Bring the Wife to Work Day

One of the blessings of being a freelance professional is having control over my schedule. Most days I am just here at home, typing away scripts and blogs and doing house chores and catching up on my book reading in between. And then some days I’d be fairly free. So to keep me away from my laptop at least for a few hours, my husband would occasionally pick me up at home and (un)officially declare “Bring the Wife to Work Day.”

My husband is a licensed veterinarian but he’s currently in sales. He works for a company that sells canine diseases test kits to vets. So a normal working day for my husband would be driving around the metro and up north visiting clinics. Yesterday, since his itinerary was just QC and he didn’t have any co-workers riding with him, he had the missus sitting on the passenger seat.

Driving around especially in this dreadful summer heat can be a pain so I could clearly see from my husband’s smile that he, like me, cherishes these moments. I don’t really do anything but just be there as his “ka-kwentuhan”; entertaining him with my random thoughts and muses on anything that my eye catches on the road. When it’s time to make a client call, I just stay in the car and patiently wait for him. On rides like this we always have our favorite ‘90s rock music lined up. Then we would reminisce our rollicking teen years growing up to these songs. It’s really a blessing to be married to someone who shares your interests. He’s not only my husband but more than anything he’s my best friend. And hubby knows very well that I like eating at unique spots so for lunch he took me to his client’s restaurant.



PLACES (Pet Lovers Animal Clinic and Emergency Services) is actually a veterinarian clinic that has an Ilocano Specialty carinderia on the side called “Kainan nila Doktora”. Amusingly, the eatery earns more than the clinic. Hahaha. Well, it’s not surprising since this place, as my husband told me, has become a landmark on Visayas Avenue. Veterinarians from other clinics and Ilocano food lovers go to eat there for lunch or dinner. My father’s family is actually Ilocano. They only moved to Davao sometime in the ‘50s. So I also grew up on my grandfather’s home cooked Papaitang Kambing (To my foreign readers: it’s a stew made from intestines and other innards of the goat.)



Yesterday, Joseph and I tried their Adobong Baboy Damo and Tapang Usa. (Pardon me, my vegan & animal rights activists readers) The baboy damo meat was so soft and you know what it doesn’t taste like pork at all. And I noticed that its bones were very small. My husband explained that wild boars are actually small because they’re not farm-fattened like the ones we usually get from the market. If you’re craving Ilocano food then you should really go down to this place. Big thumbs up for the food! I love it when my husband gets to have a 2nd cup of rice because believe it or not my husband for a guy eats like a cat. I grew up in a family where eating is an Olympic game. My male cousins and brothers are all huge so I get embarrassed when I realized that I have eaten more than my husband. These days I make sure that he eats more than me.



After the hearty exotic lunch, Joseph went to the clinic to make a client call on Doc Mae the veterinarian slash restaurateur. By the way don’t worry they don’t serve any Azucena (dog dish) in her restaurant. And then we went back on the road and headed to the next clinic. I definitely love “Bring the Wife to Work” days. I can’t wait for the next. :-)