It is by no means the best food photo I have taken. The fried hito (catfish) and sinigang that we had for lunch today are not the most special dishes I have cooked.
But this is a precious photo. And today’s lunch, as simple as it may be, is the best we’ve had in a long time. It wasn’t just tummy filler; it was soul food. This is the first real home cooked meal we’ve had since Saturday. The first meal that was cooked without pouring something out of a jar or without opening a can.
I cooked both dishes with no need to carry pails of water into the kitchen. And we ate with the lights on too. Waterless and powerless days brought by typhoon Onyong are over. For us, at least.
But. BUT. Pepeng is coming.
That’s a satellite image of typhoon Pepeng (international code name: Parma) from NASA. PAGASA’s predicting it’ll develop into a super typhoon not so much because of heavy rains but because of strong winds. Landfall is expected Friday.
But since PAGASA is hardly reliable with its weather forecasts, here is some info from Reuter’s AlertNet (please note the disclaimer after the byline in the linked article).
Typhoon Parma is forecast to strike the Philippines as a super typhoon at about 12:00 GMT on 3 October. Data supplied by the US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center suggest that the point of landfall will be near 17.2 N, 123.2 E. Parma is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 268 km/h (166 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher…
Update at 3.36 p.m. CNN weather forecast about typhoon Parma.
Thanks to @sbwee for the info.
i hope you and your family will be out of harm’s way. times like this really make us appreciate the little that we have. your positiveness truly is inspiring….
You said that the hito and the sinigang are not the most special dishes you’ve cooked—but what is special about them is the timing when you cooked them!
May I add to your checklist of a family’s survival kit for calamities— first aid medicines like for headaches, tummy aches, battery-operated radios, rechargeable flashlights- the heavy duty kind (to avoid the dangers of fire if using candles), tuna in can, bread and other staples, towels, other extra clothing (just in case)— and of course, good old common sense…
May we all be safe from this new typhoon’s wrath… And thanks Connie for keeping the fire burning!
Yes, stay safe, Shaz and Crisma. And everyone else. If there’s a chance to move to higher ground before the rains get heavier, people ought to go. Good luck to us this weekend.
You know, Crisma, that’s what we keep forgetting — rechargeable lamps. We always had that when my brother and I were still in school so we could do homework during brownouts. Tomorrow, I’ll buy two. I just hope I won’t get victimized by unscrupulous business establishments who keep hiking prices of sought after items during typhoons.
That’s true, Connie… yun siguro ang hindi mawawala sa atin— people who take advantage of the weakness and the bad situation others are in…di ba nga disasters can bring out the best and the worst in people. Besides these people who hike the prices of their commodities, robberies left and right have been part of the news these days, particularly in Provident Village in Marikina. Parang double whammy eh, nabaha na nga sila, ninakawan pa!
You, too Connie… stay safe with your family. Marami kaming magiging sad if something untoward happens to you.
By the way, on the down side, our exhibit set to formally open tomorrow will have to be postponed dahil sa pagdating ni typhoon Pepeng.
Stay safe! I’m glad that you’re ok. I visited some of our co-workers in Antipolo Monday after Ondoy and couldn’t believe what we saw. And now, there’s another one, I hope it’ll get past Metro Manila and neighboring cities. We don’t need more rain
.
Thanks. You too. Naku, minimal traveling. For necessities only.
Antipolo is in such terrible shape, noh? Lots of people here are in dire need of help too but media only talk about Marikina and Cainta.
Pepeng is not that bad compared to Ondoy.
Pepeng wind punch of 220 kph compared to Ondoys 117 kph may have been blessing in disguise. It cannot deliver that much rain for long in an area like Ondoy did in 6 hours in Metro Manila. Also, the trajection of Pepeng is slightly off in northeast Luzon while Ondoy was dead on Metro Manila before it wenth to Vietnam.
http://www.tropicalstormrisk.com/tracker/dynamic/200919W.html
It’s cloudy here right now with a very light drizzle.