Diario de Mascarenhas

We started our Christmas celebration with a Christmas mass at St. John's in the eve of 24th December. Then later when we came home, we exchanged gifts. On 25th December, we prepared for our Christmas lunch. Suzie had a great menu for our Christmas lunch. We had Afghani kebab, chicken tikka, crispy pork, pork sorpotel, fresh salad and bhuna beef. For dessert, we had cheese cake. This year, Larry was our visitor. He came bearing gifts as well. We had a lovely lunch with him and he also enjoyed himself.   On 26th December, we traveled to Browns Bay for our short holiday break. We got an AirBNB near the Browns Bay shops. The location was excellent, the place was near the beach and very near to the shops. We went for a walk at the beach in the afternoon and we had dinner at a Kebab shop.  On 27th we had an early breakfast at one of Browns Bay cafes. Then, we took the chance to travel to Long Bay. It had been several years since Suzie visited Long Bay and so much have changed. We ha...

  The earliest memory I have was when I was 2 years old. It was the Olympics in 1976 when Nadia Comăneci was performing and got several awards. I remember seeing it on TV. It is a clear memory of her performance and I remember her name ever since. Other memories of my youth include growing up in Bajada and how we played a lot. It was a good childhood there. I have memories of the birth of Liling. I remember the house where we rented. I remember the road with burnt rice husks and the Moringa trees with lovely flowers. There are memories of eating icecream, of riding on papa's motorbike through the Bajada tunnel, going to the beach and making balls of sand. There was wonderful smells of freshly cut wood and grass. I remember the image of Jesus on the wall of our room and His eyes keep following me when we were going to sleep. I remember when papa and mama decided to move to Tagum. How we wanted to bring Zamel’s toy car when we were moving. I imagined pulling that toy car beh...

  2nd June Steve  sent me off to the Auckland International Airport.   The airport has some changes, for drop off and pick up. It looks good, but the work is still on going. Stood in queue for an hour, was 4th in line. All went well. We then went to the departure area and had lunch at a Vietnamese resto. Steve had fried chicken and I had beef Poh. The soup was nice but the beef was chewy. Decided to go in early and said our farewells. Then I went though customs and immigration,  my bag was randomly selected for drug test. It was all good. I waited for 3 hours to board the plane. There was much turbulence during the flight, I got a bit scared. Thank you Lord, all went well. Inflight meal: I had Beef Rendang for lunch then Chicken Tikka for dinner. Online entertainment was so so. I was able to sleep a little. Arrived at Singapore on time, I searched for a place to sleep. I was able to catch a bit of sleep. But my body clock is still Auckland time s...