Sunday Lunch at the Village

Got picked up by Vern & Ken after I came home from doing the Sunday marketing - went to Village to have a mostly Filipino-themed Sunday lunch hosted by Go-chak's family. Also, a few of Go-chak and Lucky's mutual friends were there too (Uncle Ricardo brought the fresh prawns and crabs...and the lechon (roasted pig)!!!).

The Ozzies were guests of honor and Lucky was the special guest chef! ! The man has learned how to cook!!! (This is a far cry from the tv dinners he used to buy all the time while he was here and his family in Australia*) Lucky made chili garlic prawns and steamed crabs. Unfortunately, by the time Vern, Ken & I got there, there was a severe dearth of prawns. (weep) Proving how favored I was, Lucky swiped a prawn from one of his buddies' plates and proudly presented it to me (well, more like stuffed it into my mouth, but I digress). Delicious!!! :)

After a ridiculously fattening and delectable lunch, all the cousins (I can't quite say 'kids' anymore, unless you count Desi) headed off to The Fort Global City to hit the bazaar. From there, we went to Rockwell, where we were supposed to meet up with Sa-chak/Uncle George, Sa-tsim/Aunt Vicky & Lucky for dinner at Rastros (Spanish tapas). Of course, the cousins all took the opportunity to hit Fully Booked (with Dots taking a sidetrip to do some harm at the local Zara) before meeting up with our elders and having dinner.

Walt, Lucky, Me and Mau (good God, I'm twice Mau's size!)

Ken, Sa-chak/Uncle George, Sa-tsim/Aunt Vicky and Vern

Desi and Dots

Dots, Mau and halo-halo dessert

*Also quite a ways from asking his niece Kat (who was 9 years old then) to cook an instant noodle snack for him.

Oz meets Divisoria

Brought Lucky and cousins to the 168 Mall where they shopped until I was ready to drop. For lunch, fulfilled one of Lucky's must-dos for this trip by dragging them to Masuki for noodles and siomai. Incidentally, en route, noticed a familar face also heading to Divisoria for bargain basement shopping:

Hot damn. Winnie the Pooh shops in Divisoria too!

Left 168 at 5:30-ish for Eastwood - time to meet up with the rest of the family for a pre-Chinese New Year dinner at Shanghai Bistro.

Lucky, Sa-chak/Uncle George & Sa-tsim/Aunt Vicky

Walt, Dots & Desi

Me, Go-tsim/Aunt Naty & Go-chak/Uncle Mauricio

Di-um/Aunt Carmen/Mumsy & Me

Vern & Ken

Desi, Merv & Mau

Crikey!

Mau took the Oz gang to Greenhills (The Emerald City - hee!) whilst I headed off to work today. Afterwards, rushed off to Makati to meet up with all the dJ kids plus Lucky to have dinner at Bizu Greenbelt. Hah! Managed to wrangle the check from under everyone's noses. Had coffee/tea at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, then hitched with Mau and Merv, who brought the Oz gang to their hotel and dropped me off at my humble abode.

Desi, Dots and Walt

Walt and Lucky

Me, Ken, Vern, Mau and Merv

Came home to find out the Ozzies (Aussies?) had left a wombat on my PC! Crikey! Good thing Dots slipped me a coffee stirrer stick when we were in CB&TL! (The next parts sound funnier if you say them like Steve Irwin, a.k.a. The Crocodile Hunter.)

Crikey! He's really pissed off now!

Look at the eyes on him. He's a real killer!

Momentarily stunned after the wombat leapt at the camera, I woke up to this...

The Boys (and Another Girl) from Oz

Wandered aimlessly around the Greenhills bangketa (flea market) with Dots, pointed out a whole lot of stuff that was cheaper in 168, hit The Body Shop (on sale!) then went back home to eat dinner and change cars - needed the Starex as Lucky and the rest of Dots' family were arriving at around 10-11pm. Got them checked into the hotel, then brought them to a really late dinner/midnight snack at Pasto (El Pueblo).

Dots, the 168. 168, Dots.

Brought Dots to the infamous 168 Mall – she had a heckuva fun time planning which ridiculously cheap knock-offs to buy when Lak-chak/Lucky (her dad) shows up with the rest of the family in tow.

The Girl from Oz

Picked up Dots at the airport – was kinda worried I wouldn’t recognize her from the last time she visited (and I was semi-right, because I wasn’t expecting the short hair and glasses) but the jumping-up-and-down person who looked really really glad to see me kinda tipped me off. :)

Dropped off Dots' luggage at home and had lunch with Mumsy – Dots went with me to the mall to get Nunkie’s RAZR exchanged. The MemoExpress guys hemmed and hawed, and tried to figure out what was wrong with Nunkie's paperweight, but ended up giving me a new unit instead. Hah! Dashed into Powerbooks and got David Weber's "Shadow of Saganami" and Terry Pratchett's "The Pratchett Portfolio". Wound up the day by picking Mumsy up from the house and having dinner at Shanghai Bistro - dimsum, yum!

Hello Moto. You suck.

Went to Megamall to get a haircut and help Nunkie decide what mobile phone to buy. We ended up in MemoExpress getting a Motorola RAZR V3 (in black) because of the quad-band capability and the fact that it was a very skinny folding phone. When we got home, we found out the damned phone wouldn’t charge, wouldn’t turn on for more than a minute, and generally behaved like a very expensive paperweight. Sigh. I’ll have to run back to the store tomorrow to get it exchanged. Give me Nokia any day!

Signs of the Times 3

Working as I do in the nation's capital city, passing by one of the roads leading to Malacañang Palace (the Philippines' White House equivalent) is an everyday event. However, on one occasion, I chanced upon this sign:

It's like hearing an American say that George W. Bush lives in the Whit House. Sheesh.

For Chad

A look at the local Starbucks' menu:

Yay is for Yaya!

Our yaya (nanny) Emily came to visit us a few days before smallkitty went back to Dallas.

Signs of the times

I read an Inquirer article the other day by a Filipino socieologist that said Filipinos keep their kids from misbehaving by putting the fear of the unknown into them. For example, when kids start acting up, their parents or yayas (nannies) warn them with "Hala!" (the nearest/loosest translation I can come to is "Watch out!" or "Beware!") -- basically telling the kid that *some* kind of retribution may come from acting badly.

On most major thoroughfares in most of the known civilized world, local governments (and law enforcers) are content to place signs that read: "No Jaywalking". In the Philippines, that aforementioned fear of the unknown is used to keep unruly pedestrians in line.

So far, the best translation I came up with was: "No Crossing - It's Deadly."

And you know what? Us stubborn folk keep on crossing that avenue anyway.

For the boys

Here's another couple of pictures small keetee wanted them Dallas folk to see:

Note: No Shells!

The post-holiday lull

Remember those pics of the unbelievable crowds of people outside my store? Check out these post-holiday snaps!

And yes, dammit, I had work on the day after New Year's.

Happy New Year!!!

To all my loyal readers: Happy New Year!