It is the Holy Week in the Philippines, and there are only two things that the people do: spend the holiday with family and commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ or take a vacation from the usual busy days.

For most, it can only be one and never both. But I managed to do the two. At least the latter on Facebook.

Bored and nothing to do at home since I am on a work break, I decided to go to Australia – without any type of visa – through this magical thing called Adobe Photoshop.

I originally shared the photo with a caption, “I thought I will be under house arrest this Holy Week but look at where I am now........” ending the post with an emoji laughing while crying in tears. I changed it to “Nakapunta ako ng Australia without any visas! Ask me how!”

My post was meant to level with all of my Facebook friends who are now in beaches, resorts, and hotels, among others, taking their sweet vacations. I can’t help but be jealous because of the status of my Holy Week break – I had planned something but it did not materialize.

Here are the raw photos of my photo manipulation, one from a random blogger who visited Sydney, Australia and my photo back when I was in Tagaytay in 2016.

This is the result.

After editing in Adobe Photoshop CS4, I made some color corrections in my VSCO app. I still do not know how to grade colors in the desktop photo editor.

As to how believable my trip to Australia was, that depends on how long we have been Facebook friends (other than your ability to check what’s a real photo or not): this is not the first time that I posted an intentionally edited photo of me in places around the world.

In April 2016, I posted this photo of me in Dubai. At the time I know I still have a lot to learn about the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop, hence the quality of the edit.

This one is in Chicago. Judging from my manipulation on the hair, which was a struggle to refine, this was a giveaway for most.

Also these two photos in China, posted last year in September. It’s amazing what boredom can do to me.

But that one photo in Australia is perhaps the most believable, if only based on the output photo itself. If I wasn’t mocking my visa-free Sydney trip in my caption even just a little, close friends on Facebook might even ask me for pasalubong.

Sorry, gullible Facebook friends. Happy early April Fools’ Day.