Life Goes On At POM

“And when darkness dawns upon us all, fear not and stand tall, because only in darkness that light may appear bright and noticeable.” Said I.

And while I was composing this, I hastily asked my staff these through the LAN Messenger, “Dispela tupela kakaruk na rais, em hamas?” 
(Translation: This two-piece chicken and rice, how much?)

To which he responded, “Lo Kaibar ah?” 
(Translation: In Kaibar eh?)

And then I said “Nogat, em blo big roostah.” 
(Translation: No, in Big Rooster.)

There was a delay then he replied “Mi no save.” 
(Translation: I don’t know.)

I happily replied “Last taim, em hamas?” 
(Translation: Last time, how much was it?)

“Mi save tasol lo KFC, big roostah mi no save.” Said him. 
(Translation: I know about KMC, but in Big Rooster, I don’t know.)

I quickly responded with “Ah, na lo kmc, hamas?”
(Translation: Ah, and in KMC, how much?)

His reply was quick as well, “Original combo em K16 samtin.” 
(Translation: Original combo is K16 something.)

This time, I have run out of tok pisin. I replied, “What’s inside the combo?”

His last reply before I kindly sent him to buy for the two of us were “Bikpla chicken pieces na chips + free drink.” 
(Translation: Big chicken pieces and chips + free drink.)

  

This kind of conversation doesn’t find its way much to regularity and with all the formulated measures having considered and taken into place, the possibility of this happening is far from being repetitive and has largely been due to conditions being met.

The contributing factors that led to satisfying a predetermined condition, as I think about it thereafter, can be linked to unusual actions perpetrated by me. Sleeping off too late at night comes on top as the main reason and the result of which is not being able to wake up early. And while I race against the undefeated time, few things are bound to get sacrificed and packing up lunch is among the first casualties.

But the chicken and chips from KMC tastes good, so I’m somewhat bewildered if it is what fuels my motivation to sleep very late at night knowing that if I fail to prepare food for lunch, I will just retreat to the convenience of eating fast food.  

Here’s me, Ben and kuya Levi. Remember Ben from this post? Back then, I've been meaning to learn his art of buro-making but haven't got around to that yet up to now. I'm considering to give up the idea. Apart from ate Des, he was the only man in this place who could come up with a nice buro. So now, I don’t think he’ll get mad if I call him The Buro King.

Right, Ben?

The view from the first photo is what I took from the balcony of  this new restaurant called Savannah Cafe, which is built just across Vision City. In Port Moresby, the temperature is a bit humid and warm and it is sometimes wise to dine indoors under the protective sheath of airconditioners to cool down a bit.

 In Savannah Cafe, you don’t have to call audibly for the waiters to come and attend to your requests. They have these little wrought-iron sculptures which have buttons installed at the base. When you press this button,  a fairly loud bell is heard throughout the hall and your table number goes out to an LED display.

It’s nice to visit places like this every once in a while to slow down and unwind from our busy lives. Having to eat a nice dinner on a shared expense other than what our meagre cooking skill can present is everyone's privilege but at times considered a  luxurious attempt to cover up for a lazy afternoon. It's good enough if done infrequently because the weight of the cost is too much to bear and it is impractical to do so in the long run.

But I must admit that one of the few reasons why this young blogger is attracted to this place is because of their Choco-Lava. This thing is soft on the outside and when you slice it open, a hot liquefied chocolate will ooze out like a molten lava. I guess that’s probably where it got its name from.

A couple of months ago, I and some other managers were invited on a little picnic in this place. We don’t have a swimming pool in our accommodation so we treat this kind of event as something special.

With me on that day are Emerson, Malou, Ben, kuya Lito and kuya Arnold. All of whom are managers in the company that I am working with except for Malou who has just moved in to another company. In this photo, it looks as though we will leave the place in a mess but on the contrary, we have kept our end of the bargain and cleaned the place up like how it was before we arrived.

We went on from happy managers to happy cleaners afterwards.

And who does not want a happy selfie on this nice pool? Probably not me.

Here’s nanay Ada on a wheelchair being assisted by Pyi Soe, our branch manager. Since I came here, I had not as much as seen her got bothered by sickness. But one day, we were all alarmed when she complained about having a terrible back pain and not being able to walk.

One Burmese manager named Thuya brought her to Paradise Private Hospital on the decision made by the management. Most of us followed her at the hospital on the night after work. You can see some Filipinos lining up on the couch. We were all concerned about what she might have to go through this but I guess the doctors must have pointed out the need to rest it off because that's what she did.

At the time of this writing, she’s back to her old self and was busy once again in the premises of our kitchen.

Here’s a picture of the illusive rat that I’ve been trying to trap for a couple of days now. I’ve experimented enough with different kind of bait just to get it captured. First, I used a fried chicken which was my left over from lunch and he didn’t bite it. Then we used pork bones and it still ignored it. Lastly,  I used an overripe banana and this was what I saw the next day.

It doesn't look so happy though. Oh, Rat, what should I do with you then?

That’s it for today. Happy weekend everyone!