MaFBEx 2009

June 21, me and a friend were supposed to go to the Manila Foods & Beverages Exposition 2009 at the World Trade Center. Yes, we did go, but things kind of didn't go as planned.

See, I was texting him through Chikka™ [Still the Best Way to Send Free Text Messages] (why pay for sending text messages when you can send them for free, right? LOL), about 11am, (he replies the non-cheap kind of way, texting back to my mobile phone, yes, using up SMS credits he paid for) basically we talked about the agenda for the day. Anyways, the last thing he told me in our convo was, he let me take care of deciding for the rendezvous time, while he set the point. Part of my last reply was "ETA 1 hour and 30 minutes." (it was about 1:30 in the afternoon). So I arrived at the rendezvous point a little late (3:15PM, Manila City Hall time), but he wasn't there yet. Okay, so he must've ran an unexpected errand, or something. I know for a fact that he will wait in the rendezvous point until further notice, so I went off for a while and checked out the Manila Day sale at SM Manila (damn, I just had to forget about checking the chocolates section, near the record bar), while waiting for an SMS to my mobile phone, stating that he's already at the point. Half an hour has passed (timecheck: 3:45PM) and I still haven't received a single SMS from him. So I decided to go back to the point and see for myself. He's still not there. So I decide to go to a nearby netcaf to send him a text message through Chikka again, and amuse myself while I was at it. So I did, but I still get no reply after a few minutes. But wait. I did not notice this small window that appeared right in the middle of the window after I sent further messages. It sorta said blahs about the buddy not recieving messages until the dude replies to prevent spam. So I was, "F!". I sent mom an SMS through Chikka, saying that I need her to pass me on some mobile phone credits so I could SMS the dude through my phone (yes, I was that cheap, in certain ways only, of course, I barely SMS, so I barely get my phone loaded up). Guess what, he replied in a minute saying (roughly translated to English) "it's about time, I was waiting for your response before I head off. I'm on my way now. Hehehe..." After some minutes, he texted me again that he's in the rendezvous point at that moment, so I headed off, out of the nearby netcaf. When we met up (timecheck: 4:40PM), we were thinking of the fastest way to get there (since the expo closes at 8:30pm that day, it was the last day by the way) while he was withdrawing some cash from his bank account through a nearby ATM. We ended up deciding to take the LRT 1 to Gil Puyat, then riding a jeepney to the curve near the WTC. We got there about 5:15PM. We took a look around, but there was nothing of much interest, we sort of expected the Japanese Noodles, but they weren't there, perhaps they only participate in the WoFEx (World Food Exposition) and AFEx (Asian Food Expo) later this year. We did get to eat a lot of the food samples from all the companies, even that company that makes the Vodka Cruiser! We got to sample the new Lychee flavor, which was not bad at all (but I still like blueberry, caramel mudshake, and ice, or plain vodka). We (actually, just me) only walked away with a big bag of coated green peas (timecheck: roughly 7PM). Because we found instant Indonesian mi goreng [click it to find out what it is] there, but didn't really satisfy our taste buds as much as the one we got used to consuming (which is kind of readily available in major supermarkets' international goods aisle), we walked all the way to SM Mall of Asia to get us some (don't even get me started on how many times I said the words "Tongkat Ali" [click the quoted words to find out what it is] while we were walking, LOL). Ahh, yes. SM Hypermarket's international goods aisles. But wait, no Mi Goreng? Damn it. Anyways, we ended up picking up some sweet and spicy barbecue flavored dry instant noodles (which tasted kind of close enough to Mi Goreng), a pack of 7 pieces for each one of us, and a pack of 6 of lechon paksiw flavored rice buddy for me. About 7:50PM, and it's time to head home. We walked from the mall, all the way to the nearest LRT1 station, the Libertad Station (again, I really don't know what's in this thing, but I kept on saying "Tongkat Ali" about every 5-10 minutes). About 8:40PM when we got to the station, and rode the train. About 9PM when we got to our stop, got off, and walked to our place, picking up a guitar string, and a few ice candies on the way. After we got to my ground zero, we settled down a bit, watched a little TV, then I prepared 4 out of the 7 in each of our packs for us to down in a few minutes. After we finished our food, we watched some more TV until about 12:30AM the next day, he had to leave that time since he has to go to work that day, later in the day. Much later.

So, that's about it for our "misadventures" for this year's MaFBEx. Thanks for having the patience to finish reading all this nonsense. You're totally...

AWESOME.