We arrived in Asingan from Dagupan at a very late hour. The next day, a few days away from Christmas, Nene decided to spend Christmas Day with her folks..He logic was "We spend Xmas together for several years..This chance is once in every 38 years.." That is counting backwards from the day we left the Philippines for the first time: that was 1975.
So Christmas 2003 is one yuletide which Nene and I did not spend together. She spent it in Trinidad with her family and I spent it in Asingan with mine..But we texted each other when things wind down a little bit, meaning when there is a breathing space. She said that many of Manang Esthers students, friends, etc. came over , being Christmas eve, and they had a barbeque at their patio.They had a bit of privacy because Manang Ester's bungalow was on top of a hill in the outskirts of Trinidad....
In my neck of the woods, the singing group led by a very good and loyal friend Juanita Orpiano Arzadon came over to the house and we had a modest Xmas feast.. They also sang several Christmas carols. I played the keyboard lent to us by Leah Rame Apuyod plus, when I do not know the songs ( the Tagalog ones ) their own guitarist took over..In a way, even if we were apart, we still had a very Merry Christmas!
That Xmas midnight Mass, I joined the Asingan choir in the midnight Mass. I brought to church the keyboard and plugged it to the church's powerful sound system...Juanita was the song leader. Before the actual Mass, I played GESU BAMBINO and a couple of songs which I had been playing at the St. John the Evangelist, in Toronto..Funny was my situation that Christmas eve. I was away from Toronto, I was not playing at my Parish Church and I was also away from my wife! But still..sometimes you get that uncanny feeling that even if you are away from a place, your mind is there and when you are away from a person, her face is in your mind's eye, most of the time, so in a certain sense, you were not really separated. The mind, indeed is stronger than the body and that is how it should be...
So Juanita sang 2 verses of O HOLY NIGHT, during the Communion then she cut it because the regular choir have their own agenda or set of songs prepared for the night..I felt I intruded and indeed I really butted in. The priest do not know me, the singers (except Juanita ) did not know me..and they looked at me as if I came from another planet. That's okay, I said to myself. At least I played O HOLY NIGHT that Xmas and I did not break my tradition..When I lied down alone that night, I REALLY FELT ALONE. Well, there were a couple of mosquitoes inside the net waiting for me to sleep so they can start sucking my blood..Ah what the heck, I said it is Christmas! Let those fricking mosquitoes have their Noche Buena too!
Even the text messages began to get cut off..I guess it was Xmas eve and thousands of texts are flying across the air every minute.The Mother computer perched somewhere was about to have a breakdown...So eventually to save battery, I shut off my cel and forced myself to sleep..
I woke up the next morning at the usual time..It was ,Dec. 25, Nene promised to come home..And she did, in the afternoon. Her sister accompanied her to Asingan but she went straight to Manila to join her family too whom she left behind just before Christmas.She took the afternoon Viron bus bound for the Philippine Big Apple.Hey at least I was not the only one Home Alone! That afternoon, Nene and I went to spend one night at the Crystal Glade in Ariston. I brought my digicam and I was able to get a few shots..--#
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