Maynila

What's that? That's SPAM at Burger King! I can handle red rice at KFC, but this is a bit too much for my taste.  It's a good example of regional branding though, but I'm not sure it's the best.  This was on an enormous billboard right outside St. Luke's Medical Center.  Perhaps another way to keep the hospital in business?  Breakfast and a bypass anyone?

Here I am getting prepped for my cholecystectomy.  I left the hospital bruised up, but feeling better than I expected.  At one point right after surgery the nurse left to get my bedpan.  That's about the time I decided to get dressed and make a run for it.  A laporascopic cholescytectomy is non-invasive surgery for which I was glad.  I don't think I could have taken more than a couple of days cooped up in a hospital room. 

 

 The view from our hotel on the 16th floor.  They say that when a storm comes the skies are blue.  I didn't see a horizon for a week and the noise was almost unbearable at night, but it was clean and had warm water for showers.  The Regalia Suites is pretty new, and nicely maintained.  I hope that in a few years it will still be the same. 

 

This is Ashley and Christine.  Christine is the daughter of our nanny, Auntie Emma. Ashley is her first grandchild.  They came on a bus from Cavite to meet us.  I've met Emma's other son Christopher on other trips to Manila.  Ashley didn't say a word to me the entire time we were together, but I'm told she had plans to practice her English.  Maybe next time. 

 We offered to drive them back to Cavite because we wanted to get out of Manila and see new places, but Ashley had some plans to visit for a while so Wayne took me on a drive to Tagaytay to see the volcano.  There were beautiful flowers and fruits along the roadside.  The two hour drive each way did some good to cure boredom.  If you stay in Manila too long you might think that's all there is to the Philippines.  Busy streets, pollution and noise are part of all big cities everywhere in the world.  It was nice to see a different side.  I'd love to stay in Tagaytay one day.  Tagaytay is famous for the volcano and pineapples.

 

I never knew the true meaning of what it was like to be stuck in traffic until the four hour drive from Cavite to Manila. The drive normally takes two hours, but Erwin our driver said that it's always stop and go traffic on the weekends and the streets are always empty when Manny Pacquiao is fighting. 

 

My honey and I broke some rules and took a walk right before my surgery.  If it weren't for him I'd be in so much more pain, but he managed to get my butt up from my hospital bed the day after surgery and kept me occupied, which meant keeping my mind off the pain.  For the first time in my life I am learning to be cared for, it's a weird feeling but I think I can get used to it.