fish be with you

this little piggy is back in jersey! i arrived on palm sunday evening. encountered some turbulence on the flight, but my insides were even more turbulent because of my virulent cough...an unwanted souvenir from my six-week vacation in the philippines.

the photo above is of a baguio doll i named "miss igorota", a gift given to me by fellow blogger gingmaganda whom i met at sta. lucia mall one afternoon. ging is such a sweetie, a rather pleasant surprise after having read her usually angst-ridden blog entries peppered with love-sick poetry. i turned miss igorota into my "travel mascot" who will pose for my photographs of places instead of my usual self-portraits with my arm held out in front of me. i really should buy a gorillapod to help me with such solo shots.

anyway, miss igorota is in front of quiapo church, taken just after i heard mass there at noon. when i informed gingmaganda about this first picture, she pointed out that the doll is not catholic...to which i replied, "she has no choice but to tag along wherever i go." hehe.

just as i had expected, the customs people at detroit airport opened my suitcase which contained all the dried fish i bought wrapped in newspaper. they had to, i had declared them as "food items." it was like opening pandora's box, only evil smells escaped from it--that of strong dried fish odor mixed with the equally nosehair-raising scent of the acharang labong and papaya (pickled bamboo shoots and papaya). some of the achara's juice had seeped through the suitcase's front, unfortunately, making the inspector's job more undesirable.

in the end, my precious fish passed the inspection, and off they went to be dragged to the tube that will lead it all the way to newark, where i was also headed.

i have more than a thousand pictures in my memory stick which will be a torture to my credit card when i have them developed, but the memories behind them are worth it. i will have to post about some of the highlights of my vacation in future entries. for now, it's time to go to bed since it's past 4AM.