Home Sweet Home

After 27 hours of travelling, counting the 3 hours in the airport prior to our first flight as well as the car rides to and from the airport, we finally arrived home.  The kids insisted on a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's, though, so didn't even spend their first night in Canada in their own beds.  Since they apparently woke up at 3 a.m., I can't say I am too sad about that.  As for me, I'm not sure whether it's 6:30 p.m. or 6:30 a.m., if I should be getting up or heading to bed.  I'm exhausted to the point of nausea and hoping that an early night tonight will allow me to get back on track before I head back to work tomorrow.  I thought  another post about the trip, the travels home, photos and stories I neglected to share earlier was in order, however.  As the kids finish up their scrapbooks and discuss their favourite memories of the trip and how our 2 countries are different, there may be other stories worth sharing in a final post.  We'll have to wait and see.

Picture this - it is hour 18 in the airplane, 23 hours after waking up to start the day's travels.  The plane has landed in Toronto; it is 5:15 p.m., we're sitting towards the back of the plane and know we have to disembark, walk what will seem like miles through the airport terminal to clear immigration, pick up our suitcases, walk out of the customs area, put the luggage back on the belt and head towards the gate for our next, and final, flight home which is scheduled to board at 6:05.  Robert and I are carrying 3 backpacks, 2 rolling carry-on suitcases, a large shoulder bag, 2 small purse-like bags and a shopping bag while trying to keep track of the children too.  Finally, people are moving off the plane and Robert begins down the aisle.  Danica, our sweet, angelic-looking daughter, decides to do a starfish like move in the aisle with her feet and hands each planted on opposite seats, refusing to move and follow Robert.  I try to push, prod, encourage her with my nice, calm, Mommy voice which understands that she is just tired while my tired, stressed, frustrated voice in my head has other ideas as it gets more and more embarrassed at the fact that not only are we not going anywhere but neither are the people behind us on the plane.  So with full arms, I have to pick her up around her waist and try to carry her down the aisle too, just hoping that Duncan follows behind.

Other than that little episode, however, the trip home was fairly uneventful.  Danica actually slept most of the time though did struggle with her right ear hurting her during take-off and landing.  The flight attendant on our final flight was spectacular, though, and was able to convince her to plug her nose and blow out her ears and drink some water to encourage swallowing to help her.  Robert and I had been telling her that all along but what do parents really know?  On the way off the plane, the flight attendant then invited the kids into the cockpit to meet the pilots and see all the instruments.  I wonder if flight attendants know how they can totally make or break a flight, particularly when you are flying with young kids.  The ones on the other flights were okay but this one was awesome.

I think I forgot to mention in the last post about the unplanned visit to the park about my little crisis moment.  Robert and Duncan had just returned from the washroom when Danica decided she had to go.  Robert went off with her and then Duncan was just wandering a little on the path behind our table.  He'd asked where they went and I told him but I didn't notice that he then followed them.  A couple of minutes later, I realized he wasn't with the other kids and asked where Duncan was and no one knew.  Robert often tells us of how he was nearly kidnapped as a child but his uncle intervened and saved him and is also frequently telling us that kids get kidnapped from parks and such in the Philippines a lot, particularly those with lighter skin, and sold on the black market.  Needless to say, this is running through my mind as I try not to panic while Robert's sisters attempt to call his cell phone to see if Duncan is with him after all.  Thankfully he was but let me tell you that those 2 minutes until I laid eyes on him again were possibly the longest of my life and as soon as I saw him, I began to bawl my eyes out.

 Duncan and Danica on the "Adult playground" equipment

 Robert doing his workout

 Manilyne, Robert, Chessie, Aira, Duncan and Danica at the Quezon tower

 Walking a wheelchair-bound elderly lady barefoot on a rock walkway

(I'm guessing it's therapeutic as others were doing the same but I didn't try it)

 Aira, Chessie, Danica and Duncan

 Duncan and Chessie

 Danica trying hard to smile naturally for the camera

 Chessie and Danica

 Duncan's the ice cream man

 Me eating an ice cream sandwich (literally) with my soya drink on the table

My Disco moves at the park's "Disco Area"

While at the F1 Hotel, I overheard Danica talking to Duncan about the chapter book the hotel had on the bedside table.  Duncan was explaining to her that it was the Holy Bible and all the stories were about Jesus.  Later, Danica brought me the book and said, "Mommy - here is a chapter book for you.  It's all about Jesus - have you read it yet?"  She then told me that it would take me a long time to read because it was pretty long.

 Duncan at the F1 Hotel

 Duncan and Danica

 Our room - the bedroom

 Our room - the living room

The view from our room

 Rowena, Manilyne and Kent in one of the hotel's 3 pools

Rowena, Robert and Manilyne

 The 4 of us after dinner with Ninong Vic

Rowena, Vic, Robert, Pam, Manilyne

During this vacation, it has become rather apparent to me that my kids can fall asleep absolutely anywhere and in the most awkward positions...

 Danica on the plane

 Duncan on the floor

 Danica at Amana Waterpark

 Both kids on the way home from Bataan

Duncan in Tito Vher's arms in the mall

Other Random Pics

 Drying rice on the road

 Philippine pesos

 Duncan with one of his birthday gifts

 The family at the house after Duncan's Jollibee party

 One of Tita Celing's many geckos

 Robert and Tita Celing

 At Tita Celing's for dinner

 Halo-Halo (perhaps Robert's favourite Philippine treat)

 Singing karaoke

 Yes, that is a Hello Kitty motorbike

The airplane's shadow on landing

 Duncan and Danica on the mall "rides"

 Chessie and Aira

 Bonifacio High Street - Fort Bonifacio; Psy's "Gentleman" dance

 The Filipino flag in a maple leaf, flower and Pikachu pedicures

 Danica

 Krizia's 20th Birthday at The Pancake House

It was a very good trip but it is nice to be home too.  I am enjoying and appreciating all the comforts of home, such as my own bed, space and quiet, enough water pressure for a nice hot shower, toilets that flush consistently, dry washrooms, no ants.  I do miss the heat of the Philippines, however, as I'm finding Canada rather cool currently.  I also do miss some of the noise and chaos of all the children laughing and playing.  I wish the kids had longer to get to know Robert's family and to build a relationship with his parents and sisters like they have with my parents and brother.  Maybe we'll just have to Skype more often...Alternatively, we'll take a lottery win that allows us to travel back more frequently (and perhaps in First Class as those seats they make us walk past to get to the "no class" section as Robert refers to it look pretty sweet).

All Good Things Must Come to an End....

Getting up at the crack of dawn, and even earlier than the crack of dawn sometimes, has become a regular occurrence while in the Philippines.  The commute is quicker and cooler with earlier departures.  Yesterday morning was no exception though the rationale for the 5:30 a.m. departure was a little different.  You see, because of the insane number of vehicles traveling the roads at any given moment, cars in Manila are "coded".  On your "coded" day, their are rules about when you can and cannot travel in the city. Yesterday, Rowena's car was "coded" which wouldn't allow us to drive it in Manila after 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. but then only until 3 p.m.  So, we were all packed up and ready to leave Robert's parents' house in Malolos by 5:30 a.m.  Once again, we were loaded into 2 cars with all of our bags plus people in one and the "Manila Monday" bags in the other car with us.  The plan was to head into the city to the F1 Hotel where our Ninong Vic (one of the godparents in our wedding and the man who first hired Robert to work in the Shangri-La Hotel in spite of his lack of English skills) generously reserved us a couple of rooms and was treating Robert, the kids and I to dinner.  We figured that even though we'd be unlikely to check in at 7 a.m., we could likely leave our luggage and park the car and then tour around for the day.  As we approached Quezon City, however, we were forced to stop at a service station as there was a problem with Rowena's car.  Of course,  the mechanic didn't start until 7 a.m. so we left Robert's dad with the car and the rest of us piled into Vher's car and headed to the Quezon Memorial Circle, a lovely park, where we ate our breakfast.  It was fun to see the "aerobics" classes as well as the "gym equipment".  Danica actually commented, "Mommy, this is a playground for adults".  We took pictures which I will attach to a different post.

At 10 a.m. with the car all fixed and the "coding" period being over, Vher and Robert's dad returned to the park to pick us up and we headed into the city.  Upon arrival at the hotel, Robert was promptly allowed to check into some very lovely rooms.  We all went for a swim in the hotel's 3 pools before heading out for lunch.  The kids were quite excited to see the "rides" at the Market!Market! mall were actually driveable instead of the lame up and down rides in our malls.

Later, after a nap and a freshen up, we met Ninong Vic at the hotel's restaurant for dinner. We had a delicious meal, prepared by an old friend/colleague of Robert's who is the head chef, and a nice visit.  We realized it had been 8 years, at our wedding actually, that we last saw Vic as when we were in the Philippines 5 years ago, he was in Vancouver.

And bright and early this morning, we headed to the airport in the Philippines for a tearful goodbye with Robert's family.  I got about 15 hugs from Aira; it actually made Danica jealous and she began to block Aira's hugs.  We were slightly worried when the kids began fighting before we even departed Manila but the flight to Tokyo was fairly uneventful and now we wait to board the longest leg of the flight.  Duncan was excited to find some unique Pokemon items in the stores here at the airport though so is trying to decide what he wants to purchase for himself as well as his friend, Lucas, who has a birthday party a few days after we return home.

I'm hoping the person in front of me refrains from reclining his/her seat on this next leg as the leg room is limited enough without someone in my lap like it was most of the way between Manila and Tokyo....  Photos will follow in another post.  We will miss those of you we left this morning but are looking forward to seeing our friends and family back home too.  See you soon.....

Beach, Banka, Bataan

I have a theory - the smaller the people who live in a country, the larger the cockroaches.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of cockroaches in Canada either but the cockroaches in Asia are unbelievably huge - more like our Canadian mice.  I've seen 2 live ones and a dead one over the past couple of days and I've been rather proud of the way I've handled it; instead of screaming, jumping up, knocking over the table and smashing the ketchup bottle on the concrete culvert, I've calmly said, "Robert, there's a cockroach" and let my husband deal with it.

Bright and early on Friday morning, the entire Rivera clan (minus Irish and her husband in Dubai and Rowena's husband in Vietnam) piled into 2 vehicles and headed to Bataan for a short beach holiday.  We opted to stay at the Pawikan Conservation Center; the accommodations were basic but the ocean was awesome.  As well, the ladies there cooked all our meals and snacks, as per Robert's menu, and did all the dishes for $15.00 per day.  The Center was created by former sea turtle poachers who realized the effect the poaching was having on the area and the environment and decided to attempt to conserve the turtles through education.  Unfortunately we were there in the off season but during the proper months, you are able to join them as they collect the turtle eggs from the nests on the beach in order to protect them from poachers and stray dogs and actually help release the hatchlings back into the sea.  They had one hatchling currently who wasn't ready to be released into the sea as he was sick but we did have a chance to see him and hold him.  They also had 4 larger turtles there for education purposes.

 Duncan and Sam

 Danica

The Rivera Family

 Me with the hatchling

 Duncan with the hatchling

 Shine carrying the stuffed turtle

Turtle Kisses

We spent hours in the ocean, floating around and jumping the waves.  It was beautifully warm and very salty, much to the chagrin of the kids who kept getting mouthfuls of it.  Unfortunately, the sunscreen continued to not be strong enough for the Philippine sun on my skin; in spite of frequent reapplications, I resemble a lobster.

 Note Duncan's palm tree, complete with coconuts

 Playing in the ocean

And the waves hit

On Saturday, we also rented 2 bankas and rode to another beach which was picturesque but not good for swimming as it was quite rocky.  They then let us snorkle off the boat but I elected to stay in the banka with Danica and Chessie as I wasn't sure I was coordinated enough to get myself out of the water and back on the boat but didn't think they'd allow me to just hold on and drag me back.

 Danica and Duncan on the banka

 The other banka

 Family photo

 Robert and I

 Robert's parents and Aira

 Danica

 Duncan

 Duncan snorkeling

Duncan and Daddy trying to get back on the banka

On the way home, we stopped for fresh corn at a roadside stand and I figured out why Robert eats his corn on the cob in a circular fashion as opposed to typewriter style - it's because they serve corn in bags!  They also sold crabs on the roadside but we bypassed that stand.

It wouldn't be a family vacation if Vher didn't get stopped by the police on at least 1 outing, either, so the ride home was no exception.  You see, if you drive a utility vehicle, you need a special permit to take it outside of Manila unless you own it.  Vher does own his vehicle so he didn't need the special permit but the police just had to make sure.  

Finally, we stopped at a local restaurant where I tried salted duck egg (too salty for me) and Danica tried chicken intestines (I just couldn't do it).  The whole meal for the 19 of us, with extra rice (a common enough Filipino saying that it's on t-shirts!), cost $30!!!  I had to laugh when at the end of the meal, a white man came into the restaurant with his Filipino partner and went out of his way to say "hi" to me as if he knew me; Robert actually turned around to see who I knew in Malolos.  I guess it was just noticing the other foreigner in the very local establishment.

 Danica isn't so sure she likes the chicken intestines so she tries a 2nd bite.

My plate - pork bbq, grilled eggplant, salted duck egg

Today, we stopped by the church where Robert's mom sells flowers; Robert used to sell flowers there as a child so a bunch of ladies who have known him since he was Duncan's age were excited to see him again and to meet his children.  Duncan and Danica tried to help Lola sell flowers but they weren't too successful.

 Selling flowers

 Robert's old friends

Robert and I then spent a ridiculous number of hours in a mall he hadn't been to in years and another one that he'd never been to because it was just being built last time he was home.  The one had a huge play place that the kids would have loved (it was 2 stories high!) but we had left them with Robert's sister, Marissa, where they played with the Rivera 2nd cousins.  She also took them to a nearby mall by Jeepney and pedicab which they thought was pretty fun.  I couldn't believe how many people were in the mall; Robert and I thought it would be fun for us to take turns hiding in the crowd and take pictures so you could all play "Where's Waldo?" but we didn't.  We also visited multiple vendors to make sure I had a chance to sample all sorts of Philippine delicacies before we head back to Canada.  Of course, the mall visit ended with a visit to the spa for a facial, foot spa and foot massage.

 Binatong (corn with salt, sugar, grated coconut and butter?)

 Bibingka (a type of rice cake)

 The crowds

A Buko Pandan McDip

We had dinner and goodbyes with Robert's sister, Editha, and her family tonight.  She made kare-kare which is a yummy ox-tail and peanut butter stew, chicken, rice and some fish, which I elected to not have.  We then had some cassava cakes for dessert.

Lola and Lolo with all their grandchildren

The Rivera family (minus Irish, Jesse, and Jeff)