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Dinner with President Ramos

May 17, 2012

A couple of weeks ago Former President Fidel V. Ramos (FVR) was in town to give a speech. And TD had the privilege of being his “close in.” TD picked him up at the airport in the wee hours of the morning and got home at 3 am then was up again to pick up FVR at 5am for his 6am golf game with some Ambassadors. TD was really amazed that  he was able to play golf with only one hour of sleep… and they even played the first couple of holes under the rain. Wow what energy! Anyway on his last evening I was lucky enough to be invited to the small dinner for him at Crystal Jade.

FVR no longer smokes, but out of habit he carries around cigars and then just chews on them. I think he quit more than a decade ago. Crystal Jade in Pacific place has meal sets for groups of people and this makes it so easy to order for a group. We started with super yummy sweet and sour soup then had some sweet n sour fish, pecking duck, chicken and mushroom, black pepper pork chops and my favorite dish in crystal jade, salted egg prawns. (I recommend asking them to shell the prawns next time)Then we had coffee at Liberica Coffee because, surprisingly, Crystal Jade doesn’t offer anything except Chinese Tea. Good thing too coz FVR and his aide (his 21 year olf grandson) were able to try the Kopi Luwak (or civet cat poop coffee haha!).

Why am I not surprised to see this bunch! We bump into them everywhere – bali, lombok, etc. I guess our tummies take us to the same places aye? =P
I didn’t realize that FVR is so funny and that he has a penchant for directing people before a shot. Haha! If you’ll notice we are posing with our thumbs up in a lot of the pictures – following his directions LOL!
former president fvr
We did some last minute pictures with him right before he left for the airport.

What an unforgettable night full of humor and laughter. FVR is so charming and witty and we were lucky to have spent the evening being regaled with all his stories and jokes. I feel fortunate that I was invited to this dinner. Another DiploMoment that I will never forget.

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  1. Mia says

    May 17, 2012 at 9:58 PM

    Hi, hey the guy wearing a black shirt. I know him. I forgot his name but, i Met him in when I was living in Singapore. He works with the Philipippine Embassy in Singapore and worked with him during the elections back in 2010. He now is based in Jakarta?
    :).

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Welcome

Hello! I’m Ayessa, trailing spouse to a diplomat, mama to DiploBaby and DiploDog and founder of Declutter MNL. I love talking about how to achieve a minimaluxe lifestyle one step at a time.

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Every year I add a little bit more to my Halloween Every year I add a little bit more to my Halloween decor collection so it’s not so heavy on the wallet. I’m so happy with this year’s finds & make sure to carefully store them so they have many more years of use.

It was @diplobaby’s idea to add googly eyes to the bats. So we did it together! I love the one eyed bats 🦇 and I love it when we decorate together! Definitely one for the core memory banks! 👻🎃🤍

I was tickled pink coz people would pass by and take pics, stare or even tell me good job. 🎃 Halloween is really my favorite holiday!

What do you think of our Halloween prep this year?

#udwhalloween
I couldn’t stop laughing! It was still a little I couldn’t stop laughing! It was still a little too long for him this year but we sure got a kick from it.

DM me if you want to know where to order!

#udwhalloween #diplobaby
VILLAGE PUMPKIN CARVING EVENT Every year I look f VILLAGE PUMPKIN CARVING EVENT

Every year I look forward to this event for families in our village. We also invite our friends outside the village coz it’s so much fun for families. Parents and kids can come in costume. It’s done beside a fabulous park so kids can run around and play.

The pumpkins 🎃 might be overpriced (the bigger ones went from chf 18 last year to chf 23 this year) BUT it includes the free use of NIFTY CARVING TOOLS, waste disposal, clean up & cute decor that the organizers have provided.

We draw together. TD removes the guts. Then @diplobaby & i do the carving together with our son and it’s a controlled way of showing him how to use the tools in a safe way. Which is something I appreciate in Europe.

One year we tried pumpkin 🎃 carving at home and clean up was a totally nightmare. Never doing it again!

Then when kids and parents are are hungry we can buy food & drinks. 

We go home with a carved pumpkin 🎃 & don’t have to do the clean up. The pumpkin guts are also turned into soup by the organizers.

It’s also a good way for parents to unwind, catch up while the kids play in the playground. We usually see our neighbors here too.

It’s a win win for everyone & it reduces unused waste. I love it so much!

We never did pumpkins before coz it would rot@so fast in Asia. But i  the past 3 seasons of doing this I’ve learned so many tips and tricks for pumpkin 🎃 carving - especially how to prevent molds and insects. Let me know if you want me to do a separate post on that!

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Because we use it to entertain in SPRING & AUTUMN (too hot & too many insects in summer) I made sure that the trash segregation remains AESTHETIC by using white @ikeaschweiz SEGREGATION BINS.

So far SWITZERLAND TRASH SEGREGATION in our experience is even more complex than GERMANY but it has led to at least 50% RECYCLING rate which is pretty good, even though Germany still has the highest rate of recycling 66%

Let me know if you want to know more about how we manage trash in our village.

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- tour their cool museum
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- see @diplobaby beat ROBOKEEPER

Definitely a highlight of our Barcelona trip!
This place is a must for any football fan and Messi fan! It is also home to many of the women footballers who won the @fifawomensworldcup 2023 and a great training ground for future football stars.
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