Life in Iloilo --

This morning, Johann and I and my parents attended a mass with our "new" friends, R & F who were celebrating their first wedding anniversary today. They're my youngest bro's batchmates and our families are quite close so, when I came back to Iloilo, we got in touch with each other and became friends. ^_^

After the mass, we joined their family for breakfast at Sarabia Manor's Salvatore restaurant. It was a wonderful morning and a wonderful breakfast. Johann and I really enjoyed watching the egg guy make the omelettes. ^_^

It was also fun talking to R & F who are also expecting their first child. F and I have been exchanging notes about our pregnancy experiences and about our concerns about childbirth.

It's wonderful having someone who can relate to you about the things you are going through. ^_^

Chatting with F made me realize something about Johann and myself -- we are too bookish. Not that that's a bad thing -- whenever we encounter something new, our first instinct is to find books and/or articles and read up.

This is us with R & F at the breakfast this morning. My mom took this picture. ^_^
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Busy --

Despite my own perception that life in Iloilo would be slow and "blah", I find that my days move quickly here and they're filled with things to do and errands to accomplish.

We've slowly adapted to a schedule here of breakfast, morning errands, lunch, afternoon errands and dinner -- we get time for ourselves in between the work that we do.

The pace is different, everything is more relaxed because time is not a big issue. From my house to the city usually takes 7 to 12 minutes. Heavy traffic usually takes about 30 to 45 minutes to go through.

We're more relaxed and feel less hurried but, at the end of the day, we realize that we've accomplished so much.

What pleases me the most is being able to see how our help has freed up some of my parents' time. They're able to go out and enjoy themselves and not have to worry about the work that usually gets piled up for them.

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The downside --

I've been here for a month and I've experienced more power failures in that month here than I have in my stay in Metro Manila. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration -- but there have been a LOT of power failures in Iloilo lately.

Last week, during the bagyo (Caloy), the power went out and PECO (Panay Electric Company) decided NOT to entertain the phone calls and inquiries from the people. Mayor Trenas was really upset over this and publicly reprimanded PECO.

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Missing Manila --

What I miss most about Manila are the movie theaters. The lovely seats. The lovely popcorn. ~sigh~

I also miss being able to cook -- I don't like our kitchen here because I feel like I'm trespassing. I think about making cheesecake sometimes or even katsudon.

And, yes, I miss my sibs and my friends in Manila. Thank goodness there's Y!M and PLDT's PhP10 per phone call and mobile phones.

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Another photo --


Johann and I at F's birthday dinner a week ago