It’s been a while since we went out as a family.

Like, you know, to a proper event. Or something that doesn’t involve our usual.

Yesterday, we went to this Filipino event called Ube Wonderland Down Under at Cranbourne. It was packed! I could smell the smoke from the barbecues all the way from the car park and the lines for literally every food stall were so long it was a miracle Jeff was able to order food for us without having to wait an eternity to get it.

We had pork belly and pork barbecue on the grass in the sunshine.

And then later, palitaw and pancake on the steps. Again, in the sunshine.

Because it truly was a nice sunny day. The kind that promises spring and diabetes if you over-indulge yourself on the endless desserts that the food vendors had to offer.

I had to refrain myself from ordering halo-halo, not out of sheer discipline but because of pure laziness. I simply couldn’t be bothered lining up.

The main reason why were at the event in the first place was because Raven had a Tinikling performance together with the AFCS kids. It’s wonderful how her Tinikling classes has really opened up a lot of opportunities for her to to immerse herself in the culture and the celebrations that come along with it.

With the Australian-Filipino Community Services being very active in the promotion of its advocacies, I sign Raven up for any performance that comes up to show my own personal support.

Whether she likes it or not.

Which she ends up enjoying anyway. Not so much the performance itself, but the perks that go with it — at my expense. Like me buying her tang hu lu and puto and the clicky 3D-printed fidget toy that’s customised to have her nickname on it.

And she wouldn’t even let me have more than one bite of her strawberry!

*Raven at 10 years old