Hello from Manila

Hi, everyone! 

Enjoying my family especially my Mom! We celebrated her birthday the other day and it was a very special family affair at a great Chinese restaurant.

Manila is HOT!!! Like hell, must be, if it ain't, what is?!

On my first day, I rested, I slept the whole day. Next day, I had a reunion with my HS classmates. I text Marivic about 930am to tell her I was here. In a few minutes, I got a text back from her, so excited, saying she was gonna pick me up at 11am as she was on her way to picking up Patty F. in Makati and the other girls for a reunion at Odette's home. Perfect timing! Becky A. was also in town so there were 3 of us, "balikbayans". Everytime we have classmates visiting from abroad, here or anywhere in the world, you call one classmate and, before you know it, everyone else knows, and we have a reunion! That's how close our class is. And we had a ball, as usual, great food, great company, great place, thanks, Odette!

When my classmates saw me, they know I always come home every year for my Mother's birthday, their first question was about my mom. My mother is fine, she's alright. Generally, our parents are at that age when their health becomes a concern for us, children, so we talk a lot about them but Filipinos can find humor even in the most serious matters. Charito asked me, "How's your mom? Is she all right? Does she remember you? Did she recognize you?"

I answered, "Oh, yeah. She said I'm pretty, so she recognized me."

The thing is my mother tells everyone she sees, "Muy guapa!" or "Muy guapo!" - now I wonder?!

My mom loves me. For her, I'm the most beautiful girl in the world! A face only a mother can love?! 

I remember one of my brothers, Nandy, would tease me when I was a little girl, "Mama prayed for a beautiful girl. She was given a girl."

My mother already had 4 boys and she really wanted a girl so she offered a novena to Mother of Perpetual Help (Maria Perpetua Socorro) to give her a girl and she promised she'd name her girl after her. That's how I got my name. And that's how I got teased by my brothers. Well, let's put it this way. They say I'm a late bloomer. I bloomed... and it was too late.

Oh, well, that's my family whom I love and adore! And who loves and adores me just as well!

The other night, Nandy got into Spanish-speaking mode with Mother and she's unstoppable after that so everybody, even the household help, followed suit. (Yup, Nana and Pia were Nandy & Lut's children's baby sitters and Lut is Spanish so they were trained to speak Spanish! They even speak better Spanish than me.) When we were kids, we spoke Spanish well, but somehow lost it as we were growing up...

Now that I'm home, memories of childhood are coming back.

I shall continue later. I'm running out of charge, no, not me, I can keep going, laptop battery, I mean. Meanwhile, I'm gonna have merienda. Filipinos love to eat!!