First Sundays

Every first Sunday of the month, Filipinos sponsor the 12noon mass here in the Catholic church which is just a five minute walk from our house. The church is usually full during this time ,with Pinoys flocking this part of the globe.

I remember so well the day we arrived Sydney. We just dropped off our things and hurried to catch the first sunday mass. I had goosebumps all over as I sang to the Tagalog religious songs being played. And when "Bayan Ko" was sang at the recessional, the tears were falling down already. I had to stiffle a giggle as hubby loudly sang with much gusto, even putting a hand on his chest, throwing me a knowing glance. Haha!

After mass, free lunch is served at the convent's social hall - a rather welcome treat for those who badly miss Pinoy food. This is also a good time to meet fellow Pinoys who are living around the area and of course, a good venue to remind kids of their roots. I've been told that on special ocassions, lechon (roast pig) is also served. Wow! I am now counting the days to the next big event. I terribly miss lechon already!

Birds in the City

Although Sydney is a big city, it is not unusual to see birds right smack in the middle of the central business district. Birds freely roam around here. They're so tame, they'd even gladly eat from your palm.

One afternoon, hubby saw a parrot sit on our veranda. He slowly went near the bird, tentatively touching to see if it won't fly. And it didn't!

Last week, when we were at Burkinhead Point, i saw this bird inside the foodcourt, calmly nibbling on morsels on the floor.



It is amazing to see people and birds live together.

Tiangge

Thursday is 'tiangge' day in our suburb. At a clearing among the rows of stores beside a big mall, booths are set up that sell various international goodies. Last Thursday, we sampled spanish cuisine. Today, we did Malaysian. Then we walked to the nearby pinoy store to buy chicharon and pandesal. Next Thursday, I might try Japanese food.

The best thing about it is there is a free show everytime. Last Thursday was a string quartet. Today, it was a band. Other times, students from nearby schools perform mini shows.

Yeah, one of life's cheap thrills.

Letrato

Just wanted to share some photos taken last week.

I came home early one afternoon and caught my little boy helping his yaya sweep the newly-mowed front lawn. He enjoyed it so much you'd think it's the best job in the world. Hehe!

The photo is blurry because he wouldn't stop despite my efforts at making him pose for me. Mwahaha

These are flowers I bought from a nearby flower farm at P50 a bunch. Ahh, the best things in life are (almost) free!

Weekend Bonding

Vince and I were supposed to go down to the city to meet my sisters and cousins for a weekend of rest and recreation. But the moving up ceremony dragged until 8:30pm which was too late for us to get a ride so the girls went up to join us instead.

They brought lots of food including the spaghetti which I asked them to make. Manai Layling and Manai Riza bought cake for Vince. We ate, drank tequila and chatted until after midnight then woke up early on Sunday to join the Palm Sunday mass at the local parish. We all agreed the priest gave an excellent homily (ikaw ba yan Bo?).

While the rest of the world was glued to the Pacquiao fight, we walked around the camp, took a lot of pictures and stopped over at the Bungalow for some burger and fries. We then bought freshly baked loaf bread as pasalubongs for our folks.

We walked home for lunch and then had a short videoke session using my sister’s magic sing despite the heavy downpour. We were all rolling with laughter as we created foolish dance moves and belted out ala-Mariah. Bantog kusog ulan! Hehe

‘twas a lovely weekend. If only I can have more of these.

Flowers Galore!

These flowers are currently in bloom at our house in the city. Thanks to my sister's friend, Bryan, who took these last Sunday.

There.

Just wanted to immortalize them through this blog :)

Fun-filled weekend

Anak,

February 11 was the fiesta of our community’s patron saint, Our Lady of Lourdes. There were lots of activities for all the residents including a carnival and a bazaar.

Lolo Nick, Lola Day and your titas came to visit and join in the festivities. They arrived here Saturday amidst heavy rains, the first rain after several weeks! But that did not prevent us from checking out the carnival so that you can enjoy the rides. Sunday, we all went to see the soccer tournament at the plaza where Cesar Montano was the special guest. Mama and her officemates were introduced to him then we had our pictures taken. Hehe! Our Cesar Montano moment!

In the afternoon, we took advantage of the good weather and played badminton in our lawn while lolo and lola watched. Then you insisted that we have a picnic so we spread a mat on the Bermuda grass. You claimed that a picnic is not complete without food so you took it upon yourself to get bread and juice from the kitchen. Haha! Your grandparents were really amused. Later that night, we went back to the carnival because you wanted to try the rides again.
Monday, all of us went to hear mass early then we prepared some food for lunch. In the afternoon, we went down to the city so that we can visit Ninang Beth’s mama who was in the ICU.

It was a special weekend because you got to spend time with Lolo and Lola. Lolo couldn’t say no when you hinted that you wanted a watch. He bought you one which made you very happy.

Kite-flying

Dear Anak,

After weeks of spending long hours in the office, Mama decided to come home early yesterday. It was a lovely afternoon, with the wind blowing hard and the sky so blue. I took my time walking home, waving, smiling and exchanging pleasantries with neighbors who were also out on their lawns. I guess everybody was just relieved that the sun was finally out.

Earlier this week, I had asked Manong Ben and his son, Dennis, to help us clean up because the grass grew fast during the rainy season. It was a joy to come home to a freshly -mowed lawn and newly trimmed shrubs. Again, i took my sweet time taking in the clean surroundings and fussing over the flowers.

Yaya told me that you had earlier played with our neighbors and had just taken your dinner and finished your bath. But I insisted that we go outside to enjoy what remained of the beautiful afternoon. You happily obliged naman and asked if I wanted to play with the kite Yaya made for you. The strong winds propelled the kite as high as the string will allow while we ran around the house laughing our bellies out.

It was already after sunset when we stopped playing, exhausted but happy.

Thank you, Vince for that wonderful afternoon. It was the best way to cap a very stressful week. Indeed, the best things in life are free.

Christmas Party

We had our company’s annual Christmas party last Saturday. Since there were hundreds of employees and dependents, the party was held at the huge soccer field. Each department was to set up a booth, prepare their own food and presentations around the theme ‘Pasko sa Bukid”. Because there’s just two of us in our department, I joined my previous dept while my boss joined the booth for VIP’s and guests.

The highlight of the program was the amazing fireworks display at exactly 6pm, much to the delight of everyone in attendance. And then various prizes were raffled off in between dancing to great music played by a famous live band.

All the hard work paid off because we won first prize for both booth and presentation contests. Here are some photos:

This is the view from behind our booth. You can see the makeshift kitchen sink with the clay jug and native plates with banana leaves.

Notice that the ladies are wearing pink. Last year, we wore red.

That's me wearing a black suit because I was the community's office girl :)

We were doing 'THE PAPAYA" which brought the house down.

This is the makeshift cooking area complete with claypots, nigo, native kudkuran, walis tingting and axe.


The fruit and vegetable-laden table.

Another view of the "kitchen". In front of the hut, we had a real lechon roasting, a live rooster, a large mortar and pestle used for rice and a small nativity set.

Happy holidays!

Pasko sa Barrio

Some of the indigents.

We just came back from our company’s outreach program at a nearby depressed area. This is an annual activity for the company where we give out company products, clothes and food to identified indigents who are living near our company.

It was very moving to see the happy faces of families as they received our gifts. We rendered songs for them and they in turn, rendered a dance number for us. They also prepared food from their harvest – bananas, kamote, cassava and fruits which we ate together with the food we brought.

I was assigned to a family of three, with a five month old baby and they were very happy to get Vince’s outgrown clothes and toys. I am glad that I am able to teach Vince early on the value of sharing.

More than the sincere ‘thank you’s” we got, we went home bringing with us the tremendous joy that always come with sharing one’s blessings.