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.

Dan's Episode with Immigration

When Daniel arrived he mentioned some incident with the Immigration officer at the terminal right before he came out of the airport. When we checked out his passport he was given a visa of 21 days. His stay was from Dec 12 through the Jan 16 so that’s a bit longer than 21 days. It turned out, that was standard procedure for US passport holders not born in the Philippines. My sister-in-law Leda mentioned she knows someone who knows someone who has some ‘influence’ so we can get Dan's visa extended. His 21st day would have been Jan 2nd and that’s the only day we can go to Manila to have it taken care of. So Leda stayed the night New Year’s Day and bright and early Tuesday morning, she made her phone calls and we packed everyone into the van and headed on south towards Manila. On the way, we dropped off Eph and the girls at his Ninang Didi’s place in Valenzuela so her son can drive them around town. I think they were taken to, among others, the Mall of Asia which is supposed to be the biggest mall in Asia when it opened last year. Gen actually said when they got home that night, "I never want to see another mall for a while!"

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about my problem about coding on Tuesdays. So we took our time and when we left Valenzuela to go to Manila, it was already past 10 so I should be ok. With Leda navigating, (for the life of me, I can never find my way around Manila!) and we only had to stop a couple of times to ask for directions, we finally got to the Intramuros area where the Department of Immigration is located. But by the time we got there it was already lunch time. Around here, time stops during lunch at government offices. So we looked for a restaurant, had lunch then went back. By that time, our contact was already waiting for us. By the time we finished our thing, with Dan’s passport stamped and his stay extended till February, it was already around 2 pm and we only have till 3 to get out of Manila or else I’ll get a ticket for driving around ‘against coding’. We dropped off Leda on her way home to Alabang and the three of us, after Donna getting some directions, headed on home. It was not too bad, we got lost a couple of times but it was around 2:40 when we hit NLEx and we’re scot free!

I took a couple of pictures around Intramuros of some old buildings, some of them ruins really. I thought Starbucks sticks out. Dan took some pictures of the seamy side of Manila. We saw a streamer with Eph's namesake on it, of a restaurant in SM.

New Year

For New Year’s Eve dinner, Donna baked the turkey and fixed her most delicious ham, the one she boils in a mixture of pineapple juice and brown sugar, then she browns in the oven afterwards. We have our usual apple cider for our toast. But the guys had Red Horse! So sorry, friends at Goodrich, I guess we missed our Holiday lunch of 2006!!

There’s no 4th of July celebration here like the States. People light firecrackers on New Year’s Eve instead as a way of celebrating and ‘making noise’. I remember back in the days, I used to drive a motorcycle around the neighborhood with all kinds of cans, pots and pans tied behind me. Anyway...

We bought a bunch of sparklers (sorry but we’re sissies when it comes to fireworks, or perhaps ‘cheap’ is a better word?) and some “triangulos” or "labentador". These last ones are our traditional firecrackers over here. Gunpowder, or whatever it is they use for firecrackers, is wrapped up and folded into a triangular piece of paper and then the wick (is that what it's called?) which is installed on one corner, is lit and bang! These were packed in a box of maybe 10 or 15 pcs. Daniel didn’t realize they have to be lit one by one, tried to ignite the whole box and narrowly escaped total disaster!

But courageous Donna, this woman surprises me in more ways than one, started lighting one after another. They’re actually pretty loud.

A couple of months ago, Reggie mentioned that he had to check out a little something in his ‘stuff’ that we shipped from Norwalk. Unbeknownst to us, before he left for Japan he had one of his friends build a firecracker and he hid it with his things. New Year’s Eve, he showed it to us. Check out the picture with it in Reggie's mouth. Now let me tell you about this thing, it’s a freaking mini dynamite! Donna said our household would have been confiscated if it was found in customs! He lit and tossed it across the street towards a vacant lot and we felt more than heard it’s whoosh first, then a really loud boom! It left a nice gouge in the ground.

But we have neighbors here who are not worried about cost like us. One had fireworks that can be compared to the ones in Disneyland. Reggie remarked, “You can tell you have millionaires for neighbors!” So we quit lighting our measly 'labentadors' and just watched the neighbors' fireworks display.

JASHS Class '70 Christmas Get-Together

Our counterpart alumni association, JASHS Class ’70, here in the Philippines has been having a Christmas get-together for the past several years. I’ve scheduled myself to attend one of them a few years back but I was having a hard time booking a flight back to the US. Since I was still a slave to the grind at that time, I couldn’t take the chance of getting stranded here and, God forbid, be in trouble at work. I think my friend Ed Sale ended up going that year instead.

Times - they are a’changin', so to speak, because now that we live here, we can attend the Christmas get-together without worrying whether we’ll get a flight or not!

So last Dec 30 at around 10ish in the morning Donna and I went to Cida’s place to celebrate the Holidays with our high school classmates. We dragged Reggie with us. He was the one who took all the pictures. I think they told people to be there by 9:30 so by the time we got there, there were already quite a bit of people milling around. Donna and I registered and we were quickly given name tags and a T-shirt each. Most of the usual barkada were there. Even Teng Gorospe, whom I haven’t seen for such a long time attended.

I heard they were able to collect quite a bit of money from the raffle tickets they sold. The proceeds, part of which was already turned over to the Principal, Ms Macaspac, by the President Ned Canlas together with some of the officers, were to be used as payment for a project they committed to fund for the Registrar’s Office. A bunch of metal shelvings and trays were acquired and installed to properly maintain students’ records, like transcripts, etc. Ms Tess Magtoto mentioned that some records have already been destroyed by termites.

As usual there was a lot of food, fun games and cool raffle prizes and a lot of pictures taken. Alicia (Violeta) Vazquez and Tony Manalastas were two of our classmates, from London and California respectively, from abroad who attended. One classmate, Luz Cuyugan gave away a bunch of P500 bills towards the end of the party. Lucky Donna won one of the P500 and I think everyone got a small Christmas ham. Alumni who are Manila residents were curiously absent.

It was great to see old classmates once again. We stayed the whole day so there was quite a bit of time to reminisce, which is what we always do when old fogies get together. But for most, the highlight of the day was the game 'Scavenger Hunt' when the emcee said, “Give me some false teeth!” A bunch of people stood up and started running, taking off their false teeth on the way and tried to hand them to her! I thought that was hilarious!

We were beat by the time we went home and we opted not to attend the Homeowner’s Association Christmas party here at Greenfields.

Willy Sapnu invited some of us for dinner at Mequeni Restaurant before Alicia left for London. We took Daniel with us in this event. Check out top pictures.

Gen and Rachel

They wanted to spend Christmas with their parents so Eph’s fiancée Rachel and her sister Gennessee didn’t get here until Thursday Dec 28. They got picked up by their Auntie Tess, who is also Eph’s Ninang. We took them for dinner at Mequeni Restaurant at Holiday Inn Clark the day after. Gen’s cousins treated her somewhere else though since they haven’t seen her for a long time. They had a family reunion Sunday Dec 31. Rachel went with Eph on vacation here in February of 2005 but Gen hasn’t been back for 17 years!

We also had the chance to go visit the graves of the old folks. And there was one Sunday when it was the death anniversary of Donna's Aunt (Imang Isang) and we went to hear mass at the San Fernando Cathedral. Donna's cousins in the US sent money so we had lunch at Jun-Jun's right afterwards.

Christmas in the Phil. 2006

Donna had Reggie get a prime rib for Christmas Eve dinner and Eph a turkey and ham for New Year’s Eve dinner.

So with our prime rib and a host of other local dishes, we celebrated Christmas here in the Philippines in our brand new home after 30 years for me and Donna, 6 years with us together as a whole family. In the past with Reggie in the Japan, we’ve always spent Christmas without him. Some of my in-laws were here with us on Christmas Eve also – Sister Gay, Len and kids and her sister Berna and her kids.

Christmas Day was something else! A week or so before Christmas, Donna went to the bank and got some brand new crispy bills. In the Philippines it’s more customary to give away cash gifts on Christmas rather than wrapped presents. All through the day, jeepney loads of relatives came and visited to ask for ‘aginaldo’. It was overwhelming at times, keep in mind, we haven’t done this in three whole decades. And I remember being on the other side of the coin so to speak, asking for aginaldo instead of the other way around. It was a totally new experience for the boys especially for Rai-Rai who spent a few thousands of pesos giving out aginaldo himself. Before lunch some of them busied themselves with the Karaoke in the music room.

Leda and family along with my father-in-law came Christmas Day. Actually Leda's kids Lera and Alvin spent most of their Christmas break here mostly soaking up in the Jacuzzi and watching movies.

The Formal Blessing and Housewarming

While the house was under construction, we’ve been telling people, friends and relatives about it. We even had a few simple invitations printed at my niece Jack’s Internet Café, Etcetera. And finally here it is, Saturday, December 23, 2006 was the big day, formal blessing and house warming.

We had it catered (lunch and dinner) by Malou of Fisherman’s Grill. A couple of days before, they were at the house to set up the tent in the front yard and to deliver the chairs and tables. They came in bright and early Saturday to set up the food on the buffet tables.

At around 10:15 is when Bishop Bobet Mallari arrived, soon after Father Sito Sison showed up. A lot of the guests have also arrived at that time. The mass was started and more people came during the mass. There were a few of our neighbors who came, a lot of friends, and relatives.

There was the usual blessing of every part of the house by the priests with the whole family and most guests following the mini procession with candles lit. Once that was over, Eph with a big bag of coins, which the priest blessed as well, went and threw the coins around to the delight of everyone especially the children. I think Donna threw a bunch of chocolate candies also.

Then, everyone was off to the chow line.

We had some alumni friends who stayed through lunch and dinner: Rey Vergara, Dan Garcia, Mike Estacio, Daniper Carlos. Nelia Gonzales and sisters Karen and Lea left after lunch but came back at dinner with the prodding of the guys. After dinner everyone just sat around talking, doing Karaoke, some of the guys were drinking and just generally having a great time.

Eph, Reg and Dan were taken by Didi’s boys to Robinson’s for a game of pool. They almost regretted going because they got caught up in the snarled traffic coming home.

Reg and Eph's Arrival

We had a dilemma on how to go about picking up Reggie and Eph from the airport. Reggie arrives I think at around 10 pm Dec 21 and Eph at about 5:30 the morning after through PAL. So we had my in-laws pick up Reggie and we’ll pick up Eph.

There was a slight confusion with Reggie’s arrival. He was not aware that arriving passengers at the Manila airport have to go all the way out to the street for people to see him. It took a while to figure that out. Once he’s out he still waited for a while longer. My father-in-law was walking back and forth looking for him. Reggie saw him and said, “Lolo, it’s me Reg!” But it was late at night and he hasn’t seen him in a long time and he just kept walking. Reggie had to tug on my father-in-law’s arm for him to finally see him. They arrived at the house at almost 2 already. So Donna and I didn’t have a lot of sleep since we had to leave like 4:30 to pick up Eph. We picked Donna’s niece, Len, up on the way so she can navigate me to the airport. We got there on time but his flight got delayed in Guam. I just waited in the car and went to sleep while Len and Donna went to the terminal to look for him. This, by the way, is the PAL terminal which, it turned out, is different from the main Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminal. Donna saw Tonette’s sister Ate Claire who was in there to pick up their brother Senen from Sacramento. He was actually in the same flight with Eph. So Eph finally came and I think they got delayed about an hour or so.

We arrived at the house and for the first time in about 6 years or so our family is once again complete!

The Giant Lanterns of San Fernando

Saturday, December 16 was the night of the Giant Lantern competition. There are a few barangays in the City of San Fernando who each Christmas join in this competition. They build a huge lantern with multicolored lights and it’s mounted in front of a truck. Donna felt we haven’t seen it in a long time and since Daniel has not really experienced it, so we have to go and watch it. A long time ago, they used to hold the competition in front of the city hall across from the San Fernando Cathedral courtyard. This time they had it at the SM amphitheater. We had an early dinner and proceeded to go there. I didn’t have a good feeling about it, afraid there will be heavy traffic. Actually the traffic on the way was not too bad. The crowd however was something else. I think there were about 12 participants. We were in a position where we can barely see the third, fourth and fifth lanterns. It was getting to the point where the crowd was so big that I was afraid one mishap will send these people into a panic. So after the 2nd lantern’s lights display, we decided to call it a night. To make a long story short, it took us one full hour to get out of the parking lot and into the street. Suffice it to say that Dan was not a happy camper and neither was I. A couple of nights later we heard that they will be displayed at nearby Paskuhan Village till about 10. So we hurried up to see them, excited that since the competition was over, it wouldn’t be as crowded. The lantern of Barangay San Felipe won, by the way. We took to the NLEx, whose off ramp in San Fernando is right at Paskuhan Village. We were paying the toll right at 9:46 pm but I looked and Paskuhan Village was dark. When I asked why, the toll attendant said the lanterns were lit only till 9:30!

In spite of all these frustrations, we were able to see them at Christmas Eve in front of the church and the guys saw them by Essel Supermarket in Telebastagan a few days before that. Unfortunately, the attached pictures fail to do them justice but these giant lanterns are truly gorgeous.

Dan's Arrival

The last several weeks have been a blur. I know, I hear everyone’s mumbling, “It’s about time!!” I owe about a couple of months blog entries. You have to understand, with all the previous happenings, blogging was sort of low on my priorities.

But since the Holidays are over and everyone’s gone out of the house and most people who’ve been to Philippine post Holiday vacation have paid us a visit, I guess I’ve run out of excuses. So here it goes:

Dan left California late November and flew to Japan to drop by and visit Reggie for a couple of weeks. He got to meet Reg’s new girlfriend Manami (that's her with Reg) and was able to hang out with most of his cool Japanese friends. He also had the chance to go to Tokyo and see some of ‘Clockw0rk’s “fans” over there. (Reg - can you send me some of Dan's pic's with his friends in Tokyo pls?) Unfortunately he also had a bout with a flu for a few days during his stay.

He arrived here Tuesday, Dec 12. And since I can’t go to Manila on Tuesdays (due to coding), he was picked up from the airport by my in-laws. When he got here at the house, Indo seemed like he’s found a long lost ‘brother’ as evidenced by the pictures on my previous blog.

Even when we were in California, Daniel has mostly been a homebody, in front of the PC playing on line games with his buddies. So that’s what he did here while waiting for his brothers.