pater

papa has just turned 59!

i braved an almost 3 hour trip going home to novaliches to celebrate his 59th birthday! except for kuya bob and his brood, the whole family was there. it has now become a family tradition that we come together every 6th of august to share some hearty meal and out-of-the-ordinary kuwentos with each other. tradition has it that we, all august celebs, have only 1 cake to share... each gets his or her chance to blow the candle. since there are now 5 august celebs with izhi's birth 3 years ago, the number 3 candle was hers. papa, ate she, kuya george and myself were represented with 1 candle each.

true to his nature, papa didn't speak that much throughout that evening. well, he's like that. he rarely speaks to any of us... prefers to keep his words to himself, only utters a line or so about the food or about the kids. but that doesn't mean that he wasn't happy. we know that deep within that traditional soldierlike bearing, he was the happiest man of that day. i can tell that even if he was talking with his barangay constituents, he was constantly looking at our circle and how we enjoy the food and being with each other... he knows that there's nothing like his kids' very own huntahan and hagalpakan!

good health. that's my main wish for papa. he had his bouts with lung illness a few years back, so i really wish that he maintains a sound body and mind. i know that he wants to regain his political footing, following last year's anomalous barangay elections, so i also hope that their efforts on advancing election protest case brings positive fruition.

as of this writing, we just had our sunday malling in trinoma... with no less than papa in tow! that's also a first! papa gets easily bored but he gamely put on a malling attitude, following ate she, ate joy and liezl's every store trip, as well as looking and running after 4 tots (julia, rafael, juancho and izhi). pizza & razon's halo-halo, i think, was the secret behind papa's newfound mall career!

i hope that we get lots of this sunday activities in the future.

love yah 'pa, my old man!