Sat Feb 11, 2006

I woke up at almost 4 this morning, got up hungry and went to the bathroom. Donna woke up as well. She got up so we can go to go to IHOP and have some breakfast but figured they might still be closed so she fixed some egg beaters instead, turkey bacon and hot cocoa. We had breakfast and I started on today's blog. Jack replied on my text message from last night saying she and her friends were going to go to Jerry's Grill for dinner and that I owed her one. I told she owes me a blow out when I get back. Donna went back to sleep and I think I'd do the same and finish this later.... but the phone rang and it's Kong Paing asking me to go walking with him and Kong Mansing. After the short walk Kong Mansing treated for brunch (2nd breakfast for the day for me) at Mimi's and I had the low carb egg whites on a turkey patty with cottage cheese and tomto juice.

This evening my niece Glenda and her husband Glenn came to check out the house along with her Mom, Atching Lorie and her husband Chuck. Glenda and Glenn are renting a house and the owner decided to sell it and they were given until the end of the month to move out. Our realtor Rommeth met with them and he set up a conference call with his financer. Things were explained to them and tomorrow they should be able to find out more details and basically will know whether they can qualify to buy the house.

Thur-Fri Feb 9 thru Feb 10

Thursday, Kong Orling and I had agreed to visit Atching Auring and Imang Pas this afternoon. We were supposed to meet at Atching Auring’s place since I’m going to San Fernando anyway to meet with Joey de Leon so he can give me some CD’s that he promised.

I met with Joey De Leon and he did give me a couple of Kapampangan CD’s, one of regular songs and the other Kapampangan Christmas Carols. Then I went to the Globe cell phone company in SM to get information on how to have my cell phone into ‘roaming’ mode so I’d be able to use it in the US. I was told all I had to is text a certain phrase to a number 3884 and I’d be all set. I’ll just have to make sure that my load doesn’t go below 100 pesos as opposed to 500 that everyone’s saying. This is supposed to be some kind of promotion of Globe through April 30 of this year. Before I left Guagua, I had 3000 pesos loaded installed into my cell so I figured I should be OK. We even consulted on why I’m not able to send text messages to Kong Naring. The lady at the counter said that perhaps my number has been inadvertently barred and Kong Naring has to have someone from Smart reset his cell phone so I can send him text messages again. After lunch I went back to Guagua to complete some banking transactions and pick up Kong Orling at the same time. I got there and he was taking a nap so I sort of kicked back and waited for him to wake up. When he did, he almost left for San Fernando without me not realizing I was in the house. Atching Pie told me so by calling me on her cell but when I told her I was in the next room, everything got straightened out. We headed on out to San Fernando and he picked up some cookies and other goodies on the way. When we got there, Atching Auring was at a neighbor’s house and we had to go and fetch her. We talked for a little bit, then she took us to where Imang Pas and Alma (Josie's younger sister) stay – some apartment building a couple of blocks away. We hurriedly went back to Guagua afterwards because Kong Orling was running late for his day’s church services. He was about 5 minutes late when we got there. I went and picked up the two pairs of slacks I got hemmed, then went back home. Jack and Remy were already there kicking back. A little before 7, we went to Remy’s place to have dinner. Her Mom fixed some chicken asado, a big grilled bangus and some boiled eggplants. After dinner we did some Karaoke then Jack and I went back home and I started to pack. I had a lot of goodies to bring back so I left a bunch of my clothes. Then I set my alarm for 3 a.m. and hit the sack.

Got up early this Friday morning and got ready. We left Guagua (Atching Pie, Pap and his Dad who’s driving) at around 4:30 and it took us about one and a half hours to the airport. The guard at the gate was questioning my open date ticket and he asked for a confirmation number. I assured him, I have a reservation for this morning’s JAL flight to Narita and he took my word for it. The counter wasn’t quite open yet when I fell in line. Everything went pretty smoothly but by this time, I’m famished since I haven’t had any breakfast yet. Finally, I got through immigration and I went upstairs to this little restaurant that Donna and I used to eat in and I had grilled boneless bangus. Now, I’m feeling no pain. I sent Donna some text messages in reply to hers and gave Atching Pie an update. We got here at Narita at around 2:30 pm Japan time. It seems the Philippines is one hour behind. I turned my cell phone back on and I absolutely have no signal and my outgoing text messages are failing to be sent. To make matters worse I can’t get any Internet connection for my laptop so I figured I’d pass the time by preparing my blog in Word and I’ll just post it when I get back to Norwalk. I’ll have to have Jack find out what happened with my cell’s ‘roaming’ mode!

Got to LAX without any hitches at about 9:45 am Friday. Once I got off the plane I sent Donna a text message to tell her I'm on line for immigration. Lo and behold, she replied and said she's in the arrival terminal. It took me a little while waiting for my suitcase from the conveyor not knowing the porters have already taken everything down to the floor. Finally I got out and Donna was waiting for me looking cool in her newly tinted shades. We went home dropped off my luggages and had lunch at Sushi Samurai, then we went and watched Firewall with Harrison Ford at the Cerritos Mall UA Cinemas. Went home after the movie and unpacked my stuff. The San Nicolas cookies that Atching Pie had me take got all broken to little pieces inside the jar and there was one Allies peanuts bottle that broke as well and spilled dry roasted peanuts and garlic in my suitcase. Rai-rai came, we had dinner and Donna started watching the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies while Rai-rai and I got on the Internet. He downloaded AIM and Yahoo Messenger for me in my lap top. I sent Jack a text message greeting her on her birthday. At around 10:30 pm I was feeling all worn out from jet lag and lack of sleep so I went to bed and got knocked out.

Wednesday, Feb 8, 2006

This is Wednesday's blog but I have to tell you of last night’s incident. Jack, Remy and I were quietly having dinner at Luring’s. I’m having my usual barbecue chicken and chop suey and the power goes out all of a sudden. Remy breaks out a little flash light – one of those toy looking things attached to a key ring and I click on my cell. Yes that’s how pitch black it was! A few minutes later, the restaurant crew turned on their generator and lights came back on albeit a little dull. About 10 minutes later, the power came back on. Now I’m considering the idea of investing in a generator for the new house!

Today started out pretty hectic. Woke up, got ready, got a call from Donna, went to the tailor to have a couple of slacks hemmed, went to the bank and then we headed to San Fernando.

When I told Donna of all the paperwork Armin wanted me to take care of, she suggested for me to contact Joey De Leon, a friend who was the former administrative assistant (or was it city administrator?) when Rey Aquino was mayor of San Fernando. The problem? I have no way to contact him since I don’t have any phone numbers. I was told he lives in a certain subdivision but I’m not about to go house-to-house asking where he lives! So I told her I’ll try information and see if he’s listed. Anyway…

First stop was the RD (short for Register of Deeds) by the provincial capitol. I was to see a certain Amor Tuazon, a former neighbor of Armin in Panlumacan, who works in RD and he should be able to help me out. Armin said he needed a copy of the lot title. We got to the RD and asked for Amor. I was told to try upstairs, I went up and was told he’s downstairs. I went back down, asked again and finally someone pointed him out. I told him of our situation and he told me I needed to go the Municipal Assessor’s office at the city hall and ask for Chicki and she should be able to give me the Tax Declaration copy which shows the title number and that once I get it, I can come back after lunch and get a copy of the title from him. We drove to town and parked in front of the Cathedral, which for those of you who are not familiar, is right across the City Hall. We went inside and tried to inquire where the City Assessor’s office is. We were told to go back outside and go through the door on the side of the City Hall closer to Baluyut Bridge. We did as we were told, asked where we can see Chicki and was instructed to go to window 5. By the way the City Hall has a different look from the last time I was here. I remembered there was a public health clinic where the City Assessor’s office now is. I went to window 5 and sure enough Chicki was there ready for me. A couple of strokes on her keyboard and here comes the Tax Declaration – YAY!! After a quick meeting with Ned, Pap and I went to SM for my lunch date with Myrna and Vir at Gerry’s Grill. On the way, Ed sent a text message saying to ‘text’ him if/when Loretta (Odette’s sister) has dropped off his glasses to me. We meet Myrna and Vir at the restaurant and put in our order. I had chop suey, grilled blue marlin steak, and tuna sashimi for appetizer (didn’t even realize they serve sashimi here). Everybody else ordered some form of chicken dish. My sashimi was semi frozen but it’s me talking here so to me sashimi is sashimi! During lunch Ed sends me the same text message about half an hour ago so I sent him a reply saying she hasn’t shown up yet. When everyone was done except me of course, Pap got up to stretch and to go to the rest room. When he got out, a lady approached him and said she needed to talk with me. It turned out it was Loretta and a pregnant daughter-in-law (?). I’m not sure how long they’ve been sitting out. I think she was embarrassed to interrupt our lunch. She gave me a pair of glasses each for Ed and Odette and also a purse. She was so apologetic that she has this extra item to have me take but I reassured her that I have enough room in my luggage. After refusing my invitation, saying they’ve already had some, she said a short prayer for me and left. When lunch was over and short goodbyes said, we went back to RD to see Amor again. I presented him the Tax Declaration to him and waited. To shorten the story here a little bit, initially it didn’t quite work out as planned because it had the wrong title number. I had to go back and see Chicki again. She found an incorrect digit and once corrected, Amor gave me two copies of the title.

Before going to Angeles I took a bunch of pictures of the Provincial Capitol along with the various statues in front of the building. Incidentally Allies Peanuts which is famous for its dry roasted variety (I actually like them better than Planters!) is just across the street so I went and bought some.

On our way to Angeles to see Armin, I thought about dropping by CKS (Center for Kapampangan Studies) in Holy Angel to see Robbie Tantingco. On the road, Pap and I opened a small bottle of Allies and we almost finished the danged thing! I tried to send Robby a text message to tell him I’m coming but it seemed like his number has been deleted from my cell phone. We went anyway taking the chance that he may not be there. Joel Mallari (the center’s resident archaeologist) greeted me at the door and said Robby is indeed in.

I gave Robby an update on what's going on and further told him that he'll be seeing a lot more of me once we get settled. He seems glad to hear about that. Joel showed me and Pap a short 'lecture/video' on how Pampanga has formed all through those years. They told me about Kong Paing's visit to the Center last year and showed me his painting of Pedro Abad Santos. They also gave me a copy of he magazine in which Robby wrote an article talking about Kong Paing's visit to the Center.

Tuesday, Feb 7, 2006 Ground Breaking

I was told by Kong Naring last night to get a brand new shovel to be used for the ground breaking. I’ve already set it up so Father Bobet will come right after he blesses a couple of parishioners who are ill.

Jack set the alarm at 6:30 this morning so we can get ready. After shower I had Pap scout a nearby hardware store for a shovel. We went over and saw this one for Php 240. The guy at the counter gave us a 10 peso discount. Cool.

I finally was able to contact Ate Lynn on her cell and invited her to join us.

We went to Greenfields and on the way I was sending messages back and forth to everyone. When we got there around 9:45, everyone was already there except for Father Bobet and Lily. A few minutes later Lily showed up in a rush realizing she was late. I told her she’s off the hook since Father Bobet is still on the way. Kong Naring and company went to the property and started to clear the spot for the ground breaking. I waited a little more for Father Bobet and he came a few minutes later. We got there the little hole was ready to go. Myrna sent a message saying she and Vir were on their way. So I told Father Bobet we can start. He started praying and at that moment I was suddenly overcome with emotions realizing, “This is it!”, so when it was my turn to do the first reading, not sure if anyone noticed but my voice was actually breaking.

We walked around the property while he was sprinkling the ground with holy water and everyone singing some hymn I couldn’t recognize. Once we got back to the spot with the hole in the ground, I laid down a copy of the floor plans in it then taking turns, Kong Naring and Armin covered it up with dirt and sand.

Lily recommended we head on out to the Red Rickshaw, the restaurant just outside of Greenfields, to have some meryenda. We realized when we got there it was already around 11 so we ordered lunch for everyone. After lunch Donna sent me a text message they got back from San Francisco and that she needed to call me. I gave her the phone number of the restaurant and while waiting Father Bobet and company left to administer to more sick people. I told him to say a little prayer for the repose of the soul of Marley. I told Atching Pie to go on back to Guagua and I’ll just hitch a ride from Myrna and Vir. Donna called and she basically told me that Tita found out there was a mistake with my ticket and that I still have to pay for the surcharge but I’ll get reimbursed back in LA.

Myrna and I with Vir driving went to SM so I can get some polvoron and stuff. In the mall there was a big group of students from some school who’re parading around in costumes Ati-Atihan style and are creating quite a racket with their drums and all. I had both temples of my glasses fixed in an SM eyeglass shop free of charge, bless their heart. After getting our groceries, we took everything to the car and went back for Razon’s halo-halo! On my way to the rest room, my cell started ringing and it was Japan Air Lines calling confirming my flight for Friday, February 10. With our bodies refreshed from the delicious halo-halo, they dropped me off to Guagua. They’re supposed to treat me for lunch at Gerry’s Grill tomorrow. Odette’s sister called as well and told me they’re going to drop off Ed’s glasses to me at Gerry’s Grill.

Monday Feb 6, 2006

Yesterday I broke my distance glasses. The little screw holding the left temple came off and when we tried to put it back on, I think it got cross threaded so now I’m using my work glasses which are only good for computer work. I’m not sure if I should go to an optometrist here and get it fixed or wait till I go back to Norwalk. I had Donna take my spare glasses at home tinted but I’m not sure if that’s done yet.

Today is more or less another free day for me. Donna and I have decided that I’ll go back to California to go back to work and formally put in my two weeks notice. So yesterday we tried to make phone calls to have my return flight to LA booked through Japan Air Lines. It turned out they’re not open on Sundays but at least we found which number to call. So this morning I made my phone calls as soon as I woke up. To make a long story short, there are no available flights until Friday Feb 17. There are a couple of issues however. I’m supposed to be back to work on Monday Feb 13 and weekend flights (Friday thru Sunday) going back to the States have a surcharge of $150.00. While I was having lunch Ed Sale called so I gave him an update on what’s going on and told him to call Donna who’s still in the San Francisco area with Cecille.

Donna and I have been sending each other text messages for the last hour or so. Our travel agent was saying that I shouldn’t be charged extra since I’ve already paid a higher rate for my ticket so she said she’ll look into it and find out if JAL in Manila is trying to make money off of poor me!

In spite of the bad news about Marley, Mon David sent me a text message this morning and he has some good news. He got chosen as one of the finalists in a Jazz competition to be held in London this March and he’s the only Filipino among all foreign singers. So he asks that we pray for him.

Come to think of it, I’m getting the hang of this ‘texting’ thing! I just have a problem with the usual short cuts here. My instinct is to spell everything out. And it feels weird using/typing Taglish!!

My construction team and I have scheduled ten a.m. tomorrow to be our ground breaking ceremony. Armin called this morning saying we cannot start working on the fence until all final drawings are completed but according to Kong Naring we can have the ground breaking anytime since I’ve already got a commitment from Father Bobet. Kong Naring said to take advantage on the deals he’s made regarding wholesale prices on building materials; we may need to put in certain amount as deposit if we’re not to start construction immediately. Father Bobet and Father Cito called me. Unfortunately, the latter couldn’t make it tomorrow because of some prior commitment to be in Manila.

I got a call from Donna this afternoon giving me an update on Marley. She had a quick conversation with our travel agent and she said I definitely shouldn't be charged a weekend rate so I called JAL back but they say their system doesn't show it. So it's going to be up to our agent in California to straighten this mess up.

We had dinner at Luring's tonight and I had some chop suey and barbecue chicken as well as stuffed grilled tilapia. They had chicharong bulaklak! After dinner we went to Remy's place for videoke. Her Mom sings really, really well. Jack requested for me to sing On the Wings of Love. But before I started, I accidentally swallowed a mosquito and this thing was stuck swimming in my throat all the time I was singing!! As you can imagine I struggled (coughing and choking) through the song especially on the high notes!!

Fri-Sun Feb 3 thru Feb 5, 2006

Blogger was acting up so I’m posting three days worth of activities right now. Yesterday, I was trying to post but somehow it deleted a couple of days worth so here we go again…

Friday was very interesting. I picked up Kong Naring and Jonar from Masamat. Then we went to Apalit to get some prices on steel rods. We took the NLE (short for North Luzon Expressway) in San Fernando and got off at the San Simon exit. I haven’t been to this area of McArthur Highway in a long time, the road is mostly re-paved because of added traffic of people who can’t afford the enormous increase in toll fees of the rebuilt expressway. We passed by the San Simon City Hall which Kong Naring said he constructed several years ago. Then to Apalit, the town market and old Sulipan bridge whose replacement is being constructed right next to it. (See pictures).

Right after the bridge we made a left to Barangay Capalangan. I learned that this infamous small Apalit barrio is known as the 'chop-chop' capital of the Philippines. Practically every other house sells car and SUV spare parts, literally from bumpers to tail lights. I was told if someone needs an engine, it can be fished out of the river where they sometimes are hidden away. Anyway, we finally reached our destination, a distant relative (a grandson of Apung Jose Maniago from San Miguel) who’s into construction himself and has connections with someone who can hook us up with a distributor where we can order steel at wholesale prices. I dare you to identify the fruits of the tree in the picture above! It's growing in a yard of one of the houses we visited over there. Before we left, he loaned us a heavy duty bolt cutter which is supposed to save a lot of time in cutting steel bars as opposed to manually cutting them by saw.

We had lunch in San Simon on the way back at a small kubo that serves authentic Kapampangan dishes. There were the four of us and I paid a whopping Php 198. The Philippines never ceases to amaze me!

We took all the stretch of McArthur Highway on the way back and went through San Simon, Santo Tomas (Sapa & San Matias), San Nicolas then finally to downtown City of San Fernando. Check out the pictures I took (while I was riding shotgun in the car) of the San Fernando Cathedral, the old Pampanga Hotel, the rotunda of the former Estrella Theater, San Fernando Elementary and the rotunda by Café Fernandino.

We were going to drop off the bolt cutter at Francis’ Body shop but it was pretty crowded with customer cars that they're working on over there so after buying a couple of fresh buko (which reminds me, I haven’t had any halo-halo in a couple of days now!), we went to Masamat to drop off Kong Naring and Jonar along with the bolt cutter.

Pap and I had lunch at SM Food Court and I had a couple of fried pugo, Zippo (a stew with pugo eggs) and chop suey at Luring’s Barbecue.

Jack and I did some videoke at Remy’s place before turning in for the night.

Yesterday was sort of a free day so I figured I’d take the time to blog but like I said above, Blogger was not cooperating. Jack and Remy picked me up in the afternoon and we went to SM to watch Zathura (a knock off of Jumanji) by the makers of, what else?, Jumanji! It was a pretty good movie with cool special effects. It would have been much better if it came out before Jumanji. The movie theater was comparable to stadium seating style multiplexes in So Cal with surround sound and everything. We had an early dinner before watching the movie at Sushiya, the small Japanese restaurant across Gerry’s Grill in SM. I finally had sashimi which I’ve been craving for a long time. It wasn’t as fresh as Japan’s or Sushi Samurai in Cerritos but it had to do since this was the only Japanese restaurant that I know of in the area.

After the movie, I met with Ned at Starbucks while the girls went grocery shopping. I found out from him that Willie Sapnu switched with him as President of the alumni association here. It wasn’t Rizaldo Kerr after all. Willie Sapnu became Vice. Ned and I talked for over a couple of hours.

This morning I woke up early, probably because I hit the sack pretty early last night. I got up at around 6:30 am to go to the bathroom and couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards. We went to hear mass at 8:30 am at the Guagua Cathedral and had breakfast at Chow King. The crew pretty much yells “Rey” (as in “Norm” in Cheers – hello??) when they see me coming in. Of course they’re used to my usual by now: boneless bangus, chop suey and mineral water.

Donna sent me a text message about Marley Del Rosario, a friend who had a blood clot in the brain late last week. Today after his relatives arrive from Hawaii, his organs will be harvested for donation and then they'll take him off of life support. Marley was our classmate in high school and he was also Donna's classmate in nursing. A couple of days before I left California, he and his wife along with a couple of their kids spent a couple of nights at our place before going on a Mexican cruise. Donna and Cecille drove to the Bay area Saturday to be with his family.

In the afternoon, I went and picked up Kong Naring to visit my two surviving Aunties Ester (she's 76) and Glo (she's 84 and going strong!). Imang Ester is back living in the old house behind the Kapitolyo and we had to trace Imang Glo through Rowena’s Internet Café in Sindalan. Rowena said she now stays at his brother Gil’s house in Dau. We went towards Angeles and visited: Ate Mariette, the very pregnant Myla - who’ll have a caesarian operation of a baby boy in a couple of weeks; Armin who showed us the revised floor plan (his wife Reggie was home and she served us lumpiang gulay and turon – Donna’s favorite); and Imang Glo as well as Gil and his family. Gil’s wife recalled how Donna loaned her the wedding dress she wore in June after we got married in April 1976. Gil's kids are all grown up and he has a couple of grand kids. Gil, an artist trained by Kong Paing has two sons who are artists in their own right. He showed me portraits of himself and Lola Tisya that Kong Paing did.

It was dark by the time we got to SM for dinner. And now you’re caught up.