Happy New Year from Laoag!

Its final. The next time we visit Laoag with our baby in tow, it will be by plane. I just can't seem to get the hang of sleeping in a moving (make that jarring) 9-hour bus trip to Ilocos. Arriving in Laoag in the early morning of the 28th made me feel like one of the zombies in the "Night of the Living Dead". Well, what else can be expected from a 2-months pregnant woman that just came from a 1.5hr plane trip from Zamboanga (which was delayed!) and a 9hr land trip north? All I could think about was bed and breakfast. Of course, I had to eat first -- our baby was hungry. =) (Its so nice being pregnant, I can say all of my food binges are for the baby. Hehehe.) Long story short, I was fast asleep (more like comatose) the entire morning and got up just in time for lunch. Again, I have to feed our baby so my internal body clock was working pretty well when it came to eating times. =)

Coming from opposite ends of the Philippines do have its advantages. Number one advantage is food. While Carl and I stuffed ourselves with all the seafood in Zamboanga, in Laoag we are greeted with a whole set of different flavors. There's my #1 favorite the Ilocos orange empanada with papaya and egg filling served on a paper bag dripping with oil... Yum! Yum! Yum! I swear, pinaglihian ko talaga ito. =) And then there was all the food that was prepared for our "mini-reception" in Laoag. We had all the dishes you can prepare from goat - kilawin, papait and kaldereta, lechon, embotido, etc. etc. My Ilocano blood runs strong with my cravings for papait. I had 2 rounds of papait that evening and I had another round of papait for breakfast the next day. Sarap! =)

Speaking of our mini-reception, I was really amazed at how "bongga" it turned out to be. We had lots of food, we prepared a slideshow of our wedding for the guests, we had games for the kids and adults, there was videoke and singing up to the early hours of the morning. Whew! Of course, it was all thanks to Papa C and Mama R for making it such a success. =)

New Year in Laoag was noisy and smoky and fun, just what a New Year should be like. =) We went to church on the evening of Jan. 1 where I had to reign in one of the more embarassing "side effects" of pregnancy -- flatulence. I swear, its so embarrassing! There are days that I'm going at it every ten or fifteen minutes! Thank God, I'm successful at keeping it discreet when other people are around. But if its just me and Carl -- I have coached him to say "Music to my ears" and "Wonderful aroma" to soothe my embarrassed ego. Hehehe. =)

May 2009 bring in more blessings to all! God bless!

P.S. I have originally intended to post this at Friendster blog but I got pissed off at how slow posting and uploading is there. My previous posts are still in Friendster but I'll try transferring them here.