KIDS’ FIELDTRIPS

For this year, the kids went to Mt. Samat in Bataan for their fieldtrip. Kit’s class went ahead this time on November 23 while Kaye’s class had theirs on December 14. I decided to go with Kaye though there wasn’t much pretty places to visit this was because I haven’t been to Mt. Samat’s cross in Bataan… I know, I know it’s a common site for field trips since time immemorial but I guess I was absent that year. So I decided to join her ... besides there was an added ‘shopping spree’ at Clark after the kids had visited a museum so that’s another incentive for me to go huh! I let Keith borrow the old camera for him to use but it seems he is not really into taking pics, he would just rather have his pics taken with his friends using their cameras…so he just had a few pics when he came back. In fact, most of his pics were landscapes or trees or taken inside the bus… expectedly, he wasn’t in any of them so that is why he opted to just join in other people’s kodakan!

Kaye, on the other hand, had lots and lots of pics because I was with her and so she had an official photographer. Her fieldtrip started with the visit to Mt. Samat…we spent lots of time there because only a few at a time are allowed to go up all the way to the cross so the students with their parents/teachers/guardians had to go up by batches. After we had our fill of the view, the strong wind up on the cross and of picture-taking, we wandered around the grounds of Mt. Samat and also visited their museum.

After Mt. Samat, the kids had fun in the Clark Airfield playground (the one we went to with Adrian and Budong) and this is where we had our lunch seated on the grass like a picnic. But I guess the highlight of the trip for Kaye is the visit to Feliz Cidade, a mini carnival / theme park with lots of kiddie rides like Star City. It was located in Mabalacat, Pampanga. We spent the rest of the afternoon there and left only when it was a bit dark already outside. We bought some dinner to eat during the bus ride because it would be quite late when we got home to San Jose…Kaye slept most of the ride home and I guess I am just happy that she is happy and that we were able to spend some time together because soon enough when she is a bit older, she will have her friends to go with …so I have to treasure moments like this that we still spend together.

TICKETS TO BOHOL

Okay…okay… I am doing this again…I guess it’s true what they say once it bites you… you're hooked! By what??? The travel bug that is! Well, you see for the past two years, the hubby and I have been going around the country doing travels with the office for work (seminars/workshops) but of course, it can’t be helped that there would be times when we would be given a tour by our hosts (usually politicos) in order for us to savor what their province had to offer. And so this year, to make up for our absence, the hubby and I decided to take the kids with us on a trip to Palawan (well, we’ve been there last year when the hubby went there for a seminar and I decided to follow him there as a birthday treat for myself). The kids thoroughly enjoyed the vacation in Palawan last February and so when my fave flag carrier (CEBUPAC) went on sale again today…I went crazy and decided to book us all on a trip to Bohol. But this time, we are taking Myk and Inang with us. We timed the vacation to coincide with Inang’s birthday since it would be in a way, our birthday treat for her. The only problem was that I didn’t have a credit card and my mother’s credit limit had already been maxed…well, considering her recent ‘troubles’ it would be understandable that she’ll be relying more on her card for their daily needs. The only choice I had left was Ate Ne and thankfully she was more than willing to let us borrow her card for the online transaction. So that before the day ended, I had been able to book all six of us on a trip to Bohol….hurrah! I am sure the kids would be so excited the moment they learn about this! It cost me back some PhP9500++ but it would be okay…we’d be receiving some money naman for Christmas and what better way to spend it than for ourselves. What’s good though is that we still have about three months to save up more money for our lodging, food, and other transportation/pasyal expenses. So here’s good luck to us! And hopefully nothing derails our plans to visit Bohol next year…

MAMA GOT SCAMMED!

It’s her birthday today and in lieu of a gift, I decided to just give her cash…nope not because I want her to buy a gift for herself but because she had just recently been SCAMMED!!! Yup …you heard it right my mom got scammed! I guess all her years as an intelligence officer did not truly prepare her for these kinds of things…or I guess my mom’s gullibility got the better of her and so got victimized. You see it’s not an entirely new modus operandi but when she got a text message from an unknown number telling her that this is his/her new roaming number, she immediately assumed it was my brother (who was in Abu Dhabi). Then, when he asked for some load, at first she thought nothing of it; maybe he was just out of money and needed to call someone. But when the scammer started asking for more and told her that he is doing it as some sort of a ‘loading business’ for other Filipinos in the area, she even felt happy. She thought that finally my brother had become wise enough and business-minded so that his hard-earned money would not just go to waste. And so she thought nothing of pawning her jewelry and borrowing money from friends just so she could buy enough cell cards that he asked – I think about 20 or 50K! The sad part is that my brother failed to call her that Friday (I think the scammer started texting her around Wednesday) as his usual habit (because Friday was his day-off) so he failed to alert her to the scammer’s evil intent. In fact, her giving of load continued up to Sunday when my brother finally called and told her he has not changed his roaming number at all…oh no! And that was when she felt her world crashing on her… And so this is the reason why I am giving her money…not much but just enough to tide her over with her day-to-day necessities. Since all the money she would be earning now would be used to pay her loans and the jewelry she pawned, she would have not much left to buy her food and other stuff… but, I guess my brother would also help her out…after all though he did not intend to it was indirectly his fault that this happened to her. I just hope now Mama would learn her lesson and not be so gullible anymore…I remember when I was still a teen-ager, she almost always gets enticed by some smooth-talking sales personnel to buy something she doesn’t really need – that’s how gullible she is! Or maybe she just has a soft spot for people in need so even if she doesn’t really have the money to spare, she couldn’t help but give it away to someone whom she feels needed it more than she does…

A NEW BABY…

It’s another long holiday weekend and we spent some time this year at the cemetery unlike in previous years…well, I guess they just wanted to visit their brother who just recently died…it’s also a perfect time to catch up with relatives who come from far away to visit their loved ones…Many of the people there I didn’t recognize but I went anyway and kissed the hands of the oldies there. We brought with us some snacks and drinks to keep the kids and our mouths preoccupied. Of course, we were already busy chatting with their cousins there while the kids were busy playing around with the candles and running around and above the tombs. But the highlight of this year’s long weekend vacation is the birth recently of another of our ‘grandchildren’ from another pamangkin, who lived for awhile in our place at San Jose - Ate Peng. She also just recently graduated from college but (unfortunately for her Mom who slaved abroad to let her study) she got pregnant immediately after graduating so her plans to bring her daughter with her abroad got delayed. But Peng still has every intention to work abroad (in Qatar, particularly where her Mom also works as a tutor) but only after her baby has grown enough to be left in the care of a dependable caretaker (maybe her mother-in-law). But I guess all of her mother’s anger would surely fade upon seeing this new bundle of joy --- he is so cute and looks just like her…hehehe