The Eleven-Day Vacation

the past eleven days has been one of the memorable ones. i tried to journal each day of my trip in manila, but words just simply escapes me. moments are hard to put into words, you have to be there to fully get the gist of things. either that, or we come home exhausted to our bones that our brains just refuses to function properly. but i'm gonna try and share with you some of the highlights of the trip. the first day: after breakfast from siningag express delivered in (around $10), horacio and my brother's fix appointment, a light lunch at itallianis and tips 'n toes (while horacio was getting a massage), we headed to apeh's house in magallanes to celebrate his and cherlene's birthday (a small celebration). ally rendered a solo performance of "happy birthday" song in chinese. after the candle melted almost all the way through because the kids can't get enough of blowing the candles, we had a piece of our cake. the second day: we had lunch at my dad's place in malate. we had shrimps, sinigang na baboy, and crabs (all prepared by auntie fe) and for dessert we all had (except for horacio) an orange twin popsies. since jackie couldn't finish the whole thing (...) she had a bite from each of our twin popsies. then we headed out to mall of asia (the largest mall in the Philippines). on a sunday plus the thre-day sale that they are having, the mall was jampacked. humidity was all we felt. we decided to cool ourselves at coffee bean and tea leaf. after jackie complaints about the chocolate cake not being good, she still kept having it until they were almost none left. then the whole family once again met up for dinner at hai (which apeh co-owns). it was a chaos with the kids running around with each of their nannies on their tail. it was still good, the kids (and adults) quieted down and remained on their seats when the food came. okay, so we really weren't quiet... so what, we're a big family and we communicate with each other and enjoy the company. third day: did some errands with horacio and had my $12 dollar (teeth) cleaning - pretty cheap right? but it was really good cleaning. had lunch at jollibee and had my fix of two piece chicken joy - no other place can make those chicken and gravy! later that day, we took jackie out in search of her red dress and ended up having it custom made for Php3,000 (which is around $60!), still pretty cheap, but for philippine standards - i don't think so. then with jackie on hand, we went out with benjie and mel for dinner at national's sports bar. he gave me copies of the second season of lost, all of desperate houswives. it was fun hanging out with those who don't have qualms about who's gonna be there and the like. seeing mel again was just like seeing a really old friend. i'm glad that we were able to see each other ever for a couple of hours. the fourth day: a whirlwind trip to iloilo. as soon as manong junior (our driver who we have known since we were still in grade school) picked us up from the airport, we headed to the supermarket to buy groceries for our grandmother. then we headed out to breakthrough for lunch with the family. lola (grandma) barely remembers me, but as soon as she did, her eyes started to well up once more. i haven't seen my grandma nor been to iloilo for almost ten years. it was nice going back again, seeing my grandma once more. although she isn't what she to be anymore, it's kinda good. she and horacio started conversing in spanish. the questions and statements were told more than ten times. she went home tired yet happy. i don't know if she remembers me being there or not, nonetheless, it was still good seeing her again. after few more chores, and having chicken inasal for dinner, we went to manong paulo's place in mandurriao and crashed for a couple hours, then we left for boracay at around 2 in the morning. fifth through seventh day: lazy days in boracay. after having a heavy beakfast, shake after shake... i think my tummy gave in. i woke up from a catnap with a really bad tummy ache and couldn't really hold down anything. that didn't stop me though from eating some more and enjoy the sun. we went island hopping and snorkling, had our massage by the beach, played in the water, attempted to build sandcastle, laid down on the sand bar, had couple drinks at night. it was good being able to go on a vacation again with the family, i'm so glad that dad was there with us. it had been a while. as soon as we came back from boracay and picking up jackie's red dress (which was custom made), there was yet another dinner at magallanes, it was sa-ko's birthday. this time all of my dad's sister were there. i haven't seen my three aunts for years. eighth day: went to starbucks for breakfast and had chowking delivered in for lunch (sweet and sour pork, braised beef, kangkong with shrimp paste and spring rolls just for hoario and i) and for a stayed in for the most part of the day due to exhaustion. later that day, we went to cafe breton had some crepes then headed for tips 'n toes while horacio had another masage. had dinner with achi at cafe meditteranean and tired to look for ding dongs. went to mandarin hotel disappointed and desperate for ding dongs, fell asleep at aroud 9:30pm, whil achi and ahiya did some lasst minute prep for apeh's big celebration the next day (mixed with few dramas that i, once again, missed).

ninth day: the reason for the trip - apeh's 60th birthday celebration at mandarin hotel. i must say, after experiencing a number of this kind of celebration in our family, this is the most organizzed one. there were no additional tables requested at the last minute, the kids behaved in their kiddie table and the people attended the party paid attention to the program that was prepared. eyes welled up with achi pearlie's speech for her dad, ally sang the beauty and the beast theme song - acappela! the photo presentation for apeh, and the neverending picture taking. the party (or should i say, pictorial?) ended at around 4pm, left the hotel at 4:30. went out to dinner with dad at around 7pm.

tenth day: exhaustion kicks in. we forced ourselves out of the door for our 1pm appointment at fix salon. had (buffet) lunch at jollibee wherein we ordered two orders of two piece burger steak, three orders of two piece chicken joy, an order of spaghetti with one piece chicken, another order or spaghetti, crispy pork chops and a large fries - it was just the four of us. after our fix appointment, we went home and rested for a couple of hours then we headed to magallanes to celebrate ally's fourth birthday. after the birthday celebration, achie pearlie dropped us off at max brenner and we had cup of chocolate with achi's firends. it was a hilarious night. the place was almost empty with two other customers inside, we filled up the place with boisterous laughters (actually it was mostly just achi and ria!).

eleventh day: cabs and cab drivers from hell. went to taguig (where the final product of beach walk slippers are), traffic was horrendous - we were stuck at the same place for at least an hour. our cab driver wasn't too happy, neither were we. left the factory with ONE white, wedge flip flops (was hoping for at least three!). dad took us to ongpin (chinatown) for lunch at one of those restaurants that fancy is not part of the dictionary but have really great food. achi had the urge to buy lau hu chi (that's acrhie comics for the chinese people!), by the way, none of us can read chinese but we grew up with this and laughed with it just by looking at the pictures. we took a cab to greenbelt - with the humidity, the cab didn't have the proper aircondition, as soon as we stepped out of the cab, we were all dehydrated. we did some last minute errands - buying all the dried mangoes, ding dongs, lengua de leche, pili nuts, adobo peanuts and chichacorn, cds abnd vcds, and books (had the inclination to read noli me tangere and el filibusterismo!). once again, took a cab home - cab driver was mister grumpy. he was muttering complaints under his breath the whole entire cab ride. oh well. after dropping all of the stuff home, we headed out once again to have dinner (our despedida dinner) with the entire family at dencio's. after dinner, achi pearlie took us to starbucks for some coffee. came home, packed all our stuff in records time.

the vacation as one of a kind. i am so happy that i decided to go to manila and attend apeh's birthday celebration. now that i am back in new york, back to reality. i already miss the entire family, the craziness each time we all have gatherings, the kids running around, spending time with them, seeing relatives once more, the thirty-minute goodbyes before heading home.

"families are like fudge, mostly sweet with some nuts."