I am terribly ill. Not physically but emotionally. It kicks in even before I flew back to Hong Kong. It wasn’t really homesickness though I basically felt it was more of a mix of a sadness and eagerness to see my old flat again. Unfortunately when my trip was ending I thought I was gonna be stucked in the province – the weather poured in so thick that day, seemed as though mornings has turned into night. I just don’t get it, there are no holidays for me without experiencing the bad weather. For me it was the typical rainy season, cum typhoon but I enjoyed the beach.

My vacation was totally different. I was a bit shocked – surprises really do happens when you least expect it. We were the first passengers who landed at the new NAIA Terminal 3 Airport via Cebu Pacific – my first in this Airline. The trip was an hour delayed and it was pouring when we arrived in Manila. My sister who picked me up was nowhere in sight, my roaming service was dead, no one dares to ask if I needed to stay inside as I waited for my sundo. It was almost one in the morning when I realized we were supposedly be in the old terminal. I mean great, the new airport looks very nice but there was no clear announcement of the said “first landing”. The new airport at NAIA terminal 3 made us all disoriented and confused. My calls went thru after a few attempts only to find out that my sister was still at the old airport waiting for me.

I personally think that Cebu Pacific airline sucks bigtime. Why? The tickets are cheap, fine – but no free meal? Do we have to buy our food above the air triple its price? Excess luggage are charged way too pricey, if you have an extra big one, you’re as if paying for another airfare. WTF. I understand there’s a luggage limitation but when an airline is travelling via outside Philippines, as expected, passengers will then be taking advantage of bringing a great big deal of “pasalubong” luggages. Cheap airfare means cheap accomodation. What do you expect? PAL na talaga ako kahit medyo mahal.

Since nga umuulan, hindi na kami gumimik sa Manila, tinulog ko na lang. My trip to Bicol the next day was another disaster. I had to pay extra for my luggage for my Domestic flight, as usual. Funny was, I got so excited, I lost my luggage tag while I was already on the boarding gate. I had to get another stab and the only means of getting it back is to approach the departure counter, so I exited via custom, take my shoes off, my belt and show my boarding pass again. Too much security check pisses me off. I got these idea of maybe, I should have screamed, “I have the bomb in my pocket” just to scare people away so that I’d be the first person to be taken out from the long queue.

I arrived in Bicol dry and sunny. My first meal was congee. My elder sister surprised me her newly opened restaurant and music bar. How neat. I was like, wow the very first in our province to have come up with an Acoustic Band bar. My first night was huge, not knowing my High School batch was also there, had no idea I was on a holiday. Without a doubt, I was the star of the night. My younger brother is playing the beat box (as opposed, drum isn’t needed in an acoustic session) and giving me this “do not even dare to sing” kinda look. I couldn’t resist so I jammed with the band. My singing cannot wait and I remembered I sung, “Angels Brought Me Here” and none in my batch dared to give an applause. I can’t remember, they were drunk I guess. For the record, it was my “jet lag” that causes my singing a disaster – or maybe I’m just better off singing in an online karaoke.

My days in the province was usually spending nightly at the bar. I was acting floor manager kuno and wished that I don’t have to leave so that I can take that position for life. During the nap hours, I spent time watching local shows. I got addicted to watching Pinoy shows and cleaning our old “ancestral” house. It made me realized that I really need to work hard and save so that maganda naman bahay namin. I ‘tricycled’ myself around looking for a LOT-For-Sale because I got inspired by living the simple life in the province. I am in love with the province, it has changed a lot these days. My new love of the moment is my little niece. She’s just adorable.

When I was in Manila, I was reckoning of meeting up some bloggers but due to time constraints, makes it impossible to meet them (sorry Wind & Brian, next time na lang ha?). But surprisingly, my brother from Hong Kong was also in Manila for a month gig at the newly opened bar in Greenbelt 2 in Makati called Spicy Fingers. If you like to visit the place, my brother plays the bass.

I met my cousins there and we spent time touring around the Mall Of Asia. Gigantic shopping mall. It’s very entertaining to see most of the branded shops. Zara shop looks very expensive and I thought I was taking escalators in Hong Kong. There are al fresco restaurants on the ground floor, ice-skating place and movie theatre are teasing-to-a-tea. We opted eating at the Food Court and ordered Pinoy food syempre, kaya lang how expensive naman the rice. We had at least 15 sets of rice, enough for my stomach until breakfast.

I recommended taking the local transport aircon bus to travel via MOA to SM Megamall as I was somewhat appalled on the taxi fares kapag nakipag-deal na ang driver. I like the Aircon buses, it looks safe naman and sobrang lamig ng aircon. It took us an hour to Mega to meet up with my sister. We ended up at Bingo Bonanza at muntik pa kaming manalo ng P100K. Kainis.

What am I gonna miss back home?

- Congee at my sister’s restaurant and being a temporary floor manager at the music bar.
- Trycicle (three-wheeler cadillac).
- POP cola in plastic (in straw) with Mom Kathleen sa siesta eating “baduya” (fried banana snacks?).
- My little niece and her makulit na mommy.
- Boiled salty peanuts, tig P5 lang per plastic.
- Brownouts & kandila.
- “Ibos” (sticky rice wrapped in coconut leaves?) at my Lola’s house.
- Magic Singing Mic from my Auntie.
- LOTTO, muntik na akong manalo. Kainis.
- Of course, my lovedones, especially Kathleen and my other brother who paid for my Manila air fare.

Guess what, I couldn’t find a Coffee shop in Virac – none at all, unless you order the 3-in-1 pack then I thought, it can be a good business venture, noh? How cool is that? Sadly, didn’t take much photographs – except that I had few crappy shots via my iPhone.

How’s everyone?

Gone Too Soon
by: Michael Jackson Me, singing (and trying)

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