hello kitty II

no, i didn't win in the lotto (simply because i haven't made a bet yet). neither was i that rich nor obsessed to buy that very expensive phone. but little miracles do happen...and it did happen to me.

just a day after i saw the hello kitty phone at ebay, my sister sent me a message that she had seen the phone that i liked somewhere. at the time, i hadn't told her about my "find" at ebay. it turned out, she saw a photo in a local magazine which featured the vintage shops in marikina shoe expo. though i hadn't seen the magazine yet, i knew it was the phone. i immediately called up the owner of Chunky Far Flung Gallery to inquire about the price and to reserve it for me before anybody beat me to it.

that was why i made the round of vintage shops in cubao, with my niece, M 2 weeks ago. when we got there, i checked the phone out. it was yellowish from years of use unlike the one in ebay. it wasn't perfect also, with some chips on the cord and the plunger. nevertheless, it was the phone of my dreams and it was working. in true filipino fashion, i bargained a little with the owner about the price although deep inside i knew i would get it. in the end, i got it at P1600.00 (around $ 28). not bad coz i didn't think i would see another one like it.

though the sale was made, i didn't take it home yet that day coz they had to change the cord. it was only today that i got to take it home and is now standing proudly at a table beside my bed. but i don't think it would last there. i have to find a higher place to put it where P & L wouldn't be able to reach them coz i'm sure they would be very curious about it.

oh, when i saw my sister's magazine, the photo was sooo small that only the eyes of a hawk would see it. i was lucky my sister had very sharp eyes. and i believe that phone was really meant for me.

tomato sauce or tomato paste?

i recently donned by invicible chef's hat as i made my first ever attempt to cook lasagna (or anything at all). the ingredients were almost complete, except for one. the recipe called for a can of crushed tomatoes and i had no idea what it was. did it mean tomato sauce or tomato paste, coz they were the only ones we had in the cupboard. what was the difference, anyway? with no one to answer my questions, i sent sms messages to 4 friends.

KT was the first to text back, "tomato paste is thicker than tomato sauce". hmmm...that was helpful but i knew that already. i still waited for the others' input.

M was the next to reply with, "i don't know". at least she was honest! okay, so 2 more to go. i hoped they would help me solve my problem.

i waited for B to respond coz i knew she cooked. but she never did. probably she was busy in the hospital or had ran out of text load. too bad. A didn't answer too. either she was napping or doing her laundry, which were her favorite pastimes.

oh well, in the end, i used tomato sauce. it made sense coz if you crush tomatoes, you'd get a sauce-like consistency. yey! i'm smart!

after everything was prepared and was ready to bake, i realized another dilemma. how do i operate the oven?

bahala na si batman

should i be alarmed? my friends are getting married left and right, and having babies too! in fact, two of my highschool friends are getting married this december in a span of 1 week.

for the longest time, i've belonged to the majority...the singles. during our early 20s up to our mid 20s, there was no reason to hurry up and start a family just yet. we were all busy building careers or going into law school or med school. but for the past 2 years, those same people started thinking beyond their careers. it was as if a bug bit them and they're all succumbing to the marriage bug.

unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on my mood), i haven't been bitten yet, along with a few of my friends. but we're turning into a minority group, slowly going into extinction. still, i'm not daunted. it isn't my time yet or maybe i'm not just cut out for it.

que sera, sera. in short, bahala na si batman!

harry

i finished reading book 6 in three days. took me a while longer than i expected coz i kept falling asleep especially in the first few chapters. for the first half, i think it was a little dragging, probably the reason why i kept dozing off. plus it took me time trying to recall some of the details from the previous books. i should have read book 5 again before i started on this book.

i was glad harry was over his teenage angst which was very evident in book 5. i found him really irritating on that book. i was almost not sorry when syrius died...it was his fault anyway. in the newest book, harry was back to his old self but a little more mature and still quite a smart ass.

towards the end, i felt tears starting to drop. i didn't expect what happened to happen. given my history of crying while watching movies, it's probably no surprise that i would shed tears while reading too. but this was the first time i cried over a book...and a harry potter book at that. i think my hormones are acting up again...

the book was okay and i would still wait for the 7th and last installment. but i didn't think the author wrote this book for the kids. it was too grim. but then again, kids are different nowadays so it may not be a problem.

one thing for sure, i gotta talk to FRD. she finished reading yesterday. i hope she could answer why somebody had to die...oops, i've said too much. my apologies to those who haven't read it yet.

vintage

my niece, M, had a sort-of educational experience when i brought her with me inside a vintage store yesterday. as i was browsing through the various items reminiscent of the 50s to the 70s era, M called my attention. she was pointing to an old turntable and asked what it was. at the time, the turntable had a vinyl record playing.

i then realized that this was a new experience for M. she was seeing those things for the first time, things that were used before the advent of digital technology. i then started to 'educate' her.

on one table were three rotary dial telephones in different colors. they looked like the ones provided by pldt in the 70s. i remembered ours was a black one. M, after seeing the phones, was puzzled how one could make a call when there were no buttons to push. there were a lot of other items in that shop and each item brought questions from M.

as for myself, being a 70s baby, some of the items there were also before my time. but at least, i had an inkling what those items were and their uses coz they didn't differ much from the things i saw while i was growing up . but for M, those same items were like coming from another dimension.

by the way, the shop's name is vintage pop and it's located in marikina shoe expo in araneta center, cubao, along with other vintage shops. as for the reason why i was there in the first place, that would be a topic in another entry. ;-)

hello kitty phone

the telephone of my dreams. the phone i've been obsessing for since i first saw it in a sanrio store when i was 6 or 7 years old. i couldn't afford it then coz it was way beyond the savings i had in my piggy bank. i would ask its price everytime i was in the store, in case, by some miracle, it was on sale and i could well afford it. obviously, that didn't happen.

and today, after searching for it in the internet for about 7 years (that's when i started going online), i found it again. my heart started palpitating while i was waiting for the whole page to upload. and when i got into the price part, my heart almost failed! the bidding price at ebay started at $499.00! now, how in the world could i afford that?!

even my mom, whom i could usually charm, wouldn't buy it for that price! i doubt my sister would buy it too even if we both share a facination for hello kitty.

aargghhh! times like these, i regret that i'm still not earning. if only i hadn't pursued going to med school, i would have been earning my own money. and i would have afforded that expensive phone. haayyy...

and now, that gorgeous telephone would stay in my dreams...until i win the lotto jackpot and become an instant millionaire...

...but only after i start betting on the lotto...

P

P's version of an angel

this little girl could be really sweet if she wants to. she would kiss everybody endlessly and without much ado...only if she was really sleepy and all her defenses were down. but normally, it would take a lot of cajoling just to have her lips near anybody's cheeks.

P has some of the characteristics her Ninang M has and one of them is her eyebrow. it's a thick straight line where there's no gap in the middle to distinguish it from a left eyebrow to a right eyebrow. another similarity is her second toe which is longer than all the other toes. she has a sweet tooth too, especially for chocolates, which her ninang introduced her to, when her mom wasn't looking.

she's very talkative too...more like a parrot coz she's in the stage where she mimics everything she hears. P loves to eat and wuold eat everything given to her. so her ninang's favorites have become her favorites too since she's the one who'd let her taste almost everything, except for nuts, and the like, which could choke her.

while she was still living with her lola and ninang M, she would cry every single time her ninang would get her from her yaya. but crying wouldn't stop her ninang from carrying her away, just the same. in fact, her torturer enjoys hearing her trying to protest, using her unintelligible sounds. having no choice, she would try to enjoy herself as they play horsey-horsey, sing songs and take pictures until such time when she remembers she was kidnapped from her yaya. her ninang would let her go then.

and now that P's living in another house and sees her ninang only on weekends, she makes an effort to be sweet, friendly and be a very good girl when she's with her. probably she misses her ninang so much but there's also a higher chance that she's just thankful she doesn't see her everyday.


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lola - grandmother
ninang - godmother
yaya - nanny

what now?

at the clinic today, a weak-looking man came in for consult. he looked like he was in his 70s but when i checked his record, he was just 60 years old. the lines on his face and his small frame plus years of living in poverty made him look older than he really was. he was having a little difficulty breathing so i didn't ask him too many questions, instead, i asked his daughter for the necessary information.

as it turned out, the patient was already seen by another doctor in a government hospital a few days ago. some laboratory exams were needed to be done but they didn't have the money for it. neither did they have the money to buy the medications prescribed. and so they went to the clinic to ask for financial help.

it's so sad to see patients like these who, because of extreme poverty, could not even afford to get sick. but it's sadder that the government could not...or is it would not...do anything about it. so they turn to other agencies, such as the place i'm working now, for assistance. but most of the time, whatever help they get, is not enough.

as a physician, it's frustrating to see patients, who after diagnosing the problem, ordering the necessary work-up for confirmation and giving the prescription, comes back to you, worse than the previous visit, with no labs done and no medications taken. in those times, all i can do is say a little prayer that somehow, they would get better.

twilight zone

i had a some kinda twilight zone experience just a while back. after i got home, i went to my room to check some things. when i flicked on the light switch, nothing happened. i tried for a couple times more, went from one switch to another (my room has 2 switches), tried all the combinations i knew, coz it normally acts up. still, it wouldn't turn on. i sought help from C, our driver, but he was not successful. i then asked the carpenter, R, who was working on something, to fix the light. but still, it wouldn't work.

then i suggested, maybe it short-circuited. they asked me to check the other lights from the other rooms. and guess what, they wouldn't turn on too. i was getting a little nervous coz my mom was out of town. i'm the boss for the next 3 days and i was feeling a little helpless.

R checked the circuit breaker and surprise, surprise... the switch for the ceiling lights on the 2nd floor rooms were off! how could that be?! nobody switched it off! and if it was caused by a short ciruit, even if the switch was turned on again, nothing should have happened. the lights should have remained off. but when they did turn on the switch from the circuit breaker, all the ceiling lights from the rooms started working!

that was spooky! right now, i'm not sure if i'm glad that it wasn't caused by a short circuit but some unexplainable cause. but i don't want to think too that my dad or something else could have a hand in it...

welcome to the twilight zone...

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i called up my older brother and asked him if his family could sleep here tonight. they're on their way now. haayyy...