serviced apartments market. This they created by establishing Aruga; a word whose meaning goes beyond hospitality, and connotes exceptional care, to nurture. Consisting of 114 serviced apartments, Aruga’s entrance is on the side of the Edades Tower and Garden Villas; with rooms facing the river, or the rising Proscenium area.
While serviced apartments have traditionally meant long-term guests, often foreign executives covered by corporate expense accounts, the concept of the stay-cation has also proven to be popular among locals, and has come to mean substantive business for those venturing in the hotel and leisure industry.
Rather than head out of town, Manila residents will take advantage of holidays and long weekends and pack up the family to spend their mini-vacation staying in town, but at a worry-free venue like a hotel or serviced apartment. And here is where Aruga can be one’s new and desirable option. With basically three types of rooms available — two-bedroom suites, one-bedroom or studio, Aruga promises well-appointed rooms, a cozy Aruga Café for hearty breakfasts, a swimming pool and fitness gym, and easy access to the Power Plant Mall and the Edades establishments, for all the family’s needs. At the Edades, there’s Maison, the Nail Spa’s luxury variant for pampering; and on the evening I stayed, we headed to Bistro du Vin for dinner — a French bistro concept that serves a wonderful foie gras ravioli and a well-executed crispy-skinned confit de canard. Other dining options on the Edades retail row include Dean & Deluca and Hajime.
As for Aruga, the establishment has gone the extra mile to provide amenities and features that make it more like a “home away from home” than the regular hospitality options. There’s an e-lounge, babysitting services, grocery delivery service for the well-equipped kitchen found in every room, and uninterrupted Internet service. The typical two-bedroom suite is 107 sq.m., the one-bedroom Executive is 66 sq.m., the one-bedroom Premiere is either 46 or 53 sq.m., and the Studio Deluxe is 35 sq.m. At Aruga, it’s all about innovation, exclusivity, security and unrivalled lifestyle with all of Rockwell Center at your doorstep.
Visceral territory
Body parts that regenerate, that are consumed in the name of love, and celebrated bodies toppling over a waterfall — these three novels make for great escapist reading hours.
The Heart Does Not Grow Back by Fred Venturini (available at National Book Store) Dale and Mack forge a strong bond while in high school. Dale is the nobody everyone ignores, while Mack is the star jock who collects girls like stamps. Dale pines for that girlfriend while Mack strongly feels, from experience, that Dale deserves better than the girl he pines for. This may start off like a young adult novel, but it quickly transforms into something gritty and bizarre as Dale discovers through a tragic accident, that other than in the case of his heart, his body parts regenerate in a superhuman manner. Whether planning to use this power for financial gain, or parlaying it into a reality TV show, the novel becomes an exhilarating study of what if, ethics and sacrifice. Terse prose, graphic scenes and imbued with a cynical view of media and ratings, this novel is like a parable for modern times.
Consumed by David Cronenberg (available at National Book Store) Naomi and Nathan are the Bonnie and Clyde of social media’s yellow journalism — always on the lookout for the sensational and disturbing. Camera- and gadget-obsessed, they travel all over the world to bring us their “news stories.” In Naomi’s case, a renowned French couple has succumbed to a bizarre tragedy, with the woman dead, dismembered and apparently, dined on by the husband who has now gone missing in Japan.
When we meet Nathan, he is documenting a non-traditional Hungarian surgeon who treats breast cancer patients by embedding radioactive pellets into their mammary glands, and moves on to a Canadian doctor who discovered a rare STD. The double-helix narrative converges in an elliptical manner that is ripe with disturbing vignettes and revelations. Cronenberg the auteur makes the transition to book form, with his unique world — view intact.
Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz (available at National Book Store) Officially recognized by the Conan Doyle estate, this Horowitz novel attempts to pick up the pieces from the moment we read of Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty hurling off a waterfall in Switzerland, and acts as a homage to the genre. Our narrator is one Frederick Chase, a Pinkerton agent, who joins forces with Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard in uncovering a nefarious plot set in motion by an American crime boss intent on filling the vacuum left by Moriarty in the London underworld. With intricate plotting, cliffhanger moments, and the omnipresence of the deduction method Holmes pioneered, this novel has the added bonus of a wonderful twist ending that is properly explained and justified. The sense of location, atmosphere, and time are what makes this novel such a brilliant read — and that unexpected ending!
