FriSat happens when there’s so much happening on a Friday that it spills over to Saturday. It’s also a test of endurance since I’m still trying to suss out what parts of my body, Covid may have ‘damaged’.
You never know.
We went to the movies a lot when I was younger and what I remembered most aside from the movie, was the lobby, the red carpeting (why always red??), the pervading smell of popcorn, salt and butter, and the posters in their gleaming glass cases. I wanted so badly to bring home a few like Dune, Indian Jones, Blade Runner and ET. But this pile- gosh..I did get one of the new Downton Abbey movie.
Heaps of Indians - yep- NOT wearing masks. Fuckers.
..is strange indeed, like a psychedelic horror trip and I wasn’t surprised when the credits rolled and the director was Sam Raimi (I knew it when I saw the 3rd eye).
Such a mission to cook several kilos of pork to make sisig
I frankly have zero interest in collegiate games, but if everyone in your WhatsApp and Viber groups have been burning the chat feed with live play by play, you sort of reluctantly end up joining. I couldn't be bothered to find a live stream so I found a youtube channel where the play-by-play was done via basic animation (to avoid copyright issues) and it did the job. Well done UP!
Drawing IS hard, especially when you believe you have talent, but the problem is, you never really learned or practiced.
I adore these ugly, lumpy misshapen things of beauty
Hello to a warm-ish winter
New season of Love Death + Robots coming next week
I could say a million things about the results of the Philippine elections, but I won’t.
Instead, let me share this story my mom told us. When the Miss Universe pageant was held in the Philippines in 1974, my mom was a teacher at the Binmaley Central Elementary School. They got a directive to be part of a group that was tasked with planting flowering bougainvilleas along the sides of the highway so that when the Miss Universe candidates drove past (they were to go on a sight-seeing tour of The Hundred Islands in Alaminos) they would see, well, flowers. Even if they only did the Binmaley to Alaminos route, this would be about 47 kilometers.
Interesting times ahead..
I’m 99.9% okay.
I finally tested positive, and the line couldn’t be any clearer or finely drawn as if it was screaming, ‘is this what you wanted?? Well here it is then..”
I’ve realised two things about this: 1) you really have no choice in the matter no matter how careful you are. This is the age (and future) we’re living in; 2) You need to be always prepared- ALWAYS.
But the symptoms have been mild; I can remember colds that were so much worse.
The only thing I wasn’t absolutely prepared for is food- I’m ravenous. Even Sam is ravenous. I want to eat steaks with fries; slow-cooked pork belly; pancakes with bacon and banana dripping with caramel syrup; vermicelli noodles loaded with chicken and prawns; steamed mussels eaten with french-bread slathered with garlic butter…
This brand is good (or I could be imagining it) that I just got to get the morning counterpart of the night one that I got as a birthday gift.
Second book from my book-subscription that I got as a birthday gift
I slept at around a quarter to 1am trying to finish the last few 30 pages or so of ‘Salem’s Lot.’ Again, the book wasn’t how I remembered it which makes you think- it might pay to read books you’ve read in the past. I used to hold it in high regard like it was the best vampire book I ever read but now I may have to revise that. It’s not a diss against Stephen King or anything, but it’s like finding yourself at a high-school reunion and realising that the people you were enamored with turn out to be not all that you thought them to be. But when I finished, it was like parting with a good friend and there are no regrets.
Lily tried to wake me up sometime during the night, but this time, my body prevailed over waking up for the cat which we’ve been doing the day she arrived.
Tested negative- but I’m not surprised. I feel fine though you go through your day in a sort of surreal daze as if any moment, you’d wake up and everything was a dream. My throat has started to feel scratchy and I could feel when I cough, that push of phlegm in it, but who knows. I’ve bought a ton of lemons and a jar of expensive microbial honey and perhaps, I may be overdoing the hot drinks- the acid may be irritating my throat? Is all this vitamin C overload pointless?
After reading news that Netflix has spent as much as $60 million per episode on the upcoming new season of Stranger Things, I went back to finish the previous seasons as I had stopped mid-way in the 1st season. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t how I remembered it which meant I wasn’t really paying attention to it. Or maybe because someone was always pushing out the same plot of 80s kids stumbling over puppy love, aliens, and demented demon clowns every 5 minutes.
Anyhow, it was truly the 80s of my childhood- in a way. Growing up, I didn’t really have friends, but I had a great imagination, so I simply created the friends that I wanted and the adventures we had. But it was in part, fed by the stuff I read in those years: Nick Joaquin’s Pop Stories for Groovy Kids (which became my template for how I should sound as writing in a non-native language); The Body by Stephen King and my favourite, The Long Walk, also by King. So I actually did have a happy childhood just being by myself.
And when I grew up and finally made friends, imagine my disappointment- but that’s another story.
So Sam tested positive last night.
I was all agog over picking up the bamboo plants over at Doyet’s the next day and it was to his credit that he thought of testing first, ‘just in case’. The red line came up swift and clear in a couple of seconds. It meant that sometime between Monday and Wednesday, in those beautiful, expensively maintained grounds in Queenstown, some dirty, stupid bitch had Covid and didn’t even know it and was passing it around like party favours. Or perhaps they did, but didn’t care as is often the case it would seem with a lot of people these days who shrug it off as if it was inconsequential.
Ugh. He rings Mary down at the flat, and I could hear her trying to keep her agitation down. So we’re all stuck at home and minutes later like in a terrifying dystopian movie, SMS alerts came up on our mobiles advising us of what we already knew.
Almost immediately after, I log into New World’s website and round up a couple of ‘essentials’- lemons (terrible supply these last couple of months), a jar of honey, cup noodles, potato chips, Lily’s favourite shaved deli chicken. In my mind, I go over the meals for the next couple of days; nothing complicated to prepare and easy on the stomach. Thank God for Filipino food like adobo which keeps forever (just make a big batch of it) and comforting arroz caldo.
I had been having allergic fits (pollen and dust mostly) the last couple of weeks with a warmer autumn season, but now suddenly, every sniffle, every itchy feeling in my nose felt like a portent.
But what could you do right?
Well, I cleaned the bathroom; did a weeks worth of laundry; finished all pending work deadlines; dusted off some books I had been meaning to read. The worst you could do really, is nothing.
And I comforted myself with the thought that next week, there were exciting courier deliveries to look forward to- a new Nespresso machine, a new pair of Yeezys and a bunch of morning Sunday Riley goodies.
For me at least, I would have forgotten the heartaches, the regrets, the joy..but I would always remember what I had eaten…
Again!
Milk bun, spicy pork and kimchi, beurre blanc
Gochujang charred octopus, garlic chives and shallot namul, cashew
Galbi glazed short rib, celeriac remoulade, horseradish, mushroom, perilla
My normal go-to; salmon eggs-benedict
Amazing cake favours by The Caker
Finish off the weekend with a Sunday high-tea (don’t be fooled by the ‘little’ morsels).
Ticked off six of my Holy Week tasks, and the Nespresso machine broke. It’s over 6 years old so I guess it’s time to get a new one (which excites me).
But cooked rack of lamb for the first time and I surprised even myself as to how nearly perfect it turned out to be. My only nitpick was that I could’ve pared away more of the fat, but I didn’t really know I had to until we were eating it.
But for supermarket meat (yeah, FUCK YOU FARRO FRESH FOR FUCKING UP MY ORDER), it was superb. You just need to season it aggressively (I used salt, Moroccan spice rub and za’tar) and of course, cooking and resting times are crucial. I had thrown away the packet which indicated how much it weighed, so I just made an educated guess by eyeing the meat. I was guided by the universal advice, that the rarer the lamb the better. And it’s true- the texture is vastly different from beef.
The method is straightforward: sear; put into oven for 10 minutes at 180; take out, ‘paint’ with mustard before covering the surface with the duke; put back into the oven for 20 minutes; take and rest for 5.
I have to admit, I miss the old traditions of Holy Week.
But that was a million years ago and even when I was last in the Philippines, much of how we celebrated it had already changed so much.
My homage to those days was practically doing nothing on Good Friday which I spent at Doyet’s. I started re-reading ‘Salem’s Lot’ by Stephen King; I took a long nap; I didn’t check my phone, muted all notifications; I didn’t even open my MacBook to watch anything. We had a nice Filipino dinner of sisig that I had made, boneless bangus and vegetables cooked in coconut milk. I went back to bed to continue reading.
By the time I decided to call it a night (just before midnight) I was more than half-way through the book, and fell into a pleasant, dreamless sleep.
Breakfast was longganisa and scrambled eggs and Black Saturday was a perfect, crisply-cold but sunny autumn day.
I’m over trying to plan exhausting holidays that are anything but relaxing. Tradition tells you to relax and to genuflect, but then there’s also the Christian motto, ‘God helps those who help themselves’.
So I’m sure that God wouldn’t mind if I chose action over reflection; items on my list are..
De-scaling the Nespresso machine
Sorting out my clothes now that I would be spending more time at the office
Sorting the garden patch and transplanting some of the cacti
Finding a gym
Updating my cameras and my drones
Sorting out work-stuff for the next two-months
Sorting out the kitchen and my drawers
Finding stuff to put into the inorganic bin
Doesn’t look appetising does it?
But it’s getting colder, slowly but surely, and soupy/brothy things both comfort and make you full really quickly.
Got the salmon heads at the Asian store. I was supposed to only get the (salmon) collars, but someone ahead of me on the queue was ordering literally kilos of it and I thought they would run out. The heads bin was just beside me so I got two just in case the greedy motherfucker in front of the line bought everything out (he didn’t).
I just use sinigang mix (with miso) and throw in several strips of ginger. Seasoning is just salt and pepper. Realised that the spinach in the crisper was too far gone to use but I still had a head of broccoli and it actually works with sinigang.
Fortunately, IOS is now considerate to your needs. When you have your bed-time set, it mutes things such as messages and notifications. Essentially, you go to sleep without knowing the world burned while you did, but then, WHO CARES??
Covid, Ukraine, Trump, Marcos, inflation, dying kids in Africa, melting glaciers, and disappearing Hawksbill turtles…mmmm. I need to vacuum the upstairs.
I was disappointed though- it didn’t turn out to be the ‘chicken nasal’ that I remember..hmmmm
It’s that time of the year! You grow old, you grow poorer especially if you’re like me and love showering yourself with gifts, but that’s another story..
This one is about gifts you’re lucky enough to get from other people. Mary got me a book subscription from Wellington company Good Books; you simply fill up a short questionnaire about what stuff you read, and someone picks out something you’d like. Leila is already doing this for me (!), but this time, I’m committed to reading it because you get a new book every month.
So I’ve starting out with an Aotearoa author, Bryan Walpert.
The novel Entanglement has been shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2022, and is about ‘a memory-impaired time traveller attempting to correct a tragic mistake he made in 1977 when, panicked, he abandons his brother on a frozen lake in Baltimore.’
Legs are the hardest to exercise. Ironically, they’re the easiest to develop. I’ve been persevering for a couple of weeks and I could feel a very noticeable tightness in my pants and shorts in the thigh area. This should compensate for not having substantial glutes.
Season 2 of Bridgerton celebrates love, and this is the thing. You’d be a fool if you believe in all of it, and you’re also a fool if you don’t.
Don’t underestimate the usefulness of the ‘walis tingting’.
There are people who love themselves by simply having a glass of wine at the end of the day, or who play sports to get that human connection. Leila and I create- it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad (nobody is judging as it is for ourselves). Creativity keeps our soul nourished.
I wish I could have lechon for my birthday
Unless you were a Putin, a Duterte or whatever the Chinese premiere’s name is, I guess you’d cave into whatever the public wants (how you accurately gauge that though is a different question altogether). New Zealand is relaxing (or doing away) its vaccine mandates soon ‘amidst a clamour for normalcy’. Fine with me, but if you’re one of those who actually believe that we can find ourselves back to some ‘normalcy’ I have three words for you - YOU ARE STUPID.
But I must admit that even the best of us sometimes falls into that hole. When the border opening dates were announced, we were looking at trips- Canada, Japan, Australia. It’s good to dream, but be careful not to buy into a fantasy.
The Philippines? Only to see family because other than that, I can’t stand the politics. You are who you pick to lead you. Yup, I hontesly can’t stand the fucking country anymore.
Work has always been great and challenging and fun. BUT WHAT ELSE?
YSL or Apple, that is the question
I’ve been craving for leche flan for literally years.
I’ve been mentioning making it for the last three Christmases, for my birthday and for someone else’s birthday. I think my trepidation was my belief that it was challenging to make.
In my mind having grown up with memories of getting other people to make it for any special occasion you can think of, preparing it had taken mythical proportions.
But at the end of the day, it’s basically eggs and milk baked in a bain marie. I separated a dozen yolks, dumped in a can of condensed milk and a cup of normal milk, a tablespoon of vanilla and used a whisk. To make the caramel, simply adjust the temperature of your pan as the sugar melts and its colour changes. Keeping the temperature high all through out will burn it. Keep stirring until there are no visible granules left and you have a silky, golden brown syrup.
I didn't even use those familiar small oval pans because I think they’re not commercially available.
I followed some random recipe online which got one detail wrong- it doesn’t cook in 30 minutes. It takes a little bit over an hour. Other than that, it was one of the easiest sweets I’ve ever made.
And it’s delicious as I’ve always remembered it..
I think I might buy this combo instead of the new MacBook Pro 16 with the M1 chip Max