Slice N Dice

Ma has an annual Mooncake dice game w/ her old classmates every year. This year Pa couldn't make it (Sy Association officer duties), so I subbed for him. The "Gang" (a number of whom I've met and travelled with) met at what was formerly the Hancourt restaurant at Annapolis Street in Greenhills. Halfway through the 8-course meal most of us were already feeling full. (Senior citizens don't need much, really.)

As for the dice game we played for cash and hopia bought from Salazar's Bakery. Every ang bao won also netted you 1 hopia of various sizes (bigger prize, bigger hopia). Eventually we ran out of hopia and started giving away the dinner leftovers and unopened cans of Coke. (Like I said, they didn't need much.)

I didn't do too bad, especially compared w/ Ma's game (tip: toss dice w/ only one hand). My biggest prize was from getting 2 sets of triples--3 ones and 3 fives. While Ma didn't make back her thousand-bucks-per-head buy-in (x2), we did end up w/ a lot of hopia and leftover chicken and abalone soup scooped from a coconut.

All I did was show up, eat some seafood and left w/ almost 900 smackers. It was the low-end version of Paris Hilton being paid just to show up at a party. (Only w/o the venereal disease and subsequent sex video.)

Be Cool Weekend

Typing this from my cousin's house in Bagumbayan. Just had toron, and before that 200mg of Midol. Think of it as preemptive medication for what my cousins are telling me about impending muscle soreness after wakeboarding.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

SATURDAY--
Didn't sleep before the 6:45AM flight to Naga (weekend trip w/ the 'Rents and 4-Ku) and instead organized all my recent comics purchases (missing #107 --but inadvertently bought a variant of #54 on sale-- of Ultimate Spider-Man). We left the house a little after 4AM, and at he new Terminal 3 we ran into Ninong Jess Robredo (mayor of Naga City), and the mayor of Palawan standing w/ us at the check-in line.

While it was certainly bigger than our last two international airports upon closer scrutiny you can tell some things were rushed at NAIA 3. Water stains on the ceiling. Flatscreen TVs brought in from the original NAIA because the airport flight information monitors weren't working. Airport clocks were out-of-order, too, so God help you if you come in late and watchless.

We had sammiches and coffee at Dèlifrance, who thankfully retained their original overpriced menu items, as opposed to the average inflated airport price. (And they have WiFi! Shoulda brought the laptop.) At baggage inspection they asked 4-Ku to check in his bag because he brought a Swiss Army Knife and safety razor. Meanwhile, despite the liquid ban my big bottles of mouthwash and shampoo made it through w/o incident. Near the end of the X-Ray machine was a giant dropbox holding all the confiscated cosmetic and toiletry liquid containers exceeding 100ml in volume. What a smelly and fragrant waste.

Half an hour's nap later we landed in Bicol. We settled in 5-Kim's recently renovated Mabulo house (now w/ way-better bathrooms, plasma TVs and no sign of flood damage) before going to the ribbon-cutting and blessing ceremonies of the SeaOil Mega Station. Now surrounding the Seaoil Olivan gas station was the Olivan Home Depot (run by son Donald), Total Smiles Dental Center (run by daughter Wenny), a Ford service center and a branch of Banco De Oro. Across the street was a Shakey's, Mercury Drugstore, The Coffee Beanery, David's Salon, PruLife UK and Little A.Sia Restaurant, apparently not connected w/ Little Asia (and cutting it close w/ the copyright issue).

Festivities included a motorcade, a marching band, balloon constructs, buffet food, relatively sexy models w/ SeaOil Lubricants printed on their tanktops (LUBRICANTS printed strategically below the boobline, a seemingly subliminal incentive for customers who need more convincing after they read the Free gift w/ every purchase of Lubricant sign out front), lion dancers and street kids waiting to take advantage of the post-blessing coin and candy tossing (and swipe some of the balloons). One display in the Olivan Home Depot I thought was clever was the bathroom setup fastened on the wall in a 90-degreee angle, including toilet and sink! Wasted a perfectly good copy of Maxim, though.

Post-festivity activity for me was a trip to Pasacao, Ma's hometown. We stopped by her old office/home, SeaOil's refineries (hidden behind Shell's bigger refineries) and a couple of small beach resorts. The Euresian (sic) Resort's loosely placed stone flooring made for difficult walking, and light fixtures on the patio were non-existent. At the Seascape Beach Resort (rumored to be owned by relative of ex Erap suckup Ronnie Zamora), there was a single cottage w/ satellite TV hookeup, but also an ugly coastline at low tide, where you can see everything you wish you hadn't stepped on had it been high tide. The one common feature of these beach resorts is copra. Ah, the smell of dried coconut meat. Distinctly Bicol.

Dinner was at the Red Platter where we were served Dampa-like entrees of seafood (didn't touch the paella negra). Missed the mango shake on the menu and ended up w/ mango nectar. Brownies and Food for the Gods for dessert. Caught up on some reading before going to bed, the A/C's glowing blue LEDs beaming down on my as I slept.

SUNDAY--
Donald took me to the CWC (CamSur Waterboarding Center). Since it was morning there weren't that many people (nor an Aga Mulach sighting) and the sun wasn't beating down too badly. One waiver form, vest and helmet later and I was set. After some tips from Don ("lean to the left") and 1 round w/ the beginner's board (wiped out after 1 round), I took up the skis.

One thing Don didn't tell me was if you use the skis the speed of the cable pull forcibly shoves the water up your butt like a bidet on steroids. Every minute I was skiing I was also getting an involuntary enema and choppy water chafing on the hiney. The 1st two turns were treacherous as it lulls you into a false sense of security before the 3rd (as well as the 5th and last) snap and pull you even faster, threatening to wipe you out and remove your shorts (note: wear securely-tied shorts).

What surprised me was that it wasn't the wipeouts that... wiped you out, but swimming back to shore. At certain parts of the artificial lake a weary wagon can pick you up and take you back to start, otherwise you paddle and wade through the murky, tasteless (probably drank a glassful) water, pulling the skis/board along. When I finally moved on to the board I managed to ride (and wipe out 4 seconds later) it before our hour was up.

Don comes here so often he meets more tourists from Manila than I do, even his ear doctor Ato (whom I also met, along w/ his colleague Mai). After a chicken burger lunch and a Joey Marquez sighting we drove back to Bagumbayan, but not before dropping off Ato and his colleagues at the institute for the deaf they were working in.

Spent the rest of the day (and evening) at Bagumbayn, so, back full circle w/ the blogging. Butt and abs sore now. Shoulder blades to follow.

Chip IN My Shoulder

The persistent consequence of the P90X program is still persisting: pain in my left shoulder area.

Describe the pain, please.

Pinchy, but from the inside.

When does it hurt?

When I raise my elbow almost above my chest.

What else have you noticed?

Once in a while I hear either a small pop or a dull grinding sound when I move my left arm across my chest.

Any swelling or bleeding?

Nope.

Have you taken any medication?

Alaxan, but it doesn't help.

Have you sought any other kind of treatment?

Twice I had a massage. Afterward the pain went away, but after about 24 hours it came back.

Yargh, Me Mall Mateys

(Made a voice memo about this on my cellphone yesterday, but still forgot to blog it. My memo needs memo.)

I was reading The Graveyard Book while waiting for Dee at the Coffee Bean (and Tea Leaf) of Robinson's Place when I saw a burly foreign dude pass by. He was sporting a wooden leg (hard to miss since he wore Bermuda shorts) that started just below his left knee.

In this age of plastics, pneumatics and flesh tone latex rubber it was surprising to see something so old school in terms of prosthetics. Given his physique the guy was one eyepatch and a parrot away from being a pirate, only his "peg leg" was punctuated w/ a big brown left shoe instead of a stump.

I was temped to take a picture but couldn't set up the cellphone cam in time (plus I was doing that stupid voice memo thing). Then again if he saw me he might have keelhauled my ass.

* * *

Went to purchase tickets for me and the 'Rents for a trip to Naga this weekend at the Air Philippines office. While waiting for the receipt another couple --old man and I'm assuming his daughter-- came in to purchase tickets. By coincidence they were also going to Naga on the same date.

When I went to meet up Dee at the Coffee Bean who should also arrive but the same old man and daughter. They even took the table next to mine, with the old man sitting while daughter goes in to order. I was thinking of asking him about their trip but what seems to be an amusing coincidence in thought might seem creepy-stalkerish in reality.

"Hello, 'di mo po ako kilala but I was at the Air Philippines office when you and-- anak mo ba yun-- were getting tickets. Punta rin po kayo sa Bicol? Ako rin!"

Random Weekend Notes

S A T U R D A Y

• Caught up on my reading. 100 comics in 8 hours (but not consecutively).
• Finally beat Amy at Facebook Bowling Buddies, but Andy crushed my overall high score. Boit gives me pointers.
• Dee YMs me about craving Koizu Tea.
• Tried out the P90X+ Intervals workout. It was basically 2 rounds of a 20-minute cardio routine, w/ the second one done in reverse order of the first. Got winded, but that won't last. Plyometrics is still harder, IMO. New month starts tomorrow. Perfect time to start a new program if it weren't for my f@#king shoulder.
• Stayed up all night scouring BitTorrent for the songs Dee asked me to download. It didn't help that I never heard of most of the artists.
  

S U N D A Y

• Tried to watch movies (and the Beijing Olympics closing ceremonies) but I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Didn't help that I was lying down on the couch while watching, but that wasn't the problem. Just couldn't get into it.
• The reason I didn't make any concrete plans to go out today was because I was supposed to have a massage at 4PM, but it turns out Bebot didn't make the appointment. In the end it was just as well since we were going out for dinner.
  
• After picking up Pa on the way to Dampa the light rain became a heavy downpour, w/c lead to Pa (again) freaking out about getting caught in floodwaters and insisting we head for the nearest resto of his choosing, Dragon Gate. The other car's occupants (me, Ma, Ais, Evett and 5-Kim) argued against it, suggesting that MOA was a better option since it had indoor parking and more resto options. At first Ma wavered, so we made the U-turn to Dragon Gate. When the parking attendant told us that even their parking lots were flooded we headed out for MOA. After settling in Fish & Co. the downpour stopped. Sheesh. I ordered the teriyaki salmon.
• Saw long lost long-lost SJCS classmate Johanna Ong, carrying (I'm assuming) her daughter. Didn't say Hi to either one of them.
  
• Actually had trouble blogging about the weekend due to lack of content, hence the "bulletpoints" edition.

SPITactular Finish

A bunch of us attended S.P.I.T.'s last night of free shows for August at Mag:Net Cafe, w/ most of the them from Dee's side of the family. My new friends and acquaintances include: Caz, Nes(tor), Sharlyn Kaw (who I suspect is related to my old Saint Jude Catholic schoolmates Karen and Albert) and Rachel Ti. KV, Maine and sister Marilyn completed the group.

While this was my third time to catch SPIT, a new face (for me, anyway) joined the cast in the form of Big Boy. (Embarrassingly, aside from friends Aryn and Kenneth, and celebs Joel and Gabe, the names of other cast members are a mystery to me, even when Aryn introduces them before the start of every skit. Sigh.) His techniques of exaggerated accents and a meta-approach to the joke telling hit the spot. For my part in audience participation I was thrilled 2 out 3 song lyrics I contributed made it through, plus my suggestion for biik (Tagalog for piglet, to my non-existent foreign readers) made for some good jokes following KV's poorly utilized suggestion tattoo.

After the show (again, now down to 90 mins. from the previous 120) it was Trivia Night. KV unscrupulously volunteered our group to join this no-prize quiz contest, either working under the impression that we'd have a fun time or to somehow take advantage of my not-so-limitless knowledge of useless information. Talk about being disappointed on both counts.

KV registered us under the modest name of Team Right Answer, w/ him as team captain Captain Caveman. There were 5 teams, 60 questions, but no buzzers, so we had make animal noises. Captain KaVeman chose "woof," overruling my "quack." The team to get 3 right answers got to vote other people out, while a team getting 3 wrong answers had to kick someone out of their group.

First up: Celebrity triva (alright!), but w/ mostly sports figures (ah, crap!). Goal: spelling their Eastern European Block-loving, vowel-hating last names. Long story short: we lost, and KaVeman (and all the other team captains) were eliminated.

The game continued. We were this close to scoring our only legitimate point of the evening had we spelled Christina Aguilera's name right, but used one 'L' too many. Next to be elimnated: first people in line or in front of the mike. Cue Me.

The rest of the evening was spectacular, to be completely dishonest. The Name That Font segment and Kenneth Keng's Star Wars trivia portion probably had Dee use up her "What the hell?" catchphrase quota for the evening, while I was in the audience wondering out loud if Kenneth got out of the house often. After 80's Showbiz (unfair, IMO, seeing as most of the team were born in that era), Team Right Answer (w/ not even the 5 pity points Gabe awarded but took back for enduring Kenneths SW trivia) called it a night. We stuck around for one more round of drinks, basking in the taste of light beer, picture-taking and a cacophany of pretend animal sounds. (One team gave up trying and just went, "Chicken chicken" instead of clucking.)

Sunday Broken Sunday

Swear I don't know what's wrong w/ my reflexes today. While preparing lunch I dropped a Corelle dinner plate (w/c shatters in star-like fragments, btw, and not in bigger pieces like in the movies).

Then tonight while getting a drink of milk my glass accidentally hits another glass in the counter, breaking the first one.

I already got more sleep last night than I ever had in ages, so I'm not sure exactly why I'm this clumsy.

Your Saturday Night Movie

Tonight was dinner night. Movie night. Booze night. Overnight.

Okay, 2 outta four ain't bad for these things.

My guest list shrank as the day went by, leaving me worried about having too much food and not enough people showing up. (Ooh, déjà vu...) I prepared tacos and corkscrew pasta served w/ chicken in marinara sauce (oh, and ice cream). Cathy (Yao) and her sister Mona (Lisa, seriously) brought lumpia shanghai. Dee brought cakes and KV brought a minibar.

We helped ourselves to dinner while six cans of San Mig Light and Schwepps tonic water rested in the freezer (but sadly remained unopened in the course of the evening). When I mentioned that KV emcees and the Yao sisters baked for bucks, the guests got to talking about business prospects. Dee, with all the manic energy of a female Tim Yap heaped praise on home-based food businesses, specifically cakes. The louder pair of guests (guess :p) also wanted to hook up for conversational Chinese language lessons.

After the ladies toasted on cranberry vodka (KV had scotch) we headed for the living room for tonight's main feature, REC (voted by majority over Superhero Movie). I've now become so desensitized that the scary scenes came off as "Cool!" rather than "Gaah!"-- almost like when I ride roller coasters. On the other hand from the paralyzed look on the sisters' faces I'd say it worked on them. We ended up watching Superhero Movie to dilute the memory of Spanish zombies. Now for this my belief that dick and fart jokes cheapen a decent parody, so thank god there weren't that many. It also helps to watch it w/ a group, as you somehow ride w/ their energy on the laughs. It's hard to describe, but there's some jokes you just find funnier when a specific person (or group) likes it, too.

Three AM already? Go to bed. Head's killing you. Parting shot, so to speak:

Body of Work

Had my first professional massage tonight. (Hmm, that sounded dirtier than necessary.) Juliet does house calls and our live-in secretary is her usual client, but I wanted to give it a go, if only to see if she can get that knot out of my semi-sprained shoulder. After a bit of Tae Bo and a shower it was my turn under her knuckles.

As I lay on my stomach in my A.B.U.s I couldn't tell what she used to scrape the soles of my feet, but I did discover that my tuchus is ticklish. When she got to my upper back and shoulders she kept hitting that nerve cluster I associate w/ the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. I didn't lose consciousness, but wincing was the word of the day. She also had to tell me to go limp several times when she tried to rotate my arms or bend my head forward so much I almost kissed myself on the chest.

If the masseuse's goal was to crack my joints the way people crack their knuckles, she was only successful insofar as cracking my toes. And speaking of w/c the toe-pulling was my least favorite of her moves, but she was successful in treating my shoulder. Still, better lay off any plans to get back to weight training to be on the safe side.

Strangely enough she managed to make my calves feel like I've been walking on tiptoes all day. When I showered again (to wash the Efficascent Oil off) my skin felt tender, w/c wasn't surprising considering that she kneaded me like week-old dough. All worth it.

'Rent-Free

It's now Day 2 (or Day 3 as it's past midnight) of No-'Rents Week. During this time things slow down around the house. Less lights are turned on at night. Almost everyone goes to bed early, while conversely I get to go down to work at 9AM instead of 8:30. (Guess what? Work's still there, Ma.) And no big meals are cooked either for lunch or dinner.

And how nice of Typhoon Karen to show up as they left. Rainy day.

Spent my morning trying to watch downloaded copies of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies (good chunk of the video concentrated on the parade of nations, so I skipped that) and Sleeper, w/c I'm sure wasn't Woody Allen's way of describing what you'd end up being while watching it. And finally after watching the first two episodes of Hotel Babylon I'm convinced I can play the show on the background while doing something else on the PC.

Another perk to having the house to myself is being to leave it at odd hours (odd for this family, anyway). For instance, tonight I met up w/ Dee for a late dinner at the Museum Cafe in Greenbelt 4.

On a side note, I have 2 bones to pick w/ this cafe's design aesthetics:

1) Fine, the regular lumpia-roll style of presenting a wet towel is cliche at best, but someone should tell them that utilizing instead the shape of dog turd won't exactly invoke images of good hygiene.

2) Ok, so the artistically-cut pads of paper conceal the ugly metal vase, but why place it near a lit candle? Hell, let's make it an even more obvious fire hazard by turning the vases into candle holders.

We had tandoori chicken pizza (thankfully not as spicy as expected) and mojitos. For my first time taste of the latter I can say it was a bit tasteless. Maybe it was partly because Dee ordered the non-flavored (by kiwi or lychee, it seemed) versions, but otherwise all I could taste were the mint leaves. After dinner I treated her to gelatto.

Ah, without the Contessa around only Dee can get me to get out of my comfort zone.