Bulletin board, designed by my teammates.
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Last Monday we distributed sign-up sheets for our survey of the most preferred summer outing venue among the four options that we presented. Canyon Cove was winning, and I was getting ready to let everyone know of this outcome. Unfortunately, on that day, I was told that a big group has already paid for the place. I was thinking if I should let everyone know at once and make them choose from the three other less-liked options, but I opted to try to find a better option first. From the responses in the survey, it is clear that they want a white-sand beach and good food like that offered by Eagle Point (which the other 2 did not have), but they didn’t want to go back to that place this soon. I admit, Eagle Point is hard to top, or equal, even, but my heart breaks at the thought of settling for less than what they (or we) wanted. Meanwhile, there were grades to make and deadlines to beat. I felt my head throbbing.
The next afternoon, an angel was sent to answer my prayers and I got a glimpse of hope. The new option is very beautiful and exclusive; I could not believe my luck. The Club membership problem was solved and the only problem left was the price. The quoted price was waaaay above our budget! I pleaded that it be lowered to what we can afford. My angel laughed, and told me to call again the next day, although there was still no guarantee that the price I was asking for would be accommodated. Tensed because of the uncertainty, I decided to go out for a walk. The walk was added with a tricycle ride, and the ride was decided to head to a nearby market for me to buy some fruits. At the market, I wandered into the “wet” section and saw some items that reminded me of the comforts of home when I was a child. I had no recipe, no plan at all, I was not really into planning my meals at that time and my brain didn’t seem to be functioning well; but I started to buy some of this, a little of that, and realizing that I could be wasting money, restrained myself from buying some more. When I got home, aside from the fruits I had these:
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I should have been working on my PDM and grades, but instead I became preoccupied with how I was going to cook these when these items didn’t seem to go well together. I could not cook whatever dishes that came into my mind when I saw these items because I did not buy the complete ingredients for even one dish (e.g., Shrimps, String beans and Squash in Thick Coco Cream - I had shrimps, but where are the other three???). After an hour and a half, though, I came up with these:
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These dishes did not taste as good as when my parents cooked them, but they’re edible, at least. I wish I paid attention when they tried to teach me how to cook. There are recipes, alright, but the recipes don’t teach proper timing and estimation of the amount of ingredients the way my parents did (no exact measurement, more of “instinctive” cooking, which, curiously, worked very well for them). I guess it takes time and practice to acquire that skill. Trial and error. The way I cooked adobo that was too salty the first time and too sour the next. Which Kaye reluctantly ate, but ate she did. It’s just sad that she can’t taste my “balanced” adobo now. Hehe.
Going back to that venue problem, on Wednesday to my surprise, my angel gave in to almost all of my requests, and we got a quotation for a steal! We were even given 6 very nice cabanas and other amenities for free! Now we just need to finalize the number of attendees and give the down payment to seal the deal. Until then, I won’t mention the place here, for fear of getting jinxed.
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