Holy Week in the Philippines: Palm Sunday

Sunday 13th April 2014

I awoke early to see the Palm Sunday celebrations, or Linggo ng Palaspás as we say in Tagalog. Palm Sunday commemorates the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Typically we'd bring our palms (palaspás) to church where it is blessed by the priest, but it seems that the priest makes rounds in the neighbourhoods and blesses the palms people have adorned their yards or gates with.

The night before we had decorated the front of our house with the palms and set up a mic and speaker so the priest would stop by. He did stop by, along with a congregation of church goers. I don't fully understand the ritual or even the prayers that were said (as they were all in Tagalog) but in the end he blessed our palms with holy water.

Father Bobby Mariano

Mum and Dad

At 8am I accompanied niece Nicole to the Palm Sunday mass at Mt Carmel church which is a short walk from where we live. Again it was in Tagalog so I didn't understand too much.

In the afternoon we went over to San Roque where my dad's sister (Tita Nita) lives and had dinner over there.

Philippines 2014: Mabuhay!

Saturday 12th April 2014

I wanted to go the Philippines this year to spend some time with my dad before his big surgery in an environment where he is stress free and happy, and secondly to experience the Filipino holy week.

12th April 2014

 I had a relatively easy and uneventful flight. I got through check in and customs real fast in Sydney and also got through immigration and customs quickly when I arrived in Manila. I attribute this to Philippine Airlines having their own airport in Manila which means less flights and less passengers passing through it each day so there are hardly any queues at the airport.

On my flight over I was fortunate enough to be upgraded to the "emergency exit" seat (or "choice seat" as the airline puts it), which basically meant I had more leg room in front of me but the added responsibility of the one who has to open the exit door in case something happens to the air hostess in the event of an emergency.

The crap thing about the flight though was that I got no sleep because seats in economy class are always uncomfortable AND I virtually had no in flight entertainment because it was one of those older, smaller planes with few centralized TV monitors in the cabin rather than one each in front of you, and I didn't feel like watching any of the random movies they showed. I pretty much spent the majority of the 8 hour flight bored out of my mind.

When I arrived at the airport I was surprised that I was not only met by my parents (they had arrived 2 weeks earlier) and cousin Tutz (who is the driver) but also by my 2 aunts and their daughters.

It took maybe a little over 2 hours to drive back to our home in Baliuag. We did stop by this outdoor BBQ house type eatery (I can't remember the name!) for some dinner and it was delicious!

When we got home my parents and relatives started decorating the joint with palms and palm fronds in preparation for Palm Sunday the next day.

Some observations:

- We drove through a lot of squatter areas on the way back from the airport which made me feel so sorry for the kids. I saw one having a bath in some sort of tub/plastic barrel, dipping his body and head in and out. So many kids walking through dirty places and looking for things to pick up from the rubbish piles.

-In our area there are were so many children, toddlers even, just playing or milling around in the streets and it's in the middle of the night!

- the air is smokey and a little polluted which gave me concern because I get allergies.

 

I got me a fiance!

On Friday, 2nd May 2014, Nathan officially proposed and we got engaged! He really did get down on one knee too! Or was it both knees? I can't remember hah!

I'll be honest I am not looking forward to planning a wedding or even having a wedding but I can't wait for married life to begin!

For good measure here is the bling!

The big 3-0

Happy Birthday to Nathan!

The big boy turns 30 today! Hurrah!

Some facts about Nate at thirty:

- He's dedicated to achieving his goals. Any goal he has he will commit 100% of his efforts into achieving it

- He eats, A LOT, and very frequently. His work mates think all he does all day is eat!

- He is keen on learning more and more about nutrition and how the foods that we eat affect our bodies and well being

- He's becoming quite the bodybuilder

- He's a positive person and always strives to be a better version of himself

 - He makes me laugh all the time

 I will be flying back from the Philippines tonight and then we'll celebrate his birthday tomorrow.

(Special thanks to my work colleague, Ferdie who drew that caricature of him)

Rosemary Cutting

Tuscan Blue Rosemary cutting

Earlier in the year I bought a couple of rosemary plants. I took a cutting from the Tuscan Blue variety and placed it in a clear cup of water. After about 3 weeks the roots started shooting from the cutting and began growing. I waited until yesterday to plant it out, when the roots were strong and plentiful. Hopefully it'll continue to grow now that's in the ground.

#fuckcancer

My dad went  and had a prostate biopsy done on the 12th March 2014, just two days after his 66th birthday. A week later on the 19th March the urologist told us his biopsy was positive for prostate cancer, gleason 7 score. This means that it is "medium/intermediate" risk of growth.

I hate that C word and I never thought it would happen to us.

Dad seems to be ok, it definitely is shock and at times I don't think he quite believes it himself, after all he hasn't felt 'sick' and he has had an elevated PSA level since 2009. 

I went with him yesterday to get CT scans and we were delivered the good news that the cancer is contained within the prostate and hasn't metastasized. Thank you Lord!

We're looking at robotic surgery for treatment and the urologist told us that he has a 85% cure rate. So the prognosis is definitely positive! Still it is still very scary and surgery, like any surgery has risks.

Right now we are just trying to get our heads around everything. We are very lucky in that nothing is deemed 'urgent' so we can take our time making decisions. My dad will need to see a cardiologist next week so they can run some stress tests to make sure his heart is fit enough for surgery and he'll need to have a physio session at least twice before surgery so he can learn how to do pelvic exercises.

The tentative date for surgery is the 9th May. In the meantime dad has been given the go ahead to go on holidays before surgery.

New Lens

About a month ago I purchased a 50mm 1.8 lens for my DSLR. I took some practice shots yesterday. All were taken on the auto mode.  Here are my unedited favourites. Unedited because I still don't know how to use photoshop hah!