9/24/03: Last weekend was still fun, so here's what we did.
Friday night, Ian and I went out. We scrapped the overnight stay at the Manila Hotel, even though it was a freebee. It wasn't worth it with the way Nicholas handled our evening out last time, and this time he still gave the housekeeper a bit of a hard time, though no more screaming. I think he was better prepared and I kept reassuring him that when he woke in the morning we would definitely be there. If I couldn't say that, I'm not sure he would have let us leave the house.
So, Ian auctioned off the hotel room to the highest bidder. In this case, it was the guy who offered several loaves of homemade bread. What has happened to us that bread will now beat out $50 or babysitting in a heartbeat?
And off to the movies we went. "Pirates of the Caribbean" was so much better than I anticipated. If the pirates weren't quite so scary, I'd let the kids watch it. It was funny, action-packed, great music, no one died (ok, well, that's a bit of a stretch), just those dang pirate ghost zombie creatures. I think the monkey freaked me out enough. Two thumbs us, and we'll probably buy it on DVD. Two thumbs up for the theater at Greenbelt also. Even better because the volume wasn't set as high as at Powerplant. My ears weren't bleeding, hurrah!
Following the movie was dinner at Nu-Vo, a cleverly shortened name standing for Nuevo Vogue. Ah, so chic. Dinner was amazing and for around P1800 we each had a salad (mine was crabmeat, avocado, mango and more yummy stuff), Ian ordered a lamb dish and I had a "tower" of asparagus stuffed with cheese, scallops and prawns. It was so so good. And look, no bile.
We couldn't leave before checking out the bathroom. No, I'm serious. Folks from the Embassy have eaten here and they comment on the bathroom. So we did our duty and went. In fact, it's quite clever, as there are no sinks and the faucets stick out of the wall like misplaced piping over a flat counter. Turn the head of the pipe, water pours out, and flows backwards off the counter into the wall and disappears. Ah... SO chic! OK, enough with the cleverness of the bathroom, the rest was typical and thankfully had toilet seats and paper.
With a little free time left, we wandered the shops, bought some pastries for dessert later in the evening at home, and balked at the $80 Calvin Kline jeans.
We got home right on time, and heard the details about the kids. All had gone well, and we'll hopefully get to do this regularly. Afterall, the movie tickets were $5. Total. Too bad we missed The Matrix: Reloaded when it was out, but we won't be missing the next one. Of course, our next evening won't be a fun one as we're invited to the Ambassador's residence on Monday, but that will hopefully be quick and painless. And done before the kids go to bed.
So Saturday rolled around (oh yes, the pastries were excellent!), and we ran some errands, including finding the only pet store around to buy the single can of kitten food, getting Ian's eyes checked at an optometrist and ordering new glasses. In fact he bought 2 full new sets since his left eye is going wonky and his frames broke. I guess it was time.
After dinner we all went to the playground for a bit to let the kids run off some energy, only somehow it ended up being just us at the park, and we all got roped into a game of freeze-tag at dusk. The kids had a ball and I remembered why I hate running. So how did we end up playing it again Sunday evening only now with a bunch of other kids in the mix? I don't know. I guess we were just all having fun. Or maybe it's just hilarious tagging Nicholas and hearing him scream "HELP!" as he waits patiently for someone to unfreeze him.
Sunday was church of course, and Katherine has taken a keen interest lately in the parts of the Mass so throughout we were chatting about what the priest was doing and what the different parts of the Mass were. Rebecca has been following along in her Mass coloring book too, and I'm very glad to see that as she's had little interest in church until now. I think that a young adult missal is definitely a gift for Katherine's First Communion. Now to see if such a thing exists. She has her own missal, which is perfect for now to help her follow along and know the responses, but it doesn't cover anything about the readings and doesn't explain as much as she wants to know about the Mass. She enjoys my missal, but it's thick and has loads of other stuff in it that bogs down the basics of the Mass. I'm on the hunt.
After naps, we went to Tesoros, a handicraft store. Ian wanted to get my birthday present. Yes, my birthday was 2 months ago, but he said I could pick an inlaid box and I hadn't had the opportunity to find one I liked. There were 2 in the shop, but neither completely grabbed me. On the other hand, there were gorgeous mother of pearl trunks (for twice the price) that I might consider sometime in the future. While I passed on the box for now, Christmas shopping has commenced and we've purchased for Ian's mom and brother and started other people, as well as getting plenty of ideas. The store carried some gorgeous daggers from Batangas. The real draw for us was that the sheaths were wooden and the blades almost silky. Just lovely and now we have 2 for our fledgling collection. Ian insists that they are necessary, for home protection of course.
One completely off-the-wall purchase I made was a Christening gown. Completely ridiculous actually, as we have no plans for additional children. But I just couldn't pass it up. Made of the fine banana fiber that formal barongs are designed with, I bought a long gown complete with cap and booties. I have no idea why or who will ever use it, but now it's mine. I'll have to take a photo and put it up to show you.
The kids in bed after another evening of freeze-tag, I got to watch the start of the new Survivor season. Woohoo! Pearl Islands, I am here. Of course, the very beginning was missed with bedtime stuff, but it was all good and Ian took notes. I *heart* Survivor.
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