Of Ria, Dinners and Fun Time with Friends

Dinner with friends: One of the best stress relievers. Period.

Ria flew home from Singapore and was in Manila for a few days. We organized a quick dinner for the onshore people over at North Park along Ayala Ave and it was nice to see these people again. I think the last time we were together was either eating out at some restaurant in downtown Chicago or at some apartment. I miss the gool ol’ days.

Thanks Ria for the dinner treat! =)




You still owe me a hot choco though...

What's Beside the Children's Books?

I'm not an expert on arranging items on grocery aisles, but I don't think those should be there...

The Pacquiao – Diaz Fight Commentary... er... thoughts

Too bad this match didn’t have the same hype as the one with Marquez. This match was shown locally via delayed telecast and so I already knew that Pacquiao bludgeoned Diaz to submission even before the match started and I was already fast asleep before the 4th round.

I was waiting for the match over at RPN 9 but when I found out they were showing it instead over at GMA 7, I knew right away that I was in for a long afternoon. You see, GMA 7 is notoriously known for long commercial breaks. I actually did a stopwatch test between round 2 and 3 and the result was just under 7 minutes (6:52).

7 minutes?!? I can get abs waiting for 7 minutes right? Didn’t it take just 4 minutes for Justin and Madonna to save the world? Didn’t Michael Learns to Rock take… oh wait , let’s not go there.

True story though a few years ago: I was boiling water while watching this show at channel 7. When the commercials kicked in, I dunked in two packs of instant noodles, cooked it through, drained te pot, placed the seasonings and when the show returned, I was 2 bites away from finishing my merienda.

Anyways, I wanted to do my usual round per round commentary but the commercials were too long that I fell asleep between rounds 3 and 4, woke up in the middle of round 5, was asleep again between rounds 5 and 6 and I woke up next 4 hours later.

Drat! I wasn’t able to watch how Diaz got knocked out. I ended up downloading a grainy video of the whole match from the Internet. Wow, the match was more lopsided than I thought. By the 6th round, the commentators were talking about merciful knockouts and that Diaz should just lie down and give up. By the 7th round they were talking about the importance of living to fight another day and in the 8th they were talking about Diaz’ health. Finally he went down in the 9th. Hey with a chin THAT big, how can Manny miss?

Diaz was able to get revenge though. After the match they saw each other along the corridor and Diaz hugged Manny. Diaz continued to assault Manny with English (note that Diaz is Mexican-American and speaks good English). Poor Manny. When Diaz blurted his 4th English sentence I was begging the referee to intervene and stop the match… I mean conversation.

What does this mean to Filipinos? A happy ending to a week that started with a ferry disaster, one more day of unity and just more and more Pacquiao ads.