crispy pata et al.

Actually, apart from 'brain' under construction, it's my camera too. That accounts for my blog lag..no recent entries of note except for the announcement about being on blog leave. My camera, for everybody's information, has died and gone to camera heaven, and thus no photos. But will try to resuscitate it and bring it to megamall tomorrow to see what can be done.
Must mention last night - what a crazy wacky evening, complete with sound effects like rat rat and wak wak - too embarrassing to explain what these are...anyway...reminisced again as usual, with my eightees friends -- Mr. Q and the usual gang from Hyatt / Calesa. This was at Mr. Q's home over dinner, and we had a hilarious time talking about the silliest shallowest things... Without divulging too much about our own personal experiences, we tried to recall if one orders the crispy pata before or after, if the ad of the crispy pata was indeed found on the headboard as what one girl claimed, or if that loud buzzer sound was really meant to wake you up by announcing the arrival of the crispy pata (which was normally placed in the ante room). There was actually a very heated debate - girls vs boys on the proper timing of the arrival of the crispy pata. or the lumpia shanghai. or pancit canton. or chop suey..which ever was applicable. Usap-busog, usap ala una, usap lasing.. super babaw...TO THINK ang tatanda na namin!!! Baby boomers all. Of course we were talking about experiences 20 years earlier.. "ang sabi nila"...Nilo's most oft repeated phrase, as he was the one most vocal about the crispy pata's proper timing. Another highlight of the evening was when I blamed Mr. Q for being instrumental for some major turning points in my life that eventually led to my pag-ka desgrasyada... Strike 1: incident in 1984 when Michel Jauslin, then the GM of Hyatt Seoul..newly widowed..super dashing and eligible..asked his permission to have dinner with me...my my, quite proper, asking permission from the boss! Q consented, but not without leaving me with those fateful words of advise...KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED. hahahahahaha!!! And so the door remained closed....and the rest is history. Michel is now some top notch hotelier in the city of Paris with a Korean girl as his first lady.. while me... nevermind... Strike 2: the sales manager private line is in tears, after having been on the phone with lover boy in brisbane...sales manager calls the boss, who by then was not just her boss but a confidante and advice-giver as well...Boss and Rita (his squeeze then, wife now) invite the sales manager for some drinks in order to console her. Boss and Rita give her the wrong advice ...Go Go Go for it Malu ... And again, the rest is history. The ironic thing is.. sales manager DID go, go, go for it (as in go on AWOL for love!), and the boss actually fired her for 'going' too much.. So there was a lot of pent up recrimination last night, released in such hilarious fashion.. I mean, all this took place over twenty years ago at that building by the bay (see photo.. awwww ...this is such a nostalgic, lump-in-the- throat moment for me) - all the AWOL-ing, the crying and the firing -- and we had a blast going over every detail, with everything exaggerated 10 x for effect of course.
Frankly I found it difficult sleeping last night as I was still laughing when I got home. I was the earliest to go home though. I understand they served longanizza and rice (breakfast??!) after I left...but I texted them that I had had too much 'crispy pata' already. Yeah..the taste is still there after twenty years.