Blissful Ending To 2009

Contrary to previous years where I put much effort to making Christmas and New Year celebrations very grandiose and party-filled, I spent 2009’s yuletide season in a rather simpler way that just involves the people I value most – and I’m so glad I did as I was able to spend the last 11 days of the year with pure bliss.

First and foremost, being able to spend more quality time with family that I don’t get to do on a daily basis now was such a great present.  What made it more jovial is the new addition to us four, my sister-in-law and my extremely adorable nephew.  My family Christmas and New Year dinners had more pizzazz as the new dimension of now having six members indeed brought more laughter and closeness.  Some notable events and stuff were: (1) taking our new baby boy to the mall, (2) enjoying a new and bigger ride, i.e. my gift for the family – Starex van, (3) dinner at Kusina Salud, (4) post-Christmas lunch with extended family.

Secondly, vacation in the Philippines will not be complete without re-connecting with friends.  I spent a couple of days with my bestest college friends via a culinary tour in Tagaytay (Antonio’s, Bag of Beans, Leslie’s) and enjoyed some more food and booze at The Fort (Café Juanita, Establishment, Barcino).  Also met up with friends from previous work at Monde and Jollibee – simple dinner and rounds of booze (Abe, Sentro, plus two other places in High Street that I failed to remember the names of – one is the resto owned by Del Monte which is beside TGIF and the other is a Mexican spot near Nike) filled with stories and laughter made such immense difference.

easter holiday sa pinas

the minute i found out that the easter weekend will also be a long weekend here in jakarta – thanks to their party elections that coincides with holy thrusday and their paying respect to christianism that makes good friday a holiday, i immediately made a booking to go back home in the philippines.  my luck even hit the skies when our managing director allowed me to extend my vacay at home until wednesday the following – giving me an opportunity to rejuvenate and catch up with relaxation after months of stress and pressure due to endless demands from work.  

over-all, it was a vacation very well-spent.  the moment i arrived in manila’s terminal 3 airport that holy thursday (yup, i used cebu pacific budget flight again), we didn’t waste any time and immediately hie-off to doing our annual family visita iglesia.  contrary to the usual churches that we go to around laguna and batangas, we decided to do it around manila.  after finishing the 14 stations, i just realized that little do i know about churches in manila – i was just accustomed to attending masses in the makati area, but there are still a whole lot more that manila churches can offer!  these churches gave me such lasting impression – san agustin church, manila cathedral and baclaran.

 

the new church in front of naia 3

 

baclaran church ritual

 

glorious san agustin

 

manila cathedral facade

 

manila cathedral bell tower

 

quaint san sebastian

 

3 generations of sampaguita vendors in sto. domingo church

another notable time is spending lunch with my brother and sis-in-law.  we are all excited about my soon-to-be-born nephew, a little less than two months from now and i will be a full-fledged first degree uncle.  just yesterday, my bro texted me the final name that they have chosen for the baby – knives acid river m. alcantara.  i would have to say that it’s pretty unique and sums up to an interesting set of initials.  knowing his non-mainstream taste, he would really opt for this as opposed to the current trendy names like miguel, joaquin, luis and mateo or the combination of his and his wife’s initials like vince sebastian or vincent simon.  on the nickname, he says that i would be ”buchukoy” but i also suggested ”riv” (from river) or ”cid” (from acid).  let’s see what the final name and nick would be come end-june or early-july.  

saturday to monday was spent with my favorite people.  same with how we spent the last year’s holy week, we all went to tagaytay just to have an early dinner and share our most recent life stories with coffee and dessert on the side.  the day after, its again dinner and after is a long ktv session.  it’s been months since i did karaoke, and i missed it too, so what better way to end my vacation with this fun groupie but to sing our hearts out in the usual ktv place that we frequent along jupiter street.  so, who says that finding ways to cope with ”homesick” is hard?  :)                    

 

 

will always have to take its shot!

 

 

with aids and cris @ josephine, tagaytay

 

one of the many reasons why i keep on coming back home...

 

cris, nons, aids and moi on an early "black saturday" dinner

 

aint tired of the volcano view...

 

 

BFFs reunited!

 

 

 

first time sa A-Venue, second time mag San Miguel Premium Beer - sarap!

 

 

 

360 - sa labas lang!

 

 

syempre di pedeng mawala ang videoke sa agenda

 

 

just before the concert starts!