on the road to cabanatuan

Its been some days since my last post as me and the family are now in Manila for a short two week vacation. Its been quite a tiring past few days actually. We first went to Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija province to attend the wedding of one of my wife's friends. It seemed like a rather conventional wedding, with the exception of people clapping at the bride as she was making her processional (which kind of ruined to mood for my wife) and the fact that people left in droves even when the reception wasn't over. One thing that I discovered was how beautiful and fast the North Expressway is; its almost like going to one of those major free ways in HK or in any Western society. Cool prices as well... I guess that is the cost of progress.

Once out of the NLEX, we entered Maharlika Highway for the trip to Cabanatuan. For the unitiated, Maharlika Highway is the major artery leading all the way to Cagayan and Isabela Province, and was one of the many roads inaugurated during those heady days of the New Society. A comparative road to its west is Macarthur Highway, which crosses Bulacan to La Union. From here, the scenes are more laid back and bucolic. Although you can see modern life creeping up here and there, what with the many fast food outlets in the major towns, and the numerous modern "resorts" catering to the middle classes of these provinces. Yet, you could see the old country charm that is missing when you drive through Manila, what with all those genteel charms of country life like children lazily running around the streets, and those medieval penitents, carrying crosses to holy sites far from our minds.

a tad bit sick

The last few days have not been quite good for me. I suppose because we are rushing a lot of stuff before we leave for Manila, my body can't seem to take it that much, and I seem to have some kind of cold or fever, as I have been struggling through the last few nights to get to sleep. Seems like a good cup of tea and some smooth music helped me through the early morning. Am actually thinking if I feel any worse, I will probably just leave early as well.

On another note, finally got the pictorials they took of me sometime in January, for God knows what reason. They look absolutely cool, almost like a Mafia Don or something...

Waiting

We just finished our quarterly meeting here at the Office, although today is a day off, we still had to meet for something like two hours. Its funny really how meetings like this can spin out of control from the agenda. There was an agenda, but we haven't actually come around to following it. Sigh... at least we got some goto and a can of coke for our trouble. Some consolation.

Happy Birthday to me...

I celebrated my 28th birthday today, and I woke up a little maudlin (god, does anyone use that word anymore???) knowing that my demographic is now firmly the late 20's. Soon, I'll be hitting my early 30's and so forth. I remember last year when I celebrated my birthday, I just watched a movie as my wife was still in Manila and we were conducting the very first Overseas Absentee Voting ever, i.e., wasn't really one of those days that you felt you wanted to celebrate another milestone of turning one year older.

A year later, with an 8 month old daughter, still a lot of work on my desk, and an understanding wife by my side, I feel happy that I'm here and that God's given me another year to look forward to of new experiences, and the ability to reflect on a lot of things that I have done in the past, which were instrumental in the makeup of the person that is me. This journal will try to capture and evolve what I think and what I remember. What I say, and what I reflect on life. Well here goes...