Bound to North this time. We love taking NLEX. The roads are awesome.“Our good roads keep you in a good mood.” So true.On the road.
Two-and-a-half hours later, we reached our destination: Victoria, Tarlac. The house above is where my Dad grew up. When we were little, my Dad would bring us there to spend a few weeks of our summer. And to be honest, we were not exactly “thrilled” to vacation there because of poor TV reception (limited to Channel 4, RPN-9 and IBC-13) and that all our friends were back in Manila. Plus, our Dad was a strict father who would insist that we take afternoon naps when we prefer to play in the sandbox or tinker in our palayok play set or go to the plaza, or simply annoy the chickens and pigs in the backyard pens.
On Sunday, we were there to visit our 90-year old grandaunt and to celebrate the town’s fiesta. I thought it was a good idea to bring the kids so they have an idea what their Mommy’s activities were when she was their age. Also, I felt the need to expose them as much Filipino culture as I can since they live a modern life here in South and we’ll be moving to Montreal in four months.
This is the gang. Not all cousins were present. (Hans, Gay and AC, Isa, Pia and Franz and David, Liezl and Matt, Iya and Diego, so sorry we missed you)The parade began.It was the kids’ first time to see an actual parade. Gabby mimicking the drum beatings.The probinsyanas… Cris, Michell, and moi. Riel took this photo using his celphone. (Little did I know that he was waiting for the Ms. Victoria… )
At 3:00pm, we went to the town plaza which they temporarily converted into a carnival or “perya” as we call it. The plaza is a seven-minute walk from the house.
Marco asked Tita Ina to carry him on her back. Gabby got envious and wanted to be carried, too. These brats! Tita Patty and cousin Peggy watched them from the back.We spent most of our money here at the balloon target shooting.We all took our turns (except my Mom) and the kids enjoyed it the most.“Hey Raf, how many balloons did you pop?” “Three!”See how terrible we were?Caterpillar ride. Nope, we didn’t ride it.Horror train. Nope, we didn’t ride it also.The “perya” was full of betting games.On our way back, we took the “kuliglig” –> Ate said that’s what it is called. It fit eleven of us.Riel and cousin Michael walked back.We enjoyed the less-than-five-minute ride.The “kuliglig” brought us back to our lola’s house for P50.00. Then we gave a tip of P100.00. The driver was very thankful.
I don’t know when we will be back there again with all the cousins, kids, aunts and uncles. For sure, my family unit will be missing the Fiesta for the next three or four years. Fortunately, we have memories to last forever.
