With a heavy heart, I packed all my things on the eve of Sept 18, 2009 and said goodbye to my nice apartment in San Pablo St., Barangay Uno, Carmona, Cavite.  The driver would pick me up by 9am the next day. Levi came all the way from Montalban, Rizal at about 1:30 a.m. to help me carry my things to the L300 van.  I put everything into the three big balikbayan boxes which were the same boxes I used eight months earlier. I bought a new bed, a washing machine and a rattan day bed thinking I would stay long in Carmona. I labeled each box and lined them at the living room. 

Earlier in the night, my two staff members dropped by and prepared vegetable salad.  It was an informal goodbye and no tears were shed. I stayed up late to wait for Levi and we shared the pancit bihon he brought from F4 Restaurant where he worked.  There was still enough left for our breakfast the next day.

Gilbert, our company all-around guy came with the L300 van before 9:00 a.m. and we immediately loaded the boxes and my other belongings.  The van was loaded to the brim.  After saying goodbye to my landlord, we set off amid the scorching sun and heavy traffic at the SLEX.  We finally reached Napico in Pasig at almost lunchtime where I was staying with 3 other cousins. Rona have left earlier in the week for the US to work in a luxury liner as a kitchen staff while Tito who just came from Qatar is in the province to wait for his next contract. My other housemate, Danny was roused from his asleep when we arrived. It was his day off.  The living room was filled with my things after we finished unloading. It was déjà vu and I felt home again.

It was a long weekend due to the end of Ramadan on a Monday but I stayed home to settle my things. I cleaned and re-arranged the furniture. By Tuesday, I braved traffic and pollution again and had several meetings on the first day of my re-instatement at HRD.  I’m back in Manila.

Typhoon “Ondoy”

The next Saturday September 26, 2009, typhoon “Ondoy” plundered Manila and left 80% of the city submerged in floodwaters, the worst in 40 years according to reports.  Parts of Pasig, Quezon City, San Juan, Taguig, Muntinlupa, Marikina, San Mateo, Taytay and Cainta were transformed into a water world.