July 24, Thursday
Another coding Thursday, we went to the Loyola Cemetery to pay our friend Leslie and our other relatives, who have passed on, a visit. Left fresh flowers and gave a solemn prayer.
We had lunch at a nearby mall, Robinsons Metro East. Our tummies were craving for siopao and, of course, we matched it with wonton noodle soup and congee and additional siopao’s to go for each of us. We then had our third treat of the trip. There was a gamut of wellness clinics at the East’s third floor so we decided to try one of them for a simple facial. This is not one of my more favorite pastimes as it entails me enduring that dreaded derma spoon thingamajig on my nose for half an hour…yeah yeah, I know what a wimp! Either that or, ‘How vain?!’ HAHA! The wife enjoyed herself…at least one of us did.
July 25, Friday
Friday morning was tense for us – let’s just say I’ve officially taken a stand and, after accomplishing our gargantuan hurdle of a To-Do, kicked-off our boots and relaxed.
Today was the day we really started meeting up with long time friends. W
e had our dinner in TGIF’s - for ol' time’s sake (deeply rooted in ClubG history) – although it wasn’t the usual Glorietta branch but it was just the same. It was a nice long dinner with a lot of catching up, lots of reminiscing and jokes flying around over quite a number of bottles of beer. Good to see and hear that not much has changed…good friends still stay good friends. We’ve all gone our separate ways (mostly in terms of careers away from BigBlue)…and some of us have even changed country codes…impressively (thanks much to technology), we’ve kept our comms open (some more than others but what the he**, we know they’re still around).
July 26, Saturday
After some furious plunging with a drain rod at our home’s grease trap system, we quickly cleaned-up and attended the 5th birthday party of our goddaughter-inaanak, Katie!! It was a swimming party which was absolutely a fun moment for our little girl and all the other kids. Although the rains were a bit harsh that afternoon, it mellowed down after some time and gave the kids sufficient time to enjoy the kiddie pool. The food, which I believe the adults enjoyed more than the kids, was great… we couldn’t get enough of the spaghetti!!
July 27, Sunday
Today was Lola Bubbles 77th birthday celebration in the Makati house. As typical parties go in this house, it’s characterized by lots of people, lots of food and lots of drinks.
The people – from the ten Dimalanta siblings who were present, plus their spouses and their kids (up to the 4th generation) that could only mean never ending chit chat in the usual spots – dining area, exchanging stories over seemingly bottomless food or over drinks by the door or kids non-stop playing upstairs and watching the usual Sunday noontime and afternoon programs of the kapuso’s or the kapamilya’s in the sala.
The food – primarily because of the volume of the brood, eating is executed by batches usually dictated by sequence of arrival. This is then characterized by non-stop cooking and never ending eating since by the time the last batch have had their turn at the meal, the first batch would’ve started yearning for the next course of the afternoon.. so naturally, one would witness the overlapping of meals in this house plus the hordes of ‘take home’ after the celebration.
The drinks – after the hearty meal(s), the adult males usually setup camp along the outer hallway and start guzzling down either the house wines or San Mig’s light. The dudes kwentuhan usually revolve around current events, politics, traffic…this time there were stories about OFW life/middle east pinoy stories (one of the brood has spent some years in Jeddah as well).
Occasions like these are the highlights of our trip home. These are the MEMORIES that last particularly being TOGETHER with FAMILY, and celebrating traditions like these.
July 28, Monday
Thinking of the future on yet another rainy day… We decided to meet our insurance agent and got my wife some. One can’t find too many things to invest in these days, what with everything being too volatile, this and that, yada-yada. It was difficult to pick from the options but we eventually settle on a product. We then had dinner and spent most of the night in Serendra with Nana Kakay and Tita Karen. The little girl met her new friend "Pepper" that night.
July 29, Tuesday
This day was the death anniversary of Thess' father, Lolo Bubbles. We picked up Lola Bubbles and Kuya Alex in Makati and met up with Butch and Rose at Manila Memorial Park. We visited Lolo Bubbles and Tito Romeo's (Thess’ brother) graves, offered flowers and a short prayer. Had another (mini) celebration lunch back in the Makati house. That day was the actual birth date of Lola Bubbles.
That afternoon we ran some more errands - laundry, photocopy and the like. We then ate in pancake with our favorite pan chicken and the wife's fave, rootbeer float.
Note: Just felt there was a need to explain the Bubbles references…it was coined when Vivian was still quite young and going to the Makati house meant getting to blow bubbles, what with the bottomless bubble jars that were at her disposal. Somebody called out ‘Lola Bubbles’ and it just stuck since then. By affinity, Lolo Bubbles was also christened.
July 30, Wednesday
Because we were amazed at the instant closeness of Katie and Vivian (not to mention that Thess and Elaine wanted some more chat time), we decided to schedule a playtime for the two at their house in Better Living. We had a local delight bananaque which we gorged down without pause until there was nothing left – no kidding. We took the house tour and as expected, Katie and Vivian blew thru the house (and the tons of toys) like a storm. After another filling meal, the two girls parted ways (grudgingly) and we went home. This would be their last playtime until the next vacation. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before these two see each other again.
Another coding Thursday, we went to the Loyola Cemetery to pay our friend Leslie and our other relatives, who have passed on, a visit. Left fresh flowers and gave a solemn prayer.
We had lunch at a nearby mall, Robinsons Metro East. Our tummies were craving for siopao and, of course, we matched it with wonton noodle soup and congee and additional siopao’s to go for each of us. We then had our third treat of the trip. There was a gamut of wellness clinics at the East’s third floor so we decided to try one of them for a simple facial. This is not one of my more favorite pastimes as it entails me enduring that dreaded derma spoon thingamajig on my nose for half an hour…yeah yeah, I know what a wimp! Either that or, ‘How vain?!’ HAHA! The wife enjoyed herself…at least one of us did.
July 25, Friday
Friday morning was tense for us – let’s just say I’ve officially taken a stand and, after accomplishing our gargantuan hurdle of a To-Do, kicked-off our boots and relaxed.
Today was the day we really started meeting up with long time friends. W
e had our dinner in TGIF’s - for ol' time’s sake (deeply rooted in ClubG history) – although it wasn’t the usual Glorietta branch but it was just the same. It was a nice long dinner with a lot of catching up, lots of reminiscing and jokes flying around over quite a number of bottles of beer. Good to see and hear that not much has changed…good friends still stay good friends. We’ve all gone our separate ways (mostly in terms of careers away from BigBlue)…and some of us have even changed country codes…impressively (thanks much to technology), we’ve kept our comms open (some more than others but what the he**, we know they’re still around).July 26, Saturday
After some furious plunging with a drain rod at our home’s grease trap system, we quickly cleaned-up and attended the 5th birthday party of our goddaughter-inaanak, Katie!! It was a swimming party which was absolutely a fun moment for our little girl and all the other kids. Although the rains were a bit harsh that afternoon, it mellowed down after some time and gave the kids sufficient time to enjoy the kiddie pool. The food, which I believe the adults enjoyed more than the kids, was great… we couldn’t get enough of the spaghetti!!July 27, Sunday
Today was Lola Bubbles 77th birthday celebration in the Makati house. As typical parties go in this house, it’s characterized by lots of people, lots of food and lots of drinks.The people – from the ten Dimalanta siblings who were present, plus their spouses and their kids (up to the 4th generation) that could only mean never ending chit chat in the usual spots – dining area, exchanging stories over seemingly bottomless food or over drinks by the door or kids non-stop playing upstairs and watching the usual Sunday noontime and afternoon programs of the kapuso’s or the kapamilya’s in the sala.
The food – primarily because of the volume of the brood, eating is executed by batches usually dictated by sequence of arrival. This is then characterized by non-stop cooking and never ending eating since by the time the last batch have had their turn at the meal, the first batch would’ve started yearning for the next course of the afternoon.. so naturally, one would witness the overlapping of meals in this house plus the hordes of ‘take home’ after the celebration.
The drinks – after the hearty meal(s), the adult males usually setup camp along the outer hallway and start guzzling down either the house wines or San Mig’s light. The dudes kwentuhan usually revolve around current events, politics, traffic…this time there were stories about OFW life/middle east pinoy stories (one of the brood has spent some years in Jeddah as well).
Occasions like these are the highlights of our trip home. These are the MEMORIES that last particularly being TOGETHER with FAMILY, and celebrating traditions like these.
July 28, Monday
Thinking of the future on yet another rainy day… We decided to meet our insurance agent and got my wife some. One can’t find too many things to invest in these days, what with everything being too volatile, this and that, yada-yada. It was difficult to pick from the options but we eventually settle on a product. We then had dinner and spent most of the night in Serendra with Nana Kakay and Tita Karen. The little girl met her new friend "Pepper" that night.July 29, Tuesday
This day was the death anniversary of Thess' father, Lolo Bubbles. We picked up Lola Bubbles and Kuya Alex in Makati and met up with Butch and Rose at Manila Memorial Park. We visited Lolo Bubbles and Tito Romeo's (Thess’ brother) graves, offered flowers and a short prayer. Had another (mini) celebration lunch back in the Makati house. That day was the actual birth date of Lola Bubbles.That afternoon we ran some more errands - laundry, photocopy and the like. We then ate in pancake with our favorite pan chicken and the wife's fave, rootbeer float.
Note: Just felt there was a need to explain the Bubbles references…it was coined when Vivian was still quite young and going to the Makati house meant getting to blow bubbles, what with the bottomless bubble jars that were at her disposal. Somebody called out ‘Lola Bubbles’ and it just stuck since then. By affinity, Lolo Bubbles was also christened.
July 30, Wednesday
Because we were amazed at the instant closeness of Katie and Vivian (not to mention that Thess and Elaine wanted some more chat time), we decided to schedule a playtime for the two at their house in Better Living. We had a local delight bananaque which we gorged down without pause until there was nothing left – no kidding. We took the house tour and as expected, Katie and Vivian blew thru the house (and the tons of toys) like a storm. After another filling meal, the two girls parted ways (grudgingly) and we went home. This would be their last playtime until the next vacation. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before these two see each other again.
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