How I Spent Labor Day Weekend

It's Labor Day weekend so it's a long weekend. The Pinoy community decided to celebrate by way of a get together at Palmerston North with fellow Kababayans. There would be a sports fest, a Beauty pageant, a food fair, and the UP Concert Chorus would be singing at the cultural show and performing that night at the Regent on Broadway. I wanted to watch the UP Concert Chorus, so we decided to go.

Palmerston North is a two-hour drive from Wellington. It is 140 Km from where we live. The countryside was beautiful. The landscape was many shades of green, and about 45 minutes north I could already see hills dotted with sheep. They looked like clumps of cotton strewn on the grassy hills. Further on, I then saw several cows grazing. It was just refreshingly different from the countryside in Luzon. No ricefields, chickens, pigs, nor carabaos. No nipa huts and no roadside stalls either. The highway was different too: no tricycles!

We took a few wrong turns at the city proper of Palmerston North, but we managed to get to the Square 10 minutes before the UP Concert Chorus went up onstage. Whew! I thought I'd miss our primary reason for going there. They sang several Tagalog songs, but what nearly got me teary eyed was their introductory song before they sang a medley of kundiman songs- it was "Ako Ay Pilipino". They sang with such pathos and feeling that I couldn't help but be moved, and feel quite homesick as well.

The Square was alive with various booths selling shell jewelry and trinkets, native crafts and delicacies, and Filipino food. Dinuguan, Palabok, Pancit, and the ever-present Barbeque. One stall was selling junk food and biscuits from Pinas. Many kababayans came- there were so may Pinoys that it felt like I was in Burnham Park there for a minute.

At the Manawatu Sports Stadium there were more food stalls outside, and it was jampacked with people participating in Volleyball and Basketball games, as well as spectators and friends.

When we had satisfied our curiousity, we then went to visit the Victoria Esplanade, where Raya had a lot of fun practicing walking, attempting to go up the slides, trying the trampoline, going on the swing, and chasing after ducks (again!). We had a picnic lunch there as well, there were plenty of tables and benches set amongst the grass and in the playground area as well.

This is the fun part of my story: our interesting Bed and Breakfast stay. We happened to pick a Bed and Breakfast Inn with a Bates Motel-y vibe. Remember the movie Psycho? It was a clean place, and quite neat. It was just a little run down and old, had a few spiders in the bathroom, smelled damp and musty, and the teabags in the room had mold on them. (Ooooof!) The proprietress was a nice old lady who had quite a few bad teeth, and a wide (creepy) smile. We had given her our credit card number and the authority to debit a day earlier- and it was a little too late to say that we had changed our mind and didn't want a room.

So we stayed there anyway. I felt uneasy and weird about it, while I sensed that my husband was just disappointed. I told him I didn't feel like changing out of my clothes at all, and that I intended to sleep still dressed in all my gear, so that I could make a run for it in the middle of the night if need be. That got us laughing and we just started cracking jokes and making light of the situation. Now that we're back home, I realize that that place is one of the things that make our trip a memorable one. That B&B certainly had a character all its own.

That night, we had dinner at Steamboat Restaurant (298 Cuba St). Their specialty is the "Steamboat", or what we in Manila call the 'Shabu-Shabu' or 'Hot Pot' style restaurant eating. This is where you get to choose various meats, seafood, veggies, noodles, and sauces that you want. The restaurant prepares a very flavorful broth, they place a steamboat cooker in the middle of your table along with a cauldron of the broth. Then they bring out all the ingredients you wanted, and you get to cook the food right there. I loved this type of food in Manila, so I wanted to have it again---and I wasn't disappointed. Pocket Damage: $20NZD/Pax, steamboat 'buffet'.

Our drive home had two highlights.

First. We stopped at Otaki and got to buy some fresh produce: asparagus, spring onions, tomatoes, apples, strawberries, lettuce, farm fresh eggs. Otaki also has quite a few outlet stores: Norsewear, H&M, Pumpkin Patch, RipCurl, and my favorite, Bendon Lingerie. We enjoyed strolling through these as well.

Second. At the highway, the car in front of us slowed to a near crawl--- we wondered what he was up to, since it looked like a deserted stretch in front of him. Then we saw it. A duck crossing the road. Of course my husband couldn't resist saying, Why did the duck cross the Road. Ha. Ha.