Goodbye Yum Yum Tree and Dogs on T-shirts

Weekend was quite slow, a welcome pace given the demands on me from the day job, the other jobs, family obligations and my personal life. I cannot fathom how married people are able to do it. Then again, two heads are better than one when it comes to managing the household.

Which is why I appreciate that Waya enjoys keeping house so much and does so very well. We spent Saturday morning shopping at Salcedo's Saturday Market for organic veggies and fish and enjoying brunch with the usual suspects: the fag four namely Paolo, Ige, Waya and yours truly. Lala dropped by with her boyfriend Karl. I had a yummy Singaporean meal of spicy Laksa noodles and Beef Rendang with rice. The Beef Rendang was yummy-soft and buttery to the tongue. I washed it all down with fresh buko juice.

I saw a few people I knew from college and it's amazing how people change so much after many years. Most of them, my age mind you, have aged so much they look like in their forties or even fifties. I guess it has to do with what career you get into. I noticed, and this is in no way a scientific conclusion whatsoever but just an observation based on a few friends I know, that most of those who haved aged well are either in the arts, advertising, events, retail or are entreperenurs. The people I know who've aged are people in corporate jobs, usually banking, law, finance, government and other field where, I believe, looking younger than your age can be a considerable disadvantage. There should be a study done about this already. And as usually happens, I cannot rest until I find out. Should research!

After much lazing about at Saturday market, Lala and Karl went ahead, and the three left were crashing from having spent the previous night videoking away at IO till past 4 a..m. as usual. I slipped out earlier after our dinner at 121 for a tryst and went home earlier so I had more sleep than they did.

In any case, I was home earlier than they were so I was a bit more chipper even without caffeine streaming in my system yet. We all sauntered over to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for a shot of caffeine and the sinful brownies Ige love so much then moved outside so the guys could smoke. I had my usual latte with soy milk.

We bumped into a high school friend of Ige from South Ridge named David who apparently is a doctor. We chatted a bit and talked about the good old days--mostly they talked about the weird haircuts they sported in high school. Long and curly hair for Mike Chan, Jojo Alejar long bangs for Ige, to mention the few they laughed about. I told them I sported the one-length curly hair look in my sophomore year in college which to this day, I cannot fathom what in the hell entered my head to sport such a hair cut.

Waya laughed at this. "And I bet you wore a headband!"

I had to laugh because, well, I did!

oOo

Sad to hear Yum Yum Tree in Rustan's Makati is closing down. Apparently, Rustan's Supermarket is being taken over by the Shopwise group. When Ige, Waya and I went there to do some groceries last Saturday, we had a hankering for a good old Yum Yum Tree meal and were met by an empty restaurant. We asked the waiter for a menu.

The waiter said: "Ma'am, merienda buffet na lang po ang meron."

I asked: "Baket? Magsasara na rin ba kayo?"

"Opo. Hanggang next week na lang po."

How sad! I grew up having burgers and fries at Yum Yum Tree with my dad after doing the groceries and buying clothes. Remember Rustan's Rainbow Riders? Okay, I'm giving off my age haha.

oOo

In the evening, Waya and I walked on over to Paseo and since we've had enough of dinner at 121, we had Chicken Bacolod dinner. Ige and Paolo followed. And as a part of my promise to myself not to go out too much, even after Ige's 12 midnight text that he was going to Capone's, I ignored it and went back to sleep.

oOo



I ordered some handpainted t-shirts from Paulo (Vinluan), an art director I work with at my day job. I've been meaning to buy a painting from one of his exhibits but my budget hasn't been cooperative lately haha. So if I can't own one of his paintings yet, might as well have one of his P700 shirts, right?

He always has these quirky weird dogs in his paintings, which I find amusing and fun. And so I got two of one design where the dog appears to be sliding down the tab of a zipper in front. I'll post a picture once I get the t-shirts next week. I always knew this kid had talent. Just that in advertising, you don't really get to show that side of you too well since we have to morph our styles to the demands of clients. We had a lot of fun in the last pitch, and he was able to come up with designs that excited the entire team, something we haven't seen from him from his work but only from his paintings outside of his "day job."

I can relate to his musings in his blog in reference to his 'day job' and his little projects outside work. That is just the way I work at the moment. I need the day job for the secure monthly pay check. And the little projects and businesses outside work to indulge my other interests or else I go insane.

oOo

Am planning to take a 5 day leave to start writing non-stop. It is very difficult to write in between many other things I have to deal with in the real world. When Stephen King talks about the flow, I totally get what he means. It has to go on non-stop like water from a faucet or else, the written voice gets stilted somehow. You cannot really continue writing with the same voice after you left it at one point. It will show.

I haven't really talked about this to anyone except for a handful of people very close to me who will understand and accept without prejudice and judgement. It will be something akin to being pregnant and giving birth, and it will take a few months for me to come out with my baby. In the meantime, I toil and work and try to keep it real as always.