After my 8-day hiatus from work, I now am back to reality. This kills me. This means I am to wake up obligingly, take a shower as part of the routine (not as I please), and come home late. But I have to face this 'coz this also means money. While others say money isn't everything, I say it's not nothing either. In fact, I work for money basically. Money, money, money... I could whinge about it, or the lack of it, all day. That's not what I signed in here for.
What I feel like whining about at this very moment is the fact that I enjoyed my break so much I don't feel like reporting for work today. Actually, the hiatus was long over 24 hours ago; I resumed work yesterday, and that's when I realized how much I still wanted to extend it.
Four days of my precious hiatus moment was spent in Manila. I had a wonderful time with my Besz' family in Makati. Hers is such a wonderful, warm and loving family. Her mom picked me up at the airport on Friday, July 9. I took an IELTS exam on the 10th (God bless the result), and her dad took us (with her family) to dinner at Gerry's Grill in Market Market. On the following day, I attempted (and succeeded) to take the MRT train and met my cousin Chris at the Edsa-Taft station. I love the feeling when you get to mingle with train passengers and they don't notice it's your first time to do it (by yourself, that is). Call it shallow, but that is my kind of adventure -- when I trick myself to believing I can do something risky. Anyway, the adventure was cut short once I met my cousin as he knew better all the whereabouts and whatabouts of our itinerary that day.
Anyway, he took me to Navotas, where a few relatives live. It's heartwarming to see familiar faces, but the place was rather... depressing. I don't know how they live their lives there, but nice to know they seem happy and content; I think that's what counts most. A few minutes later, some relatives came, Iya Basi with Dikay and her aunt. We had lunch under that frail, wobbly hut, then the guys started drinking gin and Chris seemed to have forgotten the rest of our itinerary. So, anyway, after a few hours, I'd finally convinced him that it was time to leave and he was able to convince two more cousins and our Uncle Inda to come with us to Caloocan.
Next stop, Caloocan. While Chris et al. continued their drinking session at Vic-vic's, another relative, I went to my aunt's apartment, which was just a few meters away. Once again, there was this feeling of dejavu (?) and warmth; she reminds me of my father and seeing her 3 daughters, Dexie, Dary and Diane, made me feel nostalgic. For a moment, I was brought back to our good old days at the farm... twenty-something years ago... Anyway, we had too much fun catching up with each other that I forgot we still had 2 more stops on the list. When I went to check out Chris and company, of course, they're all drunk. When they insisted to still tour me around, I resisted. My idea of adventure is going solo; not going out with a bunch of funny-looking, drunk people. Ergo, Baclaran and Divisoria were cancelled; I ended up sleeping at my aunt's apartment that night.
Left Caloocan early morning on the following day, and my favorite part was the solo trip, although it didn't feel much of an adventure anymore. What's always exciting was when I'd forget where and when to tell the jeepney driver to stop (which happened most of the time every time I took a jeepney there); not to mention the coin sound I'd make to signal him, instead of saying "tabi lang po". It's a bit embarrassing when everyone would look at you like you're some kind of a weird, mountainous person but, well, what can I say? That's how we do it here in the province: tap a coin on the handle bar above you to get the driver's attention. :p
Anyway, the rest of the day was a bore though I did a little shopping at a nearby mall (Guadalupe, Tulay). I would have liked to go to Divisoria but hadn't much guts to go there by myself so I ended up roving here and there, killing the time. When it was getting late, I walked through the crowd to find my jeepney back to Kalayaan and to my surprise, there's not one there. I found a kilometric line instead and found myself queuing for a seat in an FX bound for heaven-knows-where; someone just told me it would pass by Kalayaan so it must be my FX. I loved every wave of excitement I felt the whole time I was there. Of course, I went home safe that night.
The next day, I dragged myself from my Besz' bed and took a shower. It felt like an end, which of course was what it was. I told myself to savor every drop of my remaining moments there: do not blink. However, as always, I ignored that second voice. I blinked. Now, look where it brought me: back to reality.
Off to work for now. Break is over. Ciao!
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