It was an interesting December in 2021 to say the least.
We had been doing home renovations since October and had to "evacuate" the house when the noise, dust, and fumes gave most of us allergies. This was a few days before Odette and we had checked-in to Marco Polo to get a little respite. We enjoyed getting out of the house since quarantine rules are still fairly strict in our household. We enjoyed eating out aka eating indoors - with people - grabe the thrill! This was just at the Lobby Lounge having Chinese food, which was spectacular by the way, but we had soo much fun. We ate at the breakfast buffet twice too. Marco Polo opened it for a limited time for the Christmas holidays during our stay. And finally, we enjoyed the weekend market that had sprung up at the Marco Polo parking lot. We bought Portuguese lemons, veggie staples, and homemade muscle pain rub. Tigulang excitement!
While all these was going on, news about Odette was definitely in the background. But we weren't, or maybe just "I" wasn't, thinking about it actively. I had end of the year work tasks that I deemed more important. And I was trying to be productive while staying with family in the room. I was also more concerned about the construction pain that awaited me when we got home. I was thinking about my cat missing me, my balance Christmas presents to buy, throwing a little Jollibee Christmas party for the construction dudes...in short, everything but anticipating what Odette could do to upend my life haha.
So we got home on the noon of the 15th. I had meetings and needed to connect to the net soon as I reached the house. And I still was not in Odette havoc understanding. My family was more cognizant thankfully. They had barricaded the gate with rope, asked the construction team to pack up early (they were still trying to work), and did other reinforcements on the loose construction supplies and unfinished work. Interestingly we were fixing the gutters and a roof window (sakto ba ni? murag dili LOL) that became leaky after many years.
Around 3-4pm I finally realized that things were pretty serious when the rains and winds started coming. At that time I had the common sense (finally!) to stock up on water and start charging my devices. I also rounded up my rechargeable fans in preparation for loss of power.
To be continued...
