One Small Happy Family

Christmas is evidently 'round the corner with all the decors, bazaar buzz, countdown, etc. I don't know about you but I still get sentimental during the holidays. Maybe it's because every Christmas for the past years is different--let's go back to the time that my parents, sister, titas and cousins were still here, then people started to leave for the US...leaving just us celebrating the Holidays--by "us" I mean my sister, brother, cousin, and me plus our significant others (totaling 8 adults and 1 lovely niece...that's it--no more, no less). Moreover, we all lead separate lives--living independently and seeing each other only when time permits.

Somehow it saddens me to think that they're all I've got; but in a way, I'm glad that it happened this way because we're now bonded like never before. I remember the times that we don't even spend time together nor share life's happenings because we have our own circles and it feels uncomfortable to talk about love life and what-have-you's to family members; but now we make it a point to meet every so often. We're very updated with each other's lives--even acting as support group to one who needs comforting. Now I truly accept that friends come and go but family stays (to put it bluntly: I am stuck with my family...and I don't mind it!).

~~~FYI, my next post will be about our Boracay trip. We'll be attending Pao's sister's wedding. Unfortunately, my sister and brother-in-law won't be able to join us. But who knows...maybe in the near future I'll write about our trips to Thailand or Australia or wherever! (",)

A Week To Remember...

For most of us, welcome back to the real world--back to work! So here I am, at my desk, not really working--I'm blogging. It seems that my mindset is not yet back to where it should be. But my main objective in this piece is to warn everybody...

Last Tuesday night as we were craving for Japanese buffet, Pao and I decided to eat at Saisaki in Alabang Town Center. After going through the whole appetizer-to-dessert yummy meal, we met up with my family for a nightcap. Nice meal. Nice night...

...until around 2am when I felt nauseous. At that time, I vomited. Darn, I said to myself, I must've eaten a lot to cause indigestion! But then again, I started having a bad tummy--the worst case scenario! Every 30-45 minutes (and this no joke), I'd have to go, either vomit or poop! And guess what...after an hour or two, Pao started his own battle. Food poisoning...great.

We had no sleep at all--we saw the sun rise, saw it peak at noon, and saw it set in the afternoon. Despite our efforts to rehydrate, we still felt so dehydrated, tired, weak. All these feelings, coupled with stomach cramps (that made me wimper and curl up) was yet to be topped with high fever! We were crawling in and out of bed, up and down the stairs, in and out of doors. We can't even attempt to bring ourselves to the ER for the fear of having to go in the middle of the trip; so we decided to have our consultations over the phone with our good ol' doctor (the one who did my last abscess...ouch!)

In the next couple of days, all we we ever had was the never-ending congee or mami paired with Sky Flakes and the never-ending Gatorade. Oh! Can I just tell you that the 'tea' from boiled Guava leaves tastes awful...but it helped (I think).

One hell of an experience! One hell of a long weekend!

Lesson: Do not eat at Saisaki anymore....period