I Love LA!
We're baaaaaack!
Yum!
Yum!
posted by reyjay @ 4:48 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Cesar's Memorial Service
Thursday, October 4
We woke up really early to get ready to go back to the States. Rey, Mark and Flor came to take us to the Jerez airport and we left at 5:30 am for our 7:40 flight to Madrid. They dropped us off then we checked in at the Spanair counter. They took off as soon as we’re finished checking. Unfortunately Donna and I were told that we’ll have to retrieve our luggage at the Madrid airport and check it in at the Iberia counter for our flight to Heathrow with a final destination to LA.
Mary lucked out with hers because her luggage got the green light to go with her all the way to San Diego. We parted ways when we got to the Madrid airport. She stayed at the terminal 2 to check in at the US Airways counter for her flight to Philadelphia while we had to go to the conveyors to take our luggage. Once we had everything – a total of 6 suitcases, we had to take the green shuttle bus to take us to terminal 5 so we can check in at the British Airways counter. Below are some pictures taken at the new Madrid airport.
It wasn’t fun hauling our luggage in and out of the bus. We were able to check in without any hassle after that but we had to wait for 3 hours for our flight to Heathrow in London.
It was quite a bit hectic at Heathrow because we only had a couple of hour's layover and security was absolutely horribly crowded! We were literally running to get to our gate afterwards. When we arrived, there were a lot of people in line waiting to be boarded. I think we got delayed a bit because of that.
The flight to LA was pretty uneventful. There were quite a bit of good movies available but my headset wasn’t working too well or it could have been outside noise was bad so I didn’t really enjoy the movies. I ended up sleeping most of the way.
It took us almost two hours to get out of the terminal because we spent a long time looking for one piece of luggage. We tried to tell the porters that it was missing but they kept on insisting we have to look for it and we cannot leave it behind. By that time most of the luggage from the flight has already been on the floor and taken out of the conveyor. So finally we talked with a British Airways rep and told him. He said we have to go out of the customs section and report it to the lost luggage counter. When they asked for our name, the lady behind the counter readily found out in her computer that it was indeed left behind at Heathrow and it was going to be delivered to our address in La Mirada.
I found Daniel sitting and waiting and was surprised he didn’t see me coming out because he’s been looking with everybody by the usual hallway where passengers come out and we had to go another way to report our lost luggage, that’s why he didn’t see us. It was already past 10 when we finally arrived at Emy and Nido’s place in La Mirada.
Friday, October 5
Ed called first thing in the morning to find out what happened with us. I told him the story and to just go ahead and come and pick us up. It was already around 8 when we left for Carson City. He decided to take the 605 and 210 freeways to avoid all the rush hour traffic in downtown LA.
I relieved him when we got past Sacramento on freeway 50. We got stuck for almost half an hour right before the peak because of the falling snow. It was quite a site actually but we were filled with anxiety since I’m not really too adept in snow driving. A few minutes after the snow plow passed, they let us through.
We arrived at the funeral parlor at around 6 which is when they were about to start to pray the rosary. The first thing I noticed was several tin cans of Sky Flakes brand crackers by the door. For those of you who are not familiar, Sky Flakes are the quintessential Filipino snack. When one’s hungry in between meals, have some Sky Flakes. After dinner, if you’re not full enough, have some Sky Flakes. If there’s no dessert, have some Sky Flakes.
Friends and relatives of the Custodios and Ammays came in droves. Of course people are glad to see each other and be together somehow albeit the situation was extremely sad.
Anyway, after we prayed people were encouraged to come up and talk about Cesar. Donna had to nudge me a bit to have the courage to go up and do it. It was difficult to control one’s emotions and try to speak at the same time. Of course, once I was done I totally lost it when I went to give Onor a hug. Everyone, including himself, was surprised to see Jun go up front and talk. He delivered snippets of events, stories some pretty humorous and several anecdotes about Cesar including the fact that he was a former seminarian. Everyone laughed when he said it was Onor’s fault that Cesar didn’t become a priest. Robert and a couple of their friends in Reno and Carson City also went and talked.
There was quite a bit of talking and picture taking afterwards. Ed and I slipped out and checked in at the nearby Quality Inn.
The mortuary staff basically kicked us out when it was past nine and they realized we didn’t have any plans of leaving.
We then proceeded to their house in Carson City and had dinner.
There were more talking, reminiscing and picture taking after dinner. The kids started to play Jenga. It proved too interesting for Donna that she just had to join!
Saturday, October 6
We woke up around 9 and availed of Quality Inn’s continental breakfast. We then went to St Theresa Avila Catholic Church for Cesar’s memorial service. There were already a lot of people there when we arrived. We were told to view the body because once they close the casket and brought into the church, it won’t be opened again. A lot of pictures were taken with the families by the casket.
Mass started at around 11. JohnC and Leanne got a chance to talk afterwards. Then the casket draped with the US flag was wheeled by the pallbearers composed of immediate male family members towards the back of the church where a squad of military veterans were waiting. After the casket was sprinkled with holy water by the priest, the honor guard went and did their 21 gun salute, the flag folded and presented to Onor. Afterwards white balloons were distributed to close friends and family members who wrote short messages on them. The first verse of the Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven was sung by the group and then the balloons were released into the air.
Everyone proceeded towards a nearby Chinese restaurant for the lunch reception. There were so many people that came, immediate family had to wait for people to finish before they could have their lunch.
A lot of food was leftover and was taken home to be consumed for dinner while we waited to watch the Philippines' most famous boxer Manny Pacquiao fight against yet another Mexican boxer from a long line of Mexican boxers on a money match that he easily won. We attempted to go back to the church at 5 pm for the Saturday vigil mass only to find out when we got there that it started at 4 instead.
It was Jun's birthday, by the way, and everyone had fun singing Happy Birthday while he was wearing his Afro!
I followed Robert to their time share up the Lake Tahoe hills. After quite a bit of winding roads mostly going uphill, we got to their place. We were told this is the other end of the cable car from Highway 50 down below. The condo was a nice two bedroom, two bath set up. The bedrooms were huge with a jacuzzi bath in the master's bathroom. It had a living room, a kitchen and a washer and dryer.
Sunday, October 7
Donna, Ed and I woke up around 7 and silently went out trying not to wake them up. We went straight to St. Theresa for the 8 o'clock mass. Afterwards, we had breakfast at Denny's. I drove through Sacramento and to Kettleman's then Ed relieved me and drove all the way home. Eph came and paid us a visit when we got home.
Monday, October 8
I set my alarm so I can get up and take Giancarlo to school. He used to drive but I needed the van to pick up Daddy Dick and Sister Gay from the airport. Donna and I had a quick breakfast of cereal and milk and then we walked for about an hour around La Mirada park. Then Donna made some more of her RSVP follow up phone calls.
For lunch, we took Nido to a nearby restaurant for some dearly missed Japanese food and then Donna and I dropped him off and we went straight to the airport. They came as scheduled, we took them home. Daniel came and took Sister Gay to cousin Boy and Remy's place in Panorama City.
We woke up really early to get ready to go back to the States. Rey, Mark and Flor came to take us to the Jerez airport and we left at 5:30 am for our 7:40 flight to Madrid. They dropped us off then we checked in at the Spanair counter. They took off as soon as we’re finished checking. Unfortunately Donna and I were told that we’ll have to retrieve our luggage at the Madrid airport and check it in at the Iberia counter for our flight to Heathrow with a final destination to LA.
Mary lucked out with hers because her luggage got the green light to go with her all the way to San Diego. We parted ways when we got to the Madrid airport. She stayed at the terminal 2 to check in at the US Airways counter for her flight to Philadelphia while we had to go to the conveyors to take our luggage. Once we had everything – a total of 6 suitcases, we had to take the green shuttle bus to take us to terminal 5 so we can check in at the British Airways counter. Below are some pictures taken at the new Madrid airport.
It wasn’t fun hauling our luggage in and out of the bus. We were able to check in without any hassle after that but we had to wait for 3 hours for our flight to Heathrow in London.
It was quite a bit hectic at Heathrow because we only had a couple of hour's layover and security was absolutely horribly crowded! We were literally running to get to our gate afterwards. When we arrived, there were a lot of people in line waiting to be boarded. I think we got delayed a bit because of that.
The flight to LA was pretty uneventful. There were quite a bit of good movies available but my headset wasn’t working too well or it could have been outside noise was bad so I didn’t really enjoy the movies. I ended up sleeping most of the way.
It took us almost two hours to get out of the terminal because we spent a long time looking for one piece of luggage. We tried to tell the porters that it was missing but they kept on insisting we have to look for it and we cannot leave it behind. By that time most of the luggage from the flight has already been on the floor and taken out of the conveyor. So finally we talked with a British Airways rep and told him. He said we have to go out of the customs section and report it to the lost luggage counter. When they asked for our name, the lady behind the counter readily found out in her computer that it was indeed left behind at Heathrow and it was going to be delivered to our address in La Mirada.
I found Daniel sitting and waiting and was surprised he didn’t see me coming out because he’s been looking with everybody by the usual hallway where passengers come out and we had to go another way to report our lost luggage, that’s why he didn’t see us. It was already past 10 when we finally arrived at Emy and Nido’s place in La Mirada.
Friday, October 5
Ed called first thing in the morning to find out what happened with us. I told him the story and to just go ahead and come and pick us up. It was already around 8 when we left for Carson City. He decided to take the 605 and 210 freeways to avoid all the rush hour traffic in downtown LA.
I relieved him when we got past Sacramento on freeway 50. We got stuck for almost half an hour right before the peak because of the falling snow. It was quite a site actually but we were filled with anxiety since I’m not really too adept in snow driving. A few minutes after the snow plow passed, they let us through.
We arrived at the funeral parlor at around 6 which is when they were about to start to pray the rosary. The first thing I noticed was several tin cans of Sky Flakes brand crackers by the door. For those of you who are not familiar, Sky Flakes are the quintessential Filipino snack. When one’s hungry in between meals, have some Sky Flakes. After dinner, if you’re not full enough, have some Sky Flakes. If there’s no dessert, have some Sky Flakes.
Friends and relatives of the Custodios and Ammays came in droves. Of course people are glad to see each other and be together somehow albeit the situation was extremely sad.
Anyway, after we prayed people were encouraged to come up and talk about Cesar. Donna had to nudge me a bit to have the courage to go up and do it. It was difficult to control one’s emotions and try to speak at the same time. Of course, once I was done I totally lost it when I went to give Onor a hug. Everyone, including himself, was surprised to see Jun go up front and talk. He delivered snippets of events, stories some pretty humorous and several anecdotes about Cesar including the fact that he was a former seminarian. Everyone laughed when he said it was Onor’s fault that Cesar didn’t become a priest. Robert and a couple of their friends in Reno and Carson City also went and talked.
There was quite a bit of talking and picture taking afterwards. Ed and I slipped out and checked in at the nearby Quality Inn.
The mortuary staff basically kicked us out when it was past nine and they realized we didn’t have any plans of leaving.
We then proceeded to their house in Carson City and had dinner.
There were more talking, reminiscing and picture taking after dinner. The kids started to play Jenga. It proved too interesting for Donna that she just had to join!
Saturday, October 6
We woke up around 9 and availed of Quality Inn’s continental breakfast. We then went to St Theresa Avila Catholic Church for Cesar’s memorial service. There were already a lot of people there when we arrived. We were told to view the body because once they close the casket and brought into the church, it won’t be opened again. A lot of pictures were taken with the families by the casket.
Mass started at around 11. JohnC and Leanne got a chance to talk afterwards. Then the casket draped with the US flag was wheeled by the pallbearers composed of immediate male family members towards the back of the church where a squad of military veterans were waiting. After the casket was sprinkled with holy water by the priest, the honor guard went and did their 21 gun salute, the flag folded and presented to Onor. Afterwards white balloons were distributed to close friends and family members who wrote short messages on them. The first verse of the Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven was sung by the group and then the balloons were released into the air.
Everyone proceeded towards a nearby Chinese restaurant for the lunch reception. There were so many people that came, immediate family had to wait for people to finish before they could have their lunch.
A lot of food was leftover and was taken home to be consumed for dinner while we waited to watch the Philippines' most famous boxer Manny Pacquiao fight against yet another Mexican boxer from a long line of Mexican boxers on a money match that he easily won. We attempted to go back to the church at 5 pm for the Saturday vigil mass only to find out when we got there that it started at 4 instead.
It was Jun's birthday, by the way, and everyone had fun singing Happy Birthday while he was wearing his Afro!
I followed Robert to their time share up the Lake Tahoe hills. After quite a bit of winding roads mostly going uphill, we got to their place. We were told this is the other end of the cable car from Highway 50 down below. The condo was a nice two bedroom, two bath set up. The bedrooms were huge with a jacuzzi bath in the master's bathroom. It had a living room, a kitchen and a washer and dryer.
Sunday, October 7
Donna, Ed and I woke up around 7 and silently went out trying not to wake them up. We went straight to St. Theresa for the 8 o'clock mass. Afterwards, we had breakfast at Denny's. I drove through Sacramento and to Kettleman's then Ed relieved me and drove all the way home. Eph came and paid us a visit when we got home.
Monday, October 8
I set my alarm so I can get up and take Giancarlo to school. He used to drive but I needed the van to pick up Daddy Dick and Sister Gay from the airport. Donna and I had a quick breakfast of cereal and milk and then we walked for about an hour around La Mirada park. Then Donna made some more of her RSVP follow up phone calls.
For lunch, we took Nido to a nearby restaurant for some dearly missed Japanese food and then Donna and I dropped him off and we went straight to the airport. They came as scheduled, we took them home. Daniel came and took Sister Gay to cousin Boy and Remy's place in Panorama City.
posted by reyjay @ 1:11 PM
0 comments
