Getting Reacquainted With The Place

I woke up early yesterday morning despite having lack of sleep the previous night attending the wake of my aunt.

I hate seeing the fallen leaves in front of the house, atop  the  two parked cars of my brother and ours so I have to sweep while drinking a hot cup of coffee. Wandered around the place and took several shots of the flowers growing there together with the coconut trees and mahogany trees planted years ago by my Dad.  I will update how our garden looks now after several years of not seeing it (in my other blog of course).

An old well. We used to fetch water here when we were kids and until potable water was provided by the town several years ago.

 

Mahogany trees

 

Our coconut trees. We had fresh buko during breakfast. Fresh from the tree of course.

 

A pile of old and dried coconut leaves which one can make into brooms. I told my brother to hire someone to clean it.

Honestly, it is nice to go back there and commune with nature again even for a short time. I brought home some jackfruit.

Since we are in a higher place, it is cold at night and in the early morning.

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I Got Lost Last Night (Sometimes I Hate Road Trips)

Thinking about it today, it just made me smile but last night was so stressful for Josef, Jovy and me. I think even Oreo was worried about me waiting for a long time inside the car.

So I said, “why didn’t you bark so I could have heard you?”. He just looked at me with those adoring eyes and put himself to sleep the rest of the way.

It was an  uneventful trip from Pangasinan until we reached and traversed  SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway). Continuing our trip via NLEX  North Luzon Expressway), we stopped by Shell Select Gas Station just to use their comfort rooms. My gosh, the line was a mile long and the cars  were almost touching each other. The place has several restaurants and fast food chain and  they were all full. There were two centralized comfort rooms at the place. I even saw my daughter briefly when she kissed and greeted me and said they just had dinner. They came from a four-day trip in Baguio City up north. We decided to stop by another gas station at San Fernando, Pampanga, Caltex  Mega Station. Josef and Jovy only use Caltex gas for the car. There was also a long line of cars having their gas refilled. In my haste, I left my bag inside the car and not even thought of bringing a cellphone with me.

When I came back from the comfort room, I could no longer see our car. From a sea of humanity, eating and buying something for their dinner and the cars parked in every available space, I searched for them. I had nothing with me, not even a few cents in my pocket.  At the same time, the two were also looking for me. After about thirty minutes and engaging the help of the car barkers at the area, Josef saw me. All along they were parked closed to  the gas station.

That was a very stressful and laughable experience for me. We reached home a little late because of the traffic.

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Going Back Home After More Than Eight Years

It was an unexpected trip last Sunday night. It was a long six hours  along the road going back to our town in Pangasinan.

We have to accompany Mom  in going home because her sister (my aunt) died. Had to be at the wake right after we had dinner at 11pm. Stayed until 3am and my cousins and I had a nice but sad reunion. I haven’t seen some of them for almost a decade.

Mom was hysterical when she saw my aunt’s coffin repeatedly saying, “bakit di mo ako inantay?” (Why did you not wait for me”?).

An uncle twice removed said that we only get to see each other during such happenings.  When you have your own family and relatives live far away from you, it is not always a possibility to see each other regularly.

It was another long trip going back to Manila. Gridlock at NLEX because of the large volume of cars traversing the expressway. When there is  a holiday close  to the weekend, expect those long lines of cars going North and back.

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