Happy Birthday, Kuya Peping

Today would have been his 64th birthday. There would have been a feast. He loves to eat. Our family loves to eat. Today I remember the tough but cheerful uncle that we had. I still feel sad that we lost him so soon. I cried this morning as I made a birthday greeting for him in Facebook. We miss him. I miss him. Everyday since that ill-fated day, I look at his kitchen and windows, it's just so empty and sad. I used to knock at his back door whenever I'd ask him if he wants to eat or if I haven't seen him all day to check if he's okay. I'm gonna miss those days.

Photo taken at Sioson Family Reunion

Jacob Andre Suin Dait

Woooohooooo!!! Once again, I'm a very happy sister and aunt to a new baby. But this time, it's a BOY!!! And a cute baby boy!

Congratulations to my sister and brother - in - law!!! Oh, and to Addy because she's now an ate! I wanna go to USA so badly just to see my niece, Addy and new nephew, Jacob!

Born April 06, 2013

Remembering Tatay

Conrado Lopez Soyangco, Sr. (at the right) December 08, 1926 - April 04, 1992

Easter Sunday 2013

I spent Easter Sunday at a beach here in Bataan with a friend who came here and relatives. I already forgot when was the last time I went to a beach here in our province that I also forgot we actually have really nice beaches here. My friend, Donna, whom I met at McDonald's Wilson spent 2 nights here. She wasn't able to go to Bicol so I invited her. Aaaah! I missed my uber cute friend! :) My niece, Bella, also enjoyed playing under the sun. She loved the water and sand!

Donna posing at the water

B loves the beach

Donna and I

Fat niece and fat aunt

Current State

Family.

 

I feel terrible and awful of what's happening right now. I am unemployed. I have no savings. I am depending to my parents and sister financially. We do not have so much money to spend for the maintenance medicines, series of check ups, bills, never ending bills, etc. I told my mother that I will seek a job abroad to be able to help. They're not getting any younger. They should be stress free by this time. My sister can't do it alone. She has spent probably almost all her earnings when both my parents were hospitalized last 2011 and 2012. It must be really hard for her. She's generous and am grateful for that but again, she can't do it alone. I don;t get it why my mother doesn't consider the idea of me working abroad when in fact it is what we need for our situation right now. Who would want to see her mother so stressed?!!! They want me to work here in Bataan but there's no job here. They don't want me to work in Manila either. Where the hell am I gonna find a job that will satisfy what they want??? Aaaargghhhhhhh!! It's so hard because I feel so useless. I can't even send myself to school. I hate it that they don't understand that someone in this family has to take the risk. My sister already did it when she left for US but she has her own family now. She has priorities. And I'm single. I don't even have a boyfriend whom I will left alone if I'll be able to work abroad. Why the heck are they close minded??? I will never, ever understand why!!!! Life is so hard. I wish I could just go back to the time when my worries were just my exams, assignments and papers. I wish life was that simple. But things are really tough right now and I want to do something. They just won't let me go!!!!

Heart.

We officially stopped talking again. It has been 2 weeks since our last conversation. He just proved that he only talks to me out of his boredom. He's just like them. He's insensitive and does not value friendship. I don't want him in my life anymore. I let him come back into my life too many times already and I only end up hurting. He has no idea how much I was willing to give if only he felt the same way or he at least tried looking at me but each time we talk, he keeps on reminding me why it's never gonna be us and it breaks my heart over and over and over again and he couldn't care less. He doesn't deserve my, my friendship, my time and the feelings I had for him.

Family Gathering

I love, love family gatherings. As in. It's one of the reasons that when I have work I'd like to have weekend and holiday off so I can attend every gathering. I really wouldn't miss if for anything. Do I sound I am crazy with my family? Yes, I am. I love my family. Especially the SOYANGCO side. We all grew up really close with each other. I could really say that my cousins and I all grew up together that now that we're not kids anymore, we can still talk about the things we used to do when we were younger and will laugh at it. And we'll laugh about everything. We really do have fun together and it's one thing I miss a lot. We used to spend Christmas and New Year's together. But now we still managed to see each other once in a while.

Our most recent gathering was yesterday at my uncle's house in Pasig. My parents, aunts, uncles and cousins went there at around 10am in time for lunch. I came at 3pm because I had classes at Graduate School. As usual, we feasted on so many foods. My cousins and I were talking that we are not the family that eats at restaurant a lot because we know to cook really good food. The foods that we had yesterday weren't really healthy but it was REALLY yummy. We had roasted pig (whole pig), crispy pata (another pig), kare kare (beef in peanut sauce) that is paired with a bagoong (shrimp paste), crabs, puto and dinuguan (family's favorite), desserts, and fresh fruits. After eating, we danced using the XBox 360 of my cousins. It was even more fun because we can't choose when to dance. It was a draw lots. We were so noisy like kids. After dancing, we got tired and it was our excuse for eating again. My cousin, Jor el, bought isaw (chicken and pig's intestine) and barbecue. My uncles grilled it for us. My cousins and I, again, ate A LOT. We also had grilled mussels which was so good because it was fresh. We also had couple of drinks and for our dinner, guess what we had??? JOLLIBEE CHICKEN JOY. Hahahahaa. Yes, we had fast food. My uncle got a free food from Jollibee and Chowking which we consumed once again. We love food, don't we??? We really do!!!

At past 9:00 pm, we had to leave because we have to go back to Bataan. I wish we could have stayed longer for another round of dancing and eating. I really miss my relatives and I also wish we could do it more often. It's one family tradition that we'd like to pass to younger generations. And we want our younger cousins to grow up really close to each other just like we are.

All Saints' Day 2012

It has always been a family tradition for us to gather on a November 1. It's a one long day affair. Sometimes, it lasted until the morning the next day. Usual things happen every year - relatives from Manila come home, we ate lunch together (Roasted pig or lechon is our favorite), we go to cemetery in the afternoon until midnight and we eat again then we come back home and eat again. This year we feasted with Filipino food - goto, tokwa, dinuguan, lumpia and lechon. It was so much fun! We had rice and pork for our midnight snack! Calories, cholesterol and carbohydrates overload. I never missed All Saints' Day in Bataan because I don't want to miss the fun of spending time with my cousins. And it's a tradition of the Soyangco family that we would like to pass to younger generations so we could continue living up to the family tradition that have been a practice for so many years.

We weren't able to take lots of pictures because we were to busy laughing over our fun conversations so I will only upload few pictures.

With my cousins. These are just less than 1/2 of our big family.

Bella and Dianne

Dianne, Chloe and Bella

Skype session

Awhile ago, I thought of having a skype session with my older sister and her 6 month old daughter, Addy. Since I do not have much work to do this morning, I tweeted my sister to ask if we can have a skype session and we did!! I super miss them! The first time I saw Addy was last April and she was only 2 months old. She's getting bigger and bigger each day! I can't wait to see them again.