Mica, John and the swap desk brokers dropped by after 5PM carrying some sandwiches for the the PNB dealing room to generally just hang out with the PNB spot and swap traders. Rey gave them a brief tour of the PNB gym.
What to do when the USD/PHP has been on the 48.12 - 13 level for about an hour...and there's less than 30 minutes before the PDS market closes.
Was at the supermarket tonight and as I was deciding on whether to buy canned softdrinks or not, I saw this:
If I hadn't stopped in front of it, I wouldn't even know it existed because 1) I don't like beer and 2) I haven't seen any ad or commercial for the San Miguel Premium All Malt Beer.
Was chatting with my cousin Jean on fb. Next thing we know we were making plans to watch a movie in Makati. I dragged Jon along. Funny thing was, Jean and I haven't met in person before. :-)
Heavy traffic means the buses take longer to return from Manila. It also translates to a very long line at our stop.
A number of us in the dealing room visited her today.
Champorado with Tuyo. A Filipino breakfast. Only this one's not made of rice. It's oatmeal.
The PNB Treasury held a despedida lunch at HK Chef for Esme. She availed of last year's early retirement program.
that one should say yes coz one doesn't know when he'd ask again.
Tomorrow's Valentine's Day, and some people were in the mood for celebrating.
Boss Mon gave a rose to every lady in the dealing room. Malu gave out chocolate roses.
I ate the chocolate rose but I didn't want to bring the rose home. Ted asked if he could have it instead. I told him to go ahead and bring it home to his girlfriend or mother, or whoever he was planning to give it to.
When I went on leave because of my dad's hospitalization, I told Rey to not bother telling the brokers. Well, Prebon and ICAP were so insistent that Rey called me the other day and begged me to please tell him my dad's name and hospital room number so that the brokers will stop nagging. I gave him the details because Rey's predicament amused me and I felt sorry for the guy.
Prebon sent my dad a basket of flowers with apples.
ICAP sent a basket of assorted fruits.
The photos were taken by Jon.
KFC happened to be the only restaurant near St. Luke's that was still open around midnight so my brother and I passed by for dinner before heading home.
I ordered a salad and when they delivered it, I saw that the lettuce leaves weren't fresh anymore and requested for a replacement.
The person the server took the salad to made a gesture of coughing into the salad and she probably thought she was being funny. I didn't care though as long as they replace the salad they gave me.
When they finally delivered the salad to our table, I ate part of the toppings then started turning the leaves over.
Guess what ... I still saw leaves with reddish brown edges. Worse, they may be the same leaves I saw earlier.
Needless to say I did not finish the salad.
I won't be eating salad in KFC again.
Papa had fever and chills last Sunday. When he still had fever Monday afternoon, I told mom that maybe we should bring him to a hospital. I was thinking the nearest one, which was San Pedro Doctors Hospital. However, when my dad heard that he will be brought to the hospital, he began to insist to be brought to St. Luke's Medical Center... which by the way is in Quezon City, a place north of Manila while we live south of Manila.
Ofcourse I know he wants to be brought there because my Uncle Totoy is a doctor in that hospital (given his age, he's probably more busy being its Assistant Medical Director for Professional Services and incumbent Chair of its Institutional Ethics Review Board, or IERB, instead of attending to patients everyday). My first problem was finding an ambulance to take him there at a late hour. My mom waited for me or Jon to arrive from work instead of making calls and packing stuff to be brought to the hospital. We left the huose after 11PM and got to St. Luke's before 12:30AM ... the trip was fast because traffic was VERY light.
Although Jon called Uncle Totoy before leaving the house, we still had to follow procedure and check Papa in through the emergency room. It was 1:30AM yesterday when we finally checked Papa into a room. Needless to say, I took a leave yesterday and today. I this morning updating my brothers and sisters abroad through mail, then I'll spend the afternoon inquiring about PhilHealth benefits, paying bills and ofcourse, withdrawing money. 
Tita Es, Malu and I all hitched a ride with Boss Jun on the way to the BNP Paribas lunch presentation at Makati Shangri-La, and as I was sitting at the back, all I could think about is how weird it is that these days, one ends up sitting on a seat that's full of wires inside. It's almost like sitting on an electric chair except that the electricity goes to the TV, the speaker, and other push buttons one finds on a car seat.
Sam happened to be free yesterday afternoon, and since we haven't seen each other for weeks, we decided to meet in Mall of Asia. After eating dinner, we decided to walk at the Esplanade, also known as San Miguel by the Bay. This is where the night life that used to be along Roxas Boulevard migrated after Mayor Lim shut down the Manila Baywalk establishments.
Sam and I saw a henna tattoo stall and she decided to have one. She predictable chose a scorpion. I refused to get one myself and just waited for the artist to finish painting the henna tattoo on her arm.
When we've walked half of the Esplanade, we took a rest along the breakwater and I texted Jon to ask if he has nothing to do and if he would like to join us. He said yes, so we listened to a band while waiting for him to arrive.
When Jon arrived at around midnight, we walked the length of the Esplanade again.
We realized that the bars catering to groups of friends on a night out were located nearer to Roxas Boulevard, while the restaurants catering to families and parties of a more sedate kind were on the other side - which is also the area where the 'seaside dampa' restaurants are.
Dampa restaurants happen to specialize in seafood where the customers can shop and choose the ingredients then tell the cooks what dish they want to eat using said ingredients.
Around 12:30 this morning, Sam decided to head for home. Jon and I walked around a bit then I got thirsty. We stepped into Eskimo Bob, which is owned by the same group that run Icebergs, and ended up also ordering ice cream and some chicken and chips.
The balikbayan boxes Edith and Willy sent from California finally arrived this last weekend. I didn't mind that most of the stuff there were for Papa, Mama and Tessie ... as long as I get this huge block of Belgian black chocolate.
I love black chocolate, even more so when it's Belgian chocolate.
When I bought my newspaper this morning, the vendor lady told me there is a promo today. I then found it odd that the paper has some sort of red jacket.
Turning to the back of the jacket, I realized that it was a sheet of coupons.
Cool.
This our version of Calandracas ... that soup from the province of Cavite, which we prepare for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. There's nothing like a hot hearty soup to warm you up during the cold of midnight. Cavitenos traditionally eat Calandracas during New Year's Eve, but I like it so much that we've included Christmas Eve as an occasion to cook the said dish.
There was enough left over ingredients to cook another batch, so we had Calandracas again yesterday. Yum!
A good blogpost of the origins and the preparation of the said dish is by Ige Ramos at http://igeramos.multiply.com/journal/item/61/Calandracas
It is in Tagalog though, so if you don't understand the language, you'd need a translator.
Our preparation of Calandracas has some differences from Ige's recipe. Whenever it's hard to find pata de hamon in nearby wet markets or supermarkets, we use chorizo instead. We tend to use kinchay because it has more taste than the regular celery. We also do not use chicken liver, beef liver, pumpkin, macaroni or onions. I suspect we've kinda meshed together Calandracas and Caldo de Gallego in our version of the soup.
At lunch today, I rummaged through the ref and saw there's some more chorizo, a couple of eggs, and some kinchay in the crisper. I decided to make fried rice.
