A wise man* once said, “he who has nothing to say should not say it”. Like that’s ever stopped me!
Grocery shopping today and my, what a difference a week makes. As we pulled up the first thing I noticed was no line waiting to get inside. It turns out that with the mall now opening at 10:00; earlier grocery shoppers must use the back entrance to the store. Walked around to that door and still no line! Of course, the store still sucks but at least I didn’t have to wait long to be disappointed. What kind of supermarket doesn’t stock Italian dressing for chrissakes?
Actually, I was also relieved that my age didn’t come up. Last week I used being an old fart to my advantage, bypassing the line by claiming senior privilege. Under the new quarantine rules, oldsters over 60 are supposed to stay home altogether. So I knew I wouldn’t be invoking the senior shortcut but I read about some people being turned away from stores in Barretto because of their age. Anyway, at least for today that turned out to be a non-issue.
I was going to cook up some pulled pork yesterday but discovered I was out of one of the key ingredients–brown sugar. I bought some today and will do the pork roast in the crockpot tomorrow. Last night I had takeout food delivered to my door for the first time ever in the Philippines. I knew the restaurant, Foodies, was good having ordered off their menu many times back in my Cheap Charlies days. And for some reason, I had a hankering for lasagna, a dish I hadn’t tried from Foodies before. The food arrived promptly but that is the best I can say about it.
The innards were okay I guess, but the pasta shell was hard and stiff to the point of being nearly inedible. And I’m not sure what was up with the color but I found it off-putting. I guess they didn’t use a tomato-based sauce or something. Anyway, lesson learned. Next time I’ll order stuff that I know is good, like the beef stew or meat pies.
So Facebook reminded me that I posted this seven years ago:
I got to wondering if I had posted this on the blog back then. And sure enough, I had, along with the story of how I learned to pronounce “ascertain”. Hint: it is NOT as certain.
I also saw this Ayn Rand meme on Facebook. What really struck me is how spot-on it is regarding the way things work here in the Philippines.
This is why a country rich in resources and cheap labor will always be a third world nation. That and the people in charge seem to be spectacularly stupid. The way the quarantine has been implemented is just the latest example of that sad fact.
Oh well, still happy to be here. Mostly.
*It wasn’t really a wise man, I just made that up. But you knew that, didn’t you?
That lasagna looks more like chicken-fried steak than actual lasagna. Your mention of a “pasta shell” was also disconcerting: a lasagna is a stacked bed of pasta with alternating layers of meat sauce and cheese (or Béchamel). There is no “shell,” so I have to believe that this particular lasagna was designed by someone from Alpha Centauri.
Too bad the store was missing the items you wanted, but perhaps that’ll change as normalcy (or whatever passes for normalcy) slowly returns to your corner of the planet.
“A wise man* once said, ‘he who has nothing to say should not say it.’ Like that’s ever stopped me!”
Recently, though, I have noticed a couple of skipped days.
Well, the pasta on the bottom was crunchy, so maybe that’s how they do it on Alpha Centauri. Heh, I should leave a review saying the lasagna was out of this world!
Yeah, I do have a goal to post something here daily but I don’t always achieve it. Monday the Hash started at noon and I was too inebriated to write by the time I got home. Saturday just sorta slipped away and then Game of Thornes grabbed me. But, it is nice that you noticed my absence. Thanks for that!