I ate chicken feet today! But I’m getting ahead of myself. First a little bit about our flight to the Philippines. Our sweet friend Rosalie promised to drive us to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. However, we were a worried about our son Quint. He was a bit restless the last couple of nights and yesterday, he was very sad and clingy when I took him out of bed. He felt hot, and a quick check confirmed a 39-degree fever. We gave him a paracetamol, but we wondered if it was OK to take him on a 16-hour flight.
While calling the doctor’s office, Rosalie arrived at our doorstep, sharing our concern. The doctor advised us to wait and see how he responded to the paracetamol and take action accordingly. Fortunately, after half an hour or so, Quint started to smile again and slowly regained his usual happy self. Although he was still more clingy than usual, we decided to take the flight. Rosalie dropped us at the airport and was surprised that we took so little luggage. We on the other hand, were already thinking about how we could prevent that extra bag with presents the next time. I think next time, we will send them in a balikbayan box, so we can still travel without check-in baggage.
The flight itself went ok, although KLM didn’t receive our order for Asian vegetarian food (the only flight-microwaved food that is somewhat edible). Quint couldn’t sleep much though. Gladly we bought 3 seats with extra leg room so the flight was comfortable besides the lack of sleep and so-so food.
We made a short stopover in Taipei, where we saw some beautiful Asian design items. Maybe we will take a longer stopover here next time. When we arrived in Manila, my father-in-law (we call him tatay, which means ‘dad’ in Filipino), my sister-in-law, nieces and nephew picked us up from the airport. Unfortunately, the car got overheated and died on us halfway the trip. My brother-in-law picked us up while the rest of the family took a taxi.
After arriving at my family’s house, we were welcomed with good food (lumpia, shrimp and salmon) and a big ‘welcome home’ poster. Tired of our flight, we went straight to bed around 11 o’clock. The next morning, I woke up from Quint’s little feet, kicking my back. Apparently, with the jetlag and new surroundings, he couldn’t sleep, so Chared moved him to our bed for the night.
We always like to start our first day nice and slow. So after breakfast, we took a nap together with Quint, which took until lunch time (a little longer than planned). Anyway, we left Quint with our family and went out, chasing for coffee and a well-deserved massage. A couple of years ago, I found out that the best coffee around the corner of my in-laws’ house is at McDonalds. My friends know I would never eat there voluntarily, but their coffee is good, freshly-brewed and cheap. And we needed that change for taking the tricycle later, so it was a win-win situation.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a massage salon that had space for us. Except one salon where a man in his fifties stepped out. And he looked a bit too happy, while a pretty lady in a sexy dress showed him out. So we will delay our massage until tomorrow.
We went grocery shopping for diapers, toiletries and muesli for breakfast, after which we went home for dinner. In a smokey garden, we found our cousins behind the BBQ, making hotdogs and roasted chicken feet. I tried one, and it wasn’t bad. It tastes like spareribs, but with more skin than meat. Now we’re kicking back at home while Quint is asleep in his little travel bed.
