As far as I’m concerned this year is eventful and mostly positive. Sure we have our share of drama and big changes but change can be very good. The biggest change perhaps for me is that I have moved on from Nielsen. As the year ended, Jeanne and I are practically finished with our role in sending our children through University. Though I must admit, we had it easy – they practically sent themselves through it. All we did was to be there when they need us.
Let me go through to last 12 months – I’ll start with Christmas Eve of 2009. We were on a plane from Manila to Sydney. Having used our frequent flier points to visit the Philippines, we didn’t have much choice on flights – so its no surprise that Christmas eve is the only flight we can take. It was uneventful – there’s not even a trace of Christmas air – it’s PC, no one wants to offend the non-believers. But, when we landed it was a different story – A huge Christmas breakfast is awaiting us – cooked and prepared by Celine and Jess.
January 2010 is one event after the other. First Mark and Joy had their engagement party. It’s a Japanese costume party. Then there was the Sax-In-The-City where I joined 100s other sax player at the Sydney Festivale. Jeanne took photos of the event – one of her photos was selected for a web magazine. The biggest surprise of course is TJ Miravalles calling me out-of-the blue. He was traveling to Sydney on a driving adventure for the first time with his friend James. They stayed in our place for a few days and we all drove on Australia Day to Ballina to visit Celine and her school mate Anne Marie. They were on a 6-week placement in Lismore as part of their Speech Pathology Curriculum.
Jessica has definitely been infected by the travel bug. In February, she spent a few days with friends in Brisbane. One of her friends became a stewardess for Emirates, so they all went and see her off and celebrated in Brisbane. Shortly thereafter, she flew to Fiji with another set of friends.
In April, we racked up one weekend, unannounced to Melbourne. Manang Helen took us to Geelong. Of course, April 2010 is also Jessica’s 21st Birthday – and since we’re not invited to her “Casino Style” party – we had our own private celebration at Kobe Jones. In case you’re wondering why we’re not invited – it’s a joint celebration with two other girls – also turning 21 in their group – and – yes their parents were also not invited.
The month of May was when I made the big move from Nielsen. It was a bitter-sweet end to my 16 years in Nielsen. Two years ago I transitioned from being a permanent employee to a consultant. Now I was moving away for good.
In August, Celine once again had to stay away from home. This time, she lived with the Laroco Family in Hornsby. It’s a rekindling of old friends and family as we find occassions to reconnect with our ex-Texas Instruments friends.
September is when we attended the wedding of Mark and Lara.
October is a big month as we played host to Manang Ditas. We took her to Melbourne, Gold Coast, Hunter Valley. We wined and dined so to speak. She wrote a blog about it. There were tons of photos and stories. It is on a blog written by Manang Ditz.
On November, it was the Tumalads turn to play host to their guest and we were also invited to stay a night at a beautiful old hotel at the Blue Mountains.
Then finally in December we met possibly Jeanne’s closest relative who lives in Australia. Jason is a nephew, son of Manong Jun – the only sibling of Jeanne who after almost 30 years of knowing Jeanne – I have never met face-to-face.
December is also when Celine and Jessica had their adventure to Japan. As a parent – I am absolutely worried whilst they are away overseas on their own but at the same time proud of their independence and character.
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