Saturday, December 31, 2005
this is going to be long. bear with me. promise. it'll be an interesting entry. i'll do it chronologically to avoid the hassles.
december 24th - abastillas family costume dinneryes, we actually pushed through with it. it was actually as much fun as it was humiliating. my dad was
Batman [but cheated by simply wearing a black shirt with the picture of Batman on it. he later just became the benefactor for the Best Costume prize] my mom was
Darth Vader, ate abby was
The Incredible Hulk, ate pam was
The Little Mermaid, doyti was
Gollum, and i, unfortunately and unintentionally, was
Princess Amidala. yes, i had to cross-dress [again]. and painted my entire face white. boo to that. but it was incredibly fun and all original.
didn't feel Christmas all that much though. after Noche Buena, i spent the night up on the roof with my cousin. pretty cool. never been on emo-mode during Christmas.
december 26th - abastillas clan family reuniona yearly tradition that seems to recur yet outdo itself every single year. food galore, catching up to the latest news, color coordinated clothes, etc. and even though i don't know half the names of my cousins, nieces and nephews, it's pretty cool to hang out with them at least once a year. in our family reunions, the "pila" game is still done every year. no, it's not only the young ones, but for the young once as well. aunts and uncles who are still "chikitings at heart" still fall in line. the weird thing is, what we form aren't actually lines but a circle that rotates with a tangential point which dispenses what seems to be an infinite amount of twenties and fifties [and when things start to get juicy, hundreds]. hahaha. fun fun fun.
maraming katas ang pasko.
meeting peopleat the reunion, one of the games all the couples played [the uncles and aunts, the married cousins and such] was the "how-well-do-you-know-your-honey" game. both are asked a question and their individual answers must match in order to score a point. most points win. one question which was asked that made me think was "where and when did you meet?" it was weird because some of them met their spouses in the mst peculiar places. tricycle stations on the way home one day. the city hall while filing a complaint. a business seminar that had a 50% chance of not happening at all. i guess it just made me realize that you DO find love in all the wrong places and that the best way of finding something is to stop looking for it. haha.
december 28 to 31 - Bintan, Indonesia with Doytii went to Bintan, Indonesia with my sister Doyti for three days while the rest of the family along with my cousin TJ, my granddad, our 98-year old family friend, my sister's American boyfriend and his brother all went to Cebu. the reason was that the trip to Bintan was supposed to be meant for my sister. ahem, her honeymoon. but unfortunately, with the wedding postponed, her honeymoon trip would have gone to waste. soooo, we took it. hehe. but yeah, you could imagine. i'm off to a romantic honeymoon spot with my sister. that is wrong on so many levels. haha. but nevertheless, had lots of fun anyway.
eccentric travelerswhile we were checking our bags in, we found ourselves in the middle of the aviation officers' conversation. upon seeing a familiar traveler enter immigration from the distance, this conversation emerged:
AVO1: pare, diba yun yung laging naka-costume pag lumilipad? [points to an old asian man in the distance wearing a bright green and gold gown/coat resembling a chinese emperor]
AVO2: oo pare, once a month lumilipad yan, laging iba costume! nung isang beses, shaolin, nung isang beses, monk, nung isang beses, parang ninja pa! [laughter]
AVO1: baliw nun ah. hahaha. o, eto pare, isang beses may isang baliw gustong umalis ng bansa papuntang states. sabi niya, siya raw yung Presidente ng Pilipinas. tapos tiningnan ko yung passport niya, walang visa, sabi ko, 'eh madame president, kailangan niyo po kasi ng visa para makaalis ng bansa eh.' sabi niya, 'di mo ba ako kilala? ako ang pangulo ng pilipinas!', ' eh ma'am, kailangan niyo pa rin ng visa eh!', 'a ganun ba? teka lang ah.' tapos pare, bumalik siya after a while, sabi niya, 'ah eh tinawagan ko na yung malacanang, sabi nila hindi ko raw kailangan ng visa!' [laughter]
so funny. the way they were telling it was hilarious, copying the way the people actually talked.
firstsanyway, like i said, the trip was really fun despite the fact that it was soooo inappropriate for a number of reasons. the following firsts were accomplished:
1) puke-o-mania - when we were on a ferry on the way to Bintan from Singapore, the waves were, umm, uncooperative. haha. it isn't an exaggeration when i say that half the people around us had a bag attached to their mouths as they profusely expelled unwanted human wastes like bullemic people. it was like riding "Anchors Away" in Enchanted Kingdom with the speed on maximum, without any harnesses, and on repeat for an hour. funniest thing ever. after a while, the entire ferry smelled kinda funky.
2) riding an All-Terrain Vehicle - yes. doyti and i rode on ATV's and ventured through a very rough and uber muddy jungle path and went around for five laps. i'm suddenly considering becoming a professional Four-Wheel Frenzy Driver. haha.
3) body boarding
4) fighting waves - quite literally. you slap yourself against 7-10 foot waves and see if you come out still breathing.
5) the starriest night ever - i've never seen the ENTIRE [i mean the ENTIRE] sky cast with stars. makes me sad i was with my sister on the particular moment
6) saw the clearest shooting star - the 3rd shooting star i've seen in my life, best and clearest of all [grant my wish]
7) seeing fireflies
8) catching fireflies
9) seeing flying fish
10) open-air, candle-lit, beachfront dinner underneath the starriest night ever... with my sister - yes. wrong. wrong. sick. sick.
**
2006four more hours. Happy New Year Everyone. i'll blog again tomorrow or the 2nd to rate the year 2005. hahaha.
**
that's all for now. gonna take a pre-new year nap. hahaha. i'll post all the pictures in my
Multiply tomorrow.
the adventure ended at 6:47 PM
