Friday 13 July 2007

Mitbringsel or Pasalubong "Perks and Irks"

 

Blessed are those who do not expect for they will be
given pleasant surprises. But this time I was expecting
because I gave him an extra travelling bag to use for my
ordered "pasalubong or bilins."
So when the Datu came home from his short lecture
stint in the Philippines including a brief visit
to Jolo (the news I found out through another friend
in Manila)and stay in Hongkong and Macau,I was a bit more hopeful
that he would this time surprise me with my ordered
goodies from Chinese silk shirts to moon cakes.
"If only looks could kill," he said, when I saw this
red plastic bag he was holding when he got out of the ICE
train from Frankfurt airport, and the extra travelling bag
was nowhere to be seen. Not a good omen, I thought saying
goodbye to wishful thinking about silk blouses and moon cakes
and all other "bilins" I wrote in this piece of paper which I
tucked into this extra bag for Mitbringsel or pasalubong which
is a compulsory gift given by the travelling partner
to his/her partner who freely opts or forced to stay domestic
than jet-setting.

Pasalubong, btw (by the way) is not only for those who
are waiting for your return from your journey but these
are the goodies given to the nice people of your destination
for waiting for your visit. In short, they are symbolic
small things saying you have not forgotten these people
and if you are married, related, friend, supportive to someone from
this Wow! 7,107-island Archipelago, then you are in such a big
trouble if you do not know what "Pasalubong" is all about.
Well, the Datu has known his trouble and he seems to be
getting used to it. So don't despair, nothing is really
so serious with us people coming from this Wow! 7,107-island
Archipelago if you do not really care about the implication
of not having any Pasalubong.

But to be fair to the Datu, when he opened the plastic
Travel Value bag and started giving me its contents, I was
all forgiving for his forgetting my ordered moon cakes from
Hongkong. He handed me the following treasures which I either
ordered or sent as Pasalubongs by friends and members of my clan
back in the "Madercountry."
* Filipinas Photographs by Isa Lorenzo from dear Ricarda K.
* A Bag out of recycled tetrapaks from Ricarda K.
* Book "How to Win an Election" given by Klaus P.
* Book "The German Club - A History of the German Community in
the Philippines" given by Thorsten F.
* One small bottle of Taba ng Talangka (crab eggs)
* 3 Pieces of JMGoulbourn linen blouses (each piece costing about
850Pesos...my order and not pasalubong)
* A plastic SM bag full of Choc Nuts, Adobong Butong Pakwan
(dried watermelon seeds),dried mangoes and pastillas from Lengleng
* Malong from Luz M.
* Tausug table cloth from Zeny S.L.
* Badjao pearl bracelets from Zamboanga (no longer called
City of Flowers but Asia's Latin City)
* A necklace of smoked topaz from China
* Two wooden necklace from my elder sister
* Two hundred pieces of calling cards...thanks Paula G. for ordering them.

If I miss mentioning your pasalubong, please do email me and will
hold the Datu responsible for this oversight. Maraming Salamat!
Grazie Tanto! Vielen Dank!
Posted by Picasa

7 comments:

Forever59er said...

Oh, you had an off-season Christmas! How couldn't you not forgive the Datu for missing out on the hopia when he had all these other bumper crop of goodies to lay at the waiting one's feet? Taba ng talangka -- oooh sinful! Even I whose based here don't know how to get the good, the really unadlterated, kind. And why didn't you go home with the Datu? aber ... ?! if it was just a short stint.

Hey, this is such a cool site .. what a visual feast! Galing. Will come back for more ... as long a I settel down to my old rhthyms. (I never know how to spell that beautiful word.)

You're a mom too .. right? (The reason perhaps you couldn't join the datu just like that). Why don't you register with the PMN .. then you can write mommy articles ... especially for the 'bringing up mom' section which I edit. You'd be in your elements writing about that, I am sure.

Ty for reconnecting! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, dumating na pala ang Datu. Dami pasalubong. Sarap ng taba ng talangka. Ikain mo ako hah?

Belly

Pinay von Alemanya said...

Dear Annamanila,
Nope, I belong to the so-called Dinkies (double-income no kids) cat...but might drop you a line or two for sentiments of women who refuse to do the role of milking cows... women...now, I am just fishing for scandal so people would hit back!!!this is a whole blogging world.I might not be a bio mom but mom for perpetual coaching and lending my ears...Bis dann!

Pinay von Alemanya said...

Dear Belly,
Oo naman...ayoko nga buksan yun taba ng talangka...will look at it na lang at baka maubos! so sana kita tayo sa Roma, okay and manghuli na lang tayo ng tunay na talangka sa Mare.

ML

Anonymous said...

you're lucky Datu graciously carried all those pasalubongs for you--Christmas in summer!

Pinay von Alemanya said...

Hi Sexymom,
Thanks for dropping by. Indeed, he normally showers me gifts in summer (kasi summer sales) and this time swerte siya, as there were many pasalubongs not from his own check...

regards

Anonymous said...

Did you get the bottled taba ng talangka? Take care of the intake of the calories...
Enjoy it.

Marian