Day 315 - Pancit Mountain

Today, my dad and I attended the first day of the Penafrancia Fiesta being celebrated by some friends here in NZ. As there were about 40 people attending, the pancit prepared by the hosts looked like this. I regret that I wasn't able to take an "after" photo, because this bowl had become empty by the end of the night.

Day 204 - My Parents Are Weird 2

The second entry of the My Parents Are Weird Series! The first one is here.

I didn't mean for this to become a series, but they're just really funny sometimes. My mom's lying on the grass and to take a picture of her, my dad had to sit on the grass as well. Don't they look funny?

You can see the rest of the pictures from our Virac trip in my Multiply.

Day 203 - Clouds on the Mountain

Rain has always given me mixed emotions. On the one hand, it ruins your time at the beach, but on the other, it gives you scenery like this. So I can't say that our second day in Virac was totally ruined, even though we didn't get to swim in the beach and got scared about landslides while we were driving on the side of a mountain because, look! Isn't it so pretty?

Day 202 - Storm Central Outlet

Today I went to Virac, Catanduanes with my parents. Upon arriving at Twin Rock Beach Resort and settling in our room, I found out that the electrical outlets are on the ceiling. We asked the reason to the people who worked there but they didn't know either so I can only assume that it's because Virac is usually affected by typhoons and that it's better to have electrical outlets in high places.

BTW, just to plug in my ipod speakers, I had to tiptoe on a coffee table, which was scary. We later on decided to borrow an extension cord from the front office.

Day 133 - Legaspi City

The bird flew into the shot at just the right time. It was totally coincidental. :)

This is the view of Legaspi City from Ligñon Hill where my dad and I tried the zipline. :) On the other side is a view of the Mayon Volcano, and I would've posted that, except the clouds were blocking the view again. :( I'm kind of sad that nearly all the times I've been to Bicol, Mt. Mayon has always been covered by clouds. OK, so I was able to see it last night, and there were no clouds then, but it was nighttime, so it still wasn't clear. Oh well, I guess that just means I have to go to Bicol again and again until I see it.

P.S. This is the last of the photos taken with my brother's Nikon D90. It's back to my point and shoot and cellphone cam tomorrow.

Day 132 - Kalabaw ng Cagsaua

We passed by the Cagsaua Church Ruins today. That's the site where the most famous pictures of the Mayon Volcano (the icon of Bicol province) are taken. Here's a sample:

Image from http://www.hawaii.edu/cps/maycag.html

But because that picture is too common already, and when we went there, clouds were blocking the view of the volcano anyway, I'm choosing to post this picture of a carabao instead:

We found him (or maybe her, but for some reason I think all carabaos are male) outside the "official" area of the church ruins (that is, wala pang bayad 'pag tumigil ka sa area na'to kasi hindi mo pa kita ang Cagsaua Ruins), beside these rocks and some ponds. Some of his friends were bathing in the ponds and I took pictures of them, too, but they were too submerged in the water so you can't actually see them clearly.

Anyway, I think carabaos are some of the friendliest animals on the planet. I don't really know though because I've never been really close to one. But I've only ever seen them resting or helping people, so to my mind they're very nice and friendly. :)

Day 131 - The Old House

This is the house my dad grew up in. They sold it years ago so we don't know anymore who lives in it, and we weren't able to go inside. But my dad says that at least, from the outside, save for the growth of the plants, it looks pretty much the same.

I wonder how strange it feels for my dad to see "his" house and not be able to go inside. I've only lived in one house my entire life and I can't imagine other people living in it.

Day 130 - Candles

Today I went with my parents on a road trip to Naga City in Bicol, where my dad grew up. We got there around 3PM (Thanks to my dad's scary fast driving), and after checking in to the Bed and Breakfast (Señor Enrico), we went to the Basilica Peñafrancia to catch the 5PM mass.

After the mass, we bought some candles outside the church and placed them here.

BTW, this and the next 3 photos were taken using my brother's Nikon D90. He lent it to us for our trip to Bicol. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to use it so the setting was on Automatic the whole time. Still, the pictures look pretty good, and reminds me how you don't need to be a professional to take good pictures when your camera is an SLR. But, going into further detail with that story will make this entry too long. My opinion on non-photographers owning SLRs is for another day. Hehe.