Home is where the heart is

I am back here in Taipei. I arrived yesterday at around 7pm via Philippine Airlines. It’s my first time to take PAL again after more than a couple of years because I usually take Taiwan's flag carrier ever since I've been flying back and forth Manila and Taipei since '03.

I have a long vacation in our family home in Ilocos Norte. In fact it was such a lazy week. All I did was to eat, sleep, watch TV, watch movies and watch more. In fact, sometimes, sadly, I miss sitting in my office table. After a couple of days of not doing anything, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to do something. Hence, I watered the garden plants, I took the responsibility of washing the dishes, attend to customers in our sari-sari store, any physical activity just to keep me busy.

Any changes? Well, not so much. Considering I was home not more than a month ago for my New Year's celebration.

I said in my previous post that I am not really expecting so much activity in this trip, and it was what I've expected.

I saw the garden fences which to my surprise costs my sister a whooping PHP 150,000.00 which includes the dirty kitchen built outside the house.



My mother was happy when I surprise her by buying a cake for her birthday (our family is not accustomed of having birthday cakes). It was fun. It was her first ever birthday cake after 55 years. She turned 56 this year.



One realization though. Being the youngest, my mother still treats me as if I am a high school student. She still scolds me if I’m being lazy. Geez! I am 25 years old and I am still getting these treatments from my family. In fact, they should consider that I was there for a V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N, for crying out loud. Though, it was fun. It was just like the good old days.

It’s harvesting time once again. The smells of newly uprooted garlic are all over the place. Usually, as probably unknown to most of us, garlic goes through a number of processes before it can be sold to the market and use it to what it is best to use with - cooking. After harvest, people have to remove the roots which is usually still attached to the garilc when you harvest. (I helped out but got tired) Then, it should be dried out from the sun. Drying would take days. When it's done, you have to remove the dried skin layer to show the smoother whiter layers. Lastly, you have to group it into sizes for bundling. And then of course, you have to wait for prospective buyers which usually take time because my father always wanted to sell it with the highest possible price. Once a garlic buyer and seller as he was, he knows when is the proper time although it irritates me even before because of the space in the house garage these garlic has to consume (I’ve been bragging them to build another storage outside the house because the one near the house is already full, and I don’t know what’s keeping them).



Home really makes me less worry. They say home is where the heart is. I always love my province - the fresh air and the comfort I get when I'm there. Really, nothing compares.