The second day of my Manila vacation began with us leaving Keso’s bridal shower to be met by the howling wind and rain falling in sheets – it was typhoon Basyang, who was so strong that she singlehandedly brought down Meralco (the electric company).
Right after Keso dropped me off at Caloy’s place, there was a blackout. It was so warm that Caloy and I couldn’t sleep, so we talked for hours till he finally thought of cracking open a window to let some cool air in. He said this was all my fault, that I had brought the typhoon with me. :-/
In the morning, I had to bathe in the dark and put on a wrinkled dress to meet Boss Ed, former KPMG boss, for lunch at Sentro.
I missed their adobo, which is the best adobo I’ve ever tried. Unfortunately they had more than one on their menu and I ordered the wrong one. Waaahhh. Oh well. At least I got to have dalandan juice again. But for future reference, note that the right adobo is the garlicky adobo.
After that I headed to P&G to charge my cellphones. Bwahaha.
Upon arriving at the entrance, I said hello to the guard who knows me until now, so he let me in even though technically, that entrance was strictly for employees and I should have gone to another entrance to get a visitor’s pass.
It was a funny coincidence that Liza was standing next to him. She was on her way home because there was no aircon in the office.
Just then, her hubby arrived in the car, with their daughter Rhyza in the front seat. She’s so big now! Rhyza’s growth is the visual measurement of how long Liza and I have known each other. She was a month pregnant with her when we first met.
When I got to 11th floor, it was so warm and Caloy wasn’t there. Turns out he was in one of the 10th floor conference rooms which had aircon.
So I went, with April and Caloy fetching me from the lobby. When they opened the door to Power of People room, they announced in a loud voice, “Presenting!” There were about a dozen other AP people inside who were all shocked and happy to see me, and I them.
I’m glad I dropped by. After all these years, I still felt at home in that office, with those people. I will always be a P&Ger at heart.
When my phones were fully charged, I said goodbye and headed to Mall of Asia. It was so hot and dark in there; all the salesladies were fanning themselves.
Another disappointment was that all the clothes were a lot more expensive than I expected. I’d be better off shopping in Singapore.
So I wasn’t able to shop for clothes, instead I ended up buying pasalubong and parting gifts for my fave office boys, at this shop called Kultura.
I also dropped by Let’s Face It and had my lashes permed for only 280 pesos.
Then it was time to meet my former housemates plus my friend Flisha, all college friends, so it’s okay to merge them.
We were supposed to have dinner in Dampa Macapagal but due to the black out, we decided to have it in Dampa MOA where it’s not as delicious.
The boys arrived first – Nald, Reggie, Jefrey. Flisha had a sudden meeting and was late.
We ordered kilawing tanguige, tinolang lapu-lapu, buttered shrimps, baked tahong, ensaladang mangga, calamares, rice and Pepsi.
Then we ate the chocolates and cookies I brought as pasalubong for dessert.
Flisha liked my bag hanger so much that I gave it to her, telling her it was my birthday gift. I’ll just buy another one when I get back to SG.
After dinner we walked to Starbucks and had coffees and loads of laughter – at one point Flisha was so red in the face. The things she imagined were very funny! I loved the “yamorde tamen gale le” and “akel de roebucks gale kel” stories.
You know the mani story that’s been going around Adzu for years? We came up with a modified version of it which goes like this: “Sabe tu kel tabende saging prito na Roebucks? Disuyu anak talya ya na Citibank na Manila… tabende tamen saging prito.” (It’s not as funny as when you had been there in the telling)
We went home around 1am. I’m touched by the effort; the boys all had work the next day and Flisha’s flight to our hometown was at 5am and she hadn’t packed yet!
So despite the havoc that Basyang wreaked, day 2 of my vacation was very fun indeed!
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