Monthly Archive for April, 2005

Timpla Tidbits

Published
by
mai
on April 30, 2005
in crumbs from your table
. 0 Comments

at the 2F Paseo Center
Paseo de Roxas
beside Equitable Bank Tower

Free Nut Mix

This sucked. Makunat and bitter. But it was free so I didn’t complain.
A freshly opened pack of this must is too much to ask ba?
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Cream of Mongo and Spinach

The lowly monggo.

I love monggo soup (especially how my friend Erika’s mom makes it - with tiny tinapa floating on top) and am quite unhappy that it is not a common restaurant offering. They serve it every friday at the carinderia behind my office so I make sure to get my weekly dose.

Timpla serves a variation. Creamed monggo bean and spinach soup — the beans blended with cream and some spinach thrown in for variety. It’s a bit bitter (because of the spinach?) but the cream does help give a twist on the old favorite. Personally, I think other cooks could have made a more inspired version. I can see the intention…but hoped for more in the execution.

I still like the regular monggo soup, but the creamy monggo soup is a good start. I hope more restaurants incorporate the bean in their menus.
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Binagoongang Lechon Kawali

This was good! The lechon kawali was delicious. Tender meat, well cooked translucent fat, and almost-chicharon like skin that cracked as you bit it. My veins still tremble in fear at the memory. Top this piece of heaven with spicy barrio-fiesta like bagoong (not too sweet, well-cooked, and not malansa) - enjoy, and wait for your batok to start hurting.
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Crisp Japanese Pregnant Fish

This dish was inspired by the deep fried crisp Tawilis. As with the creamy monggo soup…this def had some potential. Timpla’s version used a pregnant japanese fish (I forget what it is called) that had its belly filled with fish eggs. It came with a sweet soy-vinegar sauce.

This would have been terrific if the fish was nice and crisp (the sort which would break into pieces when you bit it). But it was a bit makunat. Pwede na, pero sayang it could have been better. Ano ka ba, cook? Was it because we had lunch at 3pm and you were too tamad to make the effort?
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Pan de Sal with Queso Puti and Longganisa
and Laing

The Laing was creamy and spicy and it disappeared in about 5 minutes. This is quite different from the Bicol version I tasted (which had the leaves dried in a bundle and hardly any sauce and loads more sili). Still a delicious dish, which will go well with a lot of rice.

Manny ordered the longganisa and queso puti pandesal. Looked pretty, but I forgot to ask him how it was. Heeeh, I’ll do some reconnaisance and order this myself.
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Dishes cost from 65+ to less than 200. We (3 people) spent about 200 each for this meal, drinks included.

Hypochondriac Attack

Published
by
mai
on April 26, 2005
in lady with the spinning head and zooropa
. 0 Comments

I would not bring a pet to Animal Clinic in Pasig Boulevard after hours. I have been very dissatisfied with their night-time vet (Manny something I forget).

I have been a bit conflicted about writing this, but thought I would try to save you potential distress. This is my opinion based on my experiences ok?

I have brought my cat to their clinic in the middle of the night 3x (seizures), and I felt that the vet had no knowledge or experience in dealing with this previously. Buti nalang I was reading up about this on the net, because I was able to ask him to take the necessary tests, and to give him a list of possible causes he should consider or rule out.

The most horrible time was when Ita had 5 seizures in the span of 3 hours. We rushed him to Animal Clinic as he was screaming and writhing during the seizure. We took a cab carrying Ita in his bed. I kept calling the clinic during and after the seizures. No one answered.

We ended up banging on the door and ringing the clinic doorbell for more than 10 minutes. I saw the vet assistant look out and see that people were waiting outside, pero the fucker just walked around and carried his mat. Baka he was fixing things, or waking up the vet. Pero come on, it was an emergency. We could have had a dying pet. He should have at least let us in at once.

Vet inspection. Manny seemed barely awake. He took Ita’s temp, said to give him calcium because the seizures were caused by lack of calcium. No tests no nothing. It was only after I listed the possible causes that he tried to take blood from Ita for a test. I knew something was up because he and his assistant were discussing. So I went near to try to listen. Apparently they couldnt find the little needles, or ran out of them. So the vet tried to take blood from Ita using a large needle. Of course Ita was screaming in pain the whole time. The vet then went near me to tell me that they couldn’t get blood from Ita because he was a small kitten with small veins and the needle was larger than his vein. :(

It was in and out of Animal Clinic for Ita. I was a bit annoyed when I would always get a different vet assigned to him. There was no in-depth discussion about how to handle the seizures…one vet said hold him gently, the other said leave him alone.

The last straw was when I brought Ita back to the vet after another night of 5 seizures. The vets took his temp again, got blood (finally) for testing. I spoke with one vet and asked for possible causes of the seizures, and the possibility of epilepsy. This vet didnt answer me and just looked at the reception table. I asked if he knew what caused the seizures, he said “malnutrition”. I said ” The other vet here said worms. The other one said hypoglycemia. The other said calcium deficiency. Did you know that? Did you read his chart? What about other causes you need to test for? Do you want to know other possible causes? Here they are: Feline Panleukopenia, Feline AIDS, Feline …… blah blah …allergies and also Toxoplasmosis. Do you know what toxoplasmosis is? Do you?” He just kept silent. Omigod, he didnt even know toxoplasmosis - a common cat disease. : o : o : o A vet, ffs.

I asked for another vet. This vet said we should give Ita phenobarbital. He read him PIMS / MIMS (medicine book) and made some computations based on Ita’s weight. 1/4 tablet 2x a day for 3 days. I asked him if he was sure (because as far as I read you should not give cats pheno and then stop the meds abruptly…seizure galore kung ganon). He thought a bit, and then said “give 1/8 tablet nalang” :( :( :(

Then yet another doctor said for him to write the prescription using the prescription pad with his PRC number. So what did he do? The pheno-prescribing doctor cancelled the prescription :( :( :(

That was it. I surfed the net and forums, found recommendations for the new vet, and switched.

I feel much more confident with our new vets (1) they seem genuinely concerned about my cat, and any pet-owner can tell this by the way they handle the animals, (2) when I called them in the middle of the night because Ita was getting attacks again, the vet prompty answered the call and was waiting for us when we got there. (3) The vet gave Ita a shot of valium, which is an acceptable practice based on my research. (4) They discussed possible causes and treatments with me in detail.

I’m not asking for miracles naman. Just concern and competence.
________________________

For pet emergencies, you can call Vets in Practice. They’re not a 24-hour facility but there is always a vet on hand to receive your pet.

VETS IN PRACTICE
Dog, Cat and Exotic Animal Medicine and Surgery
#148 San Francisco St., Plainview, Mandaluyong City
Tel: (02) 5337965 Fax: (02) 5355673
clinic hours: 9am to 6pm, Monday-Sunday
After clinic hours, emergencies, and holidays: by appointment only
map here
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I’m going to have the gallbladder operation before 03 May (at least thats what my surgery referral form says). It won’t be a laparoscopy, just the regular slice and dice operation with a 4 to 6 inch incision under my rib. Yummy.

I’ll prob be at the hospital for a couple days and then will take a month to recover fully. This will be my first major operation, I’m both scared and excited (and worried that the stitches will be itchy). Pwede ba isabay ang lipo and boobjob hahaha.
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I just heard from Milett that our college dean passed away yesterday from a heart attack. I think he was only in his mid-50s. Still very young.

Last week one of our contractor’s engineers died of a heart attack (27 years old) and one of our IT vendor contacts died din (35 of a vascular problem leaving behind a wife and 3 little kids).

My lola just died (old age / aging). Our best man’s dad just died din (organ failure due to kidney failure at 58).

O why is everyone dying?

Stress? Pollution?

I am baffled, but hope they have found peace and comfort where they are.
________________________

J I miss you.

Ugly watches It and Royette
at the In and Out Tray

Published
by
mai
on April 25, 2005
in zooropa
. 0 Comments


Ita, Other, and Cornish Rex

Published
by
mai
on April 25, 2005
in zooropa
. 0 Comments

We went to the vet today to visit Ita and have Othercat vaccinated and checked for spaying.

Ita’s been seizure free for a week na, and we’re taking him home tomorrow. I do hope he has gotten strong na talaga, and am still a bit worried about seizures. I’ll ask Dr. Nick for a valium tablet just in case.

Sniffing Ita.
His fur is shaved at the arm area for the catheter they used
to give him his rehydration fluids.

Ita is still very makulit!
We set him down on the floor and he started hopping around
and actually ran into the glass door of the vet’s office.

Dr. Nick says Ita’s been really playful in the last few days. Ita actually stayed in a cage with some of the clinic kittens but spent most of his time investigating the cage, bedding and kitty litter..ignoring the kittens really.

Other’s our last unspayed adult cat. A few months ago she ended up in the hospital because of severe liver damage, probably caused by poisons when she was an outdoor cat. She’s been on liver tonic for months, with blood tests every week, and it was only last month that she got a clean bill of health (liver-wise) from the old vet. We havent had her spayed yet because she’s been in heat constantly. I read about this a bit and apparently some cats can almost stay in a state of constant heat when they are unmated. No machos in our office, sorry Othercat. Heeeh, they’ve all got their little marbles detached.

Dr. Nick said he didn’t need to check Other to know she was in heat. The clinic heat-detector (their Cornish Rex cat called Rex) couldn’t stop sniffing Othercat. So she’ll have to go back next week nalang for her operation. We’ll just have to put up with her whining and yowling for one more week.

Rex beside Othercat’s cage.
I thought Rex was the same type as Dr. Evil’s cat, but acc to the vet,
his breed is just closely related to the Sphinx (Dr. Evil’s cat).
Rex is a Cornish Rex, and is one of the few of that type in the Philippines.
He came all the way from Russia.

Checking Other out.

Rex looks a bit scary.
His fur feels like matted cotton. Really odd.


Rex and child.

Needed Badly: DOG FOOD DONATIONS

Published
by
mai
on April 22, 2005
in zooropa
. 0 Comments

from PAWS, please help if you can.

Bravepaws:

We are once again knocking on generous hearts for donations of dog food for our animal shelter. Masterfoods - the makers of WHISKAS & PEDIGREE - which regularly donates pet food to PARC is undergoing some organizational changes and this may delay delivery of the much-needed pet food donation by a few weeks.(Hopefully, only by a few weeks.)

In the meantime, we only have one large sack of dog food to go at PARC (PAWS Animal Rehabilitation Center) and we really need help in terms of donations.

Donated dog food may be dropped off directly at PARC near Barangka, Marikina (tel 475-1688 Francis), or at the home of PAWS President, Nita Lichauco at 87 Small Horseshoe Drive, New Manila, QC. (tel. 724-1986 Nita)

If you have donations which you cannot drop off at either address, please call 475-1688 for possible pick-up. Due to the fact that less than 10% of our volunteers have their own private vehicles, we would appreciate donations dropped off directly at PARC.

Cash donations, on the other hand, may be deposited at any PNB Branch, viz:
ACCOUNT NAME: The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 072-830174-0
* Kindly fax a copy of the validated deposit slip to 475-1688 and indicate donor’s full name and complete mailing address if you wish us to mail your official receipt to you.

PAWS is a NON-FUNDED associate of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in the U.K. and a NON-FUNDED shelter partner of the Humane Society International (HSI/HSUS). We do not receive funding from any foreign organization in terms of operational expenses for our shelter. To keep PARC running, PAWS depends entirely on adoption fees, donations from individuals and proceeds from the fundraisers that our volunteers organize for us.

Each day is a continuing struggle to provide the best care for over a hundred abandoned and rescued animals in PARC. We need your help.

Kindly forward this message to friends or relatives whom you think may be able to help us out. No effort or donation is too small. Even a bag or two of donated dog food would mean a lot to us. (We also have puppies in the shelter who will appreciate donations of puppy food.)

Thank you.

- P A W S

I heard from PAWS that their cat food supply is also almost depleted, so cat food donations are very welcome din.

Week Capsule

Published
by
mai
on April 22, 2005
in desire, the electric company and zooropa
. 0 Comments

Finally, work is tapering off a bit. Our client has done a partial move in and we’re just finishing work at the ends of the offices. :)




The occupied part of the office is starting to look really lived in. Heeh.
________________________

We took Ita home from the vet last Monday, because Dr. Nick called and said he had no seizures, and was eating well and playing in his cage. I got specific instructions for feeding (every 4 hours) and drinking (2ml syringe of rehydration fluids every 2 hours).


All this talk about Ita and
I haven’t posted a photo of the kitty pa, heeh.

As soon as he got to the office he started jumping about in his cage and getting agitated because he wanted to join the other cats. We let him out for some time, but then he kept running around and playing with the other cats naman.

Bad bad bad.

He had 2 seizures and by midnight I had to make an emergency run to the vet to have him confined again. He had 3 more seizures when I left and Dr. Eve, who was in charge that night, had to give him some Valium and put his feeding catheter back on. Apparently, the office and all the playing is too draining for him, and even with the feeding schedule his strength gets sapped from all the activity. He badly needs rest to get back his strength.

So we’ve decided to board him at the vets until next Tuesday or Wednesday so he can recover better (without 11 cats bouncing around him). We visited him today and brought a mouse-toy for him to play with. I think the vets were a bit amused to see our office and my dad come and play with Ita. He no longer has the feeding catheter na rin :)

If he still has seizures after we bring him home next week, then we will have to consider na he has epilepsy and put him on permanent medication (most likely Phenobarbital). I took this as a kid, and know this is a bit of a downer / depressant. Pheno is supposed to manage / minimize seizures, but dosage must be done on a very strict schedule, and regular monitoring checkups will be required. This would be a bit difficult for us, but if thats what is needed by Ita, then we’ll just have to make adjustments and sacrifices.

Fingers crossed.
________________________

This is a bit flaky, but I try to contact Ita and tell him to get well. Animal telepathy kung baga, hee. When he was seizuring Monday (the 1st seizure), I placed my hand on his body and tried to contact him and tell him that it was ok, and to relax, and that I was here. I don’t know if it helped much because I was a bit frazzled, but I really tried to soothe the little guy.

Now that he is in the hospital I tell him to rest and heal himself. They say the key is to be clear inside you, and I am working on that, so that hopefully it will be easier to communicate with Ita and the other petties.

Flake over. But read about it here.
________________________

My turn.

I’ve been having these achy pains in my side in the past couple of weeks. Nausea, shortness of breath, some difficulty taking deep breaths.

Wednesday I ended up in the ER because of the pains. Blood tests, urine test, a prescription for Buscopan, and a prelim diagnosis of gallbladder stones, to be confirmed / ruled out by an Ultrasound.

Got the U/S done today. Gallstones present, lots of them, mostly 3mm to 4mm in size.

I’ve been referred to surgery by the GP, and will have to go back next week for a visit.

If I do need an operation, which is what I suspect, I hope lang everything gets scheduled soon and done with.
________________________

I’ve gotten a pair of earrings :) 11mm dia Champagne-rose South Sea Pearl studs from Jewelmer. Very very beautiful :) I like that they make me feel nice and pretty and that they’re commute safe, and can go with my usual shirt and jeans. Kahit na I’m wilted from site, happy naman ako hahaha.
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And look what I got yesterday……

Woohoo :)

For J

Published
by
mai
on April 20, 2005
in heartland
. 0 Comments

Married for 2 months na pala Joey! :P Can’t wait to be with you in SF.

Pessimism

Published
by
mai
on April 17, 2005
in heartland
. 0 Comments

With Ita being sick and me going into panics, my mom is getting worried about me and kids.

How is this related?

I’ve been pretty ambivalent about the idea of having children.

  1. I’ve never really felt the maternal urge, and still wonder if this will kick in once we have kids of our own.
  2. I have this terrible fear of people (and animals) I care about getting sick and dying. Thankfully none of my immediate family has died yet or has been very sick, but I spend endless nights awake worrying about this. When my pets die I feel very very distraught.

Mom thinks that if I go through a lot of health-related stress, I may get totally discouraged from having kids. She always tells me that sickness is not normal and I shouldn’t walk around waiting for someone to get sick or die. I don’t know. I’m not that convinced.
________________________

My mom went through a lot of heartache when I was a kid. You wouldn’t think it now, but I was terribly delicate. Primary-stage tuberculosis, bad gas pains, convulsions, bad eyesight, and the bad luck to have a doctor who precribed medicines that made my teeth melt (I went though my childhood having melted stumps for teeth).

I think the convulsions were the worst for mom. I had them when I was about 1 1/2, with the first bunch happening the day after my aunt’s 18th birthday. The entire family was in my lolo and lola’s room and I was playing with a bunch of keys while sitting on my grandmothers stomach. I suddenly dropped onto her tummy, and after a while lola got curious about why I wasn’t moving and lifted me up. My face was purple. Everyone freaked. Lolo poked his finger into my mouth thinking I had swallowed the keys. Lola and mom started screaming. Tito Edgar jumped over our fence, into our neighbors yard (12 feet below ours) went through their gate and ran for the doctor. Pa ran around not knowing what to do.

It turns out I was allergic to one of the drugs my pediatrician prescribed for my upset stomach, and a larger dosage was prescribed to boot. Lolo actually saved my life when he stuck his finger in my mouth, because he punctured my glottis which was closing shut. He got a bad infection (rabies? heeh)

I had convulsions for the next 2 weeks. Mom was so stressed because everytime she went near me I would start to convulse. She just kept weeping. I was the 1st child, 1st apo. I think everyone was devastated.

I went through regular EEG’s until I was 18, and thankfully the attacks didn’t recur, but mom tells the story like everything is fresh in her mind. She’s still a bit more paranoid about me, especially when I get into my tempers — because the doctors advised her to keep me from getting overly emotional, because I shouldn’t be mentally stressed. But I guess I outgrew them na rin….if not, with my stress levels in the past years I would definitely have gotten a major attack.

I think if I were in her place I would not have recovered. I’m a sissy when it comes to those things, and I am not proud of it.

The Economy

Published
by
mai
on April 16, 2005
in stories for boys (and girls)
. 0 Comments

Speaking with my officemate while cleaning the kitty litter box

M: Syet, dami ebs….Would you eat this shit for 500,000 pesos?

E: (Thinks) Ummm, I would eat that shit for 50,000 pesos

Pasulpot sulpot

Published
by
mai
on April 15, 2005
in desire, the electric company and zooropa
. 0 Comments

I was killing time before our meeting at RCBC Plaza today and decided to get a hotdog from Sabrett. Syet. Ubos ang sauerkraut and ubos din yung onion sauce. The guy selling didn’t even tell me when I ordered.

Despite this, the hotdog was delicious. Not having a full meal in days really improves how food tastes.
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Ita’s a bit better, I think. Only 2 minor seizures in the past 3 days. Last one was just about an hour ago, and I had to rush back to the office from site (we were overseeing the delivery of furniture). Attack at around 1am, left front and hind legs stiffening for about a minute, short cries before that. Mom said she was surprised that all the other cats started touching Ita through the cage-bars while he was having the attack - they seemed to be comforting him. I hope that did comfort the little guy.

I’m just waiting to give him his last dose of vitamins and rehydrating fluid, then I’ll probably hit the sack too. The client is moving in tomorrow and I am pretty sure Murphy will be up to his old tricks again.
________________________

The move’s a week late though, because last Friday the unit had no power and AC. We’ve got permanent power connected, but the blower hasn’t been delivered by the Bldg Admin yet. Patay if they dont deliver and install this weekend, because it gets very very hot during the afternoons.

They also unlocked the toilets for cleaning today (during construction the toilets are locked so the workers can’t use them or pour construction materials into the drains / sinks / toilets — workers are assigned a portable toilet at basement 1, but mostly they pee into a pail that they empty every couple of days…SARAP)

Surprise surprise.

Some faucets and flush levers were missing. Apparently the fixtures get pulled out by admin when they are needed for repairs at other floors.

Sooooo….killer heat, no flush, no water.

Construction is really unbelievable sometimes.
________________________

CfH has been quite agreeable recently. I hope he stays that way so we can finish the work.
________________________

It looks like we’ll be working on an expansion of one of the offices we designed 2 years ago. Work should start early May, and finish in a max of 2 months. It’s in RCBC, so Sabrett will be contributing more to my dietary needs :P
________________________

The old gallbladder seems to be acting up. I haven’t been eating much pork, chicharon, fatty yummy food, so I wonder if it could be stress?
________________________

On a brighter note J bought me a pair of bronze slippers. I’ve always had a thing for havaianas, from the first super-soft brown pair I bought about 2 years ago while in a pointy stiletto caused throbby toe stupor, to the recent black brasil sambas I bought in the Podium about a month ago.

Bronze Slippers

These are the last ones I am getting. I don’t think I want any other pattern…and they’re getting a bit too commonplace for me. Every group of girls has at least one wearing them. Parang di ko ma-tyan to have the same footwear as everyone.

I think this will be my favorite pair though. I just love the color. Thanks Joey :)