We parted ways with Antonia, on November 28, 2025, two days after Edmund and I arrived from Rome. She stressed out Oyen to the max so it was time to move forward and say goodbye to French Tinola.
It’s a long time coming. There have been lots of pasensya in the past but we exercised tolerance and compassion. We’ve embraced her style of cooking, but this last episode was about her focus on finding love online. She was always on the phone with scammers pretending to be good-looking and rich foreigners calling her honey and promising to buy her a house, to bring her around the world, and to send her money money and lots of money. Antonia ignored our sincere warnings na scam lang ang mga yan, huwag syang magbigay ng pera.
Someone promised to send her $4,000 and she gave our residence address which infuriated Oyen. Syempre kahit kanino mangyari. Oyen informed the guards not to let anyone in but you know it’s the holiday season, daming mga door to door food deliveries, Temo, Lazada, Tiktok, Angkas, Joyride, riders, etc. shopping delivery, so nakalusot pa rin or maybe Antonia let the guy in. Eto na, Antonia was asked to shell out P30,000 before she could claim daw the $4,000. Eh di raket nga talaga.
There had been countless irritations and annoyances in the past many years, so in our effort to reduce our stresses, mabuti na nga na magretire na sya. Anyway she was really due for retirement this December, napaaga lang ng 3 weeks.
Do you think we will miss the three times a week tinola? Hindi siguro. Her image is like a ghost in the kitchen. Sometimes, subconsciously, I expect to see her instead of Violy, another tinola girl.
Violy is taking a 3-week leave of absence during the holidays but we don’t know if she is coming back. She’s been telling her mga kasamahan dito na she only stayed for two years in each household. Never more than two years. Eh two years na sya dito so Oyen thinks she’s not coming back. We like her so we hope she comes back. Baby Dylan likes her version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
i personally love tinola but i dont think i can eat it more than once a week. haha!
We endured 3-4 x a week.