It was a holiday but I was supposed work overtime. I went home extremely late the night before and I was quite grumpy when I was woken up at 7:00 AM! Turned out, my sister was trying to wake me up because my relatives wanted all of us to stroll around Metro Manila before they go back to Pangasinan tomorrow. And I dragged myself out of the bed, put on the first thing I saw from my closet and picked up the bag I used the day before (with all of the previous day’s trash inside).
We did not encounter any traffic jam and it only took 30 minutes to drive from Marikina to Manila. We first thought that Manila Zoo would be closed because of the holiday but it was open and there was an increase in the number of visitors as we approached lunchtime. Honestly, I have mixed feelings over visiting the zoo because years after, I have developed a feeling that wild animals should be left in their natural habitat nad be out of captivity. But I did not say anything and decided not to rain on my nephews and niece’s parade.
The kids were, of course, extremely happy of the visit. My sister and I were so busy chasing after them that I was surprised that my footwear did not snap. I should have worn sneakers instead. LOL
So, I’m now assuming that Manila Zoo NEVER closes even on a holiday. Tito Benny remarked that the last time he was in this zoo was when the entrance fee was just 40 cents — and it was now Php 40! ^_^
We left the zoo at halft past twelve. We were to go to Rizal Park right after but I told them that it won’t be a good idea — the sun was high up in the sky and we will be fried under it. We then went to SM Mall of Asia to eat lunch and to acclimatize ourselves with free airconditioning. =D I was surprised that my digital camera was almost at the point of being lowbatt that I did not bother taking a lot of photos using it when we were there. One thing I’ve noticed was that the Christmas season was already very present, with Christmas songs/carols playing from several radios in establishments there, and the decorations were almost up. SM MOA has even started building a giant Christmas tree in their atrium. 
At around 3:30 PM, we decided that the sun was no longer that hot and we can finally go and visit Luneta. I can tell that the kids, particularly the boys, were excited to visit the park. They immediately made a run for it, right after parking in front of the Quirino Grandstand and was chasing and hitting each other off with the rolled-up mats. Boys. I saw the row of vendors selling kites and I bought one of the eagle-shaped ones. 
I used to fly a kite every summer when I was still in grade school, which I made from old newspaper, cooked rice and broken sticks from a stickbroom. I was an amateur and did not make any attempt to make a gurion kite (the heavy-duty ones, with bamboo frames), nor sand strings with broken glass for kite fights. I was just contended with my 1000-meter sewing thread, as long as they can fly high far from the deadly strings of the older kids (and they did not waste their carefully-crafted string on newspaper kites of the smaller kids LOL). 
I was really happy to fly a kite after more than a decade! I was sweating like mad from all the running to keep the kite flying because the winds were not that consistent. I actually smelled like a grade schooler in the school playground. LOL The longest time I had kept the kite afloat was only about ten minutes and it will next be slowly descending back to the ground. If only the provided string was longer, then it could have been flown higher where it can catch the more consistent wind. I eventually gave up when the sun was already so low that the wind has drastically died down.
I also dragged Brie to the Carabao sculpture, right across Jose Rizal’s statue just to take her picture. She was initially cooperative but when a group of women saw her, they began cooing and gushing over her that it made her extra irritated and began giving them the stink eye. O_O I just whisked her away from them, murmured an apology to them and placed her on another spot and haphazardly took this shot. And then the camera’s battery went totally dead. LOL
It was definitely a tiring day. I was even able to even sleep for more than 30 minutes, curled up in the van. I woke up with an aching neck because I was not able to lie down properly and was seated next to the two boys. LOL It was an All Saints Day but I still wasn’t able to pay my respects by visiting the grave of our departed ones. I will most probably visit them this Saturday, when the crowd in the cemeteries have already thinned out.
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