Day 2 of 9

It felt like Sunday today, because I spent the whole day with my family.

• Had home-cooked lunch (with rice!) on a weekday for the first time in a year.

• Took a leave from work. Had to go to different government offices with Mom, Dad, and Bryant (Chris was no where to be found, perhaps he went to work?) for several immigration requirements. I was surprised at how blatant and rampant the system of "lagay" is in every government office, especially at the Manila Police District (Western, to be exact). "Under-the-table" is not the norm anymore; government employees even expect citizens to "bid" on the rate of paper processing. How appalling!

• Almost got my driver's license today, but didn't make it to LTO Tayuman office on time coz I had to have drug test and medical exams in LTO Malate. There was this really nice medical exam lady that even gave me the master answer-list to the LTO written exams. It was funny how insistent she was, and she sincerely wanted me to ace the test. Thank you, LTO lady!

• My dad got hungry and wanted to have merienda at the nearest possible mall (drum-rolls... SM Manila!!!). He craved for "the tasty burger" he had in Razon's the other day (and I was like really now, may burger sa Razon's!?), and so, we had merienda at Razon's.

My parents initially planned to get sizzling sisig and sizzling bulalo.

The dinugan at Razons was good, but of course, I'd always be a Kanin Club-Krispy Dinuguan-girl

Dad had his er, "tasty burger", which was SO BASIC it didnt even have any of the usual TLC/ketchup/mayo. It looked...dry.

Mom had her usual pancit luglog

No trip to Razon's would be complete without this best seller. The last time I had this was with the Anvaya Gang, Summer of 2010.

• I wanted to try with something I've never had for Day 2. There was a Cafe Ti-amo a few shops away from our merienda place, so I checked out their offerings and found what my chef friend Mitchie posted in her Facebook.

Dark Chocolate gelato. BTS (DM/text/email me what BTS means). MUST TRY. Oh and it was sinfully dark. Not so sweet but. oh. so. good.

And had it with this milk cheese gelato and it tasted so much better. I actually grew up eating the type of cheese that was in the gelato. YUM.

I shared the cup with my mom, who became a gelato convert right away (she's been a loyal fuss-free, old fashioned, normal ice cream fan)

• Went home and got a visit from my mentor, Tito Dick. I bought from him this pretty thing as a birthday present for myself (and would try my hardest not to think about how much it cost me...).

Oh, so pretty: a new diamond quartz crystal to replace the one I broke years ago. Also called Herkimer Diamond, this is believed to amplify energy and create and manifest visions into being.

Wednesday is my new Sunday. Happy day indeed. :)