I just got back home from a large drinking session with colleagues from the industry but I didn’t drink that much, only got dizzy with the silvanas I ate. We had talked about many things that should stay within the four walls of that venue. All I can say is–and what the oldies told us—that we should take seriously all threats to our lives and the safety training that we would be taking soon.

We should be braver now and make a stand—and we should support one another even if we are from competing news agencies.

This is the first time this week that it didn’t rain. Since it was too late to go anywhere far, I decided to just drive to QC Circle and buy more plants to replace the ones that died during the deadly heat of the past few weeks. So here we are, a thousand pesos poorer.

While I was buying plants, I had let the girls take rides in the mini amusement park at the Circle. Even though they’re already tweens, they still enjoy such stuff, especially since they were cooped up inside the apartment for week because of the rains.

Then we had dinner at Saigon Pho along Maginhawa St. I told them we should explore other cuisines so that when I bring them with me abroad, they would be more comfortable eating a variety of food.

Now they have discovered the wonderful world of pho. They loved it. They had beef, I had chicken (because I felt I already hit my beef quota for the month). I told them next time we will go to Muang Thai along Malakas St.

Since dine-in is back, I can bring them again to Little India and some other specialty restaurants in Salcedo village that are tucked away inside the CBD buildings like Warung Indo (Indonesian) and Sultan Mediterranean Grill. And of course, my favorite—Little Tokyo in Makati, which is a community of Japanese restaurants where Japanese bankers go. The former MUFG Manila head told me about this little diner there that seats only 15 people that serves the best ramen in Manila and for the life of me I already forgot the name. It’s also in Little Tokyo where I can have my okonomiyaki fix. I mean I’ve been spoilt by Osaka, the food bowl of Japan, and I had a wonderful time eating in small diners there even though I couldn’t read the menu. Because of that, it’s now hard for me to find good Japanese food now that I had the best the country had to offer. Most of the Japanese restaurants here have been “Filipinized” i.e. salty. Somebody asked me, where did I have the best Japanese food, I told him/her (cannot remember now who asked), that I attended this reception by the Japanese government for the delegates of the ADB Annual Governors’ Meeting, which was graced by then-Finance Minister Taro Aso in Yokohama. They spared no expense–they served the best Wagyu steak, best sushi, sashimi and other dishes that I could no longer identify. One Japanese official shared with me a shot of sake and he told me that was the best sake there is. I could tell because it was so smooth. The best teppanyaki I had was in the middle of nowhere in Kinosaki.

I digress.

The point I’m trying to make is that the girls shouldn’t be just confined to mall food. They told me that they remember that we used to go to malls a lot before and I said I hated those weekends but we only went because their dad is a mall rat. That’s one of the reasons he hated me. I didn’t like malls, I didn’t like window shopping, and I didn’t like mall food. When I had the energy, I took the girls to UP so they can play in the grass and climb trees. They picked flowers and weeds. They played make-believe games while running around. I bought them ice cream and taho (silken tofu) from the ambulant vendors scattered around the campus. They needed fresh air and real food and not be confined in malls and see all those things that tempt them to be mindless consumers of stuff. I brought them to QC Circle to play in the playground when it was newly constructed. I let them run around and play games with the other kids. It’s healthier and cheaper, too.

So I’m not surprised that he feeds them pizza and burgers when they’re with him on some weekends. 🙄 Oh well.

Gotta sleep and tackle the Sombrero island painting tomorrow.