For some reason, December 22-23 was more of a ho-hum affair and a bit of fluff at the same time.
My youngest sister arrived from Hawaii at the 22nd in the afternoon. Man, must’ve been a long flight. She was picked up from the airport by her new (I don’t really know how new) boyfriend in his car. Well, haven’t known the guy that well yet so I don’t have anything to say for the meanwhile. I didn’t plan to do anything that day as well, so it was my ho-hum day. Lounged in the house all day, browsing YouTube and playing Zelda and grinding the FGO/HSR dailies and quests. I was adamant to relax for that day, and I did.
Oh, and the 22nd I remember well for something. It’s the day I got fed up with general-topic react streamers. During the weeks leading to my vacation, I was browsing YouTube for my daily fix when I got the epiphany that these kinds of people were not contributing any positive things to my mental health. So I started having doubts as to whether I should keep following them. Don’t get me wrong, they’re plenty entertaining and sometimes informative. But I wondered if their benefits were greater than their negatives, for which I gained an increased belief that they were like Magnum chocolate ice cream bars – delicious but a net negative on anyone’s health.
I then decided to check my followed channels on YouTube and I kept a phone note on all of them reactionary streamers. Whenever I had free time, I reviewed the list and checked if they are worth keeping. But by December 22, I saw that my list had 20+, and only three remained uncrossed. Man, if only three remain “good” and the rest are not good enough anymore, why not just go for broke then. So I decided to go fuck-all and unfollowed on YouTube all the streamers and content creators on my Notes list. I was also resolved to train my YouTube algo to not recommend any react streamers in the future. I spent a good hour refreshing my YouTube homepage and asking the system to not recommend me the react streamers’ videos anymore. By the end of the hour, it seemed the system got the message.
By the next day, December 23, we had something to do that afternoon – grocery shopping in Puregold Fairview for the 24th Christmas get-together. My youngest sister would purportedly join us in Puregold to get her alcohol fix in. I know she loves her alcohol/liquor but definitely she’s not some drunkard. Well, I’ll just have to play watchdog later.
Lunch was fried fish, but then put in a stew with vegetables. Definitely one of my dad’s trademark dishes – fried fish, then stewing it. Gives a smoky flavor to the stew soup, and makes the fish skin way tastier. Goes aces with rice as well. I think some Southeast Asian dishes also make use of “fry first then stew later” techniques, since it does impart a good amount of flavor in the stew.
After lunch, me, my younger sister, and both my parents got in the family car and went to do grocery. I looked forward to the short afternoon activity partly because I was bored AF, and I wanted to shake off a growing headache. I kind of woke up a bit late at 10AM, and with a mild headache to boot. I knew from experience that a long leisurely walk does help shake these shit off, and a grocery jaunt is a perfect way to do so.
Upon going in the Puregold grocery (it was the largest one near our house, the second one was a Super8), I also looked forward to seeing both new stuff that might’ve changed as well as the supermarket prices of today.
There was this “taste of Singapore” food stall there last year when I did my after-New Year groceries. I looked there again to the right when we went up the main escalator, and well, it got replaced by a stall selling shawarma-esque stuff. Well, I’ll decline to pile on what was an obvious misfortune by the former stallholder, but I bought a food item there last time and it did not taste of anything I knew from Singapore. If anything, it was very meh.
Once we went inside past the counters, we grabbed two carts (my sister had one but mom insisted on getting her own one too), we went on to business. For me, I had no carts. I had already made up what I want to buy anyway (mainly) – cheap buzz drinks. My sister started looking for the dry pasta and sauces, and mom went to get the items for fruit salad – like those cans of fruit chunks and condensed milk.
For me, I just leisurely walked first towards the snack sections while waiting for my youngest sister. I wanted to see what’s what for there. Mostly cosmetic and sleights, it turned out. Many of the snacks I knew changed their packaging designs. The true-and-original ones like Fita and Cream-O’s kept the same styles, while the others kind of changed colors and design. New look but same ol’ sugary stuff inside. And when I looked at the back to see their nutritional information, some things immediately stood out: the cookies, biscuits, candies and gummies are sugar bombs, and definitely some “shrinkflation” going on here. What I used to remember as 35g of biscuits were now 32-33g. The gummies noticeably looked smaller than last I intimately checked. And for me who’s conscious of how much sugar should I have in a day, these treats, per serving size, are dealbreakers. If I ate one of these packs, I gotta burn some calories to account for the extra sugars.
But well, diabetes isn’t bad yet in the PH. I guess since most kids and adults here are very active (some partially of not their willingness to be as active) and they end up burning these extra calories anyway. Like for example, those kids going to public school systems. Most live within proximity of their school of choice, they mostly walk. Otherwise, they use public transport.
The usual chips/crisps remained intact, appearance-wise. I think those might be more resistant to sudden artsy packaging design overhauls. Maybe slicker fonts or new pop-out colors, but otherwise looked the same. Maybe more air inside too, perhaps. If “shrinkflation” hit the biscuits and candies, won’t be surprising if the chips now have more airspace inside their bags. For me, I always got to have my Oishi Ribbed Cracklings, specifically the Salt and Vinegar one. That one is the best for me – slightly sweet, bombastically sour with a tiny tingle of spiciness. Goes aces with beer or somek. I’ve seen Singaporeans buy that specific snack a lot in Lucky Plaza as well.
My youngest sister came around the time that my little mental soliloquy in the snacks section ended, with her new man in tow. From the get-go, she looked more youthful than usual. Love, perhaps. Her new boyfriend seem more… shall I say, pleasantly confident. The last dude she went with on a trip in Singapore that I met was more of a “Makati-style confident”, if you get my drift. Shook his hand, and off we went back inside to see the rest of the family busy looking for ingredients. Man, are these people buying too many food just for a single day?
My sister insisted on stopping at the liquor section first to see what she wants to get her buzz from. Well, I had to gently dissuade her from the hard drinks and more into manageable ones like beers. If you know me, it’s subtly helpful to not get your relatives drunk. She grabbed maybe 4-5 cans of Heineken (good choice, Budweiser’s is pisswater) and I remember also some San Miguel for dad. I also grabbed two local-brand Moscow Mule imitations and three cans of Suntory’s Horoyoi shochu cocktails (somehow a lot cheaper than soju) to bring along on our short jaunt to the Rizal province. Cheap buzz for me too!
When our group went past the fresh produce section, I was reminded that I missed the wet markets. Specifically, the unique funky smells of meat that only a local wet market could produce. Maybe also the chaotic cacophony of voices from the sellers and buyers alike. Maybe also the sound of business. Nothing of that sort in these santized sanctums of animal meat and products in these groceries. I understand the rationale perfectly why no smells can permeate the fresh produce sections, for me who spent decades buying directly in wet markets, it’s a lot that I dearly miss.
I did check as many sections that I could. One thing that struck me was that modern focused groceries that aren’t flush with money and intent like SM/Robinsons/Ayala have been highly optimized. What sells stays, what could potentially sell gets promoted, what could be getting less in sales gets discounted or repackaged in promos, and what doesn’t really sell eventually disappears. Can’t blame them for playing the game, it’s the nature of the beasts that are lower in the food chain. Keep adapting or else you can disappear. So here in Puregold, all items I saw were all theoretically a) within purchasing power of the average lower-to-middle class common folk, and b) usable by most folks, so almost no exotic stuff. Compared to the ones in SM where they sometimes stock fancy international stuff like canned spiced whelk, higher-level spicy Tabasco, spotted dicks or bags of premade gamjatang broth, these were all commonfolk-friendly. In my opinion, the only section there that was a rich-man’s world onto itself was the pet food section. Fancy some flavored Whiskas for the aspiring bourgeois kitty? It’s there. To be fair, some sections had some international flair – I did get some Horoyoi, which wasn’t a well-known drink, and I spied a section full of Jinro soju as well – but I think those fell under the “potentially could sell this holiday season” items. I mean, items like Vino de Chino (or “See Hoc Tong”) is still being sold, chances are enough people still buy certain exotics, but only if useful. Liquor is always useful somewhere.
By the time we all finished groceries, the haul ended up on two cartfuls. Also as it was very close to Christmas day, the lanes on the checkout counters were similar to movie blockbusters’ lines on opening night. Well, my parents are already on the senior age, so we lined up on one of the specific assigned lanes for senior citizens. Less people in it. While the busybodies go through the purchases for last-minute deliberations while in queue, me and my youngest sister went on the nearby food stalls to grab snacks. I went for iced coconut water and stir-fried cheap Hongkong-style noodles. My sister went for the same as well, except for the drinks – she went for sago gulaman.
Well, damn. Capitalism and “shrinkflation” also grabbed and ruined the noodles. I remember when these stuff came out around 2012-ish. The noodles were sufficiently thick and textured to make the sauces stick more, the sauces were varied and tasty, less beansprouts and the cooking flattops left a more smoky flavor as the cooks used it smoking hot. One could’ve heard a pleasant sizzle when a cook dumped a prepped serving size on the grill, and see a waft of smoke rise up right away. Those were the early days. Every year, more stalls came, more franchises went up, and clearly it was a sizable fad. It definitely faded around 6-7 years later, but still, the one I had in 2018 was still passable. Not anymore.
The noodles I got that day was the shittiest one I ever had. It was something I would never willingly eat again. The stall looked depressingly dim. The cooks looked sapped of joy. The “small” serving size of the noodles definitely paled in comparison to the “small” of 2014 (I consider it the peak year of these localized noodles). Almost pale yellowish, too many beansprouts, and definitely smaller. It didn’t even sizzle well in the flattop. No smoke either. Steam did, but I mean, it’s just that. No smoky flavor imparted. The sauces were also horror shows. They were all watery as fuck. The chili sauce was a disgrace. The peanut sauce looked like sewage. All in all, the flavor of the noodles with the sauces was very pitiful. I wasn’t angry, but I was definitely depressed to see this once-glamorous hot snack of the early 2010’s turn into this soggy mess in 2024. Fucking bad, truly. Also, for the coconut water? Shit, it’s bad as well, but enough for a thirst-quencher. I could taste the sugars overpowering the delicate coconut taste. I joked to my sister that I could throw away 25% of the drink, put in water instead and it would taste better. The only real positive I could give is that the drink was pleasantly chilled.
When we finished the stomach space occupiers and went back to our family in line, I already computed how much these carts’ contents could cost, and started to bring out my wallet to help with the expenses. My mom and sister were trying to insist to pay for the groceries themselves, but I insisted more. I brought SGD 1000 worth of pesos in my wallet, and for days it was begging to be spent. 5,000 pesos was just a small pinch in that amount anyway. I mentally talked myself out of buying airport pasalubong, but this one I am more than willing to pony up for. I forked out 3,000 pesos to help with the groceries (mom insisted on her contribution, so I eventually obliged by holding back 2,000 for later), and once everything was packed and tied up tidy, we all went down the carpark to load them up and go home.
My sister rode shotgun with her dude in his SUV, and she went back home with us to offload some stuff from her luggage (and sleep in for the night). Namely, souvenirs, pasalubong and maybe a last-minute chat as to what will go down the next day in terms of travel.
Starting with the WWE haul I had her buy stateside. I was very happy to see the World Heavyweight Championship replica was in one piece. To note, what she bought for me (with my own money I sent her with some extra) was a “Commemorative” replica of the WHC, a belt hanger, and an XL-size CM Punk shirt. My dad winced when he saw the big-ass title belt, he must’ve thought it was super expensive. Nah man, this is a plastic one. Well-made, though. And the leather is a VAST improvement over the leather in the previous one I asked her to buy for me (the WWE Championship, 2018 version). That one was almost as stiff as a board. This new one felt very flexible and very bendable.
I immediately unwrapped it and used the belt hanger to hang that title on my bedroom wall above the bed. It looked way out of place. My room was too humble for such a golden thing, but I wanted it there. At least until January 4, then I will put that belt in a cabinet. For now, I want to have a constant look at it. Because that wrestling belt was a thing of beauty.
I took in the 3 boxes of macadamia nuts I asked from her (it’s for the office souvenir) along with two 10-piece packs of Nissin butter coconut cookies that her boyfriend graciously bought for us when he heard that I wanted to get some (I guess she leaked our convo, maybe). That cookie was a hit in the office, because last year, I bought 2 packs of that cookie as my office souvenir, and it disappeared from the pantry super quick, like less than 10 mandays. What’s not to like – not too sweet, very buttery, and just a pleasant coat of toasted coco flavor. Smells nice too.
That should suffice for office souvenirs.
So we then started to discuss the plans for the next day, which is the day we planned to rent a whole resort house for Christmas eve in the Rizal province. Just one night in a nice resort out in the sticks, away from fireworks or noisy neighbors doing karaoke at early morning hours.
The plan is that:
- Dad precooks papaitan, and transports it in a secured container (basically the cooking pot with the lid on, wrapped in cling at the top)
- Mom and my two sisters will cook pasta and dessert (fruit salad), with someone also buying extra stuff (samgyeopsal meat and prepped grill items, grilled tuna jaw, California maki) for the Christmas feast
- The transport plan ended up with all the ladies riding in the boyfriend’s SUV and the rest of us in dad’s SUV.
Dinner was so-and-so. My younger sister bought some fried chicken online and dad made stewed fish. And they all went great with rice.
I did notice a couple of years ago after-COVID that my dad goes to sleep much earlier than the rest of us in the house. Like, by 9PM, he shuts off the lights at his sleeping area and goes to sleep right away. But I learned that it was mostly out of situational necessity and less of “healthy habits”.
For one, he supposedly wasn’t getting his 8 hours sleep in. He also is a light sleeper, prone to being woken from sleep from the smallest disturbances or moderately loud noises. His sleeping area doesn’t help him as well. He prefers to sleep near the entrance to our house, because he liked to sleep there due to it being a well-ventilated space. No need for fans or aircon for him there. Problem is, it also opens him to the noises outside our house, so when stray dogs or tricycles make sounds outside our gate, he gets woken up from his slumber. I did suggest earplugs a year ago, but he waved it off, as he will also lose track of possible thieves, as our neighborhood sometimes gets burglarized. Rare but never zero.
Maybe it’s from him that I got my slight paranoid senses from. Oh, wait, he also sleeps with a retractable knife under his pillow. I don’t.
Maybe not that paranoid after all.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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