Bisdak Babbles

I was really disappointed with Jollibee for what happened at Shaynna’s school. But when we arrived at Jollibee’s activity area 30 minutes earlier, everything had already been setup. T prepared a birthday party for Shaynna at Jollibee. This time, Shaynna’s guests are her cousins and soem children from the neighborhood. For some of these children, that was their first time in Jollibee. Some were too shy to join the games. A few were too scared to get near the mascot (including me).
Here are some photos from Shaynna’s 5th birthday party:

With her cousin, Choichoi:

Shaynna and another cousin, Baby K:

I wanted to get closer to the mascot but I just can’t…

Shaynna and Jollibee:

I was so much a grandma’s girl before going to highschol. I adored my Lola (grandma) Iyang that I often went with her to church, to her choir practice, and even when she sells those Filipino delicacies she used to cook. As much as I love my Lola Iyang, I love her older sister as well, Nanay Soling. She had this tisa fruit tree (sorry, I have no clue how to call this fruit in English). I loved visiting her and taste her corn tea. One of Nanay Soling’s hobby is to smoke tobacco. I thought that if a person wants to smoke, he either buys cigarettes or make his own cigar. I didn’t know of Black and Mild cigars and other cigar brands. Anyway, my Nanay Soling is already in her 80’s but she still does some farming and makes her own cigar.

October 12 was a school day but it was hard to invite Shaynna’s classmates for a birthday party. So I decided to bring in snacks to school. A week before, I have asked my mother to make an advance order of Kiddie Meals from Jollibee and have it delivered to Shaynna’s school at 2:30PM. They have snacks at 3:00PM and go home at 3:30PM.

On that special day, we arrived at almost 3:00PM but no delivery from Jollibee yet. So my mother and a cousin went to that Jollibee outlet to follow-up the orders. Unfortunately, they had a miscommunication and thought that the delivery should be at 6PM! I was frantic because the teachers told me the children were beginning to get restless. They already sang a song for Shaynna and the teachers did their best to keep the children entertained. At 3:15PM my mother and cousin arrived with the snacks. We only had 15 minutes left to distribute the food! The Jollibee crew must have panicked because the even forgot to put in forks for the spaghetti and straws for the juice! Fortunately, my mother insisted on bringing plastic spoons for the macaroni salad she made.

Despite being late, at least the worry from Shaynna’s face was wiped away when she saw us enter her classroom. I told her to help distribute the toys to her classmates and happily posed with them:

I remember sitting in one of those classroom chairs for almost the whole class duration. She was so afraid to let go of me so I had to ask the teachers to let me stay. Her confidence now is clearly the exact opposite to how she behaved on that first day at school more than a year ago.

If my mother and my younger sister were staying with me, I would have gained a lot of weight already and would have taken into consideration using one of those weight loss supplements. My family loves to eat. Yes, there’s nothing wrong with it, unless junk food is what they often dig into.

I really hate to take up the role of a discipliarian but that is just what I do each time I go home. Being in Japan for a few years has taught me a lot, and health awareness is one of them. I maybe considered the worst among my friends in personal health care. But my family is worse than me. My family is a big fan of soda and I want to change that. It is hard especially trying to impose that in a throng of stubborn people. But I will keep on trying. That’s why I brought my mother a box of green tea. I hope she will at least give green tea a chance and start forgetting about soda.

There’s no way I’m going to post indecent photos here! Anyway, since Shaynna turned 3 years old, she had never slept beside me each time I go home. Yes, it hurt A LOT! But I could not blame her. I just tried all my might to set aside the pain and enjoy each single moment I spend with her. Despite this behavior, she has always come to me first during our “first” meetings.

Last week, nothing can contain my joy. She agreed to sleep beside me!  So, I was able to capture some bedroom moments, together with my brother’s almost 2-year old daughter, Kiera, whom Shaynna fondly calls “Baby K”…

My little angel…
With Baby K…
As always, messing with my cellphone…

My favorite: synchronized nose-blowing…

During my vacation last week, I often fetched Shaynna from school. To get there, I have to pass by my highschool “alma mater”. That school sure did change a lot. The single-level classrooms have been replaced with a huge multi-storey, sophisticated building. A waiting area has been added to the simple school gate. But the traffic condition is still the same. I think the number of students has ballooned. But I’ve always loved that green-colored school uniform.

Seeing that school brought me back to my highschool days. I miss my highschool friends. I have never met most of them again when we went to different universities. I tried to look for them in Friendster, Facebook, other social networking sites. But I think not everyone is as addicted to the internet as me. How I wish I could find a good free web directory that has all the information I need to find all of my childhood friends.

I stayed in Iligan City for a week. But I never came across someone from my highschool. Perhaps it is time for me to finally join the annual grand alumni homecoming?

Thanks to all who drop by despite my inactivity in this blog. I went home to the Philippines last week for my Shaynna’s 5th birthday (by the way, thanks for the greetings). Now, I’m back here in Singapore. One thing’s for sure: a week with Shaynna and my family is really short and I want more! I wish for a longer vacation! We only have a lone shopping mall in Iligan City but I still tremendously enjoyed my bonding moments with Shaynna. Will do more posts on this one.

Nothing extraordinary happened during my travel. Except seeing Coco Martin in person! Sadly, I wasn’t able to charge my cellphone so I failed to take a photo.

I also had an encounter with a lazy government employee at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 3. Imagine going to the OFW counter to ask that person in-charge and being told to wait for a while. I waited for a few seconds but that guy went back to sleep! That was another reason for me to regret not being able to charge my cellphone! I would have taken a photo of that guy and post it here.

Not much changes in my hometown except for more unfamiliar faces. My mother and sister have gained so much weight that I may appear skinny next to them. Of course I dug into my favorite dishes: lechon, dried fish, halo-halo, etc. that I need to spend more effort on weight loss. I don’t want to end up like my mother after all!

My daughter, Shaynna is turning five on Monday. When asked what she wanted for her birthday? The whole family, some balloons and a layer of cake. As a girl, she added she wanted a tiara with flowers on it.

I can’t believe that I’ll have a five-year-old soon! And finally, for the first time, I’ll be with her on that special day. I’m so glad Cebu Pacific has this airfare sale from time to time. I got a roundtrip ticket for only S$130.

Here’s Shaynna on her first birtday: