Recap

A week's gone by. What have I to show for it?

A "Tuscan" dinner with friends last Wednesday. The food was decent but not outstanding, the wine seemed to taste all the same except for the sparkling rose, but strangest bit of all was the lack of presentation of the sponsor's discussion points. They spent time setting up a lcd/computer, and a large screen, but I doubt anyone in our side of the room paid any mind to it. Why didn't the sponsor keep us in the alcove where we had been sipping the spritzers and munching on salty nuts and talk to us there? Why did they think that it was better to "plug" their products while no one was listening? Marketer's head on a plate I say.

Long business meetings that last 3 hours or more do not make sense. Especially when the agenda talking points look suspiciously like the ones at the last meeting a month back.

Roasted chestnuts, shelled, packed in little bags of 100g each look like a great convenience, a healthy option. But when they turn out to be the source of 3 hours of toilet time, it's time to find another option. I missed out on a lunch for a friend (a lunch I ORGANIZED for her); but no way was I going to survive a trek outdoors in that condition. I am blessed to have friends who care enough to drop off a six-pack of Gatorade for a dying friend (hehehe, teensy exag).

Speaking of friendship, there are friends who you can count on to nourish you, and there are reasons to cut certain friends out of one's life. When someone disrespects you, why keep them around? I'm too old to be paying court to everyone, pick and choose those who make one's day a joy, not a stressful mess. Faretheewell.

Tsinelas, flipflops. I have two pairs for the house. One I've used for shuffling around the house and for use in the bathroom, the other I got as backup. Yesterday, at the US embassy fair, I found myself another pair. Didn't plan to buy one. And it's definitely an inessential purchase. For P100.00 (or $2.20), I bought a pair of black tsinelas with a cute row of sequins and beads along the strap. Why would I need to pay hundreds of pesos more for brandname rubber slippers when inexpensive alternatives exist? Would have been even more sense, money-wise, if I had trekked down to Quiapo, where I could probably find 3 or 4 tsinelas for the price I paid yesterday. But they served their purpose. I had been walking the bazaar hall for two hours, my footsies hurt, and changing to the cutely embellished flipflops kept me going for another 2 hours of shopping. Priceless.

Oh and I bought a rattan chair.