I was with my in laws going around last Saturday and we checked on our once flooded house. On the way out we found our way to a curious new branch of Belini’s authentic Italian restaurant in Marikina.

So Mr. Belini opened up a branch in Marikina and they just survived the great flash flood last month and they are open for business. We met Daniel Belini the restaurateur and he welcomed us in authentic Italian fashion and Italian accent.

I was curious when I saw in the menu they had beef carpaccio. Alright, this was my chance to eat raw beef the Italian restaurant way. Also a way to get my in laws acquainted to the concept that raw beef is delicious and good for you if it is presented in a pleasing way and a high price tag with foreign ambiance where the eating of raw beef in this manner is expected to be normal and gastronomic.

The carpaccio was served cold thinly sliced like less than 2 millimeters and it was bathed in olive oil with thin slices of some kind of white cheese on top with some sliced capers. Yum yum. Very easily gobbled up by 5 adults. Not filling at all. Hey, it was just the appetizer. The non raw foodists liked the raw beef this way. No apprehensions at all.

Hmmm… maybe next time I will ask the butcher to slice my raw beef this thinly and present my own carpaccio versions at home.

Food presentation seems to mean too much for our women. I’m just a savage caveman who eats with my scissors.

Carpaccio (raw beef) served at Bellini's Restaurant

For a few days now I’ve been sleeping in our abandoned office in Provident Village, Marikina. We are on the 3rd floor so the flood did not reach our office. But the rest of the village including our own house was devastated by the flood including tons and tons of mud as if reclaiming the land as part of the river delta. The mud though was stinky, smelled of poop and garbage.

A few days ago electricity was restored to the office. And luckily I had one of those Smart Bro cellular antenna type internet dsl connections which still worked. The wired Globe DSL is of course dead. So I had electricity and I had internet. Whoopeee. Time to get back and sleep a couple of nights here to finish my server migration.

I was in the middle of server migrations when the flood happened. And with crummy portable cellular usb internet connections, it just wasn’t feasible, effective, nor fast enough, not reliable enough to do my migrations.

Our office water dispenser was still 1/3 full of stagnant water that has been sitting there for more than 2 weeks. Funny my driver just proceeded to drink some of it. Wrong.

Tea is the answer. Tea is just putting some herbal flavor in the boiled water. It’s a nice social habit. Get safe, pure tea. Loose leaf is better. Remember to always drink tea in times of crisis situations. When water is stagnant. When water is stored, it gets bad. Boiling makes the water safe for drinking again. Tea is just for flavor, entertainment.

So all you people in the disaster stricken areas, drink tea. You can’t trust the store water. Boil your water. Drink tea, socialize and be healthy.