friends/family

Full Blown Christmas, Finally

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It’s Christmas! Yay! I always look forward to the end of the year festivities.

Mon and I had discussed weeks ago what our holiday festivities would look like. For Christmas Eve, we’ll have to spend it with his family and spend Christmas day with my family. Then for New Year’s Eve, it would be with my family as his family would be spending it in Laoag.

Christmas games

It was the first time that we’d be spending Christmas with his family, and it was a lot different than what we normally do. They had a lot of games leading up to midnight and had a mandatory coordinated outfit.

They also eat Noche Buena before 12:00 am, unlike us who eat exactly as it becomes 25.

After eating and as they open their gifts, I took the opportunity to call my family as well. I’d be spending the day after with them anyway.

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2022 BC: 2022 Before Christmas

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I hazard to guess that this year’s Christmas will be full blown and all out compared to the last two Christmases. The atmosphere leading up to December was so euphoric. Malls had even foregone their usual Halloween decors in favor of the holiday ones.

For us, it would be our second Christmas in our new house. We, however, had to do away with the Christmas tree because we have a new cat who may likely go excited with the sight of glittery ornaments.

Few decors at home

I just took out some of the garlands and wreaths, and some more ornaments that were (hopefully) out of reach of Milky. At least this year’s decors would not be a glitter explosion.

In our apartment, we did not even remove last year’s small wooden Christmas trees as we have three cats. Worse, two days ago, they ran after a small lizard that left one of the trees devoid of balls. Poor tree.

At least the three of them managed to wear these souvenirs from the pet clothing store in front of Yoogane from Seoul. It was a challenge to get them all in one shot. This year, we’ll have to manage with this collage.

The three kitties with their gifts from Seoul

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Health scares with an -s

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Nothing to write home and elaborately about, but two and a half years since the start of the pandemic, it seemed inevitable. We tested positive with COVID-19. Putting this here for posterity of September’s events, so I’d be reminded down the line that this indeed took place.

I was under the impression that I may have gotten it from either the mall in Antipolo, or our usual weekday grocery shopping. We could no longer pinpoint it.

Prepping the antigen test

Prepping the antigen test

The first symptom that I felt the night before I tested was how itchy my throat was before sleeping. The following morning, my head was throbbing and it felt quite different from the other headaches I usually have.

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F&F&F: Family & Friends & Fall

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Yet again, the whole of Metro Manila was a bit gloomy this weekend. No typhoon nor any tropical depression, but there had been scattered rain showers since Friday evening. Nevertheless, I had a lot of things to look forward to for Saturday and Sunday – a lot of people to catch up with, and a lot of things to catch up on.

It has been almost a year since I left the humanitarian sector. I got the happy surprise mid-week that one of our colleagues from work was going to visit Manila from Nepal on a whim. I was very excited because she joined and I left the organization without seeing each other in person. Yes, pandemic woes.

She were to arrive Saturday morning, and my former colleagues planned a wonderful evening for her. The AirBnB she was staying in the same city as we were, thus it made sense for me to pick her up, unless she gets caught with the Saturday traffic of NCR.

Met with friends-slash-colleagues from my former humanitarian life

Met with friends-slash-colleagues from my former humanitarian life

We decided to meet early at around 5:00 pm, so we can evade the potential carmageddon 30 minutes after. While everyone was to meet at 7:00 pm in Shangri-La Plaza, arriving early and loitering was much better than just to sit in traffic. We reached the mall a few minutes shy of 6:00 pm.

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Whoa, way too early Christmas!

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It was a weekend and, just like any other weekend, we made our way to either side of our families. Mon wanted to buy some of those Buy 1, Take 1 mirrors and make those DIY paneled mirrors. Naturally, our first stop was All Home.

Upon arriving, we were shocked to see the whole entrance was already full of Christmas decors! While I understand that Christmas season in the country starts way early as soon as September 1, I was just shocked to see THIS much decors more than two weeks before the -ber months.

This one really takes the cake.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Pangilinan group has already decided for all of us. Mid-August is the new September 1. =)

Our first view of Christmas decors for 2022

Our first view of Christmas decors for 2022

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Rainy Sunday

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It was Sunday the 31st of July, and we are a hop and skip away from August 1. We normally visit on Sundays to have lunch with my family in our house in the uplands, as it was unthinkable to even travel on a Saturday.

We did it once 2 weeks ago and the travel time was horrendous. It took 2 hours coming from Makati  and at least 3 hours on the way back. To think that we spent only around 4 hours home, it was, for the lack of better word, traumatic. Thus, I made an arrangement with Mon if we could always just visit on a Sunday unless we can’t help it.

It was a very cloudy day and it was obvious that it would rain hard. It may be because of the continuously rising oil prices that there were not too many vehicles on the road, but it only took us a bit more than an hour to reach home.

Watching my 9-year old cat

Watching my 9-year old cat

Despite being the actual homeowner (as I am still in the process of transferring the title under my name), the guards at the gate of the subdivision still usually ask where I am headed to. They don’t recognize me at all. That was not the case whenever my father would fetch us nearby as they obviously knew him/them, as they are the ones living there.

One of the first things we usually do as soon as we arrive is check on the 2 dogs and the cat. While we were smothered by the dogs, our cat, Miso is the eternal ambivalent lady of the house.

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Double anniversary celebration

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It was a special day. Who knew that Mon’s parents and my parents have the same anniversary?!?

For weeks, Mon and I had been planning how we’ll spend that day as, it may be good to celebrate it the exact day. At one point, we decided that we’ll celebrate with my parents and my family on a Saturday, and then his parents and his family on a Sunday.

We got too daring though and decided to, well, just do everything (i.e. two separate celebrations) the same day!

That’s crazy.

But first things first, I do not want to gloss over the fact that I very much expressed my strong opinions on the results of the elections last May.

I have not spoken to my parents since the aftermath of the election day, and it would my the first time to meet them again. I knew there’ll be some slight awkwardness given my disappointment but I eventually chose and decided to move forward from it. They are my parents after all.

I just hope that we’d eventually have a meeting of minds in the coming weeks or months about the choices that were made. But I will just let things to naturally take their course and not impose anything. Besides, I really look forward to traveling with them in 2023 and put into fruition Mama’s lifelong dream to visit Rome.

Lunch at Chili's, Alabang Town Center with Mon's family

Lunch at Chili’s, Alabang Town Center with Mon’s family

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Aujourd’hui c’est son anniversaire

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Finally, a birthday celebration outside.

When the pandemic went full swing in 2020, the nationwide lockdown was about 3 days before Mon’s birthday. We had planned an eat-all-you-can dinner that time, but for obvious reasons. It was cancelled. Even the succeeding days before it, we were thinking how to get the refund for the pre-payment we made. When the prolonged lockdowns eventually reared its ugly head, it was obvious that it has ravaged more livelihood and employment. Our worries were severely paltry and negligible.

Since around mid-February 2022, things were looking up. Numbers-wise, since the end of the Omicron wave around January, there were less cases (and deaths, which frankly should be zero — a death is a death, even one). Vaccination rates are high. Or it might just be really the election period upon us that led to the relaxing of the restrictions.

The fire extinguisher --- people will probably think it's a Jeff Koons

The fire extinguisher — people will probably think it’s a Jeff Koons. (Yes. that’s an SATC reference)

So for today, we finally decided to have dinner at Greenbelt and (supposedly) watch a movie. Nothing out of ordinary.

It was a humid summer’s evening, but it did not prevent me from wearing my usual uniform: a black shirt. I decided to be dressier than usual and put on jeans instead of shorts. =) Nevertheless, my flip flops were intact. Imagine me walking around these around this new area where the LV store was transferred to, together with other designer stores. I did not care about it, to be honest, as I just really wanted to be inside an air-conditioned place. Continue Reading →

It is already March 2022

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It has been more than a year and 1 month since I last posted. Where was I the whole time?

This blog will be turning 10 this June, when I have first written this entry back in June 1, 2012. But I also have a still active Tumblr page last time I’ve checked, which I first opened when I turned 25. I am turning 37 this year, and I am still here, albeit writing sparingly.

Proof of Life 2022

Unfiltered proof of life 2022: if there is one thing I have learned in the last few months, it was moisturizing. I knew at one point all those all-nighters will catch up on me. >o<

So where do we start?

Twenty twenty-one had been a pivotal year for me. I had never been more adult than the year that was. Remember my house in the uplands which I last visited in January 2013? It took about 6 years until the 4th quarter of 2019 for me to visit again the property, which had expectedly seen a state of neglect.

I was determined to start being serious with it again by that time, but the pandemic hit. Everything was put to a stop. It took until March 2021 for me to get the ball rolling with the renovation of the property because of Ulysses from November 2020.

That whole renovation process and the successful full payment of my Pag-Ibig loan (19 years and 10 months ahead of the maturity date) deserve their own post, so I’ll just share this before and after:

Our townhouse - before and after

Our townhouse: before from March 2021, and after from August 21, 2021. Notice I even had to spraypaint my name by the door because there were several people reportedly claiming the property when I neglected it. Good thing there were no trespassers.

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