The Podium plus two

Early tonight, hied off to Podium to have my mini "burger" Ipod speaker checked. The volume it emitted was near nil. I brought the receipt with me as advised by the clerk in Mobile 1. When he was checking it, I silently cheered, "don't work, don't work" so I wouldn't be embarrassed. Luckily the speaker cooperated when it was tested. The clerk disconnected the cable and replaced it with that of the store's and voila! The sound was loud and clear. What was wrong with the cable? I don't know exactly, but the clerk said something like it was pulled out of kilter. That's a perennial problem of retractable cables. A year or so ago, my son's retractable mouse conked out while the regular mouse I bought for myself continued to function and still does, in fact.

After Mobile 1, we proceeded to the elevator which had a sign posted: Give priority to the disabled. The Podium. In addition to the text was the disabled logo. Wow, I thought, trust the SM group to be so caring of the handicapped. But when we entered the elevator, it was an inferno of sorts. Poor elevator man/woman. When I asked the man if he didn't get sick because of the heat, he said he didn't, while he continued to furiously fan himself. When we took another elevator manned by a woman (womanned by a woman?), there were so many passengers that the heat was overwhelming. Podium's elevators are not air-conditioned. They don't have a fan even. They are not ventilated. I pity the elevator operators.

On the second level (or was it third or fourth? I'm never sure in Podium), there were glass shelves underneath which was a sign "See's Goodies". I excitedly pointed this out to my husband as I triumphantly said, "Finally", in reference to See's chocolates one gets as pasalubong from Hong Kong. When I started to interview the girl, she said something to the effect that the two establishments weren't related. How very Filipino to be deceptive. I told my husband, so when See's Chocolates, the Real McCoy comes in, it will have a difficult time registering its name.

At Astro Vision was a promo for DVDs: Buy 3 get 6 free! Honest, that's not a mistake. We clarified it. The clerk said it was as it said making one's purchase price of DVD's a hundred each. Not bad. My husband got the 3 CDs of the animated version of Aeon Flux and then proceeded to look for the 6 free ones. I saw Barefoot in the Park (Robert Redford and Jane Fonda) but thought there might be better choices. Saw Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So dark. After a while, my husband gave up. He returned the 3 Aeon Flux DVDs and we left. He'd have been willing to buy the 3 said CDs because at P297 each they were a bargain. They previously sold for a thousand pesos each.

Went to Living Well and bought 2 cute things. Sucker? But I'm happy: a waste basket with Monopoly (the game board) characters and a junk food clip with the Doritos logo
. If we go back to Living Well and I find another Monopoly waste basket, I'll get it for our bedroom.

Bought the tall pyramidal yemas at Lord Stowe . Yes, at Lord Stowe. In the past, all Lord Stowe sold were custard pies. Now they have vegetarian biscuits, tamarind balls, yemas, cashew brownies, caramel brownies, and the like. The yemas reminded me of their smaller version which I used to buy from the lab technician of the Spanish speech lab in college who'd sell them in various consistencies: soft when they were new and rock hard when they were old. His name was Milor. Wonder where he is now.

We had dinner at Crustasia. Vowing to go by the saying "eat to live" rather than "live to eat", I ordered sparingly (or at least less than I would have usually done.) Husband and I shared a cup of Tom Yum soup seafoods (fish, squid, clams) and mushrooms. Forgot to take a picture of it when it was served, so here's what remained of it after we divided the soup between my husband and myself:
We also ordered Thai bagoong rice
although my husband initially chose pineapple rice. WHile the former cost P175, the latter cost P308). Also got assorted lumpia . The platter consisted of 3 fried spring rolls, 2 fresh spring rolls, and one vegetable shrimp roll. The latter had bihon and shrimp in it. The sauces were of 2 kinds: plum sauce with peanuts and sweet and sour sauce. Ordered beef with broccoli or make that broccoli with beef (it had a lot of broccoli). Or maybe make that broccoli with ginger and beef. It had so much ginger my husband ate only a little of the dish , which was the most expensive (Php200+) among those we ordered. He didn't want to bite into ginger.

Oh yes, before the food was served, they gave us a bowl filled with crushed ice on which was stuck thick strips of carrots and turnips

. Very refreshing. This bowl was served with 3 kinds of dipping sauces: plum, sweet and sour and I don't know what. I only tried the two I mentioned. They also gave each of us a bowl with water, a slice of lime and a wet towel on top for washing the hands with, presumably after eating crabs. The bowl: . At the restaurant was a long table of yuppies and their boss, each of them donning a red bib. They ordered platefuls of crabs and looked so cute with their bibs on. Like overgrown babies.

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The following have nothing to do with The Podium but as they are short accounts, I've chosen to add them here.

Do you wonder why there is such an idiom as a "hen-pecked husband"? I wonder no more. Hen is fowl, like love birds are (or are they). Remember the 2 love birds I was gifted with on my birthday? The female, the white one, is perpetually pecking on the head of the more beautiful blue love bird. So the maid says, the latter is near bald. And to make matters worse, the female allegedly broke the wing or some part of the latter's anatomy. I haven't seen a hen pecking a rooster's head so maybe I shall now use the idiom "Hen-pecked bird" or "bird pecked bird." What do you think?

A friend's son flunked his non-pro driving test. Reason: he didn't wear the seatbelt. But where was the seatbelt? He didn't notice any. Why? It was a rope that was suspended from where the seatbelt should have been. laugh... only in the Philippines.