Ibyang
Ibyang

Charmed Life of a Mrs

Mary Mackillop Church, Manly Beach, Westfield Parramatta

It was a rainy Tuesday yesterday but that didn’t stop us from going out and enjoying the day.

Here are some snippets of the places we went to:

Early morning mass at Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney.

I love their altar. I’m so fond of seeing an “alive” Jesus in a church’s altar (such as Christ the King in Pasig). That’s also one of the reasons why the Husband and I got married in National Shrine of the Sacred Heart in San Antonio Village Makati—I really wanted to get married in a church where the Jesus in the altar is “alive” and not a cruxified one.

Since Mary Mackillop was near my cuzin Ayie’s workplace, she invited us to meet her and she treated us breakfast (thanks Ayie!) at Tropicana Cafe.

From there, we went to Circular Quay to take the ferry going to Manly Beach. Such bad weather yesterday but we still enjoyed taking photos and going in and out of the shops.

And we also enjoyed our lunch–steak!!!

Our last stop was at Westfield Parramatta for some shopping.

It was also yesterday that the Bakasyonistas got to ride the train and ferry. It’s nothing new with my mom and my Tita Cyn, but it was my Dad’s first time and I think he enjoyed it.

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Snippets of a Hectic Sunday

Celebrated the feast of St. Joseph at St. Michael’s Parish in the morning. It was a big celebration as there was a Filipino Fiesta for the parishioners–free food served by the different Fillipino organizations in Blacktown.

Before we left, we had our new “baby” baptized.

Stopped by our Tita Ma’s place, hung out there for a bit, then went straight to Woodcroft to greet David a happy 1st birthday.

It was a costume party but Chris and I informed Pam that we will try our best to at least drop by. Just very busy with family affairs so we didn’t really have time to prepare costumes for the party.

Jon was there as a soldier.

Cowgirl Che and Cowboy Dom was there too!

Short chitchat with Helen and Pam.

We only stayed for 30 minutes, then sped off to Parklea where the rest of the clan was waiting for us.

After shopping at Parklea, we went back to Tita Bess’ place for dinner.

Hectic, hectic…but fun, fun, fun.

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They’re here!!!!

I just want to share how happy I am yesterday…my parents arrived here in Sydney!!!! Thank God, their flight went well and no dramas at the airport. 🙂

A family photo as soon as they arrived at the airport…

I cried when I saw and hugged them, hence, the red eyes hehe

In just a few minutes after our reunion with them, we were all laughing already (me, the husband, my Tita Bess and Tito Andy) because my Dad was already on a roll making funny remarks. Yup, my Dad’s definitely here because we’re getting louder by the minute. Funny that only now I realized that I got my sense of humor from Dad.

My Mom, yes, the white-haired mestiza woman you see there is not really that old, but just had it in her genes (she got it from my Grandpa) to have white hair earlier than most women her age, is just so happy to be back in the Land Down Under, surrounded by her side of the family.

When we arrived at my Tita’s place, where my Grandma also lives (Grandma as in the mother of my Mom), my Grandma said to me, “O ayan nakita mo na daddy mo”…to which I replied, “Oo nga eh, nandito na kakambal ko”. Hehe. I’m still my Dad’s little girl no matter what. 🙂

I spent the whole day with them at my Tita Bess’ place where the rest of our kapamilyas arrived for dinner.

Our angkan’s grand reunion has finally started! 🙂 We are just waiting for my Tita from America (she will arrive tomorrow) and then it will be some a happier, more beautiful chaos from there.

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Afternoon Delight with Bhenie

Meet-ups with blogosphere buddies were never new to me. But meeting up with a Multiply online buddy from the Phils who migrated to Australia–that is new.

Whenever an opportunity arises, I grab every chance there is just so I could meet my online buddies. So when Bhenie, an online buddy from Multiply, messaged me that she will be visiting Sydney, I was very very excited. For about three weeks, we have known of her Sydney rendezvous but never blogged about it, afraid to jinx it.

And so on the 13th of March, we met and said our “hellos” in person for the first time. I got off work early so we can hang out for most part of the afternoon. We started our afternoon delight by having coffee and cheesecake at Starbucks. At dun na nagsimula ang chikahan. 🙂

The day started with a cloudy weather, at may drizzles pa. Other than meet-up with her, I planned a short itinerary of where I would take her. It was her first time in Sydney so I really wanted it to be memorable for her. There was a forecast of thunderstorm for that afternoon but still, the whole morning I wished for a sunny weather.

After hanging out in Starbucks, the sun finally shone. Yay! We were blessed with blue skies for the rest of the afternoon. So we’re both happy campers :).

I gave her the grand tour of the Circular Quay where you will find both the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

We had a lot of fun taking photos and laughing. Ang ingay-ingay namin hehe. The thing with Sydney is that we’re very tourist-friendly, that’s why you’ll also find lots of people taking photos everywhere while exploring the city.

For dinner, we (the Husband and I) brought her to Bahay Kubo. Since I know that she’s missing home, I asked her if she wanted to eat something Pinoy instead of the usual Aussie food and she said “yes”.

I also invited my friend Chloe to join us for dinner.

We all shared an order of Sisig, Crispy Pata, Bicol Express and Pinakbet. Kain Galore!! 🙂

Our last stop was at our place. Konting chika pa hehe. Kung di lang talaga late na, malamang ay nagtagal pa sana sya sa aming munting tahanan.

We had so much fun til the last minute. Husband and I are happy that she’ll be moving here soon and that we’ll have an addition to our group of friends (Welcome Bhenie!!!).

For more photos, please visit: First Meet-up with Bhenie.

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