Livin high and takin it easy

Since we moved to a new home, I decided to look at some of the superstitions involved in such an activity. I remember when we moved from the condo to the apartment, we were told to have a full container of rice as well as a lot of salt and sugar. And that we did too.

I have previously looked at some blogs about these superstitions and I read that you are supposed to move in when the moon is waxing – but sadly, that was not something we could do. The house was not ready when the moon was waxing and it would be too late to wait for this month’s. I read you should not move on particular days, but I got conflicting information on this, as some said Saturday was a good day while others said it was not. I did read that the date should be on one that had a number that when written ended on top rather than on the bottom, like zero and eight.

Here are some of the Filipino superstitions I stumbled into:

• When you move to a new house, always enter first with a loaf of bread and a new broom. Never bring an old broom into the house.
• If the previous owners have been kind, they will have left some bread (or rice, depending where you are in the world) and salt behind for you. If the realtor got rid of it, don’t worry, just make sure the first person to enter carries these items, plus a new broom.

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After years of moving around, from my mom’s 36 sq.m. condo unit in Taguig, to the rented 2-bedroom, 2-storey apartment in Pasig; and months of house hunting, we finally found a house-and-lot we could afford. After weeks of working on the paper work, signing bank documents, cleaning out the house we are moving into and moving in little bits of stuff we own one day at a time, we finally saw the day when the rented movers truck loaded what (little) possessions we own and drove to the house we will now call our home – the place we will now call our permanent address.

This is us leaving…

It was yellow...

… the middle unit apartment we rented for sixteen months.
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Some days, I sit around thinking about and waiting for something, anything to blog about. On the days that there can be so much to blog about, I do not have the time. That is my irony.

In the middle of many projects, profitable or not (though hopefully if not profitable now, may be profitable in the future), I find myself in a whirlwind of so many events.

Jobs, though welcomely surprising, are pouring in left and right. Something I definitely did not expect though certainly hoped for! I had a feeling 2010 was going to be a good year and it seems like my feeling is going to be right – and hoorah for that! (I am this ecstatic that I find myself writing run-on sentences or passing off phrases as a real and acceptable sentence.) I will be busy week after week after week.

Ryan was supposed to leave for Ireland for their second quarter team meeting, and although I would have rather not blogged about this event, I find myself doing so only because I want to share one little woe (yet again) about being Filipino. Ryan and his two other team mates are supposed to be flying to Ireland tomorrow morning, but today, he called the travel agency to ask them to cancel their flights. They are not going for the simple reason that they did not get visas. Ireland does not have an embassy in the Philippines – the closest being in Singapore. Visa application was done as early as March and today, almost two months later, their passports have still not been processed and returned. My information on the main reasons is a bit foggy as it has been obtained second-hand but from my understanding, it had something to do with these:

• Irish Workers Stage Biggest Strike in 30 Years (Update2) posted on November 24, 2009
• Second strike date set for 3 December posted on November 24, 2009; and
• Ireland: Public sector unions agree four-year strike ban posted on April 13, 2010

One of the many disadvantages of being a Filipino is this inability to go to almost any other country, other than members of the ASEAN, due to the absence of or failure of obtaining a visa. I will not go about mentioning the many other disadvantages because that is not what I am blogging about, but I am just mentioning this little turn of events because…
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As evidenced by the absence of blog posts the past week, I have been out of town and been generally busy.

Three days after Ryan and I’s trip to Calaguas Island and Bagasbas Beach in Camarines Norte, Lia and I boarded the ITI plane to El Nido, Palawan – Lia’s first trip ever to El Nido and mine’s after two whole years.

In El Nido, I visited close friends all over town, old haunts, hung out at the beach, did island hopping, reconnected with the school which was my home back in 2005 and 2006, saw my old students and attended the graduation of my then-2nd grade advisory class from grade school. It has been 4 years since I last taught at Potter’s Place School and my, how my students have changed – both physically, emotionally and perhaps, psychologically.
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This house-hunting was actually initiated by my in-laws, with them insisting we see a house-and-lot for sale in Project 4 three weekends ago. If not for that, we would have never gone into serious house hunting.

One could say that prior to that first tripping, we always thought a house-and-lot was something out of our league – at least the brand-new ones. It’s something like buying a car. A brand-new car, out of our league. A second hand one, yes. So after looking at a 249 sq. m. lot with a bungalow for P3.8M and a 217 sq. m. lot with a bungalow for P3.7M in Project 4, we realized that there could be other houses out there that are within that range.

A second weekend was spent looking at house and lots in the Cainta area where we saw a 300 sq.m. corner lot with a bungalow for P2.9M, a 150 sq. m. lot with a two-story house for P3.4M and a 90 sq. m. two-story townhouse for P2.2M. Any one of those houses could make a good choice, if not for the fact that flooding is commonplace in that area and Ryan was totally traumatized by our Typhoon Ondoy experience.

The succeeding days were spent looking at ads, discussing pros and cons of various villages, looking for particular areas in the metro where house and lots were, 1.) cheap (very important)  and 2. there was no flooding (very very important if the house does not have a second floor).

On this third weekend, we were supposed to look at three houses. One in Project 6 near Mindanao Avenue, another in Filinvest and the last one being this house and lot being sold in Buenos Aires St. in the very village we live in right now.

Ryan said he had a good feeling about the house in Filinvest so that was what we were gonna look at first. We went to look at the house… and did not make it to the rest.

Instead, after leaving Filinvest, we went to U.P. to have some isaw, dropped by the U.P. Rep tambayan and walked around the Sunken Garden for a little bit hoping to catch some of the Travel Factor people supposedly playing Ultimate Frisbee. We didn’t see them though. Maybe we weren’t looking hard enough or we had the wrong time.

The house was quite hard to find. It was many gates into Filinvest, many turns, many up-streets and many down-streets. It was at the end of the world, err, the lane – which was unnamed by the way.

The green house facade is not that impressive. No, actually, it was not impressive at all. It didn’t have any immediate neighbors though and that made my anti-social self happy.

The house technically has two stories but it has a could-be-independent basement and a roof deck. There’s a guest room and a bathroom on the ground floor, a small balcony on the second floor as well as two bedrooms with a common bathroom and a master’s bedroom with it’s own bathroom with a huge bath tub and a walk-in closet. What?! A bath tub and a walk-in closet? Yeah!! When I first opened the door of the master’s bedroom and had my first look inside, I thought, “Ugh, they call this the master’s? It’s small!” and then I opened the bathroom door.

We went up the wide roof deck where I walked around, looking at the sparsely populated village, with a house here and there, as well as the rolling hills while the breeze blew my hair around my face. I thought, “Gosh, this must be it…”

The house is not perfect. In fact, it is badly in need of a paint job as well as some window and cabinets repairs. We didn’t get to look at the basement because the caretaker said it was tenanted and it seemed like this tenant in question was sleeping as of that moment.

This house may not be perfect but we liked it’s over-all layout. We loved the roof deck where we could envision parties and family gatherings occurring. We liked how it was surrounded by trees and greens and how the fresh air blew in through the windows and made the entire house cool and airy. We liked how we can imagine Lia having her own bedroom and the little brother who has not arrived yet will have the other. For the meantime, I can see myself working in that room – bright and sunny, facing the street, right next to the little balcony.

Around the village, the houses are far in between and the streets are quiet and empty. I can imagine Lia riding her bike up and down the streets and playing in the playground at the back of the clubhouse.

Descriptions and imaginings aside, the paperwork is a mess. Right now we are at a loss on how we will be able to purchase it. We can only cross our fingers and hope.. hope that everything will come together in the end.. and that we will be able to come home to the house at (almost) the end of the world, err, at the end of the yet unnamed lane in the middle of nowhere where there are huge spaces to feel free and the fresh air blows through the swaying branches of trees and bowing grass on the fields.