February 27, 2025 – Walk the Wok

    Yesterday was a most refreshing day. I awoke around 7:00am and headed to the outside seating area of the Starbucks to await Jayson's arrival by 8:00am. When Jayson arrived, we traveled to the nearest bicycle shop in front of the Puregold grocery store in Taguig. The shop was just setting everything up and preparing to open. Once they opened, I was able to purchase most all the items on my list. I bought two 26” x 2.125' bicycle tubes, a spoke wrench, and a chain breaker tool. They didn't have any tire levers/tire irons in stock, so we went to another bicycle shop very close to Johanna's home in Taguig, near the Signal transport terminal. At this small bicycle shop, they had the tire irons, so I purchased a pair of them. Then, we drove the short distance on the scooter back to Johanna's home/the Binuya homestead.

    At the homestead, we ate a most scrumptious breakfast of lumpia and macaroni and cheese with beef casserole. It was absolutely out of this world. To top it off, we also ate a salad as well (cucumber, lettuce, tomato, onion, and thousand island dressing). The meal was fantastic and the whole family got our fill and were very appreciative of Mrs. Cora. After eating, we chatted for a while with one another, Johanna prepared and then we left to catch a jeepney to Market Market.

    At market Market, we went to Ace Hardware, and I bought a Michelin one horsepower 1100 watt air compressor along with several attachments, including a tire inflator with dial, a duster/air blower, a paint sprayer, a degreaser sprayer, and more. I pray that this gift is put to productive use at their home here in Taguig. They have so many bicycles and scooters, I'm sure they'll beed to use the air compressor often to pump up tires and such. We took the air compressor and the accessories to the package counter and we were given number 285. We would return later in the afternoon to pick up the items, but for now, we wanted to walk around BGC and do some more shopping.

    I was running low on 35mm film, so we checked out a couple photo supply stores in Market Market, but neither of them had any 35mm film for sale. I looked again on GPS, and I saw that Henry's Cameras in Uptown mall may have some 35mm film. The mall was about a 1 kilometer walk away, so we made the walk to the mall. Henry's cCamera was on the 4^th floor of the mall adjacent to an outdoor veranda and a fully glassed chapel. They had the film, although it was quite expensive; 900 pesos per roll. I bought two rolls and I paid a total of 1800 pesos.

    Afterwards, Johanna and I went to Jamba Juic (a store on the 4^th floor of the veranda that offers a variety of freshly made smoothies). Johanna bought a 30 ounce smoothie known as strawberries wild, and I ordered a 22 ounce smoothie that was a strawberry, banana, almond concoction. They were absolutely delicous and we were both jubilant with glee. At this time, I told Johanna a couple things that were bothering me about her. First, I told her I didn't like her teasing me about my weight. She has been calling me marshmallow and touching my belly alluding to the fact that I am slightly overweight. I'm insecure about this and I asked her politely to stop. The other thing that was irritating me is that I don't like to be led by the arm like a child. I prefer us to walk forward together; hand-in-hand as a team by each other's side. She understood, apologized, and said she would do it no longer. I appreciated her willingness to respect my demands, and then everything was alright between us. I know there will be things about me and my behavior that bother her, and vice versa. All we need to do is express our selves and our concerns while the other person is willing to listen and try to make a change in order to please the pther person. I told Johanna that she has most all the characteristics and attributes of a godly woman, and I can not be more happy to be with her. After discussing those isseus , we commenced with the Bible study in the John Coblentz book. The message of our Bible study is the attributes of a godly woman. We completed section three of the book and then we adored one another with endearments and wisdom.

    Subsequent to the Bible study, we went to a department store in Market Market (walking the kilometer back from Uptown Mall). In the store, we bought Mrs. Cora a new pot/wok/steamer made of stainless steel. Then we went back to Ace Hardware and we picked up the compressor and accessories from the package counter. The workers of Ace told me they would carry them down to the terminal, but I said jokingly, “My dearest Johanna, thanks I'm getting soft, so I better carry them. So, I carried the items all the way to the transport terminal.

    The terminal was packed with people...hundreds and hundreds of people. No taxi was available. No Grab was available. No jeepney was available, and no express bus was available. We decided to get in line for the express bus. We were in line for about an hour to an hour and a half before we were able to board a bus heading to Taguig. We paid for three people, Johanna, our baggage, and I. It only cost 90 pesos (less than two USD). The traffic back to Taguig was horrendous. We were in traffic another hour or so, before arriving back to Johanna's house at 8:30pm.

    Johanna immediately went to sleep and I ate a Filipino soup that Johanna's mother made (Miswa soup). It was a very delicious and unique soup. Shortly thereafter, I was able to talk with Mr. joe. We had a great man to man chat together. I gave them their gifts and then I retired for the evening. Jayson, of course, drove me back to the Grace Residences condo.