Ang Bahay ni Kumareng Grace

A lot of my preconceived notions about Singapore were squashed after our recent trip there.

I imagined Singapore to be all buildings and all high tech. Yes, it was certainly very urbanized and there were lots of buildings, but it was not the picture I had in mind. Despite the abundance of buildings and malls, there were many trees and plants, providing a beautiful contrast between urbanization and maintenance of nature. This is the result, someone told me, of great urban planning.

In addition, I thought that  there were a few places to go to. WRONG! Again, 2 days was not enough, as in not enough, to visit the wonderful places in Singapore.

And, most importantly, contrary to what others have been saying, I found Singapore to be a low-budget destination for tourists [perhaps not when one will live there]. I guess the key is, as always, finding the right places: where to go, where to stay, where to eat, where to shop.

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Yes, I am back…but not exactly in the groove. I have had hardly any sleep, plus I got sick today!

I just wanted to say hello to everyone and to share a little incident.

Remember this? I was hoping that was the last one. Pero it comes in threes nga siguro [as Shie also suggested].

Two Saturdays ago, I was the lucky recipient of a new cell phone courtesy of my father’s retention plan in Smart. My mother not really gave it to me, but she sold it to me really cheap.  Anyway, I was mulling over what to do with my old, reliable, cute cell phone: sell it or keep it.

But before I could even think about it, I lost it at the airport [NAIA 3] last Monday, before our flight. Somebody must have picked it and kept it because when I asked Rico to ring it, cannot be reached na. Of all the luck! Bad trip talaga!!!

Imagine, I have never lost a cell phone my entire life. In addition, my brother insisted on transferring all my contacts, messages, and calendar entries to the new phone that same morning, even though I keep on telling him, “pagbalik ko na lang!” But he said, “Ngayon na!” Ayun, buti na lang nailipat lahat! If not, I would have lost all my contact numbers. Imagine…mukhang pinaghandaan!

My sister summed it well for me: Nagtampo ang phone mo dahil may kapalit na sya!!

Well, that’s life. The good thing is that incident did not set the mood for our trip!

Anyway, that’s it for now. My stomach is rumbling again!

Singapore and KL posts coming soon!

I will visit your sites soon!!!

At the start of the year, my only [if not one of a couple] resolution was to lessen, then eliminate, my intake of coke.

How am I doing so far, in the first month? If I were to be honest, I will give my self a grade of

Yup! I have lessened my intake, which is the first step. I no longer drink on weekdays, only on weekends, pag masarap ang merienda. And I no longer drink every time I crave. Small steps indeed…

I dream the day that even when all there is to eat are pizza and hamburger, and Coke is presenting itself to me, I will decline. That’ll be the day! He! He! I also know I’m in for harder times because summer is coming!

However, I will give myself a break this week, as I go on a holiday! If there’s one thing I cannot resist while traveling, it is cold coke while going around or while savoring the food of another place! He! He! I WILL NOT DEPRIVE MYSELF!

Have a great week everyone!

Do you feel that, sometimes, nang-aasar ang buhay?

I do!

Take what happened to me today for instance. Last night, my brother took my jack from my car. I was pleading him not to take it. But saying he badly needed it, and after assuring me that it would be replaced the next day na [which is today], I gave in. As if may choice ako! But I wasn’t comfortable driving knowing I had no jack!!!

And guess what? Today, of all days, NAFLATAN po ako! Aaarghhh! I wanted to shout to the heavens, “nang-aasar ba kayo!” But thank God for Rico, who lent me his jack, and for an office mate; both helped the damsel in distress change the tire!

Anyway, why am I telling you this? Kasi naman, there was a message in our bulletin board here in our phase [our village is made up of different phases, ie, Phase 1, Phase 2, etc] that I wanted to share with you. It has been there since the start of this year pa. I’ve been wanting to write a post about it but never had the chance to get a photo of it. So this afternoon, I finally said, I have to take a picture NOW! So I got my camera and walked to the gate. But guess what? Nabura na po! Nabura na po! Are you kidding me!?! I knew it was there this morning, before I went to work, because I remember reading it and telling myself that I’ve got to take a picture of it this afternoon!

The white space is where the original message was written.

Haaay! Pinagtritripan ba ako ng mga elemento?

Anyway, not wanting my efforts to go to waste,  I tried my best to recapture what the message was [thanks to editing programs] and share with you what I was meaning to share in the first place.

**********

Notice the added YEHEY!? Funny!

That’s why when buying a house in Paranaque, ask about the water condition first! And water tanks are a necessity, not a luxury!

Ganyan kami dito sa Paranaque (sabik sa tubig)!

PS, I hope that the erased message will be the last “trick” that life plays on me for a long time! He he!

For the past few days, I’ve had a recurring dream again that I’ve had in the past few years. The scenes are different, but the idea was the same. [I wonder how I can remember most dreams so vividly! Is this a skill?]

So, these past few days, in my dreams, I am back in college, and it was always the first day of school. My friends/housemates and I always had a new apartment, and I would be going home from class to that new apartment. Of course, in each dream, the new apartments would be different, but the main characters [my real housemates] and the scenario [if not for a few minor differences] were all the same! I remember scrutinizing the new apartment in my dreams, looking at our things, and wondering how seve women can fit in such a space. We had so many stuff! However, in the end, we would find a way to fix the place so that it would be habitable. And then we would go on with our own business attending classes. [For those of you who do not know, I indeed lived in an apartment for my entire my college life, with the same housemates all throughout.]

It was freaky because I would dream of the same thing on different days!

I won’t go trying to decipher what these dreams are telling me because am really not the one to interpret dreams for the following reasons:

• Simply because I do not know how!
• And if I do try, I know I will tend to “believe” in dreams when they are in my favor. In short, pag maganda ang “message,” that’s when I will believe that the dream was trying to tell me something!
  

Anyway, freaky or not, at least it’s a great dream diba? The other recurring dream I have is being able to swim, as in magaling daw ako magswimming [which is, in reality, not the case], which, I could say, leaves me a great feeling when I wake up. At least, even in my dreams, magaling ako magswimming! In addition, I have fun recounting my dreams to anyone who would listen, especially when the person was in my dreams!

In any case, I love to have dreams while sleeping. It surely beats having a black and colorless sleep.

Santa’s letter to Wendy last Christmas:

*****

Wendy’s reply [written with sniffs and tears]:

Gosh! I hope Santa wasn’t hurt when Wendy said she didn’t like the gift much! Tsk! Tsk!

Someday, when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them, as my Mean Mom told me:

I loved you enough to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren’t perfect.

I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of all. I’m glad I won them, because in the end you won, too.

And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them. Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the meanest mother in the whole world!

While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches.

And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You’d think we were convicts in a prison.

She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them.

She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds and had eyes in the back of her head. Then, life was really tough!

Mother wouldn’t let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door so she could meet them.

While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16.

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other’s property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what’s wrong with the world today. It just doesn’t have enough mean moms!

(Taken from an e-mail to me)

*****

Touche!

PS, Belated happy birthday to my mother, who, for all intents and purposes, fits the above-mentioned description. For that, I thank her with all my heart. And you know what, I think I’m also becoming a Mean Mom!

Some said it can be done in a day.

I’m afraid I would have to disagree: It is simply not possible to tour and enjoy Macau in a day!

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Last year, my New Year’s resolution was to drive more like a “lady” does; in other words, less speed. I could honestly say I did improve a lot in my driving. Yehey! That’s one successful resolution [wala nang kokontra ha].

For this year, my New Year’s resolution will be much harder: Slowly decrease my intake of Coke until I give it up totally. It is going to be hard, I know. But it can be done [right Sheng and Docgelo?]. Thus, I will start slowly…from once a week to once a month to never [or kahit once in a blue moon pwede na]!!

Ang sarap naman kasi ng Coke diba? I wonder whether, during a war, when a country is threatened that if they do not surrender, their Coke supply will be cut off, would they surrender? Hmmm…an interesting scenario to think about!

Anyway, it’s still the 30th, so I have one more day to enjoy Coke! Yay!

Happy New Year everyone! Have a great 2010!

Madalas nating makita ito sa mga bahay ng mga Pinoy tuwing Pasko– iba-ibang hugis, laki, at kulay! Nagdadala ito ng liwanag at ningning sa madilim na gabi, kasama ng nagdadamihang Christmas lights. Oo, yan ang parol…parte na ng kulturang Pinoy tuwing Pasko.

Iba iba ang hitsura ng parol, pero ang pinaka karaniwan ay ang star. Noong bata ako, madalas, gawa ito sa Japanese paper [o kaya cellophane] at kawayan. Naaalala mo rin ba yun? Ngayon, karaniwan na ang makikulay at maiilaw na parol na gawa sa capiz shells. Ang gaganda!

Nung bata ako, lagi kong iniisip, bakit nga ba tayo nagsasabit ng parol tuwing Pasko? Maraming pwedeng sagot, at marami na din akong narinig na explanation, pero ito ang paborito ko: Nang hinahanap ng tatlong hari ang sanggol na Hesus, isang tala ang gumabay sa kanila upang mahanap si Hesus. Tila sinasabi ng tala, “Andito si Hesus.” Kaya ayun, natagpuan ng tatlong hari ang sabsaban kung saan ipinanganak si Hesus.

Kaya naman sa pagsasabit natin ng mga parol sa ating bahay ay para na rin nating sinasabi, sa pamamagitan ng tala sa parol, na “si Hesus ay nandito sa aming tahanan.” Napakaganda diba?

Nais kong isipin na sa pagsabit ng aming pamilya ng parol sa aming bahay ngayong Pasko ay maipakita man lang namin or maipadama sa iba na, oo, si Hesus [o kahit kapirangot man lang ni Hesus] ay matatagpuan sa aming tahanan.

Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!!!