7,107 reasons to go back to the Philippines

It has been raining the past few days during the morning, and it's not just the usual Singapore rain, it had been raining really hard, with strong winds, thunder and lightning. This morning was again another one. Perhaps these rains might be related to the typhoon in the Philippines, which I heard was very strong. It's going down south, so maybe...But the good thing about here in Singapore is that there are no typhoons, and rains last for only a few hours, and so I expected that the rain would stop by noon and my BBQ + Swimming party in the afternoon would go as planned.

By early afternoon, the rain did stop, although the weather remained cloudy. I prepared the food for the party: tilapia fish, squid, pork chops, chicken, corn, marshmallows and the dish i most enjoyed preparing -- the Japanese style skewer of asparagus wrapped in bacon. It was a lot of work but I was happy because I think this was the first time I hosted a party at my place in my 3 years of my residence there. Not that I didn't want to, but I live in the northwest part of Singapore and most of my friends live in the east and therefore, my area was not really a choice for party venues. I am often teased that I already live in Malaysia, which I don't mind being teased about, because my place is indeed near the border of Johor Bahru :) But the west is very homey and tranquil, so even if most of my friends like the east because it was nearer the city, I still preferred to stay where I was. Anyways, 5pm arrived and my friends started to arrive, and after a couple of hours and some unexpected challenge to make the fire start and make some good charcoal burning, we finally managed to get the food cooked.

I had a lovely and fun evening with my good friends over our yummy barbecue dinner. For dessert we had some of my two "birthday" cakes which a couple of friends brought. Yeah, it wasn't my birthday but I think in some way it was, as I am about to do something that would be like my rebirth.

I believe that there comes a time in your life that somehow you feel like you lost yourself -- from trying to catch up with people's expectations, with the norms, with your own goals, with the bites of reality, with heartaches; from having no choice but to grow up and become an adult. And what better way to find yourself again than to trace back from where you grew up.

So, I am going back to the Philippines, my land, my home, my roots.