hello, 2009!

Well, that certainly was one of my more memorable Birthday-New Year vacations in years. Hehehe.

Monday, Dec 29. Turns out I could wheedle the girlfriend into spending New Year’s at my parents’ house in Cavite, where I had originally planned to spend my New Year. I’d been bugging her to meet my parents for months and what better way to end 2008 than with that ritual over and done with, eh? Met her at Mall of Asia Monday afternoon, had a few beers with a few friends at Gweilo’s. She surprised me with ice cream with candle and balloons as a belated birthday treat.



Imagine that, a bee-ladybug balloon! She told me she’d already wanted something with soccer and basketballs, but when she saw this one, she absolutely knew she had her balloon. Si ate nagbebenta, nagtaka, akala pam-boy yung hinahanap niya, nagtry pang tumulong: “Um, may flowers yan…?” Hahahaha. Ate wag kang pasaway.

Anyway. We spent that night at Casa then the following day, we went on to catch a bus to SM Southmall, where I had asked my sister to pick me up -- because she drives and I could ask her anything and she never really turns me down ever hehehe. Yes, I am older but I am inexplicably spoiled.

Tuesday, Dec 30. Turns out when my sister drove over to the mall she had the whole crew with her – my dad, auntie, my brother. So basically, my parents first met my girlfriend at the Jollibee joint in SM Southmall. Whoever said this must be done over formal dinner has no idea how easy and casual it could really be. We bought a full roll of chococaramel cake from Red Ribbon, which was awesome.

That night, we settled in front of the TV to watch DVDs. Guess which cult classic we popped into the player?



I swear auntie’s DVD player could turn any film into a classic, black-and-white one. Hahaha. Akala tuloy ni daddy old film yung pinapanood namin hahaha. And so I’ve watched Twilight – in black and white pa. Ngayon makakarelate na ako sa lahat ng Twilight jokes na nababasa ko online. I feel so accomplished, damn. (Ayun lang, wag nga lang color-related yung joke. O ayan naipagpag na.)

We spent our first night in my parents’ house in the spare bedroom auntie had prepared ahead of time. Actually, when I called to ask her to do it, she’d asked why we needed an extra room when we could all fit inside the master’s bedroom. Haha. The fact that she could actually joke about that was kind of a relief to me.

But what really brought me real relief was that she went on ahead and fixed it anyway. With matching Simba sheets (ohmygod I thought I would die in embarrassment. Hello, Simba sheets? Naman eh.)

Speaking of embarrassment. Remember how auntie had sort of filled this entire wall with frames? Pictures, certificates, medals, etc? It had pictures of all of us children in various stages of awkward life. Of course, by virtue of being eldest, I also had the opportunity of having the most number of photographs on that wall. (Directly proportional to earth years, I guess)



Oh man, I think I may have been 15 in that picture. Jail-bait much? I KNOW.

Wednesday, Dec 31. New Year’s Eve. As per tradition, my mother’s siblings and their respective families trooped over to our house to have early dinner and festivities.

Yes, that would mean that not only did she meet my parents, she also met practically everyone – my other aunt, my uncle, his wife, and virtually all my cousins. Save for my other uncle, his wife and my other cousin (who are based abroad), more or less, the group was complete:




Incriminating photos of the videoke kind may or may not be at Multiply. Hehehe.

Thankfully, the whole affair was without those awkward “Do-you-have-a-boyfriend-now” kind of questions. Apparently, news does get around fast, and I could only imagine how the elders had briefed each other about the whole setup beforehand. Hahaha.

While we were standing around the dining table waiting for the buffet to move, my gracious uncle had even engaged the girlfriend in the traditional, “So ano ang probinsya mo?” kind of small talk, and even went on ahead to say, “Di bale, wala naman akong masasabi sa pamangkin kong yan, mabait yan. Saludo ako diyan.”

Sukat bang ibenta pa ako. Uncle, nabili na! Nabili na nang bonggang-bongga! Hahaha ang sabaw lang eh.

So yeah, we didn’t have fireworks save for a few sparklers and some of those things that pop when you snap them apart for the kids. Relatively harmless, actually. However, since this was the first New Year *after* my attempt to more or less kick the smoking habit, my now unaccustomed to smoke sinuses were painfully runny and sniffly by the end of the night.

What we did have though, was BEER. I think Uncle had brought half a case of San Mig Lite and four Grande size Red Horse bottles. Ano ba mga lasenggo. Hahaha. So much for swearing to be sober in ’09. Hahaha.

And so by 7:30PM I was already sleepy and buzzed. Bow. They left around 8ish to catch New Year’s Eve in their respective houses. It was early but the streets were bound to be filled with firecrackers as early as 9 anyway.

I managed to stay up until midnight, if only to watch fireworks on our terrace, but only briefly.

Thursday, Jan 1. Slow Thursday. Andrea and I had agreed to get back to the city later in the day. Truth was, we were planning to drop by Enchanted Kingdom the following day. Wala lang, we just wanted to hehehe. Yaman din lang at bakasyon. To hell with the crowd, right.

Right.

Over lunch though, I had this splendid idea – what if I wheedled my parents into going with us to EK? The more, the manyer, ika pa nga.

So I began by casually mentioning the planned EK trip. Auntie, who was the designated driver, was kind of hesitant. Besides, she just said, it looks like rain anyway. That morning, it actually looked like it was going to rain.

However, somewhere between wanting to take us to the bus station back to Makati and watching the clouds part and let through a little sunshine, auntie made a turn for the South Luzon expressway. Now, deciding on the road was something my parents didn’t usually do. Usually, we decide at home where we were going and followed the road to there, mostly. We were already halfway through SLEX and both my siblings were still in disbelief – we really were going to EK huh?



The crowd was HORRIBLE. Hahaha. We got in around 3 pm and exited around 530pm (I KNOW!), just before it actually rained. Certainly, we had no intentions of lining up for rides amidst that crowd – we just wanted to move around and take pictures (How tanders and tita, but well). I think Wy was pissed (well, he’s 12, so he actually has the right to be pissed, mostly) but then again, he was outnumbered. Plus, andrea read somewhere that for one ride, the estimated waiting time was TWO HOURS. I mean, hello.

So we paid P150 for the Carousel pass – but then the carousel itself was packed so no carousel either. We just strolled around, took pictures, watched people get hurled around in the Flying Fiesta and get drenched in the Rio Grande, listened to those bloodcurdling screams from people horrified in the Space Shuttle and Anchors Away. We placated Wy by letting him buy something from Candy Corner. (My brother is so easy to please).













Now that that was over and done with, my parents drove us to the bus station at Metropolis and for the meantime, Christmas and New Year was over and we’re back to our own lives.

(Susunod – andrea’s birthday celeb activities, for more.)