42 and counting...plus August pictures

Last August 19, I turned 42. I have to say that I am starting to think more about what lies in store for me. My recent bout with hypertension (albeit not a very serious one) was enough to make me think things over. After all, I've got Ben to think about. So when the doc said make changes in eating habits and lifestyle and lose weight...well, I really had no choice, did I? Now, a few months later, after having shunned soda/coffee/juice and cutting back on my rice intake, plus walking as often as I can (I try one hour a day, when possible), I've lost about 15 lbs and will soon be at my ideal weight (I hope...although I have been getting back some of my appetite...not a good sign maybe?).

Anyway, on my birthday, Ben and I went to see UP the Movie. Loved it, both of us, and we are waiting for the DVD (or the dibidi) to come out so we can watch again. I wanted to take him to see the 3D version, but geez, movies have become too expensive here. We had a great time, even though Ben couldn't help himself and was quite loud in the theater. It was great mom-son bonding anyway, first time we actually went to see a movie together, just the two of us.

I've got some photos of us from that day, which I'm posting now. I thought our color combination was great. :-). These pictures were taken just before we left to go see UP.

That's our church in the back.

Ben on his first day of tae kwon do

Wearing his tae kwon do uniform

Posing in Kuya Toti's house just before we visited Tita Rosie and Tito Resty

Ben turns 7, his Lola Delan turns 82

Time sure flies...

Last July 6, my Ben turned 7 years old. How he's grown. He is now about 51 inches tall, weighs roughly 70 lbs. I can still remember when he was a little baby and I just carried him around. I can't do that now :-).

The day itself he didn't go to schoo because he had a bit of a cold. With the A(H1N1) scare still gripping Ateneo, I figured it best to take him to the doc instead. Turns out he's got a bit of an infection in the throat which led to him being given antibiotics.

That evening though, we had spaghetti and cake to celebrate. His Lolo was here from Baler, and his Tito Toti, Auntie Jojo, Kuya Daniel and Kuya Miguel came over to help him celebrate on the day itself. Here are some photos.

These first ones were taken in the morning, just before we left for the doctor. He wasn't in a very good mood, but he managed to give me some smiles. He's also holding on to his Kuya Enzo's Ferrari book.






Later that night, he had a cake to blow a birthday candle. Here's a video clip.



Three days later, it was Ben's Lola Delan who turned 82 years old. For the past few years now, we've been joining her to celebrate her birthdays. She's still going strong. Here are some photos and a video clip from her birthday dinner which we had at Luk Foo Resto in Qi Central.




Here's Auntie Delan blowing her candle:


It was great fun, always is when we get together, although I wish there were more of the family there.

In my next post, I'll put up the photos from Ben's birthday party. For now, ta ta...

My little boy in a bubble

Ben attended the birthday party of his classmate, Joshua, today and I was pleasantly surprised in the sense that he was quite well-behaved this time around. Not that he wasn't running around and being hyper, but it was somehow much less than in the past birthday parties we've attended. He had a great time and the part of the party he enjoyed best was the bubble show. Towards the end, they had the kids stand on something and sort of placed them inside a bubble. Here's a video of Ben in his bubble:

In Cebu

Finally, our long awaited trip to Cebu, set up back in November last year, happened and has passed. It was Auntie Iring, Daniel, Miguel, Ben and me who took the trip. Auntie has never ridden an airplane before, and when I was surfing the web a while back, I came upon Philippine Airlines Econolight fares, which are quite cheap if you book early (very early that is) enough. So for less than PHP 8000, I was able to get roundtrip tickets for the five of us (in comparison, I spent nearly PHP 7000 on the round trip ticket for my first Cebu trip about a decade ago) back in November for a trip that took place March 24-27 (last week). The only catch is that we will be seated at the rear of the plane and we get no food. We were allowed water though. But since the flight to Cebu would only take an hour, I figured we could do without those food perks (consisting of cupcakes or crackers and drinks) and that the seats at the rear are near the flight attendants so they're probably better.

I like to think we had great fun, the five of us. Actually, the trip ended up being too long because we didn't have enough financial resources to do the things we wanted to do. Anyway, here's how we spent our time, with pictures and some video clips.

Day 1, Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Day started early. Our flight was at 730am, so I wanted to be at the airport by 6am to make sure there were no glitches for us. Traveling with Ben always poses challenges so I wanted to make sure I've got enough time to sort things out. We were on our way to the airport by 515am, with Kuya Tony driving us there. Even on the way, Ben was already his usual talkative self, quite excited about taking an airplane again.

At the airport, Auntie saw the relatively long line for the check-in counters. Fortunately, our wait didn't last too long, and we made our way into the departure area. Here's a picture of Auntie at the departure area:

And here's a picture of her (stolen shot so a bit blurry) inside the plane:


It was a nice sunny day, so the trip was relatively calm, except for a few bumps as we were descending to Cebu. When we were out of the plane I asked Auntie how she felt during the flight, and she said that surprisingly, she didn't feel anything bad. She thought she was going to get woozy, but she didn't so it was on the whole a good first flight experience for her. We had her sitting by the window and I think she enjoyed passing through the clouds and then looking over them as we were cruising above them.

Anyway, here's another pic, outside Mactan International Airport as we wait for Mang Nick (driver of Mrs Nenet de Manuel, of Cebu's Universal Feed Corporation, who so very kindly lent us her van and Mang Nick for the duration of our stay in Cebu so we could move around easily).


When we got to Silverdale Inn, the pension house where we stayed in Cebu, we were all so tired from getting up so early in the morning, we decided to rest for a bit, and start the sight seeing after lunch.

Before lunch though, we decided to swing by the Magellan's cross and the Churchof the Sto. Niño. Here are a few pics:

For those who don't know, this isn't the real Magellan's Cross. It is however the wooden case (made of Tindalo) that encased the actual cross that Magellan planted supposedly on this exact site.

That's Auntie Iring, Miguel, Ben and Daniel

Auntie Iring, Miguel, Ben and me

Ben (I like his smile here)

At the Sto Niño Church courtyard where they light votive candles

In front of the Church marker

With me this time around

The beautiful altar in the Sto. Niño Church

After visiting the Sto. Niño, we headed over to Neo Neo for lunch. Ben said he wanted sinugba, so we had all sorts - fish, chicken, squid, liempo. It was a very good lunch. Before we left, Ben wanted to get his picture taken by the fountain, so he did.


Our next stop was the Taoist Temple, and the views from up there were very nice. Here are more photos:

Let's just say Ben does not understand what the word "Silence" means.

After the Taoist temple, we headed up into the mountains to get some view. We went up this place that is owned by the Osmeñas. but we didn't bother to go in. So we just stayed outside the gate and took a peek over where there were some construction going on.


Afterwards, everyone was too tired to go anywhere else so we headed back to the pension house, only going out later in the evening to have dinner at...Jollibee, of all places. Ben needed to have his french fries fix for the day. Then it was bedtime to get ready for another day ahead. The plan was to spend the day in Mactan Island.

Day 2, Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Had breakfast at...McDo! Cheap you know. Then it was over to Mactan Island for us. Searching for a place to spend part of the day, we decided on White Sands Resort at Maribago Beach, Lapu Lapu City in Mactan Island. Daniel and Miguel wanted to give snorkeling a shot, but unfortunately, it was too difficult and expensive to set up. The kids just ended up playing a little bit on the sea -- Ben more than Daniel and Miguel -- and then spent most of the time in the resort pool. Surprisingly, there was no trouble getting Ben into the water, both in the sea and in the pool. Probably because the sea in Cebu wasn't wavy like the one in Baler, which he is afraid of. He even dipped his head into the water on his own, something he's never done voluntarily in the past. So I guess the decision to have him take swimming classes this summer is the right one.

Some pics and videos below:

The five of us in front of the pool.
Ben is only wearing underwear because originally, he had no plans to swim so I didn't bring him any extra shorts.

Pa-cute talaga ang anak ko!

Who can stay underwater longest???


Playing in the pool

After White Sands, then it's off to the Lapu Lapu monument for us. Ben particularly liked this place because he likes Yoyoy Villame's song "Nagellan".

Daniel imitating Lapu Lapu's pose :-)

Could this be where the Battle of Mactan was fought?

Then it was back to Cebu City again for dinner and rest.

Day 3, Thursday, 26 March 2009

We were supposed to travel down south of the province but ended up spending the morning at the Tubod Resort in Minglanilla instead. Ben wanted to go swimming again, and I'm not exactly sure why Manong Nick decided not to head further south. Oh well, I was pretty worried about work to and was frantically searching for a place where I could connect to the internet. I'm actually a bit upset with Globe because even though I was getting quite a strong signal, and I was able to connect and get amounts taken off my prepaid credits, my browser couldn't connect to anything. Anyway, the kids just spent the morning swimming and here are a few pics and some videos from Tubod.

One of Ben's dives...the dives sure look similar to one another despite the kid's insistence that they're very different

Here are some videos showing Ben diving into the pool...or so he says...





Miguel and Daniel going down the slide:



More of Ben's dives:



Then after Tubod, we headed back down to the city for lunch and because I needed to find an internet connection. Strange that driving around the city and even in the Ayala Mall, I couldn't get through any websites using my Globe Visibility connection. That got me really pissed at Globe again. You'd think you're in an Ayala area and there should be no problem with Globe. Well there was plenty. My laptop battery ran out and I had to find an area in the mall where I can get Wi-Fi access. We asked at their information booth and for some reason that place where they sent me had no Wi-Fi access. Anyway, I finally settled with Seattle's Best Coffee, which had outlets and free Wi-Fi. The breve did help to cheer my up a bit. Just before leaving, I took some photos from the mall's expansion area.



Then we're up to the mountains again to Mountain View for more breathtaking view of the city. I really like going up the mountain to view the city from afar, the view is just amazing.

My camera doesn't do justice to the view, which was pretty spectacular

I cannot explain the pose :-)

There was no way he was going to pass this up...

Here's a couple of video clips showing Miguel and Daniel crossing a hanging bridge:





After Mountain View, we went back down and just drove around to see more of the city at night. Then it's back to the pension house to prepare for the last day and the trip back home to Manila.

Day 4, Friday, 27 March 2009

We just thought we'd stay in the city, buy the usual pasalubong. We went and bought some dried fish, and Ben had a handful for his taste test. Needless to say, he loved the dilis and the dulong, so we bought quite a bit. Then we drove over to the provincial capitol. How I wish I could say that our provincial capitol came close to being this nice and this clean, but I can't...

On the sidewalk fronting the capitol, while waiting for our ride

From the capitol, we went to Chika-an to have lunch and then headed off to the Cebu Water District's Family Park. Ben saw another swimming pool, and had a mini-tantrum about wanting to go swimming again (there was a small slide in the kiddie pool).









Ben on the slide:



Swinging the swings:



Hopping with the hornbill:



After our Family Park trip, we just wanted to while away the hours. I had wanted to go see the City Hall, but we ended up just spending a bit of time at the Gaisano Country Mall where Ben played video games and Daniel and Miguel spent a bit of time in an internet cafe.

Then we headed on to Mactan Island again, went on another roundabout and took this picture in a launch area just next to the Hilton hotel.



It was also then that I realized my mistake. For the amount we spent at White Sands, we could've gone island hopping where the kids could've gone snorkeling. Well, too late, so I guess that will just have to wait until the next time. I think that four days was a bit too long for us too, given our limited resources, but for the most part I think we had a great time, and if only for that then the trip was very much worth it. Next time, we'll do better planning.

I think we were all pretty relieved to be home in Manila later that night though. :-)