Undas 2024

Undas is the Spanish acronym for Unos Dias de los Almas y de los Santos. In English it translates to Days of the Souls and of the Saints. We, Catholics observe All Saints' Day on November 1 and All Souls' Day on the second of November. We visit the graves of our beloved departed family members, relatives and friends to pay our respects, pray and offer flowers and candles. Most cemeteries and memorial parks are full. Parking problems and traffic jams on roads leading to cemeteries  are common on these public holidays of obligation.

This year, we first visited Papa Wel, D's father at the crypt of the Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Bustillos, Sampaloc. All of D's siblings live in different parts of the USA. 

I never met Papa Wel as I have never been to the US.

His remains were cremated in Oct. 2012 in Seattle and his elder sister brought the urn home to be buried at the family crypt along with his first wife and his eldest son, Kuya Danny. 

Papa, Mama, Tita Ana, Tita Narcing and Ninong Freddie

November 3, 2024 a Sunday there were less people at the Loyola Memorial Park in Sucat, Paranaque where my maternal grandparents, grand aunts, my ninong (Mommy's cousin) and my parents are buried. 

We visited before lunch time with the sun blazing one minute then a slight drizzle with hovering dark clouds the next minute.

 

Mommy was officially diagnosed with a rare form of cancer October 2020 after a much delayed biopsy. By then, it was already terminal. From an energetic, sprightly, bubbly and jolly person, she became non verbal and bedridden the last months of her life. It was very painful for us to lose her that way. Three months later, Dad tragically fell down the stairs. 

Three years have passed by but the pain is still very raw. I still burst into tears when I see pictures of them on my fb feed or on my phone. 

I fervently pray for the eternal repose of their souls. May they rest in peace in God's eternal kingdom. 

Amen.

Opal month

October is the opal month of the year. It is the month of glory, of ripeness. It is the picture-month. - Henry War Beecher 

Before October ends, I acknowledge the fact that I turned 56 this year.

Three years ago, I lost both my parents within three months.

So I learn to appreciate small blessings.

Life is short.

I no longer yearn for pipe dreams, big goals and lofty ideas.

Sister dearest and hubby bunchy kept asking me what I wanted to do to celebrate.

Frankly, nothing concrete came to my foggy mind.

I guess we could just eat out.

But I couldn't think of any specific place where I totally, really wanted to dine.

October 12, sister dearest and I had lunch at Little Quiapo in BF Homes after visiting the parents at Loyola Sucat in Paranaque.

Pancit Palabok, Special Goto and Tokwa't Baboy (Little Quiapo)

Later,  hubby joined us for dinner at Lugang Cafe, a Taiwanese restaurant in SM Megamall. The night before sister dearest was to fly back to her work base.

Xiao Long Bao, Fried Rice and Seafood spinach soup

Toasted siopao, Taiwanese fried rice and sauteed spinach

Lugang Cafe

October 19, my birthday - hubby and I had buffet dinner at Guevarra’s by Chef Laudico in San Juan.

Thankful and grateful.

Eternally blessed.

Nothing more I can ask for.

Life is short.

Let's just enjoy it. ♥️

Dual citizenship

I've been hounding D to get his senior citizen card so we can avail of the 20% discount in restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies and the weekdays free movie tickets (well he is not a movie buff like me but it helps).

BUT.

He is busy with work.

When they declared October 14 and 15 as special non working holidays in the city of Manila and Pasay due to some risk reduction and disaster management conference at PICC, it was the perfect opportunity to sort out his documents.

First stop was at the nearest barangay to avail of the barangay certificate as proof of residency because we just moved here, a year ago.  Located at a very narrow two way road with trikes parked on both sides, it was difficult to find parking. In this case, I filled up the small form while he remained at the wheel. Then he signed, got his picture taken then I waited for the certificate which was released within 5 minutes. 

Second stop was at the LTO office for the revision of the address in his driver's license. Unfortunately, the first branch had no physical card but they were kind enough to direct us to another branch which was open until 4 P.M. We rushed there just before 2 P.M and since it was located near a mall, there was ample parking slots.  Driver's license with current address was issued within 10 minutes.

Our last stop - The office for senior citizen's affairs is NOT located at the city hall but at some small yet busy street with many tricycles and PUVs (public utility vehicles) occasionally causing traffic jams. We parked in some residential area and walked for a couple of blocks. He just needed to fill up a form, submit it together with the barangay certificate,  a photocopy of his birth certificate and two valid government IDs. Upon submission, his picture and biometrics were taken and in less than 2 minutes - his ATM like senior citizen card was issued. A far cry from the senior citizen cards of my late parents which were in paper form where you had to paste your 1x1 picture then have it laminated at National Book Store or at Fax n Parcel.

I'm glad the local officials were polite and very accommodating in serving the public. The documents were issued within just a few minutes. Much improvement than before when transacting with any goverment agency left much to be desired. My goodness, they were so masungit and very bureaucratic. The documents required for submission kept changing based on the mood of the person at the counter. It took me months just to transfer the ownership of our properties. It was physically draining to deal with them, not to mention the time wasted shuffling back and forth and the expenses of acquiring all those documents.

We, now enjoy the benefits from his SC card even though more often than not, he forgets his card at home or in the car. Poor guy is still in his denial phase. :D

Ay naku po!

Fried Chicken

When sister dearest is in town (usually more or less 10 days), she has a long list of places where she wants to eat. Since she lives in HK, she craves for local cuisine. But the list is a wide variety of different type of food from ramen, pasta, hotpot, to local dishes like lechon, kare kare and crispy pata among others.

For the longest time, we went to Max's for "sarap to the bones" fried chicken.  I am sure every Filipino is fully aware of "the house that fried chicken built" its famous tagline. 

BUT.

If I remember correctly, it was a year or two years before the pandemic when we noticed that Max's famous fried chicken looked and tasted different. It changed from a succulent, tasty chicken to a really dry, sometimes tough tasteless sad looking fried chicken. 

Once the hubby and I took a road trip for an overnight stay. We were looking for a place to have an early dinner in Balanga, Bataan. Max's was the only restaurant that we were familiar with and also had ample parking slots. We ordered our usual Platter Meal that consists of a piece of chicken, with pancit canton, rice and their caramel bar. The chicken tasted like it was ordered from a Chinese restaurant. It was fully breaded and had a tinge of soy sauce. We just charged it to experience by saying maybe because we were in the province. I dunno.

Another time for lunch, we ordered their whole chicken and lomi soup for delivery to our previous apartment in Project 8, Quezon City. The fried chicken tasted like the usual Max's signature dish. Yet the lomi soup was very sweet. Ugh! D thought I was just joking when I told him the soup tasted funny. We called the restaurant to complain about their 'sweet' lomi, the manager told us the kitchen said it was how their lomi really tasted. I know for a fact, lomi soups are definitely NOT SWEET, at all. 

There were other unpleasant Max's dining experiences because we kept giving them second even third chances, even eating at different branches but unfortunately it was unanimous. So we stopped dining at their establishments. I really hope that they listen to their customers (seen several complaints on socmed) and improve, re-brand or do whatever it takes to entice people to patronize them again.  

SO.

D aside from teaching,  holds several designated positions at the university. In the course of one of his ocular trips within the country, he was invited to eat at this local eatery which serves Filipino cuisine. Their best seller is fried chicken which lo and behold tastes exactly like Max's chicken. It turns out that the owner Bernie Ilagan and his wife used to work at Max's for several years. They open their own restaurant in honor of his grandfather. Lolo Claro's is a small non airconditioned eatery which started its operations in the year 2000 in Maragondon of all places. 

Maragondon is our late father's hometown. It is a small municipality in Cavite which is historically known as the site (trial house still stands) where Andres Bonifacio and his brother Procopio were tried by a military court and later shot to death in the mountains. 

Nowaday to satisfy our fried chicken cravings, we drive all the way to Lolo Claro's. It is about an hour and a half drive (during traffic less days) along the coastal area of Cavite through Cavitex (Manila - Cavite expressway). A long scenic route by the sea and you pass by the towns of Bacoor, Kawit, Noveleta, Rosario, and Tanza all the way to Dad's hometown of Maragondon.

 

Last October 2 was sister dearest's 53rd birthday. Her main plan was to eat fried chicken at Lolo Claro's but it was a Wednesday so this meant we can only go out between 10AM - 5PM and 8 PM onwards. I was not even sure if the province of Cavite had full day coding or window hours. So we stayed home and postponed our road trip to Maragondon.

We (just me and sister dearest) finally pushed through with her plan last  October 8, a Tuesday. We left at around past 11 AM after a heavy breakfast, reaching Lolo Claro's at half past 1 in the afternoon. Really hungry but fully satisfied with our tasty fried chicken meal and sauteed liver adobo!  =)

Disclaimer: this is NOT a sponsored post of  Lolo Claro's.

Coconut pies

This past weekend,  we went to Tagaytay to celebrate the hubby’s 60th birthday. I won’t rant anymore about how stressful I was the months, weeks leading to his milestone birthday because all of my suggested activities were vehemently opposed by the celebrant. During the course of our 16 years of marriage, I've learned not to impose anything or any plans on him because he won't budge and be stubborn and I only end up being mighty frustrated with the futility of it all. LOL

Tagaytay day trip was one of the plans but it all depended on the weather situation and his class schedule. On September 28, Saturday his natal day, the weather was sunny and he gave his class some online activity so it was all systems go!

Aside from eating piping hot bulalo soup and crispy tawilis, the best part of a Tagaytay trip is buying items which can only be found in that part of Cavite province.

Bulalo, Pancit Bihon, Crispy Tawilis, 
Pinakbet, Lumpiang Bangus

Carmela’s is my favorite brand of moist banana bread/cake. Nowadays, they come in different variants like chocolate banana, ube banana, banana with walnuts and carrot banana. All of them delicious and moist but my fave is still the classic one.

Sister dearest (our designated driver) has not tasted the newer brands of buco pies, so we decided to buy all three to compare them. All of the stores also sell egg pies as well as other variants of the buko pie such as ube buko pie but we only bought the classic coconut pies.

Colette’s is the original of all the coconut pies. Since high school days, whenever we went to Tagaytay, it was a favorite pasalubong item. The taste has not changed. The coconut bits are tender, the crust not too flaky. It has the right combination of coconut bits, filling and it isn’t sweet. One box costs ₱300.00, the cheapest of the three pies.

Rowena’s has a bigger crust but it isn’t as dense. There is more filling than the coconut bits, some of the coconut pieces are hard while others are moist. It is a tad too sweet for my taste. It costs ₱350.00.

Cecilia’s is the newest brand to join the coconut pie trend. Selling at ₱350.00, it has a thin crust with big chunks/ pieces of coconut (large bits were a bit hard, chewy) inside with a sweet filling. I could taste some actual sugar bits and when you reach towards the thick outer part, it was salty.

So having tasted all three of the known buko pie brands, I still prefer Colette’s for its right amount of coconut, filling and thin crust. Not too sweet and hindi nakakaumay. But that’s just my humble (pie) opinion.

I, thank you. =)

Formosa

This concludes my series of travel posts about Taiwan which we visited from July 3 to July 8, 2024. It was my first time to visit Formosa, which was previously the Western term for Taiwan. 

• It was a pleasant and enjoyable vacation. 
• The weather in July was humid and warm, as expected.
• We were lucky the monsoon season had not yet kick in.
• It didn't rain our entire stay.
• The food choices are aplenty and also quite affordable. 
• The popular landmarks are easily accessible through the efficient transport system.
• There is a nice blend of modernism with interesting cultural, historical elements.
• I would describe the people as laid back. 
• Even during rush hour, they are not  the 'aggressive' type.
• I was surprised I didn't see much Western tourists.
• Mostly Asians like Koreans, Japanese and of course Filipinos.
• Lastly, do bring insect repellants.
• Biting midges are endemic in Taiwan.
• Little black mosquitoes whose bites causes rashes with intense itching.
• Sister dearest was a victim because she was wearing shorts.
• Her legs and thighs were peppered with red really itchy rashes.
• Apparently it is common during the monsoon months.
• Luckily the local pharmacies have this roll on liquid ointment for the bites.
• It was effective enough to lessen the itchiness.
• But the rashes took about a week or so to clear up. 

Lastly, there is a lot more to discover in Taiwan. Its countryside is equally if not more inviting than the capital city. Their high speed railway system beckons!

Kaya sa muli, Taiwan. Babalikan ka namin. =)

National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

We reached the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall at around 4:30 PM, after a late lunch at a mall for some last minute pasalubong shopping. It was still warm and in that vast space there is no hiding from the rays of the sun. But we soldiered on because it was our last day in Taipei City so we basked in the historical, cultural and architectural wonders of this popular tourist attraction.

Built on a former army headquarters, this national monument was built in 1976 after the passing of Chiang Kai-Shek in 1975 and was formally opened to the public in April 1980. The octagonal shaped, white and blue tiles on the roof of the memorial hall represents the colors of the Taiwan flag.  It stands 70 meters in height with two sets of 89 (his age at the time of his death) white stairs leading to the entrance. Inside is a giant statue of Chiang seated and behind is an engraved selection of some of his personal commentary.

The National Concert Hall and National Theater are also located within the memorial park grounds surrounded by lush gardens with benches for families to enjoy the outdoors. An impressive archway entrance in the distinct white and blue tiles welcomes visitors from 9 A.M to 5 P.M, daily. Free entrance.

National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall

No visit to Taipei is complete without visiting the memorial halls of their esteemed leaders/founders. On our last whole day in Taiwan, we had a full breakfast then checked out of our hotel at 11 A.M. We left our pieces of luggage in the lobby then headed to the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. The hall dedicated to the national founder of the Republic of China (Taiwan) was built in 1972 to commemorate his 100th birthday.

You won't get lost because there is a MRT station aptly named Sun Yat-sen Memorial hall so it is easily accessible. Just a few minutes walk from the station, you will reach the Chungsan park with the memorial hall in the center amidst willow trees, a lush garden with flowers and a small man made lake known as the Emerald Pond. 

February 2024, the memorial hall was closed for renovation and is expected to re-open in 2026. So unfortunately, we were not able to see the gallery/museum, the lecture hall and auditorium. We just explored the wide complex, using a tiny umbrella to protect us from the noon blazing sun and high humidity levels, with the towering Taipei 101 providing an excellent backdrop.