Life, Day by Day

Ever since the news of the crash of the airplane carrying DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo just off the shores of Masbate flashed on TV, a lot of mixed feelings arose in me. I do not know the man, nor am I familiar with what he has accomplished, but somehow his death became a personal loss. More so when all the stories about his exemplary life as a public servant started to be told. This country and people need men like Secretary Robredo to bring us out of the rut that we are in.  And what made this so sad was the fact that just as the light at the end of the tunnel seems to grow brighter for the Philippines, one candle was abruptly snuffed out, thus dimming the way once more.  I think I am really grieving for this country's loss.

Last July 27, Mark Magallanes of RepublicaNegrense came home to Bacolod for business and pleasure. On his itinerary was doing food reviews of famous and not-so famous food establishments in Bacolod and so, he invited some local bloggers to join him. I chose to go to Felicia's Cafe and Steak Room in 6th Street. Remember my post , about how happy I was to see that Felicia's opened a branch at Robinson's Central Citywalk and why I have never been to their main store yet? Well, now was my chance to go with a group and at the same time get to meet other bloggers.

I rarely watch TV but the other day while waiting for dinner, I sat down with my son and daughter who was watching Kung Fu Panda 2 on HBO. Although I saw the original movie, this sequel for me is a much better one. The adoption part of the story appealed to me being an adoptive mother of 2 kids, my now 21 year old son and my 4 year old daughter.  Needless to say, I sat through till the end of the movie. 

The City Tour Our harassed travel agent cum tour guide arrived early the next morning to pick us up for the " part of the package, shouldn't be missed " half day city tour.  There were just 6 of us (my aunt-nun has joined us by this time) and so our ride was the same van that we rode from the airport.  Our tour guide was named Eric and he was very informative and his Chinese English with a British accent was very entertaining.  He says pooh instead of poor and people turned to peepoh...heheh.  On our way to the cross harbor tunnel which we will be entering to go to Hongkong Island, he pointed out heritage places, shopping centers, hotels, schools as well as tenement houses which had clothes lines hanging out from window to window up to the top floors. But remember this was in 1993, so I don't know if this practice is still common in the Kowloon part of Hongkong.

We checked in at Holiday Inn Golden Mile at Kowloon and to my surprise, their front desk staff was not as fluent in English as I would have expected from people living in a British Colony or maybe because this was the night shift?  In fact for the next 5 days, I found it difficult to communicate with most of the locals I encountered, either they could not speak English very well or they refused to speak it.

Our group of 5 flew from Bacolod to Mactan International Airport in Cebu on November 10, 1993 to take the PAL flight PR 0302 bound for Kai Tak Airport (this airport closed in 1998) in Hongkong for a 5 day holiday.  We were not part of any tour group so that our travel agency gave us specific instructions on what to do and who to look for when we landed.  During that time, there were no cellphones, so that we had to rely on oral and written instructions which were simple enough I thought. 

The very first time I went overseas was in November 10, 1993.  The place: Hongkong.  The company: my mom and brother, together with a distant aunt and her grand-daughter.  The purpose: primarily for pleasure but also to escort home our father's first cousin, a Good Shepherd nun who was ending her assignment there.  We took the CEBU-HK Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight going there and a Cathay Pacific (CX) flight coming back.  The rationale for taking 2 airlines was because my auntie-nun bought a one-way CX ticket for her trip home while we wanted to ride PAL. Well, I thought that's a good way to check out both carriers...at least I can say later I have experienced them both.