NYE and New Years involved a lot of eating - in the span of 36 hours I ate eight meals. Joyce and I went to Tagbilaran to pick up ingredients for the NYE meals. The supermarket lines were out of control - the combination of Filipino's procrastination and typhoon cleanup from the prior day meant checkout times were over thirty minutes.
We started shopping at the Island City Mall but it was so crowded we tried to see if we could switch our luck at the BQ Mall. BQ was less slightly less crowded. We circumvented the madness in the aisles, found everything we needed, and then took our place in the slow moving checkout lines. Before heading for home we made a final stop at the wet market for crabs and fish.
When we arrived in Valencia the meal preparation started. The first dinner was garlic crabs. After the meal preparation soon began on a second dinner. I wasn't entirely sure what was happening - everyone seemed busy making food and not focusing on the upcoming celebration which was just a few hours away. The kids went to bed to get some rest before midnight. Joyce and I each made a separate batch of macaroni and cheese. I went the traditional route, she went the Filipino route and added a few sweeteners and mozzarella cheese.
After cooking everyone else went to bed except for me. I turned on the TV to watch the NYE festivities. There were a few official parties organized in Manila with the largest at the SM Mall of Asia which featured a lot of musicians and dancers performing mostly American Pop Music routines with a few Filipino numbers. As the countdown clock went below the ten minute marker I entered the kitchen and all the lights were still off. At midnight it was still dark in the house and it wasn't until the fireworks went off that people started waking up.
A few noisemakers and sparklers were handed out but there wasn't too much hooting and hollering - at least not compared to earlier in the night when the kids found the noisemakers and ran around the house making as much noise as possible. Off in the distance a few private fireworks displays filled the skies above the palm trees. We headed back inside for the second dinner. I was exhausted and after trying both macaroni and cheeses headed to bed.
The next morning was another large breakfast. Then I went back to bed for a quick nap. We had fish for lunch and then in the afternoon went to an Aunt's for “snacks” which turned out to be another full meal of pasta and cake. Only a few hours later we had a roast chicken dinner.
I tried watching the TV a bit during the day to see if there were any parades or other New Years Day events but didn't catch much. I hoped there was a slim possibility of catching a college football game, however the only sport the Filipinos seem to have an interest in is NBA basketball. I recall that instead of airing the Super Bowl, the sports station aired a Celtics / Magic basketball game. I caught the Fox News Channel NYE countdown which was a bit old man creepy and then had Charles Krauthammer deliver a nasty year in review and plug his book thirty minutes before the ball drop.
We started shopping at the Island City Mall but it was so crowded we tried to see if we could switch our luck at the BQ Mall. BQ was less slightly less crowded. We circumvented the madness in the aisles, found everything we needed, and then took our place in the slow moving checkout lines. Before heading for home we made a final stop at the wet market for crabs and fish.
When we arrived in Valencia the meal preparation started. The first dinner was garlic crabs. After the meal preparation soon began on a second dinner. I wasn't entirely sure what was happening - everyone seemed busy making food and not focusing on the upcoming celebration which was just a few hours away. The kids went to bed to get some rest before midnight. Joyce and I each made a separate batch of macaroni and cheese. I went the traditional route, she went the Filipino route and added a few sweeteners and mozzarella cheese.
After cooking everyone else went to bed except for me. I turned on the TV to watch the NYE festivities. There were a few official parties organized in Manila with the largest at the SM Mall of Asia which featured a lot of musicians and dancers performing mostly American Pop Music routines with a few Filipino numbers. As the countdown clock went below the ten minute marker I entered the kitchen and all the lights were still off. At midnight it was still dark in the house and it wasn't until the fireworks went off that people started waking up.
A few noisemakers and sparklers were handed out but there wasn't too much hooting and hollering - at least not compared to earlier in the night when the kids found the noisemakers and ran around the house making as much noise as possible. Off in the distance a few private fireworks displays filled the skies above the palm trees. We headed back inside for the second dinner. I was exhausted and after trying both macaroni and cheeses headed to bed.
The next morning was another large breakfast. Then I went back to bed for a quick nap. We had fish for lunch and then in the afternoon went to an Aunt's for “snacks” which turned out to be another full meal of pasta and cake. Only a few hours later we had a roast chicken dinner.
I tried watching the TV a bit during the day to see if there were any parades or other New Years Day events but didn't catch much. I hoped there was a slim possibility of catching a college football game, however the only sport the Filipinos seem to have an interest in is NBA basketball. I recall that instead of airing the Super Bowl, the sports station aired a Celtics / Magic basketball game. I caught the Fox News Channel NYE countdown which was a bit old man creepy and then had Charles Krauthammer deliver a nasty year in review and plug his book thirty minutes before the ball drop.
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