Welcome 09
Our families had taken the opportunity to welcome the new year by giving God the glory first more than anything else. It is always a wonderful experience & most fitting to give Him & His righteousness due praise especially during the first hours of the year. For His love & faithfulness towards us, His new mercies, and of course because He deserves it!
From exchanging stories on how each couple met further enhanced the just-woke-up-bonding time with the families represented here.
1st Calumpit Daybreak
Don’t you just love early mornings in a brand new place that you’re staying in? I could never outgrow the feeling. As far as I can remember, my first experience of this was when my cousins and I would sleep over at my Anma’s place (God rest her soul) in Fernhill. We’d wake up to the smell of dew (or what’s left of it), big red roses, and of course good ol’ rich top soil.
This morning there was fresh morning air – and a wonderful cool breeze that stirred up wonderful past memories of childhood. It, too, reminded me of the Creator’s awesomeness & gentleness. I was supposed to take myself out for a brief jog, but instead I ended up doing stationary exercises – just revving up that single-generation-old blood pumping machine. I had forgotten to ask for the keys to the gate’s locks.
This morning I took some pictures of a small spider having breakfast. His meal was almost double his size! The poor insect just didn’t have what it takes to free itself from the deadly silk trap. Taking the shot wasn’t easy since the air was blowing against the web and I was trying to go macro on it. So I instead switched to the best settings for it – manual. One of the reasons I’m hoping for that special macro lens just for times like these.
After breakfast we set out to the market, it’s market day here in Calumpit during Tuesday mornings. In fact the vendors occupy overflow the side street with their goods until around noontime. I wished I had brought my camera with me since it was our first time to witness how spring roll lumpia wrapper being heated and readied for sale. But then I realized the point & shoot would have been a better idea especially in the smelly wet areas. We also passed by a vendor who was selling these funny horns for the new year. One of his horns was interesting since you could adjust the sound pitch by changing the length of its extendable body – I found it very amusing so I asked how much it was, and the answer was 50 pesos. I called domo’s attention to it and we went ahead through the other make-shift stalls just before getting to the market area proper.
Breakfast was kilawin, more on the pork stuff. My first time to eat such a dish, and guess what? It wasn’t bad, not bad at all! Ok ok so it was delicious. And so was the pancit canton which obviously was home-made, none of those tiny ‘pirasos’ you see at fastfood chains. Yum!
Lunch – squash & string beans in coconut gata with last night’s wonderful mongo soup; domo & i are having a great time with all the yummily prepared food. I should’ve guessed that fish sauce has been a key ingredient in all of these dishes.
Trip to Calumpit
It’s been a good year or so since my family’s traveled out of the metro, and thanks to a very kind friend who’s offered their place for welcoming the new year – we’ve been blessed indeed to have this special time spent away from the blatant noise & expected gunpowder smoke.
Since traveling out of country would be a luxury at this time we grabbed the opportunity to explore relatively nearby places that we have not visited yet as a family – let alone spend the new years with another family. We’ve gladly considered this as a good exposure for us as a family especially for the kids – new place, spending time with their friends (and making new ones), minding their manners in another home by reminding them to practice self-control. It also helps stretch further their knowledge to the world that they’re accustomed to as early as now.
We’re expecting two other families to join us during new year’s eve itself, so this should prove to be to say the very least interesting. We’re excited! This could be a good time to spend also on firming up our faith goals for the coming year.
Upon arriving we decided to do a little shopping at the local wet market. It had dawned on me that my youngest son had not been in one before, so I took the opportunity to show him around the meat section, the fish selections (although only a select few stalls were occupied since it was already very late in the afternoon), and of course the vegetables.
These were the following mini events that caught my attention during the trip & immediately after the ride going there:
the smell & sight of smoke - the kind where residents burn the leaves that have fallen of fruit trees
smell of grass upon arriving - this triggered a childhood memory where almost everybody in our neighborhood practiced this chore as well. For us we had to rake up the mixed up leaves of macopa, tambis, guava, jackfruit, and even coconut tree leaves!
We also witnessed some sporadic airborne firecrackers during our time in the wet market, and we also saw firecrackers being peddled on the streets like candy while on trike going back to the house. This was quite expected knowing that the area is known as part of the fireworks capital of the country.
So far, all our activities have gone smoothly and we looked forward to dinner & more planning for a simple new year event.
