I have had a relatively quiet evening as I write this post. My husband went to bed before eight o’clock, a rarity that may become routine since he’s started getting up at four-thirty to get to work at six.
I stayed at home today due to a rather bad morning of gastroenteritis. I vomited food for the first time in my adult life. I thought I would be sick for a few days, but after that I felt much, much better.
So… anyway, let’s skip ahead to how my February looked.
Reached a milestone in home cooking
One of my themes for 2020 is to continue leaning in to home cooking. At times, when I feel lost and overwhelmed at the abundance of Western dishes that comprise ‘dinner ideas’ on Google, I hark back to my childhood. What did we eat? What do I miss? What humble home-cooked fare am I starved of, because I live in Manila where people are time-poor and seldom cook their own dinners?
I decided to try my hand at the party favourite, lumpiang Shanghai and a personal favourite, misua at patola (also called almondigas). Granted, I set myself up for rather miserable evenings when I decided I could cook a large batch of both one Sunday evening. I ended up making sixty lumpia rolls over the course of I think three weeknights, all the while frying up and eating several rolls while I… rolled.
I felt that my efforts were so harried and half-assed that I began to resent my delusions of reliving my childhood. But then…
It ended up being worth it. Every day that week I looked forward to eating my lumpia and misua. My sister and her kids were over that weekend. I was able to serve them my fare. My sister complimented my cooking.
Why is this a milestone? Because I want to be able to take my Filipino fare with me when I move to Australia with Ben. I want to at least know how to cook lumpia from scratch. I know that at least here you can buy them pre-prepared.
My lumpia filling wasn’t even as fine as it should, but that’s all right. Tej said it made the lumpia heartier.
One other experience that made me feel prouder of my achievement was, some weeks later, I craved almondigas and ordered it at Pancake House. To my surprise, the soup they served me was rather bland, sad, and brought nowhere near the joy and relief I got when I ate my own. So, using that as a benchmark I can confidently say I can make and serve you lumpia and almondigas, and it’ll be comforting.
Setbacks in zero-waste
After a several months, I’ve decided to drop two zero-waste practices:
Toothpaste
ZW toothpaste is fairly simple; baking soda for abrasion, essential oil to make it palatable, and something mild as a carrier to both ingredients. I fared well with coconut oil as carrier, though it took some getting used to; the paste melted to liquid at room temperature, so it lived in the fridge, which meant I had to plan ahead to take it from the fridge, let it stand for fifteen minutes, then use it. This was all well and good, and I actually prefer the clean feeling of my mouth, especially my teeth, after a brush. However, coconut oil broke me out particularly on my chin, and I was getting tired of getting one zit after another without respite!
So I tried another rather popular medium—arrowroot powder. The cleaning power was less impressive on me, as I suspect the arrowroot powder stained my teeth more than cleaned them. I was willing to give this a chance. BUT, it took about a week for my lips to start reacting to it.
I had had this reaction before, in 2016, of which it took me two more years to realise was caused by beeswax, present in most drugstore lip balms. I don’t know why my skin decided at twenty-six that it cannot stand beeswax. Before, I got by with random brands. Now it’s only petroleum jelly for me. No Burt’s Bees, EOS, or any other ‘natural’ brands.
Going back to toothpaste, I could try Georganics, although I was less than thrilled to find kaolin [clay] in its ingredient list. Clay is a non-renewable resource, although I’ve read that kaolin can be created in the lab. Who knows? Back to Sensodyne for now.
Deodorant
Did you know that ZW toothpaste and deo practically have the same ingredients? I’ve been using an arrowroot-based brand for months, now. It works well enough. However, I admit I’m a bit tired of sweating a tad more profusely than I’m used to. I’m also more prone to odour after a few hours. This weekend I told Ben I was disproportionately excited to buy my usual Dove deo.
So, I give up. There is no point in trying to be eco-conscious at the expense of my health and well-being. I might pick up the bottled shampoo and conditioner again… Just to see if there’s a difference. I feel like my hair was much… healthier and shinier before, before the time I restricted myself to shampoo and conditioner bars.
Books update
My reading has slowed considerably since I finished my digital declutter last January.
I have finally finished Story of a Soul, the ‘autobiography’ of Thérèse of Lisieux. It wasn’t an autobiography per se. It’s a compilation of three letters she wrote under obedience, to recount her life, and to share what was referred to as ‘her doctrine’ at the time. Today it is called her ‘Little Way’, or the ‘Way of Love’.
The book was incredible and satisfying. I say that as a returned Catholic. There are so many passages where I could relate to her life (the fact that she grew up with all sisters!), but also to her thoughts. I want to write a separate post about her book.
The next on my list is Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. Interestingly, Soledad Lacson-Locsin referenced the book in the foreword to her translation of Rizal’s Noli. She said that as as a translator, she wanted to capture the mood and cadence of Rizal’s time, and that the only other English work she saw that similarly captured a different setting (Iberian, she called it) was For Whom The Bell Tolls.
I admit it has not riveted me yet, but that’s also how I started with Story of a Soul. The premise is interesting enough, and I’d forgotten the joy of reading an old tome for the first time. Modern books and novels may read easy, but reading an author of a different time opens your world to new views and, frankly, new vocabulary. Today I googled ‘carbine’, and learned the different terms for horses, based on their colouring (bay, sorrel, and buckskin were the few that were mentioned in the first chapter).
Digital relapse
After last month’s digital declutter, I relapsed hard. It’s so easy to dive back into the habit of social media. I went from checking my phone fewer than twenty times a day, to checking it again during meals, at the elevator lobby, and in bed.
For the first week or so of February I hadn’t actually remembered to open reddit. Then I did. Then I browsed for an hour a day. Then it became two. Then, shortly before Ash Wednesday, in a twisted justification, I binged at least three hours a day on reddit.
My tic of idly opening Instagram to browse online sellers, and by extension, opening online stores, also returned. I do not like this. I do not like to have my self-control erode so easily.
St. Valentine’s Day
Ben learned the hard way to ignore me when I tell him, ‘Don’t plan or do anything for Valentine’s. I don’t care.’ Because in spite of myself, I care far more than I care to admit.
This year I decided to level the playing field, and got him something, too! Knowing his penchant for milk chocolate, and aversion to darks, truffles, and textures, I got him a box of milk chocolates from Koko Black.
He also knows me well enough. I have an aversion to red roses. He sent me a bouquet of lilies and alstroemerias.
The bouquet was rather thick. I was able to rearrange it a few times as it thinned out due to the alstroemerias dying rather rapidly. As of this week, all that’s left are the dried baby’s breath, still yellow and vibrant even when it’s dead and dried.
Wedding at Sofitel
A highlight of this month was the wedding of my friend, Helen. I’ve been to enough weddings to know that, as a lowly guest (not family or entourage), I would have at most a few words with her on that day. That is to say, I’m not too embarrassed to admit that my eagerness for the day also had to do with checking in at Sofitel, where the reception was held.
It was Ben’s idea. When I told him that the wedding party was offering discounted rates for Sofitel, he was on board and suggested we both book the Friday off (the wedding was on a Thursday) and plan some nice dates around the City of Manila for the weekend.
Sofitel is supposedly a five-star hotel (a real one), and its buffet, Spiral, has a reputation that precedes it, even among people who have never tried it.
Before I proceed, I want to be clear that… Ben and I can sometimes get a bit posh and expect good standards in places where we decide to throw our money. I am going to sound snooty and overbearing.
You know where this is going.
The hotel was beautiful, and the room as you would expect. But it’s always the little hitches, the little hiccups, that ruin your perception, in the same way it’s the small nervous tics that ruin a person’s good carriage.
For starters, Helen had it noted weeks before that we requested an early check-in. Our check-in procedure went like this:
Staff member: Your room is not ready yet. Please come back around 1:30…
Me: Hmm, we requested early check-in.
Staff member: There’s no note on the system.
She seemed happy to leave it at that. I don’t know what changed her mind and made her decide to magically find us an available room—the fact that I mentioned needing to change into my dress for the wedding, or the fact that Ben reminded me that Helen told me to contact her if I had any problems with checking in.
Oh, and they required a PHP 6,000 deposit to check in. This was par for the course, but it would have been nice to know beforehand.
Secondly, the famous Spiral… was a bit run of the mill, at least for Ben and myself, if the breakfast buffet was any indication. It looks like it’s sell is that mainly, it’s in a pretty hotel, and its selection is wide. Like, you can get fresh orange juice and you can choose between crispy and soft bacon, for example.
What Ben noticed was that the food was cold, unless you were getting a freshly cooked omelette, or toasted your own bread. A lot of the items we also not exactly breakfast fare. Leg ham and Camembert, anyone?
What I noticed, to my disappointment, is that the buffet served the saddest, stalest, most tepid coffee I’ve ever had. These were served and poured from a metal jug by a server who almost looked annoyed that I asked for more coffee. I noticed other tables had French presses. I don’t know what the deal is with that. Should I have asked for a French press, too, to get less sad coffee? I have literally had better coffee in a small hotel in Hangzhou. In China. In a country where coffee is an expensive import and most people drink tea.
Overall, the food was… all right. You weren’t exactly getting Eggs Benedict or poached eggs on avo with mushrooms and baby spinach, a staple in most Melbourne cafes. If the dinner we had at the reception was any indication, you’re guaranteed nice plating, but otherwise cold and underwhelming food. The best thing I had during our stay was the adobo I ordered for room service.
I know I sound really wanky, but my only appeal is to the reader who sees the same deficiencies and wonder why other people hype up an otherwise bland experience. You are not alone. Tara Viking’s na lang.
Lastly, upon check-out, the staff billed us for our room stay, even though our room had been booked under the wedding package! That means that the rooms have been pre-paid, and any cost was between me and Helen. I raised my eyebrow and politely mentioned this. The error was rectified immediately.
That’s the gist of our Sofitel experience. Ben and I discussed the prospect of at least trying the Spiral dinner buffet, in case it was different, but to be honest we both believed the money would be better spent at Blackbird. So we went there, instead.
If you’re looking to spend some money on a nice staycation, I highly recommend Anya Resort, instead.
Lent
My habits and resolutions have gone stale since the new year. Lent to me is a way to offer up my penances to God and to rid myself of my hopeless hedonism.
As this post is running a mile, now, I might take this up separately instead.
Never returning to Tiendesitas
Tired of long waits at Vets in Practice Mandaluyong, Ben and I decided to try Tiendesitas. We thought that, since Luna was due for her vaccines, it would be nice to drop both kitties off at the groomers while we had lunch at Tenya.
When we returned from lunch, we found they were done with Luna, and were drying a wet Lily.
I feel bad because I didn’t notice anything amiss at first, until Ben pointedly asked me what was wrong with Lily’s feet. They looked red and swollen even from a distance, and when the groomers found that they could not hide her bleeding, they quickly explained that our cat was ‘malikot‘ and that she inflicted her own wounds, apparently. As for the nails, which were reduced to red stumps, they dismissed with ‘babalik din‘.
They cut Lily’s nails to the quick. She did not respond well. Neither would you, if someone tore your fingernail past your nail bed. She was terrified out of her wits and was attacking the cage where she was being kept. The ‘groomer’, trained in the breakdown of tasks that comprise ‘grooming’, was indifferent to her state of stress and kept blowing her dry with the hairdryer, as if to get this over with so they can all keep the 300 pesos it cost to groom our cat.
Ben was livid, but chose not to confront the ‘groomers’ or cause a scene. He has enough experience with the poor state of what passes for ‘customer service’ in the Philippines to know that nothing would come out of it than a slew of ‘sorry sir, sorry sir, sorry sir’ and half a dozen excuses of why their actions were correct and justified.
It’s true, though. The few times in recent years that I lost my composure and got angry with a staff member due to one thing or other, all I got was a mindless slew of apologies. It almost seems that staff training with handling customer issues is to simply say a litany of sorrys, because it shows how humble and lowly you are, and that fully absolves you of any culpability, and perhaps your agency as well.
I didn’t realise the full weight of what happened to Lily, until we got home. Lily, who’s playful and headstrong, kept to herself, and kept hissing at Luna. This is the cat who never bit, never scratched, and never attacked unless she felt threatened.
Ben and I talked about Tiendesitas briefly, and were in agreement—it’s the SM malls of shitty pet stores. He kept telling me how he felt sorry for every pupper in the cage of every store. Separated from their companions, and probably bored out of their wits. We are also never taking our cats to groomers, again. I looked up how to groom your cat online, and there weren’t many things we weren’t already doing at home.
This all happened last Sunday. Lily has stopped being so withdrawn, and has stopped hissing at Luna. Every morning, I gently wash her paws in a solution of Betadine, and apply ointment to her claws, as directed by the vet.
———
I didn’t mean to end the round-up on such a negative and snooty note. The clock reads 11:39 p.m. as I go over all this for the umpteenth time. I need to get better at scoping out my blog posts lest I end up with half a dozen drafts, never to see the light of day.
That’s my February. These are its highlights. See you on the next blog post that makes it to publication!