For the love of jelly...

So my darling husband has been incredibly sick battling a hideous throat infection. Being the super wife that I am* I have been taking care of him. During one particularly strained moment he told me that if I misrepresented him on my blog and make him out to sound pathetic without ensuring that everyone knew how horribly sick he was then he would sue me. He claims he was joking, but just in case consider this my disclaimer...he was really sick, so sick that for a few days I was fraught with worry...however there were also some entertaining moments during those days (well entertaining for me anyway).

At one stage I had been cutting his panadol into quarters because he was having trouble swallowing them due to his sore throat (and general incompetence) when he came up to me sheepishly to say, "Can I ask you a favour, can you crush my tablets for me."

Seriously.

Another challenge was finding food that he could tolerate with the antibiotics and wouldn't throw up. His throat was very sore so it had to be soft as well. I suggested jelly, thinking that it would be a good alternative to tinned spaghetti. Little did I know that jelly would pose such a problem.

So I headed to Rustans supermarket to search out some jelly, and not having any clue where anything is stored in the incomprehensible aisles I asked for help. Big mistake.

The usual modus operandi of the staff there is to tell me..."sorry ma'am out of stock" no matter what I ask for. It is then after 15 minutes of searching every aisle that I actually find 15 kinds of the thing that was supposedly out of stock.

So I asked someone where the jelly was. Blank look. Searching my mind I tried to remember what American's call jelly...jello, of course. "How about jello I ask." Blank look.

"You know, jello? It is a powder that makes water go hard. You know, makes it wobble." (Insert wobble motion with hands and head here, you know, to make my point.) "It comes in fruity flavours, like lime or strawberry, lots of colours like red and green?"

Suddenly his face lit up with a smile..."Red and green? Ahh GULAMAN! This way ma'am."

Of course, gulaman, I should have known.




*...may not actually be a super wife, but think that crushing tablets gets me at least some wifely brownie points

Deck the halls with boughs of...chrisanthemum

Filipinos LOVE Christmas...this much has been confirmed by me in the short time I have been here. The streets, shopping centres and even high rise buildings are literally covered in lights and decorations. These decorations start appearing in any month ending in -ber, which means Christmas trees in September are not an uncommon sight.

I really like their commitment to Christmas here...it is very joyful! The chrisanthemum is their christmas bloom of choice and it is everywhere, in its sparkly, multi-coloured glory. I for one hate chrisanthemum's so will not be partaking in that particular tradition.

They also have some unusual Christmas installations including the odd animal display in the Powerplant Mall that includes moose and panda bears.

As I write this the Rockwell Christmas Party is is full swing in the park below our apartment. It is an event for those of us who live in Rockwell and includes food, drink and entertainment in the style of a cover band. The band is currently singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" and the crowd is going off! Other hits have included September by Earth Wind and Fire (just about to tour) and Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys (also about to tour).

Our stuff still hasn't arrived so none of our Christmas decorations are here. I have compensated and now have at least a little Christmas spirit in the apartment in the form of an Advent wreath. I am missing our stuff cos I haven't been able to bake Christmas biscuits yet this year! Next week I will be tackling Lebkuchen so fingers crossed! If all goes well I will post the recipe here.

For now, I leave you with a snapshot of Christmas in the Philippines.