I am now enjoying a weekend rest day (something I didn’t experienced for more that three years in my previous job). This time I now have enough time to go wherever I want or to do whatever I want to do. Unlike before, where I used to work six days a week and day off always falls on weekdays.

I spent Saturday and Sunday in our town, Talisay, Batangas. The place where I was born, the place I call “home”. It’s really relaxing whenever I see how simple life goes in Talisay. My “online” life just stopped for 2 days. No updating of Facebook status and “liking” of photos and comments and no emails to answer. No site visits and meeting to conduct. No stressful traffics to avoid. Everything is just plain simple and unhurried.

I enjoyed my stay more because the weather was so fine; sunny and windy. It made the hot feeling a little bit cool. My mom cooked my favorite food, sauteed squash and string beans in shrimp paste and grilled “tilapia” with soy sauce, chili and calamansi. She also prepared “pancit” for merienda. Green mango was also served. These were the food I miss whenever I am in Manila. I used to spent a lot buying in fast food chains. I must admit, these foods are appetizing but time will come and you will still miss home-cooked foods. That is one of the reason why I always want to go home. Another thing that reminds me that I’m not in the city is that you need to get a pail of water in the “poso”. You’ll get sweaty because you need to pump (bomba) just to fill the pail. That feeling makes you to hurry more and wet your body with fresh water you worked hard for.

In the afternoon, I asked my youngest sister to come with me in the lake. That’s the place I spent most of my childhood swimming with playmates. I can recall those days when I was fishing with my Dad and my uncles using our homemade fly rod (bingwit). The shore has changed. The wide shore before just narrowed. The nipa hut where we used to stay is quite dilapidated. The grass and vines grown everywhere. Wild flowers and water lilies covered the remaining walkable space in the shore. The vine almost extended up to the big camatsile tree. It was not properly maintained compared before. I was disappointed when I saw a dump of garbage nearby. I worried that it might be carried away up to the lake once hit by a strong wave or when an ample rain falls.

I have no plans to get wet, but the lake water is encouraging me, so I dipped my foot and it was really cold. While enjoying that moment I saw a flock of birds freely flying and building some incredible aerial formation. I even noticed a different species of birds. I do not know how are those called but just seeing how they catch the fish was a sight to behold. Sadly, I do not have DSLR with high powered lens to catch them in action. I think I should start saving now. I chased the ducks to swim away in the lake because I think its a better subject for my photos. But I failed to do so because they swim so fast. I was trying to get a nice angle of Taal Volcano but it seems too far away that day and the sky was a bit gray in that part. Perhaps the most favorite photo I have taken is the “sunset”. It captured my attention as it slowly hiding in the western hill, making the lake water glitter in gold and silver. I took a lot of shot, but my mom called us because we need to visit my father’s tomb before it gets darker.

Im now looking forward to spend more days with my family. Now I truly understand why some people choses to stay in the province. I know deeply understand what laidback really means. No pressure, unhurried, and plain easy. More importantly, that weekend was well spent and best enjoyed with my family. I just realized, even if you choses to go somewhere, time will come and you will find reason to go back to where you really belong. Indeed, there’s no place like home.