Philippine Adventure: Guess Who's Back (For 5 Days)?? - Part One of Two

August 8 and 9, 2007

Manila, Philippines

Touched down at NAIA Terminal 1 at 4:00 am of 08 August, 2007. And what a welcome, thanks to Tropical Depression Chedeng. I had a complete welcoming committee of disasters - a wet and dirty luggage, heavy rains, the perrenial Metro Manila flood, and a sore throat.

So, am I really the solution to the drought that Luzon is experiencing that the heavy rains had to come during my very short home visit? Sheesh.

Eric: Where's our maleta???

This led to Day One spent just catching up on sleep. The highlight of the day should have been an Outback dinner with my Kumares. This we had to postpone because of the heavy rains. But no regrets, because the KFC Bucket Meal take out dinner surely brushed away the rainy cloud over my head. I missed (as in MISSED) KFC gravy. Hehehe... Walang ganyan sa Singapore!!! Hahaha... And now I am sure something tastes weird in Singapore KFC's coleslaw.

Day Two after the DepEd and CHED called off school on account of the day before's tropical depression was a little sunnier. DepEd and CHED's early cancellation of classes never fails to drive the tropical depressions in the Metro away. Hah! And so, Day Two was spent outside of the house.

I visited my Granma and saw my cousins. My Granma was surprised to see me, probably didn't expect I would make it home because of the grouchy weather. She even looked for "si ano... si ano...", which I interpreted as, "sino po... iyong boypren ko?" Hehehe... I love my Granma very, very much. I miss her cooking terribly, especially her famous bagoong. Just the thought of it makes me drool... *slurp*

My little cousin J.R. has grown so big already. Isn't she the cutest? Yes, J.R.'s a she. :D

For lunch, I took my Mama, bro, and Prince Cookie out to Outback Steakhouse in Glorietta 4. We ordered tons of food. Outback Steakhouse Kookabura Wings is still the best!!! Then it was time to shop - for myself and for my family. My sister joined us later in the afternoon as she had something important to do at school inspite of the classes being suspended. Good student, yes? Mana sa 大姐. Hihihi... Here's my sister's "snip snip" shot at Rustan's kitchen section. I got her a Zwilling J.A. Henckels 8" Chef's Knife. Expensive stuff.

Snip! Snip!

After several hours of "ransacking" the mall, I had to meet up with some colleagues from the ex-job for dinner. So, the mom and sibs had to go on their way home without me.

The dinner was set at 7:00 pm at Gerry's Grill in Glorietta. I was there on time, and no one was there to welcome me. Sniff. See, empty seats for 15 people.

To ease my lonesome circumstance, I asked for some green mango shake to share my terrible position. I am so excited for dinner. I can hardly imagine I survived 3 months without Crispy Pata, or Sizzling Sisig, or Green Mangoes and Bagoong.

Several minutes later, the guests came. Still, the 15 seats were not filled up. But I am happy to see everybody who came. I sure missed their company. And then it was dinner time. Burp busog!!! Thanks, Fred for the filling dinner. And also thanks go out to Stan for the nice bonding time at Max Brenner's Greenbelt.

Max Brenner's Alice Cup and Hug Mug

That wraps up Days One and Two of my homecoming. The rest of my homevisit escapades in the following posts. And more pictures, too. ;)