So forgive me. I am about to flood this blog with everything I can remember happening before December 2011. Okay, okay… so I’ll just give the highlights.

AN UNEXPECTED PARTING

On September 18, I had to go to work and check out our Taiwanese guests from Pan Pacific Hotel. Since it’s a Sunday, I figured my husband could go with me and we’ll just head straight to the mall and eat out for lunch afterwards.

While savoring all the food we could consume at Yakimix in Mall of Asia, my sister in law Beth called me on my cellphone to ask if I’ve heard about Lola Betty. She said that Lola was rushed to the hospital and that she, my brother Blu and their kids are on their way home from church because of lola’s emergency.

So okay. I was a bit worried but panic has not set in. The rest of the family are at home that time and I figured Lola was in good hands. But since it was still unclear whether Lola Betty is okay by then, I could no longer enjoy my food.

Then Beth called me again after a few minutes and I could hear her crying. She said that Lola had a heart attack and that she’s in a coma. I immediately wanted to know if Lola will be okay but despite trying to call my sister Chi and my parents (especially my father because Lola is his mom), I can’t get through.

So my husband and I rushed to finish our food, pay the bill and flagged a taxi to take us straight to the hospital. The minutes it took us to travel was like years because I still don’t know Lola’s current status and I can’t reach anyone from my family who  can answer.

When we got to the hospital, everyone was outside the emergency room. They told us to enter the ER and I found lola strapped to machines and such. Tita Josie was there, also my sister Chi and they were arranging for Lola’s room.

I was a little relieved by then thinking if they need a room for Lola, then she’ll just need 24-hour observations and medications and she’ll wake up from her deep sleep. All of us were trying to think positive because we know that aling Betty is a fighter.

And while waiting at the hospital with my parents, siblings, uncles, aunties and cousins – yep! Lola has a big family! – we learned that Lola was actually enjoying her lunch earlier before she complained that she couldn’t breath. My uncles all thought she’s having another asthma attack and wanted to rush her to the ER. But she opted to go to her room for her nebulizer. But she still couldn’t breathe and on the way to the hospital, Lola lost consciousness. I think they mentioned that her heart stopped and she had to be revived in the hospital. So the doctors were worried about the time when no oxygen reached her brain too.

While in coma, we always talk to Lola. We believe that she can hear us and we keep telling her to wake up. All of my cousins and siblings and I took turns watching over Lola in behalf of our parents. Our parents were already of an age where they need a good night’s sleep so the younger generations had to watch over Lola.

Thursday, September 23. I was assigned to look over her that morning so I filed for a sick leave that day. Since Felix couldn’t take time off from work, he just accompanied me  for a short while and we were at the hospital by 7am. We talked to her, saying her other children are coming from abroad to visit her so she had to wake up already. Lola always wanted to present her best so we teased her that she needs to wake up so we can wash her hair and she can put on a lipstick before her daughters arrived. One will be coming from New Zealand, one from Malaysia and two from the US.

So in between talking to her, urging her to wake up, singing Christmas songs to her (I always choked up in the middle of the song. This is definitely the hardest thing I had to do that day), massaging her limbs, I also had to talk to her doctors and nurses. That’s when we learned that she’s not responding to all the tests given to her and that her body is starting to shut down.

Long story cut short, Lola’s brood had to move her out of the ICU the next day and we all had to say our goodbyes to her as she lays in the hospital bed unconscious.

And by 12:30 AM on September 25, the ringing of my cellphone woke me up. It was my cousin’s friend telling me we should go to the hospital now. She didn’t have to tell me Lola is gone by then. I knew she was because she visited me in my dream. Lola Betty’s face was the last I saw before the phone woke me.

I’ve never been close to my Lola unlike my sister Chi. But we grew up living next door to Lola. And during those times she lived with her daughter in the States, she’s always in touch with her apos in Manila. We also send out videos of us here in Manila to her. Internet was still not popular then so we kept in touch through her regular calls to Manila and through sending her videos in VHS format.

But despite not being close, I must admit that I felt and still continue to feel her absence. Celebrations and parties in Bambang are certainly different now without her. As the matriarch, she’s in the center of all family reunions and celebrations. Now, everyone feels that pinch when it hits us that she’s no longer with us.

I miss you Lola. I will always regret not showing you how much I cared. Sorry for being too busy with my life. How I wish that when or if Felix and I do have kids, that they would be able to get to know you too. At least by that time, you no longer need to ask me kung may laman na ba or wala pa.

I love you, Lola and know that you will always be remembered.

And it goes without saying that we also get to taste our foreign counterparts’ foods like the rice crackers, biscuits and chocolates.

Most of the time, the junk foods we get as pasalubongs from our Taiwanese and Japanese guest comes in cute packages.

‘Course not everything becomes a favorite because sometimes, it’s just an acquired taste hehe.

Here’s some of the stuff we got from our guests:

nutty nougut

This is actually just 2 white candy balls packaged in a plastic with a picture of a panda. Cute no?

pandy or panda candy hahaha

that's how tiny it is

And this pineapple cake (Fengli Su – 鳳梨酥) is actually too sweet for me that’s why I cannot finish one hehehe.

super sweeeeet cake

bite sized cake in cutie package

It tastes okay, nothing to rave about actually. But I’m still blogging about it because of its cute package.

this is what's inside

Would this blog be complete without an action pic from me? See how tiny sized the cake is hehehe.

now you see it, later you wont

The first time I heard the music was thru a Kpop group’s CF-slash-drama for a beer in Korea. It was used as the background music during the club scene as Yoon Eun Hye dances with 2PM’s Nickchun. The lyrics goes like this:

i wanna dance into the sun
in the morning light i’m the only one
and you’re begging me this has just begun
…will take me till the dawn has come

Mebbe you’re familiar with the song? The second time I heard it was in one of the episodes from the 2nd season of the Vampire Diaries.

Watch it below. If the music or the lyrics doesn’t get to you, mebbe Eun Hye’s sexy outfit will. Or Nick & Eun Hye’s sensual dance? hahaha.

My officemate, Angel, offered this brown bread to me one morning and I almost finished the whole pack. I don’t even know what it’s called. I only know it was bought at King’s Bakeshop in Masangkay Street in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Anywho, months and fifty or so breads later, I finally find out it’s called Moshi. I was not able to personally buy one for myself eventhough the bakery is just a few blocks away from home.

Whenever I find time to go to the store, the thing has been sold out. For P15 bucks a piece, I’d say that’s quite a best seller.

It just looks like any other bread, with some black (sesame?) seeds inside. My officemates are joking that it might be poppy seeds because the bun is very addictive hehe. When you bite into one, you’ll actually feel like you’ve sunk your teeth into a rubber… With a hint of sweet of course. But however hard it is, we simply couldn’t help ourselves.

In fact, you need to be careful if you have dentures or bridged teeth. Personally, I break one using my hands and start eating it strips by yummy strips.

PS : Moshi breads are more enjoyable fresh out of the oven. Now I wonder why we never thought of heating it up before eating it hehehe.

So I’ve decided to try this WordPress blogging app this time cause, hey, it’s free and my site is hosted by WordPress.com.

Lemme just try attaching a picture file below

If I’ll be able to see my picture, with my newly trimmed locks, then my upload is a success. Hope I won’t need to resize it.

I’ve just downloaded Blogbooster, an iPhone 4 application that would enable me to blog directly from my phone.

This is my first Blogbooster post. Since i’ve got big thumbs, spelling accurately using the virtual keyboard would be a challenge hehe.

If this app will work for me, i might just buy the full version which will allow me to add more accounts. Meantime, i’ll try the lite version.

Of course, I still have to discover how to resize the photos I include in my blog (had to resize this thru my desktop)

Twilight's casts in Jopman

But for last year’s Christmas Party, I have to admit that I was more stressed with our performance. What with combining the stress from work (we still had interviews scheduled for that month), stress & excitement from anticipating our family reunion (relatives from New Zealand, US and Malaysia invaded tita Josie & uncle Gilbert’s place and the cousins had an awesome time bonding in Manila & Cebu), and anxiety from thinking what would be a WINNER costume for the group entrance & the WINNING performance.

Last December 20,  2010, my group and I picked Twilight Saga for our themed costume. Since our characters tried to act human as much as possible, the only thing we could do to suit up as Edward, Bella, Jacob and James, etc. is to buy wigs, find the look alike clothes and put on more face powder & glitter to those playing vampires. From what we’ve seen of the costumes of the other 2 groups, we already know we’ll never beat the 300s and the Mulawins. We were in fact content to place third.

For our performance, we went old school with a little bit of sexy and tart by combining songs like All That Jazz (from Chicago The Movie), Lady Marmalade (from Moulin Rouge) and Santa Baby by the Pussy Cat Dolls. We really thought we had a chance at a first prize. Unfortunately, we only placed 2nd.

But placing 3rd and 2nd good enough, I guess. We raked in a total of 45k for both competitions.

Check out our photos here. Most of the shots taken by my husband is already posted in my FB.

Laurant (Uncle Bong), James (Stewart) & Rosalie (cousin Lyan) @ Jopman

All That Jazz intro

Singing & dancing that Jazz is no easy peat

Reggie, Arlene, Lyan & Irene as Santa's Baby

Hitting those high notes from Lady Marmalade is not as easy as we thought haha

Lady Marmalade for finale

Here’s the video of our performance (sing & dance portion)…

The event is the first time majority of my father’s siblings (including their respective families) were able to spend Christmas together. In fact, of all the 12 children of lola Betty and lolo Vino, only uncle Tony and uncle Jorge were not able to fly home to Manila from Washington DC.

Aling Betty and her Brood

My missing cousins, on the other hand, were Kuya Larry & Ate Maritess (uncle Jorge’s kids) and their respective family, Ardee who’s working on a cruise ship (probably somewhere in Europe), C.K. and Mayumi who are also in the States and Ceelyn who recently migrated to Canada to be with her husband.

Check out the pictures of aling Betty’s grandchildren (my generation) and great-grandchildren.

Apos and Apo sa Tuhod with Lola Betty & 'Ta Beng

Tita Josie & Uncle Gie’s place in Makati is full to bursting. In fact, the 3rd floor (where the program was held) was already a standing room only.

Everyone had a great time that day. Hopefully, this grand reunion is just the beginning of many more hehehe.

tea eggs

On our first day, we stuffed ourselves silly at Nei Wan in Hsinchu. The tourist spots has rows of stores selling local foods, clothes and souvenirs. Foods I personally tasted are there is this corn dog and noodle (i forgot the name). Check this out.

my lunch on our first day

At the Feng Chia night market in Taichung, my sister Chi, officemate Wilbert and I bought grilled shrimps on stick (seasoned with salt and pepper) and mashed potato with melted cheese (topped with corn, ham, bacon, etc.). The challenge that night was eating everything while walking along the night market (with shopping bags on both arms), looking for other great buys (meaning cheap and nice haha). And oh, we had to walk a long way before I can find a convenience store to buy my soda. I was not brave enough to try the milk teas and other teas along the road.

At Sun Moon Lake in Taichung, we bought tea eggs (again), fruits, sausage on stick (Taiwan’s version of chorizo) and this pork meals also seasoned with S & P. We ate the pork meal with the rice we brought from Manila while on the bus. The 2-day old rice was more than okay hahaha.

my officemates queuing up for those fruits

Tea Eggs, Anyone?

munch time

We simply had to taste this all-you-can-eat Shabu-Shabu just a few blocks away from our hotel in Ximending. Imagine, all 50+ of us, in one restaurant which basically allows one to cook and eat every seafood, veggie, meat, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, cakes, softdrinks, beer or juice they have for only NT$ 500 (give or take a few digits) per pax? Glutton heaven, right?

unlimited dessert? ayos!

And my most memorable find (or eat) is this yellow watermelon which was served as our breakfast in Rainbow Hotel, Taipei.

this is a watermelon

can you spell Y-U-M-M-Y?

Check out the rest of the pictures and food hehehe…