Valentine's Date

I got back from SM from our Valentine’s date. We had lunch at Sushi-Ya then went to see Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage. Cool movie. Donna almost had a shouting match with a couple behind us in the theater who kept on talking throughout the movie. We then dropped by Kong Naring’s to greet them on their wedding anniversary. I guess, just like Mary and Robert, they got married on Valentine’s Day. By the way, Robert, Donna sent you a text message on your cell with an Anniversary greeting and she's wondering if you got it.

SM was packed! It seems Valentine's is a huge deal here in the Philippines. Donna was thinking perhaps we picked the wrong day to go out. But we’ve been cooped up in the house (she, since Saturday and me since Monday), we just had to go out and besides, it’s Valentine’s. She’s lost count on how many movies she’s watched on cable. Unfortunately for me, my Internet connection started messing up Friday night so I didn’t have any on line access all weekend. Last Monday I called SmartBro and told them of the problem. I was assisted through the phone on how to change my IP address. When that didn’t work, they suspected my LAN card has to be reinstalled. Since I had no idea what they were talking about, I had to text my niece Jack and asked. She said her employee, Bernadette, would be more adept at it. Suddenly, yesterday morning, it started working. I guess the stars in the skies must have aligned somehow.

Mina, my niece from Sunnyvale, CA sent me an eMail saying she’s written and published a book titled Cold Eyes! I was so surprised and proud of her. I’ve sent a message to most of my acquaintances with eMail addresses and gave them information about it. Those of you who didn’t get it, here’s the site:

http://www.rominawilcox.com/

Sorry for the plug guys, but hey, she’s family!

Valentine's Day in Sindalan

My sister-in-law Leda’s birthday was coming up Thursday Feb 8th so she was inviting us to head on down to celebrate with her and her family at their place in Muntinglupa. Of course if we’ll go, I have to take my Manila navigator with me, Donna’s niece Len. But her daughter Ems had school Thursday so we figured we’ll go Friday after school instead. Leda sent a text message insisting for us to go Thursday “after all it’s the day of my birthday”. So we talked with Len and since Ems didn’t have school Friday (they had a field trip which she opted not to go) we figured we can go Thursday. The other glitch – Cindy was going to go with us and she still had to do a 3-11 swing shift at work. So Len talked with her and told her of the situation. Long story short – phone calls were made and she was able to take an extra day off for Thursday. So off we went.

We got there at around 7:30ish or so. We missed the usual turn around Pasay and got lost for a few minutes. It’s so frustrating on how easy it is to get lost in Manila. Perhaps I’ll be ok to drive by myself around Manila after 40 years or so! Anyway…

We got in time for dinner. Leda had a lot of guests. Kong Francis said they anticipated 50-70 people but I think she had more than a hundred including us. Dong Puno was one of their guests. He has some kind of news show on TV here (don't remember what channel) and he's now a candidate for Congressman of Muntinglupa. She had a great birthday. It turned out it was also Raul’s birthday a few days before.

And of course, I got their Videoke machine smoking till around 3 in the morning while they were playing kwaho. I got carried away with the Karaoke because this is the first time I’ve sung in weeks. I sort of caught Dan’s cold before he left for the States and had a nagging tonsillitis that wouldn’t go away. And when it finally did, Karaoke, here I come. We spent the night there, woke up the next morning and after taking a shower, had breakfast and hit the Karaoke again until about 8 that night. So by the time we left for Pampanga, I was all Karaoke’d out!

We hit a lot of traffic on the way back and there was a lot of stop and go/slow and go stuff going on. When we got home Donna was all nauseated, went straight to the bathroom and hurled! She’s been sick since then.

Saturday, I went to the 6 pm mass at nearby St. Paul Novitiate by myself. Sunday evening, again by myself, I went to Gerry’s Grill in SM for Jack’s birthday dinner. After dinner we (Jack and her friends and employees) went back to our place to do Karaoke in my music room. They stayed till around midnight and they drank all the leftover Red Horse from the Holidays.

Monday morning I got up early and was feeling ok. After a few minutes my stomach started aching, went to the bathroom and the pain didn’t go away all morning. I was in bed all through the day. I can’t remember eating anything unusual. I had a feeling it was some sympathy illness for my honey since she’s been sick all weekend. She started feeling a little better and here I was down and out.

Monday night we got a visit from Kong Ted Figueroa and wife Ate Olive. He’s my sister Auring’s brother-in-law. They’re from Montebello, CA and they’re on an Asian visit, the Philippines being the last leg of their trip. Donna gave them the usual tour of our house, I gave them a sample of Narnia in my music room, etc.

Lita, our friend working for PNB in Rome is in town and gave us a call yesterday morning. She was going to drop by with her folks on their way home to Angeles from San Fernando. She owns the townhouse we stayed in while we were in Baguio. When she got here she called Bert who’s overseeing the finishing in his house at Lakeshore. Donna showed Lita around the house. She was here when it was under construction but this was the first time she’s seen it since we moved in. I think she left for Japan early this morning and will fly back to Rome on the 17th. Bert and Merlyn saw Lita in Rome when they visited Europe last year.


Last night Mike and wife Ayrin came, along with Sister Gay, Len and kids. They brought us some dinner of Congee (this is like arroz caldo) from Chow King. Mike is Ate Tess’s oldest. He works for the cruise liner Queen Mary II and he’s off through April and will be back to work in May.

We woke up this morning feeling much better. I’ve been chatting on line with Mike E, Dan G and our compadre from California, Pareng Jun – Robert’s brother. I’ve also shown friend Ed Sale how to register and chat through Yahoo IM. Now my honey and I have to go out and celebrate Valentine’s with a movie, perhaps dinner and who knows what else!!??!?!!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S TO ALL!