starshadow_rivaulx (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
starshadow_rivaulx) wrote2009-12-01 10:05 pm
starshadow_rivaulx) wrote2009-12-01 10:05 pm
Robinson's Galleria, Holiday Inn, Family Affair
It's been a week since I've felt up to doing a blog post, and even now, I'm not sure how to go about doing the updates. Holiday preps are getting into gear, and for the first time in about two years, I think I may actually have the energy to enjoy the holidays instead of just meeting minimum criteria.
I have a page of bullet points covering the last few days, to jog my memory of events I'd like to remember. I may run off on tangents, as details come to mind. As of this writing, am debating whether to make one huge mega-post, or just cut everything into multiple posts (!!!), and so far I'm leaning to making it a multi-parter.
Basically, the tenor of my days has been: prioritize offline activities in favor of online activities. So things like making up the Christmas gift list, preparing the Christmas cards for posting, updating my expense logs (yeah, right!), catering to the cats, laundry, and similar mundane activities eat up my time. Include catching up on sleep as a legitimate activity in this list; for example, this afternoon I managed to have myself a nap of monumental proportions, and now feel human again. At least, I will have reserve energy for an early wake-up call tomorrow when my menfolk go in for fasting blood sugar extraction.
Schedule is a bit wonky. There are two things that must be done tomorrow - get the men to the hospital for their blood extractions, and deliver pasalubong to Ramon's sister at the Holiday Inn before she and her husband leave. I think they're headed to Singapore, to visit Ramon's sister there. There are other things I would like to do tomorrow, but thanks to color-coding and Dad's golf date plans, these will have to wait until the next day.
Thursday, Ramon is attending some sort of real-estate presentation at SMX convention center at SM Mall of Asia. While he's there, I'll trot over to the Hypermart and pick up fruit boxes and other edibles that can be given away within this week. I could try to squeeze in a visit to the village post office before driving to Mall of Asia, to post what should be the last batch of Christmas cards left for mailing.
Friday is appointment day with Dr. Gatmaitan. I have to visit the Rehab Center on the 3rd floor to ask the doctor about a physical therapy program for Ma. Definitely, breakfast at Floating Island is a must: call it part of my rewards program for managing to get through the week without acting like a prune. Because as we all know, holidays and hormones, they do bring on the inner Scrooge, yes they do.
* * * *
Last November 25th, Wednesday. Ramon and I had a dinner appointment with his cousin Marissa, who had come over from the States with her hubby to take care of family matters on his side. Since we were all supposed to meet up at the Holiday Inn Galleria, Ramon and I left Makati at the hideously early hour of 3pm in order to be on time for an 8pm dinner. The mind, it boggles, yes? We arrived in Ortigas at nearly 4pm, the traffic being fairly moderate. I really just wanted to give myself extra time in case I overshot our exit from EDSA - seeing as how one has to cross in the the "buses only" lane to get into the little side street that runs beside the Asian Development Bank. Make a mistake, and you end up making "arrangements" with the traffic enforcers so as not to have your license confiscated. A confiscated license during the holidays = you don't even want to go there. Trust me on this, it's cheaper to "arrange" things with the cops, lamentable as it is.
Fortunately, there were any number of vehicles setting precedent by sliding into position inside the bus lanes, and the gap between buses was such that I could negotiate a smooth turn without swerving or staying too long in the forbidden zone. As expected, there was a bit of a snarl at the other end of the street, but just a little bit. Ramon and I turned into that avenue that crosses the front of ADB, and followed it almost to the end at Shaw Boulevard - at the furthest U-turn slot, we turned around and headed back to Robinson's Galleria.
Not a moment too soon, either - we reached the parking lot at around 4:30pm and found ourselves cooling our heels in the Level 2 parking entrance for about half and hour. There was a line for parking! Not really surprising, though - Level 2 is a small platform that holds maybe 50 cars, tops. But I wasn't about to park in the basement...if it's not a basement I'm familiar with, like Rockwell or any of the Ayala Malls, or even Makati Med, I'm balking. Later, I was to be very glad that we were parked in the upper level.
Got the car parked at nearly 5pm. So that gave us about two hours or so to take a look around the mall. It's an interesting enough mall, though it doesn't have as much of the shine factor as SM Megamall. I brought a tote bag with my dress shoes, and walked about in my ersatz Crocs until it was time to go to the hotel. Shut up, I will take comfort over style when it comes to walking through a mall.
We checked out the supermarket and picked up this bottle of Bragg Amino Acids seasoning for Ma - it's supposed to be as good as soy sauce, and more nutritious. Whatever. Picked up a few other items as well, then I left Ramon at the supermarket entrance and trotted back to the car to deposit the groceries. Trotted back to hubby, and we did a slow ramble through the other floors, taking note of outlets and their locations. By the time we found the hotel entrance, it was getting on for 6.30pm. The lobby entrance we found on the second floor was for the function rooms and the bar and I think it might have been the coffee shop as well...anyway, I changed into my dress shoes, Ramon rested, and at around 7.30pm we freshened up and went down to the front-desk lobby to wait for the rest of the family.
Let's see. Altogether we were about ten: Marissa, my brother-in-law Nap, Ramon's Auntie Pining, her daughter Honey, cousin Cecile and her two daughters, Ramon and myself. Also present was Kim, cousin Joanna's youngest - Joanna being Honey's sister currently working in Riyadh. Sweet kid, and as well-behaved a child as you could want in a restaurant.
The family gathered at the front desk lobby just before time, and promptly commandeered the only couch in the vicinity. (Note to Galleria management: the one cushion at the end of your sofa has a permanent indentation that nearly swallowed my husband whole when he sat on it. Just saying.) Just after time, Marissa appeared and shepherded all of us up to her hotel room (28th floor, whoa) to meet Rene. He wasn't joining us, as he had another group of friends to touch base with; and apparently Marissa wanted to keep things in the family that night. So there was all sorts of beso-beso and picture-taking and notification to the latecomers (Nap and Honey) that dinner would be at the TGIF beside the hotel.
We were given a nice quiet table on the mall side of TGIF, which turned out to grow quieter as the night went down and the various outlets closed. Dinner was delicious, the service was good - not spectacular, but the orders came on time and the servers were attentive. It was so much fun to catch up on family matters that didn't involve angst and emo drama; finding out how those affected by the floods were now coping with the recovery. Life definitely goes on. There was no politics in the conversation at all. We talked about how Ramon is managing his health, shopping in Divisoria, and any number of topics.
After dinner and dessert, we adjourned to Marissa's room and the conversations continued until about 11pm, when there was a mass move to depart. Marissa had our parking ticket validated at the front desk, and amid cheerful farewells, we headed through a silent mall towards the parking lot. My internal compass was functional, but we verified with the security people where the door to the parking lot was. Lo and behold, it was just a matter of a few meters to the parking lot and the car - in a brightly lit area with two security guards. Not bad at all. Not having to pay parking was a lovely thing as well.
It was an easy drive home, then a hot wash up, then bed. It was an excellent night, and I felt thoroughly recharged by the whole thing. Ramon enjoyed himself as well, and I'm glad of that.
I have a page of bullet points covering the last few days, to jog my memory of events I'd like to remember. I may run off on tangents, as details come to mind. As of this writing, am debating whether to make one huge mega-post, or just cut everything into multiple posts (!!!), and so far I'm leaning to making it a multi-parter.
Basically, the tenor of my days has been: prioritize offline activities in favor of online activities. So things like making up the Christmas gift list, preparing the Christmas cards for posting, updating my expense logs (yeah, right!), catering to the cats, laundry, and similar mundane activities eat up my time. Include catching up on sleep as a legitimate activity in this list; for example, this afternoon I managed to have myself a nap of monumental proportions, and now feel human again. At least, I will have reserve energy for an early wake-up call tomorrow when my menfolk go in for fasting blood sugar extraction.
Schedule is a bit wonky. There are two things that must be done tomorrow - get the men to the hospital for their blood extractions, and deliver pasalubong to Ramon's sister at the Holiday Inn before she and her husband leave. I think they're headed to Singapore, to visit Ramon's sister there. There are other things I would like to do tomorrow, but thanks to color-coding and Dad's golf date plans, these will have to wait until the next day.
Thursday, Ramon is attending some sort of real-estate presentation at SMX convention center at SM Mall of Asia. While he's there, I'll trot over to the Hypermart and pick up fruit boxes and other edibles that can be given away within this week. I could try to squeeze in a visit to the village post office before driving to Mall of Asia, to post what should be the last batch of Christmas cards left for mailing.
Friday is appointment day with Dr. Gatmaitan. I have to visit the Rehab Center on the 3rd floor to ask the doctor about a physical therapy program for Ma. Definitely, breakfast at Floating Island is a must: call it part of my rewards program for managing to get through the week without acting like a prune. Because as we all know, holidays and hormones, they do bring on the inner Scrooge, yes they do.
* * * *
Last November 25th, Wednesday. Ramon and I had a dinner appointment with his cousin Marissa, who had come over from the States with her hubby to take care of family matters on his side. Since we were all supposed to meet up at the Holiday Inn Galleria, Ramon and I left Makati at the hideously early hour of 3pm in order to be on time for an 8pm dinner. The mind, it boggles, yes? We arrived in Ortigas at nearly 4pm, the traffic being fairly moderate. I really just wanted to give myself extra time in case I overshot our exit from EDSA - seeing as how one has to cross in the the "buses only" lane to get into the little side street that runs beside the Asian Development Bank. Make a mistake, and you end up making "arrangements" with the traffic enforcers so as not to have your license confiscated. A confiscated license during the holidays = you don't even want to go there. Trust me on this, it's cheaper to "arrange" things with the cops, lamentable as it is.
Fortunately, there were any number of vehicles setting precedent by sliding into position inside the bus lanes, and the gap between buses was such that I could negotiate a smooth turn without swerving or staying too long in the forbidden zone. As expected, there was a bit of a snarl at the other end of the street, but just a little bit. Ramon and I turned into that avenue that crosses the front of ADB, and followed it almost to the end at Shaw Boulevard - at the furthest U-turn slot, we turned around and headed back to Robinson's Galleria.
Not a moment too soon, either - we reached the parking lot at around 4:30pm and found ourselves cooling our heels in the Level 2 parking entrance for about half and hour. There was a line for parking! Not really surprising, though - Level 2 is a small platform that holds maybe 50 cars, tops. But I wasn't about to park in the basement...if it's not a basement I'm familiar with, like Rockwell or any of the Ayala Malls, or even Makati Med, I'm balking. Later, I was to be very glad that we were parked in the upper level.
Got the car parked at nearly 5pm. So that gave us about two hours or so to take a look around the mall. It's an interesting enough mall, though it doesn't have as much of the shine factor as SM Megamall. I brought a tote bag with my dress shoes, and walked about in my ersatz Crocs until it was time to go to the hotel. Shut up, I will take comfort over style when it comes to walking through a mall.
We checked out the supermarket and picked up this bottle of Bragg Amino Acids seasoning for Ma - it's supposed to be as good as soy sauce, and more nutritious. Whatever. Picked up a few other items as well, then I left Ramon at the supermarket entrance and trotted back to the car to deposit the groceries. Trotted back to hubby, and we did a slow ramble through the other floors, taking note of outlets and their locations. By the time we found the hotel entrance, it was getting on for 6.30pm. The lobby entrance we found on the second floor was for the function rooms and the bar and I think it might have been the coffee shop as well...anyway, I changed into my dress shoes, Ramon rested, and at around 7.30pm we freshened up and went down to the front-desk lobby to wait for the rest of the family.
Let's see. Altogether we were about ten: Marissa, my brother-in-law Nap, Ramon's Auntie Pining, her daughter Honey, cousin Cecile and her two daughters, Ramon and myself. Also present was Kim, cousin Joanna's youngest - Joanna being Honey's sister currently working in Riyadh. Sweet kid, and as well-behaved a child as you could want in a restaurant.
The family gathered at the front desk lobby just before time, and promptly commandeered the only couch in the vicinity. (Note to Galleria management: the one cushion at the end of your sofa has a permanent indentation that nearly swallowed my husband whole when he sat on it. Just saying.) Just after time, Marissa appeared and shepherded all of us up to her hotel room (28th floor, whoa) to meet Rene. He wasn't joining us, as he had another group of friends to touch base with; and apparently Marissa wanted to keep things in the family that night. So there was all sorts of beso-beso and picture-taking and notification to the latecomers (Nap and Honey) that dinner would be at the TGIF beside the hotel.
We were given a nice quiet table on the mall side of TGIF, which turned out to grow quieter as the night went down and the various outlets closed. Dinner was delicious, the service was good - not spectacular, but the orders came on time and the servers were attentive. It was so much fun to catch up on family matters that didn't involve angst and emo drama; finding out how those affected by the floods were now coping with the recovery. Life definitely goes on. There was no politics in the conversation at all. We talked about how Ramon is managing his health, shopping in Divisoria, and any number of topics.
After dinner and dessert, we adjourned to Marissa's room and the conversations continued until about 11pm, when there was a mass move to depart. Marissa had our parking ticket validated at the front desk, and amid cheerful farewells, we headed through a silent mall towards the parking lot. My internal compass was functional, but we verified with the security people where the door to the parking lot was. Lo and behold, it was just a matter of a few meters to the parking lot and the car - in a brightly lit area with two security guards. Not bad at all. Not having to pay parking was a lovely thing as well.
It was an easy drive home, then a hot wash up, then bed. It was an excellent night, and I felt thoroughly recharged by the whole thing. Ramon enjoyed himself as well, and I'm glad of that.