Greehills

I stayed up late last night catching a rerun of the season 1 finale of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is apparently all new here in the Philippines. Anyway, I must make a couple of corrections about yesterday's religious riot/stampede in the city of Quiapo about the Black Nazarene:

• The number of people there wasn't a few hundred ... it was 2 million! (Wow, I really suck at estimating a crowd size.)
• I spoke too soon when I said no one was hurt. The news reported that 2 people died after being trampled on once they jumped up to touch the Black Nazarene and fell back down into the crowd. But the families of those who died "don't regret it because they were doing something for God." That is the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

Philip was in a bad mood because the 2 maids - cousins Chanda and Jezebel - AGAIN failed to return today, despite being sent money after claiming they had none for the fare back. Without them to help around the house, we were unable to go to the province - which I forget the name of, but basically a jungle-ish hicktown - to visit Uncle Ben's grave as planned. Malou actually had to help Flor, the other maid, with the maintenance workload.

RYAN: So how should we punish them?
PHILIP: We can't punish them yet. They might get scared and run. And they're cousins. If 1 gets offended, the other 1 is offended as well. BUT I will think of a way to retaliate!

Tsk, tsk ... I've said it before, if only Chanda wasn't a fob, she'd be in my database. If my life was a porn style film, Philip's punishment for her going AWOL would be asking me to "take 1 for the team" and bow chicka wow wow.

Dad's new bed arrived today. Yay.

Anyway, we went to Greenhills today. It's a mall that's famous for selling counterfeits and knock-offs of practically everything (i.e. Louis Vutton, Versace, Burberry, etc). My mommy and I looking for the restroom turned into an hour of disappearing from the family as my mommy got sidetracked getting her watch fixed at a store. Then we went to church, which was held in the mall. I guess every mall in the Philippines has an auditorium where masses are held. We ate at Racks, a ribs type of place. And, yes, you guessed it. I upheld tradition by eating more than everyone.

We came home and saw Flor (the maid) and Harry (brother of Bernie/the driver) waiting outside as they accidentally got locked out. Apparently, Flor went on a date, but had a horrible time, so everyone made fun of her.