Filed under: simply svelte
This blog needs a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
1.) Quite busy lately, my work has been taking me to places within the country. But the team (three of us, i am the only one in our office) is resolved that we can only spend as much as little because backlog is unhealthy. True enough, in one of our trip up north to the big city
Me: Bossing, Manila please.
Partas konduktor: Di ba kayo yung sumakay kagabi papunta dito
Me: Yeah (inside me: Huwag mo akong kausapin. Makikinig na lang ako ng Abba’s Super Trooper. 
Kanina lang nasa Roxas City ako, two hours away daw from Caticlan. You know what that means. I know what this means. Matagal na rin akong hindi nakakapag Boracay. Nakuha na lang namin mag Baybay Beach Resort (baybay na, beach pa, in Bikol dialect that’s redundant) sa city, a three-kilometer fine gray bordering black sand. Hindi naman ako nagswimming, nagstroll lang.
The city is developing the beach to be the prime destination. Imagine Boracay minus the white. But it’s really commendable what they do there. Plus the city’s vision to be the Seafood Capital of the Philippines. Of course, hindi mawawala ang mga oysters, crabs, ulang (big shrimps), pusit, tuna, pompano at chicken inasal and liempo (na out of place ang dalawa pero equally salivating) na talaga namang kahit di-bakal ang ngipin, lamon bay ang katapat. Ang sarap nung talaba promise, isawsaw mo sa native suka nila. All dined in at this Coco something restaurant.
The team had its desert by the beach minus the very hospitable hosts We insisted nicely that our monobloc chairs and tables to be placed near the shore. The staff happily obliged. On a starry night and a candlelit desert, we shared the blueberry cheesecake, the buko pandan ice cream, and mango wafer cream cake after a seafood indulgence.
Team Member No. 1: Di ba, sabi nung mga taga city, we can see the Sibuyan Islands, Romblon on a clear day from here.
Team Member No. 2: Oo nga.
Me: Sibuyan sea, hindi ba yun yung may Sulipico Lines
Team Member No. 3: Hindi ba sabi din nila sa other side naman daw iyon.
A very long, eerieeeee silence
Team Member No. 1 breaks: Worry ko lang yung talaba (nonchalantly)
Me: Okay pa naman ako so far.
Follows a hearty laugh.
Filed under: simply svelte
Ang daming opportunista. Hindi ko alam kung bakit ganyan ang saloobin ko ngayon. A pack of wolves. Before i know it, ubos na ang mga tupa. Sorry for all these metaphors. I hope you can understand because someone from the other room may read this blog and all hell break loose. I do not understand it. What value are those projects coursing through the office if the office does not gain anything at all? There’s this one officemate of the project office who has three jobs, and then when she goes back here, she feels like as if she’s so involved. What is this i am feeling? And when i ask her why is she absent for some time, she is mum about it, as if there’s a secret of some sort that needs to be kept. Well in fact, i know what’s her up to already even before. She is looking stupid to me, really.
When i learned that the project is extending until 2010. I feel the uneasiness. You can call it insecurity since i will not be involved in the first place but on a larger perspective, i do not see the value it adds to this institution except feeding the puffer fishes.
Filed under: svelte food
I feel heaven on earth when there is good food around.
One of better bonding times with my mother is when we get to explore restaurants abound and get to eat something special. My mom and i will carefully examine first the presentation, calculating it, describing how it is served or if there’s something special about it in the first place.
The moment of taste comes next, which in effect will elicit a myriad of perspectives and memories tracing back to the last time we ate the same kind of food, either the taste could be little better or a way over. What could then be the secret recipe? Eating is conjoined with discovering. We do not bother to inquire around. We do not bother if we match a garbanzo with our palate. We taste it and then follows the wonder, or the disapproval of some sort. I still believe my mother is the best cook around.
But we are not chefs. We are not doing food inventory. We are just simply eating. And then i am no food expert. But i have always been curious how food is prepared - for someone who does not even know a single kitchen work except washing the dishes. That’s true.
But i keep a dream of owning a garden concept restaurant, and i share that dream with my mother. We talk about it as often as we can. In that restaurant, i sit pretty, perhaps with tea or coffee, and not worrying about the profit because i am already moneyed by then. And people as far as Timbuktu will come to my abode as if it becomes their pilgrimage. I keep a very visual image on this. And just like any dream, it should begin with two critical steps - To Eat and Write About It.
