Christmas vacation

I am too lazy to encapsulate everything in detailed postings. Suffice to say, I have not spent a single boring minute here in Cebu. Of course, as klutzy and clueless as I am sometimes, Murphy's Law always kicks in for me every time (talk about consistency!).

Off for Cebu!
I was all dressed up, packed and ready to go to the airport when I got bad news from Jco at around 10 am. Turns out my BKK-MLA flight is going to be delayed by one hour. My mind immediately processed possible consequences and turned up with one horrifying possibility: I might miss my flight to Cebu! ( my original BKK-MLA flight had only one hour leeway between my MLA-CBU flight. So a one hour delay in the first flight would mean no breathing time at all , plus the hassle with lining up for immigration, customs...you get the picture ). I promptly cried on the phone (trust me, this happens rarely now and on special nerve-wracking occasions only. hehe. Give me a break, I just got home from Chiang Rai at around 3am!). After putting down the phone, I called my agent to ensure I get hotel booking in Manila at least if I do miss my flight and a sure seat for the flight the next day. I called my dad to cancel the band waiting for my arrival at Cebu airport (hehe. joke). I called to tell him I might have to fly in the next day and spend the night in Manila (which honestly got me all scared and jittery -- notwithstanding the fact that I have actually lived there for almost 6 years).

Anyway, the flight to Manila was quite uneventful, save for those direct questions I posed to my travelling partner (which probably made him most uncomfortable. I apologize, truly. Hehehe. I admit though I learned a lot of things). I arrived in Manila 20 minutes late for my connecting flight to my beloved hometown. Fortunately, it seemed PAL was holding the Cebu flight to wait for us (much to the chagrin of its passengers I presume). So we rushed through immigration and customs (they simply just plastered the yellow sticker on my bag. whew!) and I was off running for the domestic terminal. A hurried text to my family was sent to inform them that I was on my way (by now, they had dispersed after my cousin's kiddie party).

The feeling of coming home after a year of being gone is strangely mellowing. You tend to forget all the bad memories that happened to you in a particular place and you simply focus on getting to the people who matter to you the most -- family. I am happy to be home in Cebu, to eat lechon again, to play (yes, play ) with my cousins, meet my relatives, spoil my family and just rest a my tired and restless spirit. I love Cebu and it will definitely be home to me always, but I know that I am not meant to stay here because I need to make my mark in another part of the world. (naks, eto talaga effect if I write my blog entries at midnight. I become so utterly cheesy).

Medellin Madness

This Christmas, we spent it in our grandparents' place in Medellin, a sleepy little town north of Cebu (after Bogo). Its weird. This town has never changed -- from its dusty, disheveled, rocky roads to the sugar cane littering the streets to its quiet and very rustic and rural quality -- it is similar to the town I knew and loved as a child. This is probably helped by a lot of governmental neglect (surprise surprise) and apathy on the part of the people of the town itself. So the whole clan was in place ( all 16 cousins, with mom and dads in tow). Imagine, all of us crammed into this two storey house with four bedrooms. You can imagine the fights and the bickering that went on in the rooms as everybody jostled for space. Being the eldest, I tried to be as bossy as possible to get the best bedspace for me. hehehe. Here is a pic of one of the railways in front of my lola's house.
Pic of my cousins and me during Christmas!

An aunt bought Magic Sing so medyo we had a karaoke Christmas. Plus of course, the much awaited family bingo game. I think my family has huge gambling tendencies. Everyone was really into the bingo game. My uncle, the bday celebrant, won the bingo black out. I won the first round where we had to form a square but I had to share the prize with two others. boo hoo. hehehe.

And I learned how to drive! Sobrang cool pala when you are behind the wheel. Of course, my uncle/teacher was shouting at me everytime : BRAKE! CLUTCH! CHANGE GEAR! Medyo nakakairita but then whats the best way to learn but from a person who screams in your ear right? Haha. At least it wasn't my lolo who taught me. I heard he can be quite the taskmaster and perfectionist (not to mention easily irritated).

Unfortunately, on Christmas day, my parents weren't feeling really well. Turns out both of them had pneumonia. So we had to rush to Cebu and went straight for the ER. I stayed in the hospital for 3 days. Fortunately, gumaling din and we weren't going to spend the first few hours of 2006 cooped up in the hospital. Now if only my dad would get the message and STOP SMOKING so his and my mom's health wouldn't get worse. Really talaga, mahirap magpalaki ng mga magulang. Matitigas ulo. Tsk tsk tsk.

Waterfront Rendezvous

I met up with two of my closest high school friends and we had a sleepover at Waterfront Hotel in Lahug. One was very much pregnant and the other was getting married next year. Honestly, I felt quite left out. I mean, here were two kabarkadas getting ready (or in the midst of ) settling down. Am I in that age bracket already where people I know begin to talk of walking down the aisle already, of spending an entire lifetime with only ONE person and talking about diapers and baby names? Am I? Am I? Did I suddenly jump into the future and can come back to find that the present still values singlehood?

I am happy for them and sincerely hope the choices they have made will turn out well for them in the future. :) Anyway, we spent half the night and the whole of next morning just chatting and catching up with the one year that we haven't seen each other. They regaled me with tales about our other high school batchmates, about work life in Cebu and in turn, I talked about Germans, about elephants, Patpong shows and everything else in the Thailand tourist category. hehehe.

Hay, by the time I am writing this, I am now over budget, in debt and will be working my ass off in January and February to pay off for my spending this December. Honestly, I feel a family member is lurking at every corner of the mall. But I don't mind (well, maybe just a tiny tiny bit). After all, basta lipay family nako, lipay naman sad ko. hahaha.