Ending up in Glorietta

I planned to follow up the PhilHealth papers at St. Luke's today but ended up taking time looking for alternative ways to go to Batanes because Zest Air had indefinitely postponed its Basco flights.

It was already 5pm when I got to Makati so instead of continuing north to Quezon City, I just stayed at the mall and waited for Jon to get out of the clinic.

Checked out Glorietta 5 which is only half occupied as the other establishments slated to transfer there have not finished with carpentry and/or interior decoration.  All the restaurants are located near the windowed walls, and the other establishments are on the inside.  This means that most restaurants on the upper floors have seats at the balcony or deck.

The side facing Glorietta 4 has a nice view of the mall:

Zooming in, see those people clustered on the balcony of Glorietta 4 (picture below) ?

That's the smoking area. He he he.

PNB Treasury Dinner

For one reason or another, the boss had the marketing people arrange a dinner for the whole sector.  Dottie booked a function room at the Saisaki restaurant, where majority of us headed after office hours.

We all had dinner first, then the parlor games started.

The first game had each of us picking half of a heart from a plastic jar, then when everyone had their halves in hand, we had to look for the person holding the other half to make the heart whole.  The first couple to go to the front and sing a love song gets a prize.

Funny thing was, when the hearts were formed, there was no male-female couple.  Some didn't even have partners.  For a brief moment, the party could be mistaken for a gay and lesbian gathering.  Ha ha ha!  Dottie decided to give a prize for the first two female couples and the first two male couples.  All four couples had to sing.

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The next parlor game was "How well do you know your boss", where the group heads and boss mon were seated at the back row while their staff (?) are seated in front.  Shayne was the one chosen to sit in the chair in front of me, and we weren't that good especially if I myself do not have an answer to some of their questions ... like - if I don't have a favorite love song, how the hell could one expect Shayne to know what it is? He he he.  Che and Tita Esther won that round.

The next parlor game was "hep hep...hooray!".  You guessed it, the party organizers got it from the ABS CBN noontime show.  Marti won the first round.  Lenny won the second round.

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The last game was "How well do you know your friend".  Part of the game is recorded below.

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One of the funniest moments came from that game.  Some people in the audience would whisper hints to the contestants.  So when Gene had to guess what Pam is most afraid of, someone hummed the theme from Spiderman. Instead of writing "spiders" which is the correct answer, he answered "men".  Everybody had a good laugh at that.

Dottie rented a videoke for the night, but it was barely used.  Marti sang a couple of songs during dinner, and a couple of people sang before the party was ended since the restaurant was closing.

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Happy Valentine's Day

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.

Bringing My Dad Home and Getting Sick

I started coughing badly Saturday, and by Sunday I had fever. I wasn't feeling well when I went to work Monday.

When I went to St. Luke's Monday evening to handle paying the bills, I was so sick that I was in a bad mood... worse than in previous days when the hospital's slow pace would drive me nuts.

We hired the same ambulance that drove my dad to the hospital. The driver arrived wearing a polo barong and slacks ... which was when I realized he may actually have a regular 8 to 5 job and drove the barangay ambulance as a volunteer. Ha ha ha!

We got home around 1:00 this morning.

I took another sick leave today. My brother says I got flu.

Get Well Baskets

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.

Update on my Dad

Jon thought Papa had pneumonia when he agreed that Papa should be brought to a hospital, where tests will confirm whether he is correct or not.

When I bugged Jon last Feb. 4 to ask the hospital what they thought Papa's sickness was since Mama did not bother to ask, a resident confirmed that the diagnosis was pneumonia.

My dad could actually go home but he wanted his teeth checked and extracted ... he had been putting off going to the dentist for years, afraid that his heart condition would complicate a tooth extraction, that the only place he is comfortable with a dentist is a hospital. My uncle said he'd talk to a dentist in the hospital and schedule an appointment.

A Note on KFC Salads

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.

 

Bringing my Dad to the Hospital

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.