Hi Everyone,
I know, I know, it's been a while but I finally got hooked up on line again so here goes... (beware, it's several days of blogs). I'll just have to post the pictures later..
Saturday Feb 25, 2006We’re anxious in the morning because Glenn and Glenda along with her Mom Atching Lori and husband Chuck are supposed to come in at ten and sign the deed of purchase of the house. They called saying they were running late and are going to get here at 11 instead. So finally they showed up. Then Rommeth called saying he’s running late because he had to come back for the termite inspection report but he’s on his way and is about 15 minutes away. When he came, everyone sat at the table and he started explaining all the documents that everyone needed sign.
He was frequently interrupted by everybody for anything that comes up that’s not clear. There was even a question that only Walter can answer. He used to work with Donna and has gone into real estate as a loan officer/appraiser and he was helping Glenn and Glenda out. So Rommeth called him and after things got straightened out, we signed all the papers provided by Rommeth.
We had to pass on the belated Christmas party with Doni, Jani and the gang because that night we had a dinner date with Sharon and Rudy at Sambi’s, a Japanese restaurant in nearby Downey. When Donna and I got there, they were already there waiting. We had to sit and wait for a little bit for a table. When we got called, I ordered a sashimi dinner (what did you think I was going to order?) and they ordered a huge platter of sushi. I forget what Donna ordered. I’ll have to check out the pictures I took. During dinner the sale of the Tacoma came up. Rudy said his brother Jun was interested and could I please send him pictures. So I said sure. After dinner we took a couple more pictures and called it a night.
Sunday Feb 26, 2006
We went to church at the 11:00 am mass and proceeded to Kong Nonong and Atching Nita’s place in Sun Valley for a goodbye party for me as well as a mini reunion of Pineda and Dizon families. Unfortunately none of the Vitug family made it. Atching Nita said they visited a brother in Chicago. Remy and Boy were there along with Erma and her daughters. Kong Nonong and Atching Nita’s son Manuel came along with his wife and two little kids. Rai-rai also showed up while we were having lunch. He had to leave a little after lunch to a business trip up to Central California. At around 3 pm Jack and Te came as well.
They had oodles of food, all of it good. There was this cheese cake covered with white chocolate shavings that’s so pretty it’s a shame we had to eat it! Pigged out on some snow peas with shrimps and cashews and a couple of fried lumpia (cheating!!). I just had to have a sliver of the cheese cake. Took a bunch of pictures of both the food and the people. Kong Nonong and everyone else finally heard it fresh from the source on why we’re retiring and how we got to the decision. I just had to stop the rumors about us winning the Lotto! Everyone was pretty positive and supportive of our idea. I finally got a chance to thank Kong Nonong and Atching Nita of the moral support they provided us during the early years when we were starting our family.
Monday Feb 27, 2006
We spent the day doing some more shopping. But the highlight of this day was the trip to Carmax. For those of you who are not familiar, Carmax is a company that buys and sells used cars. It was where Ephraim sold his BMW a couple of years back. We went to have the Tacoma appraised expecting to get a little less than what we owe my credit union who holds the title. We were pleasantly surprised when they came up with a little over 2K than what we owe. On our way to lunch, I hurriedly called Rudy and told him that if they don’t mind I’d rather sell it to Carmax than to his brother since we’re getting more money. He was gracious enough to say, “Go ahead Pare, as long as you’re getting more, by all means, do it!”
After lunch Donna drove the Avalon and she followed me in the truck back to Carmax and we told them we’re ready to let go of it. They called my credit union to find out how much we owe so they can send them the payoff check but since they’re located in Ohio, they were already closed. Carmax let me leave the truck in their lot and told me to come back the day after once they’ve gotten a hold of the credit union.
Tuesday Feb 28, 2006First thing in the morning I called my credit union and gave them a heads up on what’s going on with the truck loan. Mid morning I called Carmax and I was told they’ve called the credit union. The Tacoma was still in the parking lot when we got there and we were told they were “going to talk with the buyers” and would we please take a seat.
When I got called, they had me sign some papers and gave me my check. When we walked out, the truck is gone. It was over just like that.
When we got home there was mail for me from the DMV (this is the counterpart of LTO in the Phil) informing me I have to show up to have my picture retaken and provide a thumb print. My driver’s license expires on my birthday this year.
Wednesday March 1st, 2006
This day, by the way, is our 20th anniversary of living in our Norwalk home. We moved here March 1, 1986.
Donna and I headed on out to the DMV office in Bellflower on Artesia to take care of my driver’s license renewal. Let me tell you first hand that the DMV encourages people to get an appointment but since I leave Thursday, it’s too late for me to get one. When we got there, there was hardly any parking so I got off and let Donna find a parking spot. I went in but the line just to get a number starts on the outside of the office. After about 20 minutes I got a number and then Donna showed up. She had to park on the street a block away. A little over an hour, my number got called, my eyes were tested, I paid $26 then they took my picture. By this time I felt like Chandler in an episode of Friends when he and Monica were having their picture taken for their wedding. When the lady said smile if you want, I just know that that smile was somehow a misshapen smile.
We called Kong Mansing who happened to be off the following night and invited him for a late lunch. We went to Sushi Samurai for one last meal this year. I promised Anna, our waitress that I’ll be back next year. She gave us some complimentary dessert of green tea ice cream as a token of her appreciation for our patronage.
Since Kong Mansing is all off on his 11-7 shift, I told him I’ll call Kong Paing so we can do our walk at Liberty Park in Cerritos at 8 Thursday morning.
Thursday Mar 2, 2006I got up and got ready for my walk with my brothers. I checked my eMails before I left. While I was on line Onnie sent me a YM from Cavite. I turned on my web cam, then he dialed my lap top and we started talking. Daniel got up, saw me talking to my computer and started to wonder if I’ve gone off the deep end. That’s technology for you. I had to cut off my call with Onnie after a few minutes. I went to Kong Paing’s but it seems like they’ve already left for the part so I drove on out to Cerritos. Sure enough, they were already doing some stretching exercises when I got there. We spent about an hour talking while walking. Elvie’s in-laws were there doing their morning routine as well. I called Donna to tell her we’re having breakfast at Mimi’s. After breakfast, Kong Mansing dropped off Kong Paing and we headed on home. Since we no longer have the truck, Kong Mansing accompanied us with his Tacoma to Costco so we can get the mini refrigerator which is on sale that we’ll use for the entertainment room on the new house. Before he left we did a dry run on whether my Balikbayan box and suit case will fit in the Avalon’s trunk.
After having a late lunch at the Elephant Bar, Donna and I went to get some baon for my trip from Luisa and Son’s. They were out of chicken empanada so she just got me some cup cake looking things with chicken adobo inside. Then we tried Valerio’s in Artesia to see if they have some chicken empanada. They did have some but Donna bought only a few because they didn’t look like they were baked properly. When we got home she put them in the oven for a few more minutes. I started getting ready then. We did some ‘finishing touches’ on my luggage. Donna had to reshuffle some of my stuff to fit the additional things we got. Rai-rai came as well as Nido and the kids. Emy was still at work. A few more pictures and we’re off. Rai-rai decided to tag along at the last minute. We stuffed ourselves in the Avalon. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I had my luggage x-rayed, then went to the EVA air check-in counter. NO LINES – WOOHOO!! We went towards where the restaurants are, took some more pictures and since the line to the gates was really long I decided to go because Donna has to go to work early the day after. We said our final goodbye and it surprised the heck out of me to see Daniel so emotional. He almost made me cry!
When I got to the gate, they were still on the final boarding process on a previous flight. So I plugged in my lap top and continued my blogs.
We left as scheduled, flight was uneventful. They didn’t serve dinner till about 2:30 am. By that time I’ve already had one of those siopao looking things that Donna got for me. It was surprisingly good, not as much dough as I thought, but plenty of chicken. The chicken empanada from Valerio’s however should have been called potato empanada.
Too tired to do anything else so I went to sleep. I got to see the beginning of Zathura which we missed when we watched it in SM last time I was there. I tried to watch Good Night and Good Luck but like I said, I was just too tired.
Chiang Kai Shek airport – Taipei
It’s basically
March 3 Saturday morning here now. We landed at about 6:30. I had to check in and get a boarding pass here. Somehow they didn’t give me one at LAX. They gave me a meal voucher because the flight to Manila is delayed an hour and a half. I just hope Leda will notice that when they pick me up today. I couldn’t get any signal here so I’ll probably post all these when I get to Guagua either tonight or tomorrow. I’m feeling a little hungry now so I think I’m going to avail of that voucher.
I’m back. Let me tell you about that voucher. I found out it’s worth 180 New Taiwan Dollars which is equivalent to a whopping US $6.00! I chose an Obento box of eel and avocado rolls with a free bowl of miso soup. But it cost 360 NTD so I still owed $6.00. Anyway, the dish came with about 8 pcs of sushi rolls. After the soup I started eating my sushi. After a couple of rolls I noticed this chewy hard stuff which I assumed was probably sea weed of some kind. Then I realized after looking at another one a little closely, each roll is wrapped in a plastic wrap like Saran, but by this time I’ve already swallowed some of it. Oh well…Is there such a thing as Saran wrap poisoning?
I’m now back in gate C6 here at the Taipei terminal waiting for my 11 am flight. It’s now 9:00 in the morning.
I’m drying my hair now in Guagua and it’s
12:30 am Sunday March 5, 2006.
Left Taiwan as scheduled at 11:00 Saturday. They fed us some generic fish dish before landing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila after almost two hours. The flow through immigrations and customs was pretty smooth. When I got out of the terminal, my father-in-law was already there waiting. They did find out the delay with my flight but not till they got to the airport. We hauled my luggage to the parking lot where Leda was waiting. We had a late lunch at this Japanese restaurant somewhere in Manila. Then they took me to Leda’s new digs in Muntinlupa. The place was huge. Check out the pictures I took. We dropped by the boutique in Alabang right afterwards where they consulted their cell phone expert about my dilemma. After trying a couple of times, he said I needed to take it back to Globe to have the roaming mode taken off. We left for San Fernando at almost 5 pm. At around 8:30 we got to SM Pampanga where I ran to the Globe store to take care of my phone. After which we dropped by Kong Eddie’s Fisherman’s Grill to have dinner. Dad hunted him down from their ‘penthouse’ and he joined us at our table. He said his wife Malou was in Cabalantian but only after a few minutes, she arrived. Everyone did their updates while we were eating. I got their numbers and they got mine and we promised to call later. They were inviting us for Dad’s birthday in July to their new vacation house in San Simon.
Got to Guagua at around 10 pm and sure enough Jen and kids are here. All their stuff is sitting on my bed so I had to move upstairs. Took a shower and see above...
Woke up at around 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep. The AC was turned all the way down to 10, had to get up and adjust it up a tad then I went back to bed. Finally got up and got ready for church at 8:30. After church I went to SM to meet with Kong Naring. Armin wasn't available. Their church service takes all day. While waiting for Kong Naring I went to the department store and waded through the crowd fighting over SM's weekend sale. I ended up with a couple of shirts, pants and shorts, nothing over $10 ea.
Cool.
