The First Anniversary - Dec 2004

Soon it was time to go back to Cebu to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. The trials and tribulations of our marriage were tested to the limits. First it was the ban on Chu from staying in Singapore which resulted in our living separate lives, one in Singapore, the other 3 hours away in Cebu. Then there were the quarrels on sending adequate allowances for the family which resulted in my over expenditure. Then there were the complaints that I was not visiting Chu often enough. Even though we quarreled we knew that we were caught up in circumstances beyond our control. The trials would last one week, then one month, six months and now a year.
We thought that for economy reasons and also to celebrate Chu’s birthday, Christmas day and New Year day at the same time, we would throw a big party and invite everyone for the four occasions on Chu’s birthday, the 23th of December 2004. In this way we would free ourselves for more private time together on the other three holidays.
Soon the planning for the big feast was in full swing. For the cooking we continue with using the same chef who has cooked for our wedding. Ten dishes were selected and the shopping list was meticulously prepared so that everything could be bought at one outing at the supermarket. So on the eve of the big feast, I was send together with Papa Mario and Mama Marina to get a goat and a pig. We drove the van to Mama Marina’s cousin farm at Liloan. We found him tending to the corn fields and managed to bargain a good price for a goat. What a good bargain we have? A male seven month old goat going at an unbelievable price of only six hundred pesos (S$20). We bounded the legs together to prevent it from scampering away and dumped it at the back of the van. Next we headed for the lechon baboy shop and ordered a thirty-kilograms pig at 2,500 pesos (S$80). Instructions were issued to the roaster how we wanted the pig to be stuffed and roasted and the time we wanted it delivered.
In the evening Chu, Papa and I visited the supermarket at SM city where we would spend the entire evening filling up two trolleys of food, vegetables, meats, condiments, and seasonings. It is only after every item in the shopping list was ticked off did we finally head for the check out. That night we went to bed extremely tired and slept all the way till next morning.
The planning went off pretty well. By the time the first guest arrived the food was already waiting. The entire inner family was there, the relatives from Papa Mario side all the way from Tambongon and the relatives and friends from Mama side. The food were well received and compliments were showered on the chef for a job well done. We ate and drank and sang songs on the karaoke machine and everybody was having a fantastic time. Even the two dogs were quite happy picking up scraps of food from here and there, each ending up with a big thigh bone from the lechon baboy, and was secretly hidden away for later consumption.
On Christmas Day it was all a family affair. We sat under the evening sky drinking beer and eating spaghetti and the traditional Christmas dishes. The adults were organizing games for the children to play and were having a great time laughing at their funny faces.
On the 28th of December which was our first wedding anniversary I brought Chu out for a dinner. We ate at the Berekas, a Filipino restaurant and we enjoyed ourselves listening to the live band while feasting on pork knuckles, calamansi and oyster sauced asparagus. We continued our celebration later at home with red wine cozying up together on the sofa watching soap operas.
It was a memorable visit for me not only for the big feast, our night out but also it was on this visit that the tsunami hit Asia after a big earthquake erupted off the Sumatran coast and caused 150,000 deaths in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Phuket and the coasts surrounding the Indian oceans.
I returned after spending two weeks away in Cebu, one of the longest trips I have ever made.