Travel bloopers

On my travels even on the nth time to a destination, I would always not miss any mishaps. I was always been so sloppy (sigh*) especially when I was so stressed out. Let me recount on my carelessness with my latest trip ~ bound home to Philippines.

1. We rode the wrong bus on our way to the airport.

On our way to Taoyuan International Airport with my eldest daughter, I bought the wrong bus ticket. Instead of going straight to the airport, I carelessly bought one for Taipei City. The scary part was, that ticket was supposed to be for the last trip. Oblivious of my mistake, I got into the bus, arranged everything and closed my eyes to relax. While recollecting on what happened earlier, then I realized I got on the wrong bus. With my heart wildly racing, I called my husband to let him know of the disaster and went on to talk to the driver. Guess what, I was never been so lucky. The driver could speak in English and reassured me that all will be fine. He dropped me to the last available station, helped me out for the changes of our tickets, and assigned some staff to assist me to board the last bus to the airport - that will arrive in 10 minutes. Phew! thank God for this angel and thank God for this early realization, otherwise we would miss our bus or worse our flight.  

2. I forgot to bring my daughter’s ID for the flight.

Twenty-five days of vacation was finally over. I am bringing my second daughter to Taiwan with us. With a 6:00 AM flight from Cagayan de Oro City to Manila, I woke up at 4 AM to prepare everything and ensured all documents and luggages were ready. Halfway to the airport, then I realized I sent my second daughter’s passport to my sister in Manila for visa processing and that I failed to bring any other identification documents (birth or baptismal certificate, etc.) for her - meaning she might be denied the flight with us. On the verge of crying, I spilled the bad news to my family in the car. Everybody was aghast but my mother-in-law tried to keep me calm, called my sister if she could possibly scan a passport copy of my daughter and send via email ASAP. Nevertheless, everybody prayed for the airline’s consideration on the matter. Inside the airport, indeed the personnel asked for my daughter’s identification. Using all my charisma, I explained to them the whereabouts of the passport and that I accidentally left her birth certificate at home. God is still so good. After consulting higher authority and probably checking out if my daughter couldn’t be a possible terrorist threat, they finally granted her a pass. I was overjoyed, went back out to my waiting family and kissed and bid them goodbye. My mother-in-law by the way was  then crying hehe.

3. We almost missed our flight bound to Taipei by 10 minutes.

Having fourteen hours to wait for our next flight, I used it to meet with my sister, her kids and some friends. We went out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and went to  have fun at the  “Mall of Asia”, dubbed as Asia’s largest shopping mall. We ate, we shopped, we played, we ate and played all over again. In short, everybody had fun especially the kids. My husband (in Taiwan) on the other hand kept on calling me, reminding me to get back to the airport early. Heeding his advice, we went back 4 hours earlier than my flight. Then again we enjoyed chatting and eating at the airport’s cafeteria while waiting for the boarding time. But to the last minute, my two daughters kept on going to the toilet either to pee or to poo and the younger one sometimes peed on her pants much to my dismay. Then I realized I barely got one more hour to board the plane. After filling up many forms, dealing with the inspection and my naughty kids running, crawling and shouting all  around (drove me crazy), the three of us finally  managed to get in. However, while in the hallway, we were met with a scary announcement for the “last call” for all passengers bound to Taipei and that the plane will leave in 10 minutes with or without us. With my adrenaline pumping, I told my kids to RUN with me as fast as they could.  Running towards the very far end of the airport with my hand-carry and dangling items while dragging my 4-year old girl was such an agony I'm telling ya. Finally, we saw the airplane’s doorway with its stewards now impatiently waiting for us. But just like in the movies, Joey who was running behind us suddenly tripped, stumbled and cried. I can’t believe her! Not now! I just ignored her cries and went back to drag her inside anyway (which later on she complained about it). Thank God we were still very lucky!

As my Romanian best friend told me and I quote, “thank God HE is there, taking good care of some  careless people like us. LOL.

Missing my baby Aron

This is a repost from my old blog (Jan 2011):

Just thinking about Aron coming over to live with us gives me immense happiness.

I wanna go home and bring her over. I’ve been living in Taiwan for almost four years now therefore been missing my daughter on these long years. My husband was able to join me two years ago thus leaving our kids behind with their grandparents. My thirst for Joey (elder daughter) was quenched when we brought her here last year to live with us. But Aron, my younger daughter was left behind for 3 years now.

I remembered being separated from her when she was still a fragile 7 months old due to my job status, and reunited 3 months later, and then separated once again when she was still 1 year and 3 months old until now at 4 years old. I felt so bad not being there for her. I felt terrible not able to  feed her in my own arms, take her to bath, witness her first step and first run. I felt awful never been there to hold her in her sleep, ease her pains when she doesn’t feel well, and simply being there for her when she needs her mother. For years I’ve been longing to hold her and feel her tight embrace, hear her sweet voice, her soft laughter, her loud cries, her gentle snoring at night, and even her annoying tantrums.

But now I’m going home to take her. My ultimate dream of living together as a whole family will be realized. My wish of cradling Aron with my own bare hands is no longer beyond reach. Just thinking about these possibilities is blissful enough.

Aron at 1 year old