The Road to 40 Day 57/365: Saturday Pivot

We were supposed to head over to Batangas today, but we prioritized rest instead.

As I’ve mentioned over the past few blogs, Che has not had a chance to breathe since we came to Manila. We canceled our planned trip to stay home for the day.

I still had all that bulgogi prepped in the fridge, so we had that for lunch. Since Che was here, we agreed to have kimchi soup as well.

Kimchi soup is easy to make, which is why it became our go-to easy soup dish. We saw it done in Jinny’s Kitchen as a staff meal, and I decided to recreate it. I’ve done several versions of it and I have settled on a few key ingredients already.

However, it’s always about the kimchi. I’m not about to make my own, but not all kimchi will taste good as a soup. We found Jonga brand as the best base among the commonly available ones.

Because I didn’t have it, I settled on this random bottled kimchi which had the best color among three options and went with it. We tried to add onto it after I made the soup, and it was acceptable at least.

I cooked while talking to Uncle Owe, Ino, and Jason, who were all together in Batangas. They went on with the scheduled trip to Uncle Owe’s house because everything was pretty much set.

They understood that Che needed rest and I wasn’t going on an overnight trip and leave her here with Vino, so it was all good. After all, we were all house husbands at the moment. At least I was still able to catch up with them.

Over here in the city, Christian was not busy and we’ve been talking about meeting up for some time. We asked if he wanted to come over later in the day and he said he’ll just wait for Nix to finish up training.

Che crashed on the bed for an afternoon nap, while Vino was just lounging beside her. I fell asleep for a bit, but went down as soon as the guys were here to pick them up.

I didn’t think we’d still walk around, but we did.

Nix, Christian, and Arianne ran and rode bikes, Kali went to the gym, I was the guy who always walked. I did it in Vietnam, I do it in Singapore, and I did it on trips. So they thought it was just normal for us to go around before heading up.

Wearing my home clothes, we walked to the food court for some drinks. I was still full, but they insisted to get a drink so I did. Later, we saw our favorite Jamaican Patties. I said it would be best to eat it upstairs since I was still full, but as soon as it was in my hands, I ate it already.

I told the guys we had wine, but Christian said he’d let Che have it instead.

We went to Marketplace to grab some more drinks, but ended up with a bunch of other stuff. As we made our way out, we saw a leg of Iberico Ham and Christian saw some cheese so naturally, we went back for it.

Back upstairs, Vino was excited to have visitors come over. He was in his usual silly self and played a bit.

Once the drinking started, Vino went on to play by himself, trying to shoot a piece of rolled paper into the pen holder. It’s a usual sight, which is why I would also like for us to meet friends with kids also so that he can play with them while the adults talk.

Not a lot of serious talk went on, just a lot of laughs and noise because somehow when I’m with these guys, the volume of our voices just turns up a notch.

We packed up early by our standards, but the boys were supposed to train tomorrow. I brought them down and waited for their ride.

I went up and we all got ready for bed. For the first time in the week, at least Che was not going to sleep with her work phone as her last companion, so I’ll take it as a big win.

Sometimes, a change of plans could lead to something we really need. With or without visitors, I’m happy that Che was able to get some rest today. It’s a bit disappointing that we weren’t able to visit my uncle’s house, but we’ll have time for it.

We got to recharge and rest, and hopefully she can have more time this weekend before another busy week for her.

Related Content