Philippines 2009 Day 8

Our return flight was leaving for Singapore at 10.55am, so we woke up early, washed up, did some final packing and left for the airport at 9.30am. Carrying the luggage was a dreadful experience - the pineapples were too heavy and the three tubs of popcorn were too bulky. Slug's brother then drove us to the airport.

In the guest bedroom

View from the bedroom

We reached the airport just to discover a long queue of people and luggage snaking out of the airport from the luggage scanners. As Slug and I were queueing up, a customs officer managing the crowd saw the conspicuous tubs of popcorn and could not help but commented, "So you like popcorn?" I just smiled sheepishly, but he even signalled for his colleague to come over, and the two of them just stood there pointing at the popcorn, whispering and grinning. What's the big deal about buying popcorn? When we finally reached the scanner, the officer there also asked, "So you like popcorn?" Now, I was starting to feel uneasy.

What happened next was probably the biggest joke of our lives. After all that waiting and queueing, we arrived at the suspiciously empty check-in counter at 10.12am. However, it had closed at 10.10am! Just as I was about to burst into tears, another airport officer suggested I seek help from the airline office (not before asking if I liked popcorn). Panicking, we fled to the airline office and pleaded for them to let us into the plane. They adamantly refused, but luckily we had the option of buying the next day's tickets at SGD80 each. What a waste of money! All because of the 2 minutes!

Of all blessings, luckily we had accommodation ready for us. If it had been other countries, we would be spending the night on the cold tiled floor of the airport. We quickly called up Slug's brother and explained our predicament, who spent the next minute hooting in amusement into the phone. It was simply unbelievable - to the airport and back to Slug's brother's place again! Moral of the story - you can be late for anything except catching a flight.

Slug sulking away because we missed our flight

Hugging the popcorn which had already received enough attention for the day

The overcrowded and old Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1

So we followed Slug's brother around, whose usual daytime activities were mainly sending and fetching his two daughters to tuition classes. After the two of them were dropped off at the tuition centre, the three of us went for a coffee session at Starbucks. To console us (who were still feeling sore about the mishap earlier in the morning), Slug's brother suggested we return to the Seaside Seafood & Wet Market again for dinner, yay!

Their mouthwatering chilli crab will be on our minds for years to come

I just had to post another pic of the giant fluffy tempura prawns again!

Stir-fried broccoli

Steamed red snapper Hong Kong style

Grilled squid au naturel (which was a disaster)

Back to our accommodation to pack our bags and set our alarm clocks ... ... no more mistakes tomorrow, we had to go home.