Back in Manila March '09 - Day Ten - Return Flight

April 3, 2009: It's the last day. 5:30, I'm already awake. My flight, PR507, will be on 10:05 AM, but I thought it's better to be ready earlier than later.

My dad and my brother's family are the ones who took me to the NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) Terminal 2 this morning. I'm glad that they were the ones to take me there. :)

Anyway, I was at the airport by 7:45 AM. I immediately went to the check-in counter. My worst case scenario happened: my baggage was over the limit, at 25KG+. I need to drop to at least 22KG. I took out one unused bag and three bags of dried mangoes. The weight dropped to 22KG+, which was already enough. Well, at least I didn't have to unload alot from the baggage.

I was already at the gate by 8:15; relatively quick, considering the long line on Immigration. Got a little hungry so I bought the "cheapest" food I could find: 4 siomais for PHP70!!!! (Usual price is PHP32). It felt like hi-way robbery, but I didn't really have any choice. Either I wait it out until food is served on the plane, or I cough up the friggin 70 pesos.

Made a few text messages and calls to family and friends. Most of them replied. I still had 200+ load on myn cellphone so I wanted to make use of most of it.

Time flies by I guess. The gate was open and I made my way to my seat on the plane. I knew the plane would be large, since my seat number was 47H, an aisle seat as I have requested (I tend to pee a lot during fligths). Most of the recent flights that I have only 6 seats per row, with an aisle in the middle. This time, the plane was huge -- it was an airbus 340, I think. two aisles, two seats on either side, and four on the middle. Not only that, many seats were not taken. When people realized that there were many seats available, some of them changed seats to be with their respective groups.

Had fish for lunch. Inflight movie was Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories. Everyone decided to sleep, I guess; all of the window covers were down. Not a problem for me; I actually prefer it; it's dark, cozy, and conducive to sleep. I coudn't sleep, though, but at least I felt more relaxed.

1:17 PM, teh plane lands, and I immediately made my way for immigration. I also bought some wine from the Duty Free store, as requested by Che. I'm so happy to see here again. :)

She didn't eat anything yet, so we went to Swensen's in the terminal to eat lunch. Wellm, she ate lunch, while I just ordered a sizzling dessert. Then we're off back home :)

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Nine

April 2, 2009: It's my last full day here in Manila.

I actually finished all of the important tasks that I have lined up. What remains is the preparation of the things I'm bringing back to Singapore.

Except for a few items, everything I needed is already prepared. It's just a matter of packing everything up and hoping that I don't exceed the 22 kilogram baggage limit of Philippine Airlines.

Not as easy as you might think. Using a mechanical scale is not really that accurate. And I had to give up some items to make room for the others. It all comes diown to which things are more important; the must-haves.

Speaking of must-haves, I better get that Chicken Joy and Burger Steak, which are in Che's wishlist that I bring... Yeah... Jollibee food items are one of the things that most Pinoys take for granted but is sorely missed by most Pinoys abroad.

Better get going...

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Eight - April Fools

April 1, 2009: Okay here goes. 9AM, I don't have much to do but to get to destination number 1: Glorietta in Makati, which will serve as my base of operations. Being April Fool's Day, I was hoping that nothing *ahem* foolish happens today. Can't afford to lose much time...

My first stop is supposed to be MRT Shaw Blvd station, to process some documents with our former agent. Why not take the car with me? First, that area is filled with buwayas. Second, traffic was probably bad in that area. I don't want to get stuck in traffic in a place I barely know anything about. When I made a follow-up call, though, they informed me that the papers are not yet ready until after lunch. So change of plans.

I proceeded with the processing of my clearance. Lots of legwork and paperwork to do. I had a bananaQ and Mountain Dew first since I did not eat breakfast earlier. I met my friend in the office and gave her my details to process the papers. Everything is in order except that it needed to be notarized. Don't know of any notary anywhere near the area. The nearest ones that I know of are the ones near the other office building where I worked before, about a half kilometer away. I went there on foot; just thought that I might come across some notaries along the way -- which I did by the way. It cost me around 100 pesos to get the docs signed, stamped, and notarized. I went back and submitted the papers and it's all set. One task down. Done by 12 noon.

I then went to a computer shop to get some more documents from my email and have it printed for task number 2 -- this is the one in Shaw Blvd. Coughing up 85 pesos for 30 minutes of PC rental and two printouts, it is a bit costly, but what choice did I have? I needed to get this done ASAP. After that, I went straight to the MRT for Shaw Blvd. It took a while to get there. After arriving at Shaw Blvd, I had to trek for about half a kilometer under the beating sun. I eventually got there, then it was a matter of simply getting the document. No fuss.

I made my way back to square 1 in glorietta. The trip is much much loinger and tiring than the actual task. I returned to Makati by 3:00PM. By this time, I'm not going anywhere without lunch. I went down to the SM Foodcourt. I was actually looking for that Korean stall, KIMCHI, the onw that is serving the spicy beef stew. No luck though. Quite delirious with hunger and no Kimchi in sight, I went for the default choice: Jollibee, C1 (1Pc Chicken Meal).

After getting my wits again after eating, I went to SPI in Paranaque to get some more papers. This time, I'm taking the car since I'm done in that part of the city. Unfortunately, the trip was anything but spectacular particularly the part of the trip in EDSA. The flyover from EDSA to the airport area in Pasay causes a chokepoint -- you woudn't believe the number of vehicles jamming up there -- the two lanes become three, taxis filling up in lines in a Caltex station just after flyover, and a well-known bus stop in Cabrera just about a hundred meters after that. Come to think about it, most of the vehicles jammed there are going to SM MOA, the sough via the Coastal Road, and to Manila via Roxas Blvd -- all of them must pass through the tiny chokepoint under the flyover.

Anyway, I had to go via the flyover (yey!) and escape the fray. After that, the trip was all... peachy... Still a little slow for my liking but still not that bad. After reaching SPI, it's only a matter of picking up the papers again and I'm done for the day! Again, the journey is the long and exhausting part. It's a few minutes before 5:00 PM.

Now is the part of the trip I'm dreading a bit -- Sucat road from SPI/Airport area to home a long stretch of road filled with malls, supermarkets, hospitals, schools, and gas stations -- and it's almost rush hour. Surprisingly, though, it wasn't actually that bad. I was home before 6:00 PM. :)

I ate dinner by 7PM with dad. By 8PM, I was on my way to one additional stop I had to make: visit Mommy Cel and David and Baby Daniel in Las Pinas. (By this time, the drive through the West Service Road was a breeze.) It's nice to see them again. It's the first time I saw Daniel and was soundly asleep most of the time I was there. :)

I went home after the visit. And so ends Day Eight.

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Seven

March 31, 2009: Not much to do this day. I stayed most of the time home. I guess it's the calm before the storm, so to speak. I have an Odyssey the following day; well maybe I'm taking that a little too far, but I'm really a bit overwhelmed not by the number of tasks that I have to do but more on the amount of travelling I have to do.

Oh well... Best to get well-rested....

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Six

March 30, 2009: Back to business. Everyone's back to the office, so it's time for me to finish this thing that's been bugging me for days and preventing me from driving: renewing my friggin' license.

I was supposed to be at the LTO by 8:00, but natured called. No choice there. :)) After I'm done, I realized I already peed. This was bad; based from experience, one of the main causes of delays in renewal is not being able to produce enough urine for the drug testing center to test. So, I just downed a whole 200ml bottle of water and when I got there, I went for another Coke Sakto bottle. Surely enough, I had more than enough to give as a sample. :)) Of course after that, I needed to go, uhm, every fifteen to twenty minutes for the next three hours. :))

I remember being at the drug testing center in LTO Paranaque around 8:30. When I got in, there was already a long queue of people. Well, there isn't actually a queue, but there were already many people inside before me. After paying 400 pesos and getting the sample bottle, I immediately filled it up and made crew process my medical and drug test much faster and ahead of the others. Urine sample, checked; Eye test, checked; blood pressure normal, checked. It still took about an hour and a half, but that's still relatively a short time compared to the others there -- particularly this middle-aged woman who was there before me, but by the time I got the results, she has only filled up about a quarter of the bottle.

For those renewing, you may want to take note of this. There are four official documents you need to produce:

• Your curent license and the original receipt


• Medical examination result with receipt (as of this writing, only the drug testing center local to the LTO branch is accredited)


• (Negative) drug test result with receipt (same point as above)


• Filled up application form

For some reason, the guy at Window 1 (Evaluator) required a copy of the TIN (Tax Identification Number), which is weird considering that it is not declared anywhere in the posters that this is required. When I said that I don't have TIN ID and I don't remember my TIN, they just said to go over across the street to get one. WHAT?! And there I went to this small unassuming carinderia and asked for a TIN. They made me pay 150 pesos! A hell of a lot for this!!! What choice did I have? The medical results were only valid for today and only for this LTO branch. And this LTO branch will not process my renewal if I don't have any TIN. And this guys won't give me a TIN if I don't cough up 150 pesos! Hmph... Dunno know about you, but I know this fishy business -- I'm guessing the guy at window 1 has an arrangement with the guys in the carinderia. Every license renewal, they get 150. Geez...

Now I have two TINs. The first one which I've used for filing my tax, and this second one which apparently has no purpose at all.

It woudn't have mattered if the official LTO posters and banners indicated that the TIN is required. It's not. So there. Whatever. I just wanted to get this over with. After passing all the *five* required documents, in less than thirty minutes, I have paid, and received my brand new license card -- and this time, the spelling of my name is CORRECT!!! :))

All in all, let's see: 400 pesos for medical and drug testing, 150 pesos for the TIN, 492.63 pesos for license renewal, computer fee, and late charge penalty. Quite pricey for something that I'm only be using until the end of the week. Still, it's an official document that I'm gonna need anyway as an official ID... Oh well... I finished everything before 12, so I'm free for thes rest of the afternoon.

I then had my haircut at Eduardo's Barber shop in BF Homes. The same barber shop me and my dad have been going to since my very first haircut. And two of the original crew, Mang Nick and Mang Romy, are still there. I don't think they've recognized me though, since it's been years since I last my haircut there. :)

After that, I stopped by at my uncle's home in nearby Tahanan Village. With the many things I still have to do, I thought this is a good time as any to visit them. We had a lot of catching up to do. My uncle is already retired, while my aunt was still at work when I visited. Their eldest son was processing his papers to work abroad, while the others are all looking for jobs themselves. I wish them all the luck. By the time I left, it was already dark. So I simply went home and rest. :)

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Five

March 29, 2009: Che's family in Pasay welcomed another daughter to the world. Today is the baby's baptism. :) And for me, it is today's main event. I need to make it to Pasay before 11:00 AM. Good thing, I was able to wake up before 8AM. Gave me more than enough time to prepare and commute to Pasay.

Yeah, I normally would drive there. But during the previous nightout with my family, I was clobbered by all of the concerns about how I should not be driving without a valid license that it psyched me out and I dared not drive until I do get a license. It's better to drive without any worries than to drive very anxiously because you're concerned one of those *ahem* buwayas are out there waiting and biding their time. :))

So off I go, and, with the ever-reliable bus transit I mentioned, I got there in no time. Here are some pictures during and after the baptism.






Another task I was to do is to look at the Lenovo S10 that the guys have and see if there's anything that I can do to make it work again. They said one time they turned it on, they saw the message No OS can be found, or something like that. The next time they turned it on, they can't see anything. The screen is blank and does not appear to be loading anything.

Haven't really done troubleshooting a laptop before, so I'm not sure where to start. Che and my gut tells me to check the battery since the battery LED was orange. Well, I guess the prospect of going to SM Mall of Asia was too much -- there is a Lenovo Service Center in SM MOA, in 2F Main Mall -- that I dodn't really bother looking at it much other than finding the receipt and going to MOA. Tagging along are our nieces who wanted to go there as well for Timezone. :))

So we went there and explained to the Lenovo service crew about the problem. It was actually quite simple really -- remove then replace the battery. That's it. Everything's peachy after that. I'm actually quite ashamed when I walked out since it was too simple. :)) Anyway, at the very least I was able to confirm one of the doubts that I had for quite some time now...

That S10 was bought in Singapore. Lenovo said it has international warranty and that we only need to show the receipt -- no warranty forms needed, which is quite unusual for me, since most of the appliances and gadgets that we have so far have either written or online warranty forms. Well, this trip to the Lenovo service center MOA has confirmed a few things

• The warranty is actually a "REGIONAL" warranty, that is applicable to ASEAN countries


• Yes, only the official receipt is required. That is the only thing required by Lenovo service centers; once that is checked, they can now troubleshoot the thing.


• Lenovo S10 has some problems with batteries. So the first thing you need to know when owning an S10, how to remove and replace batteries.

After that we went to Timezone. Not really much to see there, except for the games and tons of people. It was a weeekend and it is vacation time for most kids. No surprises there.

It was a long day and shortly, I went home back in Sucat. There, I picked up a few things and preparing for my trip this coming Friday.

Damn, it's already the 29th. So little time, so much to do. I almost want to break out into song... Hehehe :)) It was a productive day and I still had so much fun. It's nice seeing Kiang-Kiang and the others again. :)

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Four - Earth Day

March 28, 2009: Once again, it a slow start again, but not a big thing, since I had not much plans today -- I can't process any of my paperwork since a weekend, so I just stayed home to relax.

The only main activity was the family dinnerout -- originally, it was supposed to be a lunchout. But my sister and her husband had some business to attend to the whole day. So I rescheduled it for a dinner out in one of the restaurants in Santana grove. Later, when big brother and hios family came, I learned that my dad is already tired of going to Santana Grove. It turns out that the only places that he goes to are his home and the Shopwise-Santana grove area. So I changed the plan again to dinnerout at Dencio's in Brittany Bay. It's not far and we have a scenic view of the Laguna Bay. Also, it was Earth Day. We thought it would be cool to see the lights going out in the landscape -- assuming that people actually "vote for the earth" by switching off their lights for one hour. :) We'll just have to wait and see.

Like I said, big bro is here again, as per their usual routine during Saturdays: 8AM badminton in the subdivision plaza; 10AM visit dad until afterlunch. Had a good time with everyone. I just learned that my niece was a greenbelter in Karate! Geez, and she's been doing this she's 6! Wow! I'm so proud. She's the youngest in the Karate class -- no big surprise -- and I'm happy that she was able to do something that I always wanted to do myself. :) Well, too late for me I guess, but it's good to know that at least one in the family knows one form of martial arts. :)

The rest of the afternoon, I'm tyring to watch all the TV I can get. Jack TV. HBO. Star Movies. Basically channels that we don't have in our Singapore flat. Just learned that Jimmy Fallon replaced Conan O'Brien in Late Night. Don't want to compare but I like Conan much better than Jimmy. Sorry, just my personal opinion. Just have to wait I guess until June 1st, when Conan replaces Jay Leno in the Tonight Show.

7PM came and we were off to Dencio's in Brittany Bay. It's one of those rare occasions when everyone is present and accounted for before we all go out. Normally, either my brother's family or my sister's will arrive to the venue late. This time, all of us are here and we all went together at the same time. Nice change actually. :)

Not sure what to buy, we simply went for the Graduation Special Promo there: for php 3,000, we get a complete meal set for 10 people. We took Set B.



Then the promo also stated that for every purchase of the special promo, you get a Crispy Pata (worth about php400+).

Since there were only 8 of us, we were not really expecting to finish off all of the served foods. Which can only be good news for our doggies back home! :))

BTW, the restaurant is actually Pugad Dencio's. Didn't get why that is at first, but it became obvious the moment we came inside. According to my brother, Pol Medina Jr. -- creator of Pugad Baboy -- is either a stockholder or co-owner of this particular branch of Dencio's. The paper placemats contain some comic strips, much to the enjoyment of my niece and nephew.

That's where we had Earth Day. We thought the restautant will not be participating in the Earth Day, since it's past 8:30 and still the lights are still on. Then at 8:50, they switched off all of the main lights, leaving only the dim nightlights on. Lucky for us, our table is still lit up by the nightlights, unlike the table next to us which is completely swallowed up in darkness. We overheard the people sitting there complaining to the management about this; apparently, they were celebrating the graduation of one of their kids today and they get to spend it near-total drakness. Guess, that's one reason why we didn't see many turning off the lights, despite the large movement urging everyone to switch them off.

We stayed there for awhile -- the people sitting on tables that came before and after us have already left; I guess we were there for at least two hours. We stayed there for so long, ate so much food, and had so many leftovers, we didn't realize that the crispy pata was not served to us. We were only reminded when we exited and saw the poster showing the promo. We went back in and asked about it. Here's the funny if not weird part. The manager said that our crispy pata was served to another table! And that they will just cook another one now. Everyone of us thought that that was B$. We just asked for how long, and they said 5 minutes. Crispy Pata in 5 minutes? Yeah right. Anyway, maybe because the kids are having fun with the place and the weather is actually quite nice that time -- very cool and windy -- everyone, especially dad, are relaxed and just continued where we left off with our discussions earlier.

We came home very late -- maybe 1130-ish, and I was all groggy. I had to sleep now since I need to be early for tomorrow's events...

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Three

March 27, 2009: Another slow start of the day for me... That's two in a row...

It was a bit worried because it started to rain. I tried to look for an umbrella, but of the four umbrellas I found in the house, only one was in working order. And I don't want to use it since my dad might need it later. So I just waited for it to drizzle down a bit, dashed for the bus/jeepney stop, and hoped really really really hard that it will not rain while I'm out there.

Hopping onto the bus, I reached the Makati area in less than 30 minutes. So anyway, first thing's first, I need a new umbrella. I decided to buy the Groscher Schatten automatic umbrella -- the one with activated with one push of a button, and is very small when folded, that it would fit inside a small bag. A bit pricey but it would serve my dad well much better than the other umbrellas. Oh yeah, I'm not buying this for myself; it's for my dad. :)

Since the frontdesk in my old company said that I can get my clearance form between 11AM and 12NN there, I decided to be there by 11:30 AM, which to me seems reasonable enough. I waited there for while.. then a while longer... then a whole lot more... Later, my old colleague came out and was surprised to see me there; she was surprised that I had resigned for almost two years and it is only now that I am finishing my clearance. We talked for a while and she shared news about what was happening to my old team there. Some good, some bad... As expected in a company, I guess. It's about 1:00 PM but still no clearance form. She decided that she will take care of it for me so that I wouldn't have to go to the next stop. With that, the rest of my afternoon was freed up. I really owe her bigtime. Maybe a couple or more Starbucks should do it. :) Yeah, she's one of those Starbucks junkies out there :))

With the rest of the afternoon free, I went back to Glorietta and tried to explore around. But first, I need lunch. So cross out another one of my to-eat hitlist: Jollibee's chicken joy. I actually ordered an extra Jolly Hotdog, but I was already full so I just stashed it away.

Intermission: my friend who was taking care of my clearance texted me and said that she just received my clearance form -- it was already 5PM. If I waited for it myself, I would have been sitting on my ass wasting away the whole afternoon. How slow! Glad she's taking care of it for me. I think I need to double my Starbucks treat for her for this one. :)

Didn't know that they closed off parts of Glorietta 1 and 2. I was looking for Booksale to get those back-issues of Yummy magazines at half the price. Too bad Booksale is not there anymore. :( I tried the other books and maganzine stores and stands, but I was only able to get the March issue. The April issue is expected by next week. Other than that, nada. Note to self, try booksale in SM Bicutan and SM MOA (if there is one there).

By 3:30, I met with a couple of my old friends back in the company -- Betsi and Joan. They're off by 3:00 PM so they were able to meet me much earlier -- which means the malls are not as tight when we met than if we met about 2 to 3 hours later. Since I'm the balikbayan, I treated them to Sbarro. We ordered a couple slices of mushroom pizza, one stuffed pizza, and a half-plate of carbonara. I was actually a bit full already since it's been barely an hour when I ate lunch. So less time eating, more time talking and listening. Apparently, so much has changed and happened since I last went there about a year ago. In case you haven't heard, I like stories alot. So I had a full stomach and full with stories I've heard.

Anyway, after we had our fill, we explored a bit around the Glorietta and Greenbelt areas. Since they still have to go to the office tomorrow by 7AM, we decided to part ways by 7-7:30PM. Since I'm commuting and it's a Friday night, I expected it to be long ride home so better go home early as well.

I hopped, this time, onto one of the well-known transit buses which actually stops directly in front of our subdivision. I forgot that they actually have E-Pass and have some *ahem* traffic privileges *wink* *wink* -- let me put it this way, they can go where no other transit buses are allowed before or since.

Surprisingly, I was back in our subdivision before 8PM. Quite fast, actually. So I just decided to go to the nearest supermarket, Shopwise, to buy some stuff as well as scout some of the potential family lunchout the following day. For some reason, all of the restaurants in Shopwise closed down -- Gerry's Grill, Tsokonut, and one Japanese restaurant -- forgot the name. I guess the restaurants in Santana Grove across the street killed them.

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Two

March 26, 2009: My day started quite slow.

I was supposed to go to meet with a couple of friends -- GNet and Ronnie -- at around 11AM and get started with my clearance -- hopefully before and after the lunchout with the guys.

I woke up at 8AM -- I woke only because my dad woke me up, who made it a habit to eat breakfast every 8. I lagged around a bit and was finally able to drag myself to the car by 9-ish. That's when I felt the need to go to the toilet. So I went back and did my business... It was a long business... After that I finally made my way.

Not wanting to lose any more time -- traffic was bad in the SLEX (South Luzon Expressway) due to the construction of the Skyway extension to Alabang -- I decided to go "upstairs" to take the Skyway. At first, I was glad that after a long time, the construction of the Skyway can finally be completed. The last time it was touched, it was when Ramos was still the president -- so that's gotta be more than a decade if I'm not mistaken. Then again, I remembered that next year will be election year. Can't help to think that they finally decided to finish the Skyway and all the while putting up banners and signboards stating how the completion of the project is brought to us by the current administration... Yeah right. As if I'm not aware of how trapos -- traditional politicians; literally "dirty rugs" -- go about their business.

I arrived in Makati around 10AM-ish, so I practically had no time to process my clearance before I meet them. So I just waited around and explored the G3 area.

I first met with Gnet and went to Califronia Pizza Kitchen. I'm not really sure what to order, so I let her decide what to buy. Shortly, Ronnie arrived, who apparently had some problems finding the way from the G3 basement parking to the California Pizza Kitchen. I brought with me some of the things that they asked us to buy and bring here. I guess that's why they're treating for this lunch. Hehehe :) We've been talking things over for well over 3 hours and that's when we finally went our separate ways -- I guess they're going on a date, while I'm supposed to be doing the clearance thing.

I got to my old company's building -- let's call it Building 1 -- to pick up the clearance form. My other colleague who also resigned left my clearance form at the IT department. I got there but was told by the security personnel to wait for the IT guy to return. I waited for a long time. It took me well over an hour before I finally got the form. It's a bit frustrating to have to wait when all along the IT guy was inside!!! Don't know what's the problem of this security guy. The hell with these guys! By the time I left, I was just fuming for sitting there for a long time.

I then went straight to our company's Building 2, who needs to route the form to be signed by whatever departments are there in that friggin' building. It was 5:30 when I got there, so they advised me that it can only be processed tomorrow by 10:30 AM and then I can pick it up between 11AM and 12NN.

So that's it. Not accomplished much, really, but at least I got the ball rolling for my clearance.. It's long overdue and at least now I can finally tie up this frustrating loose end.

I was a bit tired, then I saw the buildup of traffic in EDSA. I decided to hang out for a while and maybe visit the Timezone -- our Mecca for our carebears collection. Of course by this time, the carebears are no longer the price in that UFO catcher thing, but visiting it was a bit refreshing nonetheless. I was also looking for the old Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but it was nowhere in sight. Oh well, too bad. I always liked that game, even if I got my ass handed to me whenever someone challenges me. :))

By 8PM, I decided to finally go home. I thought rushhour traffic was ebbing by this time. Still, I took the Skyway. As expected, the long part was for the payment of toll fees. It took a just well over 5 minutes I think -- still not that long; I remember a few years back when I was stuck there for more than half an hour. After that, I was back home in no time.

Glad to see my old brother there with the family. It's the first time I saw them again in almost a year. It was late, though, and was not yet the weekend, so they went home relatively earlier than what he would have wanted: 12 MN hehe :) Yeah, that's still early for him :))

Back in Manila March '09 - Day One

March 25, 2009 12:25 AM, PR506 flew from Changi Airport bound for Manila. The place landed just before 3:30 AM. It took me a while to get past immigration; I forgot to bring a pen, so I was only able to fill up the disembarkation card -- given much earlier during the flight -- when I got to the immigration. By the time I finished the form, all of the open immigration counters already had long lines.

After that, it took me only minutes to get all of my remaining baggage and past the customs. Shortly, my in-laws are there to take me home. We went through a McDonald's drivethru. Not sure what to get, I just went for the breakfast item that is not available in SG: the longganisa meal.

Shortly after getting home, I fixed some things in my backpack then walked all the way to my dad's house. But low and behold.... where once stood our 30-ish year old home now stands a bright pink bungalow! Well, actually, it's still the same house, but was, uhm, "renewed". It was back in '88 when it was last renovated, so my dad decided it was time to replace the leaking roof, some of the termite-infested doorframes and ceilings, and a cool new paintjob.

The ancient camias tree -- been there since '81 at least -- and the humungous macopa trees that are dropping vast amounts of leaves everyday are removed and replaced with some sort of red palm tree and a couple of pine-like tree.

The house walls are colored "princess peach" on the upper and lower sections with a "mellow melon" through the middle section. The roof is painted "spanish red". The water tank is also painted similarly. Inside, the walls are painted either in "true blue" or in "mint green". All in all, it's a fresh look and makes the house look like it's a new house for sale. :))

Even though I had coffee, I still fell asleep. If my dad did not wake me up during lunchtime, I would have probably dozed off until the end of the afternoon. As such, after lunch and waiting for some time for the sun to sink a bit -- I decided to push through with the rest of my to-do list.

First up, renewal of my license. For renewal, I needed the previous license (check), the application form, drug test result, and medical examination result. Too bad, the nearby clinic doing the drug test and med exam is "offline". Bummer :(

Not wanting to waste anymore time, I went straight to my mom. I think it'd good that I visit her during my first day back. I'm just a few days late; she passed on the 21st, five years ago. It's always a solemn time for me whenever I vist her.

After that, I'm done for the day. :) Well, except for the license thing. :) Guess I'll deal with it after I'm done with the rest in my priority list.