Lunch at home with Ben. Angelique in college and Aubrey at university.

My sisters invited me to have lunch with them at the center but I couldn't leave Ben alone.

Bought food at the hawkers' stands. John had something special today, bamboo shoots cooked in coconut milk. I recall that the last time I brought home labong was many years ago, when the Embassy sent me to do a workshop at a drug rehab center in Quezon Province. Behind the center was an old bamboo grove, and a staff member harvested shoots for me before I went back to Metro Manila.

In the Philippines, there are two Trees Of Life: the bamboo and the coconut.