Happy New Year!!

Now where did I leave off the last time? Oh yes…that last post while typing in the car was full of spelling mistakes. LOL

28^th December 2007

We had organized to meet with Joseph’s half sister Ying & her family at the Golden Cowrie which is somewhere near the Waterfront Hotel. Of course, our driver had no idea where it was, so we stopped off at a nearby small hotel and the guard couldn’t help us so we went next door to the petrol station and Joseph spotted a westerner and got some directions from him. Yay! The Golden Cowrie is a fabulous native Filipino restaurant aimed at Westerners…you get to taste all the authentic native cuisine in western comfort. Very reasonably priced for the western pocket but could make some locals gasp and proclaim daylight robbery especially when they see that you are given banana leaves to use instead of real plates! Lunch was great and after that we took a few photos and then Ying’s husband went back to work and Ying and her daughter Dana came in the car with us and we went to Mambaling to get the keys to the family crypt in Pardo. Joseph’s father is buried there and it’s his first visit to the crypt so it was really a big deal. Joseph’s father wasn’t in his life much and as a result, Joseph hasn’t really known his father’s side of the family. So during this trip, being able to meet his half sister, and many other members of his extended family has been pretty special to him.

We’re at the Golden Cowrie restaurant early….so Joseph and I are pouring over the menu trying to pick out what we should order for lunch.

 

Photo of us taken with Joseph’s sister Ying Ying’s family.

Taken at Mambaling with some of Joseph’s Aunties.

 

When we drove Ying and Dana home, it was such a pleasant surprise to be given a bag of goodies. There was dried mango, dried squid, and heaps of fireworks. The boys were sooo excited and happy.

Then it was a quick stop at SM to get my linen. Decided to get a kingsize comforter set. KS comforter, fitted sheet and 2 pillow cases for 2400 pesos. Then it was off to Ayala shopping centre for a quick dinner at Jollibee (why jollibee? Because it was one of those days where we are just too tired to be making decisions about what to have for dinner and for 65 pesos where you get a drink, freshly cooked rice and piece of chicken….without any risk of belly trouble!) While waiting for the boys to order our dinner, I spotted some he-shes. He what??? He-She’s ….or what the locals call Bayots or Plastic Girls/Boys. LOL….cross dressers, transsexuals. There was a group of maybe 6 of them and 2 were actually very pretty. 2 were passable…but it was the other 2 that were obviously males that made me take another look at the whole group more closely to realize that they were all men. LOL. Shopping at Ayala was done very quickly. We all knew that it was going to be our last time shopping, so it was all done efficiently. Joseph bought a memory card for the camera and I got a pair of shorts for Joseph and 3 Hanes bras for myself.

29^th December

Joseph’s out today…..he’s off to Valencia with his Mum, Aunty and Cousin looking at some family land. So the boys and I decide to venture out. Ok….my first time going out without Joseph. LOL…yes it’s only taken me this long. It’s just not all that easy trying to learn everything. But anyways…today we decide to go to the local department store to check it out. We haven’t been before and it’s not very far away….so we take a chappycab there and it’s 28 pesos for the 4 of us…which is um…..20cents each!!! It’s just a small department store and I get a few laundry hangers and lingerie wash bags and a couple of bags of groceries. It was great to go out for a couple of hours.

Carcar’s local department store Gaisano. The yellow van is a jeepney…sort of a mini bus. Just behind it…you can just see a chappy cab. I took lots of photos of Carcar, but it seems that we have a damaged SD card…so hopefully one day…I will be able to retrieve those images to share.

 

The boys head to the internet café in the late afternoon and in the evening, Joseph and I realized that the boys didn’t bring a mobile phone with them, so we decided to go look for them. They were in the 2^nd internet café we went to, after which we went to visit the Noel family and before we knew what was happening, the karaoke microphone was out and Joseph was singing. LOL!! It was fun! EmmyLou took me to see the piglets…sooo cute and the sow is HUGE!! Then later on, the decided to come home with us…we walked home and they stayed for over an hour so it was really late by the time we went to bed.

30^th December

Joseph’s sick today. High fever and aches and pains…so he stays home all day today sleeping and when he’s not sleeping, he’s sending text messages on his phone. He’s very busy with sms messages with family members here in the Philippines. He got a local sim card not long after he arrived and gets tons of free sms messages included…so like everyone here in the Philippines….he is nearly always sending sms messages. After breakfast, I go out with Jeromel to pick up our laundry from the Laundromat. 11kgs of laundry for 330pesos - A$9….neatly folded. I send large pieces of laundry to the Laundromat and just have the maid do the smaller and more delicate pieces by hand. We all do our own underwear and socks. After lunch, I head out with the boys to the internet café to book our accommodation in Hawaii.

31^st December

New Years Eve….it’s a bit worrying today because Joseph is still pretty sick. He’s been in bed with the fever and doesn’t seem very well at all and is very lethargic. He’s still pretty insistent on having a get together with some friends this evening before we visit a few family members for the midnight celebrations.

Jarryd goes out with his grandmother into the city to do some shopping. After an early morning meeting with some relatives, Joseph heads back to bed and I go out with Jordan and Jeromel to get some antibiotics and check emails.

Hehehe….Jeromel having crazy hair day….he was bored and was playing with the pegs. So cute!

Ok…here are two unusual fruits which I tried for the first time in the last few days:

Makupa – ever since we arrived, Joseph spotted that the neighbour had a fruiting Makupa tree and every few days he would look to see if they were ripe yet. The maid must have heard him talking about wanting me to try the Makupa because she came home from the market bearing half a dozen of these for me to try.   They were ok…a bit tart…apparently they should be sweeter if they had ripened a bit more on the tree. 

This is a Tiesa or Canistel.  I saw these in the fruit stalls in Mambaling and was sooo attracted to the beauty of it.  It looked sooo beautiful I asked Joseph to buy two for me.  He warned me that I might not like them….that they were dry and powdery inside.  He didn’t like them..and didn’t know anyone who did.  When I brought them home, the maid screwed up her face at them….Joseph’s cousin said they were yuck as well.  Luckily I was told to wait until they were slightly soft before trying them.  With all those warnings….I wasn’t in a mad rush to eat them…so I waited…until one day….I found that one of them had cracked!  So I pulled it in half and I sniffed…smelled good…poked the flesh with my finger…tasted it and it tasted pretty good….unusual taste…but it certainly wasn’t yuck.  Got a spoon and ….fell in love with this fruit! 

I remember telling you all about being able to buy things in small quantities in the Philippines…sachets of toothpaste, shampoo, mini deodorant sticks, a stick of cigarette or even a piece of gum…..you can also buy medication in small quantities. How small?? You can buy one tablet of most things here. Panadols, antibiotics, calcium tablets, vitamins….you can buy these in single doses at pharmacies. It made my head spin!! Panadols are about 6 pesos each. The antibiotics that I bought were just regular broad spectrum amoxicillin ….I decided to buy two courses of this antibiotic as I am also starting to show signs of getting sick. And I also buy a child’s course of antibiotic syrup as well just in case Jeromel gets sick. The pharmacist is quite stunned that I want full courses of the antibiotics and of course there is no discount for buying it by the course….even the packs that the pharmacy gets supplied in is in in bulk packs of blister sleeves. Two full courses is 42 tablets and there are ten caplets per blister sleeve….so I get 4 full sleeves and then she cuts two from another blister sleeve to make the 42 caplets. Jeromel’s antibiotic is even more interesting. It comes in the dry powder form in a bottle which I have to mix up with water to activate it. In Australia, the pharmacy would mix it up when you hand in your script. In the Philippines, you can mix it up when you want or they can do it for you…..you have the option. Anyways, 3 course of antibiotics, 10 tablets of Advil, 2 small packs of Strepsils set me back 490 pesos which is oh A$14!!

Joseph organized for the maid to buy some food just in case his friends came around, but unfortunately, no one was able to come, so we enjoyed the food for dinner. Then my husband found some dvds in his stash…and we watched Michael Buble and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Royal Albert Hall concert before heading out around 9pm to visit the Manlise family. The party was in full swing there with a videoke, desserts, party games etc Joseph and the boys got into the fireworks….omg ….it was soo noisy and when we were leaving, the boys got given another big bag of fireworks!! By now we’re lugging around 3 bags of fireworks!!! And it’s not even midnight and they’ve already used up quite a bit!!!

Around 10.30pm, we get to Ivy and Colen’s place and it seems very apparent that the whole street is into fireworks. All around, I can hear fireworks…..it’s like I can hear money exploding!! LOL Illness forgotten, Joseph and the boys launch into detonating their precious arsenal of fireworks. They pause for a break about half an hour before midnight then launched into full swing again. I am quite sane tonight because after my experience through Christmas, I have remembered to bring ear plugs. They are my sanity saver!!! Ivy and Colen have prepared such a feast for us to have after midnight….it is the first meal of the new year and it was fabulous of them to invite us for it. They had lechon kawali (deep fried crunchy pork belly), spaghetti, pork ribs, chicken macaroni salad, buko salad (young coconut), fresh bread, suman (sweet glutinous rice), shrimps and lots more. It poured while we were eating then, it was more fireworks again until it was raining so heavily they were using umbrellas to light fireworks…so we came home and all hopped in the shower. By the time we had finished showering, I started packing and then the boys realized it had stopped raining, so they were outside again playing with the last of their fireworks till about 4am!!! It was a great start to the new year….noisy but fun!!!