weekend before the hooplah

Work has been hectic these days -- lotsa planning, lotsa projects and oh yeah, we open a new cafe in lessthan two weeks. Technically, our new outlet will open during Holy Week.

WTF!?!

The whole concept of Holy Week for a lot of Filipinos is sacred --- a time to regroup with the family, hence the almost manic struggle to book tickets and flights out of the city to go back to the province from which you came from; a time off work, which means people who are from the city head off somewhere OUTSIDE the metro; a time to purge one's self of anything but the death of our Lord, which is pretty much applicable to my grandparents' era and all those die-hard believers of the faith; for the rest of the country, it is two days' paid vacation of sleeping in and watching 7th Heaven episodes and/or Bible Story movies on T.V. (lucky for those who have cable, they have a better selection)

For me though, it looks like the beginning of the end. Sure, lots of responsibility means trust and all that. Unfortunately, that means not being able to go home to spend time with my family, as well as time to be stuck in the metro (which, btw, turns almost into a ghost town --- really weird)

Oh well. Might as well enjoy the ride. I am happy i'll be spending it with Jason, which is great. Also, since this will be time off the office, i can catch up with all those movies i missed in DVD format, not to mention sleep all day (cue Jason Mraz's song,please!)

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Met Jason, Melissa and Mitzy at the Ayala Museum earlier. They had to attend a short alumni homecoming of Fullbrighters in the country, which ended pretty early, so they decided to go to the museum. I was stuck in traffic on my way to a travel agency (i just needed to get something before meeting with them) so i was in a rush, had a bit of a problem breaking change for the cab too, all the while enduring the hot hot heat (summer na!!!).

MINI RANT: What is wrong with cab drivers these days?! Seriously, I had the worst time getting to Makati earlier because not only did we endure the heat, we had to experience it through traffic. I guess it's just my luck to get a cab that has no window tint... oh well. Anyway, for some reason, he did not have change. So it boiled down to a 5-minute staring cotest on who should give what. The fare was P160, but i only had 2 P100 bills and a P20 bill. In the end, he accepted the P120. The second ride i got (from the travel agency, which was a couple of blocks away from the museum) also gave me a cab driver who had no change. I was so steamed --- does he expect me to pay him a full P500 for a lousy P40 ride?!? In the end, i had him stop in front of a coffee shop, in which i had to buy something to break my bill. *sigh* At elast i got to buy Jason something sweet to eat :-P

Anyway, i was really grateful that they managed to wait up for late ol' me.They were with a couple of Filipino Fullbrighters, Gino and JV, who were just the sweetest people! :-) We checked out the latest exhibit (a collection of Filipino works bought by Singapore, among which was a work done by my former professor in Modern Art, Ma'am Brenda), the dioramas(a staple in the museum) and bought some interesting items at the museum shop. It was cool to check it out since JV wa sa teacher (he gave a pretty interesting tour of the dioramas) and Gino was a designer (he explained the Spanish clothing display, as well as the ornate religious items). We topped off the trip with lunch at Kitchen, which had some ample servings of great food and shabby chic interiors. It was a very nice way to spend a Saturday (sans the cab ride fiasco and hot hot heat --- oh yeah!)

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