The usual. And then some.

Louis Philip Kee Brazilian Blowout Voucher for sale (Php4,200)

2012-01-18T10:33:00.002+08:00

Hey guys. I'm selling my Louis Philip Kee Brazilian Blowout voucher. I bought it from Deal Grocer last year. I recently decided I like my hair as it is, so I'm selling the voucher for the same price I bought it for. Anyway, let me know if you're interested, or if you know anyone who is.

Idiot's Guide to Ilocos

2012-01-18T10:28:00.003+08:00

And so after all the stressof the past few weeks, Tita Susan, Tito Efren and I have decided to go on alittle four-day vacation to Laoag, Vigan, and the surrounding areas (with Jemand Shayne, of course). It was actually supposed to be a solo trip for me, andthen with Tita Susan, but Tito Efren and the others decided to tag along. Soanyway, I worked on our itinerary yesterday, and I must say, the Ilocosprovinces: WOW. They’re blessed with some of the best natural scenery andman-made architectural gems. No wonder they’re so proud of their heritage. Iwould be too.

Anyhow, in case it willhelp anyone trying to plan a trip there, I’m sharing our itinerary and a littleFYI pamphlet I prepared for the oldies, for a bit of historical background. I’lladd pictures later kung sipagin ako.

NOTE: I did not write thehistorical background part. I just edited some parts for grammar of clarity. Well, I'm in the process of editing. Most of it, I borrowed from http://www.worldtourist.us/ilocosnorte/laoag.html.The rest, I compiled from the following websites. (This is a post-compilationbest-efforts list. If I missed anything, please let me know.)

http://visitpinas.com/malacanang-of-the-north-paoay-ilocos-norte/

http://www.pinoytravelblog.com/travel-destinations/ilocos/685/touring-ilocos-without-a-car-part-1-from-manila-to-laoag(This series of articles was VERY helpful. Particularly since I was supposed totravel alone without a car.)

http://tourism-philippines.com/ilocos-sur/

http://fitzvillafuerte.com/ilocos-vacation-tour-vigan-laoag-pagudpud.html

http://pinoytourist.blogspot.com/2008/03/pagudpod-laoag-vigan-itinerary.html

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Philippines/Province_of_Ilocos_Norte/Paoay-1387067/TravelGuide-Paoay.html

http://boyplakwatsa.com/2010/11/24/currimao-for-my-marcos-tour/

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Philippines/Province_of_Ilocos_Norte/Batac-1408934/TravelGuide-Batac.html

http://crystalbatac.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-apologize-for-lack-of-pictures.html

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=537707&publicationSubCategoryId=111

http://www.travelblog.ph/la-paz-sand-dunes-in-ilocos-norte/

http://wikimapia.org/925529/Monument-of-the-Tobacco-Monopoly

http://www.ilocandiatreasures.com/2010/04/la-paz-sand-dunes.html

http://www.libotero.com/patapat-viaduct-pagudpud-ilocos-norte/

http://tourism-philippines.com/pagudpud/

http://heritageconservation.wordpress.com/2006/07/27/cape-bojeador-lighthouse/

http://pasyalan.net/ilocos_sur/bantay/

http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/calle-crisologo-vigan

http://www.travelblog.ph/sunset-at-bangui-windmills-in-ilocos/

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Bangui_Windmills

http://wikimapia.org/9157545/Bangui-Wind-Farm

http://serialtripper.com/2011/09/calle-crisologo-vigan/

http://www.fabulousphilippines.com/st-pauls-cathedral-vigan.html

http://nboi.blogspot.com/2010/09/baroque-church-of-santa-maria-ilocos.html

http://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/nationalmuseumbeta/ASBMD/Padre%20Burgos.html

Anywaaaaaaaaaaayyy…

ITINERARY FOR ILOCOS TRIP

DAY 1

7:55 pm – ETDMNL-LAO flight (5J-404)

9:00 pm – ETA Laoag

DAY 2

NOTE:Morning activities optional.

8:00 am – Breakfastat Saramsam Cafe

9:00 am –Museo Ilocos Norte (Php20 entrance fee) / Ilocos Norte Capitol

10:00 am - St.William’s Cathedral / Sinking Bell Tower

11:00 am - Balay da Blas (Wait for Tita Susanet.al.)

12:00 nn - Lunchat Saramsam Café

1:00 pm - St.William’s Cathedral / Sinking Bell Tower

2:00 pm - Museo Ilocos Norte / Ilocos NorteCapitol / Tobacco Monopoly Monument

3:00 pm - Sarrat(15 mins east of Laoag) – Sta. Monica Church

4:30 pm - La LazSand Dunes (20 mins west of Laoag)

6:00 pm - Dinner atFort Ilocandia

Driving directions: Follow the mainroad and make a left on the airport road, proceed until you see the Northwestern University on your right.Make a left on the road in front of the University, and make a right towardsthe entrance to Fort Ilocandia Resort.

8:00 pm - ETA Balay da Blas

DAY 3

7:00 am -Breakfast at Balay da Blas

8:00 am - ETD Balay da Blas

(En route: Patapat Viaduct)

9:30 am - Pagudpud (until lunchtime) (1.5 –2 hours from Laoag) – Saud Beach

12:00 nn -ETD Pagudpud

12:30 pm -Paraiso ni Anton (running waters through a lush green forest leading to astatue of the Virgin Mary)

- Maira-Ira Beach (“Blue Lagoon”) –Sitio Gaoa, Balaoi, Pagudpud

Timmangtang Rock (U-turn, right on smaller road; male rock)
Bantay-AbotCave (female rock)

Collectively called lovers’ rock

Dos Hermanos

- Kaibigan Falls (optional; 30minute trek)

- Bangui Windmills(1.5 hours from Laoag, 30 mins from Pagudpud)

- Kapurpurawan RockFormation

- Cape Bojeador Lighthouse (40kmnortheast of Laoag) – 30

- Pasuquin Saltmakers (optional)

- Bacarra Church and Bell TowerRuins (15 mins from Laoag)

6:00 pm - Dinner at La Preciosa (Rizal St., Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, 2900)

Tel.: (+6377) 773-1162 / 2159

8:00 pm - ETA Balay da Blas

6:00 pm - Dinner at La Preciosa (Rizal St., Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, 2900)

Tel.: (+6377) 773-1162 / 2159

8:00 pm -ETA Balay da Blas

DAY 4

7:00 am - Breakfast at Balay da Blas

8:00 am - ETD Balay daBlas

9:30 am - Bantay Church (town beforeVigan)

11:00 am - Baroque Churchof Sta. Maria (3 hours from Laoag)

12:00 nn -ETA Vigan (1.5 to 2 hours from Laoag) – Lunch at Café Leona (Calle Crisologo - Vigan City, Ilocos Sur; +63 (77)722-2212)

1:00 pm - Calle Crisologo / Crisologo House /Syquia Mansion / Quema House / V. Singson Encarnacion House / Grandpa’s Inn

4:00 pm - St. Paul’s Metropolitan Cathedral

5:00 pm -Burgos National Museum

7:00 pm -Dinner at Hidden Garden / Lilong & Lilang Coffee Shop (Brgy. Bulala Centro,Vigan City; (63)(77) 722-1450; Francis Flores, owner,0921-664-0737

10:00 pm -ETA Balay da Blas

Other places wecan go:

· Chavit’s Baluarte Zoo

· Burnayan (pottery)

· Plaza Salcedo

· Plaza Burgos

DAY 5

8:00 am - Breakfast at Balay da Blas – Don’tforget to check out!!!

9:30 am - ETA Paoay (15-20 mins from Laoag)

· Malacañang of the North

· Paoay Lake

· Paoay Church

12:00 nn -Lunch at Herencia Café – in front of Paoay Church (McArthur Street, Bgy. 14, Paoay, Luzon, Philippines; 077- 614 -0214)

1:30 pm -Batac – Marcos Museum

3:00 pm -Currimao – Nipa Beach Hut Resort

5:00 pm - Badoc – Juan LunaShrine
- Badoc - La Virgen Milagrosa Shrine

6:00 pm - ETA Balay da Blas

7:00 pm -Leave for airport

9:30 pm -ETD LAO-MNL (5J-405)

THE PROVINCE OF ILOCOS NORTE

Ilocos Norte islocated on the northernmost edge of western Luzon. Itsboundaries are formed by the Babuyan Channel on the north and its sisterprovince, Ilocos Norte, on the south. To the west are the tribulent waters ofthe South China Sea, while theeastern borders are formed by part of the Cagayan Valley, Abra and the Mountain Province. A well-pavedcoastal highway connects the province with the rest of the country.

Ilocos Nortehas a total land area of 3,400 square kilometers. It is composed of 22municipalities with 477 barangays. The province's population was 514,000 by thecensus of 2000, and since 1999 its governor is Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. It wasmade a separate province in 1818. The province is noted for being thebirthplace of former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who led anauthoritarian rule over the country during the later half of his incumbency.Ilocos Norte has always been Marcos territory and the family enjoy a moderateamount of popularity in the province. Even before one reaches the capital,traces of the "great Ilocano" are unmistakable.

Long before theSpanish galleons came to the Philippines, the coastalplane of Ilocos Norte was already flourishing with business carried out by theChinese and Japanese traders. The first Spaniards to reach the region were Juande Salcedo and his men, who were tasked to explore the coast of Luzon north of Manila in 1572. Thelargest concentration of people that Salcedo found was in Laoag along the Padian River, and Salcedogained their friendship after initial skirmishes. Although the presence of theSpanish soldiers may have seemed fleeting to the Ilocanos, Salcedo'sexploration marked the beginning of Spanish colonization of the region.

Agriculture isthe main source of livelihood in the province, all lands for cultivation can beplanted with rice, corn, garlic, onion, sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton. IlocosNorte is also noted for its various cottage industries, among which are clothweaving, pottery-making, blacksmithing, woodcarving and furniture making. Itsethnic population is overwhelmingly Ilocano. Unlike the rest of the region,however, the Roman Catholic Church does not predominate. The Aglipayan Church, Iglesia niCristo, and other Protestant groups have strong followings, as well as, animismand non-religiosity. The climate is characterized by two extremes: very dryfrom December to April and very wet for the rest of the year. The averagetemperature in Ilocos Norte is 81 deg F. May is the warmest month, with anaverage temperature of 83 deg F, and December is the coldest.

Laoag City

Laoag City, the capital cityof Ilocos Norte, is 463kilometers north of Manila. Themunicipalities of San Nicolas, Paoay, Sarrat, Vintar, and Bacarra form itsboundaries. The foothills of the Cordillera Central mountain rangeto the east, and the South China Sea to the westare its physical boundaries. Flourishing along the bank of the Laoag River, it is thenerve center of the province and the seat of politics, business, commerce,education and religion. It became a 2nd class city in 1965. According to the2000 census, it has a population of 94,466 people in 19,751 households.

"Laoag"(Ilocano for "the place of light or clarity"), is an old, flourishingsettlement known to Chinese and Japanese traders when the Spanish conquistadorJuan de Salcedo arrived at the northern banks of Padsan River in 1572.Augustinian missionaries established the Roman Catholic Church in the area in1580 and designated Saint William, the Hermit as its patron saint. PedroAlmazan crowned himself king of Laoag in 1661 in a bid of insurrection andprotest against Spanish tax mandates. Other rebellions flared throughoutcolonial times, including against Spanish tobacco monopoly in 1782.

Laoag is an 9to 10 hour drive from Manila depending onthe traffic or how fast you are going. Provincial buses also providetransportation from Baguio City, Manila, and a numberof other cities. There are air-conditioned buses that leave their Manila stations forLaoag. The buses, which leave on scheduled runs, do stopovers at designatedpoints along the route for refreshments and other necessities. Laoag International Airport servicesflights to and from Taiwan and somecharter flights by Philippine carriers. It is a 1 hour flight from Manila. The townexperiences the prevailing monsoon climate of Northern Luzon, characterizedby a dry season from November to April and a wet season from May to October,occasionally visited by powerful typhoons.

The Landmarks & Attractions of Ilocos Norte

Juan Luna Shrine
Fort Ilocandia Resort Hotel
Paoay Church
Marcos Mausoleum and Museum
St. William's Cathedral & Sinking Bell Tower
Museo Ilocos Norte

Bacarra Church & Bell Tower Ruins
Malacanang of the North
Salt Making in Pasuquin
La Virgin Milagrosa Shrine of Badoc
Currimao's Nipa Beach Resort
Sarrat's Sta. Monica Church

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/d5/30/6b/museo-ilocos-norte.jpg

MUSEOILOCOS NORTE

Located in the downtownarea of Laoag City and just close to the provincialcapitol and about a block away from the town plaza is the Museo Ilocos Norte.One of the best ways to get to know Ilocano culture is by visiting the museum.The museum is housed in the restored historic Tabacalera warehouse, which was afactory of sorts for tabacco back in the Spanish Era. The museum was primarilydesigned to bring a sense of pride to the citizens of the province. Itshowcases the varied ethnicity and multi-faceted cultural heritage of theIlocano people. It is one of the few attractions in Laoag City which is most visited by schoolchildren, visitors, and tourists.

The museum is nicknamed,"Gameng," from the Iloco word meaning treasure. It symbolizes thewealth of Ilocos Norte. There is an assortment of items displayed on bothfloors of the two-storey building. Before you exit out of the museum, you willfind a small giftshop which sells an assortment of native products andhandicraft of Ilocos Norte, and a few books and other publications writtenabout the province. There is a minimal fee charged to view the contents ofMuseo Ilocos Norte. The museum is opened during office hours in the morning andafternoon of the work week, however, it is closed at noon time which allows it's staff timefor their lunch break. The symbol of the museum, a many-rayed sun, was takenfrom one of the finials at the back of the 19th century church in San Nicolas.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4674605725_eb27b0c98f.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/4632596272_c6a2d68512.jpg

ST. WILLIAM'SCATHEDRAL & SINKING BELL TOWER

A chapel of wood and thatchwas originally built on the same site when the Augustinian Friars founded theparish in 1580. Later in 1612, foundation for the replacement of the church waslaid by the friars and construction of the cathedral with Italian Renaissancedesign began. The church was damaged by fire in 1843 and repaired through theefforts of the Obras Publicas under the supervision of Engr. Antoniode la Camara and Fray Santiago Muniz from 1873 to 1880.

The reconstructed churchhas a unique two-storey facade held by four pairs of coupled columns and wascalled the St. William's Cathedral. The deeply recessed niche shows the imageof Saint San Guillermo. It is the one of the biggest cathedrals in the countryand became the seat of the Diocese of Laoag. In 1898 it was occupied byRevolutionarists and also by the American forces in 1899. The cathedral was thesite of the Diocesan Congress in 1932 and 1949.

Located 85 meters away isits bell tower which has sunk to the grounds and leans slightly. The 45 meterhigh bell tower is one of the tallest edifice built in the province. When thetower was newly erected a person on horseback can pass through its door freely.Today, a person of average height could hardly pass without stooping.

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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kdzD7GCWCf0/TaLEVnLIsEI/AAAAAAAABwM/47KyyqK1xSw/s1600/aurora%252Bpark%252Blaoag%252Bcity%252Btobacco%252Bmonopoly%252Bmonument%252Bilocos%252Btour.jpg

TOBACCO MONOPOLY MONUMENT

When the Spaniardsdiscovered that the land and climate of Ilocos is perfect for growing tobacco,they forced the people to plant only tobacco and no other crop. The sakadaswere also forced to sell the tobacco leaves only to the Spanish government.This has lead to numerous resistance among the locals. There were also storiesof untold abuses done by the authorities. For one hundred long years, 1781until 1881, the tobacco monopoly existed in Ilocos. A period of dark history inIlocandia.

It was only in 1881 when King Alfonso XII lifted the tobacco monopoly. Thepeople of Ilocos then erected the Tobacco Monopoly Momunent as a thanksgivingto the Crown of Spain for recognizing the stuggles of the Ilocano peopleagainst the Monopoly.

The tall yet graceful monument is located right at the center of Laoag City plaza, in front of the ProvincialCapitol.

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SARRAT'S STA. MONICACHURCH

In the town of Sarrat is a beautiful red brick church of Baroque and Neo-Classical style called theSta. Monica Church. Irene Marcos, the daughter of former Philippine PresidentMarcos, was married to Gregorio Araneta in a fairytale-like wedding in thechurch complete with red carpet stretching for kilometers. In the Philippines, it was termed the "wedding ofthe century." However, a little more than two months later, on Aug. 17, anearthquake of Intensity 7.6 ravaged Ilocos Norte and destroyed the altar andbelfry of Sta. Monica.

The church is located some7 kilometers to the east of Laoag City proper. It is an all-brick churchwith buttressed walls and a 3-level brick bridge and staircase connects thechurch to the convent making it one of the unique features of this church. TheSta. Monica Church, convent and bell tower began construction in 1669 and werecompleted in 1679. Rebuilt after a fire in 1817, the complex was again damagedby fire in 1882 but was rebuilt and finished in June 1896. The church featuresa 137-meter nave that is the longest in the country, according to the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Encyclopedia of Philippine Art. Itfollows a simple rectangular plan and another outstanding feature of the churchis its unique system of roof trusses.

Like the bell tower, theconvent stands apart from the church. Separate towers and rectories arecharacteristic of the province, a measure to minimize damage duringearthquakes. At the ground level of the convent are housed memorabilia, booksand photographs connected with the history of the parish. The ruins of Sta.Monica Church in Sarrat include a torture room where two huge brick-encrustedpillars dominate. Melvin dela Cuesta, a Filipino historian, said these pillarswere used during the Spanish regime to hang Filipinos accused of treason andother high crimes.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-134bLx5EFAo/TiSy8nA630I/AAAAAAAAAGg/U-yr4vbbTO8/s1600/sanddunes_laoagcity.jpg

THE LA PAZ SAND DUNES

La Paz SandDunes is a unique attraction in the city of Laoag for being asandy coastal desert with an area of 85 square kilometers. This is consideredto be a National Geological Monument because of itsuniqueness being a desert environment. La Paz is just a partof a long stretch of the Ilocos Norte Sand Dunes. It spans from Currimao toPasuquin. This is locally called Bantay Bimmaboy in which they perceive thatthe dunes resemble the shape of pigs.

The sanddunes were formed by the interaction of the wind, sea and river that togethercause erosion and deposition. The height of the sand dunes ranges from 10-30meters. Its pretty amazing to see this from a horizon with the South China Sea. There are exciting activities thatcan be done here aside from trekking for an hour to traverse the entire stretchof the beach, one can drive a rugged 4-wheel vehicle or the excitingall-terrain vehicle. The latest craze is the sand boarding where one can use aboard to slide down the dunes. This site is accessible by tricycle and jeepneyand its just 15 minutes away from the city proper.

With theseactivities, one can call it a desert safari just like what I had experiencedfrom Dubai. This was my visit to the site just right after arrivingfrom the Middle East inwhich I hosted a Canadian friend’s visit to Ilocos. I took Romeo here toexperience the desert. I did not fail, he truly enjoyed it. He ran, jumped andclimbed the sand dunes on bare foot feeling the heat underneath.

This is another world class treasure of Ilocandia. It was used to be a shootingsite for several local and international films. Himala and Panday are theclassic local movies that were shot here. And of course segments of the Hollywood films such as Mad Max and Born onthe fourth of July where Tom Cruise had a fight scene and rolled over the sanddunes.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-hxgM1l37Oc/TBzXW6ppcSI/AAAAAAAABCk/AigwR8Zd5Dk/s1600/IMG_2826.jpg

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FORT ILOCANDIA RESORT HOTEL

The resort is located inBarangay 37, Calayab, and about 9 kilometers from Laoag City. It is the only first classproperty of its kind in the province of Ilocos Norte. The hotel is sprawled over 77hectares of land at the middle of sand dunes, prime forests, and two kilometersof fine sandy beach facing the South China Sea. It is situated on thenorthwestern tip of the island of Luzon. Laoag City and Laoag International Airport are accessible by a 10-minute ridefrom the hotel.

The Fort Ilocandia Resortcomplex is composed of 5 buildings all inspired by Spanish colonialarchitecture and finished in coal red bricks. It has guest rooms with privatebalconies offering a panoramic view of the sea. These rooms have features andqualities of Ilocano century-old living quarters and constructed to accentuatethe antiquity of a colonial house.

The main building housesthe lobby, a number of restaurants, shopping arcade, casino, discotheque, and aglass-topped atrium where you can relax as you sip your favorite drinks, tea orcoffee. For those who love Asian cuisines, Lucky House and Golden Pavilion arethe best places to dine. It offers the finest Cantonese dishes and one can finddelicious dishes from Korea, Japan and Taiwan. At the Sunset Bar which is locatedat the beachside you can have a drink and after which you can dine in a SpanishRestaurant, or CoCo Lobster where you can enjoy authentic Filipino cuisine.After your dinner, you can visit the Casino Filipino at the second floor. It isopen 24 hours a day with multi-lingual attendants. The gaming area includesmore VIP game rooms to satisfy your appetite for thrill. At the Passion NightClub and Karaoke glamorous shows are held every night. There are VIP roomswhere guests can show their singing prowess or none of it, and have a fun andrelaxing time.

Hotelfacilities of Fort Ilocandia include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, sevenfunction rooms, video arcade, tennis court, badminton court, gym and sauna,driving range, golf course, paintball, beach volleyball, jet ski, sea donut,wind glides, sailing boat, bodyboard and pool toys. The guests may also indulgein various recreational activities such as wind sailing, archery, shooting,horseback riding, wind gliding/wind surfing, canoeing, open sea fishing,snorkel diving, scuba diving, and rafting, among others. The resort also has aworld-class 18-hole golf course with international standards and a perfectdesign to challenge one's playing skills. The golf course, with numerous treesbuilt along Lake Paoay was designedby PGA champion, Gary Player for the late President Marcos. It measures 6,518yards from the blue tee with a par of 72. Added hazards are the century-oldfruit bearing trees and man-made ponds and lake.

The hotel's redbrick facade and roofs beautifully contrast with white round windows. Clearly,it's inspired by the architecture of the colonial Spanish or Spanish Moroccanstyle. There is an impressive and immense fountain and well-maintained gardensand flowering plants-lined walkways. The rooms that spread out in four othertwo-storey buildings include 233 standard rooms; 25 deluxe rooms; eight juniorsuites; and two presidential suites. All of them have aircon units, cable tv,telephones, and a bathroom with hot water. Fort Ilocandia Resort is withoutdoubt one of the most interesting places in northern Luzon and is perfectfor pleasure seekers because of its distinctive and naturalistic appeal.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cFKvLdhxZZs/TYwgfnUkrqI/AAAAAAAAADc/ALdPVK8SnC8/s320/Patapat%2BViaduct%2BPagudpud%2BIlocos%2BNorte%2BB.jpg

PATAPAT VIADUCT

The Patapat viaduct is considered as the 4th longest bridge in the Philippines and the secondnorthermost road of the island of Luzon. It is like awinding bridge beside the cliffs of the Cordillera Mountain Range It is about1.5 kilometers long and elevated around 30 M above the sea. It connects the Maharlika Highway to Cagayan province. It was built forthe purpose of minimizing landslide. Other buses bound to other northernmostprovince of the Philippines take thisroute.

Also called as the “French Riviera of the North” for this magnificent coastaldrive. You can just park your vehicle and take photos of the vast northern bluesea and flying birds along the coast. Like what we did on our way to Paraiso niAnton. You shouldn't miss the opportunity to witness the view of the southchina sea waves that hit big rocks which was indeed breathtaking.


Saud Beach - http://lh5.ggpht.com/_bJKz4lWVpfo/TUcJ9c6wIKI/AAAAAAAAElU/nflPOcfvlFA/Saud%20Beach%20in%20Pagudpud,%20Ilocos%20Norte%20-%20JustAnotherPixel.net%5B2%5D.jpg

Maira-Ira Beach / "Blue Lagoon" - http://www.thinkphilippines.com/pictures/blue-lagoon-maira-ira-beach-philippines.jpg

Timmangtang Rock Formation - http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5174/5525782508_a3b0e2539e_o.jpg

Bantay-Abot Cave - http://manilenio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Bantay-Abot-Cave-Ilocos-Norte.png

Dos Hermanos Islets - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zu3aStb_b4U/TI3HhhtLADI/AAAAAAAAH98/muMCWt8V4fY/s1600/P1110449.JPG

Kaibigan Falls - http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5090/5288310083_30a778ae40.jpg

PAGUDPUD

Pagudpud, a town situated 1 and a half hours north of LaoagCity, the provincial capital of Ilocos Norte, and about 10 hours by land fromthe Philippine capital Manila, is fast gaining fame in the international travelcircuit staking its claim amongst the pretenders to the throne of having thebest Philippine beach which unarguably is perennially held by Boracay in Aklan.But Boracay it is not, although it comes pretty close when it comes to sandquality, the clarity of its stunningly blue waters and the length and width ofits beaches (other beaches in the Philippines do have white sand, but not as finenor the beach as long nor wide). But whilst Boracay caters to the to the partyscene and its extensive range of island activities, Pagudpud derives its charmfrom exactly the opposite of that – even on a long weekend, the beaches ofMaira-ira, Saud and Pansian rarely get the hordes of tourists that Boracay,Panglao (Bohol), and Puerto Galera (Oriental Mindoro) due to the town’srelative remoteness (although Easter Weekend is an apparent exception as toldby our Korong-korong driver where the road to Maira-ira can get pretty cloggedwith traffic).

Pagudpud, the town, wasstill named as Tongotong which was then under the administrative control of thetown of Bangui as being one of the barrios. And then just before theoutbreak of World War II, a Batangas native, according to a local story,arrived in the area selling mosquito nets and blankets from house to houseuntil he was totally exhausted. He sought shelter in one of the houses, hungryand tired, asking the owner of the house for a simple meal. After all had settleddown, the owner asked the itinerant vendor for his purpose, and the guy, notunderstanding the local language merely replied, “Ako’y pagud na pagod na atang sapatos ko’s pudpod,” in heavily Batangas-accented Tagalog meaning “I amvery tired and my shoes are all worn out”. The reply became the byword of theTongotong locals even though they themselves did not understand the meaning ofwhat has been said. A few months later, a Bicolano (native of the Bicol Regionof the Philippines) arrived to seek employment in oneof the logging companies in the region (as apparently the area had thick,virgin forested mountains before and logging was still allowed by law). Theguy, not knowing where the office of the company was located got off inTongotong and asked one of the locals for the name of the place and heimmediately replied, “Ako’y pagud na pagod na at ang sapatos ko’s pudpod,” asthe bystander thought the man was a Tagalog and those were the only Tagalogwords he knew. Our guy interpreted that the place might be called Pagud-pudpod.Tongotong became Pagud-pudpod and later shortened to Pagudpud.

But that was one story. Theelders say that Pagudpud is an old Ilocano word which meant soft sandy soil“kuppuoy” a kadaratan. The majority of the population of its 20,385 residentsis composed of Ilocanos, whilst a few are a collection of Apayaos, Bicolanosand Visayans.

Pagudpud’s main attractionsare of course its beautiful beaches, and unlike other pretenders to Boracay’sthrone, Pagudpud has every reason to believe that it does rival Boracay’sspectacular sceneries. So much so, that international travelers started to situp and take notice. Sunday Herald Sun of Australia ranked Saud Beach as Number 1 on its list of the topten best, lesser-known beaches of Asia besting Thailand’s Ko Adang, Sri Lanka’s Bentota, and Cambodia’s Occheuteal among others.

Pagudpud has threedifferent beaches actually – Maira-ira Point which is also known by itsmoniker, Blue Lagoon and the other name Malingay Cove (It is not a lagoon – itis more like a cove), Saud and Pansian – all white sand beaches. Pansian is thefurthest of the three which is almost at the border of Cagayan province andrarely gets any visitors at all, if any. The two most popular are Maira-ira andSaud. Saud is where all the resorts are, and when we say that the waters offSaud are emerald-colored even during cloudy weather or when its waves arerough– we are not kidding you. The beach is long, palm-fringed and with lesspeople and on a clear day, one can see the Bangui windmills in the distance. Thewaters can be rough and dangerous during the rainy season as Saud faces theopen sea and the current can be very treacherous so adequate caution and commonsense are very important.

Maira-ira meanwhile has ashorter beach but has calmer waters compared to Saud. Unlike Saud with suddendrops a few meters from the shore, Maira-ira boasts of a mostly gently slopingbeach into the ocean. Maira-ira is more scenic as well, the beach forming agraceful arc, with some rock formations on the right end and the islets of DosHermanos (Two Brothers) that seem to be guarding the cove to the left end. Themain annoyance is probably the irritating sound of banana-boats in Maira-iraand the presence of some trash which we think is more or less manageable. Thelocal government of Pagudpud should start a daily clean-up and environmentaleducation campaigns in the area to further minimize or possibly eliminate trashin Maira-ira. The Dos Hermanos islets, which can be reached by motorized boatsoff Maira-ra meanwhile pride themself with their caves, rock formations, and asmattering of colorful tropical fish. The best part of the Pagudpud beaches,rarely you will get any touts at all, one can actually lie down in some cornerwithout being bothered by anyone selling crap – better watch out for a tinyherd of goats though, cute but otherwise mostly harmless.

Aside from the stunningbeaches, Pagudpud offers a lot of other attractions as well. The waterfalls ofKabigan and Saguigui on Barangay Balaoi are quite dramatic. Kabigan Falls is 80feet surrounded by lush forest and a concave basin and practically reminds usof those picturesque waterfalls of the jungles of the Caribbean while SaguiguiFalls is a smaller waterfall and very hard to get to.

Not to be outdone, Bantay Abot Caves and Timmangtang Rock in Sitio Gaoaalso in Barangay Balaoi are other interesting spots in the area. Bantay Abotmeans “a mountain with a hole” and sometimes called “the underground sea” asthere is luxuriant greenery on top of the cave. Bantay Abot Caves had a hole in the middle of themountains where the waves crashed until it was wrecked in a massive tremor inthe ‘80s. Inside the cave is a church where one can hear the echoing sound ofthe waves, hear the swallows that swarm in the late afternoon and other birdschirp freely. The shore of the caves has white sand mixed with shells and rocksand has quite a great view of the sea and the rugged mountains.

A few meters away is theTimmangtang Rock, a bell-shaped rock covered with vegetation and with theBantay Abot Caves is collectively named as “Lover’s Rock” with Bantay Abotbeing the female and Timmangtang as the male – possibly an obvious reference tothe male and female nether regions, hey?

Still on Sitio Gaoa, apanoramic view of the Pasaleng Bay, Maira-ira Point and on a clear dayBabuyan Island way up north can be had at theNacatnagan Cliff, 150 feet above sea level. As an Ilocano word meaning “felldown”, stories of Nacatnagan tell that in old times, two carabaos (Philippinewater buffaloes) climbed the mountain and fell down the cliff, thus, its name.The cliff has an untouched forest teeming with wild animals, wild orchids andrare ferns along its slippery and steep slopes.

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BANGUI WINDMILLS

The Bangui Wind Mills werebuilt by the NorthWind Power Development Corporation to take its share inreducing the emission of harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs) causing global warmingand to accelerate the rural electrification of the government.

The windmills, officially referred to as the North Wind Bangui Bay Project, wasbuilt to use renewable energy sources, thus reducing the greenhouse gases thatcause global warming. The project is the first Wind Farm in the Philippines consisting of wind turbineson-shore facing the South China Sea and considered to be the biggest in Southeast Asia. The project sells electricity tothe Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) and provides 40% of the powerrequirements of Ilocos Norte via Transco Laoag.

Northwind Power Development Corp. runs the Northwind Bangui Bay Project thatharnesses wind coming from the South China Sea into electricity that helps light up Ilocos Norte innorthern Luzon.

The project has been in operation since 2005, supplying the Ilocos NorteElectric Cooperative (INEC) with around 25 megawatts of power, equivalent to40% of the cooperative’s power requirement.

Fifteen wind turbines [now 20 turbines, total is not yet confimed], each 70meters tall, each equipped with three 41-meter blades, rise along anine-kilometer windswept beach in Bangui. The first of its kind in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia, they have become a touristattraction.

The project was made "viable" because of a loan by the Danishgovernment.
The Danish government, through the Danish International Development Agency(DANIDA), extended the firm a $29.5-million "mixed credit" orzero-interest loan. The balance of the $48-million initial investment wasraised through debt and equity by Northwind Power’s shareholders.

The company has turned a profit since its wind project got off the ground,thanks to the Danish assistance in large part, as well as the appreciation ofthe peso and attractive tariffs in the past two years.

Wind projects normally become profitable after seven years in operation.

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KAPURPURAWAN ROCK FORMATION

(See image above. No information available yet as of this writing. Well, I'm sure meron. Tinatamad lang ako maghanap. Hehe!)

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CAPE BOJEADOR LIGHTHOUSE

Faro de Cabo Bojeador isset majestically on top of a hill overlooking the South China Sea. Located approximately 35kilometres north of the City of Laoag, the lighthouse is the mostaccessible of all lighthouses in the north of the Island of Luzon. Situated 160 metres on top of ahill named Vigia de Nagparitan, the lighthouse of Cape Bojeador serves as a station point for shipsveering towards the Pacific Coast heading towards the BabuyanChannel. Similarly, it as well assists ships heading towards the ports ofSalomangue in Ilocos Sur which is 87 kilometres south from the lighthouse, andCurmimao, which is 60 kilometres away in Ilocos Norte. In addition, beyond tothe port of Manila. Completed on the 30th of March, 1892, thedesign and construction of the Lighthouse of Cape Bojeador was initiallyundertaken by the Engineer Magin Pers y Pers but was subsequently reconfiguredand finished by the Engineer Guillermo Brockman.

The station has anarrangement that is typical of lighthouses in the Philippines with light tower, living quarters(living pavilion), serviceable apartments, and enclosed courtyard. Thebuildings are all erected with bricks that were baked in a kiln located at thebottom of the hill. The tower which rests on the highest portion of the hill is16.3 metres high. The whole complex is arranged in three different levels. Thelowest level contains the courtyard and service buildings, the second level,which is approximately 3 metres above the courtyard contains the main pavilion.The tower, which constitutes the highest level, is situated in the rear, fivemetres higher than the pavilion below. Built of locally made brick, theoctagonal shaper tower has an inner dimension of two metres and an exteriordimension of three and half metres. The lower one fourth of the tower istruncated whereas the remaining body of the shaft is straight. The top of thetower supports an overhanging balcony, which is surrounded and supported bydecorative grill works. The attic where the cupola and lantern rests iscylindrical. What is notable about the Bojeador Lighthouse is that is still hasintact the original cupola and lantern.

The cupola, made of bronzeis surrounded with glass panes. The dome on the other hand supports a ballshaped flue, which exhausts smoke from the flame of the original gaslight. Thelantern on the other hand is fitted with a first order Fresnel Lens that ispartially intact. “During my very first visit to this lighthouse way back inthe 70’s, the original lens and mechanism was still operational. Sadly due tothe intense earthquake that shook the region in 1990, parts of the lenscollapsed and the alignment of the mechanism was displaced.” Nevertheless, theCoast Guards has retained the original mechanism for historic purposes and onlyretrofitted the lighting mechanism for its daily operations. According to thehead of the Lighthouse division of the Coast Guard Commander Danilo S. Corpuzas well as Ruben R. Labuguen PCG light keeper stationed at Cape Bojeador, theCoast Guards, as well as the Department of Transportation and Communication hasno plans of retrofitting the lighthouse with a new cupola and lantern due toits pristine state of preservation and the fact that it is frequented bytourists and visitors alike. In addition, due to its spectacular landscape, thelighthouse is among the most photographed and filmed of all Philippine lightstations, as attested in the numerous movies shot on its location.
The mechanism fitted intothe lighthouse at Bojeador was of the basic specification for all first orderlighthouses. It contained a winding mechanism composed of a counter weightwhich when wound would enable the lantern supporting the lenses to rotate. Thehousing of the counter weight is located in the centre of the spiral staircasewhich when wound would drop all the way to the bottom of the stairs. It takesapproximately one hour for the weight to reach a full cycle, which would enablethe lantern to rotate numerous times. The job of the lighthouse keeper was toreligiously wind the mechanism to ensure the continuous rotation of the lensthroughout the night. This practice was subsequently stopped when the towersuffered damages during the 1990 earthquake.

The pavilion located belowthe tower is in relatively good condition. Though proper restoration of some ofits architectural detailing; such as capiz and louvered windowpanes, decorativeiron grilles, plastering and gutter works need immediate attention. Thepavilion contains five apartments: four quarters, each provided with aseparated living area, bedroom, and one watch room overlooking the Cape. A connecting hallway adjoins allthe rooms except the watch room, which is accessible only through the verandahoverlooking the courtyard. The lowest level of the grouping is the courtyard.In the centre of which is a well and below it the cistern, used by the keepersfor their water needs. Straddling the courtyard to the east and west are thekitchens and store areas. The main gate of the lighthouse is located in thesouthern and western flank of the courtyard. A flight of stairs in a “T”formation directs the visitor to the pavilion. The whole lighthouse complex isaccessed from the main road by a zigzag side road, which was recently widenedand cemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways. A steep flight ofsteps leads to the lighthouse from a cul-de-sac, which marks the end of theaccess road.

Compared to the Lighthouseat Cape Engaño in Palaui Island, the Lighthouse in Cape Bojeador is in an envious position among PhilippineSpanish Lighthouses. Not only does it protect one of the more treacherous bendsof the vast Philippine coastline, but it has as well earned the distinction ofbeing the most visited light station in the country. The lighthouse of CapeBojeador today is not only a mere light station with an obvious functional use,its pavilion has now been transformed into a mini-museum as well as lodging forpeople seeking basic accommodation, though except from shared cookingfacilities and water from the cistern, no other amenities are provided. Itstower is quite accessible and with little enticement from its friendly lightkeeper, accesses to its lantern and, if the winds are not that strong, theprecarious perch from its overhanging balcony is possible. As a touristattraction in a politically powerful province, the lighthouse of Cape Bojeador has ensured its preservation andprotection for years to come. (by Arch. Manuel L. Noche)

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SALT MAKING IN PASUQUIN

Along the highway a fewkilometers north of the town of Pasuquin, there are roadside stalls sellingbags of what is arguably the finest salt in the Philippines. It is a common sight to see peopleriding in provincial buses that often stop at these stalls to purchase salt.Sold by the kilo and contained in plastic bags, the salt is cooked in largevats in huts which are usually found behind the stalls.

Pipes stretched from thebeach to the huts carry salt water to the cooking vats. Although the initialcost of setting up and laying the pipes and then pumping salt water to the hutsinvolves a significant amount of capital for these entrepreneurs, theconvenience of having a steady supply of salt water becomes an added advantage.This process of salt making is quite different from the way salt is produced inthe town of Paranaque (south of Metro Manila) where athin layer of sea water is poured over salt beds and left to dry by exposure tothe sun. However, the quality and fineness of the salt crystals made by thisprocess does not come to par with the salt made in Pasuquin.

The salt makers of Pasuquinhave improved their product by adding a minute amount of iodine to plain saltto help reduce the chance of iodine deficiency, which can lead to thyroid glandproblems such as goiter. The conventional way of adding iodine to plain salt isdone by using either potassium iodide or potassium iodate.
The salt makers of Pasuquinsave on fuel by burning bags of sawdust during the cooking process. Thesawdust, which are usually waste products in lumber yards, are now sold in sacksat minimal prices to those involved in salt making. In this cottage industryentire families are engaged in salt making, carrying on the traditionallivelihood of previous generations. The Mendoza family of Pasuquin whose saltmaking operation I had a chance to witness is just one of the many familiesengaged in this cottage industry. To augment their income from selling salt,they also sell Iloko vinegar and other crops such as garlic and onions.

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BACARRA CHURCH & BELL TOWER RUINS

The Bacarra Church together with its bell tower wereconstructed by the Spanish Augustinian Friars in 1593 and subsequentlyinaugurated in 1782. It was destroyed by the intensity 7.8 earthquake on August1983 and reconstructed and once again inaugurated in August 1984. The image ofthe patron saint, San Andres, stands in front of his x-shaped cross in thecentral niche.

The Bacarra Bell Tower is located at the right side of theRoman Catholic Church. It was built in 1830’s and made up of coral blocks andstocco with an original height of fifty (50) meters and a three (3) storey witha wall of five (5) meters thickness. The earthquake wrecked it in 1931, whichhad caused the top most portions to tilt a little sideward on the right. Thebell tower with its unusual elongated cupola, was built during the term of FrayPedro Berger (1828-1848). It was made to stand a good distance from the churchto reduce damage to the later in case the tower buckled during a tremor. Chunksof brick debris, hurtled down during earlier earthquakes practically at thefoot of the church.

The bell tower,which is now in its advanced stage of dilapidation due to the effect of strongearthquakes, serves not only as a tourist attraction but also as a historicallandmark of the painfull sacrifices of the ancestors of the Bacarenos whorendered forced labor under the Spanish conquerors.

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BANTAY CHURCH

The naming of the town as aLocal Government Unit has two versions. One, some people believed that it wasnamed ‘bantay’ after its natural and physical features, meaning,mountain, because of its hilly and mountainous terrain, particularly at itseastern portion.

Second, the other explanation is linked to the Holy Shrine of the famous andmiraculous image of our Lady of Charity, which was brought to the place duringthe Spanish colonial period and accidentally found by fishermen on board a shipthat got stranded on the shores of the Ilocos coast.

In her honor, Bantay residents built a chapel, which is now the mainfeature of St. Augustine Church. It is often said that from thetime the miraculous image was brought to Bantay, Tagalogs and Zambalswould come to town claiming for the Holy Shrine and the image of Our Lady ofCharity but even with all their might and efforts, they were not able to movenor possess the miraculous image. Instead, they left Bantay with the notion andbelief that the Holy Shrine was meant purposely, and the miraculous image ofthe

Virgin intended to remain, for the residents of Bantay only, therein to remainforever to “guard” the place. Thus, evolved the name of the town as -BANTAY-,meaning, GUARDIAN.

San Augustine Church andBell Tower – one of the oldest churches of IlocosSur, it was built in 1590 with Fr. Montoya, as the first parish priest. TheAugustinian friars named it after St. Augustine, the Patron Saint. The church wasdamaged during the World War II but was reconstructed in 1950. The restoredfacade is of neo-gothic design mixed with pseudo-Romanesque materials andelements. Its grandiose design afforded a reminiscent of the old Spanisharchitecture using indigenous materials, which are of bricks and slime.According to great ancestors, fishermen found the image of Our Lady of Charityplaced in a wooden box floating in Bantaoay river and when the news broke,people from other towns and Provinces came to take the image but could not bemoved and only people from Bantay were able to carry the miraculous image. Itbecame the sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity on January 12, 1956, whenthe most Reverend Msgr. Vagnozzi, the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, crowned the miraculous image asthe Patroness of Ilocandia. The picturesque bellfry sits on a hilltop (atop theCalvario Hill) overlooking a vivid green vast of pastureland and the mountain view of the Province of Abra. It was used as a watchtower forinvading enemy forces during World Wars I and II. Evidently, the Bantay Church and bell tower are the monumentalwitnesses to various atrocities, uprisings and staged revolts

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BAROQUE CHURCH OF STA. MARIA

Flashback with a littlechunk of history, the Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion was built in 1765 under thedirection of the Agustinian order, the ensemble resembles a citadel sited onthe crest of a solitary hill rising above one side of the Santa Maria town plaza. The architectural ensemblepresents its side and detached pagoda-like bell tower rather than its façade tothe town. Thick contrafuetes (buttresses) are attached to the walls,reinforcing the structure against earthquake damage (like the buttresses in Paoay Church, Paoay, Ilocos Norte). The belltower is constructed a distance away, protecting the main church structure frompossible earthquake damage. Approached on foot by ascending a long, wide flightof piedra china, steps that rising from the edge of the town plaza, the small,cramped plaza at the top of the steps is bounded by the church façade thatfaces the convento, enclosed by an arcaded bridge that connects bothstructures.

In addition, the leaningbell tower of Santa Mariacalls attention not much of its unusual location as for its proportion andhexagonal form ( which is a sight in the church surroundings). All four tiersare hexagonal and scaled in size as the tower rises making it as one of theuniformly-shaped better proportioned towers in the Ilocos. Blank walls arearranged alternately with open windows. Other decorative devices, like singlepilasters, finials and balustrades indicate that this form is of later vintage.

Partly blocking thefrontal view of the façade of Santa Maria Church is the convent. It isaccessible from the Church by a structural bridge built over what might havebeen a deep channel or ditch. In the early days of the colonization, theconvent was the seat of the ecclesiastical administration besides serving as a“home or retreat house of the silvery haired or aged ministers of God upontheir retirements or after coming from their arduous and hazardous evangelicallabors in the hinterlands.

Far to the left, passingthe façade of the church a cemetery abandoned and evergreen with brush andweeds lies at the foot of the hill and connected with the church by an old andworn-out but impressive stairway now unused and all in ruins. It is perhaps thelimitation of the space on top of the hill that brought about the constrictedlayout and construction of the Santa Maria Church.

The Our Lady of Assumptionor La Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion at the side of the church was recentlyadded and not included in the original date structure of the church. Abeautiful wall sculptured painted with color that symbolizes Santa Maria the most beautiful, pretty andattractive. And as time goes by, the town came up with a tag line that goes SantaMaria a Nalibnos and that conduits to their town!

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Syquia Mansion - http://pitchandvich.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Syquia-mansion.jpg

Quema House - http://images.rally65.multiply.com/image/3/photos/21/400x400/50/83520050.JPG?et=J1sX%2BgXCzbsyi6u%2BOvKO1w

V. Singson Encarnacion House - http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/19959_218642812878_212570242878_3099856_4037549_n.jpg


Grandpa's Inn - http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5006/5206779012_cc166c8b96.jpg

CALLE CRISOLOGO

Calle Crisologo (also knownas Crisologo Street on modern maps) can be exploredpurely by walking, but if you prefer, you can take a ride on one of the many kalesas (horse-drawn carriage) roamingaround (this particular area is closed off to motorists). My preference was towalk around, as the street isn’t that long and I would like to take my timeexploring it and the places around it (the Syquia Mansion and Crisologo Museum are not far off).
During Spain’s colonization of the Philippines, Vigan’s Mestizo District (whereCalle Crisologo is located) was known as Kasanglayan(Chinese Quarters) from the word sangleywhich was used to classify a pure Chinese person. If a person wasof an ancestry mixed between Chinese and indigenous (called indio), he was classified as mestizo de sangley, the finest example ofwhich was Dr. Jose Rizal (it should be noted though that it was his wish to beclassified as an indio instead). It was on theMestizo District where some of these rich Chinese-Filipinos built their houses,which are still intact today and can be observed on Calle Crisologo.

Today, Calle Crisologostands defiant amidst the technological and cultural advancements around Vigan.It is my regret that we were unable to talk a walk here at night where streetlamps light the cobblestone street and a romantic Spanish-era atmosphere takesover. It could have been a great photowalk experience capturing the old streetat night, but exploring that part of the city at that time was simply not onour itinerary.

Other places you might wantto check out on the street are Cafe Leona (restaurant, mixed reviews) andRowilda’s loom-weaving shop whose owners have their skills passed down to themby their ancestors.

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ST. PAUL’S METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL

Vigan Cathedral (also knownas St Paul's Metropolitan Cathedral) faces Plaza Salcedo, and is an imposingcreamy-white building built in the "earthquake baroque" style withthick buttresses to support it through earthquakes and typhoons. A separatebelltower (or belfry) was built 15 meters away from the main building -- sothat if one structure was destroyed in an earthquake, then the other mightstill remain standing. The belltower is about 25 meters high and it issurmounted by a large bronze weathercock that is said to symbolize St Peter.

Inside you will see an impressive altar with hammered-silver panels.

The influence of Vigan's Chinese residents on the design of the cathedral maybe seen in the two fu dogs on the outer doors and in the octagonal shape of thebelltower.

The first church was built on this site in 1574 (by Juan de Salcedo) and wasdamaged in the earthquakes of 1619 and 1627. A second was built here in 1641;and the present baroque-style church was built in the 1800s.

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PADRE BURGOS HOUSE

This museum isthe ancestral house and birthplace of priest patriot Fr. Jose Burgos. Known asPadre Burgos House, it is one of the notable historic structures of Vigan, thecapital of the province of Ilocos Sur. It is atwo-story structure located near the Provincial Capitol and close to St. Paul’s MetropolitanCathedral. It was renovated by the Filipinas Foundation, Inc. and inauguratedon May 3, 1975. In January1989, a Contract of Lease was executed by the Ilocos Sur Historical andCultural Foundation, Inc. leasing the memorabilia for 50 years, and turningover the administration to the National Museum.

Vigan is strategically located at the delta of Abra River and was thecenter of political, religious, economic, social and cultural activities in Northern Luzon for more thanthree centuries. This city became the hotbed of social unrest against colonialabuses. Among those who led the cause for patriotism were the Bigueños Fr. JoseBurgos, the poetess Leona Florentino, her son Isabelo de los Reyes (father ofPhilippine Labor Unionism) and Elpidio Quirino, the second President of theRepublic.

The historic city of Vigan was inscribedas a UNESCO World Heritage Site on December 2, 1999.

Collections

Iloco-Kankanay-Itneg material culture: wooden plates and bowls; woodencoffins; burial chair; musical instruments such as drum (tambur), bamboo mouthflute (paldeng), and brass gong (gansa); weaponry such as shield (kalasag) andspears; weaving implements and wooden loom (pag-ablan); textiles; jars.
Trade ceramics; models of two trading vessels.
Dioramas of local historical events; photographs of individuals who contributedto the socio-cultural development and history of the region and of the Philippines.
Old books and historical records.
Memorabilia of Father Burgos and his family; period furniture pieces.
Oil paintings of the Basi Revolt of 1807 by Don Esteban Villanueva.
Liturgical collection.

Highlights of the Exhibit

The 14 Esteban Villanuevapaintings of the Basi Revolt of 1807
In 14frames, Don Esteban Villanueva, a businessman and unschooled painter fromVigan, recorded in 1821 the bloody progress of the Ilokano uprising against theSpanish government that prohibited the manufacture of ‘basiE(sugarcane wine) in the Ilocosprovinces. At one time, these paintings were owned by Buenaventura Bello,former president of the Ilokano Historical Association. The paintings remainedunrestored until a few years ago when a contemporary artist had beencommissioned to retouch them. In spite of this, the original painter’s style isnoticeable Edetails ofcostume and face, lack of perspective, the composition of the groups, theominous comets, and even the little horses. The 14 oil paintings, all measuring36 x 36 inches, was signed “E. VillanuevaE
Pag-ablanis a wooden frame loom for weaving locally grown cotton. The old backstrap loomis used although the overwhelming mass of weavers now prefers the more modernspinning wheel. Foot operates the harnesses. By moving the harnesses up anddown, warp threads that are drawn through consecutive heddles of each harnessform a ‘shedEthrough which theshuttle is passed. Handloom weaving became sophisticated when weavers began touse various materials, designs and colors, and became commercial. Weaving is anancient craft among the Ilocano and a source of income for the family.

Category/Type of Museum: Art,Ethnographic

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CHAVIT'S BALUARTE ZOO

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BURNAYAN

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PLAZA SALCEDO

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PLAZA BURGOS

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MALACANANG OF THE NORTH

This imposing two-storeystructure was built as the official residence of the President Marcos in IlocosNorte. It overlooks the legendary Paoay Lake and was designed to resemble a 19thCentury "bahay na bato." It is complete with bedrooms, dining area,kitchen, an office, a spacious ballroom on the second floor, and even had anolympic size swimming pool. During the term of Fidel Ramos, he has also usedthis former official residence in Ilocos Norte and so did President Gloria M.Arroyo whenever she travels to the north.

The main and officialresidence of the president of the Philippines is actually the Malacanang Palace. It is located along the north bankof the Pasig River in Manila. The name "Malacanang"comes from a Tagalog phrase "May lakan diyan," which means there is anobleman there. This palace was once the home of a wealthy Spanish merchantbefore it hosted the nation's chief executive.

When GloriaMacapagal-Arroyo became the president, she opened the Malacanang of the Southin August 19, 2004. It is a refurbished old building of the Bureau ofCustoms in Cebu City and was established to bring thenational government closer to the people in the Visayas and Mindanao. In Tacloban City, Leyte, former First Lady Imelda R. Marcoshad her "Sto. Nino Shrine" which also doubled as the Malacanang ofthe South.

Malacanang Palace of the Northhas since been converted into a museum and it is open to visitors. It is sad tonote that the structure has not been well maintained and is now badlydilapidated. Even the swimming pool beside it is no longer used and appears tohave been converted into a small fish pond. There is a mininal fee collectedfor those who want to see the place.

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PAOAY CHURCH

The Paoay Church was built of coral blocks andstucco-plastered bricks. Its architecture is a unique combination of Baroqueand Oriental. The materials used for the walls were a mixture of coral stoneand bricks. Large coral stones were used at the lower level of the walls, whilebricks, smaller and more manageable to transport, were used at the upperlevels. The mortar used for the coral stones and bricks points out the desireof the builders to make sure that the church stood against natural calamities.The stucco was said to have been made by mixing sand and lime with sugarcanejuice, which were boiled with mango leaves, leather, and rice straw. The churchis considered as one of the most striking edifices in the country with its hugebuttresses flanking the sides and rear facade.

Viewed from the side, thegiant buttresses look like huge volutes making the facade appear as a massivepediment rising from the ground. The facade is divided vertically by squarepilasters that extend from the ground and all the way to the top of thepediment. The facade is also divided horizontally by cornices that extend allthe way to the edges. The cornices extend to the sides of the church and wrapeach buttresses around, adding attention and articulation to the massive sidesupports.

The facade is complementedwith a bell tower located at its right hand side. Bell towers are a very important elementin the overall composition of colonial churches, both for its function andaesthetics. For practical purposes, belltowers were used as a communicationdevice to the townspeople. In the case of the Paoay bell tower, it also played,ironically, an explicit role in the lives of the Filipinos during the war. Ithas been said that the bell tower was used as an observation post byKatipuneros during the Philippine Revolution and by guerilleros during theJapanese occupation.

The Paoay Church was started bythe Augustinian Fr. Antonio Estavillo. Cornerstone laying for the church wasmade in 1704, its convent in 1707, and the bell tower in 1793. It was completedin 1710 and nauguration ceremonies were held on February 28, 1896, just three years before the expulsionof Spanish rule in the country. The style of the church has been dubbed an“Earthquake Baroque.” The church started to be used before its completion andkept in repair by the people under the joint auspices of the Church and thetown officials of Paoay. The church was badly damaged by earthquake in 1927 andlated included in the UNESCO'S World Heritage List.

Compared to itsstill magnificent exterior, the Paoay Church looks austereand stark inside, with but a few old images of saints and a simple wooden crossat the altar, that it is hard to imagine now how it looked like a hundred yearsago. Only on Sundays does the Parish enjoy quite a number of worshippers. It issad to note that on any other day, except for an intermittent bus loads ofTaiwanese tourists, the church suffers from the lack of patronage.

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MARCOS MAUSOLEUM & MUSEUM

The Marcos Museum and Mausoleum in Batac, IlocosNorte showcases memorabilia of the late Philippines President Ferdinand E. Marcos and alarge stately and gloomy tomb housing his embalmed remains which are containedin a vacuum-sealed glass coffin. Within the property of the Marcos family is acluster of three houses and the hallowed grounds of the mausoleum. The Museumis the first structure seen from the main street and is the one which followsthe lines of a colonial wood-and-brick house, with solid ground floor walls andan upper storey of wood decorated with floral motifs. The Mausoleum is a cubeof adobe blocks and is stepped towards the top of the structure. The darkinterior is divided into an entry foyer in which are exhibited old Englishstandards and a bust of the former president.

Two decades after Marcoswas chased from power, he still draws the faithful and the curious from thisfarming town. Displayed in an adobe mausoleum, his lavishly waxed corpse liesin a family tribute, bedecked in military medals and surrounded by faux flowerswhile Gregorian chants echo softly. Scores of school children visit nearlyeveryday, filing past souvenir peddlers for a look of the deposed dictator whomresidents of Ilocos Norte province fondly call "Apo," or the Old man.

Ferdinand Edralín Marcos(September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was the tenth president of the Philippines, serving from 1965 to 1986. In1972, he instituted an authoritarian regime that allowed him to stay in poweruntil lifting it in 1981. He was elected the same year to another full termwhich was marred by personal health issues, political mismanagement and humanrights violations by the military. In 1986, he was re-elected for the fourthtime in a disputed snap election. As a result, that same year he was removedfrom office peacefully by the "People Power" EDSA Revolution. He hasthe distinction of being the last Senate President to be elected to thepresidency and being the first president to be elected to two consecutive fullterms.

Ferdinand Marcos was bornin Sarrat, Ilocos Norte to Don Mariano Marcos, a lawyer who was an assemblymanfor Ilocos Norte, and Doña Josefa Quetulio Edralín, a teacher. He was thesecond of four children. His siblings were Pacífico, Elizabeth and Fortuna. Hewas of mixed Filipino (Ilocano), Chinese, and Japanese ancestry. He started hisprimary education in Sarrat Central School. He was transferred to Shamrock Elementary School (Laoag), and finally to the Ermita Elementary School (Manila) when his father was elected as anAssemblyman in the Philippine Congress. He completed his primary education in1929.

He served as 3rd lieutenantin the Philippine Constabulary Reserve in 1937. The same year, when he wasstill a law student at the University of the Philippines, Marcos was indicted for theassassination of Assemblyman Julio Nalundasan, one of his father's politicalrivals. Marcos was convicted in November 1939. He was offered a pardon byPresident Manuel Quezon, but he turned it down and voluntarily returned to theLaoag Provincial Jail where he spent time preparing his defense. On appeal, heargued his case before the Philippine Supreme Court and was acquitted thefollowing year by then-Associate Justice Jose P. Laurel. In the University ofthe Philippines, Marcos was a member of the UpsilonSigma Phi. After graduating with cum laude honors in 1939, he became thetopnotcher of the Philippine bar examinations the same year.

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CURRIMAO

The Municipality of Currimao is located inthe southwestern portion of the province of Ilocos Norte along the vastshorelines of the China Sea. It is boundedin the North by the town of Paoay, on the eastby Batac, on the south by Pinili and Badoc, and on the west by China Sea. It isapproximately 465 kilometers northwest of Manila and about 27kilometers from Laoag City.

Currimao, smallas it may seen, is blessed with several tourist attractions. These include theGaang Beach Cove with its wide expanse of unpolluted beaches and tranquilwaters which is a by-word of picnickers and beach lovers. It boasts also ofbeach resorts such as D'Coral Beach Resort and Hotel, the Old Fisherman's BeachResort which cater to foreign as well as local tourists, and the D & DGirls Scout Beach Camp, the center of provincial and regional Girls Scoutscamping and outdoor activities. The Pangil Beach Resort is where governmentagency outings and meetings are frequently held.

Currimao'slatest tourist attraction is the Taiwanese-run Nipa Beach Resort inBarangay Salugan which caters mostly to Chinese and local tourists. A number ofcottages have been constructed within the resort to accommodate its guests. Ithas its own restaurant, swimming pool, a well-designed and beautifullylandscaped compound, and access to a nearby white sand beach. The sixteenphotographs shown below were all taken at the Nipa Beach Resort.

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JUANLUNA SHRINE

The Juan Luna Shrine inBadoc, Ilocos Norte, is a reconstruction of the two-storey house in which thepatriot and foremost Filipino painter was born on October 24, 1857(The original house burned down in 1861). Luna was the son of Joaquin Luna andLaureana Vovicio. He was instrumental in placing Philippine art and culture onthe world map. Luna began his formal art training at the Ateneo MunicipalEscuela de Bellas Artes and Escuela Nautica in Manila. In 1877 he left for Madrid, Spain, to continue his studies at theAcademia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. It was during this period that hepainted "Dafne y Chloe," which won the Silver Palette Award from theCentro Artistico-Literario de Manila.

Other major awardsestablished Luna's reputation as a master painter both in the Philippines and Europe. These included the gold medal at Madrid's National Exposition of Fine Artsin 1884 for "Spoliarium" and a special gold medal award at theBarcelona Exposition in 1888 for "La Batalla de Lepanto," a workcommissioned by the Spanish Senate. Among his notable paintings were: "TheBlood Compact" and "People and Kings". Juan Luna was a co-workerof Rizal, Lopez-Jaena, Del Pilar and other Filipino reformersin Europe. He was in the Diplomatic Serviceof the First Philippine Republic. In 1896 Juan Luna and his brother GeneralAntonio Luna were arrested by the Spanish authorities for subversion. Duringhis eight months in prison he painted many canvasses, among them, "EcceHomo," a sensitive portrayal of Christ. Luna died in Hong Kong on December 7, 1899 andhis remains were interred in 1953 in niche no. 73 at the Sala de Profundis inSan Agustin Church, Intramuros, Manila.

The mainentrance of the Juan Luna Shrine opens into the alcove just before the family gallery.Photographs on the walls show the damaged original house and how teams ofconstruction workers rebuilt it. In the family gallery are vintage photographsof the Luna clan, including Juan Luna's son, Andres. The museum also uses thefamily gallery to display household artifacts from Luna's time. Another sectionof the lower floor holds reproductions of Luna's two large works -"Spolarium" and "El Pacto de Sangre." There are alsoportraits of his wife, Paz Pardo de Tavera, and national hero Jose Rizal.

The staircaseleads up to the living room, bedrooms, azotea and a mini chapel. The livingroom is furnished in period furniture and accessories. The master bedroomcontains the four-posted bed used by Luna. Outside, facing the azotea, is thebedroom which Luna once shared with his brothers. At the grounds of the shrineis a monument of the painter.

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LA VIRGIN MILAGROSA SHRINE OF BADOC

Estimated to be 400 yearsold, the revered image of La Virgen Milagros de Badoc is enshrined andvenerated in the more than 200 year old imposing brick-and-stone baroqueCatholic Church of the Parish of Saint John the Baptist in Badoc, Ilocos Norte.Inside the church one will find the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary withthe infant Jesus wrapped in her arms.

Countless miracles havebeen ascribed to the beloved image of La Virgin Milagrosa de Badoc which havekindled and heightened the veneration and devotion of the people from theIlocos region for which the image was really meant. Realizing the intense andwidespread devotion, the Diocese of Laoag proclaimed the wooden image of LaVirgen Milagrosa de Badoc as the Patrones of Ilocos Norte on May 2, 1980.This church in Badoc was the pilgrimate site for the Great Jubilee Year 2000.

Badoc is the southernmosttown of the province of Ilocos Norte and lies 40 kilometers south of Laoag City. Being the gateway to the provincefrom the south, it serves as the show window of historic Ilocos Norte. Theestablishment of the town as a parish in 1714 was also the approximate start ofthe construction of the Spanish built Catholic church, known as the Saint John the Baptist Church. It is said that the place of theIsneg settlement, wherein the first Spanish missionary team also establishedcamp, was the seat of the Christianization of the town. It was also in theplace where the church was established and where the first mass was said byPadre de Alvarado, an Augustinian priest who was the spiritual adviser of theexpedition led by the youthful Spanish conquistador, Juan de Salcedo. The firstmass, which was celebrated on June 24, 1572, or more than two centuries beforethe construction of the Catholic church, was said in thanks-giving for thepeace treaty between Salcedo and the native leaders and was also dedicated tothose who were slain in battle. It coincided with the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, who was made Badoc'spatron saint.

Folks recountedthat the huge and imposing house of worship, made of bricks and stones androofed with Spanish-style corrugated clay tiles, was constructed under theSpanish forced labor decree. It was also said that not a single drop of waterwas used in the whole construction process. The concreting materials were madepurely of sugarcane juice, which the natives contributed under the "familyquota system." Now, the church, already weather-beaten but unweakened bytime and age is the sanctuary and shrine of La Virgen Milagrosa de Badoc,because it was found in the year 1620 by Badoc and Sinait fishermen along the shore of Lugo village. Theimage, encased in a wooden box, together with a life-sized picture of SantoCristo Milagroso, the statue of angels and one violin, were given to the Sinaitfishermen as their share from the mysterious discovery, Since, then, the SinaitCatholic church has become the shrine of the Santo Cristo Milagroso.

Carmen Veronica Brown del Corro-Yenko, 1929-2012

2012-01-05T12:10:00.000+08:00

In behalf of her children (Susan Sofia, Eduardo, my mother Ma. Lourdes [deceased], Ricardo and Ronald), and all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it is with deep regret that I inform you that my grandmother Carmen Brown del Corro-Yenko, passed away in the early hours of January 4th, 2012. She was 82.

She lies in state at the Biñan Funeral Homes, in the City of Biñan, Laguna. The family will meet shortly to discuss the date of her interment at the Manila Memorial Park. We will let you know as soon as the arrangements have been finalized.

We request your prayers for the repose of her soul.

Domestic goddessdom

2012-01-03T19:55:00.001+08:00

I'm back in my little hole-in-the-wall in Manila. Like I said in yesterday's post, though leaving Baguio is never a happy thought, I love my little life in Manila. I got to the condo around 4 this morning and set about unpacking my personal stuff and my new loot. I put things back in their proper places, stashed my suitcases (left with one, returned with two), and excitedly took down my curtains to replace them with the first of the two new sets I bought in Baguio. Love it!

Oh, and as I mentioned, I recently discovered that I can actually cook edible food. (According to a very credible source, I.e. Me, I'm pretty darn good at this cooking thing, particularly given that I used to only make breakfast food.) This week, my menu says pork steak and menudo. Or pork humba. The recipe sounds simpler. I'm starting with the Filipino basics before I move on to other stuff. I'm going grocery-shopping tomorrow to prepare for my little experiment. Oh goodie.

One thing that has been bugging me though is the lack of storage space here. I'm thinking of having shelves installed, but I haven't made up my mind yet. We'll see. And I want to replace my shoe rack. And get a new dresser. But all of this will cost quite a bit, so I'll have to put my home improvement plans on hold for a while. The holidays are expensive, see, but I'm not complaining. I love that I was able to treat the oldies and the youngies to a couple of lunches and dinners. I had so much fun during the holidays, expense be damned. I just have to curb my spending for the next couple of weeks/months so I can recoup my cash outflow.

Anyhoo, I'm going to pop in my Rod Stewart - The Great American Songbook cd's, pick out a random book from my stash, and enjoy the new view from my couch. Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite. On second thought, if you have bedbugs, just burn your mattress.

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:-(

2012-01-02T22:09:00.001+08:00

Leaving Baguio is always bittersweet. A lot of things may have gone awry in this city since I was an official resident, but like some members of my family, I can't stay away for too long. But my life, or at least my job, and most of my friends are in Manila, and I like the independence and the anonymity that filthy city affords. As always though, I will be back really soon.

Anyway, the bus is leaving for Manila. I will miss my family, although I spend hours on the phone talking to them. I will miss the cold, the pine trees, and familiar strangers who smile and say good morning. Back to the grind. Back to the impersonal heat of Manila, that manic collage of rustic elegance coated with a hundred years of dirt and grime.

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Speaking of shoes...

2012-01-01T16:19:00.001+08:00

I need to stop using the "This is my Christmas/New Year's/Valentine's/birthday/April Fools'/Easter/whatever other occasion gift for myself" excuse. I think I'm covered til my 30th birthday. But hey, it's Christmas. Well, WAS. I promise, I will behave myself this year. I am going to stop using economy boosting as therapy/celebration. No to retail therapy for 2012. Bow.

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Feliz año nuevo a todos!!!

2012-01-01T11:30:00.001+08:00

Well, it's officially 2012. How time does fly. I'm sitting in our living room having my first cup of coffee for the year with my favorite oldies. We're going to John Hay later tonight to soak up the cold pine-scented air before I head back to Manila tomorrow night on the 10pm bus. Not a bad way to start the New Year.

I was finally able to drag the oldies to the Hillstation at Casa Vallejo the other day. I've been trying to drag them there since last year's Panagbenga. FINALLY managed to convince them to go, thank God. It's a really nice place. Reminds me of the house I grew up in Guisad, along Ferguson Road, where everyone knew everybody else. Even the floors look the same, only more distressed than our highly polished hardwood floors. It's my New favorite hangout in town now.

Well, I'll go back to my coffee muna. I think I wrote a review of the Hillstation sometime last year. I'm just too tamad to check right now. Hehe! Again, I wish you all a Happy New Year. Here's to a bigger, better, shining, shimmering, splendid 2012. To new beginnings, and pleasant surprises along the way.

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Shoeseses!!! (Insert crazed look here.)

2011-12-29T10:55:00.001+08:00

I’m sad. =( The thing about buying shoes (heels or wedges,specifically) in the afternoon on a scorching hot day when my feet are at theirmost monstrous is that when I attempt to wear them the morning after when it’scold and balmy, it’s usually a teeny bit disappointing. I swear, I tried onthose shoes and walked around the store in them just to make sure they fitwell. I tried them on when I got home from the mall, and they fit perfectly. NowI don’t know if by some magical thingiemajig, my shoes got bigger, or my feetgot smaller, but this morning, my feet looked like size 7’s in my size 8 shoes.Saaaaaaaddd!!! I hope insoles can do the trick though. I would hate for thosereally pretty shoeseses to go to waste. Or I can just wear them in theafternoon. In any case, I’ve wasted enough time thinking about them this last (half-day)workday of the year.

Anywayyy… I have to get back to my productivity program. Iwasn’t able to do anything yesterday, c/o our office trip to Ying Ying TeaHouse in Binondo. YUMMMMMMMMMM. And it’s cleaner than Wai Ying. We also went tothe Dragon Fireworks warehouse (also in Binondo) to check out the new (andexpensive) fireworks they were selling. Well, Helen was the only one whoactually bought anything. I think Joy is going back with her husband though. AndI think Caloy is buying for one of his friends. As for me, though I findfireworks thoroughly fascinating, the thought of spending thousands of myhard-earned cash on them is a bit beyond my spending arena. Yes, I do have aspending conscience.

On another note, just an hour and 10 minutes left! I’m soeggzited to go back to Baguio! =D Mybags are packed, I’m ready to go back to the boondocks. Hihi. Seriously. All Ihave to do is change out of this dress and into more practical travellingclothes. Nooninooninoo… An hour and 5 minutes to go…

(Wave)

2011-12-28T21:54:00.004+08:00

It still seriously surprises me that people read my ramblings. Anyway, hello to everyone who does. Oh, and happy holidays! I hope you have a great time too. I'm heading back to Baguio after lunch tomorrow. Back to the coooooooooold. Wheeeeeeee!!! Too bad I missed the coldest night (so far) though. PAGASA says it will get colder, so, yay me! It's still so much hotter than last year though. I distinctly remember that sometime last year (or was it '09), there was a day that it was 6C in the middle of town, which translates to around 4C in Eaglecrest, where my aunt lives. Well, my jackets can hope it gets colder. They're all just wasting away in my closet. And with that, I bid you adieu, and again, happy holidays! =D

What to do in Ilocos...

2011-12-28T20:27:00.001+08:00

I'm going to Ilocos with Tita Susan (and maybe Tito Efren, Jem and Shayne) Jan. 19-23. I'm so eggzited!!! I've never been to Ilocos, but I've always wanted to go. Everything's set. Hotel reservations confirmed and fully paid. Flight booked and confirmed. Airport transfers arranged and fully paid. Now I have to get to work on my itinerary... So far, my general plan is to do Laoag on the 20th, Vigan on the 21st, Pagudpud on the 22nd, and the remainder of the places near Laoag on the 23rd, since my flight doesn't leave until 9:30pm anyway. Anyone have any suggestions?

Si, yo puedo escribir en español.

2011-12-28T15:46:00.000+08:00

It’s true. I imagine that to a nativespeaker, or anybody fluent in Spanish, my Spanish would probably sound likeManny Pacquiao’s English, but hey, I’ve been only been at his for a few monthstotal, so cut me some slack. Next year, we’ll be enrolling in Nivel 10. We’llbe done with B1 by March, and hopefully, we’ll be able to take the B1 DELE inMay. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Nwy, I was going through my InstitutoCervantes files, and I found this. It’s a summary of a theoretical sequel tothe movie El Juego de la Verdad. There are so many interesting Spanishfilms: Nada en la Nevera, Manolito Gafotas, etc. Another goal for next year,watch more TVE and Spanish films. I need to get back on track with my foreignlanguage studies.

Okay, so, about the film, I also googled the summary (I can't remember writing it, so I suppose I copied it from somewhere.), but it’s in Spanish, so just Google Translate it or something ifyou don’t speak Spanish. If you do, I apologize in advance for my grammaticalblunders. If Spanish is your mother tongue, from the bottom of my heart, I askfor your forgiveness for having butchered your language.

Alberto y Susana son la pareja perfecta.Guapos, con una intensa vida social, con un trabajo reconocido y con grandes planes a la vista: una casa nueva y una boda portodo lo alto. Alberto es subdirector de un enorme supermercado. Y Susana es lapresentadora más sexy del telenoticias en unacadena de televisión local.

Ernesto y Lea son sus mejores amigos. Pero a elloslas cosas no les van tan bien. No tienen dinero, no tienen futuro, y desdeluego no tienen planes. Él repite monótonamente lasofertas en un supermercado por megafonía en lugar de trabajar en la radio. Yella tiene que hacerse pasar por sordomuda parahacer la traducción para sordos en un informativo en lugar de ser presentadora.

Pero todo cambia un buen día, en el que los peorespresagios de Ernesto (hipocondríaco incorregible) se hacen realidad: a causa deun error médico que él mismo propicia sin darsecuenta, le diagnostican un tumor incurable, y le dan tresmeses de vida como máximo.

A partir de ese momento, las vidas de todos ellos dan unvuelco espectacular y salen a relucir las mentiras y las medias verdadesen las que viven inmersos. Susana descubre que Alberto en realidad no quiere casarse con ella. Lea se destapa como una chicafantasiosa que se inventa amantes para suplir lafalta de estímulos en su vida. Y todos escuchan por boca de Ernesto cuál es elverdadero deseo que le gustaría cumplir antes de morir: acostarsecon Susana, la novia de su mejor amigo...

Si hay unacontinuacion de la pelicula El Juego de la Verdad, creo que será sobrelas niños de los protagonistas en la primera pelicula.

Después de su boda,Alberto y Lea pelearan mucho, pero despues, besaran y reconciliaran, comosiempre. Su vida matrimonial nunca será aburrido.

Me imagino que Ernestoy Susana se casaran tambien despues de unos meses, pero es probable que su vidasea un poco aburrido.

Probablemente, lasparejas tendrán hijos despues de dos o tres años. Alberto y Lea tendrán unaniña que parece Lea, gracias a dios! La niña, se llamará Carla, tendrá unapersonalidad fuerte como su madre.

Ernesto y Susanatendrán un niño con pelo oscuro. Su hijo, se llamará Francesco, será muyintrovertido.

Quizás los hijos delas parejas serán mejor amigos tambien, de su niñez. Al primero, Francesco, elintrovertido, no tendrá coraje para decir a Carla que la ama, pero ella sabrálo. Pero todo cambiará cuando Carla tendrá un accidente. Francesco realizaráque si no dirá a Carla su sentimientos, ella podrá morir sin saberlo.

Francesco hablará conCarla en el hospital, dírala todo, y quedará con ella mientras se recuperará.

Un año despues,Alberto, Lea, Ernesto y Susana asistiran la boda de Carla y Francesco, ysonreiran.

Financial (ir)responsibility

2011-12-28T15:31:00.002+08:00

Well, the title is actually a bit misleading. I do havesavings, and a tiny mutual fund investment. I could do better, but, well,sometimes you just have to have some things.

One of the biggest hurdles I have to overcome when it comesto my spending habits is my ability to rationalize things, e.g. I need thathairstyler so I will never have to go to the salon to get my hair done again. /Ooooh, I need new flats. / Ooooh I need new heels. All my latest shoe purchasesare flats. / Mom said books don’t count as expenses. I could go on and on andon. Seriously.

Well, it’s been raining cash over here since October, butthe money flows in and then flows back out again. Just to illustrate, I rackedup something like 2,000 points on my SkyMiles Mastercard just this Christmasseason. And that doesn’t even include my phone and my new, errrrr, capitalinvestment of new jeans and tops for casual Fridays. I was able to setaside 30k, but again, I could do better. But the Kenneth Cole watch was justtoo cute (and too cheap---it was on sale) to resist! Same thing applies to theLongchamp bag. And the three (yes, three) satchels---camel, light aqua, and across between navy and royal blue. And the carpet bag. And the three pairs offlats, three pairs of heels, and three dresses. And the dvd’s. And my Kindle (plus accessories). And my phone. And a lot ofother things. Oh brother…

I always say that I don’t know where all the money goes.Aside from the Php24,000 for basic overhead (rent, bills, amortization payments,etc.), that is. Well, I was going over my receipts yesterday, and I kinda figuredout where all the money went. First of all, I ended up spending somewherebetween Php10,000 and Php15,000 for Christmas gifts. My Excel file says that Ispent a bit more than Php10,000 as of the end of November. And I’m pretty sureI spent more. That’s the problem with early Christmas shopping. I always end upbuying double or triple gifts for people (and therefore, for myself too).

AND.Good Lord. I was compiling receipts, and when I added everything up, egad, Ispent Php20,000 this year at Powerbooks alone. No wonder the sales people areso nice to me. See, all those glossy Impressionist books went on sale duringthe third quarter of this year, and I just could NOT resist. Art books.Architecture books. Travel books. Interior decorating books. Cookbooks. Spanishbooks. History books. Comic books. Biographies. Autobiographies. The first ANDthe second World War. The Cold War. Spies. The American Civil War. PhilippineHistory. The classics. JFK. Nixon. Carter. Bush. Obama. You name it, I probablyhave it. I even have one on Persian carpets, for crying out loud.

On top of my Powerbooks purchases, I also spent quite a bitat the Manila International Book Fair last September (or was it October? Iforget.). Again, trivia books. The Beatles. The Forties, Fifties, Sixties andSeventies in Pictures. Elvis. Lost Civilizations. Famous battles. Wildlife. TheUncanny. I could go on and on and on.

I blame my mother for this. She always said books don’tcount as expenses. Well, mother, you have created a monster. I spent two nightsafter work just trying to figure out how to arrange all of my books given my muymuy muy limited shelf space at home. But hey, they make me happy. Andmother knows best. Wink wink.

So anyhow, to counteract my purchases, I started cooking andeating dinner at home. Yes, seriously. I think I’ve been doing the wholehousewife thing for six weeks now, and I am very proud to say that everythinghas been edible. I might even say deeeeeeelish, but I need someone to confirm.So eggziting. I’m going to the grocery later to stock up for when I get backfrom Baguio after the holidays. Thewhole domestication thing is fun. I just really really hate doing the dishes. I’llclean the bathroom, vacuum and wax the floors, but I seriously vehementlydetest doing the dishes. (Insert frown here.)

So there. I aim to become more financially responsible nextyear: increase my mutual funds investment, maybe finally work on my stockportfolio. We’ll see.

Before Sunrise: the Victory Liner edition (aka Whatever, Grace.)

2011-12-27T14:43:00.000+08:00

I've been travelling to and from Baguio for as long as I can remember. I must say though,my more than 10-hour bus ride from Pasay the day before Christmas eve is by far the mostinteresting commute I have ever had.

I've met a ton of interesting people on mysemi-regular commute to the city I still call home. A couple of old lawyers,the granddaughter of Dexter of Dexter's Catering, a couple of old ladies, a funny nurse from the Supreme Court clinic (who I met again when I started working for the SC, and who I still talk to every so often), andmost recently, this guy named Ryan. Well, I suppose that's his realname. (Projection lang. My I-don't-want-to-talk-to-strangers fake name is Rachel Dela Cruz.)

I got to the station half an hour before myday-before-Christmas-Eve trip to Baguio, sat down on one of the many blackplastic chairs (whose backrests are placed so far back you never actually usethem), and followed the loooooooooong queue of people at the ticket booth. Iseriously wondered, as I still do, why people still did not bother to booktheir tickets in advance. I whipped out my Kindle and started on the firstfirst few pages of Lisa Kleypas' Suddenly You. (Yeah, the one with 40pages of foreplay. Lol.)

A few minutes later, the 3:00pm bus positioned itself in its designated slot, andI got up to hand over my luggage (a medium-sized suitcase and a huuuuugeplastic bag of Christmas gifts) to the bus conductor. There was another girlwith a maroon Longchamp travelling tote (Yeah, I noticed. It was really cute.)and this guy in a leather jacket, sort of a taller, bulkier version of Noel, my mom's former student at the SLU Boys' High School back in theearly 90's, bar topnotcher and my former officemate. Small world. But back tomy story. I thought, oh, he's headed for Baguio, maybe they're related. Maybe he's Noel's brotheror something. I put on my staring-blankly-into-space face while we were waitingfor the conductor to get off the phone and open the luggage compartment. Isnickered to myself when this old guy carrying a VERY BIG backpack passed infront of the doppelganger and he sort of cringed with disbelief. It waslike looking in the mirror. I would have reacted the same way.

A short while later, the conductor came back tostash our luggage. When I boarded the bus, the doppelganger was standing in theaisle, looking for the seat numbers. The nice person that I am, I asked himwhat seat number he was looking for. He said he was in seat 6, so Ipointed out the seat next to where I was going to sit. Once he got outof the way, that is. (Okay, so maybe being nice wasn't my intention, it wasmore that I was annoyed that he was in my way and I couldn't get to my seat. I hate it when people do that, hanging out in the aisle, corridor or whatever, blocking my path. Another pet peeve, when people walk the same way most people in this city drive, i.e. without direction, swerving every which way. Seriously, if you want to gawk at something, get out of the way.)

We settled in for the long ride. He took out hisinflatable neck pillow, which kept on falling down. (Annoying.) At some point,it fell right at my feet, and I refused to pick it up. More specifically, I looked at the pillow on the floor, moved my foot away, and went back to bonding with my Kindle. I thought, Heyleather jacket dude, your pillow’s at my feet. Go pick it up. He stuck thepillow behind his neck and alternately tinkered with his iPhone and his iPad. Hmmmm…Not bad, leather jacket boy. But your jeans are still ripped. Ewwww.

A while later, he fell asleep, and I focused myfull attention on reading my trashy novel. Because we all know how much brainwork that entails. Haha!

An hour into our trip, my ungrateful tummy startedgrowling, and not in the hungry way. I shouldn’t have had that last slice ofpizza… I prayed to all the saints and all the deities to calm my churning insides.I did NOT want to go in any of the restrooms at the designated bus stops, andwe were a loooooooong way from Baguio. Yes, God, I get it, I’m a bad person. I should havepicked up his pillow. The pain came in nauseating waves, but graduallysubsided into a little uncomfortable lull. I decided to sleep through it. WhenI woke up two hours later, we were thankfully along NLEX. Yep, 3 hours from Pasay to NLEX. When really, sans traffic, we should havebeen in Tarlac by then.

By the time we got to Pampanga, we still weren’ttalking. I have to admit, I was a teeny bit miffed at that. Not that I wantedto talk to him. But I wanted to have the option to say no. Teeheehee. Come on, it's a normal thing. Plusmy legs were starting to feel cramped. My tummy had by then settled into asimmering sort of murmur, but I decided not to eat anything yet. Ah, yes,the laws of matter.

A couple of hours later, we got to Tarlac. He gotoff first, and then I headed for the washroom. The doppelganger was busy eatingat one of the tables. I decided I deserved a cigarette, so I walked over to theconvenience store. Luckily, they had Marlboro Menthols. I started walkingaround the store looking for tissue, but I didn’t see any. I went back to checkif they had any behind the counter, and ended up there at the same time as thedoppelganger. He let me go first (Well that was nice.), but since theydidn’t have any tissue or lighters, I just said thank you, and went to inflictsome damage on my lungs.

Outside, I positioned myself strategically rightsmack in front of the bus. No danger of forgetting which bus I was supposed toboard. I borrowed a light from one of the men at the wooden bench. Thedoppelganger arrived a minute later and asked if he could borrow a light. (Ohgoodie, he smokes. No judgment there. Btw, I’ve actually sort of semi-quit,but since it’s Christmas, I decided to spoil myself.) So anyway, since I didn’thave a lighter, he asked if he could light it with the tip of my cigarette,which I reluctantly handed over. (Huh. Errrr, close tayo?)

He began our little chitchat by asking me if I wascoming from Manila. I learned over the course of the conversationthat Ryan he was (well, is) a civil engineer from La Trinidad working for anAustrian construction company in Japan. (Can’t remember what city though.) Smalltalk buttonswitched on. Really? Both my parents are engineers. We talkedabout the earthquake and the tsunami, and how long it had been since he lastwent home. He hadn’t had Christmas here in six years, and hadn’t been home intwo.

We boarded the bus, and continued our littlechitchat about life in Baguiobefore there were so many people there. He told me he graduated from Boys’ Highin 1993, but apparently had never been my mom’s student. I told him about thenew places to go and where to eat in Baguio. He told me about his life alone in Japan.

By the time we got to Sison, it dawned on me thatwe were nearing Baguio. Good, considering we’d been on the road forhours, but a little sad, because I’d be saying goodbye to a newacquaintance-slash-friend (whose name I did not know up until that point). Yes,the conversation was that good. I so seldom meet people who are actually fun totalk to, and are worth talking to, that it’s a serious treat when I do.(The pathetic-ness of this statement has since dawned on me. - ed.) And I thought he was kinda cute, in that indescribably unique Baguio boy way.

And so, instead of going back to sleep, we justtalked and talked and talked and talked some more for the last hour and a halfof our trip. I should have slipped him my number or my email address at somepoint, but I was conflicted. Yes, according to Anna, natabunan na daw ang innerlandi. (Facepalm. Toink.) I’ve been on a hiatus from this whole thingfor so long, and I was just getting my sea legs back. (I used to be good at the whole subtle flirting (aka SF) thing. Ask Chi. I think I need more practice. Now to look for a willing victim...) On top of all that, Iwasn’t even sure if I was just reading too much into the whole thing than Ishould have been. Maybe he was (is) married, or in a relationship. No ring though. (I think. I've never been good at checking. I usually just assume everyone's married, attached, or not worth my time. Which, given the fact that I work for the Supreme Court and live in Ermita, is a very wise and practical strategy.) Or maybe he was(is) gay. Very unlikely. Seriously.

When we got to Baguio, he helped me carry my things to the cab. We saidgoodbye, and Merry Christmas. A rather nondescript, unmelodramatic, andextremely anticlimactic end to my little Before Sunrise, Victory Liner edition.

P.S.

I thought I saw him in Baguio last night, driving a white sedan, but it was justa quick glimpse. I would have loved to talk to him a little more, or maybe keepin touch, exchange stories or something. But if he didn’t ask for my number, orat least my email address or twitter id, I guess that means something, right? Imean, I’m not that difficult to look up on the internet if he really wanted toget in touch with me. Oh wells. In any case, it was a very interesting ride to havebeen on. Who knows, maybe I’ll run into him in Baguio or on my way back to Manila after New Year’s. If I do, I am so definitelygiving him my number. What he does with it is his call.

P.S.P.S.

Okay, so I finally figured out the scientific explanation for this whole thing. It's hormonal. Hahaha! Happy New Year, everyone!

Eggzited!!!

2011-12-10T20:46:00.001+08:00

Tomorrow, I have to be up and about at 5am for El Clasico. For the first time ever, a local tv station is actually covering it LIVE. Yay for football in the Philippines! I seriously dream of the day when the Spanish team comes over here. Hehe!

Anyhoo, I'm going to another birthday brunch at 11 with friends from law school. So that'll be fun.

What won't be fun is delivering all these presents to their intended recipients. They're all in piles now, sorted and tied according to geographical proximity. Don't get me wrong, I looooooooove Christmas shopping. This year, I actually ended up getting multiple gifts for a lot of people. It's just that tomorrow, I have to drop by Victory Liner and send two huge piles of presents to Baguio ahead of my trip, then I have to somehow also bring the piles of presents for C and her family, and my law school friends who are going to R's birthday brunch. Oh how I wish I actually had a car. But with the Christmas traffic, errrrr...maybe not.

Oh, and then, the sucker for romantic comedies that I am, I'm going to see New Year's Eve with N tomorrow after brunch.

And so goes my Sunday.

Another thing to be eggzited about, we get our Kindles on Wednesday!!! Woohoo!!! Yay for technology! I do expect a verbal reprimand for the amount of stuff I asked my stepmother to bring home from Chicago, but at least I'll get my Kindle sans international delivery charge, right?

I also learned today that my cousin C and her family are going to Baguio for Christmas. Yay! I have such a small family, and within that group, so few sane relatives that I treasure the very few and far apart days I get to see them. I really seriously can't wait to go home for Christmas.

Voldie no. 2

2011-12-10T15:00:00.001+08:00

A few years ago, I cut someone off because I finally realized, after quite a few rebound episodes, that I was in a vicious cycle of a relationship that had long outrun its course. Well, this year, I have finally realized that I am, again, in another vicious cycle of yet another relationship that has, again, long outrun its course. You know you're not really friends with someone when he/she is consistently nice to everyone but you in spite of your uncharacteristic niceness to him/her. So there. It's seriously Voldie all over again. Well, minus the making out stuff. Ewwwww. The thought makes me shudder. anyhoo, I am editing my relationships this year, and this time, this one's for real. It's been exhausting trying to extend the shelflife of a friendship that I probably should have accepted has been over for quite a while. And the funny thing is, I'm not even sad about it anymore. Distance sooooooooooo does not make the heart grow fonder. It just makes you forget and move on with your life.

La vie en rose

2011-10-02T02:46:00.001+08:00

The thing about responsibilities (actual or perceived) is that no matter how hard you try to shirk them or pretend that they don't exist, and whatever perfectly legitimate and valid reasons you may have for doing so, is that they always have a way of catching up to you. Or in my case, I simply decided to just take them head on.

Let me preface this post with the disclaimer that this is not borne out of angst. It is more of a monologue than anything, a somewhat more public form of thinking out loud. Maybe I should leave this private, but what the hell. Maybe it will help someone in the throes of the same issues.

Anna's brother Vince came over late this morning to evaluate my brother's condition. The prognosis was as I expected. Unlike many members of my family, after his 2004 bout with death, I never really believed he would ever fully recover. In a gesture of blind faith or folk catholicism, I visited churches, chapels, cathedrals and religious shrines, prayed, and lit enough candles to produce enough soot to blacken the whitest church walls. Think of it as somewhat like buying a lottery ticket. Most people don't actually believe a hundred percent that they WILL win, but they still gamble on the off chance that they do.

Going over my brother's latest medical records, I found myself a bit dumbfounded that it has been seven years since the (second) incident. That does not go to say that I do not care, or that I live in a fictional bubble. Much to the contrary, (and I do not, in any way exaggerate when I say this) not a day goes by that I do not think about what to do, how life will be, and what I should be doing to prepare for the day when I will have to step up to the plate. However, I have only recently returned to the fold to play a relatively active part in my brother's life.

I learned about incident zero when an uncle, my dad's brother, who I hate, by the way, texted (and then called) me while I was working on a final paper for one of my classes. I was in my senior year in college, I hated that uncle, could not wait to get off the phone and get back to my paper, and I detested the implication that it was somehow, for some reason, my fault. There I was trying to make something out of my life, and this bastard who knew nothing about me, and just plain knew nothing, was calling me in the middle of my in-the-zone moment, lecturing me. To be fair, during events like that, nothing the detested person says really registers as logical. I'm a fairly smart person, and I can justify any emotion to myself. At that point, I felt indignant, and I confirmed that I was right to be so. I got off the phone, went out to have a cigarette, and went back to the road to graduation.

The first incident happened right after my college graduation. It was 2003, and I had just gotten a letter from the UP College of Law that I had passed the Law Aptitude Examination, and I had been scheduled to be interviewed sometime in the middle of April. Back then, I had blinders on, and getting into law school was my finish line. No one and nothing could derail me from my track. I went home, but I never stayed long. I always returned to the dorm with my friends. I figured that my presence would not really make a difference anyway. It was not like I had fairy dust or some magical power that could make my brother rise from his coma. My maternal family had also advised me not to linger, by which advice I justified my intent not to stay. And I never cried. Not once. At some point, I seriously pondered why I hadn't, and I could not give myself an answer. Life went on for me. I had saved up for a suit and shoes to wear to my law school interview, and I went with C to Makati one day to purchase the armor that would eventually become standard equipment for my chosen profession. The day of my interview, I was more concerned with getting into law school than with what was happening back home. I had that tucked into a little box at the back of my brain, neatly stacked into the compartment labeled, "To be dealt with at a later time". And I did, after I'd finished my interview and had lunch with C at Kamirori. As my luck would have it, my brother awoke from his coma shortly after that.

A little more than a year later, it happened again. By October of 2004, I had developed a fear of phonecalls. Back then, none of my relatives really called unless it was urgent, and every time my phone rang, my heart skipped a beat in a tiny half-second panic attack. I stared at the screen for a second, took a deep breath, and braced myself for the bad news, which it always was.

That morning, I was sleeping, not so comfortably, I might add, on my makeshift bed in the tiny fourth floor walk-up I shared with C. It was a few weeks into our freshman year in law school, and we were a mess, literally and figuratively. We spent endless nights sleepless, falling asleep on top of our piles of photocopied cases, and hanging on for dear life. My college boyfriend and I had also just had a horrendously bloody (NOT literally) breakup. Long story short, I wasn't in the best shape. When my phone rang, and I saw that it was my cousin, I knew it was bad news. Deep breath. Hello? I hung my head, threaded my fingers through my bed-messed hair, took a deep breath... Ok... I put down the phone, stared blankly into space for a few seconds, and went back to bed. Sleep was so difficult to come by those days, and I treasured those little pockets of rest when I could just figuratively hide under a rock. So I again folded up the news I'd just been told and shelved it. When I woke up, I told C the news. And then I went back to my cases.

When my brother got out of the hospital, I went home to visit. It was frustrating, and frankly, too emotional, which I neither relish nor look forward to. He could hardly speak, and I could sense his frustration. And I cried. And I don't particularly like exercising my tear ducts. I decided I simply could not deal with the situation at that time, and anyway, there was really nothing I could do. Stop. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Fold. Compartmentalize. Ok, ready. Again, life, and law school went on for me.

It was many months later that I would return for a visit with some of my cousins. Again, too emotional. My brother and I never really liked my dad's relatives, and there he was stuck with them for lack of any other option. He wanted to go with us, but we couldn't take him. Too emotional. Can't deal. Stop. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Fold. Compartmentalize. Ok, ready.

This happened every single time I went home. And it was always just for a few hours. I feared for my sanity too much to linger any longer.

And so life went on. Four years of law school, six months of bar review, a month of taking the bar. And then I offered my soul on the altar of law firm life. Whatever life that was. I hated it. I took every escape hatch I could. I went to my aunt's house in Baguio A LOT. At that point, my relationship with one of my cousins had soured so much that I just skipped going to Laguna altogether. Scratch that option. Also could not deal with what was happening back home. Scratch that option too. Since I wanted to get away from the city, that left Baguio. It was an expensive lifestyle that I felt was necessary for my sanity. Work was just about all I could deal with at that point. Two and a half years later, I'd had enough. I resigned from the firm and prepared to move to a less stressful job in the civil service.

It has been a year and a half since I joined the civil service. One might ask why I still had not dealt with the situation prior to this point. Well, first, I'd simply gotten so used to shelving it that I'd gotten comfortable doing so. Second, I really don't get along with my dad's relatives. I simply do not like them. And third, going back just brought back so many bad memories that I wasn't prepared to deal with. I did start getting my finances in order, in case I predecease my brother. (Yeah, I know, how mature of me. Whatever.) I've managed to achieve some semblance of financial order. Not much, but I'm at a relatively stable financial place right now. And I'm comfortable enough to discuss these things with A as I did with C. It's not exactly the easiest topic to broach with people. In fact, I've only told the closest members of the inner circle. Also, since Vince is leaving for Singapore on Monday, I had to fast-track things a little.

So now comes this prognosis. Now I know I really have to prepare. I have a few years to get everything in order before I have to take the reins. I sincerely hope I can do this, because frankly, I don't have a choice. Unlike some people, I do not see voluntary la muerte as an escape hatch. Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not a naturally altruistic person. In fact, I characterize myself as more selfish than selfless, in spite of all the spur of the moment charitable donations I end up making. I still detest that I have to do this, when I should just be concentrating on planning my career, and that trip to Europe I've been dreaming of since I was a pre-adolescent child. It was irresponsible of my brother to do what he did, consequences be damned, and now I have to suffer for it. I really detest people who don't know their place in the world, that there are certain unbreakable societal mores and rules, and that there is a time and a place for everything. Apparently, it's a fairly common occurrence for people, particularly those related to me, to NOT understand this concept. Ah yes, now I remember why I resigned from family duties. C'est la vie.

Long overdue responses to comments dating as far back as 2005

2011-09-12T23:51:00.000+08:00

Oh boy. I seriously thought I tweaked my settings so Blogger would send me an email everytime someone posted a comment here. Apparently, I missed quite a few. I'm so sorry I wasn't able to reply. So. In case you still read this, I'll try to sift through everything over the weekend and reply where appropriate.

In any case, I just want to announce to the world (as this doesn't happen very often) that I was VERY productive today. Yay me! =D Tomorrow I do my final edit and work on my footnotes, and I'm done. One decision down for decision-making month. Wheeeeeeee!!! Whattanerd.

In memoriam

2011-09-12T22:13:00.001+08:00

Ten years ago, I was having dinner at my then-boyfriend's house. It was his mom's birthday, and the entire family had gathered to celebrate.

Midway through dinner, one of his sisters-in-law, a lawyer based in New York, called and said to turn on the tv and watch CNN, as a plane had allegedly crashed into the World Trade Center. We all thought it was a joke. In fact, I think someone even cracked a joke about American pilots getting lost, taking a wrong turn, or something like that. We turned on the tv in the den, and we were chilled to discover that it WAS true. Someone HAD flown a plane into one of the twin towers. A few minutes later, another plane crashed into the other tower. And then another plane crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane also went down outside Pittsburgh.

So the world was plunged into a war the likes of which had never been seen before. Unlike previous wars, this one involved no tanks, no infantry, no airborne units or paratroopers. Unlike previous wars, in the war against terrorism, you never really know who and where the enemy is, and where and how they will strike.

I've never been victimized by an act of terrorism. Neither do I know anyone who has. I thank my lucky stars that although I had a number of friends and family in New York and DC, none of them were in the least bit physically harmed. Of course the terror is an entirely different story.

I cannot claim any real personal damage caused by 9/11. Except maybe that I can no longer bring shampoo on board a plane, or that check-in time takes longer now. In fact, I've never been to New York. I've never set foot in the U.S. I know only in theory what the World Trade Center towers symbolized to the city, and to Americans in general. What I do know is the pain of losing a loved one. Thus, though MY wounds have healed over time, the scars all but forgotten, every time I hear stories of people who never even got to see their loved ones one last time to say goodbye, people whose hearts still weep, my heart bleeds a little for them.

I am not a very religious person. But I join everyone in remembering the poor souls lost on 9/11 and their families. And I hope and pray that nothing like this ever happens again.

While my brain is on vacation...

2011-09-12T20:04:00.004+08:00

So. Apparently, my brain is on hiatus. In lieu of productivity, in the final minutes of my workday, I googled "spanish la liga coverage philippines". Lo and behold, a treasure trove of links revealed themselves to me. According to the various online sources, ESPN Star has secured the broadcast rights to the Spanish La Liga for three seasons, 2012 to 2015. I couldn't be happier. Well, except if they'd announced that they'd acquired the broadcast rights to the 2011-2012 season as well. So anyway, that's my dose of good news for the day.

On another note, there are so many things coming up. There's the Manila International Book Fair, the 14th Cine Europa at the Shang, the Spanish Film Festival, Lisa Macuja's farewell performances, Libera, The Sound of Music, Mamma Mia, Stomp, BP's production of Sleeping Beauty, and, if I believe the rumor mill, Adele in December. Well, I don't think I'll be watching Stomp because tickets are unfortunately too expensive. I haven't bullied anyone into watching Libera with me yet, and I'm not sure if my theater/ballet buddies want to watch Mamma Mia and The Sound of Music. But hey, the last quarter of 2011 looks promising.

Happy fatdom

2011-09-11T01:54:00.003+08:00

I treasure my quiet weekends. Particularly the rainy and/or overcast ones. I just order in, curl up in bed or on my couch with a good book or watch dvd's and thank my lucky stars for the absence of my main life stressors, at least for two days. Vegetating is so much fun. =D Last night, I watched Saving Private Ryan. Not as good as I remember. Today, in keeping with my period war theme, I've been reading Love Stories of World War II (compiled by Larry King). It's a surprisingly good read, with none of the literary equivalents of a grand cinematic gesture, e.g. a scene at the airport, the train/bus station, etc. These are just real stories of real people, at a crucial point in history. These stories took place 60 years or so ago, really not that long, but it really was a different time, antedating the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf wars, Martin Luther King, the heyday of terrorism, sanitary pads, the cellular phone, the internet, television (at least as we know it), and sex EVERYWHERE. It seems like such a picturesque era, the 40's. I mean, minus the whole issue of civil rights and women's lib, which I really do not mean to belittle.

Anyway, I think I'll go pop in an Audrey Hepburn movie now. I just bought a bunch of her movies on dvd. I also got a couple Grace Kellys and Elizabeth Taylors. And James Dean. Oh goody. Chau.

Si, hablo español.

2011-09-07T22:47:00.000+08:00

Judith, Mark, Anna and I finally managed to stage our grand comeback to start nivel 7 Spanish class at the Instituto Cervantes last night. As always, the anticipation was worse. We'd been on a four-month long hiatus, and I was more than a tad apprehensive about going back when I'd barely touched my notes since April. I did, on occasion, leave TVE (Television Española) on while I was doing my chores, and read the occasional article and poem here and there, but for all intents and purposes, I'd forgotten how to conjugate, and the difference between preterito indefinido and preterito imperfecto. I was really excited though. I find learning a new language (and a new culture) just plain fun. More than one person has scoffed at me (literally) when they learned I was taking Spanish classes. One particular person said I was jumping on the bandwagon. (I wasn't even aware there was a bandwagon.) Another said he would never study the language of our erstwhile colonial masters. Yet another said he did not understand the status of Spanish as an elite language in the Philippines.

I really don't feel I have to defend myself or the language. I don't have any strong views on any of the issues these hellraisers put on the table. I just enjoy studying Spanish. First of all, I've always been fascinated with Europe and its colorful history. Second, as my great-grandfather was Spanish, my grandmother and her family spoke it fluently. (Yeah, I know, hindi halata. =p) Anyway, it eventually went out of fashion in the family, but my grandmother and my aunts cursed in Spanish, so really, the first Spanish words I picked up were, naturally, the cuss words. My mom started teaching us the language when we were kids, but her early death effectively put an end to our lessons.

I spent a great deal of time buried in books when I was a kid, and I became really fascinated with history in general, Europe, and how our history was inextricably linked with theirs. Naturally, I have misgivings about the whole issue of being colonized, but what good would it do anybody to start banging on the table half a century later? Besides, why blame the descendants for the abuses of their ancestors?

Fast forward to 2010 and the World Cup. I was rooting for two teams: Italy and Spain. However, when Italy was booted out early after that heartbreaking loss to Slovakia (against whom I still hold a grudge), I focused on La Furia Roja. I must admit, my interest in football was rekindled by that gorgeous specimen of man, Fabio Cannavarro. I don't think anyone can deny his appeal. Or his talent. (Well, his last World Cup appearance didn't go too well. At least they won the 2006 World Cup.) BUT. The beautiful game really does deserve its monicker. Although of course, human as I am, I cannot deny that the parade of gorgeous men makes football infinitely more enjoyable to watch. (Wink wink)

So anyway, my Spanish boys won the 2010 World Cup. (Yay!) And so was rekindled my love affair with Europe, and Spain in particular. We signed up for classes right after the World Cup. It most certainly helped that the Instituto Cervantes de Manila was a hop and a skip away from the office. A year later, we're enrolled in intermediate level classes, and I'm still determined to continue. I also plan to study the other Latin-based languages: French, Italian and German. I also eventually want to learn Catalan, in the hopes of being able to meet Cesc Fabregas and the rest of the Barca boys someday. =D See, I plan to make it to Spain and the rest of Europe by my 30th birthday, on my own or with friends, and obviously, I don't want to go around like a fool asking everyone, "Habla ingles?"

Bueno, en fin, creo que voy a poder a ir a España el año que viene, o al menos, antes de mi trigésimo cumpleaño. Cruzo los dedos. =)

Building my personal library =D

2011-09-06T00:59:00.001+08:00

I am currently reading/browsing through at least 5 books and an ebook. My dad doesn't believe me, but I am. Seriously. I still haven't been able to find an actual physical copy of Band of Brothers, and I have terrible EQ when it comes to these things, so I'm reading the ebook on my phone. I also have the ebook of the Spanish translation, which I fully intend to get around to soon. (When I started taking Spanish classes, I promised myself I'd read the Noli and the El Fili, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Neruda, and Isabel Allende in the original. So now I'll add that to my list.)

I'm also reading Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl, Pablo Neruda: Late and Posthumous Poems (1968-1974), A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos by Luis Francia, Oriental Carpets and their Structure: Highlights from the V&A Collection by Jennifer Wearden, Treasures of Greece by Emanuelle Le Pommelet, and Ancient Egypt: Art amd Archeaeology of the Land of the Pharaohs by Giorgio Agnese and Maurizio Re. All very interesting and very good books. I can't wait to move on to the rest of my stash. Obviously, I overspent on books last month. And the month before that. I blame my mother. She always indulged us when it came to reading material, so I now I feel my expenses are justified. The past month, I probably bought more than two dozen books. A quick glance at the pile yields an estimate of AT LEAST three dozen. I kid you not when I say I overspent. I'm running out of space to put them. A good number have ended up eating half the space on my dressing table. But hey, they make me happy. And having been a student on a meager allowance for so long, I haven't always been able to afford to buy the books that I want, so allow me this little indulgence.

Kaputski

2011-08-23T16:05:00.002+08:00

I officially gave up trying to be friends with someone today. I still can’t quite figure out what went wrong and where. That, ladies and gents, is what I get for trying to be nice. I guess we’ve just grown apart so much that whatever we have left in common neither of us can stretch far enough to justify friendship. I always thought we were better than that. ‘Guess not. While we may always run in similar circles, we’ve become too different, and too set in our ways, i.e. stubborn, to even consider budging from our little niches. Oh well. C’est la vie. And yes, that cancels all present and future plans.

Priorities

2011-08-22T15:42:00.000+08:00

At the height of our World Cup insanity last year, we decided to sign up for Spanish classes at the Instituto Cervantes de Manila. A week into Nivel 1 Spanish, and stuck in horrendous Mandaluyong traffic, A and I tried flexing our VERY LIMITED vocabulary, and with N's (and an English-Spanish dictionary's) help, managed to formulate the following sentences:

(1) Quiero otra dia y para siempre contigo.(Variation: Quiero mañana y para siempre contigo.)

(2) Somos turistas Filipinas. Viajamos muy lejos para un beso. Besame! Besame mucho!

Yeah, I know. Insane.

Corregidor Adventure Vouchers For Sale

2011-08-08T15:45:00.000+08:00

Hi guys. I'm selling 3 Pakyaw.com.ph vouchers for the Corregidor Adventure. I bought them for Php998 each, i.e. at a 52% discount, and I'm reselling at the same price, as I won't be able to use them.

The vouchers are valid Thursdays to Sundays, August 16 to November 30, except national holidays. You can get the details here: http://www.pakyaw.com.ph/team.php?id=118.

Text/email me if you're interested. =)

Catching up

2011-07-23T13:59:00.001+08:00

I find it oddly disconcerting when I find myself clueless about something that everyone knows or can do. I never really learned to ride a bike. I tried, but I kept on falling off and scraping my knee I gave up on it. I also never really learned to skate, because I kept on falling on my butt that I gave up on that too. I did learn to swim, and I did so pretty well until late high school, but much to my horror, in college, I all of a sudden started panicking everytime my head was underwater. Now I know psychologists will have a field day with this, psychoanalyzing and all. I just take it as it is. I know I missed many things that regular kids take for granted while I was growing up. While everyone else had a tailor-made childhood, I had to make one up for myself. I used to blame my dad for the not too well-planned map of my childhood and adolescent years, but I know now that he did the best he could given his own resources, his nature, and his upbringing.

See, my mom died when I was very young, and I missed out on all those mother-daughter moments. It was from home ec class that I learned about what to do when I got my period, how to set a table, how to iron clothes, wash dishes and all those domestic things. I had to seek out my peers for support when I started to see boys in an entirely different light. I never got to ask my mom what books or what music she liked. (I just knew she had an Archie, Nancy Drew and Casper collection when she was younger.) I was to busy being a kid to really get to know her as a person. And I'm well-adjusted enough to know that it never would have been possible to have it any other way. Any other way would have just been wrong. And so after my mom died, I had to figure things by myself.

Of all those things I never got to do with my mom though, one of the things I regret most is that I never got to watch old movies or read the classics with her. There have been so many literary classics and old movie references over the years that I never really learned were such until I willed myself to catch up with the rest of the world. My dad wasn't really into all of that stuff, not that I hold that against him. That's just how he is. So anyway, I tried to figure out what I should have watched, what I should have read, and I willed myself to learn. At this point, I think I've come to the point of substantial compliance in that aspect. But I'd still really want to learn all those other things I missed out on. AND play the piano, the cello or the violin. And travel. And a lot of other things.

Rant for the day

2011-07-21T10:54:00.001+08:00

I take it personally when people remember me only when they need something from me. I take even more offense when the person/s involved happen to be related to me. It is frankly very disappointing when in the midst of asking me for a favor, and not a very legal one at that, I somehow find myself at the receiving end of a not-so-thinly-nor-well-veiled hint that I should be responsible somehow for certain individuals, and that I am somehow remiss in such imaginary duties. While it may admittedly be selfish of me, distancing myself from a very unstable little miasma, a seemingly incessant cacophony, I have found it preferable, and yes, even necessary, for my emotional and psychological health.

Simply put, certain people were driving me insane, and I decided to take a step back from the whole thing. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

In my defense, I HAVE tried to be a responsible little underling. Long story short, it didn't work.

For a long time, in blatant defiance of my better judgment, I sacrificed all the resources I had--time, money, my emotional and psychological health...I even in effect put my career on the line--trying to be the definition of a responsible member of the family. I felt compelled to do so, and though my wallet, my bank account and my body told me it wasn't feasible, I persevered when the people who should have been there were not. I finally came to the end of my hyper-extended rope when I had to bite my tongue, literally, and stick my head in the toilet (not literally), to NOT lash back in response to a long litany of allegations grounded on something I maintain I did not do. I convinced myself it was beneath me to descend to that level. I may as well be disbarred for all the indignity that would have required me to channel. At that point, I had to put my foot down. Frankly, I just couldn't take it anymore. I just would not have been able to live with myself if I had allowed myself to be treated that way. And I have been infinitely happier and more content with my life since then.

Until today. Until that phone call.

I don't know why it even bothers me in the least bit. I've been anticipating the backlash for a while.
Oh well. Whatever. I guess the most important part is that the people who matter understand why I do what I do, and why I refuse to do what I have not done. I don't think I need to explain or to defend myself to anybody.

Maintaining a relationship is a two-way street. I don't see why everyone seems to be blaming me. I am not anybody's keeper. I know I'm more emotionally stable than certain people I refer to, but it doesn't mean I have to bear more than my fair share of the responsibility pie. I also do not get why I sometimes sense that this subject begrudges me whatever I have accomplished in my life thusfar (which, by the way, is not much). All of this was not handed to me on a silver platter. Au contraire. I worked very hard to get where I am (which, again, seriously, is not anything to be envious of). I really just don't get it what I'm being berated for. Or maybe I do. And now I finally understand what my place is exactly. And how people see me.

And this, my friends, is precisely why the phone call was a phenomenally bad idea.

Golf and beer

2011-06-23T02:39:00.000+08:00

Well, I finally got around to starting to learn to play golf earlier today with A, C and E at the Villamor driving range. C and E brought clubs, but whoa, lo and behold, E actually bought an entire set of shiny golf clubs. Wow. Shiiiiiiiiiiiny. Purrrrty. C, on the other hand, bought golf shoes (Php8,000!!!) for today's driving range session. AND a new golf bag. AND a couple of clubs. All of this bodes well for me and A though. At least we can just mooch off of them. Details tomorrow. Have to go sleep if I intend to get up early enough to go to work tomorrow. Upping my productivity level again. I think I have sufficiently faded into the background. Teeheehee. Yeah, I think I'm just flattering myself. So nwy...

Current mood: melancholic

2011-06-19T23:54:00.001+08:00

It's Fathers' Day today. I remembered. Dad forgot. So he cancelled on me, and I'm spending the long weekend at home resting, reading, watching dvd's I promised myself long ago that I'd finish. Good gloomy rainy weather to boot.

Given that I love long weekends, gloomy weather, staying in, reading and watching movies,one would think that I would have loved this particular weekend, but for some reason, I felt different. Maybe even sad. And I don't know why. Or maybe I do and I just refuse to acknowledge it. Which is how I deal with most problems. I simply push them aside until I absolutely HAVE to deal with them.

It would have been perfect had it not been for this one message I got on Facebook from this random relative of mine. I get so much pressure from so many people to spend time with them that sometimes I just want to pack up and disappear. I do have a life, you know. I can't just shuttle around between and among relatives just to make them all happy. I don't understand why they have to demand, in not so many words, that I do. It's just so frustrating. It's like they don't know me at all. I have this passive-aggressive thing going on, which I really can't help. When they don't demand, I go and do whatever it is. But when they start demanding and becoming clingy, I run.

Personal day

2011-06-14T23:47:00.001+08:00

Well, as I said, I have been trying do dial down my productivity level at work, just so I don't appear to be too competent. (Haha! Right...) I don't want to be the biba kid at work. I just want to do my job. So when I woke up late this morning, instead of just taking the morning off, I decided to skip work altogether. See I put on my Friends Season 8 dvd while I was drying my hair, and I got so engrossed in it I lost track of time. By the time I checked my watch, well, let's just say, I'd have to be begging to get fired if I'd gone to work that late. And so I ended up finishing season 8 today. I love that series. Reminds me of so many things. I remember watching it all throughout my teen years. Good thing I was never an impressionable teenager, right? Lol.

So anyway, today was great, particularly since I somehow lost half my weekend last weekend. I had dinner and (milk)tea with C and N Friday night. We went to our favorite Greek restaurant (not there are very many Greek restaurants here in Manila), Cyma, over at that new Eastwood mall. It's reasonably priced, and their food is pretty good. And Eastwood is so much less stressful than Greenbelt. Although I do miss how it was before they built all the condos and the mall and the call centers. It was so much more laid back then. There was a time when literally every single time I set foot in that area, I'd run into at least a dozen people I knew from college or from law school. Well, suffice it to say that I didn't see a single familiar face while we were there. And we were there a while. It's kinda sad, when I think about it.

On another note, I recently discovered that Serenitea has a taro-flavored concoction. Yay! A friend of mine said, in response to my good news (Well, it was good news to ME.), that it was like melted Quickly. Yes, Anna, good one. It is soooooo not. How do I know this? Because being the tamad person that I am (Bruno Mars's The Lazy Song is the song of my life. On weekends, anyway. And days like today.), I had Serenitea delivered Saturday night. AND since they had a minimum delivery amount of Php250, I had to have three large milk tea concoctions delivered. Ugh. I just had the last one today. Finally. I feel like I've been sweating milk tea. And it's not even the kind I like. Well, except for the taro one. I'm more into the milk tea they serve at the hawker stalls at Makan Sutra in Singapore. Or the one they serve at my favorite hole-in-the-wall dimsum place, Wai Ying in Binondo.

More happy news, I got to spend some time with my C, my roommate of ten years, and N, C's sister, and my roommate of two (or was it three?) years, and also a close friend of mine. We all went to N's place to watch Boston Legal and we all slept over after, while C's husband bid his sweet time at Republiq, the current flavor-of-the-month bars here. Well, one of THE MANY. (Reminds me of that ominously abandoned building that used to be Po Na Na.) It was a fun night. I don't think I've spent that much time with them since before the wedding. Good times.

Oh, and speaking of weddings, or, well, something sort of related to it, I just saw He's just not that into you on HBO, and like I tweeted, that movie is a classic example of how girls sometimes are reaaaaaaaaaaaally psycho about overanalyzing things, and guys, being the guys they are, are just plain clueless. Good movie though. I didn't know Rachel from Something Borrowed also starred in it. If you're a movie person, don't judge me. I choose the books I read, the music I listen to, and the movies I watch based on entertainment value. I don't really care for the more -ahem- "sophisticated" artiste-ey stuff that I roll my eyes at. Classic example, I once tried to read Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury when I was in law school. I decided I needed a break from jurisprudence, so I dropped by National Bookstore, and lo and behold, it was on sale. Yup, bad sign. So anyway, I covered it and curled up in bed with it. A hundred pages later, I was sound asleep. I tried to pick it up again the next day, didn't work. I ended up reading a trashy novel.

On a related topic, to the subject of weddings, I mean, not trashy novels, my other college roommate, M (actually C, but since I already used C, let's call her M), is getting married in September to this redhead lawyer guy from New York. My good friend N, who now lives and works in NYC tells me the wedding will be in Virginia. So exciting. Although a bit unsettling that of the four of us college roommates (if I don't count A, who was only our roommate until mid-sophomore year, and who , by September, I'll be the only single one. Not that I'm set on going down THAT road. Quite the opposite. Still merits a little "Huh." though. Have to find out if they're registered or something. I have to get her a bridal shower gift and a wedding gift, since I won't be able to go to the wedding. Sad, I know. Wasn't able to go to our other college roommate T's wedding too, as I was working for scraps then. This time, I can't afford to go traipsing around to the other side of the globe. I would if I could though. M is one of the nicest kindest people I know, and she really deserves every good thing that has come her way. I really couldn't be happier for her. And she looks so in love! And her fiance looks really seriously in love with her. And he looks like a good person. As he should be. She deserves it.

So anyway, gotta go chat with N and catch up. We have a love-hate relationship that one can only have with really close friends. We fight a lot, but I think that's only because we know that in spite of the harsh words, we both always mean well. We just have a really blunt way of delivering the truth. And we can both be insensitive sometimes. But that's ok, because we always end up friends after the fights anyway. And no, nothing going on there. That would be like incest or interracial (and by that I mean me and E.T.) sort of...something. And with that, I bid you good night.

P.S. I didn't bother to check this for grammar and spelling. Bear with me, kids.

One random Tuesday in the life of a -ahem- normally abnormal person (wink wink)

2011-06-07T22:46:00.001+08:00

It has been simply scorching recently. I really can't feel that summer's over. I mean save for the occasional localized thunderstorm. It is HOOOOOOOOOOOTTT in Manila. Earlier today, my Google Desktop weather widget read 34 degrees. Yep. 34. And it already read 32 at 9am. Kill me now please. It really doesn't help that I'm trying to finish this batch of sunblock so I can get a new more tropic-friendly batch. I used to be able to use the Faceshop SPF 50 or the Neutrogena Dry-Touch ones but since I developed an allergy to the new lotion I decided to try out (that Myra E thingo---I think the scent they use is too strong. I got rashes after using Victoria's Secret lotion for two weeks straight last month. So non-doctor, non-chemist little lawyerly me thinks it's the scents.), and revert to my trusty Jergens Soothing Aloe lotion, I need a new lighter sunblock to layer on top of it. Under rays THAT harsh, trust me, even melanin-rich people like me need it. I don't want to be a shriveled old skin cancer-ey prune when I'm 50.

One last note about the heat. I don't know if it's just me, but it seriously seems to get hotter around 10pm. I generally get home between 5 and 6:30, and I usually survive with just the fan running. BUT when 10pm rolls along, it's like a warm blow dryer aimed at my back. Ewwwww. I really seriously hate the heat. I miss Baguio weather. It's always so nice and cool and crisp there. Well, the CBD smells like diesel, but the outskirts are still pretty good.

So anyway. I got two happy things in the mail today. First off, I the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Office mailed me my compliance certificate. I am officially MCLE compliant for the fourth compliance period, i.e. until April 15, 2013. So yay me! =D

Second, I got the book I ordered from fullybookedonline.com. They didn't have Schindler's List the book, so I got Searching for Schindler by the same author instead. Looks pretty promising. The book wasn't in the best of shape, but it'll do. Consider it my punishment for another impulse book purchase. I promise I will refrain from book shopping until I've finished all the ones I've already bought. And yes, I say that every single time I buy a book.

Oooooh, and I just bought seasons 1 to 9 of Family Guy. I loooooooove that cartoon. I can totally relate to Stewie Griffin the murderous little tot. Hehe! Can't wait to get started on that. I have to make time for it this weekend. Although since we're having our weekly office thing in Makati, then I'm having lunch with Lorr and the girls Saturday (and I'll probably be meeting Chi for coffee after), and I plan to sleep a good chunk of Sunday away, I'll have to check where I can fit that into my lethargic schedule.

Speaking of lethargy, I've been so unbelievably efficient the past month I decided to take it down a notch today. I took a good chunk of the afternoon off to read the latest Kristan Higgins novel, My One and Only. I just finished it a few minutes ago. There really is nothing like good chick lit. A little heart pinching here, a little (but not too much) drama there, and a really refreshing style of writing = good read in my book. I love the way Kristan Higgins writes. It's so light and natural, and sooooooooooo different from those basura trashy novels, which, incidentally, I also read. I wonder when her next book will come out. Meanwhile, I'll read the rest of the Emily Giffin books. I recently finished Something Borrowed and Something Blue. I have to admit, I have a new appreciation for chick lit.

Tomorrow, I'll check if my dibidi person was able to get the ones I ordered. She wasn't able to get the movies, so I just ordered Band of Brothers (which I've already seen twice or thrice but cannot get enough of), Spartacus, and Game of Thrones.

And now it is time to turn on the AC, take a shower and turn in for the night. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy is it still so hoooooooooottt???

Notable events this week

2011-06-05T00:25:00.000+08:00

First, I blew a huge chunk of my disposable income this month on books. I got these:

Ilustrado (Miguel Syjuco)
The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl (Belle de Jour)
Hiroshima (John Hersey)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquivel)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Daughter of Fortune (Isabel Allende)
The Pacific (Hugh Ambrose)
A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos (Luis H. Francia)
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves,and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Robert M. Edsel)
Memories of My Melancholy Whores (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

Oh, and I just bought Searching for Schindler (Thomas Keneally) online. I'll probably get it early next week. No, I didn't spend as much as you think. Many of these I bought from a sidewalk vendor in front of the Court of Appeals. I know, only in Ermita will you see sidewalk vendors selling (and knowing about) Paulo Coelho, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel, CS Lewis and the like. And these are books in pretty good condition. And this is me talking. My books are my babies. Yeah, I'm kinda psycho like that. =p

In any case... Pretty good variety eh? =D Some of these I've actually read before but I decided to get a copy for myself now that I can afford to. I mean, as opposed to when I was a poor peasant student surviving on a meager allowance. Besides, this is all in the interest of intellectual enrichment and doesn't really count, right? I mean, the fact that I love reading is just the cherry on top.

Second, I finally received my Cath Kidston catalog yesterday. Yay! They actually sent me one from London. I really thought it wasn't coming, but hey, good surprise guys. I really love their prints. I wish they'd open a store here in Manila, but then again, I thrive on some semblance of exclusivity, so okay, scratch that. They already sell imitation Cath Kidston bags in SM, much to my chagrin. Ugh.

Third, our nth office lunch was yummmmmmyyyyy. =D Last week, we tried Chicken Charlie along Adriatico, and Tao Yuan along that little street perpendicular to Adriatico near the Pan Pacific Hotel. Next Friday is Little Tokyo dinner night. I think the week after that is reserved for dinner at another place in Makati. Uhuh, we looooooooove to eat, and it really helps that we all get along. The lawyers, at least. I'm really going to miss those guys when I leave.

Fourth, in keeping with my current fixation, I ordered a bunch of dvd's from my friendly neighborhood dibidi person:

Band of Brothers
Schindler's List
Life is Beautiful
The Pianist
The Thin Red Line
Inglorious Basterds
Empire of the Sun
Saving Private Ryan
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Anne Frank
Enemy at the Gates
Family Guy
Saturday Night Live

I'll probably get them next week. And yes, I threw in the last two to break the seriousness of the war movies. Sands, JV and I (and maybe Jingo, if he's up to it) could possibly get together for a movie marathon one of these days. Yeah, we're such nerds. Teeheehee.

Fifth, I finished another draft this week. Yay for productivity, me! =D Although there was a bit of an incident when someone deleted like three quarters of my footnotes while editing my draft because she misunderstood my boss's instructions. My draft returned to me with gigantic blanks in the footnote section. I mean, what's up with that, right? Please do not mess with my footnotes. I put a great deal of effort into making sure that I don't accidentally plagiarize material, you know.

Lastly, on a more domestic note (and this is probably too much information...you may zone out now...), I finally got around to cleaning the bathroom and changing the curtains today. I mean, my apartment is always clean by other people's standards, but I don't want to wait until it gets dirty before I clean it. I'm OC like that. =p So anyway, since I was cleaning anyway, I changed my sheets and my throw pillow shams and cleaned the whole place. By the time I was done, it was too late to go out and do anything else, so I decided to finish the last few episodes of Friends season 7 after my well-deserved shower. I really really love that show. I wish they'd do a reunion special or something.

So anyway, that's the gist of my week this really scorching week. Seriously. It was so hot and humid. To think that the local weather bureau announced the start of the rainy season LAST WEEK. Tsk tsk tsk... The sun was so fierce I actually remembered to use sunblock on my arms and legs. (I usually just remember to use sunblock on my face.) That's also why I remembered that I had to change my curtains. Since my bed is right beside my window, I literally have sunshine streaming through my window every morning. In cooler climes, I guess that would be a good thing, but man, in this city, not good this time of year. I've been consistently forced from my slumber by sunlight at 6:30am everyday this week. And I have cursed the sun everyday. Borrowing that Thought Catalog guy's phrase, Sleepy Grace has no morals.

And I have successfully shaken off most of the soul damage watching Schindler's List again has brought upon my psyche. I'm hungry.

On war and whatnot

2011-05-30T00:01:00.000+08:00

I'm watching more war documentaries on the Discovery Channel. This one is about Bill Genaust, the Rosenthal photo and the surrounding controversy and the Battle of Iwo Jima. The one before that was colored footage of the war in the Pacific (the Battle of Midway, Pearl Harbor, etc.). I don't know why I keep on watching this stuff when I know from experience that it never bodes well for me.

Like most people in Asia (well, probably), the only war I feel personally connected to in some way is the second world war. It's the most recent one that people I have had personal contact with have any recollection of. AND it was actually partially fought on Philippine soil.

See, I have this morbid fascination with war. And no, I don't LIKE it. I mean, aside from weapons manufacturers, who does, right? I've seen and heard about how horrific and bloody and just plain cruel war can be. My grandparents and their entire generation lived through the war, and as I'm the only one in my generation who seems to be interested in how they lived their lives prior to their having become parents to our parents, my grandmother has told me many a story on random sunny afternoons that I spent sitting across from her at the dining table while she had her afternoon coffee and cigarette.

My problem with watching war movies or documentaries is what I call the Schindler's List effect. The movie came out sometime in 1993, but I only got to watch it when I was in high school. Back then the internet was still in its infancy, and yes kids, there were no dvd'd yet. Well, at least none that I knew of. So after class, I dragged my brother to Video City (or was it ACA Video?) to rent a VHS tape of the movie. I was so excited to see it as it had caused a bit of a ruckus when it came out because of some nudity. This was the early 90's when stuff like that (and as I recall, actresses wearing one-piece bathing suits onscreen, and the song Let's Talk About Sex by Color Me Badd) merited frontpage news. But I digress. You know how sometimes you watch something, a movie, a speech, and you're somehow moved so much that there are no words to speak, but for some reason, you feel that you have to write? well, that's what the Schindler's List experience was for me.

I was aware of the Holocaust, as my mom didn't think it inappropriate to discuss with us. She taught me to read when I was 2, Chemistry and Physics when I was 5, and Hinduism and Buddhism when I was 7, so might as well teach me world history, right? So anyway, just hearing about the atrocities of the Nazis was so different from seeing it onscreen. I was so bothered by the whole thing that I cried my eyes out. I think I wrote a dramatic entry in my journal that night.

I wonder how life would've turned out if Germany HAD won in Europe and Japan had won in the Pacific. Would we all be speaking Japanese? And would the French and the British be speaking German? What would the implications had been for this country? Seriously. I really wonder.

Well, I think that's enough rambling today. I'll get back to my morbid fascination now.

Hello everyone!

2011-05-10T16:50:00.000+08:00

I just started checking the stats on this blog today, and hey, what a surprise. People actually read it. Lol. So anyway, hello everyone!

Happy Mothers' Day!

2011-05-08T23:31:00.000+08:00

I greeted my mom friends today with this message:

"To all you brave souls with an exceptional tolerance for pain, Happy Mothers' Day!"

I didn't want to be all mushy on Twitter or on Facebook, so I'll just say this here.

Happy mothers' day Mommy. I miss you everyday. I wish you were here. When I count the years we spent together, they seem so few. I've known many of my friends for far longer than I knew you. And I never got to know you as a person. I only knew you as my mom, the smiling face that would wake me up in the morning and greet me when I got home from school. Who stayed with me at the hospital for a week when I got sick, and made me feel loved at a time when things weren't going very well for us. I know how hard you fought for us, and how hard you tried, mom, and I thank you for that.

Sometimes, I try to imagine what my life would have turned out to have been like had you been with me. Would JJ's life have turned out to have been more productive? Would you and Daddy have stayed together? Would we have been friends? Or would we have grown painfully apart as I dealt with the turbulent years of adolescence? I have tried to get to know you through the people you loved most while you were here, but I still haven't pieced together the whole picture. I wonder whether I was never meant to get to know you as a person. I disagree with Tita Susan about so many things like religion and the RH Bill (although I love her nonetheless). I wonder if we would have argued on principle about the same things. Would we have traveled together? Would we have liked the same books, and listened to the same music? Would you have disagreed with my life choices? Would you have approved of the boys I dated? Would we have exchanged harsh words as I defended my rash decisions? Would you have approved of my career choices? Would you have loathed the person I have become, or would you laud how I have managed to become independent on so many levels?

I know we weren't able to talk much those last few days before you died, and that I wasn't exactly a perfect daughter to you. I talked back on occasion. I realize now that I was being very selfish when, after having been released from the hospital, I asked you to quit your job and stay home with us, but you did it just the same.

I have so many questions I want to ask you. A million things I want to say. But I know you will never hear me. And this is the most I can do to even attempt to get this across. I only hope that what they say about the hereafter IS real. See, I haven't even made up my mind about THAT. On the off chance that it IS real, I hope I see you there, and that I find the words to tell you everything I haven't been able to say.

Lesson/s from Holy Week 2011

2011-04-24T01:50:00.001+08:00

Holy week lesson: When at home, keep your religious theories to yourself. Particularly if the oldies are of a (very) traditional religious sort who are pretty resistant to change. They will not appreciate it if you say things like you think Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a volcanic eruption, that you don't think Jesus was born in December, that you think the bible should be read in light of the method by which the books were chosen and the effect of religious politics on such procedure, and the fact that things get lost in translation, and that you don't think the entirety of the bible should be read literally. Wapak, Grace. Wapak. Ayan, nasermonan ka tuloy. Just nod and smile dear, just nod and smile. And for the love of God, wag mo aminin na hindi mo memorized ang stations of the cross, at kailangan mo ng kodigo para sa mysteries of the rosary.

P.S. Buti na lang nagpakumpil na ako with Chi at natuwa naman sila sa akin. Otherwise, dead Grace.

Romarico Sanorjo aka Rico The Magician Pilipinas Got Talent 2011 Season 2

2011-03-07T20:37:00.000+08:00

Marcelito Po Moy ''Maybe the Next Winner'' Pilipinas Got Talent Season 2...

2011-03-07T04:55:00.000+08:00

Etheridge Victory

2011-02-10T13:36:00.000+08:00

Etheridge Victory

I just realized...

2011-02-05T16:44:00.000+08:00

I just realized...and this is by no means meant to be a dramatic statement...the thing with relationships is that you have to reacquaint yourself and deal with not just the bright and shiny things, but with the dark and dreary and melodramatic parts of another person's life...and I don't think I want to do that again. At least not right now. I like my life now, no frills, but no complications either. I can take off without batting an eyelash, and go anywhere I want, within my budgetary constraints, of course. And the only issues I have to deal with are my own. Hehe! So there. Back to my cold rainy weekend. =D

Baby boy with rare disease seeks help - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

2011-01-12T17:42:00.000+08:00

Baby boy with rare disease seeks help - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Growing up

2010-12-18T18:37:00.001+08:00

Contrary to what many members of my extended maternal family think, when I say I love the Ateneo, it is not meant to gloat or to belittle other people's academic backgrounds. What I mean to say is simply that I am very grateful for the opportunity to have studied at the Ateneo, and to have spent some of the best years of my life there. I grew up, nay, raised myself, at the Ateneo, and I will be forever grateful for having been able to do so under the auspices of the university.

As I expounded in a previous entry, college was an escape for me. When I left Lipa to go to college, it was the beginning of a new chapter for me. I was sixteen, and about to embark on a new life in the (relatively) big city, alone, sans supervision. Only two others from my high school (Sands and Jenna) went to Ateneo, most having gone to DLSU. For all intents and purposes, I had been given a proverbial tabula rasa.

My college experience was not entirely smooth sailing. There were a lot of bumps along the way. My first semester in college, there was that enormous mess of an issue with an essay I wrote for English class which the substitute teacher had published in the Philippine Star without telling me. The short of it is it was intended to be a satire on dorm life which people took the wrong way. It was really bad, but my roommates and other friends from the dorm got me through it.

Towards the end of my freshman year, I decided to shift majors from Philosophy to Legal Management, as I was uneasy about job opportunities for a Philo major after college, and I was yet unsure of our family finances being able to see me through law school.

After my sophomore year, college was in full swing, and to say it was fun would be an understatement. My roommates, my Eliazo batchmates and my blockmates and I had become really good friends by then. I had a little mishmash of a family away from all the stress back home.

Then the summer of 2001 came along, and I met this guy who I'd eventually be "in a relationship" with for a little over two years. It's part of the whole college experience, I guess. I was young, and I thought I was in love. Looking back though, I'm not sure... Out of self-respect, I refuse to expound on the whole thing, but oh boy, if I could get my hands on my 17 to 18-year-old self, I think I'd give myself a good slap. =p The short version is it was a really long and drawn out and messy affair which, looking back, shouldn't have started in the first place, as we really had nothing in common. But hey, I was young and stupid and in college. I was entitled. =p Hey, at least Daddy and Tita Susan no longer lecture on the matter every time we talk. Well fine, they still do. And Chi and Punch still chide me about it too, come to think of it. Lord, pwede ierase? Okay, I think I'll go crawl under a rock now. Anyway, things fell apart two years later when I went to law school and we both moved on to other things, me to becoming a lawyer, and him to his officemate. =p Like I said, it was messy.

Nico, Sands and I have a term for ourselves: Self-raising Children. Just add hot water. I decline to speak for them, but in my case, that couldn't be more true. Save for financial support, I was fully detached and independent from my family. Unlike Chi's parents who called practically every night and sent her care packages every week, some members of my extended family, though they claim that we're a tight-knit group, apparently see keeping in touch as a one-way street, i.e. with me being the only mobile vehicle on the road. And so my friends have become my extended family. As I learned to see things in a new light, to think and discern, and to understand, the more I failed to comprehend. And I was okay with that.

I think a close friend of mine could not have put it more succinctly when she said, it's really sad that we can no longer relate to certain members of the family on the same level. I remember my freshman year English professor, Dr. Tony Ferrer, discussed this very same concept with us during one of our classes. We read this selection from the compilation of a poor boy from the province who was besotted with a girl from one of the influential families in their province. Her family didn't approve, and the girl also looked down on him as he was poor. The smart boy he was, he was able to pursue his studies as a scholar at a prestigious university. When he graduated, he went home to pursue the girl, but found that he could not relate to her intellectually.

It's not that we intend to belittle certain members of the family, but sometimes, they can be very touchy and overly and unecessarily sensitive about certain things, and just telling them about our day somehow gets interpreted as looking down on someone. Mob mentality adds insult to injury. All I can say is first of all, I am a long shot from being rich. I get by, that's all. I try to save and to be financially responsible, but that's it. I try to help out the best I can with what little I have, but I guess sometimes people take it the wrong way. Yes, I'm also entitled to get irritated, and to get mad. I don't think it's a character flaw on my part that I clam up and keep to myself when I'm irritable, irritated or annoyed. I try my best not to let my emotions get in the way so I don't say or do things fueled by fleeting anger. That's how my mom raised me, and that's how I am. I was trained not to shout, to throw a tantrum or even to cry in public. My mom underscored the importance of keeping one's emotions in check especially when in the presence of other people, and never to exhibit signs of anger or sadness in public just to attract attention to oneself. When I was a kid, if I wasn't in the best of moods, I was told to go to my room and resurface when I no longer felt like dealing with the world like an asshole, although of course not in those words. My mom said, for instance, that if I really wanted to cry, then I should do it in the privacy of my room, and when I was done, to wash my face and come out presentable. She lived what she preached too. In the short span of time I spent with my mom, I never once saw her lose her cool in public.

All that having been said, I am blessed to have mended my relationship with my dad, and to have reconnected with Tita Susan. While I have drifted apart from certain members of the family due to fundamental differences, I have also learned to understand and to see others in a new light. There are certain things that my sixteen-year-old self could not comprehend. What I saw as character flaws when I was younger, I now recognize to be simple personal quirks, which, if I may say so, are actually kind of cute.

And that, my dear friends, is the overly abbreviated version of the adventure, the pain, the excitement, the thrill, and the challenge of my experience of growing up. And the fact that I'm still sane and able to process and comprehend all these things in my own way in spite of everything is precisely why I am thankful to the Ateneo.

Weddings and holidays

2010-12-18T02:20:00.000+08:00

Christmas somehow tends to bring out the best and the worst that Manila has to offer. On one hand, the temperature drops, and the normally searing heat of urban decay becomes more bearable. Christmas trees, lights, Santa figures and sleighs come out, and carols play everywhere. The spirit of Christmas even makes work seem more enjoyable than usual. On the other hand, traffic comes to a virtual standstill with the deluge of millions of shoppers rushing to meet their self-imposed deadlines. Today, for instance, it took us more than two hours to get from Padre Faura to Kalayaan in Quezon City. Que perdido de tiempo.

The flipside of the horrible horrible holiday traffic is I got to spend time with two of my favorite people in the world: Chi and Ngangi. (Uuuuy flattered! May bayad na 'to ha.) I'm oddly relieved they're both moving back to Manila after something like three years in Singapore. These two gremlins are like sisters to me, and I'm really happy they're back. Ngangi now has a place of her own, although it's not yet fully paid, and is now vice president (Ngangs, pinagkakalat ko na ha.) of one of the biggest BPO's here. Galing, diba? I'm so happy for her. She deserves everything she's accomplished. (Clap clap clap.)

I met Ngangi the summer before my sophomore year in college, and she was in the AJSS program at the Ateneo. She took over Tanya's corner for the summer, and I was equally shocked and impressed to see someone reading the classics for fun. A year later, Ngangi moved into Eliazo and became a regular visitor in Room 305, then in Unit 403 at that little hole in the wall behind Pizza Hut that we rented for a year, then Unit 615 in Prince David. I saw her struggle to find her sea legs in her first few years out of college. I saw her scared and heartbroken, and stressed over her move to Singapore. Well, Ngangi and Buyang are back, and they now have a home to call their own.

As for Chi, well. What can I say. First, she's insane. Second, she's gotten me into trouble so many times. Third, she's seen me through my innumerable life crises and mood swings, and we're still friends. One simply cannot put a price tag on a friendship that has survived having to clean up someone else's puke, with Carmi and I passed out drunk and involuntarily puking on ourselves on the floor of Tanya's condo after having shared an entire bottle of tequila. I don't think any of us have ever even considered eating Chicharitos after THAT episode.

I remember this conversation we had in a cab on our way back home from Eastwood a few years back. We said, the best thing about our friendship is we never feel compelled to talk. It's such a shame we lost touch with Tanya and Carmi after college. I'm really happy though that in the midst of kicking unwanted roommates and bouts of family drama, Chi and I are still friends.

A few hours from now, we'll be hosting Chi's bachelorette party, a little less than two weeks before the big wedding. I generally don't believe in marriage, but I think this one will be different. This one will most definitely work. I don't think I've seen two people more perfect for each other. And of all the weddings I've been to, this is the one I'm most proud to be part of. Maybe it's because both these crazy kids are good friends of mine, and despite what other people may say, they're both good people, and I know for a fact that they really sincerely love each other. Of course I'm extremely biased, because I've been rooting for these crazy kids from day one. =p

So anyway, have to go sleep now. My errand list this month just keeps on growing.

Weddings and unrelated nostalgia

2010-11-28T18:54:00.005+08:00

My best friend from high school got married yesterday. Aside from the obvious stress of being a bridesmaid, what kept nagging me were, one, the expected awkwardness when I ran into old friends, teachers, neighbors, acquaintances and whatnot, and two, and the palpable excitement at the prospect of catching up with them.

When I left Lipa in 1999 and started my first year of college at the Ateneo, I was sixteen; in hindsight, no more than a child, albeit with a bit more baggage than most. It was the happiest day of my life in six years. Finally, I was free. Finally, I was out from under my father's roof, and though I was a minor and under his protection and control, I had what, to my sixteen-year-old self, seemed like the culmination of six years' worth of tear-filled heartfelt pleas to a higher form of life, to an unseen deity, to get me out of there.

My mom had died under suspicious circumstances six years earlier, and my brother and I had been left with our least favorite parent by default. Even without the egging proof of my father's relatives' involvement in my mom's death, we hated them. In fact, to this day, I still refer to them as just that: my father's relatives. They were mean, in fact downright hateful, and at some point, to my mom, utterly criminal. We begged and begged to be sent to live in Baguio with my mom's family, but to no avail. We got a few weeks in the summer, and if we we pestered my dad enough, we got a few days around the semestral break. The rest of the year, we counted days to our next escape. Those days were occupied primarily by school, to which I devoted my entire childhood. It was key to breaking myself out of jail, and I worked and slaved at it day and night until I finished high school.

Aside from the rigors of matriculation and extracurricular activities, there were the daily doses of stress that living in a rather large clan who lived in adjacent houses in the province brought about. People walked in and out of the house at random intervals, borrowing a plate here, a glass there, raiding the fridge of what little it contained. We ran out of glasses, china and silver at multiple points because those who "borrowed" never bothered to return them. Not even when we were served at their houses with the same objects we knew were ours.

Oh, and we got dragged to endless "family" events. The 100th birthday of a distant uncle who, to this day, I have no idea how we were related to. The much-anticipated fiestas. Random birthdays. People passing licensure exams. There, we would have to plaster fake smiles on our faces at random strangers who were introduced as Tia this or Tio that. We had to raise the back of their hands to our foreheads in the mano, which my mom's family, who'd we'd grown up with prior to her death, did not practice. I always found the gesture odd. I was more comfortable with the single hug and peck on the cheek I'd been accustomed to. But then again, I had no intention of hugging and kissing random strangers, related or not, so I stuck to tradition and did the whole mano thing a hundred times over. I reluctantly picked out a few dishes to stuff my plate with and sat down in the farthest corner, away from prying eyes and the neighborhood chismosas, who would scan everyone for something worth gossiping about. I'd wait until it was time to leave. I'd trace cracks in the floor, in the ceiling, or focus my attention on a random detail in the room, working out the details. I'd play with numbers or letters in my head. Anything to pass the time.

That was the easy part.

The hardest part was always having to talk to them. We had nothing in common. And I had not developed my knack for making smalltalk with random strangers. My dad's nuclear family and their respective nuclear families, are a notch above the rest. In fact, I believe I may be generalizing based on the model of their existence. I remember the day of my dad's wedding to my stepmom, she sat me down at my paternal grandmother's house, and asked me to give my paternal side a chance, to get to know them. I looked at her and said blankly, “No. I didn't like them when I was a child. And I do not like them now. I see no need to change that.”

But I digress.

The idea of college as an escape had been planted my brain by my maternal family, as a beacon of hope in those days when I really did hate my life. My relationship with my dad has mended itself over the years, but we do not share the warm close relationship that my friends do with their dads. When I was younger, I used to loathe him silly, call him the evil engineer (because he's a civil engineer). My mom was a very warm, caring, and eloquently affectionate person. That's what we were used to. When she died suddenly one Thursday morning, we were thrust into this alien world where we got no hugs. We got no kisses. We got a verbal beating when our grades dropped a point. We were on an assembly line headed for insanity. All day everyday we were compared to his friends' children, who, he said, at our age, could run a household by themselves. At that point, I couldn't even sweep a floor properly. I had just turned nine, and using the rice cooker was a great achievement for me.

And thus I learned to despise the accent, the manner of speaking, the way they dressed, how the looked, and how they smelled. Life there was a long battle with chronic stress and those random incidents that manage to drop in along the way. I think I only got through it because I chose my friends well. And I had adults who probably saw through what was going on and took me under their wing. Aside from my maternal family, which had not yet thoroughly degenerated at that point, from gradeschool, I had Dianne, and at some point, Lira. My childhood mentors, Sands' aunt, Teacher Susan, Teacher Aileen, Teacher Myrna, to name a few. It was a small town. Word got around. They knew my life inside and out, and didn't judge me for it. Come high school, I met Sands, Kiel, Ate Karen, and the rest of my high school barkada (including Dianne). On an intellectual level, Sir Torrecampo was the best, but Ma'am Latay has always been a cut above the rest. Maybe it was because she was my English teacher, and I took my essays and short stories to heart. I took every assignment seriously, and every piece was a part of me. These people made an unbearable childhood enjoyable. They got me through the worst part, and made me smile through it.

The day I graduated, I remember my high school world history teacher, Sir Torrecampo, tell us to look around the room at the people seated next to us, as that would probably be the last time we would see each other. At that time, I shook my head and smiled, thinking to myself that incredulous to think so. Well, here I am eleven years later, to attest to the hyperbolic truth.

Over the years, I've fallen out of touch with most of the people I owe my relative sanity to. I see Sands every two months or so. I see Kiel about twice a year. Before last night, I hadn't seen Ma'am Latay, Dianne, and my high school barkada since, well, high school. Teacher Susan I hadn't seen or talked to for so long I can't even recall the last time.

While it pains me to realize that when I sought the escape hatch to Ateneo, I left so many people behind. Looking back though, I see why I had to do it. And I would do it again. I had to leave Lipa to pursue a higher education, to learn to forget as a precursor to eventual forgiveness, and to mend my relationship with my dad. College and succeeding years bore a myriad of other different dilemmas of another nature, but those years also brought about another set of friends I am very blessed to have.

I still do not feel comfortable spending extended periods of time in Lipa because of the innumerable bad memories that plague my association with the city. But there may well be hope for us yet. As for the manangs with their apple-cut hair though, nah, probably not.

Back online.

2010-11-22T01:39:00.000+08:00

So after 10 million years, I'm finally back online. I just got a netbook earlier tonight. I'm actually saving up for a Mac, but since my life is in dire need of a technological boost, I decided to get a netbook to tide me over. So I took Punch's advice. At least when I get a Macbook, I'll have this netbook for travel or whatever, and the Macbook can be my desktop replacement at home. Better than having two notebooks, right? And I love my little Acer. Reminds me of my old little Acer, the one that I used all throughout law school. That little guy was pretty sturdy. It's still alive actually, but I don't use it anymore because the resolution's so bad, and it runs on Windows 98. So anyway, I hope this one lives a long and fruitful life.

Planning a trip to Spain

2010-07-28T14:05:00.002+08:00

I kinda figured my research might be able to help other people planning a trip to Spain as well. So here are some useful links that I’ve chanced upon. I’ll post draft itineraries as this Spain trip comes together. Enjoy. =)

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/spain/0242010002.html

http://gospain.about.com/od/suggesteditineraries/qt/madriddesign.htm

http://www.fodors.com/news/story_3062.html

http://travel.yahoo.com/trip-journal-356198-six_days_in_spain

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/141726/planning_a_firsttime_trip_to_spain.html

http://www.travelmuse.com/destinations/ES/00-spain

http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/08-08/planning-a-trip-to-spain-with-the-help-of-the-internet.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4617911_plan-trip-spain.html

http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/spain/spain_menu.htm

See: http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/spain/spain22.htm

http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/spain/itin_spainport.htm

For Rent: NJ just across Manhattan

2010-07-28T11:55:00.002+08:00

On a side note, I'm posting this for my friend:

For Rent: NJ just across Manhattan

Looking for roommates! Place is a bus ride away from Manhattan and bus stop right in front! I have 2 rooms, each room can fit 2-3 people. Preferably female! Just message me here!

Q&A With The Boys

2010-07-16T01:41:00.000+08:00

Q&A With The Boys

PLANE FEST ENROUTE TO MADRID!

2010-07-16T01:34:00.000+08:00

PLANE FEST ENROUTE TO MADRID!

And the shit has hit the fan.

2010-07-15T00:57:00.002+08:00

Just when I thought I had a good thing going for me, I find myself shoved into yet another crisis not of my own making. To cut the long story short, it seems to me that I’ll have to move again soon. Yes, my dad is going to kill me. Yes, this was NOT part of the budget. Yes, I HAVE been trying to save. Yes, I DID already map out my budget for the next year. And NO, I did NOT know nor did I foresee that I would have an unwanted third housemate (who, I might add, does not share in any expense) when I took up my friend’s offer to move in with her. I’ve tried to be open-minded about it. I’ve tried to keep mum about the whole thing. But I really cannot stand the situation. And I cannot keep on living like this.

And all I can say is: SHIT.

AND because I never anticipated having to move so soon, I didn’t set aside that much cash for the initial cash out. I did not sign up for this. I never would have, had I known. I was perfectly happy in my little hole in the wall in Salcedo Village. Yes, it was small and kinda expensive. But I was happy there.

Now it’s not just the expense that’s literally keeping me awake. The whole thought of having to pack (again) and organize the move (again)…it’s such a daunting and unbelievably stressful feat I do NOT have time for. Hello, I don’t even have time to look for an apartment. I have to draft a gazillion decisions by the end of the month! And now THIS??? How I’m going to work this out, I have no idea.

At this point, I don’t think anyone will hold it against me if I’m just fuming mad, irritated, disgusted and the whole shebang. Not good. Not good at all.

Happy pill please...

2010-06-21T12:06:00.000+08:00

The past week has been a bit of a drag for me. After being perenially sick since before Christmas, Mama had a mild stroke last Friday. She spent two days in the ICU, and another three in a regular room under observation. She was discharged Wednesday afternoon. I've been commuting back and forth since then. Before that, I was more or less based in Laguna for four months, from late December to late April. After this latest stint, I was able to return to the apartment yesterday afternoon.

Saturday, my cousin got sick and had to go to the hospital.

My tita, my mom's eldest sister, has leukemia. Her first child is being so mean, to put things lightly. Her second child died. Her youngest son is doing drugs. One of her twin granddaughters died. The other twin was taken from her. Her husband is perenially absent.

My uncle, my mom's youngest brother, also heart as heart problem. He had to be operated on recently.

My brother is still in Neverneverland, with no sure chance of recovery.

My mom's other brothers are both in Houston and are stuck there because of their jobs.

And my mom's dead. And I seem to have been thrust into her place as problem solver of sorts. Well, in theory, that is. I can barely deal with my own issues, no matter how trivial they are, much less my extended family's infinitely more complex and deep-rooted problems.

It seriously feels like some sick bug has hit the family. And it sucks. And it's not just the health problems. It's all sorts of shit. Talk about Murphy's Law. Thing is, in our case, bad luck doesn't seem to come in threes. More like three hundreds. It's so exhausting. I mean, it's not like I don't care. It's because I do that listening to everyone's ills weighs me down so much. Seems I've been empathizing too much and too deeply. As I told Nico earlier, I love my family and all, but sometimes being around them is a little toxic. Seems like nothing ever goes smoothly for more than a few days, sometimes hours, at a time. When you think you've gotten over one bump, another bigger one comes along. On top of the mid-sized stones along the way. I need a few days to detox. At the rate I'm going, I'm going to have a major heart attack at and die at 30.

Thus the title.

Biñan sucks.

2010-06-19T15:53:00.003+08:00

I swear, if I wasn't attempting to be good (or at least as good as I can be before blowing my brains out), I'd steer the hell away from this place. It's unbelievably hot. The place looks like it did thirteen years ago. (The only exceptions being the Jollibee and Ministop at the corner. And that Chinese restaurant. Although they're technically part of Carmona, I think.) And now, my God, the entire village water supply has gone kaput. I am not kidding. NO WATER. Sheesh.

Add all these things up, plus the human temper factor, and it's like a gunpowder factory waiting to blow up in everyone's face. I think I'll pack up my stuff and attempt to work in the apartment. B or no B, I pay rent. I'm entitled to be there. I'll just ignore the hell out of him. I really need to save up and get my own apartment.

Hello blog.

2010-06-18T13:48:00.002+08:00

Upon the prodding of the now tech-savvy Mary Trish, I now have a new blog on Tumblr. Follow me at http://attorneybyaccident.tumblr.com.

Sublessor wanted

2010-02-25T18:02:00.000+08:00

I'm moving out of my 27 sq.m. studio at Alfaro Place in Makati City by the end of March. It's an inner unit at the 4th floor, which is great, because it's never dusty or noisy or hot. Rent is 11k, exclusive of utilities and association dues. You canwalk to practically anywhere in Salcedo Village (and even Legaspi Village / Greenbelt if the sun isn't too glaringly hot). It's right across from Velasquez (aka Salcedo) Park, and there's a Starbucks and a Coffee Bean within a 3-minute distance. I'm moving in with a college friend by the end of March. Lemme know if you're interested. =)

Clarification

2010-02-10T14:33:00.002+08:00

I don't know who squealed, but I hope you rot in hell, you moron. Nothing's even final yet. I haven't decided. I haven't done anything. So if I get called in because of you, I am going to track you down and kill you.

Hello blog.

2009-12-15T19:03:00.004+08:00

I cannot believe these Rules were amended in 2007 and I didn't know until earlier today when one of the partners circulated a memo on the amendments to Rule 65. These are substantial amendments, mind you. So, lawyer friends, please take note. I underlined the amendments for ease of reference. Well, at least I tried to, as much as possible. Hope this helps.

A.M. No. 07-7-12-SC
AMENDMENTS TO RULES 41, 45, 58 AND 65 OF THE RULES OF COURT

RULE 41

Section 1. Subject of appeal. An appeal may be taken from a judgment or final order that completely disposes of the case, or of a particular matter therein when declared by these Rules to be appealable.

No appeal may be taken from:

(Ed.: Note that these used to be enumerated (a) to (h). Par. (a) which read "An order denying a petition for relief or any similar motion seeking relief from judgment" was taken out of the provision.)

1. An order denying a petition for relief or any similar motion seeking relief from judgment;
2. An interlocutory order;
3. An order disallowing or dismissing an appeal;
4. An order denying a motion to set aside a judgment by consent, confession or compromise on the ground of fraud, mistake or duress, or any other ground vitiating consent;
5. An order of execution;
6. A judgment or final order for or against one or more of several parties or in separate claims, counterclaims, cross-claims and third-party complaints, while the main case is pending, unless the court allows an appeal therefrom; and
7. An order dismissing an action without prejudice.

In any of the foregoing circumstances, the aggrieved party may file an appropriate special civil action as provided in Rule 65.

RULE 45

Section 1. Filing of petition with Supreme Court. A party desiring to appeal by certiorari from a judgment, final order or resolution of the Court of Appeals, the Sandiganbayan, the Court of Tax Appeals, the Regional Trial Court or other courts, whenever authorized by law, may file with the Supreme Court a verified petition for review on certiorari. The petition may include an application for a writ of preliminary injunction or other provisional remedies and shall raise only questions of law, which must be distinctly set forth. The petitioner may seek the same provisional remedies by verified motion filed in the same action or proceeding at any time during its pendency.

RULE 58

Sec. 5. Preliminary injunction not granted without notice; exception. No preliminary injunction shall be granted without hearing and prior notice to the party or persons sought to be enjoined. If it shall appear from facts shown by affidavits or by the verified application that great or irreparable injury would result to the applicant before the matter can be heard on notice, the court to which the application for preliminary injunction was made, may issue ex parte a temporary restraining order to be effective only for a period of twenty (20) days from service on the party or person sought to be enjoined, except as herein provided. Within the twenty-day period, the court must order said party or person to show cause at a specified time and place, why the injunction should not be granted. The court shall also determine, within the same period, whether or not the preliminary injunction shall be granted, and accordingly issue the corresponding order.

However, subject to the provisions of the preceding sections, if the matter is of extreme urgency and the applicant will suffer grave injustice and irreparable injury, the executive judge of a multiple-sala court or the presiding judge of a single-sala court may issue ex parte a temporary restraining order effective for only seventy-two (72) hours from issuance, but shall immediately comply with the provisions of the next preceding section as to service of summons and the documents to be served therewith. Thereafter, within the aforesaid seventy-two (72) hours, the judge before whom the case is pending shall conduct a summary hearing to determine whether the temporary restraining order shall be extended until the application for preliminary injunction can be heard. In no case shall the total period of effectivity of the temporary restraining order exceed twenty (20) days, including the original seventy-two hours provided herein.

In the event that the application for preliminary injunction is denied or not resolved within the said period, the temporary restraining order is deemed automatically vacated. The effectivity of a temporary restraining order is not extendible without need of any judicial declaration to that effect, and no court shall have authority to extend or renew the same on the same ground for which it was issued.

However, if issued by the Court of Appeals or a member thereof, the temporary restraining order shall be effective for sixty (60) days from service on the party or person sought to be enjoined. A restraining order issued by the Supreme Court or a member thereof shall be effective until further orders.

The trial court, the Court of Appeals, the Sandiganbayan or the Court of Tax Appeals that issued a writ of preliminary injunction against a lower court, board, officer, or quasi-judicial agency shall decide the main case or petition within six (6) months from the issuance of the writ.

RULE 65

Sec. 4. When and where to file the petition. The petition shall be filed not later than sixty (60) days from notice of the judgment, order or resolution. In case a motion for reconsideration or new trial is timely filed, whether such motion is required or not, the petition shall be filed not later than sixty (60) days counted from the notice of the denial of the motion.

If the petition relates to an act or an omission of a municipal trial court or of a corporation, a board, an officer or a person, it shall be filed with the Regional Trial Court exercising jurisdiction over the territorial area as defined by the Supreme Court. It may also be filed with the Court of Appeals or with the Sandiganbayan, whether or not the same is in aid of the courts appellate jurisdiction. If the petition involves an act or an omission of a quasi-judicial agency, unless otherwise provided by law or these rules, the petition shall be filed with and be cognizable only by the Court of Appeals.

In election cases involving an act or an omission of a municipal or a regional trial court, the petition shall be filed exclusively with the Commission on Elections, in aid of its appellate jurisdiction.

Sec. 7. Expediting proceedings; injunctive relief. The court in which the petition is filed may issue orders expediting the proceedings, and it may also grant a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction for the preservation of the rights of the parties pending such proceedings. The petition shall not interrupt the course of the principal case, unless a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction has been issued, enjoining the public respondent from further proceeding with the case.

The public respondent shall proceed with the principal case within ten (10) days from the filing of a petition for certiorari with a higher court or tribunal, absent a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction, or upon its expiration. Failure of the public respondent to proceed with the principal case may be a ground for an administrative charge.

Sec. 8. Proceedings after comment is filed. After the comment or other pleadings required by the court are filed, or the time for the filing thereof has expired, the court may hear the case or require the parties to submit memoranda. If, after such hearing or filing of memoranda or upon the expiration of the period for filing, the court finds that the allegations of the petition are true, it shall render judgment for such relief to which the petitioner is entitled. (Ed.: The old provision stated that the court shall render judgment for the relief prayed for or to which the petitioner is entitled.)

However, the court may dismiss the petition if it finds the same patently without merit or prosecuted manifestly for delay, or if the questions raised therein are too unsubstantial to require consideration. In such event, the court may award in favor of the respondent treble costs solidarily against the petitioner and counsel, in addition to subjecting counsel to administrative sanctions under Rules 139 and 139-B of the Rules of Court.

The Court may impose motu proprio, based on res ipsa loquitur, other disciplinary sanctions or measures on erring lawyers for patently dilatory and unmeritorious petitions for certiorari.

(Ed.: Moral of the story: Careful what you file. You just might get it. Hehe! Anyway, enough about the serious stuff. I'm hungry. And it's Gossip Girl night. Bye all! I'll post something more remotely interesting next time.)

Free Laundry for Ondoy Victims

2009-10-05T15:51:00.001+08:00

Bits and Snippets of the Philippines
Free Laundry for Victims of Typhoon Ondoy

Posted in Aid and Assistance by Raffy Pekson II on October 3, 2009

Below is a message relayed through the Facebook Group “Philippine Renaissance International Movement.”

In summary, typhoon victims, local government units, non-profit organizations and other groups involved in relief operations may send their dirty laundry to:

Kalinisan Steam Laundry, Inc.
No. 10 Manggahan Street, Bagumbayan, Libis, Quezon City
Tel. No. 635-0601 to 05 local 128
Mobile No. 0917-890-9577 (look for Alex Malco)
Mobile No. 0917-859-1917 (look for Espie Ditablan)
Mobile No. 0917-893-6630 (look for Atty. Raul Lambino)
============ ========= ========= ========= ========= =====

Today October 3, 2009, in a lunch meeting with my client MR. WYDEN KING, owner of KALINISAN STEAM LAUNDRY, INC., one of the biggest industrial laundry company in the country that serves various big establishments like hotels, hospitals, & garment factories, he has told me that KALINISAN is offering FREE LAUNDRY & WASHING of all clothing materials (linens, bedsheets, pants, shirts, dresses, etc.) to all victims of typhoon Ondoy in Marikina, Quezon City, Cainta, Pasig, Taguig, Antipolo City and other areas in NCR, Rizal & Southern Tagalog. He instructed me to help disseminate this information so Kalinisan can immediately serve our people.

After the meeting, I immediately called up Mayor Mon Ilagan of Cainta, Rizal about this development and texted various friends in the media. Then I went to the Kalinisan warehouse at No. 10 Manggahan St., Bagumbayan, Libis, Quezon City where the factory is situated and conferred with the people in charge of the operations. I saw some dirty clothings already arriving from numerous victims and even saw more than 500 people-evacuees who are comfortably housed at the Kalinisan warehouse and supplied with foods, water and other needs mostly from Mrs. Peachy King, wife of Mr. Wyden King. Their condition is much-much better of than those who are now in other evacuation centers.We enjoin the concerned LGUs, government agencies, NGO’s , foundations, other individuals and the victims themselves to bring to Kalinisan such cloth items if theY have the logistics to do so, or coordinate with their respective LGUs how we can effectively carry out this mission.

You can get in touch directly to Kalinisan by calling or texting these numbers:

Tels. 6350601 to 05 local 128; CP # 0917-8909577 look for ALEX MALCO; or 0917-8591917 look for ESPIE DITABLAN. Likewise, you may call or text me at 09178936630.

Please pass this Note to others & let us do our little share in helping and uniting our nation by alleviating the plight of those who are most in need at such kind of moment. God bless us all.

ATTY RAUL LAMBINO

Yellow

2009-08-06T16:09:00.000+08:00

I was barely a year old when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated in August of 1983. I was a toddler when millions of people flocked to EDSA and reclaimed democracy for the Philippines. Why, one might ask, am I so affected by the death of former President Cory Aquino?

My mom (God bless her soul.) was a classic idealist of her generation. To my lolo’s great frustration, she, like many of her peers, was a student activist in her youth. She and several friends founded an organization that later became one of the better known student activist groups. They used the basement of my grandfather’s company as their meeting place, their makeshift headquarters. When the military heard of this budding movement, plans were made to alleviate the potential thorn. As luck would have it, my lolo had a close friend from way back who happened to be a highly-regarded general. Having heard of the planned raid within minutes of the actual deployment of soldiers, he promptly phoned my lolo to warn him. My lolo had all papers, paraphernalia and other materials in the basement that could be traced to my mom be burned or otherwise destroyed. My mom was promptly sent to distant relatives in far-flung Gumaca, Quezon, which, if you’ve been there, is almost literally in the middle of nowhere. Quezon being NPA country, was a relatively safe place to hide, at least until things in Manila died down.

When I was young, my mom and I used to go through her old photos from college, and she would always tear up when she showed me pictures of her friends who died or disappeared during Martial Law. One friend of hers, a tall, fair-skinned, rather frail-looking girl, was imprisoned for activist activities, and died in prison. That was not the worst part. My mom told me, her voice cracking, that her friend was gang-raped by prison guards, and at some point, withdrew into insanity when she could no longer take the pain. She later hung herself in the same cell that had borne witness to the vile, despicable acts that had driven her to seek refuge in herself.

My mom had strong political beliefs, and would never back down when opposed. Prior to the 1992 elections, I remember my mom and my dad had a rather heated argument over who to vote for. My mom was a strong Salonga supporter, and staunchly opposed my dad’s politics. My mom valued her right to suffrage, and felt it was her responsibility to thoroughly discern who would best serve the country. My dad, well, at the time, I remember him saying that he would vote for this or that candidate based on how he thought HE would benefit. And there the great debate came to a screeching halt. Enter the war that my dad should have realized he had no chance of winning.

In the fashion that my lolo raised them, my mom did her best to teach us to speak not only when spoken to. Opinions were made to be expressed. Beliefs were made to be acted upon. We were punished for transgresses, but not before we explained at great length why we did what we did, and were made to understand why we were being punished.

When I was in college, I remember having heard at a forum that our generation, compared to our parents’, was essentially a generation of spoiled brats with no balls, so to speak. We had never had to live through a war, to fight for suffrage, to help overthrow a dictatorship, to face real political struggle, had not voiced any real dissent, and if one really thinks about it, it IS true. Our grandparents had the Second World War. Our great-grandparents had the First. Our parents had both the Vietnam War AND Martial Law.

It was in the context of this debate about whether our generation did have balls that EDSA 2 came around. Although I can only speak for those I know personally, and for those whom I had the opportunity to talk to during those several days we spent in the midst of a growing throng of people, I think it would be accurate to say that we thought we were doing a great thing, standing up for what was right and just, actively fighting against what we believed was a corrupt and immoral regime. We were a generation of idealists, albeit a more tech-savvy one.

I do not regret having participated then. I DO regret the circumstances that we somehow thrust the country into post-EDSA 2. Looking back, I find myself appalled at how such an opportunity for change was somehow manipulated into the concentration of political power in an administration that in my mind ranks second only to Marcos. Or maybe even rivals the Marcos years, if some political analysts are to be believed.

Although I was too young to know my politics all that well, it seems to me that every single president since Cory Aquino has been besieged with not unfounded charges of graft and corruption, of that dreaded Filipino affliction called padrino politics. I am sure that the Aquino administration was far from perfect. However, compared to her successors, Cory Aquino seems to me fairly unmarred by such charges. I sincerely doubt that (knock on wood) if any of her successors dies, any of them will be accorded the same respect, reverence, even, that has been given to Cory Aquino. Ironic, isn’t it, how drastically different, completely opposite, even, the two female presidents of the Philippines have turned out to be? The lady with the rosary in yellow, and the...um, gremlin. With a mole.

On a personal note, Cory’s death brings to the fore the excruciating ordeal of having lost my mom, whose death left a void that will never be filled. These thoughts come dangerously close to the death of my dear cousin Francis, who lost his life in a violent vehicular accident three months ago. With all that, my great fondness for Mama, my lola, who turned 80 last month, only serves to heighten the emotions that have been surging since I started watching the tv coverage of Cory Aquino’s affliction with cancer, her battle with the dreaded disease, and her eventual demise.

Right now, I am watching the ABS-CBN documentary Laban Ni Cory on Channel 2, which is as much a documentary on Martial Law and the EDSA People Power movement as it is about Cory Aquino. Nakakakilabot. That’s the only word that can describe it, particularly when they play Magkaisa and Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo. It provides a glimpse at how great the people of this country can be, and how far a people united can go. This is the precise opposite of how most people I know feel, i.e. willing to swap their Filipino citizenship for another without batting an eyelash. Or, at the very least, to seek refuge, emotional, spiritual, financial or otherwise, in a foreign land.

I do not know how far Cory Aquino’s death will affect the current clamor for good governance and for political change, if any will come around at all. I do not know in what capacity, if at all, this will serve as a catalyst for things to come. However, all being said and done, I just hope that everything that our parents fought for, that all those lives that were sacrificed for the sake of that vague concept called democracy, will not go to waste. As much as I was an idealist then, I acknowledge now that such idealism fades. Left to its own vices, a candle will eventually burn out.

As I have prayed for all my loved ones who have gone ahead to what I hope is a better place, I pray for the repose of the soul of the former president, who, although I never knew her, was somehow able to touch my life in a way that very few have. I pray for her family, who are going through the most painful experience of losing a loved one.

Lastly, for all out sakes, I pray that it will not be necessary to move on to the next life to get to a better place.

Please read.

2009-01-08T10:26:00.000+08:00

I got this from Heidi. Please pass to your UP friends.

Paying It Back for Mang Meliton a.k.a "Mang Milton"
Posted by Mike on Dec 26, '08 10:06 PM

Meet Meliton Zamora, a retired University of the Philippines

janitor and my hero.

For forty-five years, he swept floors, cleaned up trash, watered plants and did odd jobs at the University.

I met him when I was active with the UP Repertory Company, a theater group based (then) at the third floor lobby of the Arts & Sciences (AS) building. He would sweep and mop the hallway floors in silence, venturing only a nod and a smile whenever I passed him.

Back then, for me he was just one of those characters whom you got acquainted with and left behind as soon as you earned your degree and left the university for some big job in the real world. Someone whose name would probably ring a bell but whose face you'd have a hard time picturing. But for many UP students like me who were hard up and had a difficult time paying their tuition fees, Mang Mel was a hero who gave them the opportunity to finish university and get a big job in the real world.

The year was 1993 and I was on my last semester as a Clothing Technology student. My parents had been down on their luck and were struggling to pay for my tuition fee. I had been categorized as Bracket 9 in the recently implemented Socialized Tuiton and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP). My father had lost his job and to supplement my allowance, I worked part time as a Guest Relations Officer at Sam's Diner (back when the term GRO didn't have shady undertones) and took some odd jobs as a Production Assistant, movie extra and wardrobe mistress.

To be eligible for graduation, I had to enroll in my last three courses and pay my tuition fee. Since my parents didn't have enough money for my matriculation, I applied for a student loan hoping that my one of my Home Economics (HE) professors would take pity on me and sign on as a guarantor for the student loan. But those whom I approached either refused or were not eligible as guarantors. After two unsuccessful weeks of looking for a guarantor, my prospects looked dim, my future dark. And so, there I was, a downtrodden twenty year old with a foggy future, crying in the AS lobby. I only had twenty four hours left to look for a guarantor.

Mang Mel, with a mop in hand, approached me and asked me why I was crying. I told him I had no guarantor for my student loan and will probably not be able to enroll this semester. I had no hopes that he would be able to help me. After all, he was just a janitor. He borrowed my loan application papers and said softly, "Puwede ako pumirma. Empleyado ako ng UP." He borrowed my pen and signed his name. With his simple act of faith, Mang Mel not only saved my day, he also saved my future.

I paid my student loan the summer after that fateful day with Mang Milton and it has been 15 years since then. I am not filthy rich but I do have a good job in the real world that allows me to support my family and eat three meals a day. A few weeks ago, a friend and UP Professor, Daki, told me that Mang Mel recently recorded an album which he sells to supplement his meager retirement pay, I asked another friend, Blaise, who's taking his Master's degree at UP to find out how we could contact Mang Mel. My gesture of gratitude for Mang Mel's altruism has been long overdue. As fate would have it, my friend saw Mang Mel coming out of the shrubbery from behind the UP library, carrying firewood. He got Mang Mel's address and promised him that we would come over to buy his album.

Together with Blaise and my husband Augie, I went to pay Mang Mel a visit last Sunday. Unfortunately, he was out doing a little sideline gardening for a UP professor in Tandang Sora. We were welcomed into their home by his daughter Kit. As she pointed out to a laminated photo of Mang Mel on the wall, she proudly told us that her father did retire with recognition from the University. However, she sadly related to us that many of the students whose loans Mang Mel guaranteed neglected to settle their student loans. After forty-five years of service to the University, Mang Mel was only attributed 171 days of work for his retirement pay because all the unpaid student loans were deducted from his full retirement pay of about 675 days. This seems to me a cruel repayment for his kindness.

This is a cybercall to anyone who did not get to pay their student loans that were guaranteed by Mang Mel. Anytime would be a good time to show Mang Mel your gratitude.

Mang Mel is not asking for a dole out, though I know he will be thankful for any assistance you can give. So I ask those of you who also benefited from Mang Meliton's goodness or for those who simply wish to share your blessings, please do visit Mang Mel and buy his CD (P350 only) at No. 16-A, Block 1, Pook Ricarte, U.P. Campus, Diliman, Quezon City (behind UP International House) or contact his daughter Kit V. Zamora at 0916-4058104.

Baka kilala niyo.

Long weekends for 2009

2009-01-08T08:19:00.000+08:00

Time to plan ahead, book in advance, plot your leave, etcetera,

April 9 - 13, Thursday to Monday - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Araw ng Kagitingan (Bataan and Corregidor day) (5 days)

May 1 - 3, Friday to Sunday - Labor Day (3 days)

June 12 - 14, Friday to Sunday - Independence Day (3 days)

August 22 - 24, Saturday to Monday - Ninoy Aquino day (3 days)

August 29 - 31, Saturday to Monday - National Heroes' day (3 days)

November 28 - 30, Saturday to Monday - Andres Bonifacio day (3 days)

December 25- 27 Friday to Sunday - Christmas Day (3 days)

December 30 -31 Wednesday to Thursday - (Rizal Day) to January 1-3, 2010 (New Year) Friday to Sunday (5 days)

Yikes.

2009-01-06T12:52:00.000+08:00

Is this for real???!!!

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/01/05/09/leading-law-firm-victim-scam

Why spend?

2008-12-10T18:52:00.003+08:00

It’s 6:30pm, and I’m procrastinating. I’m craving for seafood, I’m sleepy, AND I’m already in vacation mode. Plus the fact that I hate hate hate the client for whom I’m supposed to be toiling away right now.

So anyway, one wise Starbucks barista once taught me to order a grande Americano in a tall cup instead of a triple tall Americano. Saved me Php20-30 per order during bar review. (It took AT LEAST two grande Americanos in a tall cup everyday to keep me awake everyday. Add up my coffee bill during bar review, and... On second thought, never mind. Bygones.) Thanks Mr. Barista! Hehe!

Anyhoo, let me make it clear that I am not rich, by any known or unknown standards. I am also not the most monetarily efficient person alive. I take a cab to and from work everyday. (I live in Quezon City; my office is in Makati. Go figure.) I go to Baguio every weekend, and when I’m there, I treat Tita Susan and Jem to lunch or dinner, buy Cassie her cute little baby things... I buy little trinkets for myself and for my family. I recently completed my Christmas shopping, and ended up spending a looooooooot. I was able to get nice gifts for my family and close friends this year though. I had to cut my office presents budget though. But it’s all good.

In light of this, here are my TOP 5 REASONS TO SPEND THIS HOLIDAY SEASON:

(5) It’s the season to be jolly. (My Christmas list is looooooooooooooong. But I finished my Christmas shopping in record time, and quite a bit ahead of schedule.)

(4) Money was made to be spent. Otherwise, go barter stuff.

(3) Because you can.It’s YOUR money, anyway. Who’s to say what you should and should not spend it on?

(2) In order to be inspired to work, you have to feel the fruits of your labor.

(1) To prevent an economic slowdown / recession, money has to circulate. So the next time you consider whether or not to buy that LV you’ve been stalking, those shoes that your feet are begging to seen in, or that phone that would go perfectly with everything, don’t think, just buy. Whip out the cash or the plastic, and go spend! Just think, you’re doing it for the economy. And no, not just the local economy, but the global economy. You’re a hero.

An Atenean blogs about immersion

2008-12-05T08:23:00.000+08:00

Here you go.

New Britney Video

2008-12-04T09:18:00.000+08:00

Here you go. Enjoy! =)

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/oDSf8DcOUto/

On Immersion

2008-12-03T12:32:00.000+08:00

I was directed to this post by Nico, who got it from Jules (Cabigon)'s post:

http://juliusivan.multiply.com/photos/album/132/MGA_ATENISTA_READ_THIS?replies_read=19

I think Jules' post is restricted to his contacts, so I just attached the screen grabs

My thoughts on the matter:

I did not think the facilities at our immersion site (Napindan, Taguig) rivalled the comforts of a fancy shmancy hotel, or home, and I did cringe at a lot of things. I was relieved when I got back to the dorm after my immersion weekend and take a long hot shower. There's no denying any of that. However, I think what some students fail to realize is that the point of the immersion experience is not to provide students with a grand vacation or a literal walk in the park. In this country, and in countless others around the world, social inequity has become a way of life. Most have become so desensitized to the tragedy that has befallen this race because we live with it every single day. We pass shanties on our way to work. We look absently out the window at beggars and toddlers rummaging through trash to find a decent meal. Our trash is, quite literally, their treasure. Though the immersion experience can not and will not make staunch advocates of us all, at the very least, it will send the tiniest waves of realization lapping at our feet. I just find it sad, really, that for some, the experience failed to achieve this for this girl. It would have made a better person out of her.

Washington voters approve assisted suicide initiative

2008-11-07T07:50:00.000+08:00

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008352565_apwaassistedsuicide2ndldwritethru.html?syndication=rss

Wash. voters approve assisted suicide initiative

Voters approved Initiative 1000 on Tuesday, making Washington the second state to give terminally ill people the option of medically assisted suicide.

By Curt Woodward

Associated Press Writer

OLYMPIA, Wash. —

Voters approved Initiative 1000 on Tuesday, making Washington the second state to give terminally ill people the option of medically assisted suicide.

The ballot measure, patterned after Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law, allows a terminally ill person to be prescribed lethal medication, which would be self-administered.

With about 43 percent of the expected vote counted Tuesday in unofficial returns, I-1000 was being approved by a margin of about 58 percent to about 42 percent.

Supporters, led publicly by Democratic former Gov. Booth Gardner, said the initiative would provide a compassionate way for terminally ill people to die.

Gardner has Parkinson's disease, an incurable disorder that causes tremors and stiff or frozen limbs. Gardner, who would not be eligible under I-1000 because Parkinson's is not considered fatal, said he pushed the measure in his "last campaign" because he understood why other ill people would want the option.

Opponents, including the Catholic church, said assisted suicide is a dangerous step that devalues human life. Critics also said the assisted suicide measure could exploit depressed or vulnerable people who worry they've become a burden on their families.

The measure involved a multimillion-dollar campaign, including TV advertisements featuring actor Martin Sheen, who urged a "no" vote. But polling before Election Day showed I-1000 with significant support.

Outside of Oregon, advocates of similar laws haven't fared well. California, Michigan and Maine voters rejected the idea, and bills have failed in statehouses around the country. In Washington, voters rejected physician-assisted suicide in 1991.

This year's proposal differs from the earlier Washington measure - it doesn't allow doctors to administer lethal drugs on behalf of patients who can't do so themselves.

Any patient requesting the fatal medication must be at least 18, declared competent and a resident of Washington state.

The patient would have to make two oral requests, 15 days apart, and submit a written request witnessed by two people, including one person who is not a relative, heir, attending doctor, or connected with a health facility where the requester lives.

Two doctors also would have to certify that the patient has a terminal condition and six months or less to live.

Forty-nine people died in Oregon last year under that state's assisted suicide law, according to a report by the Oregon Department of Human Services. Since it went into effect, more than 340 Oregon patients have used the law to end their lives.

Most suffered from cancer, and the most common reasons reported for choosing assisted suicide were loss of autonomy, loss of dignity and a decreasing ability to participate in activities they enjoyed.

The decision on I-1000 was a personal one for 82-year-old Jean Hoggarth of Yakima. She battled breast cancer and the disease now has spread to her bones, but voted against the initiative.

"I've had experience with people dying, but I believe it can be done peacefully," Hoggarth said. "And we have doctors today who give the best care. They should be allowed to do that all the way to the end."

Mike Dingus, a 39-year-old long-term care worker in Yakima, voted "yes."

"You don't get much choice coming in, so you should get some choice going out," Dingus said.

---

AP Writer Shannon Dininny contributed to this report from Yakima.

Text of John McCain's Concession Speech

2008-11-06T06:57:00.000+08:00

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmJfimrZW3jBur_BmaFtqj7mfFgQD948JFJG5

Text of McCain's concession speech

By The Associated Press – 21 hours ago

Text of Republican John McCain's concession speech Tuesday in Phoenix, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions.

___

MCCAIN: Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening.

My friends, we have — we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.

A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him.

(BOOING)

Please.

To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.

I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.

But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.

America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.

Let there be no reason now ... Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.

Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.

We fought — we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.

AUDIENCE: No!

MCCAIN: I am so...

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING)

MCCAIN: I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We do, too (OFF-MIKE)

MCCAIN: The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.

I'm especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother ... my dear mother and all my family, and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign.

I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.

You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign.

All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude and the promise of more peaceful years ahead.

I am also — I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I've ever seen ... one of the best campaigners I have ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength ... her husband Todd and their five beautiful children ... for their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.

We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country.

To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly, month after month, in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.

I don't know — I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.

This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.

(BOOING)

Please. Please.

I would not — I would not be an American worthy of the name should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century.

Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone, and I thank the people of Arizona for it.

AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA. USA.

MCCAIN: Tonight — tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama — whether they supported me or Senator Obama.

I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.

Transcript: 'This is your victory,' says Obama

2008-11-05T16:19:00.000+08:00

For Nico.

In the spirit of judging the content of Barack Obama's speech minust the mob melodrama...

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/obama.transcript/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama spoke at a rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the race for the White House Tuesday night. The following is an exact transcript of his speech.

Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the presidency Tuesday night.

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.

Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House.

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.

And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.

To my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way.

To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.