Back in February 2010, I went home on holiday to the Philippines. My vacation leave was officially from 11th February to 26th March – around 45 days of work-free, worry-free, food-loaded days, most of it to be spent in my home country.

I never did get the chance to blog a lot about the trip. I’m sure that most of it I could not chronicle quite clearly now, nearly six to seven months later. However, I found some pictures in my cellular phone and digital camera and wanted to share these.

On the Cebu Pacific flight from Manila to Iloilo. Taken 15 February 2010. No, I was stubborn and did not switch off my cellular phone when I boarded the plane. I did eventually, though, after snapping this pic.

At the La Paz home of my paternal grandparents, with my uncle and mom. Brought loads of food and a cake to celebrate my grandmother’s 82nd birthday! Taken 9 March 2010.

With Peter in Barangay Nino, Concepcion, Iloilo, during our visit to my maternal grandparents. Our background was our trusty 4WD white Fortuner transport. Taken 14 March 2010.

Our farewell dinner shortly before our flight back to Muscat. We had a light meal with Melody and Genefel at Max’s Restaurant in SM Makati. Taken 24 March 2010.

For sure, pictures of smiling people are loads better to see on a Filipino’s blog rather than an angry rant on the August 23rd hostage crisis in Manila. Perhaps later?

This is the first blog entry I have written from my hometown in the Philippines since October 2007, when I moved to Oman. As such, this is the first time I have come back to my native land.

It has been quite a long time now, more than two eventful years, yet it feels like I first stepped onto the international flight away from home only yesterday. So much has changed yet it all feels strangely the same.

People have aged and grown, come and gone. Places have been built and destroyed, beautified and left to the mercy of time and decay. Money ebbs and flows, most of it moving away from our grasp so quickly as prices have all gone up. There are little victories and small defeats, glorious milestones and ugly consequences.

I am sure the above will still apply when I come back home again in later years.

When I arrived home, one of the first things I noticed was the addition of a small wooden plaque to the wall. These words were inscribed on the plaque:

Winners or Losers

The winner is always a part of the answer
The loser is always a part of the problem

The winner always has a program
The loser always has an excuse

The winner says, “Let me do it for you.”
The loser says, “That’s not my job.”

The winner sees an answer for every problem
The loser sees a problem in every answer

The winner says, “It may be difficult but it’s possible.”
The loser says, “It may be possible but it’s too difficult.”

On a final note: Happy, happy, happy birthday to my grandmother!

I never really realized how much I miss my home country until I read this nostalgic entry from my friend Genefel‘s blog. I have been away from the Philippines for nearly two years now. Come the first of October 2009, it will be exactly two years to the day.

To be honest, I miss so many things from my hometown, the beautiful coastal Iloilo City, foremost of which are my family, friends, old colleagues, the accessible public transport system, and the delicious, affordable food.

I am dying for a piece of Jolibee Chicken Joy or a slice of Andok’s liempo. Or at least a proper KFC Original Recipe meal, with steaming-hot gravy and a cup of rice.

However, I miss my pet Japanese Spitz doggie, Pikachu (yes, shamelessly named after the perky, literally electrifying Pokemon), much, much more than all the aforementioned Pinoy culinary delights combined.

Pikachu up close

Pikachu from another angle

Pikachu giving me a wet kiss on the cheek!

The above photos were taken back in 2007, give or take few months before I left for Oman. I found all these files from the memory card of my trusty Nokia 6600. Apologies for the not-so-high quality of the images!

Pikachu is not a pure Japanese Spitz. Her mother, Choco, was, but her father was apparently a strapping poodle. Thus, you can see that Pikachu has inherited her sire’s big eyes and floppy ears.

My doggie has been with me since May 2003. She was so tiny when she first arrived at our home, being only a few months old back then. She didn’t know how to eat from her pet bowl, but would guzzle milk like there’s no tomorrow.

Pikachu grew fast and shed and grew back her thick, fluffy, white fur even more quickly. She liked to eat my favorite food as well – chicken liver, baked ziti with mixed tomato and carbonara sauce, roasted and butter-fried chicken, among many others.

I intend to go home early next year, perhaps sometime during the first calendar quarter. I will finally see my pet in person again, not just from a fuzzy webcam feed.

My mother always tells me over the phone that my baby has gained lots of weight because she now has even more food to eat, what with yours truly working abroad and all!

Today, November the 18th, marks two very special celebrations.

First is my mother‘s birthday. She is in the Philippines right now.

Given my current situation here in Oman, I still could not afford to get her an obscenely expensive gift for the occasion. Hee hee. Even so:

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAMA!

Your posse here in Oman extends its love, hugs, kisses, good wishes, prayers and virtual gifts such as cards, roses, gourmet steak dinners and melt-in-your-mouth cheesecakes.

The second event is that it is Oman National Day, which is celebrated in congruence with the birthday of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

Today, His Majesty the Sultan turns 67. It is the 37th National Day of the Sultanate, marking the same number of years of His Majesty’s benevolent rule, which brought renaissance and great development to Oman.

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty. May you be blessed with good health and a prosperous reign this year and all the years to come.

And, of course, Happy National Day to the people of Oman!

Wow. There is something to be said about people born on November the 18th – rulers all!

Happy, happy, happy wedding anniversary to my parents

I gave both my parents video CDs as gifts: an aerobic workout video for my mother and the classic war movie The Bridge Over River Kwai for my father.

To celebrate, my parents ditched the frou-frou that usually goes with this kind of occasion.

Instead, we had dinner at home consisting of to-die-for butter-fried chicken and simply sumptuous pancit canton guisado.

Happy, happy, happy birthday, Mommy!

My paternal grandmother turns 78 years old today. Before I went on my scheduled trip, I called and greeted my grandmother.

I was back in town in time for the last two evening screenings of Jet Li‘s martial arts swan song Fearless, also known as Huo Yuan Jia.

This film tells the story of Chinese martial arts master Huo Yuan Jia (1869-1910). Yuan Jia was the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation, which exists until today.

The story begins with a young Yuan Jia, who was born with asthma, aspiring to become a powerful martial arts master just like his father (portrayed by the magnificent Collin Chou), who owns and runs the Huo Wushu school.

Yuan Jia eventually got his wish as he grew up. He defeats the Master of the Zhao Wushu school, their family’s primary rival in their hometown of Tianjin, as well as the powerful Master Chin, said to be the best fighter in Tianjin. He becomes the undisputed martial arts champion of their town.

Vengeance from Master Chin’s family, however, leads to a tragic fate for Yuan Jia’s own family. The champion became an aimless wanderer and ends up close to death in a distant rural town where he is cared for a blind girl named Moon. He stayed in this serene farming community for several years.

Upon his return to Tianjin, Yuan Jia discovers that so much has changed since he left, and that China has been dubbed as “The Sick Man of the East.”

This gave him the impetus to accept the challenge issued by undefeated American strong-man Hercules O’Brien (Nathan Jones) to all Chinese fighters. With his more serene outlook in life and an infinitely clearer understanding of the principles of Wushu, Yuan Jia defeats Hercules, restores the badly bruised honor of China, and gains worldwide acclaim in the process.

In the days that followed, Yuan Jia’s loyal friend Nong Jin Sun decides to close his restaurant business in Tianjin and use his money instead to build the Jin Wu Sports Federation. Yuan Jia is named the organization’s leader and guru.

Yuan Jia’s celebrated victory gains the attention of a group of businessmen from various parts of Asia and Europe. They challenged Yuan Jia to fight four of the best warriors from their own countries. Yuan Jia accepts this challenge. He also asks Jin Sun to take over the Sports Federation after the fight.

This fight pits Yuan Jia against the British boxing champion, the European fencing champion, a highly skilled German military officer and the undefeated Karate hero of Japan, Anno Tanaka (deliciously and delightfully brought to life by Shido Nakamura).

Unbeknownst to all the fighters, especially to Yuan Jia and Anno, this match will not only decide their own fate as warriors, but will also make a strong statement about the destiny of the countries they represent.

I enjoyed Fearless very much, mainly because of the beautiful, brutally raw fight sequences.

The martial arts choreography was far from stylized or embellished with camera tricks – what I saw were fighters willing to give and take actual punishment. Wire work was rather minimal, too.

What is also pleasing was that Jet Li had to fight against quite a number of opponents skilled in a wide variety of styles – from wrestling and boxing, to fencing and Karate, among many others. The action sequences really gave Jet many opportunities to showcase his excellent Wushu skills.

The film also reminded me of the 1973 Bruce Lee classic Enter the Dragon, wherein he incorporated his own philosophies on martial arts and life as a whole into the message of the movie. That is, at one point, Bruce’s character says: “My style, you can call the art of fighting without fighting.”

In much the same way, Jet Li sends a message that violence is not the answer to everything and that revenge only leads to more bloodshed.

In a nutshell, being fearless is not about rushing blindly into a fight, but having the courage to settle the conflict before someone gets hurt.

I took my paternal grandmother out for her birthday pizza dinner tonight.

Never mind that I did it two days in advance; I will be traveling on Thursday, which is the actual date, and I could not stay up late on Wednesday evening.

The dinner was set at Pizza Hut in SM City Mandurriao.

We had French fries as appetizers, and ordered a deep-dish pizza with the works and a cheese-stuffed crust. It was originally our intention to have dessert at some other restaurant in the mall.

While our waiter was serving us, I mentioned to him in passing that this was my birthday treat for my grandmother. Little did I know that he passed on the news to some members of the crew as well as the shift manager.

As we were finishing up the pizza and I was about to ask for our bill, four members of the restaurant staff, including our waiter and the shift manager herself, approached our table bearing tambourines and a delectable-looking plateful of cream-filled pastries garnished with white chocolate shavings and dark chocolate syrup.

After heartily greeting my grandmother, the restaurant staff burst into a very energetic rendition of the Happy Birthday to You song, complete with tambourine accompaniment.

This was the first time my grandmother ever had this kind of experience and she was both very touched and very delighted.

She even had me promise that on her birthday next year, we will return to the same restaurant and have dinner there again.

Today is the birthday of DB, a distant relative and a very good friend of mine.

Happy, happy, happy birthday, DB, and may you continue to kick everyone’s ass this year and in the years to come!

To celebrate, we had a delectable feast consisting of chopsuey, butter-fried chicken and glistening and very fat pan de leche for dinner tonight.

I think I ate all the mushrooms that were mixed into the chopsuey, although I vehemently denied doing such a heartless thing when my mother gently accused me of this crime.

My gift to DB was a set of various beauty products: foam facial wash, body soap, moisturizing cream and an exfoliating facial loofah. All these have been pre-packed at the store in a gorgeous white vanity bathroom bag.

Happy, happy, happy birthday, Daddy!

My paternal grandfather turns 77 today. I am praying he will have many more fruitful, joyful years ahead.

My dinner tonight was street fish ball. It costs two pesos per stick, with four balls in each stick.

I got a dozen sticks, all dipped in starchy, sweet sauce. Be very, very envious, peons!

Belated happy, happy, happy birthday, Papa!

I know I am four days late in stating this greeting in my journal, but, as the saying goes: “Mas vale tarde que nunca!”

My father celebrated the above-mentioned occasion on May 18th, the same day I caught the simultaneous worldwide premier of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

I was able to forage a couple of tickets and thus caught the screening with my friend Bob.

Before going up to the 10:00 PM show at SM City Cinema 5, we had dinner at the newly opened Rai Rai Ken, a Japanese (obviously) restaurant. Our fare consisted of chicken teriyaki on rice, mushroom and rich sauce on noodles, and bottomless iced tea.

Revenge of the Sith is my favorite among the three prequels, mainly because it is very dark and has a more adult and less teenybopper approach to storytelling, compared to the long political hullabaloo that was Episode I: The Phantom Menace and the rather mushy Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

As usual, I loved Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Christopher Lee as Count Dooku, although the latter had such a short role in the film.

Jimmy Smits was very debonair and dignified as Senator Bail Organa, while Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine had such delightful villainous command of all his scenes.

However, Master Yoda undoubtedly, literally rocked the house with his supreme lightsaber and martial arts skills.

Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker looked sexier with long hair but, sadly, he did little to appear more menacing as he succumbs to the Dark Side of the Force. His anger, fear and possessiveness could have been more palpable onscreen than it was portrayed.

I was very disappointed with the role of Natalie Portman as Senator Padme Amidala. All throughout the movie, she could be seen lounging around in a variety of highly stylized maternity dresses and crying over whatever it is Anakin decides to do, is doing or has done.

I missed the outspoken, powerful Naboo Queen-turned-Senator, who could enthrall the entire Galactic Senate with her courage and eloquence. Amidala was reduced to a necessary plot device, that is, the final push that would turn her husband into Darth Vader.

Nonetheless, I so had the chills when Anakin donned his costume and mask as Darth Vader for the first time. It was a little like communing with the Force.

Finally, after the long wait, the saga has come full circle.

Happy, happy, happy 89th birthday, Lolo!

My maternal grandfather is now pushing a decade shy of a century, and yet he is as hale as ever.

May you have many fruitful years ahead, Lolo. You are always in my heart and in my prayers.

Later today I am planning to go to the mall and pick up a book or two. I also intend to check if Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith will be showing in the next few days.

There is no substitute for catching a local movie premier, as I have done with Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, The Matrix Trilogy and the Harry Potter films, among others.

Yesterday’s trip to Concepcion was very enjoyable and memorable.

In fact, our family is planning to return on December, during one of those non-working holidays leading towards Christmas.

We left Iloilo City at around 10:00 AM, picking up film, gourmet chicken and roasted peanuts along the way. We passed numerous fiesta celebrations, as well as town plazas overflowing with ukay-ukay stalls.

To all interested bargain hunters, I highly recommend that you go to Leganes and Zarraga in Iloilo province during the weekends to catch those coveted cheap-and-chic buys.

Despite a very dusty and sweltering trip, we made it to Nino at 1:00 PM. We were met by Lolo and Lola, who are now both in their eighties.

Lolo will be turning 89 years old tomorrow! We had a big lunch as a sort of joint birthday celebration for Lolo and my father, whose birthday falls on May 18th.

I was able to take a bunch of photographs, but they were mostly pictures of people posing together. It rained on and off starting late afternoon, so it was not really a very good idea to walk around the fields and hills.

We left Nino past 5:00 PM and traveled to the neighboring town of Ajuy, where one of my uncles and his family live. My mother had a grand time buying euphorbia from the gardens that we passed, as these plants were available in bigger, cheaper and more exotic varieties at the northern areas compared to those being sold in the city.

At my uncle’s house, Father and I snacked on shark stew and Mountain Dew. Yes, shark equals Jaws.

It was a little past 7:00 PM when we finally started the journey back to the city, our jeepney filled with such goodies as bananas, farm eggs, Indian mangoes, patotim (steamed sweetened duck), pinaupong manok (steamed salted chicken, my favorite), talaba, and fresh vinegar.

My parents and I are going to the town of Concepcion early tomorrow morning to visit my maternal grandparents.

They live in the barangay of Nino, which, all in all, is a good three hours away from Iloilo City. I am so looking forward to seeing Lolo and Lola again, after almost a year.

I am grateful that it rained tonight. This will make the roads far less dusty than usual, and that is a very good thing as we will be using an open-window jeepney for transport.

It is quite fun to travel long distances via jeepney because it really makes you appreciate and savor the entire concept of completing the journey from one place to the other.

Over the past 24 hours, I finished the second and third installments of Sophie Kinsella‘s Shopaholic series, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan and Shopaholic Ties the Knot.

These books were both fun romps, but I have to say that I still love Confessions of a Shopaholic best. It goes without saying that I plan to get the fourth book, Shopaholic and Sister, the next time I go to the mall.

Never mind that I go to the bookstore practically everyday, just to make sure that I get first dibs on Dan Brown‘s Digital Fortress the very moment it hits the shelves. It is left as the only Brown book I have yet to read.

In additio, have I mentioned that I have actually made a down payment on my reservation of the sixth Harry Potter book a week ago?

Here is a description of the second Shopaholic book from Amazon.com:

In this sequel to Kinsella’s bestselling Confessions of a Shopaholic, Becky Bloomwood, a personal finance “expert” with her own TV show, is more of a financial mess than ever: she can’t stop shopping, even though she can’t afford anything.

She’s even assigned her flatmate, Suze, to monitor her spending, but to no avail: Becky is full of cute rationalizations, like “Foreign money doesn’t count, so you can spend as much as you like,” and can’t stop herself from sneaking into posh boutiques.

Her work-obsessed boyfriend, Luke, runs a financial PR agency, and when he gets the green light to open an office in New York City, he brings Becky along.

Upon her arrival in the Big Apple, she euphorically discovers Barney’s, Saks, Sephora and sample sales but when wind of her shopping excesses gets back to the British press, she loses both her relationship and her TV job.

Right now, I am suffering from a three-fold obsessive affliction.

That is, a coffee craving that shows no sign of abating, Kill Bill: Volume 2 and, of course, Rurouni Kenshin. As I write this, I am downloading a helluva lot of RK images and wallpapers to tide me over through the long Ramadan weekend.

I also wish to share with all and sundry that my father is now, officially, a Kill Bill convert.

This past week, I was able to purchase a video CD of Kill Bill: Volume 2 as it came out in our local stores and ended up watching it when I got home.

Father passed by the television set, paused for a glimpse of the action, and asked if it was David Carradine (Father being part of the Kung-Fu generation) playing Bill, to which I answered yes. The rest, as the cliche goes, was history.

From then on, Father proceeded to watch both installments of the Tarantino sword-slinging saga. He also made this analysis: “Bill loved Beatrix, and still did, even until his dying breath. Things could have worked out if the Bride had not left his side to give their child a different, if not better, life.”

Amen to that, Pops, and everything.

Amazon.com provides the summary of the movie:

With this thrilling, must-see movie event, writer and director Quentin Tarantino completes the action-packed quest for revenge begun by The Bride (Uma Thurman) in Kill Bill: Volume 1.

Having already crossed two names from her Death List, The Bride is back with a vengeance and taking aim at Budd (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), the only survivors from the squad of assassins who betrayed her four years earlier.

It’s all leading up to the ultimate confrontation with Bill (David Carradine), The Bride’s former master and the man who ordered her execution!

As the acclaimed follow-up to the instant classic Volume 1 – you know all about the unlimited action and humor, but until you’ve seen Kill Bill: Volume 2, you only know half the story!

I would like to greet all the mothers and mother figures in the world a very happy Mom’s Day. May your lives be blessed, fruitful and filled with love.

Greetings, glomps and hugs go out especially to Mama, Mommy and Nanay.

These three women have each played the role of a mother excellently in my life, at one time or another. I will never be what I am now without their wisdom, support and strength.

Also to Mama Inday, who is now in a better place than this Earth.

I hope my love reaches you where you are now. I miss you, but I am happy that you have found peace after the long agony of your illness. I am sure we will see each other again, someday.