Last Post in California for 2006

This will more than likely be my last blog here in California. The next one after this will be in the Philippines after All Saint’s Day I suppose.

Friday evening October 27, we went and picked up our plane tickets from our travel agent Tita Lapena in Cerritos. We took Dan and Eph with us so they’d know how to get there when they pay and pick up their tickets for December. Afterwards we proceeded to go to dinner. The boys were going to take us to some Japanese restaurant in the Beach Cities but we figured since it’s Friday night and the deciding game in the World Series it’ll be so crowded that it may take us too long to get seated. Since we’re already in Cerritos we went to good old Samurai instead. Check out a pic (bottom) of our favorite dish - The Shogun Boat!

Eph and I went to watch Flags of our Fathers at the Downtown Disney AMC Theaters. It’s a movie directed by Clint Eastwood recounting the planting of the American flag on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. I wanted to watch The Departed but didn’t have the time. I’ll just have to wait for DVD to come out I guess.

We called Ate Pie and gave her our flight information since she and Pap are going to be picking us up from Manila on Tuesday.

Saturday I got a call from Bert and we talked about his house being constructed in the Philippines and that he’s already told his builders I’ll be visiting the site to sort of ‘check up’ on them.

Donna, Eph and I went to church Saturday (yesterday) at our old parish in Norwalk, St. John of God. We didn’t recognize the priest and there are no more names on their bulletin that are familiar. Donna said our old parish priest Father Bernie wanted to retire but got transferred to a much smaller parish instead. The associate priests probably got transferred somewhere else as well. It was still good to be back, hearing familiar church songs and hymns.


After church we picked up Rachel and went back to La Mirada for dinner that Emy fixed for us. While we were there we picked up the goodies that Rach's Mom wanted us to take to the Philippines for the relatives. She baked some salmon and we also had sushi and sashimi and some pasta salad. There was Jello and ice cream for desert. Dan’s friend Sue Jin also came and since we missed her performance with her band, she brought her key board and gave us a personalized concert. She sang Don Henley’s Heart of the Matter and a couple of original songs titled Answers and Daddy. The latter written for her father on her graduation from college and according to Sue, it was Father’s Day at the same time. I have to say she’s a really good performer and this girl is so humble that I think she under estimates her talents at times.

I’ve bought quite a few DVD’s since I got here at fairly cheap prices, a few of which are new but most of them have been previously viewed which account for their great price. I didn’t have the chance to check out the ones from the DVD Planet store though. But I got enough that'll last me a while to create havoc in the music room.

We're waiting for Daniel right now and as soon as he gets here we'll head on out to Cerritos to have dinner at Rachel's place, then he'll drive us to the airport. I'll try to post some pictures when we're in the airport. Hopefully I'll get a signal.

See ya'll in the Phil..

Laundry, etc.

The availability of wireless connection signal is one of the things I miss here. 98% of the time, I get a signal for my lap top. Compared to the Philippines where it's pretty much nonexistent, except for La Veranda Cafe in Angeles City.

When we were packing for our trip here to the US, I told Donna not to pack so much clothes because we needed to get a lot of stuff to bring back and we can always wash our clothes here. Well, I mentioned in my previous blog below that Nido and Emy's house is under a major renovation and their laundry room is part of this project, hence their washer and dryer have been disconnected. I'm out of socks, among other things, including the ones we bought a couple of days ago so today we looked for a laundromat to deal with this minor issue. Make a long story short, it took us about a couple of hours, 6 bucks in quarters and we finished three loads of laundry. We had lunch at Midori, a Japanese restaurant here in La Mirada, before doing our laundry. They had a pretty decent dish of Rainbow Rolls.

We've been missing our weekly dose of Razon's halo-halo, we just had to visit Red Ribbon in Cerritos to satisfy our craving. It's not quite the same as Razon's but considering the circumstances we had to settle and it did quench our thirst for the syrupy meryenda. Guess who we saw there at Red Ribbon - Au, Donna's kwaho buddy from Norwalk. She got so excited and almost created a scene when she saw us. She was there with two other ladies, one of whom is a tourist from the Philippines and owns Aqua Blue Resort in Telabastagan.

This afternoon we went and dropped by Tita, our travel agent who's now staying with her daughter in Cerritos, and paid for our tickets. Our flight back will be on Sunday night around 11:30. We'll go back Friday evening and pick up the tickets.

We just got back from dinner from Samurai with Dan and his friend Sue Jin. I called Eph but he was barely getting off work so he passed.

Dinner at Ten-Ten

We're back from dinner at Ten-Ten, a Chinese Dimsum restaurant in Artesia. I drove the Previa there with Donna, Nido, Emy and Gian. Adrienne chose not to go saying, "I'm cleaning up my room." Emy was kind of skeptical about that somehow. Dan and Romar met us there along with Rai-rai. Rach went to a concert so she couldn't make it. Less than half an hour later, Girlie showed up.

Tuesday October 24, 2006

October 22, 2006

Today we met most of our LA area members of JASHS Class ’70 USA, namely Roger and Bevs with son Nathan, Rey and Josie, Bert and Merlyn, Ed (Odette had to work), Nestor P and Daisy, Imelda and Dan. We had lunch at the nearby China Star Buffet Restaurant. I called Daniel and invited him to join us but he never showed up. I guess he must have changed his mind when he realized he’ll be eating with us old fogies again. We gave everyone an update on our situation in the Philippines, the new house and the ‘retired’ life in general. I promised Bert and Merlyn I’ll take a peek at their house which started construction October 10 at the Lakeshore in Mexico by SM and report everything back to him. Donna distributed the fund raising raffle tickets we got from our JASHS Class ’70 group in the Philippines.

It felt like the waiters were giving us dirty looks when it’s been a couple of hours and we’re still sitting around talking. So finally, we paid our bill and went home. Bert, Merlyn, Rey, Josie and Ed followed us to Emy and Nido’s place where my sister-in-law and her husband Jack were waiting to see us. I showed them the latest pictures of the house.

By the way, we left the Philippines and got done with all the construction on our new house. When we got here, Emy and Nido’s house is also under a major renovation. They’re adding on a living room, modifying their garage, kitchen, laundry room and master’s bedroom. Although it somehow felt that we never left due to all this construction mess, I still have been feeling homesick within the last couple of days.

Early this morning Donna woke me up and whispered (get your minds out of the gutter people!), “I’m hungry.” So we got up and she fixed some hot cocoa and the ever present Sky Flakes. Then we went back to bed. It felt like it was only after a few minutes when we got a phone call from Kong Paing. It was actually around 8:45. He picked up Kong Mansing and they came over. The three of us went to La Mirada Park a few blocks away and walked for about an hour or so while I told them all about (you guessed it) the new house. We went back to Emy and Nido’s place and we had a quick breakfast, talked a little more, then they took off.


October 23 Monday

It's been a busy day. Shopped some more at Smart & Final, took a look at Sam's Club to see if there's anything we like there. We called the GE people this morning to find out about the conversion kit on our range and they were going to send it to us but they needed the serial number of our unit so we had to call the Philippines and gave Len instructions on how to get it. Talk about phone calls, I also called Janina, Myrna's daughter, who's in Rhode Island for some training with IBM. She's a new hire, lucky for her she's being trained in the US. She's complaining of the cold weather but other than that she seems to be doing OK.

We dropped by Imelda's clinic this afternoon. She gave Donna some sample medication for her ailing stomach. I commented she really looks like a doctor with her stethoscope and white smock on.

Have to run to have dinner with Rach and the boys right now. I'll post pictures later.

Ok, I'm back from dinner - guess where? SAMURAI, that's where!


October 24, 2006

Didn't do much today. Bought a couple of things from Wal-Mart. Also, we called Len early this morning and inquired about the range's serial number that she and Armin got for me. I called GE afterwards and gave them the information. I was told we'll get the conversion kit in five to seven working days.

Donna and I had lunch with my former co-workers Deo and Sharon. We went to the food court on Telegraph in Santa Fe Springs. I had my usual tuna salad which is one of the things I've missed here. Sorry forgot to take pictures.

Early this evening Boy Dizon called to say hi. Donna was taking a nap at the time so she wasn't able to talk with him. As soon as I hanged up with Boy, Dan Garcia called. I didn't recognize his voice at first. He's in Antioch with his son Jonathan visiting a friend. He'll be back in the Philippines early November.

We're on our way right now to have dinner with Girlie who's in town for her Tuesday and Saturday school. Will take some pictures and post them later.

California Dreamin'

It's a couple of days during our stay here that I realized I'm not just dreaming it: Donna and I are in California. And that's when I started sneezing! Yup my allergies started acting up. I went back to the Philippines to start construction on the house in March and not once did I have any allergy symptoms. I guess the Philippines does agree with me!!

Nido lent us their good old reliable Toyota Previa for me to drive around in. It was kind of hard for me to drive it at first because I kept wanting to step on a non existent clutch and I almost honked my horn on some driver who attempted to cut me off on Alondra Blvd. That's what driving-a-car-with-manual-transmission-in-the-Philippines-for-four-months does to you!!

Daniel drove us to LA last night to watch his friend Sue Jin (that's her between me and Donna in the top picture) and her band play in a bar. They were going to be the third act but when we got there though the first act wasn't even in the area yet. And it was looking like Sue won't be able to perform until around 11 pm so we went home without seeing her. Bummer. :-(

We've done quite a bit of shopping since we got here. All the necessary light fixtures, door knobs, etc. have been bought. All we need to get now are the refrigerated food stuff like Egg Beaters, Turkey Bacon, etc. which we're planning on getting the day before we fly back.

Tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 22) we're meeting our classmates (JASHS Class '70, LA Group) for lunch at a nearby restaurant to catch up on a lot stuff. We've talked with a few of them on the phone: Ed and Odette, Rey and Josie, Nestor and Glo, Imelda, Bert, Remy (Boy Dizon's wife). I've received eMails from Roger Catalan and from Nestor P. and Nestor M. both. I overheard Donna over the phone with a few of her nursing classmates.

We've had several get togethers with Eph and Dan, Rach and her family along with Romar and Girlie. We've visited my former work and Donna's work and everyone was pleasantly surprised and glad to see us.

We've also visited my favorite hangout - SAMURAI Sushi Restaurant, for a few lunches and dinner. They were glad to see us too and they proved it by serving us some gyoza on the house.

Early this week our stress level went up just a little bit. We dropped by the house of our travel agent to see if we can pay for everyone's plane tickets to the Philippines for this December for the upcoming house warming soiree. To our surprise, there was a big FOR SALE sign on the front lawn and a huge realtor lock on the front door knob. No one seems to know where she moved to. Fast forward what happened, we finally was able to get a hold of her later in the week but to our horror, the flight bookings were lost due to a misunderstanding between her and Eph. So she had to start from scratch. This Monday, we'll call her and hopefully will hear some good news.