Friday 12th June - Entertaining and Feeding the Five Thousand

Went out with the extended family today. To be precise, I went out with 35 other people. My cousins, second cousins, aunt, uncle...You get the picture. 20 of them were children, most of them rarely getting the chance to leave Lower Bicutan. You can imagine how enthusiastic they were to leave the Street for the day, other than to go to school. (If their family could afford to enrol them that is).

Our first stop was Manila Memorial. My gran wanted to visit the mausoleum of her sister, and with an entourage fit for the Pope it was quickly cleaned and cleared. No help was offered by the children, who were enjoying themselves cartwheeling across graves and dancing next to Jesus. Yes we were in a cemetery, but the visit was more of a jovial family gathering rather than one of sadness. That's not to say that no tears fell whilst we were there.

We then went off to eat at Max, which is pretty much the Filipino equivalent to Nandos. The lady's face, when she saw the children swarm through the door, was priceless. After an hour of gluttony and plate licking (not by me) we embarked on a 30 minute drive to Luneta Park. More food, the bouncing of balls, some fireworks and a train ride later we finally went home.

Shattered. Now. Bed. Ciao.