MentalQ

There's a place right off airport road in Paranaque (or is it Las Pinas?) where one can buy fresh seafood and vegetables and several restaurants clustered around it can cook them for you.

I tried it a couple of years ago with Paris-based colleagues and they were extremely happy. One even had a photo taken with a lobster to show Parisiennes that he had lobster in Manila which was extremely expensive in Paris.

As usual, hindi ko alam ang title niya, but it should be just off airport road, south of MIA.

Veggies are generally OK; one has to know how to prepare them to make them taste good.

Steam room and massage

Later classical music, a good book and scotch & soda.

I try not to do liquor or wine unless I'm just about winding down/relaxing. I'm afraid it might feel too good for me and I might make it a usual stress-reliever.

First job - Student Assistant , got paid PhP 2.50/hour (1980); probably spent on beer and dates

Next job - Research Assistant, got paid PhP 1,500 / mo (1982) - spent mostly on clothes, books and (when I saved some) a Pioneer tape player (there was a CD player option, but it would cost as much as the whole minicomp)

I always made sure that there is something concrete that I can associate with a phase in my professional life (or proceeds from a major racket).

Thanks, Mr Atong, for the info. Youve cleared up one thing for me: I always wondered where the so-called Monglian barbecues came form, because I've never seen them in Ulaan Baatar. So Chinese pa rin pala ang oringin nito.

Annenberg School of Journalism and Communications, U Penn.

They sent me this prospectus that really defined for me "snob appeal."

Extremely serious, the kind who cant wait to get out of school so he can start fooling around.

When classmates get into the students lounge and hear a typewriter clacking away (PCs were not yet standard office equipment), they are sure that its me.

Galing ako sa isang maliit na private school sa Novaliches, ca late 1970s.

Unforgettable sa akin 'yung isang naging teacher namin (one year lang yata), Mr Epifanio Ronquillo (English & Economics, third year). Lahat yata sa klase namin (all 35 of us) asar na asar sa kanya. He was everything I never liked.

More than 12 years later, as I was getting off the podium after my speech at the ESCAP (42nd Conference?), all I could think of was "@#$# Mr Ronquillo, nasan ka na ngayon?"

Siya kasi yung nagsabi na walang kahihinatnan yung buhay ko nung nasa high school pa ako.

Mr Atong, most of the chinese restos in Manila serve Cantonese food. Any suggestions on other restaurants that specialize in the other Chinese cuisine schools? Also, I would want to hear your views on so-called Sichuan restaurants.

I dont know what's the latest on the Quality of Tropical Hut burgers since they turned fast food, but there was a time when their soda fountains had a really good hamburger (ca late 1970s).

I suppose those 35 and above would share this fond memory.

I forgot one thing. We avoid the grocery at Ever Gotesco Comonwealth even if it is the closest place to us. Goods are OK, but service is nil; long queues at checkout (less than half of the counters are manned "personned"?) even on a pay-day weekend but shop clerks galore linger all over.

Rustans Fresh in Katipunan.

The sales clerks could be trusted to watch over my 5-year old so my wife and I can do the shopping without having top run around. So far, he hasnt broken anything yet.

Fruits and veggies are OK; good service in the fish section, but limited choices. Best time would be Friday PM (it seems they stock up on fish and fresh goods for the weekend). Parking space is practically nonexistent, though.

Maybe this could not be a law, but it can be government policy:

Demand that whoever will be appointed in charge of key service/development agencies should have their family members, children (their closest, dear ones) be primary beneficiaries of their services.

Eg: the Education Secretary should have his/her children study in public schools

the Health Secretary should undergo annual check-ups at government hospitals

the Transportation Secretary should be required to take the bus to work daily

the guy who certifies that a building is safe (City Engineer?) should be required to live in the building with his children

the Social Welfare Secretary should be required to live with the squatters and street children

etc.

I noticed that a lot of the indifference of so-called civil servants is usually due to their lack of exposure to problems they were supposed to solve. If Mike Defensor was forced to live in Quezon with his family, would he have taken the same lenient attitude about illegal logging and deforestation? If President Arroyo (along with her family) has to take the bus to work, sans the wang-wang, without security aides and alalays, would she tolerate traffic jams, abusive traffic police and street crime?

Basic suggestion: let them go through the daily problems that an ordinary citizen faces (after all, these are the guys who pay for their salaries and perks), they would be more serious about doing their job to serve the people.

My few devalued centavos.

China - Tsingtao, Beijing Pijiu, Hebei, etc. (once, I made a fuss in a bar when they repeatedly referred to SMB as "Hong Kong Beer"); China has almost as many brands of beer as cigarette brands

Indonesia - Anker, Bintang

Singapore - Tiger

Vietnam - Hanoi Beer (there used to be Ba Me Ba- 33)

Thailand - Singha, Leo, Chang

Lao - BeerLao

Mongolia - Chinggis Khan (also a brand of liquor)

North Korea - Paekdu or Changbai (bundok yung logo niya)

More later pag na-alala.

All-time favourites:

My Mother's Recipes: pancit guisado, dinuguan (bicol style, w/ gata), laing, bopiz, bicol seafood bouillabaise (everything coming from our little town with coconut cream in soup)

My recipes: seafood lasagna, kum bao ji ding, callos, cocido madrileno

Absolutely uncanny: all the poems shared have touched me at some point. My contribution (with apologies if I missed some lines):

When in disgrace with fortune in men's eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries

Heaped upon myself and curse my fate.

Wishing me to one more rich in hope: featured like him

Like him with friends possessed, desiring this man's art and that man's scope

With what I most enjoy contented least

Yet in these thoughts, myself almost despising

Haply I think on thee and then my state:

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Miss Batibut,

UPLB tuition fee ca 1978 (when I was a freshman, innocent and carefree) was PhP 343 for the whole sem, inclusive of matriculation, laboratory, etc. When I did my MSc, the full tuition fee (I think I was doing 12 credits per sem, same university) was PhP 670++.

I also lived in a self-help (no janitors) dorm for the princely sum of Php !6.00.

Put in perspective, what we're am paying now for my pre-schooler, even adjusted for inflation (my wife did the calculation) would cover the combined cost of our education up to MSc (she did her PhD abroad.

My all-time peeves:

Anything by the person who sang "Love Hurts" (yung tunog pinupunit na yero)

I used to get irritated by the Eva Eugenio and Imelda Papin mushy songs before (nasa university ako noon), but the songs with sexy double entendres make them sound like something from Nana Moskouri!

Anything by Air Supply (I tried turning down the treble when playing it, its no use)

My All-time Favourites:

As Time Goes By (from Casablanca)

All that I Ask of You (from ALW's The Phantom of the Opera)

Wind Beneath My Wings (from that Bette Midler film ? - hindi ko kasi napanood, eh.)

Nowhere Man

Accross the Universe

If I Fell

IMHO, each culture has its "exotic" food; more often, it is only exotic to others, not to the people themselves.

China has more than its fair share:

- Cold dish of marinated donkey penis

- Braised Camel hump

- Deep-fried scorpions

Having gone through most of these (I can only thank my lucky stars that there was never a chance to be served Monkey brain), I did have my revenge by serving balut as an appetizer when I hosted dinner once.

One unforgettable in China is the deep-fried sheep tail. They use the tail of a fat-tailed sheep (remember the drawings of Mary Had a Little Lamb?), remove the fleece and dip it in batter. Then the whole tail is deep-fried to crisp, golden brown and then served wish dashes of sugar crystals. They look very much like fried camote (which made me eat it in the first place). The taste, of course, is something else again.

In Mongolia, they have a version of Bulalo which looked innocent enough, until I nearly finished it and discovered that it has a stone (golf-ball sized) which is supposed to be taken out, and held tightly to serve as heater during winter! Dinnertime conversation goes on with you moving the stone from hand to hand to avoid blistering.