Lunch at the Fireplace, New Hyatt Hotel

With the ACI Congress being held in Manila this weekend, Marcus and his colleague Anke of HypoVereinsbank HK (HVBH) are in town and decided to treat us to dinner at New Hyatt Hotel's Fireplace.

Since the USD/PHP traders had to finish reports, Rey and I went ahead. The guys from HVBH weren't there yet and so Rey and I ordered salad as we waited. When the rest of the PNB FX group arrived (Dennis of Treasury Marketing included because he is friends with Marcus), Marcus and Anke were still not in sight. When they finally showed up, they apologized ... there was a delay at the airport.

Since HypoVereins Bank is based in Germany, I wasn't surprised to learn that Anke is German. Marcus wanted to make it clear though that he is Swiss... that's because by dessert time we were talking about how people from different countries would have different pronunciations of the same word.

Take "crepe" for example. Growing up, I've pronounced the first "e" like I would pronounce it in the word "egg". I thought I was saying it wrong because when crepe desserts became popular recently, I hear people pronouncing the "e" as they would pronounce "a" in "crate".

Anke said the Germans follow the French in pronouncing crepe as I had been pronouncing it ever since I needed to use crepe paper in school projects. However, when she was working in Australia, she realized people say the word using the second pronunciation ... and if you used the first, they'd think you're saying "crap".

By the way, Anke thought I had studied in the United States because of the way I speak ... with a laugh, I told her I merely watched too much TV growing up.