She’s back
Sorry for the long absence, my loyal readers. It has been repeatedly brought to my attention that I haven’t posted a single entertaining tidbit since the end of last month. Unfortunately, gainful employment has seriously cut into my goofing-off time and since I haven’t yet mastered the fine art of time management, my creative output has suffered terribly.
Anyway, shortly after my last t-shirt of the day post, Mom and Dad came to visit, on a stopover from New York to Manila. Dad looked great, all things considered, and both parental units actually looked better for having spent three months alone together in a small apartment in Park Slope. There’s much to be said for simplifying one’s life, most especially now that the spawn are all growed up and mostly moved away.
That said, the potent combination of online shopping, cheap US delivery and imminent, obliging parental/ pack mule visitation yielded much in the way of merchandise. Here’s dad trying to steal the spotlight from House and Veronica Mars,
And here, in assembly, is what my parents brought home for us:
Yes, those are 9 pounds of coffee, 4 jars of peanut butter, 5 DC: The New Frontier action figures, 2 DVD boxed sets and a t-shirt. Mickey’s razor blades were not unearthed in time for the photo op.
So what does a good daughter do when the parents come to visit? Lacking my own spawn to keep them entertained, I took my parents shopping and eating. First stop was Stanley where they had the run of the market:
Dad made faces and Mom smiled sweetly for the camera. You can guess which parent I took after.
The next day, upon Dad’s insistence, we motored over to Shenzhen. Now Dad hates shopping, and despite our assertion that there is nothing to do in Lowu BUT shop, Dad said he just wanted to cross the border into China. So here they are looking adorable at the border.
Sure, the border crossing is fun and a tiny bit surreal if you stop to think about it. But once you’ve crossed over and laid eyes on the Lowu GiantMall, the lure of grade A Prada and Hermes knockoffs, DVDs and assorted cheap merchandise is enough to drive any reflective thinking from your brain. Predictably, Dad was bored after 5 minutes. “Is that all there is here?” he asked. “Yes, Dad,” I replied. Mom was flexing her formidable superfantastic bargainer muscles, and so was paying less than full attention to her husband.
Fortunately, a lunch of prawns, spare ribs, lemon chicken, soup dumplings, bok choi, fried rice, and 2 600-ml bottles of Tsing Tao staved off Dad’s boredom and mom and I got an extra 2 hours’ shopping time.
That evening, Grumpus and I took them to the trendy Hutong restaurant across the harbor. Here he is again with his funny faces at the ferry terminal.
And here’s Grumpus with his in-laws, in mid-grimace.
Here are the parents at the restaurant.
More superfantastic pictures of the restaurant here if you’re feeling patient and click-y. Resto link after the main page loads.
Anyway, that was that. On our way back to our side of town, the first 3 members of the Ramon K. Katigbak family posed with the Central skyline in the background.
