CHANGES AT HOME

Last time I went home to Tagum City, I noticed a few changes. Some were good and some were uhm... neutral.

For the latter, I noticed that my cousins who used to be live with my parents are not there anymore. Since their eldest sister Criscel had finished her degree in Criminology and has now actually found a job as a police officer, they moved out and rented a small place downtown. Criscel wants her two sisters to continue college, thus, they looked for a place right across the university. Our place was relatively far from civilization so it was a sound decision. However, I was just sad for my parents since they now have no one to assist them in the house chores, or in manning the sari-sari store. We also used to have an adopted family member, Bryan, who was also very helpful around the house. However, he moved out as well after he finished some short courses on automotives and also on electronics.

*sigh*

So anyway, there were also good changes.

having a blast with the karaoke, with my aunt Berna and her family :-)

First, Papa was able to finish building and renovating a house in our second lot (right behind our house). It was his project, and he worked on it for a few months.

Papa giving me a tour

the house - ready for occupancy

Papa originally planned to sell the two parcels of land that we own (aside from the one where our house is built), especially as my seaman cousin is very interested in building his house near ours. I opposed Papa though. I told him we might be able to make some steady income out of it. And besides, Land continuously appreciates.

MY FIRST MALAYSIAN

http://www.business-standard.com/newsimgthumb/thao_airasia.jpg

Just this year, Malaysian airlines Air Asia joined the fray of the already stiff local flight competition. It is a budget carrier just like Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines that targets passengers who are willing to give up flight conveniences (e.g. extra baggage, insurance, on-board meals, etc.) for a surprisingly low airfare. Being the natural stingy that I am, I booked my Davao vacation in Air Asia. Guess how much I paid for a roundtrip ticket.

P1,500!

It is a far cry from PAL’s ~P10,000. While in college, Mama always booked me a PAL ticket despite the dizzying price tag because she wants her unico hijo to come home safely and conveniently. And now that I’m working and I pay for my tickets, I never looked back at PAL.

THE MAÑANITA

When I was a child, we had this tradition in our neighbourhood that involved people secretly gathering on someone’s birthday (normally at the request of the celebrant’s family) and surprising him or her with an early morning serenade. Normally, people gather between 4-5am and starts to sing the serenade in front of the celebrant’s house – the first song is supposed to be sweet sounding and it is meant to gently wake the celebrant up. We normally use the song Silayan. And then the mesmerized celebrant lets us in and we continue the merrymaking indoors, singing different songs that celebrate life and gratitude to God. The singing normally ends with people dancing to an upbeat song, e.g. Mingaw mingaw ang tiyempo, sa pag-uros sa hangin... And then... eating time ‘till break of dawn!

We call this whole affair the mañanita.

WANTED: KRISPY KREME AMBASSADOR

The yummiest doughnut in town, is coming to my hometown!
/* Ugh, don't you just love rhymes?! */

KRISPY KREME, SOON TO OPEN IN DAVAO! Weeeeee... *happy dance*

By the way, they are looking for a Krispy Kreme Ambassador who will be based in Davao City. So shoutout to all my friends who are interested or who knows someone who's interested.

If you are all of these:

- Male (5'6) or Female (5'2)
- 18-27 years old
- graduate of Marketing, Mass Comm, or any related course
- has a pleasing personality
- and is very excited to be a Krispy Kreme Ambassador :)

please drop me a line. Or email an updated CV to me (thegreatnoel@hotmail.com) or to jmbathan@jambajuice.ph.

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Actually, you just need to email the latter addy. I only included my personal mail because I'm a nosy creature.

BLV T R NT

Before I start this entry, let me just make a (belated) congratulatory shoutout to my two brods in UPLB Street Jazz, Louie Canaria and Erik Javier. Yeah, I know I have already done this in Facebook but I just want to make this moment a part of my blog. :-)

Both Louie & Erik were part of the Megacrew entry of the UP Streetdance Club which won 3^rd place in World Hiphop International (Megacrew Division). Erik is also part of The Crew, a subset of UP Streetdance Club which competed in the Adult Division of the same event. They bested all the other entries... GOLD baby!

with Louie and his Bronze

Erik's Bronze and Gold

Great job, you guys!

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Okay, since I am now in a roll, and since I’m still on vacation, let me squeeze in this entry posts that I missed writing about due to my uber impossible work-school routine.

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First up, I want to congratulate my friend Jaja (Pooja Sujanani). She recently got married.

If you’re wondering if that’s her in the image, yes, you’re right. She is a pure blooded Indian who grew up in Bohol.

ADBENTYOORSAM

 

This was supposed to be ‘part 3’ of my Adventuresome series, the Zorbing bit. BUT...

the zorb

wanderlusts - loitering in the airport parking

ADVENTURESOME 2: ZIP IT!

To complete my Davao Extreme Adventure Weekend (ching!), I and my friends Jed, Sybil, Lesele, and Luningning went to Diversion Road to zipline! We chose Outland Adventure over Zipcity because we heard that Outland has a longer trail. Also, they have a double trail, plus you may opt to zip the line by doing a “Superman position”, i.e. prone position (lying face down) with arms spread sideways or at the front as if mimicking a flying Superman.

Me <-- all geared up for the zip

HOME SICK HOME: Idiotic, Nostalgic, and Adventuresome

our family residence at Tagum City, Davao del Norte

IDIOTIC

It was the last weekend of August. I was pretty giddy while on that idiotic evening flight to Davao. I remember I was all happy and excited whilst reading the Sunday paper and sipping some house coffee. I will be seeing my family! Aside from seeing my relatives and friends, I will be meeting my high school batchmates for a day of extreme activities (ziplining, wakeboarding, etc.) in Davao City. I couldn’t even care when my flight seatmate noticed my odd grinning, I was just excited.

I tried to read my paper, just to be compliant with my Sunday routine. However, my eagerness made it difficult for me to focus on the articles. I only managed to remember two news clips.

NEW YEAR, BUT NOT NEW PRACTICES

I don’t know about you guys but we sure have our family practices every New Year’s Eve. My mom told me when I was young that those things might be just superstitions to some, but it wouldn’t hurt if we try to bring in good luck. Especially as we welcome a new year.

Let me enumerate them to you as you might want to employ some :

1.       Wearing polka dots. Every year-end my mother dons a clothing spangled with dots. May it be a dress, a blouse, or a duster like the one below, Mama always wears one; and I notice it’s always red and white. It is believed that these dots symbolize wealth as they resemble coins.

Apologies for the blurry images. It was hard to keep Mama still.

 2.    Jingling coins. Mama said jiggling two dozens of a kind of coin would bring abundance in the coming year. I used to jiggle one-peso coins. Now I jiggle ten-peso coins. Maybe mom thought that since I’m a grown up now, I should use coins of higher worth.

3.       Being loud. Since using fireworks is not too big in Davao in the last decade, we don’t have them at home. Although, I heard that the firecrackers ban was lifted in our city this year. The last time I saw Papa lit a Judas’ belt was when I was twelve-ish. I kinda missed it, to be honest, however it is always wiser to use safer methods of making noise. You can blow horns (“torotot”) or rev up your cars just like what we did. I believe being loud is a way to ward off evil spirits.

4.       Having round fruits on the table. I remember Mama arguing with a friend on whether there should be twelve or thirteen, but I don’t remember which one they followed in the end. I also forgot to ask Mama about this last week. I believe the round shape of the fruits symbolizes eternity and longevity.

5.       Drinking water with roses. Mama submerges exactly three rose petals in a glass of water. Then at the stroke of midnight, each member of the household will have a drink from it. Mama said it keeps us all together and intact as a family, no matter what happens. This practice is pretty rare. Aside from our family the only other people I know who practice this is... no one.

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     Here are other pictures I took that night.

 

Tagum City Christmas tree. This was once the tallest in the country. I don't know if it still is.

I saw quite cheap but tasty chicken downtown and bought them right away

my poisons

Mama, Nanay, ang Uncle Mek-mek

Shaolan, Bryan, and Christine

Alejandro with his girlfriend

Co cousins

My entire family

My parents

WAKEBOARDING IN DAVAO CITY

Wakeboarding on a man-made water arena completed my fun-filled Christmas vacation this year. It was the cherry-on-top of all my year-end activities, beating going to the beach with the rest of our neighbourhood or fishing for the first time. It happened in DECA WAKEBOARD PARK, a still being developed tourist spot in Mintal, Davao City. Holding onto the cable handles while keeping the correct composure was a tiresome yet exhilarating experience for me. And for the record, wakeboarding was the most fun extreme activity I've ever done.

Only it didn't happen.

Much to my disappointment, my high school batchmates scheduled our wakeboarding activity on the New Year's Eve. The exact same day when everybody rushes last minute shopping, preparing the Media Noche, entertaining relatives and other guests, or taking a rest in preparation for the loooong night. It was in our high school mini-reunion, a couple of days earlier, that we discussed about wakeboarding. And since I am too disappointed at this point, especially now that I have seen their pictures, I will not talk about wakeboarding any further. I will however talk about my mini-tour to Davao City on the 28th to meet my high school batchmates for a mini-reunion.


My first stop in the city was at Gaisano Mall. It was my favorite mall in Davao City. In high school, it was my place to be. Maybe because of its architecture, type of shops, and the vast strip of arcade games. The last one is a personal particular as I am quite choosy with arcade games. I only play Darkstalkers, King of Fighters, Puzzle Bobble, or that generic jet game with the aerial view. If any of these is present in an arcade, then you can expect me to hangout in that place very often. Sad to say, when I checked, the arcade place in Gaisano mall was moved to a smaller area and my favorite games were gone.

To compensate for my grieving, I decided to devour on something really really good. So I insisted my friend Jed to dine with me at Dimsum Diner. He gladly agreed even though he had dined at the same place just the previous night. Yes people, the dumplings were that good.

 

Yummy crab, beef, and shark's fin dumplings

DIMSUM DINER serves the best dumplings that ever grazed my palate, and I know that most of those who have dined here would agree. Too bad they don't have a franchise here in Manila. Do they? Please let me know if they do!

Before I went to our batch rendezvous, Jed and I went to DAVAO MEDICAL CENTER (now renamed to Southern Philippines Medical Center) to visit my bestfriend Sybil. She was not available for the reunion as she was on duty in the ER that night. Luckily, three other batchmates who were equally disappointed as Sybil, was also on duty. So I had a pre-reunion with them right there in the ER. I get to chat a little with Carl Uy and Marian, but not with Reginald as he was busy stitching a patient.

Sybil and me

 

Marian (L) and Sybil (R)

I was so proud seeing them in their scrubs. I felt a little disappointed as well, or maybe envious, as I could have been there with them doing some stitches. You see, in most of my high school years I was very sure I'll take up Biology in college. Yet I had a change of mind weeks before I filled out my application form for UP. (sigh). Oh well, I'm very happy with my current industry anyways so I'll just drop that thought.

Our next stop was at C-TRES, an all-you-can-eat buffet at Obrero Street. My batchmates have already started their meals when we arrived. Although I've never heard of this resto before, I sure will promote it as they serve scrumptious dishes. My favorite was the Fish Fillet, it was awesome.

I call this the dish pit. This is where people line up to get food.

Funky crabs. I forgot to ask if these were unlimited as well, as these weren't included in the pit.

(L-R) JC, Lesele, Martin, Aldbrian, Nina, Nikko, Ruel, Ephraim, Ian, Adrian, Carlo, Luningning

After dinner, these guys wanted to hit the karaoke so we went to BLUE POST. Too bad, the karaoke wasn't available. So we moved to CASA DE AMIGOS, a pub-ish sort of place right at the heart of the city. I like the way the place was laidback. There was a live band, there were billiard tables, and there were private karaoke rooms. And just when I thought things couldn’t get better, boy check out the menu. No, look at the right side. Yeah, baby! The cocktail drinks are waaaay cheaper. Woohoo! Had I been working in Davao, I would surely frequent at this place.

Before we called the night off, we went someplace else. Ooops. I meant, we went to SOME PLACE ELSE, a shisha bar and restaurant at Paseo de Habana. I had another round of not-so-pricey cocktails, and this place here has a lengthy cocktail menu my ears couldn’t stop flapping. And although I do not smoke, I didn’t pass up the chance to puff a shisha. If you are wondering what a shisha is, it is a pipe Egyptian in origin that allows the user to puff flavoured nicotine-free smoke. Ergo, shisha = smoking – health risk. Hmm... wait. Afaik, it’s nicotine-free. I’ll double-check on that.

We at the shisha bar. Shisha (center)

Whew! It was a long night. And although I wasn’t able to try wakeboarding, I care less. I had fun. And I can say that my Christmas vacation was complete.

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EDIT (10/13/11): For those who are curious about the REAL wakeboarding experience in Davao, READ HERE