Work, Friends and Goodies

Today was my consultation day at the Lopez Jaena health center, and also the first day that we're having prenatal check-ups in afternoon. In the past, we used to do both consultations and prenatal check-ups simultaneously in the morning. Actually, when I first took over this clinic, I did ask that the pregnant women be seen later in the day so they don't get infected by the common viral illnesses that children have. But somehow, they slowly started showing up in the mornings as well. So, I'm giving it another try with the new year. The staff had put up a sign for the past month for the new schedule, so I'm hopeful we'll be able to make it stick this time around. We didn't have a lot of patients for consultation, so I was able to start on a new dinosaur hat for Ben & Nathan, my nephews from the UK who will be visiting by the end of the month. And I made good progress too. I just needed to put in the fiberfill in the tail and attach it and the spots on and it'd be done!

Just a little before noon, I nipped out to go to the City Health Office (CHO) to sign my itinerary for my travel allowance. Then I picked up some ham bones to flavor the dogs' stew since they hadn't been eating the past few days. I suspect they have food fatigue too. [So one of the first things I did when I came home, was to heat up their food and threw in some bones for the stew and for them to chew on before dinner. And as soon as I came out holding bones for the girls, they promptly followed me into their pen where they each got a bone to gnaw on.]

I usually buy food from the eatery in front of the clinic so I don't have to cook dinner. And today I got some pork steak, "alimusan" (catfish cooked in coconut milk), and a vegetable dish for Mama and me to share. And I got some over-ripe bananas from a vendor who had attached a platform on his bicycle to display his goods. I wanted to make banana bread again, but when I got home, I found we'd run out of eggs, bummer. So, banana bread-making is temporarily postponed, folks.

After seeing my preggy patients, I toddled off home with all my booty: 4kgs of ham bones, 2 kg (or more) bananas, and our food. Yeah, I'm "African" like that! [In Africa, women carry all the loads(baskets/produce) while the men walked empty-handed, since historically, they're supposed to carry weapons to fight off all the lions and other wild animals that could attack them while they walk through the bush]  My hubby just laughs when I insist on carrying my share of stuff/luggage...he knows I'm part-Zambian like that. And I think I take after my Papa, who is an awesome provider and loves bringing stuff home to us.

After letting the girls out of their pen, I plugged into the internet and checked my mail...and pinterest,lol!
And I've been here since (lol)...save for a quick dinner with Mama and meeting the DH when he came home.

But I haven't been totally unproductive: I've edited and uploaded some photos to FB. The DH and I had dinner last night with our college friends and we had a blast doing the simple things!

We ate at this roadside eatery where we gorged on "crispy pata" (deep fried pig's legs), "lechon kawali" (deep-fried pork belly), "pancit malabon" (a noodle dish with fresh veggies, boiled egg quarters). Yeah, it's not like we haven't had enough fatty food over the holidays, lol! But at least, I had brought a large container of the juiciest,sweetest pink pomelo to counter all the greasy food...or so we'd like to think,hahaha!

And I also uploaded photos of all the goodies we got from our friend Vincent: we got bags, and tea and chocolates, a heap of chocolates, oh my! 

Thank you Vincent for all our post-Christmas booty! Love, love, love them all! XOXO
Have a safe trip back to Oxford, and we certainly hope to visit you soon. :-)

And I even managed to upload the photos of the Wonder Woman action figures I received from the DH and his brother when we were vacationing in Davao. They're just awesome...hope to post photos of them here too.

I don't know why my Picasa web albums won't open, and I can't upload to them, drat. So I've been linking the photos here from my FB urls. Oh well.

It's past midnight now, and I need to freshen up and get into bed now, so it's goodnight from me now. Talk to you again soon.
A bientot, mes amis!