Philippines, My Philippines part 3

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Schenker woke up asking to go to his Gymboree class. Hmmm… Last night when I put him to sleep, he was asking for his friends Joshua and Janke. I told him they’re very far from us now. He said, we go by car, Mommy. I told him we don’t have a car here. He said okay. We got up. I changed his nappy coz it leaked. Then I went to the bathroom. He wanted to go to the bathroom with me and when I said no, he cried. He then started asking for his daddy. Uh-oh! I quickly came out of the bathroom. And he told me he wanted to see his house, wanted to go to the office, wanted to see his daddy, and so on… What to do? We’re not going home till next month… or so.

His daddy is still in Phuket, Thailand and he’s only going back to Malaysia on the 2^nd of October. After that, on the 5^th, he’s going to Brunei. So there’s no way for him to come and “collect” us. I put Barney on TV and he got quiet after that.

Good thing we’re in his grannies’ place. He loves it here. He loves to “sing” on the mic. He plays basketball at the backyard. His Lolo put up a basketball ring at the back of our house. He goes “fishing” at the pond (we have a small pond too). Although he’s a bit anxious coz the “fish might bite him.” That was cute of him but I get worried coz he’s scared even though it’s just a fish. And he’s scared of the chicken also! L

We came back from our neighbor’s house last week. I went inside the house thinking he was behind me. The moment I entered the house, I heared a loud scared scream. I realized it’s from my boy, looking at the chicken at the door. Hahaha! Can you believe he’s also scared of the broiler chicken? So I thought of looking up into the internet again for toddlers and their fears. I guess this is just normal.

Coming here is a very good exposure for him. He’s in a different environment…has different interaction with people… and different routine. Yes, he sleeps early like 8:30pm and wakes up at 7:00am the next day. It’s a good preparation also coz when we go back to Malaysia, he’ll start going to school already. J

Samantha, on the other hand is doing very well. She’s still too young to notice the changes I guess. Or probably she has noticed the changes but she’s taking it well. Babies can be very flexible. Adjustments are not so difficult. Oh yeah, she also tries to stand up on her own, from sitting position without holding on to any thing. She stands up, dances, claps her hands at the same time!

Lolo and Lola are very happy now also coz Schenker goes to them already, kisses them, asks them to carry him, and stuff like that. J Today, we’re having puso ng saging salad (banana blossom salad) with coconut milk. I’m really into food trip now, disobeying my hubby. Hehehe. He told me not to eat too much otherwise, I’ll gain weight again. Once I do, I always complain and I bug him too much about my weight. In other words, he gets the blame. Hahaha! So he told me kindly to not eat too much please. (Sigh). I’m missing him heaps. But I’m also enjoying my stay here. I’m getting all the rest I’ve been craving.

Philippines, My Philippines part 2

Friday, September 21, 2007, 11:26

Peter has left. Schenker has stopped saying he wanna go home to his house. Now he wanna go to the other house: his lolo and lola’s house. He has discovered his love for “singing” there. Granny’s house has videoke and he just loves it! Everytime we’re in our pad, he would ask to go to the other house. The first few days here was spent resting, having a massage, facial, footspa… really felt awesome. The massage they used was a combination of Thai, Shiat Su and Swedish massages. It was great, considering how much we paid for it. Can you imagine having a massage like that for RM10? Foot spa for RM15? Facial for RM10? Okay… the last one was just an okay facial. Nothing special. Just a regular facial cleansing. My facial is more special… but it was still good.

Ooppss and don’t forget the food trip! We went to Weegol’s grill house for dinner the day we arrived, had lechon baboy the next day. After that, my tummy felt a bit funny coz I only ate the crispy lechon skin and fats! Yaiikkss… At least it has satisfied my craving for lechon. Mom made buko salad too. Hers is really the best! Won’t share the recipe. Hehehe. But if you ask me, I’d be forced to give. Hahaha!!! Actually, after the lechon, I didn’t feel like eating anything. Didn’t eat much until yesterday, after we sent Peter to Butuan Airport, I took my parents to Pizza Hut. That was the only fast food shop we saw that accepted credit card. I wanted to go to Jollibee… but they didn’t accept cc.

Now is the contacting of friends time. Grace will come here on Monday. She’s taking leave from work it seems. Nora will come visit some time next week too. Lot just dropped by to visit with her daughter and hubby. I almost forgot… Ptr Reggie and Ate Beth came by on Monday morning… while our pad was still chaos and we just woke up. I was a bit embarrassed but Mom had to remind me where in the Philippines and it’s very common here. Good reminder!

Oh yeah, Mom and Dad are not feeling well tonight. So I’m taking care of two kids plus two sick grown ups. Where is the rest time I was longing to have? But of course… I am not complaining. This is a chance where I could take care of my parents. When I leave, I wouldn’t know when I’m seeing them again. So I am taking this opportunity to take care of them. It’s 11:55. Have to go to sleep. I’m sure we’ll wake up early tomorrow. Mom woke us up (unintentionally coz she was washing her dishes she used for her breakfast) today at 7:30am!

Will write more updates when I have time to do so. Good night!

Philippines, My Philippines part 1

2 hours before we’re supposed to leave for the airport: we were all packed and ready to go. Suddenly my boy started vomiting. We just let it pass coz I saw no other reason why he should vomit. 2 hours later: he vomited 4 times already. Samantha woke up, and suddenly she also vomited. So on the way to the airport, we decided to go to a children’s clinic to get them checked up. It’s better to be assured than travel without knowing what to do. The doctor gave Samantha suppository (for wind) and one for the boy, but instructed me to insert it just before we board the plane. We gave both of them medicine. Samantha took it but she screamed. Schenker boy hated it and vomited again! Of all the days to get sick, why, oh why did it happen this day when we’re ready to travel?
We reached the airport, checked in the luggage, went through the immigration, and waited for the boarding time. The boy vomited again. Gosh! What was happening! I really prayed hard… Pls Lord, let him stop vomiting. I went to the ladies and inserted the thing. Good thing he took it well. Samantha fell asleep. The boy did too. Thank God! Both of them were asleep!
We boarded the plane, got into our seats (CP has assigned seats by the way) and started to fly. Another thing to thank God: Both of them slept thru the flight! We reached Manila at 5:30 on Sunday morning. Our flight was the only flight that arrived that time, so passing thru immigration was not a hassle at all. I was actually anxious coz the last time we passed the immigration department, there was like 1,000 flights that came and the queue was very long. So I was already preparing myself for it. Then I realized no need to worry coz we were the only ones lining up the queue! Phew!
My sister came with CRV, borrowed from her boss. Took us out of the NAIA and looked for a place to have breakfast. The first place we spotted that was open was McDonald’s so we had McDo for breakfast. Our next flight was only at 11:00am so we had two hours to spare after breakfast so we decided to look for another place where we could hang around while waiting for the time. We spotted Starbucks at Blue Wave. That was really cool. We spent our two hours of wait there.
We drove to the Domestic Terminal. After we checked in, Peter saw a sign that said: Children’s Lounge! We looked for it and it was just next to the boarding room. Peter took the boy inside. It was really cool coz there lot of toys for children to play with. I and Samantha stayed at the waiting area coz our hand carry bags were not allowed inside the Kiddie Lounge. She vomited again. But she was okay after that. There were three Korean ladies that were waiting for their flight to Boracay and they had fun taking pix of Samantha. One of them asked me whether she could take photo of her and Samantha. I said yes, But of course, my eyes were watching like a hawk! We never know what stranger could do, right? But they looked nice. So it was okay.
We reached our final destination at 1:15pm and my parents were already waiting for us outside the terminal. I went to the door and waved at them. They looked at me but never recognized me! What happened to them? I guess it took them 15 minutes to recognize me. They said they saw me waving but they thought I was a different person and was waving at somebody behind them! It was really funny. I looked too beautiful they couldn’t recognize me, that’s what they said! Or maybe, they just didn’t wanna admit they’re getting too old already! Hahaha!. Anyways, after we reached our home, Schenker boy said. “I wanna go to the Philippines.” We were all laughing at him. We told him we were already here!
All in all, I was grateful to God for the smooth and safe trip.

for previous trips we had, see also:

• elephant ride in thailand
• mahkota parade, melacca
• avillion, port dickson
• philippine trip
• phuket
• genting highlands
• kuantan visitdamai laut visit
• singapore visit

Cities I've Visited

I got this fun application from tripodvisor. it's fun to know which cities i have traveled so far. i was surprised i traveled thailand and malaysia more than i traveled the philippines. it's okay though...

here it is: cities i've visited. (88 cities in 5 countries)

1. Genting Highlands, Malaysia


2. Bukit Fraser, Malaysia


3. Kuching, Malaysia


4. Lumut, Malaysia


5. Ringlet, Malaysia


6. Bali, Indonesia


7. Baguio, Philippines


8. Subang Jaya, Malaysia


9. Sentosa Island, Singapore


10. Chiang Mai, Thailand


11. Hat Yai, Thailand


12. Ko Phi Phi Le, Thailand


13. Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand


14. Phuket, Thailand


15. Batu Ferringhi, Malaysia


16. Cyberjaya, Malaysia


17. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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the favorite destinations i chose had a special memory for me and my family. each of its own.