Making Each Trip Count: Museum Cafe

Friday has always been a day to look forward to. Last week was even made special by the fact that it fell on the day that the local parish celebrated its annual fiesta. For us, it meant an extra day to do something personal.  

Despite conscious efforts of hastening with routine, still it was already 11 am when I found myself at the bus terminal.  

Gaisano was our first stop. I promised sis to help her look for crib, bassinet and other baby stuff. Their furniture were obviously old but the place was heaven for baby clothes. I helped myself with a few articles before I got myself a white pair of Sneakers (and got KZ to do the same). We forgot the time, it was already past 3 pm and KZ still had to catch DFA. 

We dropped by SM for Bills Payment. I thought that nobody has discovered yet the Customer Service. Well, I was wrong. Not only was there quite a queue, the clients were problematic as well. One lost her card, and the other had to fill out an application form for license renewal. Our stopover lasted almost an hour, we too a taxi going to Robinsons. 

To finish early, we split up. KZ went to DFA and Philhealth while I paid my Mobile Network. While waiting, I sat and read a little bit.  

Kz's transactions went well, she rejoined me and we had our follow up treatment at Salon Uropa. 

For dinner, we tried something new: Museum Cafe. 

Their main dishes were so costly. I spied a "Dorado" dish priced at P320 when that morning I bought I kilo of the same for a measly P180. And so, we opted for their salad and sandwiches, which didn't disappoint.  

I had Kape Candoni which tasted so much like my favorite House Blend, tempered with whole milk and muscovado sugar.  

For starters, we had salad with tomato salsa, greens and some pickled vegies. I had roast beef sandwich in baguette while Jing had pork and Kz, chicken with their fruit shakes. The food was filling and made a hell of an impression. No wonder GMA hailed them best resto in Bacolod. I  just got to try their main dishes soon.

Living my Resolution: Salon Uropa

A night of inspired writing was lost because I found out just this morning that windows required software update. 

It has been a very long Saturday. I went to work after my weekend chores which meant mucking canine cribs and cleaning the yard. What I thought to be a three-hour engagement turned out to be more than that. I worked through lunch until the sun has set. It resulted to a three-page transcript of the Summit I attended the previous day which I emailed to the bosses before I called it a day.  

To reward my industry, I made plans to spend Sunday in the big city.  

First stop was at Mae Grace's to claim the second installment of my Christmas gifts. This time, she got me a glass French Press. 

I was already late for church service so I  thought of going together with KZ instead of my going ahead. 

Our first stop was at Casa Mait to fetch my boots (among other things). Like last week, the boys occupied the living room and Mimi was still in bed. This time I offered to buying chicken for lunch but Mimi insisted on paying. She was excited and worried at the same time about her trip to Manila. The airline has not sent yet their itinerary. We contacted Customer Chat Support and had to wait an hour to get served. It didn't help that I pressed the refresh button that brought us back to the end of the queue. Lol! 

Us girls went out together and found ourselves inside Salon Uropa. We all opted for the intense treatment which involved a lot of pain. I was a bit disappointed about my attendant but nevertheless, she made my previous facial trips look wasted. Even during dinner, my nose and chin still smarted from pain.

The process took an hour to complete and another 30 minutes for Kz. 

Before our turn, we had to wait an hour as well. So it's no wonder that we almost finished two platters of rice. We had an oriental feast of yang chow, shanghai rice, roast duck, barbecued pork and chicken, a selection of dim sum and soda.

We lost track of the time that we had to run to get to the movie. Sis gave me four passes and we used that to watch Bride for Rent. The cast was good, but I saw no spark between the leads.  

One Rainy Sunday

Despite report of rains in Bacolod areas, at the appointed time, I found myself aboard the bus fighting sleep, determined to read a chapter or two for the duration of the trip.  

The plan was to attend the noon service at Maranatha, have lunch at Casa Mait (and see if the boots will fit the younger Mait's Hobbit feet - her words), watch Ronin with JD or shop with KZ (whoever is available). 

It was almost noon when the bus arrived at the terminal. With Grace still in church and Mimi sim-less, I took the liberty of SMS -ing Jocelyn about calling home so that somebody will open the gate for me. 

Toying with computer were the boys so I went straight to the girls ' room where Mimi still slept and roused her, Perrin just nearby watching me suspiciously.  

With Jocelyn having to go to work, viand was amiss, Mimi cooked us noodles with eggs and after that, rice and more eggs which took forever to fry. The pan was 'dirty' so she used the pot instead, that's why.  

We were in the middle of lunch when Jerry arrived and the boys enquired about lunch. There was none.They had Jedyl go out and he came back with three viand variants. Glen went through the motions of bathing while Mimi and I were eating and took his own meal only when we left the table. And we barely exchanged; actually not a word after his greeting when I first got to the door. 

It was already 2pm when Grace arrived. The boots fit her well but it's still subject for Yosef's approval.
 

 
JD expressed his unavailability just when KZ's SMS arrived about her being in Bago area already. Our output for the afternoon were blazers we got for 50% off the original price and shoes for me as the one I had on gave up as the afternoon wore on.

I sat at Bo's for an hour and a half waiting for company who was having fun looking at me from a distance while I sip my large cup of drip coffee and reading a long overdue book.

Stranded

Even with an early start (on the road to Pulauan pier at 3:30 AM), still we missed the 2nd ferry out going to Dumaguete. An oversight on my part. With so much haste about getting lunch and a refreshing bath,   it did not occur to me to get us tickets for the trip back.  At the port, only the bill of lading transactions were  entertained at the counter, until the vessel left. We stayed another hour deciding between taking the 2pm trip with Montenegro (which was already fully booked as well) and going back to the hotel and get some sleep. It started to drizzle and the skies showing promise of more rain, we decided to go with the latter. 

Since no ferry was scheduled to arrive at that time, very few people were going out of the pier. Sleepy and eager to hit the sack again, I approached one of PPA employees for commuting tips. To get to the city we had to take a trike to crossing (highway) for P10-15 (yet I  paid P25) and either Rural (the red bus - Ceres' franchise down south) Evergood. We took the latter with me wondering how to pay as the driver took notice of us after we boarded and there was no konduktor in sight. My niggling question was answered midway through the trip when a man boarded and started didtributing tickets. We paid P14 each for the service which seemed to be longer than it took for us aboard the pick-up truck. 

The city, shrouded with rain-bearing clouds, was still asleep. Most of the passengers went off their stop already save us. I was looking around for familiar landmark: Jollibee. It was still a block away but since I had no idea where the Terminal was, I asked to be dropped at the next stop. We walked a little to get breakfast before slowly going back to Royal Farms and book another night. It rained really hard while we were still in transit. The student next to me was still, apparently thinking of her taking the finals for having missed a class. Woe! The day's prospect was as gloomy as the weather, we went back to sleep wishing the rain would go away. 

Thankfully, as we were eating lunch, the sun began to peek from behind the clouds. Everyone was out, taking advantage of the strong wifi signal at the dining area that I articulated my suggestion about spending the rest of the afternoon at Dapitan. The chorus of ayes was inflating, we enquired and booked the van for 4 hours and at 2pm, we were already on the road.  

  

Ours was a small company of ten: Pastor and his wife, the newlyweds Brooke and Bong, the girls from Lear Rubai, Ace and Shiela, the newlywed's neighbor Fleur, Grace and myself. We made some short stops  at Montaños to buy some Spanish Sardines and at Cathy's Bakeshop for some tarts and muffins (and miniature tictacs). Before we exited the city streets, we cruised by the boulevard before taking the highway to the next city, Dapitan. 

At Dapitan, nothing much has changed in the last decade except for the new government center at the rotunda. 

Brooke's Wedding - Day 1

Earlier in the week, I reserved a room at Dumaguete's newest hotel, Hotel Essencia. For a small party as ours, there's only the matrimonial room left. That taken care of, we agreed leaving BC at a much later time. 

It's funny that even at less than a year, I have already forgotten how long the trip would last. The 930 AM bus arrived at Dumaguete pier area around 4PM. That makes travel time equals 7.5 hours, even without the detour to Isabela at the time when Hinigaran bridge was under rehab. 

Having set the day before that I will no longer make the trip to BC, I smsed Jing2 three times: after walking Choco, after breakfast (mom fed the dogs) and at 9 when she should be at the terminal already. For good measure, I smsed Glen and Mimi as well to wake her up. She answered at the first call I made when I left the house to wait for the bus at KZ's. 

Having brought with me three pairs of ensemble to choose from, I modeled them all in front of KZ while watching "Phantom of the Opera". The black skirt and the blouse with a bow won. I left the others that did not count, freeing some ample space for another book in my backpack. 

As the practice has been, lunch was at Kabankalan and a quick toilet stop at Mabinay (which terminal has greatly improved).  

Talk was scarce as we were both sleepy. I managed to finish 30 pages from Tolkien's Hobbits and three chapters from Patterson's Jack and Jill.  

  

To avoid needless worry about ferry accommodation, we alit at the pier and walked around looking for updated schedule before settling with Cokaliong Lines. Student fare required photocopy of school ID so we both just paid regular fare. 

That done, we checked in at Hotel Essencia. The room assigned to us was located at the 8th floor with the view of a neglected Ultra Vision Cinema just across the street and the pretty mountainsides. 

When the sun started to descend, we went out to explore Silliman U in darkness. We walked along Rizal Blvd taking photographs by the fluorescent "I love Dumaguete" signage, the St. Paul sisters and the dike. 

Dinner was at Sans Rival Bistro. For starters, I had Sopa de Lentejas for some fiber (to facilitate you know what), followed by fried chicken (and grilled spare ribs for Grace). Jessah arrived as we were helping ourselves to a slice of sans rival for dessert. 

To aid digestion, we walked towards Poppy's Coffee and Cupcakes. There we bought some takeaway to eat at the hotel to pass the time. We had almond and cream cheese cupcakes, cappuccino for me and Oreo frappe for Grace. 

Before finally closing our first day out of town, we each had full body massage in our room while watching a repeat of Just Desserts on cable.

A Day After New Year's Day

Last  night I was occupied with chatting among other things. Volts asked about rephrasing the letter he composed for their supplier regarding a new equipment.    What he came up with sounded good already so I  only did some minor tweaking. 

Besides that, it took me a lot of time to upload today's pictures online. Since the native FB app doesn't work yet, I had to share them first to A500 (which battery was in critically low level already and I left the charger at mother's) or HP (which do not have editing apps like photogrid). 

Earlier in the day, as planned   KZ and I went out. She was scheduled to claim her new ATM card and buy some spray paint for her room while I 'needed' to buy casing for my windows phone, claim planner from Starbucks and pick up camera (I left at Pats' in Cebu two months ago when I attended Maddie's wedding) from Mama Sen at the clinic. Sis also had me enquire about flying ticket rates for next week. 

Since its just along the way to Robinson's, Ordonez Clinic was our first stop. It was some time past 1pm and they were closed for siesta. Peeking throughout the tinted walls, I caught the attention of a girl lounging on the couch mouthing that it was mamasen I went there for. After a few exchanges through closed doors, we finally understood each other and out  came mamasen with the camera. Flattering that she mistook me for a much younger sister exclaiming that I looked like a teenage girl. That went on for a spell with her recalling us with her frequent mistaken age as well. She turned down my invite for coffee at Bisogno (just a few paces away from their building). Instead she advised me to take mucoangin for my persistent cough and cold.

I had an espresso that I know tasted good. Even with my non-functional taste buds, I could feel that distinct coffee taste in my mouth. I promised myself to have the same bevy the next time I happen by.

New Year's Day

Just like Christmas Day, no New Year's eve dinner nor New Year's Day lunch has transpired. 

From lack of sleep comforting the jumpy canine, it was already past 7 when we finally joined the living. Outside, the sun was obscured by the cloudy skies, it looked safe enough to walk under it without any danger of getting burned. I took Coco out with me to release some pent up stress from the explosives cracking to usher in the new year. 

At mother's, I went about the morning routine of cleaning the living room and kitchen while mother heated the untouched chicken roast from last night. After breakfast and feeding the dogs, I was hooked with downloading apps and games on Lumia, I have even completely forgotten about the Hobbit. Besides that, I was glued to FB. 

Bored out of my wits, I had a really early dinner of the morning's fare and some ice cream for dessert before mounting my bike to rejoin Coco. Here, I made a mess of inviting the already obviously disgruntled bloke for my unwelcome presence in his own home for coffee tomorrow. As expected, it was met with a cold shoulder, at the start of the year at that. 

My stupidity deserves the treatment. It's just as well. The more he shows his potential for nastiness, it won't be difficult not to like him anymore. 

Stupidity aside, I finally had the time to cover the books I bought last year. As when to thumb through them, we'll see.