My main goal for my vacation in the Philippines was to relax (check) and catch up with friends. Over three years ago while I was dating Sherwin on the ms Statendam, we made a good friend, Ronnel. After Sherwin and I left the Statendam in January of 2009, Ronnel left the company and has had some other job ventures over the last couple of years (one of them being a fabulous wedding planner!). When he found out I was coming, he immediately contacted me and said we had to get together and of course I agreed.
He texted me about 6AM (when he got off from work at a club that he works at) a few days ago and asked me if I wanted to meet him for “afternoon tea” at the Greenhills Promenade which is the massive mall close to my condo at 3PM. I was game for sure! We met up at the promenade around 3:15 at a bistro/café called “Bizu” where he had actually worked several years ago at another location. Cakes and pastries of every color and shape lined the path on the way to our table at the back of the restaurant. Now, they did actually have “afternoon tea” available, but we chose our meal off of the regular menu. The waitress took our orders - both identical – with an oriental salad and the mixed ravioli stuffed with cheese, portabella mushrooms and meat (not exactly Filipino food, but it’ll do!)
I don’t think the two of us stopped talking the entire time – we had a blast. It is so good to see friends OFF of a ship in their own comfort area where we don’t have to worry about all aboard time or heading back to work – we had not a care in the world!
Our meals were delicious but the dessert was a whole different story….AMAZING! Ronnel ordered the “Yoga” and I got the “Mango Cheesecake” – my two favorite things in one incredible dessert! The mango cheesecake had slices of mango presented as petals of a flower – so pretty!
Since we were so close to the mall, we headed over there and I took full advantage of having a friend that speaks Tagalog (I’m going to learn it – Rosetta Stone is on my Christmas list!!) and have him help me do some bargaining because I needed some pillows bad! If I’m sleeping alone, I usually have 4 pillows to myself…the owner of the condo left me ONE that looks like it was steam rolled the night before I got here because it was so flat. Not only were his language and bargaining skills put to use, I had an extra set of hands which was SO nice! Every trip I’ve made to the mall, I’ve seen this lady selling orchids and I was dying to have one. It wasn’t practical to carry that as well as my groceries etc back to the house with me – but now I could. We bought my orchid for 150PHP (About $3), grabbed some groceries and my new pillows and headed back to my place.
Ronnel came home with me so that he knew where the condo was for the next time he comes over and to avoid traffic (as much as you can avoid it here – even at 2AM it’s ridiculous!). We hung out together until 9 or so and he headed home – but I had SO MUCH FUN just having him here. One of my many many Filipino blessings :)
Here’s a picture of us posing with the self-timer. The ironic thing I just noticed is that you can see the Greenhills sign over Ronnel’s right shoulder!
(Objects in photo are closer than they appear- it’s really a 70PHP ($1.50) taxi ride or 8PHP Jeepney ride away.)
No comments:
Post a Comment