incessant rambling

i starved myself the whole day. with visions of lengua filling my head. you see, li-ann decided to celebrate her berday in casino espanol. some people may argue that ola espana serves the best spanish cuisine in town but i have this peculiar tendency to fixate on a single dish. i mean, the rest of the menu can be (pardon my french) crap, but if i absoluuutely love one dish then it's worth coming back for more. besides, aranos for me is better than ola. but that's just mi opinion okay? UNfortunately, there was no tongues hanging, stewing and melting in my mouth that night. they had all sorts of dishes like roast beef, beef stew, (i work for an indian owned company and i kinda feel guilty eating a lot of beef that night) pork in mushroom, chicken in pineapple, ham, paella, yada yada yada but i was fixated on getting lengua. grrrrr.... i settled for beef with mushrooms and fish in cream sauce, not exactly what i wanted but it was fantabulously delicious. i mean, soft falling meat ...

"Uh excuse me, can I transfer to that exit row seat?" - i was talking to the stewardess of a PAL Express flight to Tacloban. She pretended to ignore me and quickly took out the life vest from the overhead bin for her demonstration. fine, i've seen it a million times and unless they are going to add cartwheels as part of the routine i zoned out and looked out to the slowly lightening sky outside (flying at 6:00AM from Cebu to Tacloban) When we finally reached cruising height, I called her attention again and asked if I can transfer to the exit row. at 6 feet tall, my legs get really cramped in tight small spaces (the same thing happens when i wear my pants that fit me five years ago) she smiled uncertainly, unsure how she's going to answer my question. "uh sir, the lavatory is at the front..." "i don't want to go the bathroom, i asked if i can move to the exit row seat." "uh sir, you can't exit the plane now, we are landing soon......

twenty check in counters and one long line of passengers. whoever planned this masterpiece of an idiotic plan should be fired from Cebu Pacific. Not only do they have flights that are "100% Late All The Time, Every Time", they also managed to achieve "70% wasted time, any time." - it took me almost an hour just to check in my single piece of luggage as they have runners with megaphones running up and down shouting NEXT! nexxxxt! NEEEEEXT! for a classy airport, they managed to cheapen it like a wet market. "Flight 5J 529 is late due to the dear departed Flight 5J 539 that arrived better late than never. ever." - Talk about crappy service, they used to banner 95% on time flights but are now crowing about achieving 87% ever since they moved to the new airport. i don't get it, better airport equate to delayed flights. (click on read.more) my litany of horrors continue with the in-flight experience. Passenger 11D of Flight 5J 529 (who will remain anonymous...

“95% On Time, Every Time!” that’s the banner that greeted me as i picked up my e-ticket in Cebu Pacific. it’s already five minutes past eight and they haven’t called passengers to board the plane despite the fact that fight 5J 550 is scheduled to leave at eight. Flight 5J 550 for Manila is now boarding in Gate 5. Passengers with infants or wheelchairs are requested to board first…. In a dream like state i imagined Glorya Makapal Ako’no adding, “ I… am… sorry. Joke lang po yun.” as if this is a portent of things to come, there was a slight commotion behind me as a male steward asked a passenger to vacate his seat and deplane. The passenger complained that the gatekeepers of hell should have checked his ticket before allowing him to board the (wrong) plane. Duh, it’s like airport security, they look, but they REALLY don’t look. I am not stupid, everyone else is doing it wrong. – that’s what they all say. (click on read.more for a sweet surprise) -time space warp, an hour after- landed s...

It was just too good to be true. Cebu Pacific launched a promo giving free rides for passengers with no check-in baggage. Me and my friends rushed to the nearest counter to book ourselves a flight to manila. It wasn't a surprise that the reservation agent looked at us in alarm as we crowded the counter asking about flight schedules. But it was a BIG surprise to us as I am sure she didn't even check the computer when she declared that the free seats are all reserved and we would have to pay full fare. and I am absolutely sure I heard her mutter: "if i had my way you'd be paying double the fare!" How is it possible that all 50,000 seats are all reserved in the first day of the promo? Disappointed, the gang proceeded to have buffet at Tong's but was turned away by the guard because all seats are occupied - from where we're standing, a lot of the seats don't have any asses on them. This is turning out to be a crappy day. Anyways, the gang all posed for a ...

for a while, cebu pacific prided itself with the tag line "we are on time 99.99% of the time!". i guess it's purely coincidence i almost always end up on the 0.01% of that equation. flying budget does not mean having to put up with crappy service. last saturday i was looking forward to getting home around 5:30PM just in time for a dinner invitation from my friends around seven that evening. by 5:30PM the plane was just taxiing for take off from the new terminal 3 in manila. let's just say that i didn't even make it to bloody dessert.