MANILA
Nov 1, Sunday
- Attending early morning worship service at Cubao.
- Then fetched ka Rani and family from the hotel to send them to the airport as they head home to Malaysia.
- Went back to Marikina so Ethan can play with his cousins.
- Spent most of the day in the condo to get a bit of rest.
- In the evening, we went to Eastwood for Lani's high school friends reunion.
- Very early activity for us as we visited the INC Central Temple for the Balikbayan Day. Unfortunately, Bro Eduardo Manalo was overseas so we didn't get to see him, but it was not all wasted as we had the chance to visit the Central compound, something that we wanted Ethan to witness and experience. We were also serenaded by a lovely choir.
- Breakfast at Aberdeen Court, then a trip back to the condo.
- We didn't have parking at the condo so I usually park at Broadway Centrum. Sadly, there weren't any vacant slots at that time, so we instead of resting we had to go out to the mall just so we can put the car/van on a good secured place. We ended up meeting Tita Vivian, Tita Danny and Diether there.
- Went back to the condo around 4pm, and as expected there was already a space at the Broadway car park.
- Ethan and I went out for haircuts just after sunset.
- A rest day for us.
- We all went for a swim at the condo pool, then Lani and I went out to the mall for some facial cleaning (which hurts a lot, by the way) and a bit of shopping.
- Drove to Pasig to fetch TJ and Ann, then we went pinoy-dining at a popular carinderia near Sumulong Highway.
- We then dropped Nanay and Ethan at Kang's house so Ethan can play with his cousins
- TJ, Ann, Lani, Erin, and me then drove to Makati to first attend worship service, then have Greenbelt Italianis dinner with our office friends - FMR, Marti, Cherry, and Leila. Too bad LFE couldn't make it.
- Nanay and the kids spend the day in the condo, while Lani and I took a quick trip to the grocery for last minute shopping.
- Then we spent the new few hours packing up and making sure our luggage are secured against the tanim-bala scam at the airport.
- Around 5:30pm, we left the condo for the airport in Kang and Kuya Roy's car. We got there a little past 8pm (It took as only 20mins when we drove Ka Rani and family there on a Sunday).
- Our flight was at 12midnight so we were still early. We killed time at the food court eating Wendy's burgers and salads.
- After being paranoid for close to 3 hours (because of laglag-bala), we finally completed our check-in and immigration procedures around 11pm and settled at the gate.
- We boarded the plane just before midnight. Ethan was already sleeping by then and Erin was getting there. The first 5-6 hours of the flight were most peaceful.
- Around 2 hours before arrival, Ethan and Erin woke from their slumber so Lani and I had to attend to them the rest of the trip.
- We arrived in Sydney at 11am Australia time, though we only got out of airport half past 12noon because of the long wait for odd-size luggage - Erin's stroller.
Ethan was very sad to leave Nanay behind in the Philippines, but that's out of our control. We'll get her back to Australia as soon as we get a new visa for her. But surely, Ethan will miss his new-found friends - his cousins. We don't know when we will be back there to visit them again, but it will be something to look forward to.
