To continue…

Dec 27

• Town fiesta in Tanauan, Batangas and the christening of my newest godson, Yuan Miguel “Miglet” Biscocho . After the christening at this new church in Darasa, with this obnoxious priest (pinapagalitan ba naman ung mga tao sa buong simbahan, ang hindi daw magdasal ng malakas e doble dapat ang pakimkim, praning!), we went straight to my Ninang’s house.

  

• There was soooo much food and I think I may have stuffed my mouth way too much. I was so full that day.
• Hanged out with some relatives, cousins and their girlfriends. I have one female cousin and I believe her baby’s daddy is out of country that time. Sorry I don’t even know his name.
• Went home before 5pm since we wanna watch either Avatar or Sherlock Holmes. Ended up not watching at all.

Dec 28

• Scuba Day with hubby and G (Grace)! We woke up early because we thought the drive to Anilao may take up to 2 hours. Surprisingly, we got there in about an hour. I guess because it was too early and there wasn’t any traffic at some of the towns we passed by that made the travel faster. And being the atat that we were, our scuba instructor was still asleep when we got there, so yeah, we’re totally wayyy too early!
• Had light breakfast then we suited up and started to do the basics in the pool. It wasn’t as difficult as I expected it to be. The hardest part was the process of taking out of water in case it goes in the goggles.
• A couple of hours later, it was lunch time . Food was great. Buffet is always the best. I wasn’t sure if we can eat a lot right before a dive but I couldn’t help my “piggy” self. Rested for a while then we decided to do the actual dive in the ocean.
• Our instructor told us that we will be renting a boat so that we can go to the area where we can feed the fishes. It was about 15ft deep. Scariest part: sitting down on the edge of the boat and letting ourselves fall down from it, back first. I thought I was going to drown. Fun part: we got to see and feed a bunch of schools of fish and was able to capture it on video. Cool!
• Day ended with a side trip to this house-type resto where they only serve street foods like isaw, adidas, leeg ng manok and barbeque. Delishhh!For more pics: check my Facebook Album.

Dec 29

• My in-laws threw a post 1st birthday celebration for Liam. And by post, I mean, 6 months later! Haha! Again, food was just everywhere.

  
  

• Relatives and some friends from both our families came. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, I wasn’t feeling good already. Ended up sleeping early.

Dec 30

• Sore throat + Fever = Cancelled meet up with friends. BOO!

Dec 31

• New Year’s Eve celebration in Tanauan. Still not feeling 100% but what the heck. I cannot greet the new year feeling all gloomy and sickly.
  
• Everybody had to wear red. My Ninang, Tita and Mom was all feng shui-y so they did a bunch of different things before 12 midnight hits.
• Pagkain na namannnnnn! Burp!
• Slept around 130-ish since we still have to wake up early. Our flight to Singapore is around 830 so we have to be there at least about 530-6am.

Jan 1-5 2010

Ok, I’ll make this a bit different. I’m tired of typing about all the things that we did so I’ll let the pictures (click on the link to check out the album) speaks for itself. I mean, that’s 5days in Singapore. I cannot elaborate any further. My head is about to explode. But because I promised a detailed kwento, I want to finish this. By the way, another shout out to Tita Helen, Tito Jason, Paula, Patrick, Macy and the rest of the Navarro family for welcoming us in their house! And to other friends who helped us tour the city: Che, Daryll, Merel, Ipe and wifey (oops! sorry I’m bad at names) and Ate Gelen.

Things I love about Singapore:

Their airport is one of the nicest I’ve been to!
Clean, no scrathch that… a very clean country.
Cheap foods and most of it taste actually pretty good. Fruits are the best, always fresh.
Amazing places to go to like the Merlion park, Jurong Bird Park, that place where it looks like a big durian (crap I forgot the name!), Sentosa, the malls and so much more.
Most of these places are easily accessible.
At ang mga taxi, in fairness, Chedeng! First time I ever rode a Mercedes Benz and it’s a freakin’ cab. Wageeeee!

There were some things that I did not get so excited about Singapore but I’d rather leave it unsaid.

Fast forward to Jan 6

• Hubby and I went to Manila, Quiapo to be specific. He promised last year that he’ll at least visit the church there but unfortunately, we weren’t able to go so it was our mission to do it this year. We were also able to hear the mass and got blessed by the priest.
• Went to Glorietta on another mission. To buy my christmas present from hubby. I’m in watch heaven right now. See what I’m talking about right here. Love it!
• After this, we went back to Hidalgo which was close to Quiapo (we were so probinsyano/probinsyana type, we didn’t know that the two places were just a few minutes apart) and tried to check out the cheapest price we could find for the lens that hubby wanted to buy. Mission failed on this one. It’s still cheaper here.
• Went straight to Mall of Asia after. Had a very late lunch at Kenny Rogers (we wanted to make sure we ate here before we leave the country).
• Planned on watching Avatar on IMAX but the line was sooo long we decided to just go home.

Jan 7

• Spent the day running errands like a maniac in Lipa. Making sure that we have most of the things/foods we want to bring back to Alaska.
• Attempted to have a final foot spa/massage, twice. BOTH FAILED!
• Friends came over. Others I’ve seen for the first and final time. Others twice. Shout out to Ate Apol, Eel, G, Ely and Kiko for taking the time to come over even for the last time. Next time, we’ll plan better. And to Pia and Tin-Tin, sorry we weren’t able to see each other. Dami pang ibang panahon.
• Started packing at around 10pm.

Jan 8

• Flight to Taipei is at 1045 am. Wasn’t able to eat breakfast so we end up buying some pretty expensive food and bottled water in the airport.
• Boarded around 1030 and then we’re off.
• Around noon, we landed in Taipei and layed over there for almost 4hrs. Then off to our flight back to Anchorage.

There you go. This is as far as I can recall everything.

I’m pretty sure you can guess how exhausted we were! Even just by re-reading this freakin entry makes me feel tired. But it’s all good. At least, I can honestly say that I did enjoy this trip.

Now I’m off to going back to a bunch of work. Till my next post…

Yeah! Yeah! I’m 20 days late saying goodbye to 2009 and greeting 2010 as I post this but hey, you were suppose to let me catch some sleep  remember? Just think as if it’s still Dec 31. Haha!

Basta, I’m declaring this entry as my official 1st post  for the year 2010 since the last one really don’t have anything in it. So to be fair and for the lost time, I’ll give you a rundown of our entire trip to the Philippines + Singapore. This will be easy since I got all our activities  on a calendar and most have been posted on Facebook. I didn’t want to screw this vacation by letting a day go by without doing anything fun so I had to make sure the calendar was filled.

Dec 20

• Landed in the Philippines around 10am. Boy! it was hot!  But it wasn’t as bad as last year. All of us were very excited since we missed Liam sooo much. And guess what that big boy did to Daddy as soon as he carried him — a straight slap in the face! Ouch! I remember, Gabie did the same thing to my Ninang when she was the same age. Haha!  I guess it runs in the blood.

• Went to eat lunch at Jollibee at the SLEX. Gusto sana namin sa Kenny Rogers kaya lang wala kaming makitang malapit. We’re all so tired  so we decided to just stop by at one of the gas station by the express way and ate at Jollibee. They have this new offering (ewan ko lang how new) the chicken BBQ. I got excited coz it looks yummy but was let down because it doesn’t taste that good. Dry! Boo!  And the java rice sux! Man.. I wish ordered Chicken Joy instead. After lunch, we went straight home and rested.

Dec 21

• Woke  up early to grab breakfast at McD’s. Peeps from the US might probably say, di na nagsawa sa McDo but were talking about Pinas here people. Totally different menu!  And somehow, even the taste is a bit different. So yeah, 6am and I ordered longganisa with fried rice. Ay grabe! It was heaven for me. Hubby did not order since he wanted to eat goto.
• Run some errands with my mother-in-law in preparation for Kuya Marvin and Ate Che’s wedding on the 26th. Had hubby’s barong made. I felt bad for Inay since up to the last minute, she was having issues with the dress the she was to wear. In the end, she had to find another seamstress to create a dress for her overnight.

Dec 22

• Tagaytay Day!  Hubby and I planned on going without the kids since we wanted to hit the casino . Unfortunately, we didn’t have any means of transportation. But when mom called and said that they were going because Ninang and Ninong wanted Gabie to ride a horse , we gladly went with them with Liam, of course. Weather was gloomy . As soon as we got there, we went straight to Josephine’s for lunch. Food was great!  I didn’t realize I missed a lot of Pinoy foods until I was there. And man, the puto bungbong and bibingka was to die for.

• As soon as we were done, slight shower of rain  started to fall. And then there was fog. Gabie was feeling a bit sad already since she won’t be able to horseback. Luckily, God must have heard her prayers (my daughter is really good at praying) and the fog and driplets of rain slowly went away. She get to ride the horse and eventually, Liam and I did too!
• Casino never happened. When you’re carpooling, you go where the driver and the owner of the car goes.  So yeah, after that we went home. Dayo lang ng pangangabayo! Ay ang pangit pakinggan! Hahaha. But it’s all good. At least I didn’t get to lose any money in gambling. Siguro sabi ni Lord, gamitin mo na lang sa iba ang pera mo.
• Had my favorite cake in the entire world, UBE  from Red Ribbon. I know, I’m cheap like that!

Dec 23

• Went to Taal to find Liam his barong for the wedding since it’s been apparent that the seamstress that was hired to do most of the entourage’s gowns and barongs failed to rise to the occasion.  I mean, gosh! Tatay’s barong was weird and he could not raise his arms without ripping that thing off, so he was bound to just let his arms dangle in his side . One of the flower girls’ dress still has a needle attached to it showing proof that it was not completely finished. And Inay… poor Inay. To think that she is the mother of the groom and she’ll look like somebody just murdered her dress.  And that is actually an understatement. Thankfully, as mentioned above, they found someone who created a new one from scratch and put all the little tiny beadings on it overnight.
• Not too sure if this was the day we went to attend a mass in memory of Padre Pio at one of the church in Lipa. Ate Maricel wanted to complete her novena so we went with her.

Dec 24

• Attended early Christmas mass at La Salle Sentrum with the entire Laroza family. Ay! minus Tatay pala. I think he was in San Jose during that time. Geez, I cannot remember. Maybe he was with us. Oh my I’m so bad. Anyway, saw some familiar faces and a few acquaintances.

• Christmas Eve!   But wait, earlier that day, I was scrambling to finish wrapping the presents that was supposed to be given out that night.  I told hubby that instead of giving out the pasalubongs to everybody as soon as we arrived, why not wrap it and then distribute them as soon as 12mindnight strikes. Tradition, right? Wrong. After eating dinner I was so tired. I went to take a little nap. I decided since we’re probably gonna be up till about 2am, I needed to rest. But when I woke up at about 11pm and noticed that most of the lights are turned off, I realized that the opening of gifts and Noche Buena will never happen. I was a bit disappointed.  I felt somebody just stole Christmas from me and it wasn’t the Grinch. I told hubby how come he didn’t tell me about it but he said that he mentioned it to me the last time (which he did… a year ago). And that’s why he wanted to celebrate New Year’s in Lipa is because they don’t do the normal Christmas eve celebration.
• But it’s all good! We laughed about it the following day. I guess I was just excited to see how different faces light up when they open up a present, specially my two kids. But don’t worry, Gabie get to open up some of her presents. Liam was asleep the entire time. He wouldn’t understand anyway.

Dec 25

• Christmas Day. Went to Tanauan to visit my side of the family for Christmas. My Ninang’s house was where my parents were staying. Gabie bounces between Tanauan and Lipa. They had presents for the kids too and so they were so excited opening it. Liam can’t decide which toy to play with first. Gabie’s present were mostly clothes. Some of it were supposed to be dresses but her ninongs didn’t think she was as tall as she is now so they passed for as tops. Haha! Boys.
• Went back to Lipa in the afternoon and slept the whole day. I guess when you become a grown up, Christmas becomes just a regular day.

Dec 26

• Kuya Marvin and Ate Che’s Wedding Day.  More pix on our respective facebook account.
• It was held at a church in San Jose. Officiated by a priest that was close to both of them. Gabie looked very pretty with her dress. Liam looked like a little congressman in the making. Inay’s gown delivered. For something done overnight, I think it came out pretty good.  Good enough to be noticed and praised by some of her friends and relatives.

• Reception was held at Bluroze Farm in Lipa. The venue was great. I’ve been to Bluroze a couple of times but I never knew that there was a place like that. Must have been done over the years I wasn’t there. Recent maybe? Maybe not.
• Hubby delivered the speech I made for him as the best man. Little kids danced to the tune of Noboby, Nobody.  Liam got all pumped up and didn’t want to leave the stage. Dad had to carry him out of the dance floor. Oh he was a scene stealer alright!
• All’s well that end’s well, they say. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Marvin and Richelle Laroza! I guess we we’ll be looking forward for a playmate for Gabie and Liam the next time we come home.

Ok. I have to stop here for now. This post is gearing up to be a long one so I have to do it in parts or else your eyes will be strained just like mines are right now.