I wouldn't miss mother's day!

Okay, so I know the celebrated mother's days is well gone and has passed, but I never did write about what we did during the occasion!


I have been mentioning how I've been swamped with work for almost the entirety of May, and quite possibly by mid-june too because I've caught news of a new contract being made for this local mining company we've received as a client this year. I'll save that story for another time. Back to the point, so because I've been so swamped with samples, me and my lab partner has been taking saturday overtimes just to finish the 10k samples that got dumped in the lab. It wasn't a good month for us health-wise, but hey, we've finished those samples now so we can breathe a little.


The month of May doesn't have that many celebrations and holidays really, aside from labor day, which is considered a regular holiday here. There was another holiday though, that's always worth celebrating, and that's mother's day!


Originally, me and my sisters had just wanted to take mom out for a fancy dinner and a good massage because she loves massages, but when we found out that she's never actually been to chinatown (found out through a phone call with my grampa), we wasted no time in making reservations for a staycation. Forget the fancy-schmancy dinner, she definitely needs to experience the crazy and overwhelming amount of food chinatown has.


The 13th came and me and my lab partner boycotted the saturday overtime because my lab partner is a mom too and has grandmoms she wants to celebrate with too plus this was a much needed break for the both of us.


I also asked my cousin and aunt if they wanted to come with because why not UwU we definitely appreciate our aunt who basically acted as a second mother to us. It was a very prosperous mother's day indeed for us.


We all agreed to meet up at binondo church because... well, it was the place we were all familiar with, and the place sticks out like a sore thumb.

I actually forgot to take pictures of the church but I didn't forget to take pictures of the prayer candles XD I'm not religious but I do believe in offering candles for some reason so I bought health and prosperity candles. All in all, I lit 1 candles. 2 for each member of my immediate family and the last 2 for everyone else I cared about.


By the time we were done offering candles and prayers, My cousin and aunt arrived. they offered their candles and prayers too then we were on our way to get lunch at one of the most famous stops in Chinatown. That being Cafe mezzanine!


They'r extremely well known for their delicious food, but nothing could ever possibly beat their xiao long bao, long bao, buchi, hakao and the few other dumplings they had on their menu. Basically, we had a dumpling party XD

This was partially what we ate. The rest disappeared before I could even get the chance to take pictures, I swear. The dumplings were so good ;;w;; and it was priceless to see my mom and aunt's face light up from food. Trust me, they're really picky eaters because my grandmother used to run a canteen so they are soooooo particular with flavor.


After eating, we walked a little around the chinatown proper.

These arcs really became a trademark for the town and so did these lionhead dragons, but these are to ward off any bad energy. My sisters actually lingered around the dragon for a bit because they were hoping the spirit of failing grades would be warded off XD meanwhile me and my mom hung out at the prosperity tree in hopes of catching a bit more prosperity than what we have now. But no doubt, we have come a long way since the pandemic when we talk about financial capabilities.


Anyways, the lady that owned the condo we rented for the staycation called so we made our way over to the staycation place. When we got there, everyone just basically kind of knocked out because the trip was pretty tiring, and considering that it was a weekend too, the crowd was just overwhelming.


Come 8pm, we made our way to UGBO street, which is a street food nightmarket. I think I'm the only person in the family that's been there before. Either way, It's still as overwhelming as the first time I went there and I don't think that's gonna change.

The original plan was that we ate while exploring. Unfortunately, eating while buying was actually harder than we thought. I mean, for small fingerfood, it was doable, but for big foods, we just couldn't. So we decided to just buy everything we fancied then we'd eat it back at the condo. It was a pretty good idea until we stumbled across this unusual flash frozen corn balls.

It was definitely unusual food, especially since they used liquid nitrogen to flash freeze those balls. and I know people that watched the big bang theory knows what liquid nitrogen is capable of. What I didn't expect was to be spewing out smoke when I ate it XD

Like... I don't smoke, but it was soooooo fun! and the smoke from my mouth was really cold! It was a fun experience. I'd call it a waste of money because aside from being flash frozen, it's still corn balls, but I guess these are the things where you just pay for the experience and not for the flavors.


It was a crazy night because we set out of the condo at 8pm then we returned to the place nearly midnight already. 3 streets long was a lot to explore, honestly. And also waiting for food took a lot of time, but all in all, it's always a worthwhile experience to visit UGBO street. Cheap food, thrilling experiences and you get to meet some interesting people (well, if you table with them).

When we got back to the place, the first thing we did was lay all the food down on the table. Surprisingly, we filled the entire table but me and my cousin only spent $2 each. Or 1,000 PhP each with all the food we bought. which isn't so bad because if we ate at some restaurant, i'm pretty sure we would exceed that and won't get this much variation either.


That night, nobody slept XD we spent the entire night eating, watchhing movies and just talking while catching up on life. It was the break we all needed and it was definitely a fun mother's day. hopefully on my mom's birthday, we can do something special like this again!

---

Well, this is all from me for tonight. I'm trying to write daily to make up for my lapses and absences from the platform and I'm also trying to be active again bit by bit so to those who stopped by, thank you!
Hopefully soon, I can make a stem blog again. I just don't know what to write about yet regarding sciences because I haven't been reading much journals again.