I'm having a good day today. The raisin bread from Cinnabon has added extra goodness to this moment. Oh well, as always, raisins make my day (be it raisin bread, chocolates with raisins, or simply raisins!). Raisin is a childhood favorite, with special strings of memories attached to it, as it is one of bapa's (uncle) usual pasalubong for me and my siblings back when we were kids.
By the way, I feel light from spending the weekend in Baguio City, along with my family, though I wish for more and longer out-of-town vacation and family bonding. The short vacay was the idea of Mike, my brother-in law, who came home for a short vacation here in the Philippines along with his entire family - Evelyn, my sister, and their two (2) kids, Jiru and Ian. He said that they (Mike and his family) would come along with us in sending off Tefen, our bunso, to college. It was foggy when we arrived there on Friday. I was told that it has been raining for almost one week straight before our arrival. I was so thankful that the weather has gone better when we got there, allowing us to enjoy the entire weekend :-)
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Fog began to roll down and cover the houses. The cold damp is a delightful welcome to the City of Pines!
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On Saturday, inang (mother) celebrated her 62nd birthday. A week before going to Baguio, we threw a pre-birthday surprise for her, which was my brother-in-law's idea, anyway, as not all family members were coming along with us to Baguio City. He was right. The pre-birthday celebration came as a pleasant surprise for inang. Everybody was present. I remember Mike getting emotional when inang and tatang (father) finished saying a short prayer that time. Oh, really, I can't be thankful enough for that moment.
After lunch, we went boating at Burnham Park. Evelyn, inang and ching Monette did not come with us for reason that they were afraid. I admit I was, too, but then I decided to join the ride, which is my third time since college. Kong Omar and Mike got into the boat as our rowers! We had a great time, but the kids, Jiru and Ian enjoyed the most! They were laughing and laughing and even shouting during the ride, especially when our boat hit other boats, and vice versa.
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Our rower, Mike, my brother-in-law, and Kong Omar, my older bro.
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The kids were shouting!
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The sun was up when we were leaving for home on Sunday. We didn't plan what to eat for lunch, and Evelyn, who got tired from walking that day, decided in a hurry to dine at KFC where she ordered bucket meal. I was not in the mood to eat fried chicken for lunch, I was craving for something else and so I invited ching Monette to go look for other place to dine. We headed on to upper Session Road and stopped at Point and Grill where we ordered pork sisig and sinigang na ulo ng tuna (tuna head stew). We were satisfied with our meals that I wished that the rest of my family had dined there as well. After finishing our meals, we went back to KFC to meet them.
After lunch the rest of the group went to the market to buy some pasalubong. I asked Erna to buy me Good Shepherd products, the ube jam (purple yam jam), which I would bring home as pasalubong for my colleagues. I was surprised to know that the market ran out of stocks of ube jam from Good Shepherd due to non-availability of raw material, the vendors told my sister. There were no fresh strawberries either, even at the shops along Kennon Road. So for substitute, I bought other Baguio products like Romana peanut brittle, ube and pandan crinkles and choco flakes.
When it was time for us to leave, we accompanied Tefen to her boarding house. Jiru cried, and so did inang, who kept on giving reminders to Tefen. I could see how Tefen was holding back her tears , to no avail, at one point. She was teary eyed when she gave Jiru a tight hug. Family separation is painful, I myself can attest to that. But then it is not as bad and difficult as it was back then. Thanks to today's technology :-)! And besides, there is ONE up there to watch over her and protect her, and with that loving protection, I know that Tefen, our dear bunso, will get by. She'll be fine in college.
