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Sunday, March 02, 2014

An excellent visit with familiy back in the Philippines

Yes it was. Even if we all caught a bug somewhere along the way (no idea if it's Australian, Chinese or Filipino). K2 (Kid#2) weathered it best with just some hoarseness (didn't stop his horsing around). K4 (you get the picture) and I ended up with high fevers, headaches and antibiotics (I'm finishing my third course now). The missus has just stopped coughing a month after we all started. We missed a few visits to places and friends as a result. Probably a third of our 25-day journey was ruined to a certain extent.

But it was a great visit. One of my older brothers came home with his family from overseas. We got together with our sisters and their families. I visited my youngest brother and his family. Cousins got together across my generation and my children's. And of course, shopping in the Philippines is always good.

But this, I think, was what I loved the most: my kids mingling with cousins their age or a few years older, and aunts, uncles, grandparents, grand-aunts, etc, who spoiled them silly. It's that sense of being part of something much bigger that makes these trips worth the cost. Human beings are social animals, we are told. More - better - than that, though, I think we're always members of a family.

Freddie Mercury sang "who wants to live forever?" in the movie, Highlander, many years ago. It's a haunting question for which the answer entirely depends, I think, in whether or not you are isolated or live within a family. Living alone forever is terrible to contemplate. Living forever with a large, boisterous, messy, always interesting and entertaining family is something I'd like to do. Luckily, I need not think of it wishfully. I already am. :-)

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