Fri-Sun Feb 3 thru Feb 5, 2006

Blogger was acting up so I’m posting three days worth of activities right now. Yesterday, I was trying to post but somehow it deleted a couple of days worth so here we go again…

Friday was very interesting. I picked up Kong Naring and Jonar from Masamat. Then we went to Apalit to get some prices on steel rods. We took the NLE (short for North Luzon Expressway) in San Fernando and got off at the San Simon exit. I haven’t been to this area of McArthur Highway in a long time, the road is mostly re-paved because of added traffic of people who can’t afford the enormous increase in toll fees of the rebuilt expressway. We passed by the San Simon City Hall which Kong Naring said he constructed several years ago. Then to Apalit, the town market and old Sulipan bridge whose replacement is being constructed right next to it. (See pictures).

Right after the bridge we made a left to Barangay Capalangan. I learned that this infamous small Apalit barrio is known as the 'chop-chop' capital of the Philippines. Practically every other house sells car and SUV spare parts, literally from bumpers to tail lights. I was told if someone needs an engine, it can be fished out of the river where they sometimes are hidden away. Anyway, we finally reached our destination, a distant relative (a grandson of Apung Jose Maniago from San Miguel) who’s into construction himself and has connections with someone who can hook us up with a distributor where we can order steel at wholesale prices. I dare you to identify the fruits of the tree in the picture above! It's growing in a yard of one of the houses we visited over there. Before we left, he loaned us a heavy duty bolt cutter which is supposed to save a lot of time in cutting steel bars as opposed to manually cutting them by saw.

We had lunch in San Simon on the way back at a small kubo that serves authentic Kapampangan dishes. There were the four of us and I paid a whopping Php 198. The Philippines never ceases to amaze me!

We took all the stretch of McArthur Highway on the way back and went through San Simon, Santo Tomas (Sapa & San Matias), San Nicolas then finally to downtown City of San Fernando. Check out the pictures I took (while I was riding shotgun in the car) of the San Fernando Cathedral, the old Pampanga Hotel, the rotunda of the former Estrella Theater, San Fernando Elementary and the rotunda by Café Fernandino.

We were going to drop off the bolt cutter at Francis’ Body shop but it was pretty crowded with customer cars that they're working on over there so after buying a couple of fresh buko (which reminds me, I haven’t had any halo-halo in a couple of days now!), we went to Masamat to drop off Kong Naring and Jonar along with the bolt cutter.

Pap and I had lunch at SM Food Court and I had a couple of fried pugo, Zippo (a stew with pugo eggs) and chop suey at Luring’s Barbecue.

Jack and I did some videoke at Remy’s place before turning in for the night.

Yesterday was sort of a free day so I figured I’d take the time to blog but like I said above, Blogger was not cooperating. Jack and Remy picked me up in the afternoon and we went to SM to watch Zathura (a knock off of Jumanji) by the makers of, what else?, Jumanji! It was a pretty good movie with cool special effects. It would have been much better if it came out before Jumanji. The movie theater was comparable to stadium seating style multiplexes in So Cal with surround sound and everything. We had an early dinner before watching the movie at Sushiya, the small Japanese restaurant across Gerry’s Grill in SM. I finally had sashimi which I’ve been craving for a long time. It wasn’t as fresh as Japan’s or Sushi Samurai in Cerritos but it had to do since this was the only Japanese restaurant that I know of in the area.

After the movie, I met with Ned at Starbucks while the girls went grocery shopping. I found out from him that Willie Sapnu switched with him as President of the alumni association here. It wasn’t Rizaldo Kerr after all. Willie Sapnu became Vice. Ned and I talked for over a couple of hours.

This morning I woke up early, probably because I hit the sack pretty early last night. I got up at around 6:30 am to go to the bathroom and couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards. We went to hear mass at 8:30 am at the Guagua Cathedral and had breakfast at Chow King. The crew pretty much yells “Rey” (as in “Norm” in Cheers – hello??) when they see me coming in. Of course they’re used to my usual by now: boneless bangus, chop suey and mineral water.

Donna sent me a text message about Marley Del Rosario, a friend who had a blood clot in the brain late last week. Today after his relatives arrive from Hawaii, his organs will be harvested for donation and then they'll take him off of life support. Marley was our classmate in high school and he was also Donna's classmate in nursing. A couple of days before I left California, he and his wife along with a couple of their kids spent a couple of nights at our place before going on a Mexican cruise. Donna and Cecille drove to the Bay area Saturday to be with his family.

In the afternoon, I went and picked up Kong Naring to visit my two surviving Aunties Ester (she's 76) and Glo (she's 84 and going strong!). Imang Ester is back living in the old house behind the Kapitolyo and we had to trace Imang Glo through Rowena’s Internet Café in Sindalan. Rowena said she now stays at his brother Gil’s house in Dau. We went towards Angeles and visited: Ate Mariette, the very pregnant Myla - who’ll have a caesarian operation of a baby boy in a couple of weeks; Armin who showed us the revised floor plan (his wife Reggie was home and she served us lumpiang gulay and turon – Donna’s favorite); and Imang Glo as well as Gil and his family. Gil’s wife recalled how Donna loaned her the wedding dress she wore in June after we got married in April 1976. Gil's kids are all grown up and he has a couple of grand kids. Gil, an artist trained by Kong Paing has two sons who are artists in their own right. He showed me portraits of himself and Lola Tisya that Kong Paing did.

It was dark by the time we got to SM for dinner. And now you’re caught up.