Huwaaaaaaat?   Manoy!!!!  But he’s an old bachelor!  Oh, you naughty naughty boy Manoy! I didn’t know you had it in you! 

So anyway, that was a few years ago.  And the long lost father and daughter grew to know each other and love each other.  Me-Anne found a good job in Manila, was able to buy a new house and was able to establish a new life in the big city.  Not bad for a country lass.  Like Manoy and the rest of our kasambahays,  Me-Anne also grew to be a part of our family and was often hanging out in our house in Kamuning.  The other kasambahays (3 spinster sisters)  treated her like their  own daughter and Yaya Lety actually died in her arms.

Now, Me-Anne is all grown up,  has found true love and and was married in a beautiful solemn ceremony in the chapel behind our church in Kamuning.

Fr. Romy, the priest who married her is also one of our family priests who also got to know Manoy whom he calls Kuya.  He said that Manoy was about to have a heart attack because of sheer happiness for his daughter.  Manoy also said a few words.  He said that all his deficiencies when Me-Anne was growing up, he tried to make up from the time they found each other.  And Me-Anne reciprocated by saying that Manoy was everything to her – father, brother, bestfriend, even boyfriend (I did see how he took care of her).

Me-Anne knew that they were really part of our family and we were all there to celebrate with her. Honey and I were their ninong and ninang. It made me feel old – but it’s not the first time, and I am turning 40. My nephews were groomsmen.   And Dad, who was also their guidance counselor had a few things to say during their wedding mass.

And Dad gave some pretty good advise  which I think every groom should take heed  – “Jogie”, (that’s the groom’s name) “always obey Me-Anne”.  (Honey, are you listening???? )

During her speech in the reception, she was in tears as she expressed how she felt the love and care of our family. I could see Sixter, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law from across the room – they were in the brink of tears, trying to open their eyes wide to avoid the torrent of water from their eyes.

Well, it was great – almost makes me want to get married all over again.  Her life is indeed one for the movies, or at the very least, Maaalala Mo Kaya.  Congratulations and best wishes Me-Anne!  May your cup overfloweth with blessings and joy and love.

Honey, Mama and I were so confused on where to look. It was a fantastic first New Year’s eve in our new home.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A blue moon… more than the song non-pianists learn to play four-hands on the piano… and more than myths that it’s linked to Satan or great love… is merely the second full moon in a month.  For December 2009, the first full moon happened on the 2nd of December while the second full moon is tonight… New Year’s Eve.

Besides catching the full moon, we (Honey, Mama and myself) were also able to catch the last sunset of the year along San Miguel Bay from MOA.

And attend mass at the Shrine of Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

And drive through the MOA Globe.

And right now,  while I’m lazing around and blogging, Honey is cooking me paella for our media noche for our first ever New Year in our home while we wait for MOA’s New Year Countdown with their 30-minute fireworks display which we’ll watch from our balcony. Happiness!   Hope that video would be my first blog post for the New Year. Happy New Year to all!

In 1880, he married a beautiful young lady named Bernarda Vito. They bore 11 children, 8 of whom grew to adulthood. All the children of Sabino and Bernarda were educated, with the girls studying at the Centro Escolar de Se̱oritas. At a time in history when women were expected to stay home, all their daughters were career women Рnot bad for Filipinas in the 1920s. Most of his daughters were pharmacists. One daughter, Fely, was the founder of the Centro Escolar University. And his son, Emong, was the highest ranking Filipino general at that time.

Sabino died at the ripe old age of 97 (1854-1951). He lived through the Spanish occupation, the Propaganda Movement, the Philippine Independence, the Philippine-American War, the American occupation, the Commonwealth, World War II and the Japanese occupation.

Today, 129 years after, Sabino has 11 children, 31 grandchildren, 89 great grand-children, 186 great great grandchildren and 27 great great great grandchildren.  One of his children was named Antonina (see picture below, first row, far right).

Antonina had six children, the youngest of whom was Nenita.

Nenita had six children, the youngest was of whom was…. yup!  You guessed right… me!

Sabino Beato Francisco is Lolo Binong… my great grandfather.  And this is what Lolo Binong and his wife Lola Anday (Bernarda Amacan Vito) look like:

These two portraits used to hang at the hallway in my Lola Antonina’s house, which was in front of our house, when I was a child. I must confess that these old photos used to terrify me and bring me nightmares. I mean how could images of old dead people who lived in Rizal’s time not torment a 5-year old chid? Strangely enough, it was only a few weeks ago when I was able to identify who these characters are.  And now that I know I have something about my forebears, I know that because  I have the blood of Lolo Binong in my veins, I:

• Will have a long life;
• Will suffer from different degrees of hearing impairment, and
• Be like his daughters and have flabby arms (just look at the photo above with his kids).

Last week, through the decrees issued by our Boss Uncle Peping, the cousins (my first and second cousins) rallied together and came up with a super grand reunion of all the living descendants of Lolo Binong – though I have a suspicion that our dead relatives were also there noisily joining in the fun.  Six generations in all: G1 – Lolo Binong, G2 – Lola Antonina and her siblings, G3 – Mom and her siblings and cousins, G4 – Toe and her first cousins and second cousins, G5 – my pamangkins (nephews and nieces), and G6 – my apos (grandchildren – I actually have 27 of those little runts).  Yeah, yeah… I know, I know – I’m not only Auntie Toe, I’m Lola Toe as well… now shut up!

Coming soon… the Reunion of the Lolo Binong… Six Generations and Counting.

Thanks to Uncle Peping for the stories he told me while he was in Cambodia and to Peachy for the scary fantastic  photos.

Day 7, Thursday.

10:30 am.  In my van and on my way to Dusit (where the main meeting is to be held) to report to one of the bosses.  I was running late and I don’t know why the driver didn’t take the ASEAN lane which as delegate, I was entitled to use.  The ASEAN lane would have been faster and I would have avoided the traffic. But on second thought…

I never used the ASEAN lane again.  Hehe… I could be an iReporter, huh. I was just happy to get to Dusit in one piece… where guess who was at the lobby to meet me… Honey!

I did my briefing which was short and sweet.  This time, Honey was the one who was toxic and we couldn’t hang out with each other again, as usual.  So I decided to go back to Marriott to rest.  The spa looked very inviting when I got there.

I had a little time but I’m not about to blow almost a hundred dollars.  So I just took a well-deserved rest in my room.

4:30 pm.  Cool… with my bosses absent (see this post), I got to sit with the other heads of delegation and represented the Philippines when we reported to the ministers.  What the… they extended us until December?  Two more months of this???

7:00 pm.  Farewell and celebratory dinner again hosted by the  Thais at a very nice beachside restaurant.

9:30 pm. I went to Sofitel to pick up Honey for a nice relaxing date. Our first in weeks because before Hua Hin, I was in Yogyakarta.  Just coffee and walking around and talking.

Day 8, Thursday.

My work is finished here.  I traveled back to the Philippines to an empty apartment. Very ironic.  Honey was staying in Hua Hin for a few more days.  Work is hazardous to married life.

a 76-year old man and a 75-year old woman who just had a mastectomy a few weeks ago…

These aren’t exactly the people you want in your team when you’re in a 5-K race.  But hey, during the Run for Pasig Race on Saturday, November 8… these people were MY team – the Mendoza Family or the RomyNenitaTogetherForever team.  It goes without saying – Romy is my father, but better known as Dad or Super Dad in my blog; and Nenita is my mother, who goes by the name of Mommy in my blog.

But then, my parents were the original athletes in the family… and their kids (with the exception of one klutz whose name I will not reveal here) all take after them.

Small Evil Big Brother and his wife (and I say evil with much affection) just finished a full marathon in Subic and their kids are champion swimmers.

Big Evil Big Brother’s family (again, I say evil with much affection) are varsity players and giants (half my age and twice my height).

Sixter and her family are surfers, sailors  divers, and are basically into wild, dangerous, Survivor-type pursuits (I’m pretty sure that they take showers though – unlike those Survivor contestants).

Oh, and by the way, it was Sixter’s bright idea to get us off of our warm beds on a Sunday, (what better way to torment siblings?) to run for Pasig and increase awareness for the rehabilitation of the Pasig River. I only said yes because I was the impression that Sixter would treat us to Spiral for breakfast after the race.   The Pasig Fun Run had 3k, 5k, 10k, and the full 42-k marathon categories.  The RomyNenitaTogetherForever Team joined the 5k.

And off we go!  Heeeelp!  Stampede!!!!

Go borloloys go!

Yes, even the borloloys get a number.

Hey… we just started… how come these fellows are on their way back?

The Kenyan is already on the last leg of the full 42-k marathon.  I wonder how much he weighs?

But of course, we were more into partying than actually running.

After a lot of damage to my athletic ego (the borloloys zoomed past my  klutzy legs), we finally reached the finish line.

But wait a minute!  Wait a minute!  How’d they get there before us???

Of course, the teen-agers were being angsty teen-agers. We actually arrived ahead of them as they were taking their own sweet time (I bet gossiping about the opposite sex ) They were actually stopping at the red lights.

And Little Misua was getting cranky… maybe because she didn’t get her best 5k time?

Yahoo! We did it!  Hurrah for the RomyNenitaTogetherForever and ever and ever and ever.

And the most awaited part of the morning – tocilog at Chow King (nope… no Spiral this time).

the end

The thing about these monthly meetings is that this present one was supposed to be our last (after 17 meetings no less) and we’re supposed to submit our drafts to the ministers.  But you know lawyers… put ten lawyers in one room, add all their assistants, and they’re all of different nationalities. What does that add to? Chaos!  No wonder we hardly get things done.  So we’re all panicking and rushing hoping to finish something by Thursday.  Ergo, the rest of my the next few days were practically the same… meetings, meetings, meetings… all through the days and all through the nights.

My only joy was the Thai food.  All food in Thailand is good.  And here in Hua Hin… it’s exceptional.  Twice the Thais treated us to Thai seafood in restaurants by the sea… ooh… just delectable.  Freshly grilled prawns, crabs, different kinds of shells, lobsters with those special spicy sauce.

But otherwise, this is how my days went.

Day 4, Monday.

Meeting, meeting, meeting.

Honey arrived from Manila.  But like when we were in Phuket, because we were in different meetings and joined different delegations, we stayed in different hotels.  So I didn’t get to see him this day. Bummer!

Day 5, Tuesday.

Meeting, meeting, meeting.

Still no Honey. So near yet so far.

Day 6, Wednesday.

Meeting, meeting, meeting.

Last day before we present to the ministers.  We still haven’t agreed on many issues. By this time, I’ve revised my briefing paper about five times.

10:30 pm.  What?  More amendments?  We were all tired and hungry and cranky.  We still couldn’t agree.  And tomorrow is D-Day.

11:30 pm.  We gave up.  We agreed that we couldn’t agree.

By this time, Honey has been in Hua Hin for three days and we still haven’t seen each other.

To be continued…

Day 3, Sunday.

Instead of going to the gym like yesterday morning, I decided to hit the beach. Hey, although my purpose for going to Hua Hin was to attend a bloody meeting, I WAS at a beach resort.  There’s a bloody 5 miles of beach in this resort.  I had to go to the beach. So I woke up with the sun again and headed for the coast.

I was also able to walk around the Marriott grounds a bit…

…until it was time for breakfast at this restaurant by the pool.

Then, all thoughts of beaches and holidays were forgotten because it was Plenary Meeting time… and time for meeting meeting meeting… at least until break time.  Then,  we had our lunch by the beach.  Caucasians of all shapes and sizes and levels of sagging breasts and flab surrounded us in various forms of almost-nudity reminded us that as most of the people in the Marriott were on holiday, we were hopeless pathetic dorks in boring suits debating in senseless meetings.

Have you noticed that in the beach resorts in Asia, when the sun is bright and high up there, the white people come out to the beaches to fry their skins?  Then when the sun comes down, out come the Asians in sarongs and various forms of cover.

Then the meetings went on and on and on and on and on….

To be continued….

Day 2, Saturday.

The next day, I literally woke up  with the sun.  As in.. I actually saw the sun gloriously rising up from the sea when I opened my eyes while in bed.

I’ve been complaining before that although I go to all these exotic beach resorts, I never really get to enjoy the beach.  But with a room like this at the Marriott, although I spend whole days and whole nights in meeting rooms, just the sight of this sunrise upon waking absolutely makes me feel that I’m in the beach.

You know I’ve never seen the sun rising over the sea in the Philippines.  Somehow, I’m always at the western coast… in Matabungkay – my Dad’s hometown, and now Manila Bay, where I get to see the sunset every evening from my bedroom.  So it’s quite thrilling for me to be at the east coast for once and watch the sun rise.

So it’s nice to wake up early for once.   I hit the gym (good girl Toe!) and had breakfast and prepared myself for work (I know I know it sucks… it’s a Saturday and I’m working).  First day was only the Assistants’ Meeting.

Boss is lucky… he gets to at least enjoy one day of the weekend relaxing and enjoying Hua Hin. Or at least that’s what we both thought.  He got THE phone call and was summoned back home that. same. day.  Whaaaaaa?  I’m abandoned?  Again?  This is like the fourth time (see this post).  But like last time in Yogyakarta, I’m really alone… no assistant (like in Bali) and no superior… just me. Moi. Myself.

Wait a minute, wait a minute… evil thoughts lurked in my mind… I get to use the van… hrhrhr! Well, if I had the time to go out, that is… which I knew was a dream.

And then of course, since I had no boss, I was the boss!  And I could be like Mr. Bean again talking to myself like this:

Boss Toe:  Toe, write the report.

Assistant Toe:  Yes boss, I’ll write the report.

Boss Toe:  And ask for the van so we could go shopping tonight.

Assistant Toe:  Okay Boss.  But I can’t go with you because I have to write the report.

Duh?!

And then there’s the nasty matter when the Assistants’ Meeting and the Plenary Meeting are simultaneous.  If so, I had two choices: 1)  there would be no Philippine representative in the Assistants’ Meeting, or 2)  I could use my psychic powers and bilocate so that I could be in two places at the same time (sheesh… that’s even worse than being Mr. Bean).

Anyway, after the Assistants’ Meeting for the day and with Boss gone, what would I do about dinner?  If there’s anything I gained from these monthly meeting, it’s friends.  And these friends, specifically for this time, the Bruneians and the Malaysians, adopted me and we had dinner (tom yummy-yum and pad thai of course) at the Hua Hin Market Village… really upscale posh mall…

To be continued…

Day 1, Friday.

Is Day 1 the day you arrive at a place or the day after Night 1? As the teen-agers say… whatevuh!   For this post, Day 1 is the day I arrived in Hua Hin.

So after that eventful plane ride, Boss and I arrived in Bangkok where this really big van arranged by the Meeting organizers was waiting for us to take us to Hua Hin.  As our delegation was very lean (just Boss and myself), we pretty much had more van rows than people so I was able to take the back row for myself,  stretch my legs and listen to my iPod in peace during the three-hour 195 km.  drive from Bangkok to Hua Hin.  Of course my privacy was interrupted intermittently with all the fresh and juicy office stories from Boss

Just a little briefer, Hua Hin, which means “Stone Head” is a popular upscale seaside resort south of Bangkok with its famous 5-mile beach, world class resorts and aristocratic golf courses.  Although not as famous as Phuket or Pattaya, it’s actually the oldest beach resort of Siam.

This is my second time in Hua Hin as I was there last February (I wasn’t blogging at all then) also for the same Meeting.  It’s suspected that Hua Hin was the preferred venue because as a royal beach resort, security is pretty much established and Thai demonstrators wouldn’t be able to penetrate, especially after the experience in the ASEAN Summit in Pattaya last year where they were able to go inside the meeting venue.  Thus, the 14th ASEAN Summit was held here last February and now this October, again for the 15th ASEAN Summit.

So we arrived at the Marriott in one piece.  This was also the hotel where we stayed last February.  I love this hotel… it’s so breezy and relaxing… and the interior designs are just homey and comfortable and over-all just great.

I love the way Thais put beds in their lobbies and verandas for guests to lie or sit on.

And you just have to admire the Thais’ sense of style.  When I got to my room, I was greeted with a shower of orchid petals on my bed.  The maid also  fixed the towels into… I don’t know what this is actually… an elephant? a mouse?

Although we were to be in Hua Hin for more than a week, we knew that we’d hardly have time to go out on our own.  So after unpacking, Boss and I decided to take our van and go to the Hua Hin Night Market.  This Night Market is open 7 days a week from 5 pm until midnight.  Its a lively street which stretches out for 2 blocks of hundreds of shopping and food stalls.

As I’ve been here last February and most items are similar to those found in Cambodia, I didn’t really buy anything (spelt…c.h.e.a.p.s.k.a.t.e.)… not even these beautiful Thai silk items (which I have plenty already around the house).

To be continued on My Hua Hin Diary (Day 2)…