Meet-up with Friends in Clark

July 24, 2010

Funny how Facebook can really bring people together.  I have been using Facebook (with all its simple applications) before it was even popular.  Most of the people I know used Friendster but for some reason, I steered clear of it.  Now, since there is a staggering number of people connected to one another on Facebook it surprised me that it took a long time for me to connect with my former officemates.  It's funny too that I got connected with them primarily through my favorite ManiPedi salon, Hotnails Spa LOL

(L-R):Dana, Me, Dylan, Jeff, Lily, Martin and Mang Rudy

 (Patrick was taking the picture)

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I got caught up with my former officemates - Martin, Jerry, John, Lily (she's one of my first friends on FB too) and a few others.  Martin then extended an invitation to treat us at one of his favorite restaurants in Clark, Angeles, Pampanga, C' Italian Dining.  Patrick already had the privilege of eating here during the coverage of one of his events and he swore that it's the best Italian food he's ever had :) So, naturally I also wanted to try it out.  Of course, Martin always posted pictures of the dishes he orders whenever he eats there so that always sets my mouth watering hahaha It was good timing though that Lily was also headed for some R and R time with her family and so we also decided to spend the weekend in Clark.

While in Clark, we couldn't pass up the opportunity of trying another of it's famous restaurants, Zapata's.  We're fans of Mexican food so we were all excited to try it out, although Dylan conked out from sheer trip exhaustion while we were there.  Here's a sampling of our orders:

Tacos and Iced Tea

Combo Platter for Patrick - Tacos, chili, bean soup

Bean soup

The Top Favorite: Quesadillas

It was weird though that from the outside you probably would think twice about going into the restaurant.  For one, it was like totally closed-off when you're coming in from the street.  But once you overcome your initial fear or doubt, and you step into the foyer, you'll be welcomed by the yellow and quaint interiors, the pleasant staff and the over-all charm of the place.

I know that a restaurant has made its mark on us when the kids request us to return :) Can't wait to go back :)

Some July Highlights

It's tempting to simply create a blog post about every little thing that happens to you and simply upload it on the Net.  I try not to do that because for some reason, I'm reminded of that scene in Percy Jackson:  The Lightning Thief movie where they're floating on the River Styx on the way to Hades and there around them are floating debris that represent people's discarded desires, hopes and dreams.  I don't want to litter the net with seemingly insignificant trivia about my life which some of you may not even particularly care about hahahaha


So here's a condensed version of what to me are significant moments in July :)1) My best friend, Kat, called!! It's been such a long time since we chatted on the phone and this time, I think we broke our own record.  We were on the phone for almost 7 hours!!!!!!! 7 hours!!!!! If that's not a cause to celebrate I don't know what is! hahahahaha

2) Stanley gets a huge gash resulting from a negligent car wash handler.  

It goes without saying that Patrick is meticulous when dealing with anything for Stanley.  He really loves the car and so do we.  As part of Stanley's regimen, Patrick takes him to 2onetwo Autocare just beside Charlie's Grind and Grill (and Charlie's is a whole separate post!) in Kapitolyo, Pasig, usually after work for car washing and waxing.  Imagine his consternation and anger when he discovered a long (longer than the Top Gear Magazine), deep (up to the primer) gash on the left-hand passenger side of the car!! What it looks like is a gash made by the rotary polishing buffer which in inexperienced hands can really wreak havoc! When Patrick spoke with the supervisor and the "attendant", they claimed it was there all along which really drove Patrick mad as any one can imagine.  First, that's the driver's side so how can Patrick possibly miss it every day that he drives the car? To cut a long story short, they never acknowledged their mistake and didn't even offer any restitution.  boo to them!! Also, Patrick also mentioned that the attendant was probably a neophyte since he put the same rotary buffer under his armpit while it was still on, hence shredding his shirt and ending up bruising and scratching himself.  This "mistake" cost us at least P5k to repair, including the cost of the cleaning and waxing "service".  Patrick vowed never to go back and patronize them again... 


3) Ate Mel started her baking class in Dana's school.  For about 2 weeks, Ate Mel participated in baking classes in Dana's school for free! It was fun for her and even more so for us because we got to taste whatever she baked in the class.. but you know after a while, you kinda don't want to see another baked goodie ever LOL


4) Stanley is officially mine - Patrick and I finalized the registration for Stanley after months of delay hahaha I am now the official owner of Stanley wohoo!

Mangoes vs. Mongos

Okay, this is a brave thing that I'm doing - putting my stupidity on the Net. LOL You'll find out in a moment LOL

To give a brief background, you all are aware that Dana just started speaking Tagalog when she started in Kindergarten so naturally, she's not as adept at speaking or reading or writing it as her classmates.  So then when I checked her assignment notebook when she reached the house, I saw she'd written that they needed to prepare 10 mango seeds, soil and a small pot.  From this list, I kinda deduced that they'll be doing some planting but what made me wonder was why 10 mango seeds?? It was so out of the ordinary that I even sent Ate Mel (our babysitter) to ask the teacher where to buy the mango seeds and the even more baffling answer was "in the market".  

I have been going to the market for as long as I can remember and I can't for the life of me think of one instance where mango seeds were on sale there.  So, there I was racking my brain in search of where to buy mango seeds and even went so far as to search the Internet to see if the Manila Seedling Bank was offering mango seeds for sale LOL  In the end, I had to resort to desperate measures!

I asked Ate Mel to buy 10 pieces of Indian mangoes (which were fortunately still available in every corner of the street).  I ended up eating 7-8 of those mangoes while I forced Ate Mel to eat the remaining two.  It's funny now that I'm writing it but it wasn't so funny when you're actually eating them! LOL

So at last, Dana will not go to school empty handed! I was so happy and relieved even though you can't imagine what the state of my tummy was hahaha

Imagine my surprise when Dana returned from school.  I immediately asked her how their school planting session went.  She told me, rather affectedly, that she brought the wrong seeds!! Her classmates brought MONGGO seeds!!! I almost fainted when I heard that!  It was so ridiculously funny and yet so irritatingly frustrating that "monggo" didn't even cross my mind when I was thinking of seeds.  On hindsight, I kinda remembered planting monggo seeds as a science experiment but for the life of me, it didn't connect in my brain! 

What happened was that Dana read "mango" instead of "mongo" on the board and that the teacher didn't correct what she'd written assuming probably that the kids knew what mongo was.  Dana didn't know what a mongo was because I don't cook it and we don't eat it hehehe

All that fuss for a mongo seed! That's why they needed 10 of them because they're small! LOL

Funny moment that I just wanted to share and one I'm not likely to forget in a long time LOL  Hope it made you laugh hahahhaa