Vacation 2008 -1st week

July 17, Thursday

A time of firsts. It was our family's first international flight all together. It was our first time to experience Etihad airlines. It was our first time to see (albeit transitting only) Abu Dhabi. A few other firsts, not really worth mentioning here, but most important of all...this was our first vacation since we had all moved to Muscat. That was about a year ago. We all took the evening journey back to Manila arriving well into the afternoon the following day. The whole trip took about 11 hours. Etihad's second leg (Abu Dhabi to Manila for about 8 hours) was enjoyable if only for the personal entertainment system. Vivian slept throughout most of it but got to play some games and watched some shows. Myself and my wife watched as much of the movies we could cram into it.

The Pedro family was very kind enough to lend us their CRV during our entire stay and to top it all off, they arranged for us to get it right out of the plane...(strictly speaking, outside the airport). timing of timings though, the CRV was on its coding day. So from the airport, I risked getting a traffic ticket and moved to Duty Free (without incident). Aside from killing the time, we went around and bought some goodies for our friends and families and had our first dinner at... wait for it...Jollibee!! By this time, it was already raining quite hard… as in winds slamming rainfall all over the place.

Apart from the Pedro family, nobody knew we were coming home. We tried to surprise my sister at her place but no luck there. We went straight home to Marikina (happily surprising my mom and dad), unloaded our backbreaking luggages, unpacked (some of our gear) and settled in for our first night back. It was a good feeling to be back in our home.

July 18, Friday

After a good night's rest, a hearty breakfast, we quickly scooted off to David's in Eastwood where we gave ourselves our first treat of the trip (say that ten times real fast). We all got haircuts. I had myself my usual hot oil treatment and my wife refreshed her highlights. We then had our usual favorites in Phoa for lunch.

Expectedly, we visited our old office...Big Blue's third floor. Like an old haunt, hard to believe but I guess we really did miss the place. The place stayed the same (for the most part)...there were a LOT of new faces though. Amazing what a year of hiring can do...amazing how many people can resign in a year as well :0). In fact, a good friend of ours had just resigned and was having his despedida that very night. So then, off to another old haunt - Jack's Loft for the despedida, dinner and my first drinking spree for the trip. We got to see a lot of our old friends and colleagues (even x-IBMers) and met some new ones along the way. Reminded us how much we miss Friday nights in Manila…

July 19, Saturday

We were off to our second treat of the trip. We went to Serendra’s Nail Tropics with our friends. After our afternoon of pampering, went around Serendra and saw much of the development around the place.

Vivian met up with Katie, our ‘inaanak’ and spent some time playing around the area. We were all delighted to see the two playing around as if they kept in touch the entire time Vivian was in Muscat. Without skipping a beat, dispensing with any hi’s and hello’s, the moment they saw each other, they instantly cliqued and were inseparable. To think, a year ago, they didn’t really have that bond yet. I guess ClubG next-gen does have a chance. Katie’s dad (Viv says thanks!!) took them around Bonifacio High Street and bought them a pair of Havaianas each…take note: exactly the same design…a very sisterly act I suppose.

We met up with my parents and my sister at the Podium’s Banana Leaf for yet another heavy dinner.

July 20, Sunday

After Sunday Mass and our traditional Sunday breakfast, we had our first visit to the Dimalanta Makati homebase. We (again) surprised everyone and had an afternoon long exchange of stories and updates. Vivian got to see and play with some of her cousins and enjoyed the afternoon.

July 21, Monday

One purpose of our visit was to process several family documents. After our first very tiring day of going around Marikina and Makati we had dinner at Max's and had our favorites. Daddy and little girl even bought themselves a box of caramel bar to bring at home.

July 22, Tuesday

After touring the streets of Manila -- Carriedo, Sta.cruz and Quiapo -- for yet another day of To-Dos and chores, we went back to Makati and had a nice seafood dinner, Crabs in butter garlic sauce, at Glorietta’s Dampa.

July 23, Wednesday

After two days of processing papers here and there, we decided to relax a bit and watched the "Dark Knight". We decided not to bring the little girl as we figured it would be too 'dark' a movie for her to watch. True enough, it was. (coming soon - separate blog about the movie)