Luu's 19th Anniversary

We have been eating alot of Korean food lately. I have to admit it, it is pretty good. Tonight was supposed to be our going-away dinner w/ Nam & Thuyen. Thuyen brought a bottle of wine to Park De Gam Ne Korean restaurant on Friendship Highway. As we were getting ready to order the owner came into our VIP room and started chatting and asked what the occasion was. As it is w/ Thuyen & myself we always come up with something...be it true or false, all for fun, so I blurted out that it was their anniversary!!! And it truly was..19th anniversary on the 25th to be exact! Congratulations you guys for your everlasting love. To our surprise the owner decided to throw in free kimchi chinge soup which she said she has never done before. Hmmm...special us;-) It was like a feast...so much food & great wine. The owner even sat with us & chitchat for quite awhile. It was a nice dinner and I still have one more bottle of champagne left so maybe we might have to come back to this restaurant one last time before I leave the Philippines in exactly 2 weeks. Thx Nam & Thuyen for dinner;-) And again Happy 19th Anniversary!!

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Mejia's Get-together ~ Aug. 22, 2009

The Wade's & Luu's packed up in our car and headed to Subic for a little get-together @ Mario & Thu Mejia's house. We picked up Kha @ Brent Intl School since he spent the night @ his friend's house. But before we arrived @ the Mejia's we stopped & showed the Luu's some of the bats that were living in the area. It was something kewl & interesting. There were so many and I was able to capture a nice pic of one that had its wings spread. We saw small monkeys along the way also. I've heard they can be aggressive. We had heard that a co-worker was curious about those lil creatures & decided to get closer for a better look. That was a big mistake because before he knew it he was being chased by those very monkeys! Hahaha...at least his guys were entertained by the sight of him running towards the car....FAST! Anyway back to the party...quite a few people showed up. It was a nice place with a great view of Subic Bay. We met some TIers that had arrived in the Philippines & who will be here for another year or so while we are getting close to closing our journey here in the Philippines. There were also a couple of TIers that were just here for a couple of weeks, traveling for TI in Asia. We met the landlord of the Mejia's Jo & Boy Lim & their beautiful twin daughters. They are a very nice family. We had a wonderful time, good food & good company. As usual with the Wade's we were the last guests to arrive & the last to leave. Right before we left I had to get a picture of Mario covering his car mirrors with plastic!!! For some reason or another there is this particular female monkey that will steal mirrors; Even if you fold the mirrors inward that monkey is truly very clever to find a way to get what she wants...sounds like a typical female hahaha.
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Makati/Pililla w/ Friends

This past weekend we headed down to Makati to run a few errands and also spend some time with our good friends the Huehne Family. Liza, Mattie & I went to this province town Pililla to pick up her new maid & also to drop by for her friend's birthday party. She didn't tell me until we stopped in front of this funeral parlor that the party was up on the rooftop...if you saw my face you would die laughing hahaha. Definitely a first for me but it wasn't as bad as I thought since this was where they only sell the caskets and not the actualtualeral home. Of course with any filipino parties there will be a karaoke machine & lechon baboy (roasted pig). The birthday girl, Sarah, was entertaining guests all day; Filipino culture is that it is an open invite so expect the whole town to show up for food & merriment;-) I also got a Pililia souvenir on my arm...got bitten somehow:-( We stopped at this cute lil coffee shop; Had southwest feel to it and made me think of home. On our way back to Makati we had the driver dropped us off @ Greenhills for a lil shopping spree for gifts to take back for family & friends in the states. Time flys when you are having fun becuz before we knew it we were getting texts from the guys. Must be dinner time hahaha. When we finally got to the condo both Michaels, Charles & Tata from the band The Bottleneck were either laying around or sleeping; Must have been buzzed from drinking @ Havanna Cafe. After driving in circles around Manila Bay (Malate area) we finally found the Seafood Market Restaurant. Chinese restaurant but looks like a supermarket...fresh seafood & veggies you can pick out and have it cook anyway you want. Too bad I left my cam @ Liza's place & my cell in the car. Awesome dinner with awesome friends! We didn't venture out after dinner cuz Charles has a recording early in the morning & truth be told we were all stuffed!! Sunday lunch was @ Hooters in Manila Bay. Good but not as good as back home. It is always a pleasure to spend time with the Huehne family. Then it was a long hour & half ride home.

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Encounter w/ Golf cart

Today was supposed to be nice...as in a nice lunch with Michael & Thuyen, which was not the case. The day started out as yuck! It rained most of the morning, giving me migraines, so call me Grumpy. Since Zen was closed for lunch we walked over to Korea House Restaurant. Lunch was so-so since I had my heart set on Zen. So as we were walking out to the car, Hermes (our driver) backed the car up and was waiting for us just ahead. From my left comes this maintenance guy in a golf cart speeding down & TEXTING mind you...head down looking at his phone and not paying attention to where he was going. I yelled for him to stop but too late. The back of my car stopped him. He slammed into my poor car!!! Pretty good damage for even a small cart. Of course the cart driver said his break was not working and I said of course not since you were texting and that shut him up. Needless to say we were the center of attention since everyone had to come by and check out the commotion. Seems like there is nothing better for anyone to do or places to be. It took about an hour just to get his sup over and then the cart driver started apologizing to me in Tagalog, I am guessing trying to apologize so that he will be forgiven and won't have to pay for the damages since he said he has no money....mute since I am not a Filipina. And yeah I forgave him but I sure hell am not going to pay for the damages that he caused. Up until now I wasn't fretting too much since I know our car leaser JC will take care of everything & make it all go away...his father is a very influential judge in Makati/Manila. Heck anytime the so called police tries to give us tickets for bogus reasons we get JC on the phone and hand it over to the police and before you know it the police is apologizing to us for stopping us...now THAT is power! Anyway, Michael had to cancel his meeting so time was lost due to stupidity. Once the CDC police (5) came it was pretty clear to me that they were going to gang up on us. I mean there were about 12 men on one side of the road & us 4 on the other. I want to be fair in making assessment of the situation but I felt it was clearly divided...us against them. The CDC didn't even come ask us what happened, took the statement from the cart driver & interrogated Hermes. They saw an opportunity to make $$ or was in favor of trying to help the cart driver from any wrong-doing, even though we were the injured party but unfortunately for them we had surprises of our own (car was leased & we had our own ammo).We felt like we were on the defensive mode and then I was like oh yeah let's bring in our guys...so Michael called Dino, TI Head of Security (ammo), and had him sent his two supvs for reinforcement since I was not liking the way the investigation was going. I had a sneeky suspicion that was what they were trying to do since the CDC police wanted to have my driver go give his statement @ their office and they were interrogating Hermes as if he was the party @ fault. Well let me tell you, that was not going to happen on my watch. I told the TI security supvs to accompany him for backup if not for anything else. I am sure all those filipino guys (CDC & crew) love me...especially when they are not accustomed to a very opinionated female like myself;-) About 4 hrs later & them trying to pin it on Hermes, I got a txt from Hermes that the cart driver finally admitted that he was in the wrong; apologized to JC on the phone and his fines were reduced. He's lucky it was JC & not me. So everything was settled and no worries for us except the poor car will be showing her bruises for awhile. She won't be going to get a facelift anytime soon since we only have her for 1 month. Lesson learn...regardless whether you are at fault or not, as a foreigner, you will always be in the wrong. Don't get me wrong, there are alot of good people here but unfortunately you will come across alot of rotten apples. And yet we were able to find humor in this whole ordeal...Michael asked me tonight during dine-dine:

Following convo>

Michael: What did you learn from the Philippines?

And he answers for me: That you didn't trust people before & now even more! LMAO

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Hanging out w/ "Chump"

This weekend we hung out with one of Michael's coworkers from the states . He and his crew (MEI) were here last Fall so this is nothing new to him. We took him to Al Bacio Italian restaurant for lunch. Had a glass of wine or two so we were all feeling good. Mike Piscopo wanted to get some stuff to take back home so Fields Ave would be the place to find anything you want...plus we can also sit and do some people watching @ this bar called Kokomo's. Fields Ave is known for lots of bars & "entertainment" if you will for foreign men. I've been down there once to meet up with our friends Matt & Tamra before they headed back to the states but other than that it really isn't a place a female would normally hang out. All I can say is to each his own. Mike P. was wheeling and dealing w/ the local street vendors and it was actually a fun experience. Cracks me up when I think about it. I, on the other hand, couldn't hang (mixing drinks is never good) w/ the boys so they pretended to understand and took me home. All I remembered was waking up 2 hrs later after being dropped off (drunk as I was I was still keen on the time hahaha), disoriented and my hubby is no where to be found. Boy let me tell you...I was NOT a happy camper! Somehow they managed to continued partying. But I was too busy trying to keep the room from spinning that at this point it was mute. Hangover is a b*tch!

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