I SURE am missing a lot in the Philippines.

But then this was one opportunity that was difficult to pass as my health and personal safety is involved.

You see my wife of 41 years, Marissa, is celebrating her nth birthday next week, and my two eldest kids, JM and Janis planned a surprise for her, a trip to Macau and Hong Kong with her thinking all along that our trip will only be up to Clark for two nights and another two nighrs in Nueva Ecija at Janis’s house in Sta. Rosa.

We all had to lie a lot of times to her these last two weeks as she was asking why our apo Livi is not coming with us, for our youngest, she really could not as she could not take off from her work.

For me, I used my compensatory time off from the Philippine Sports Commission( PSC), something I earned from working on that PSC Invitational fubd-raising golf tournament for our Filipino Olympians and Paralympians. Good that Commissioner Fritz Gaston allowed me on an extended leave.

So early last Thursday morning we drove to Clark Airport, leaving the house at 130 a.k. for our 6 20 a.m.. flight to Hong Kong, from where we will proceed first to Macau.

My wife could not believe it when we went straight to the airport and I showed her our on plane tickets and boarding passes and gave her some spending money too.

Too bad I missed by a few days our sambo team that competed in the Asia Oceania Sambo Championship hosted by Macau, though he did drop by the PSC last Wednesday and shared with me the fact that his team won 3 silver and one bronze medals. Not bad at all,considering the sport’s stronger teams were represented.

We finished 6th overall behind Central Asian teams and it was a good preparation for the Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games set November this year in Bangkok, and hopefully, I can make it there too with Fritz.

Anyway, it was a good break for me from work plus it was my first time to go to Macau , and it was 26 years ago when I last set foot in Hong Kong.

It was just overnight for us in this former Portuguese colony, and the following day, which was last Friday, we were all in Hong Kong already, crossing by ferry boat back to Hong Kong.

We enjoyed our short stint in Macau, the food, the mini shopping, and the sights and sounds of the Venetian Casino and the Londoner Macau, made extra good that my son won a few hundred dollars in the slots, good for two meals already.

Right now, we are still in Hong Kong but in Kowloon side, and I remember the last time I was here, colleague but now departed Teddy Vic Melendres, then with HK Standard, treated me and my family to dinner. And on another night, another sportswriting colleague Reggie Amigo had us in his unit for dinner. Reg now lives in Mindanao.

Tiring trip, physically exhausting from all the walking and night market excursions, and financially-draining too , good that my two kids and I shared all the expenses for the trip.

We are staying at the Mongkok area but please do not ask which hotel. I was kidding my daughter I will tell friends we stayed in a bedroom instead of a hotel room, that should give you an idea how small our room was, but then in trips like this, you end up using the rooms just to sleep in.

And thank you to all the 7-11 stores in the area for providing us with breakfast meals, plus all those small local restaurants for other meals. No expensive restaurants for us definitely.

We did our traditional wibdow shopping in malls but did the real shopping in night markets and small boutique stores, meaning the cheaper ones.

But then after all, being with family for bonding at this age of ours, that was the real purpose of the trip, while we still can, meaning doing all the walking.

I promised myself I will spend more Me-time with my family on out of town trips.

I have long realized my more active days of covering sports events and doing adventure sports like mountain climbing, caving, and kayaking , they are over and done.

It is just good that I found myself back in the world of sports in the twilight of my working career.

Happy birthday to my wife, thank you to my kids for doing all the planning and using all the cellphone apps that at my age, my wife and I cannot understand anymore how they work.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Lito Cinco