Wednesday Warbles: The First Entry of the Year

Happy New Year!

It’s only fitting that the first entry of the year starts off with a greeting.

As I write this it’s already the 10th of the month and almost two weeks since my last entry. The Coffee House has been quiet and without its regular patron mainly because I’ve been busy with work in the office. Internet connection has also been slow, still due to the Taiwan quake which damaged underwater communications cables which were vital internet infrastructure connecting the Philippines to the rest of the world. At home, my internet connection sucks – my punishment for compromising with an ISP that already sucks at customer service.

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As with Christmas, we spent the New Year at my parents in Laguna.

New Year was more somber this year which was good because it meant less noise, less smoke, and less soot and booger to clean out of your nose.

The greatest bulk of the fireworks in the vicinity went off at around 12am whereas in earlier years, the merry-making started as early as 10pm. This time around, probably due to the high cost of celebrating with gunpowder-laden devices, the New Year was quieter and the whole bing-bang-bung caboodle was done several minutes after midnight. We didn’t have the usual trumpillo this year as last year’s and the year's before sucked.

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The apartment in Makati is a full-house.

Aside from moi, Elvie, Ikai and the house-help … there’s also my parents-in-law, my bro-in-law and his wife, and their two bugoys – a total of 10 people.

It’s been a full-house since before Christmas but by tomorrow, my bro-in-law’s wife and one of their sons will be going back to the province leaving only my parents-in-law and one of their apos in the house.

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One of my wife’s cousins came to the Philippines last January 1 on a mixed business and pleasure trip. She and her partners are set to take over Quickmelt Ensaymada, one of the more popular ensaymada bakeshop companies here in the country owned and operated by another cousin of my wife.

With the takeover, they hope to improve and expand the business and once again lead the ensaymada-making industry in the Philippines.

Personally, I hope I can get some freelance gigs from them – something like marketing consultancy, design or something web-related.

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My wife’s family had a reunion of sorts last weekend at a private pool in Calamba, Laguna (near Monte Vista) and of course, I was there to join my wife and little Ikai.

We happily splashed in the pool. They swam, I just bobbed. They floated while I made the pool one big sauna.

We brought along a cook and helpers so there was no need to exert any effort in the food preparations or the washing of the dishes or cleaning up of the mess. It was a pure hedonistic weekend – eat, sleep, drink, etc.

Some of the guys preferred to play tong-its all night while all the womenfolk decreed sleep was a necessity. However, I decided to while away a part of the night singing. Yes, the private resort had its own videoke and the songs were updated. Plus, the videoke machine was not a worn-out machine with battered speakers – it sounded good which in turn made singing more pleasurable. I hit the machine at around 9PM and finally let go of the microphone at 3am.

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And what would the New Year be without resolutions, right?

This year, I resolve to reduce my weight even further. Lat time I checked, I was at 210 lbs, a loss of five pounds since my last weigh in some months past. My only exercise ever since consist of just walking … walking home from the office, walking to buy stuff at JP Rizal, walking several times inside RCBC Plaza, etc.

Though I did control myself during the holidays, I expect to have gained 2-3 pounds at least.

I hope to have reached 200 lbs. in the next several months with continuous walking only.