Friday, October 12, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
The Blues
Let it flow
I may be old and rusty
Obscure and out of style
But always ready
To swallow your tides
I may be old and rusty
Obscure and out of style
But always ready
To swallow your tides
 |
| Sidewalk, Tuesday morning |
Monday, October 08, 2012
Duplicity of Roles - Every working mom's story
Learned about this concept while attending my favorite elective in college (Gender Issues in the Philippines' Society). Heard about it from friends immersed in feminist studies.
Simply put, gender-based roles are defined/redefined as societies evolve. Once upon a time, when women were homemakers and men were breadwinners, homemaking and raising the kids were all motherly chores. Men spent their days working, expecting sumptuous (warm!) dinner at home, alcoholic beverage, massage and great sex to end their day.
Roles were clearly defined. And then women started working. Dual-earning households became an emerging norm. Everyone got confused. With both husband and wife working, who's going to cook? Who's going to clean the house? Who will attend parent-teacher meetings?
With gender-based roles deeply ingrained in the human psyche came the tendency for the now-employed wife to still take on majority of homemaking responsibilities. Before (or after) work, she still wears the hat that requires her to cook, and scrub, and clean, etc. Society, in-laws, and in some sad situations even the husband, frowns at the wife who's not able to fulfill her motherly chores.
Gender-free utopia has the wife and the husband splitting "motherly" chores. But day-to-day, in real life, things come up and it becomes difficult to say - objection, duplicity of roles!
I don't know how to end this post. I just remembered how I resolved, before I got married, that I will strive but cannot promise to be the perfect mother and wife. I have to deal with guilt and feelings of inadequacy, that's all there will ever be. I'm not your superwoman. I'm just a wife, a mother and an employee.
I will raise the children, if you pay all the bills.
Simply put, gender-based roles are defined/redefined as societies evolve. Once upon a time, when women were homemakers and men were breadwinners, homemaking and raising the kids were all motherly chores. Men spent their days working, expecting sumptuous (warm!) dinner at home, alcoholic beverage, massage and great sex to end their day.
Roles were clearly defined. And then women started working. Dual-earning households became an emerging norm. Everyone got confused. With both husband and wife working, who's going to cook? Who's going to clean the house? Who will attend parent-teacher meetings?
With gender-based roles deeply ingrained in the human psyche came the tendency for the now-employed wife to still take on majority of homemaking responsibilities. Before (or after) work, she still wears the hat that requires her to cook, and scrub, and clean, etc. Society, in-laws, and in some sad situations even the husband, frowns at the wife who's not able to fulfill her motherly chores.
Gender-free utopia has the wife and the husband splitting "motherly" chores. But day-to-day, in real life, things come up and it becomes difficult to say - objection, duplicity of roles!
I don't know how to end this post. I just remembered how I resolved, before I got married, that I will strive but cannot promise to be the perfect mother and wife. I have to deal with guilt and feelings of inadequacy, that's all there will ever be. I'm not your superwoman. I'm just a wife, a mother and an employee.
I will raise the children, if you pay all the bills.
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Serenade Hall Makati - Good Food and Broken Promises
http://serenadehall.com
Penthouse, Golden Rock Building, 168 Salcedo Street,
Legaspi Village, Makati City
Phone Number: +632 816-1564
Mobile Numbers: +63 929 301-4071 and +63 905 420-5235
Email Address: connect@serenadehall.com
I learned about Serenade Hall a couple of years ago. Former colleagues said that food and ambiance is great. So when I had to organize dinner for a guest from the US, with less than 24 hours to prepare, I decided to give it a shot.
Dinner was for Thursday, 7PM. I called them Wednesday evening and they were very eager and accommodating. They even allowed us to place advance orders so food will be ready by the time we arrive. I talked to Vanni and Carol.
Just when everything's set, they told us Thursday morning that we need to pay 50% of the total bill. Pretty fair. Every business must secure its investment. They told us that someone from their office will drop by, with a portable POS, to process payment. They said they were going to call us. After hours of waiting, we decided to make a follow up call. This guy Anthony told our team mate that they may need to cancel our reservation because we did not pay to hold the reservation. It was already 4PM when this happened. Beggars can't be choosy so we said fine, we'll go to Serenade Hall to pay. He also said that whoever informed us about having their staff drop by to process payment did not realize that they won't be able to do it - the restaurant has only one POS machine.
When we showed up, they processed our payment and gave us free iced tea and cake. We got to check the venue for dinner too. It was a small function room and it was very quiet. I asked if air conditioning system's good. Anthony said yes. Also because the area was very quiet, I asked if they have piped in music. Anthony said yes too.
When we showed up at 7PM, everything's ready. Food was served without delays. There was only one thing missing - piped in music. Nakakabingi ang katahimikan. So I approached Vanni and Anthony to ask about piped in music.Everyone started apologizing. The maintenance person, they said, already left and no one will be able to work on it. I was frustrated at this point. Second broken promise. The reason we were having dinner was to spend time with a colleague visiting from the US. Anyone who was ever assigned to entertain a guest/s would know how it's frustrating when commitments aren't delivered. And so I told Vanni and Anthony "sana hindi kayo nagko-commit kung di niyo kayang gawin diba?"
We were almost done with dinner when this guy showed up to do something about piped in music. We had music after all.
Good food, good meat. But Serenade Hall Makati, do not fail to deliver when you've promises to keep.