burned out firechild

Yesterday  morning after shift, i headed off to nostalgic Quiapo to buy the mini-dvs needed for the dubbed copies of my film & Shine’s  for Cinemalaya. I was accompanied by Nina (another July 6-born moonchild, my life is full of them), who was up for the challenge– Carriedo (pronounced kharyeydow) after all being her ultimate shopping haven.

WATSON

First stop was Watson, where we usually by mini-dvs by bulk. It totally slipped my mind that it was 8 in the morning and all but one or few stalls were open. I had bypass my suki to check out the other stalls. They were selling the Panasonic mini-dv’s for 150Php when before it was 145. Sadly my tawaran skills didn’t work. I was ready to pay though, but alas only Sony mini dvs were available– which of course would never do. "Pareho lang naman yan miss" the tinderas would say. I had to explain to them and to Nina that they weren’t. Sony tapes would ruin your camera/recorder heads– take it from DOP extrordinaire Ogi. Sulkily, we decided to wait for the better stalls to open and headed in the other direction to check out the green boots Nina was dying to acquire…

24 HOUR SHIFT

There were skimpily clothed women smoking cigarettes, hand on waist, waiting, in the side streets with vacant eyes… at 8 in the morning at that… Who would want to pay for a  f*ck at 8 in the morning? And how long have they been waiting there? How long will they continue to wait?

Alas, the shop that housed the coveted green boots was also closed to we headed to rest (after commuting from makati and walking back & forth ) at a nearby diner for cokes & smokes… then we got hungry…

ESTERO

"Malapit na yan!" Nina’s understatement for the day. It was not, believe me. It was hot, and we were tired which made the walk from Carriedo to Ongpin an even grueling one… We finally reached a quaint shaded spot near the bridge with the dragons (i don’t know what it’s called aheheh)… the much talked about Estero…  It definitely was worth all the effort. We had mixed seafood (70Php) and shanghai rice (60Php), and soda. The shanghai rice was great and the mixed seafood had bite sized ingredients (tiny chicharo, oysters) and the squid pieces were so tender. The sauce was not to sharp or nakakauyam…The bill amounted to 155Php and the meal was like good enough for three people with not-so voracious appetites. The same amount at the more popular Chinese restos would probably get you an ordinary dish or a regular serving of rice… Definitely when I drop by quiapo or carriedo I would have to give estero a visit and try out the other yummy stuff on the menu.

CHINESE DRUGS & LAO PO PIA

It was nearing 10am when we decided to head back to Carriedo to get the tapes and shoes. On the way back Nina decided to make a stopover Salazar bakery where I was introduced to various Chinese baked goodies like lotus cream with salted egg, radish cakeand sweetheart cake or laopo pia which looked like a small pancake with tikoy inside. I didn’t get to taste it though but I’m secretly hoping she’d bring a pack to the office so we could sample it. Mmmm…. She also stopped by a couple of chinese drug stores to replenish her stocks of ginseng capsules and pampatulog… Nina: Miss may pampatulog po ba kayo? Shopkeeper: (gets a box from behind the cabinet’s glass) Heto o… Nina: ano po tawag dito? Shopkeeper: Pampatulog. Nina: Alam ko po pero ano po ingredients nya, san sya gawa? SHopkeeper: Aba ewan ko, intsik yung sulat. basta mga herbal ito… (SIGH!) Nina ended up buying from another store the same pampatulog plus some pearl colored conditioner capsules (5 pesos/pc.) which she’ll try & tell me about before I buy it.

HENRY’S

Watson’s was still closed when we got there so I settled for Henry’s which had Panasonic tapes (still at 150Php /each). Before we got there Nina got conned into buying a sewing device that looked like a stapler (60Php). … That done, we called it a day and i took the LRT back to pasay where I endured another grueling 30 mins communting home. Whey wat a day that was! (and what a long entry)

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