Cebu, 5 August 2016 - reuniting with the husband at Cebu

The alarm went off before sunrise. I leapt out of bed and joined the household, which was already buzzing with activity. The helper was up, K was up to getting ready for school, the mother was getting ready for work (she had stayed over the night before - as per plan given the we were supposed to be away already, except that we had an, uh, adventure),  and the last person to wake up was J who was co-operative too as he knew we had exciting times ahead. At 0635, we left our home and the lovely father came to pick all of us. We dropped the mother and daughter off at the train station, while the boy and I made our way to the airport.

Saying goodbyes, again

Unlike yesterday, the traffic was pretty smooth and as we zoomed along the roads, my breathing became more normal.

Admiring the sunrise

As we got out of the car, J and I were in high spirits as we thanked the beloved father for the ride and off we went! As we were already checked in, we headed straight for the gates. No time to waste! I always feel that the holiday feels like it's really started after we clear customs, as that is no longer the public area. Woohoo!

Priorities - coffee

We each had our own version of coffee and baby-cino, then went to get a magazine for me, then while I went to get us some breakfast of toast, J started his play time at the indoor playground.


At 4 years, 5 months of age, J is at this interactive, curious and fun age, I ask him plenty of questions (not as many as what he asks me though). Even before we did the activities of coffee/magazine/playground, I already outlined the plan to him so that he is aware. He is quite good at following the plan as long as he knows that there is something in it for him. And once he started playing, I also remind him of the time he has to play plus excite him of the next thing to go and he will make a decision to say 'I wish to play for another 5 minutes' or in this case, he said 'I want to go to the gates already'.

Onwards to the gates

We sat with the husband's friends, who were on the same flight and soon, it was time for us to board. Hooray!

Gangway to happiness

The flight was full, there was no personal TV, but there was food and we had J's milk which is the antidote to any form of fussing, so I was all prepared for the journey with him. Truthfully, he is so fun to be with. We can talk, he asks plenty of questions and I do try my best to respond as honestly and properly as I can. He also says the funniest things!

Let me list what I remember here:

1) While watching the safety video - and we watched it attentively as there was, well, nothing else to watch or do - there was a segment which said to 'place your feet firmly on the ground and lean over'.

The boy turns to me and says earnestly, 'Mommy, my feet cannot touch the ground! But, I can do this' - and he proceeds to lean forward till his head was touching his thighs, just like the video.

2) 'Cabin crew, take off station'

This is commonly heard when the pilot announces it, as we know. The boy turns to me and asks, 'Candy? Candy crew go where?'  I burst out laughing as I can imagine the glorious images of sweets and candies that he may have in his mind! I went on to correct him and educated him on the terms between steward, stewardess, cabin crew and ground crew.

3) Living to eat

Two questions I get asked pre-flight:

(a) 'is there TV?' (there was a sad groan when I replied negative) and

(b) 'we get food?'. Indeed, my children who inherited the love of food! We got to eat our catered food on one leg of the flight, then on the other, I requested for biscuits for us to share and someone was very pleased to get OJ. So happy that he requested that I take a pic of him.

'Take a pic of me now and send to Papa!'

Thankfully, J did take a nap and I managed to doze off too... and it was about 3pm when we touched down and cleared immigrations, and with happiness and relief when we were reunited with the husband. He looked well and had catered a van to collect us and the baggage. We took a while to get to the hotel due to heavy traffic, and in the van, I was already zoning out, feeling so relieved that I had someone else to entertain my chatty child.


At the hotel, we were greeted by a beautifully sunny and white lobby. It really looked like the pics on the website (not all places do) and I was so, so happy. The holiday was truly, truly happening. We headed to our room, and we all washed up. I felt terribly grimy after having travelled all those kilometres in the past 9 hours since I had woken up. By this time, it was closer to dinner than lunch (biscuits can be lunch!) so we opted to fill our tummy with proper food.

Lift pic series: refreshed after a shower and ready to eat proper food

As we entered the only restaurant at the lobby, we were greeted by an area where games were housed! How lovely. This was the beginning of a love relationship the boy had with this game room. There was a table tennis table, a pool table, a foosball table and a Wii machine. Toy heaven for a boy!

Foosball

Table tennis

Dinner was regular (expensive) food, but we couldn't risk going anywhere to eat street food in case anyone got sick, especially pre-race. So we paid the price (literally) by dining only in the hotel(s).


After dinner, we trotted over to Shangri La, the main host of the Iron Man event in Cebu. It was very festive, and there was lots of people and buzz around their ballrooms, and we spent some time at the expo walking about. Our evening ended with a supermarket run to a mall at Cebu Town, which was about an hour's drive away (due to traffic).


That night, we were all quite ready to lay down and go to sleep on the very comfortable hotel bed. Goodnight and I was filled with dreams about making it (or not) to Cebu. It took us a while but we made it!