Post Holiday Guests - Part 2

One of the things I missed about Southern California is the enormous number of movies all showing in the multiplexes at the same time. Within the last few months, the only movies we’ve seen here are the new James Bond flick Casino Royale, Déjà vu with Denzel Washington as a government agent investigating an explosion on a ferry in New Orleans (cool movie) and Eragon, a fantasy movie about dragons and stuff – great special effects. With my love of movies, that’s barely enough and I’m quickly running out of DVD’s to watch!! I’m thinking of watching Night at the Museum next. I missed Blood Diamond, I hope it’s still showing at SM Clark.

Anyway…

We got a call from Mergine saying Beth from the Bay Area is in town on vacation. So they scheduled to celebrate Didi’s birthday Monday Jan 22, here at the house. These women are the famous Thaetians, a clique of 8 nursing classmates and they’re all Eph’s ninangs. Early morning Donna and I went to the wet market and picked up some crabs and shrimps and a chocolate cake for Didi. They came a little after high noon with Jojo driving but without Pareng Nasty. He was supposed to have been done with his hearing in the morning but as it turned out, it was in the afternoon. So, he and Sherwin came at around 4, I think. For dinner we had the leftovers from lunch and Jojo and Sherwin bought some extra barbecue and crispy pata and another cake from Goldilock's. I guess January was also the birth month of Mergine and Jane. They didn’t leave until about 9 or 10 at night. They were going to wait for Fe (Ferrer) Mangulabnan, another classmate from Chicago, but she and husband Patrick went to his hometown in Nueva Ecija and didn’t get back till really late.

Fe and a sister dropped by the house early the next morning. That's her on the top picture with Donna on the couch.

Post Holiday Guests - Part 1

Several months ago our friend Bert Franco from the Lancaster/Palmdale area of Southern California decided to have his house built at nearby Lakeshore. Since we’re basically based here now I sort of committed to him to visit his construction site, take pictures and send them to him to California through the web, and as evidenced in my previous blogs, I posted some pictures on his construction. Bottom line? I flaked out big time. All through the months of December and January I failed to go even once! Whether it’s legitimate or not, my excuse was the housewarming and all the preparations for it, the guys’ visit here, the Holidays, etc. So a couple of weeks after the New Year and I was thinking about my obligation to Bert, I get a call from him saying he’s in town visiting. I was so embarrassed and profusely apologized and he was gracious enough to say he perfectly understood. He called the 2nd time wanting to meet but it so happened that we were expecting guests from Manila – Donna’s nursing classmates.

Leanne came by as well. Leanne is Mary's husband Robert's niece. Her parents are Cesar and Onor, Cesar being Robert's brother. She's from Carson City, Nevada but she goes to school in New York. She was in town for her cousin Coco’s wedding. On her way to Manila from Subic she dropped by to join us for dinner. Her Auntie Mila and Auntie Connie (Robert's sisters) didn’t make it though. She's the one in the picture between me and Donna sitting in our living room couch and with Donna on the music room floor.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in previous blogs but my cousin Josie came before the house warming. And that's her with me and Donna by our front lawn fountain/water falls and the Jacuzzi 'bahay kubo'. She was here for her elementary school reunion and to visit relatives before the Holidays. She left before the house warming to be with husband Rey and her two boys in San Diego for Christmas and New Year.

We were having lunch at SM's Gerry's Grill one day. My cell phone rang so I pulled it out of my pocket, and stood up to answer it outside. Then I heard some girl saying, "April Boy, April Boy!" It was Nancy on the table next to us having lunch with her former co-workers. She recognized my long hair! She's Jun's wife and Mary's sister-in-law. They're based in Japan but she said Jun who's in the US Navy is getting transferred to San Diego so they're moving there in a few days. She's with Reggie in the enclosed picture.

Dan's Last Days in the Philippines

It’s been a whirlwind of activities as far as trips to the airport. Saturday, Jan 6 is when we took Reggie on his way back to Japan. Since Eph and Rach were flying together this time, Mareng Tess volunteered to drive them Sunday, Jan 7th.

Gen went with her friends to Palawan. She had a blast over there excitedly telling us we must go there one day. She was going to stay with us after Palawan but her relatives want more of her time so she stayed with them instead.

We finally had one last chance to take Dan to SM Mega Mall so he can meet more of his ‘fans’ over at the Synergy, the games arcade next to the ice skating rink. We took Len and the girls with us this time. We dropped him off at Synergy then we went shopping around. When we got back, there were a lot of people watching him play. One guy noticed we were with him and asked where we’re from. I told him he’s Clockw0rk from California. It’s as if a light bulb got turned on over his head and he exclaimed, “I knew it!” He then proceeded to tell everyone there, “Hey, this is Clockw0rk!” Heck, we have a real celebrity in our hands. There was a point when Dan was already losing and they still want to see him play. When we took off for home one of the guys ran after us and asked if we can take pictures with him.

Monday Jan 15, Donna fixed her Norwalk famous spaghetti dinner for Dan’s ‘despedida’. This is not the usual Philippine-oh-so-sweet-spaghetti. Len, Berna and the girls were here. My nephew Francis was also here along with a cop friend Arnold. Gen called us and asked if she could come. I think she was missing some familiar company at that point so we told her of course she can come.

Tuesday Jan 16 was the day Dan was leaving. I’m on ‘coding’ again so we talked with Ate Pie ahead of time so we can use one of their vehicles to take Dan to the airport. They were a little late coming here as it is but after we loaded Dan’s luggage into their van, the ignition key will not turn so the driver cannot get it started. We had to chance it and took the Innova because we were running out of time to consider other options. We figured we’ll pay the ticket if we get caught. It’s good Ate Pie’s driver was devious enough to tail gate other cars so our license plates will be hidden from traffic cops. Suffice it to say, there was a lot of anxiety going on on our drive to the airport. I was asleep most of the time while Donna and Ate Pie were praying. We got to the airport with still a couple of hours to spare. That was around 7:30 and his flight was at 9:45. They always say one must allow at least 3 hours for international flights. So we quickly dropped Dan off after giving him our cell numbers in case he encounters any problems. We went to a restaurant near the airport and had breakfast. We planned on waiting till 10 when 'coding' will be lifted so Donna and Ate Pie walked to the casino to kill the time. I was going to sleep in the van but the driver and I started talking and before you know it, here comes Ate Pie and Donna from the casino. It was already 10 and they won a little bit, enough for gas and toll fees. Woohoo!!

That afternoon Gen's Auntie Medy and Uncle Roland took her to the airport for her evening flight back to the States.

Everyone’s gone and Indo is sad again. :-(

So now we’re back to our routine, well almost. We have all kinds of guests from the States.

Trip to Baguio/Banaue

We convinced the girls when we were in the States that the Rice Terraces of Mt Banaue are a must see for every visitor here in the Philippines so the day after we took care of Dan’s immigration woes, we went to Baguio. I’ve already arranged to have the keys for our friend Lita’s town house in Baguio so we can stay the night there. My brother-in-law Francis and his family live there but I didn’t think they’ll have room for all of us. Rachel’s Auntie our Kumareng Tess was more than willing to loan us their big Mercedes van. But since I’m used to driving the Innova, I told everyone to pack light and we’ll just cram ourselves into it instead.

We left San Fernando on the morning of Wednesday Jan 3. This was my first time to drive to Baguio but I figured there must be signs to guide me along the way so I was pretty confident that I won’t need a navigator this time. I was wrong of course. In Tarlac somewhere, we were following this road and then I suddenly saw a sign saying there’s so many kilometers to Manila, which is in the opposite direction! Everyone knows I’m not your typical macho driver so I pulled over and asked for directions! We were basically told that we missed a turn and we were off by about 7 kilometers which wasn’t too bad. As it turned out, the turn did not have a sign saying that is the way to Baguio! Aside from that, the trip to Baguio was uneventful.

Since we didn't have room in the van, we only had a few snacks with us so we stopped at Chow King, Jollibee, McDonald's to have our meals. We got some local delicacies on the roads, buko pie (my favorite) and some tupig (which according to Reggie tasted like 9V batteries!)

My brother-in-law and his wife met us there in front of some hotel and he showed us the way to where Lita’s town house is located. After we unpacked our stuff, we went to a restaurant and had dinner. He spent the night with us because we agreed, he’ll drive us to Banaue the next morning. It was a pretty hectic trip and it basically went this way: He drove to Banaue (through 3 sets of zig-zags or winding roads) and it took us almost the whole day. The shorter route would have been rougher roads. We got there, took several pictures and headed back to Baguio. This time I relieved him and went behind the wheel. On the way back, this was already night time, I took one wrong turn but we figured it out before it was too late. The morning after, we drove back to San Fernando.