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Friday, March 18, 2011

Tricky Boy vs. The Thousand Light bulbs

My father doesn’t trust me to screw on a light bulb.


He’d rather I call the building electrician who charges 100 pesos an hour rather than have his “little” girl change the busted light bulb.


But because he’s in town for a surprise visit, he screwed it on himself.


:-)


Pops texted me the other night telling me that he was going to be in Manila for some work-related trip with the mayor about some lighting seminar something or other.


I thought it was a way cool surprise. It would be nice to see my pop, I thought it would be nice to give him a tour around my hospital, so he could see where I worked.


This is my pop. (Lol. :-))


I was going to post the picture of him standing in front of the roster of names of the psychiatry residents (one of them mine), pointing to my name, and acting like the complete “stage father”. I actually toured him around the ward (where he got all curious and actually wanted to see my patients, which of course, I good-naturedly refused to do, because of the privacy clause.) I also took him around the hospital, where he saw the ER (he was surprised at how many patients there were, and how crowded it was.). When we passed by the ambulatory unit from across the street, I pointed out to him a patient who I thought was probably going to be admitted. “Pop, do you think that’s a Psych Patient?” I asked. “ Hmm...” he went, thought a little harder, and finally said, “No, she looks normal.”


(Haha. There is a reason why he’s an Engineer and I’m a psychiatry resident. True enough, I saw the same patient in the wards the next day.)


:-)


We just got home from Quiapo, where he wanted to go because he was looking for a place that reportedly sold good ham in Aranque Market. We took a cab, and walked around the Quiapo area most of the way.


He knew the area…and while we were walking, he shared a story about back in the seventies, when he was still in Nautical school, he and his friends were into Bruce Lee movies and from ROTC class, they’d line up to see the movies at the Bruce Lee festival (this is pretty much why I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies as well). They’d troop on Saturdays and munch on banana-cues (essentially bananas fried in sugar syrup).
We bought strawberries for home, and when we passed by a thrift shop, he held on to some tops that I liked while I picked out some more. Haha. He was a pretty good sport. We also ended up buying me replacement lamps for those that I had busted in my apartment (and hadn’t changed because I didn’t have the time), a screwdriver set (although he wouldn’t trust me to use it to change the ballast on my bedroom light), a table, things I needed for school, etc.


The sales clerk at the hardware store tested out one of the bulbs, and started to explain how the lights worked, and I was almost puffing out my chest when I said, “It’s ok, my pop’s an engineer, and he knows all about that.” Haha. The dude was Ilonggo, trying to speak in Cebuano, and very, very chatty. Pop and I gave 
him a good ribbing, and he laughed along.


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I reckon I’m a daddy’s girl type of girl. :-) I get along well with my father, and we’re very similar in that we are both stubborn, and that we both love a good laugh. We both want to do things to make people feel at ease. We don’t always agree on certain things, and there were even times that we’d have to resort to some book source, or some internet source to settle a discussion (which I almost always win anyway, haha. My father is not a big reader of books, but he is a sharp man.). They’re usually pretty trivial stuff…and one of the funniest I can recall was when we were arguing over what particular cannon they used in Desert Storm. LOL.


(Whatever… :-p)


He’s a joker, really, and I do recall times when we’d take at least two hours during dinner because he was always entertaining us with a joke, or a work anecdote, and stuff. Ahh…good times. 


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In theory, I reckon I know how to change the ballast of a fluorescent lamp, but no, I am not supposed to do it on my own. Lol.


He’d rather have someone do it for me, because he doesn’t trust me not to hurt myself around electricity. (He actually explained things as he went along fixing stuff in the house, including my toilet flusher, but of course, wouldn’t actually let me do it.)


Don’t worry pops, I’ll make sure I’ll get a man who can fix the ballast, change my lightbulbs, and do the plumbing as well as you can ( as well as make me very happy, of course.).


:-p


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Ohers:
 Congratulations, Atty. Zeus Yee! 
 Going home for the weekend.
 Attending graduation of 4 of my cousins. 
 Grew a pair of balls...but am slightly miserable about the timing. :-S

1 comment:

  1. I like your dad and it's great that you're alike in ways that allow you to get along rather than fight. Unlike your dad, I have complete faith that you could do those things around the house, but I agree with him that the man you choose should do them--and make you happy. =)

    PS - Someday, I plan to do a post titled "Electricity: Friend or Foe". I've had a shock or two over the years.

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