Livin high and takin it easy

May I just say that I am back, of course with a gazillion photos to go through after a week-long vacation in the province where I saw lots of my friends and family. The holidays aren’t over yet though and I have three more events to go to, as far as plans are concerned.

The Sun broadband was disconnected without our knowledge the entire time I was in the province. We only found out when we got back to Manila; thus, the absence of posts starting from the day we got back, which was about 10:30 in the evening of the 29th. The drive from Pili lasted approximately 12 hours and 30 minutes, that includes a side trip to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Naga City to check on the car’s registration papers; a side trip to the little town of Sipocot in the search for the now non-existent Bigg’s Diner (we ended having lunch in some other unknown diner); 45 minutes of MY turn at the wheel in Andaya Highway where I practiced shifting from first all the way to fifth gear (hehehehe); a number of restroom stops and a final stop-over dinner at Shell Station along SLEX. As expected, lots of traffic everywhere – from Gumaca all the way to Skyway Stage 2 roadworks. I was on mobile websites the entire time we were in Bicol, thanks to free wi-fi at all establishments, from CWC to Cereza to Avenue Square and all over SM Naga, as well as establishments like Gelatto’s and Starmark Cafe. Heck, even the place where Ryan had the car washed had free wi-fi. This is worth mentioning because in Manila, wi-fi is NOT free everywhere. Starbucks especially sucks!! All my internet access was done through my mobile phone which, may I say, was chosen carefully and [proven to have been] wisely. My Nokia 5630 Xpress Music has both 3G and wi-fi capabilities, which allowed me to use wi-fi when there was a network available and connect through Globe’s 3G when I was staying at my parent’s home which is in the heart of almost-nowhereness. May I just say that the P5/15 minutes of browsing PER SITE sucks. I would go on my mail and click on a link to Facebook, i.e. so-and-so person made a comment on a photo of you, click here to view whatever, and I would be charged P5. This is not fun when you spend P30 on 5 minutes and you could literally hear the ka-ching-ka-chings in your head.

So anyway, this is my LAST post for the year. One hundred fifty five (147 public and 8 private) posts later, it can be said that it has been a productive year in terms of blogging. Angkulet dot com is six months old! Now that I’m fully aware how much time and energy is expended on blogging, I have more respect for bloggers out there. Though this site is not meant to generate any kind of income, $0.0003 made so far from the Google ads you see in the right navigation panel, this site exists primarily to serve as documentation to my otherwise utterly boring housewife and stay-at-home-mother life. So let me say that it makes me happy when you guys leave comments and you tell me that you get new things/ideas/inspirations from the posts that I make. It makes me happy when the people or things I blog about take some time to leave comments, like Harry Best, Sanuk and Jasmin Chan of Momo.

What is in store for 2010? More photos of course! Photos of my little family and the adorable Angkulittle. Hihihihi. More music, more movies, more theatre, more shopping and hopefully more travel. More, more, more! Hahaha.

I have to go through a lot of photos and post them on my Flickr. Due to the huge number of data I have to go through, I will need a lot of time. I have a lot going through my mind too and I need to write them down to get them off my head. Huge number of data in my head too. Peace of mind is priceless. Though I think the first post for 2010 should be a review of 2009 and goals for 2010 for is that not traditional?

We borrowed one of my sister’s three house helpers and that has helped a lot. We are practically almost done with [I believe another traditional] New Year’s cleaning and she has saved me from two days worth of ironing. Hoorah for that! As some form of payment, I made her watch Angelica Panganiban’s I Love You Goodbye yesterday at SM Marikina’s Cinema 2 while Ryan, Lia and I did the groceries at the supermarket. I am supposed to be washing towels and sheets today but I am so hung over from the 2010 kick off party with my Rep family last night. I just want to sit here and type my thoughts away, in between cooking and serving food at Cafe World hahaha.

New Year’s Eve will be spent with my parents and my siblings and their respective little families while New Year’s Day will be spent with Ryan’s parents. Some of my Rep friends will be spending the weekend surfing at L.U. and I would really like to be with them if not for the Travel Factor’s New Year’s Party happening at Circa in Eastwood City Libis on the evening of January 2nd. On second thought, I do not think the newly-claimed-from-the-garage car can stand another long drive to La Union so soon after the Bicol trip. Ryan tells me we have to replace all four tires. (There goes a chunk off the 14th month pay )

My Facebook is being overwhelmed by photos of drinking and partying and I really believe I am almost at my drinking quota. This has been a tremendously fun holiday season for me. I think its safe to say that this has been my best holiday season ever! Even the Bulao family reunion was astoundingly successful! It seemed to me that the food was uberly delicious and the kids had so much fun! No matter that I could not recognize half of them. Being the daughter of the eldest of the Bulao siblings, I had difficulty telling who was cousin and who was niece/nephew. Tsk tsk.

Maybe I am enjoying this holiday season because I had absolutely zero expectations of it. I will remember to have the same zero expectations for next year. It is always nice to be pleasantly suprised. Can I make that my 2010 mantra? Goal, to be always pleasantly suprised.

Today is a slow, quiet and lazy day. I have no real housework to do today because Ryan and I finished them all this weekend. I am thinking I should do some packing. We are driving to Bicol early morning on Wednesday. We will be spending a week there – my entire little family with the little dog.

We drove over to Cubao Expo last Saturday because I needed shoes for the office party last Sunday. Yeah, I’m so uninterested in shoes that I have to go out and buy a pair every time I have to go to some party and buy it too just the day before. I got myself the most comfortable suede stilettos I have ever had my feet in. Amazing really. Afterwards, we drove over to North Susanna Village in Commonwealth Avenue to have dinner with Tin and other friends at Lizzie and Onin’s house. I brought the camera, like I always do, but neglected to take photos. Sad. First time over at Lizzie and Onin’s house and we did not have any kind of difficulty finding the place, thanks to Lizzie’s very specific directions. We are really friends aren’t we? I love you Liz! :*

Sunday was housework all day because Ryan’s parents were coming over to babysit for us while we attended the office party. Of course, the house had to be clean! Hahaha! Ryan was required to arrive earlier than all the others because of some briefing or walk-through or whatever, so I decided to have him drop me off at Megamall where I shopped for shoes for May’s wedding. As expected, I found my shoes in the usual store. It’s where I always end up buying my shoes! Amazing. I did not want to head over at Megatent Events Venue early so I decided to watch Avatar. Yeah! First time to watch a movie alone again in years! And yeah! First time to ever pay for my own movie ticket and because of that, I was shocked to find out that movie tickets at Megamall now cost P172. Dang, the last time I went to see a movie alone, it was in Market!Market! and I paid P90 for my ticket. Amazing, really.

Today is a day Lia and I stay home. I am wondering if I should take her out for a walk around the village but the skies are gloomy and it looks like rain would fall any minute. I guess we will do a rain check? We are going out tomorrow after all, have lunch at Eastwood because Ryan’s mom has some sort of Christmas party at Somethin Fishy and she asked if we could bring the baby so she can “show her off.” I have to go pick up my dress too for May’s wedding. I don’t have time to pick it up on Wednesday. I also need to do a teeny weeny bit of Christmas shopping. I haven’t found the perfect present just yet for a couple of people.

I am excited about driving home. I hope we wouldn’t have any problems on the road. My sister’s maid might be coming along with us on the drive since my sister’s family is also going to the province. The entire Sorita family will all be together at my parents’ house this Christmas. Exciting! The last time this happened was probably back in 1999! Wow, that was ten years ago.

We will probably just hang out over there in Bicol. Do the usual CWC thing, maybe go to the beach, see my friends… maybe attend my batch’s 10th year reunion… Maybe, just maybe… because I failed to register, hahaha!

And then, last but not the least, attend one of my best friends’ wedding on the 28th before finally driving back on the 29th. We will spend the New Year here, maybe with Ryan’s family. It would be nice to see some fireworks.

The past days has been what? Either all about going out or staying home lazing all day. I have not been blogging, I have not been doing anything substantial and yet the days and hours seem to pass me by so fast. What is up with that?

Last night, we did a marathon of Glee episodes. At least those we have not been able to watch yet. All the way to Sectionals. Oh how I love Glee….

Guess this means you’re sorry
You’re standing at my door
Guess this means you take back
All you said before…

‘Cause we belong together now
Forever united here somehow
You got a piece of me and honestly…
My life would suck without you!

Glee marathon pretty much used up all our evening and resulted to our getting to bed late, which pretty much resulted to my getting up late. So this morning I was up much later than usual and found myself feeling much lazier than usual. So I thought, I should do something about this laziness. How about some housework therapy to jump start my day?

I was sweeping and scrubbing the floor when I thought about my days in El Nido. We used to tease each other about our loneliness coping mechanisms. We knew Teacher Joy was feeling down if she was scrubbing the floor, mopping it first with soapy water before applying wax and then scrubbing to make the floor brand-spanking shiny. We knew Teacher Grace had the blues when our bathroom was gleaming white even in the darkness of the tiny green light bulb. Everyone knew I was feeling sad when they saw me shoveling the drainage free of trash. Housework therapy. Nothing like a good sweat to make you feel full of energy. Or at least enough energy (or filth) to make you want to take a shower. Sometimes we feel so down and lazy, we don’t even want to take a bath.

Now that the house is clean (and so am I), I found the time and energy (this morning I was feeling too lazy to even sit here in front of this laptop) to sit down and work on some photos I need to post. Maybe I would find it in me too to finally set up my Ovi suite since I haven’t been able to make my Nokia 5360 work for me just yet. Or maybe finally use the Bamboo Fun tablet that is right now still sitting prettily in its box.

Bamboo Fun on Lia's puzzle rubber mat

There is a party tonight. There will be a party on Sunday night. Wow, I’m all about attending parties lately. I am loving this season.

I took Lia out for a walk to Canberra St. last Monday. Actually I went to check on my dress for my friend’s wedding. Seamstress wasn’t there. I was told she went to Bacolod and would not be back until the 21st. I did not get to see my dress. I’m thinking it hasn’t been sewn yet.

I took Lia to the mall with me yesterday. I needed to get a new moisturizer for my face. It’s this blasted cold weather. I also needed to get Ascof tablets for this ridiculous cough that has been giving me the headaches. Too much coughing makes my head and back ache. It’s this blasted cold weather too. We passed by a couple of shoe stores that reminded me I don’t have shoes to go with the dress just yet. Well, actually, I don’t have the dress yet.. so to hell with the shoes. I am almost worried now.

Got to drive the car again today. Yes, we do have the car back. Dashboard gauges-less, automatic lock-less, digital clock-less, stereo and player-less but running. Got it back Friday last week. We went all the way to the shop (third shop and nth computer box after) in Banawe, lost Lia’s shoes to the taxi driver in the process, drove to Teacher’s Village to grab early dinner at Cocina Juan where after wards, the car just would not start and we had to wait for shop boys to come to our rescue. Ryan almost made Lia and I go home on our own but he could not find an empty cab.

So anyway, I finally got to drive the car again after so many months. I swear it’s more than three months. Getting good at shifting but still have to control my hands at the wheel, or so I was told. What do I know?! I just drove down Soliven because there was a lot of traffic today. The goal is to be able to drive on my own next year so I can take Lia along for when boredom strikes her. This baby can get so bored sometimes! I wish we did not bring her with us to Bohol, because now she is aware there is an exciting world out there.

Lia at the South Supermarket

We went to get t-shirts at some warehouse sale The Tshirt Project had going on, then did the groceries at some obscure little supermarket called South Supermarket along A. Rodriguez Avenue before driving to Eastwood to grab some dinner at Heaven and Eggs. A Caucasian family came in while we were waiting for our orders to arrive. They had two little boys and probably a three-month old baby girl. We saw the dad kept waving and smiling at Lia who I was actually teasing with my pretending to own her teddy bear. On our way out, Caucasian dad who had his back turned to us, stopped eating and turned around to ask me, “Hey, how old is your baby?” and he looked at Lia, smiling and waving goodbye and saying, “Oh she’s so cute!”

I remember on the Cebu Pacific plane to Bohol, one of the flight attendants who was initially pushing a cart down the aisle to offer snacks stopped in front of us and never moved on. She just kept talking to and playing with Lia. After they stowed the cart away, she came back and took Lia with her.

In Bohol Bee Farm, I was inside the store buying organic soaps when I saw Lia crying hysterically through the glass window. She was surrounded by a group of maybe six Koreans. Story was, one female Korean came out of the store, saw Lia, got all wide-eyed, came back into the store, called all her other Korean friends and they all went to crowd around the baby. One said, “Oh she’s so cute! Can we have a photo taken with her?” and Ryan said, “Sure, do you want to hold her?” and promptly handed her over. Well, of course, Lia was scared to death and cried hysterically. They were all oooh-ing in loud voices and telling her, “You’re so beautiful!” Poor baby was traumatized, she would not let her mother out of sight after that. I could not even brush my teeth or wash my face or take a bath.

In the plane going back to Manila, a young Caucasian couple was sitting on the seats behind us. The girl said, “How old is she? She is so cute!”

I don’t understand. I think all babies look the same. Hahahaha. But what is up with this international scene? I am beginning to think my baby is “exotic”.

Speaking of the baby, she is now asleep in our eucalyptus-scented room. Thanks Kiel. We are all sick with colds. Ryan and I do synchronized coughing. We think its from that amazing air-conditioning our room at Dumaluan Beach Resort had. Off to bed for now. I hope tomorrow is better. I am losing way too much weight, none of my pants or even belts fit.

Lia and Mama by the beach in Panglao Island, Bohol

I don’t really have anything to blog about, but at least I’m back. The past week has been an emotional low, more like a real crash, for me and I just did not have the energy to blog about my low rah-rahs.

I am finding this day real slow. I can’t believe it’s just noon. I have done way too much for it to be just noon! With the amount of productivity I have managed to spew up today, it should be five o’clock by now!

I woke up at about six thirty in the morning, cleaned and disinfected the ground floor, washed the garage free of dust and any remaining Ewok fur-abouts, washed and sterilized bottles, made coffee, made hot water bath thrice!, gave myself a well-deserved bath and even managed to do a home hair treatment, folded laundry, ironed Lia’s clothes as well as mine, gave Lia a bath and this morning alone managed to put her down for two naps. I was just blow drying my hair and I thought to myself, “you’d think I would have more time to blow dry my hair when I had the maid,” but I do not remember ever having the time. A wonder indeed. What’s up with that?!

Nothing really is going on. I have birthday and Christmas parties, and even weddings, to attend. I have housework to do. I manage. Today is such a slow day that I decided to blow dry my friggin hair.

I have unpublished blogs. I have five hundred or so photos from the recent trip that I have to process, watermark and upload to Flickr. None of it is post worthy. They’re just documentation… and lots of family photos. More like lots of touristy photos. Dang, I am giving up photography. That makes me wonder, did I ever take up photography? Maybe not.

Now that I officially have the Nikon D80 because Ryan now has a Canon SX120IS that he bought for about P9,000 in the U.S. and sells for P25,000 in this shop in SM Marikina, we found ourselves short of fighting over who can use the p&s. I swear it is so liberating to be shooting with a p&s. No pressure! Just click away! People with dslrs are just so pretentious. You think since they have a dslr in their hands, they know how to shoot. So, it was just liberating to shoot with a p&s. No one cares if you’re holding a tiny camera in your hands so you can shoot away. No one expects your photos to be astounding either. So fun! And of course, you can shoot photos of yourself wherever and however. Ryan found himself saying, “Do you want me to buy you your own p&s camera? Because you know, this is MINE!” Whatever!

I am waiting for my Pa to come over I guess, right about after lunch. We were supposed to visit my parents where they are staying at but all three of my family members have colds and cough. Poor Lia kept waking up and mumbling rah-rahs at about one thirty this morning because she couldn’t breathe. My other family member, Ewok, was availed against her wishes albeit of a summer cut in this friggin December weather. She was also given a mohawk and a feathered tail, not to mention shaved chest, legs and feet. You get the idea? She looks horrendous and she knows it too. So these days she been hiding in dark corners, under sofas, sinks and I suppose wherever it is that is warmer. She was snuggling under the comforter and my blanket the other night. Poor little one. It’s just not right for some”one” who shuddered in Starbucks Tagaytay with her full coat on to have a summer cut in December. *shakes head*

Well, I’m off now. Gotta find more things to do.

So far so good. In the week that has gone by, I think we have settled into a manageable routine. A good, healthy, happy routine if I may so myself.

In the morning, we take Lia out for a walk. Sometimes we take Ewok with us too. We have breakfast then, while Ryan prepares for work, I put Lia down for her nap. I do housework and other things for myself (like Mafia Wars, Cafe World, blogging, emails) while Lia naps for two to three hours. When she is up, we do things together, like wrapping presents or folding clothes. I give her her bath just in time for her second nap around lunch time or early in the afternoon. While she naps for another one to two hours (sometimes three!), I prepare myself for going out. I am dressed when Lia wakes up and it’s her turn to put shoes or a bonnet or a light jacket on. We then go for our afternoon out.

Saturday: Lia, my brother Melo and I went out for a walk around the village. Actually, it was just food shopping. Pancit at Johnny’s, pichi-pichi at Arny Dading’s, burgers, bread, chocolate mallows and a bottle of distilled water.

Sunday: an afternoon at SM Marikina with Lia’s Lolo and Lola (Ryan’s parents)

Monday: some time in Sta. Lucia Mall and SM Marikina, looking for an ink refilling station and cell phones

Tuesday: we went to meet Ryan out at work and on the way home, decided to stop by Toy Town and ended up buying more presents for Ryan’s godchildren

Wednesday: I took Lia shoe-shopping. Lia liked the shoe saleslady because she smiled at her. Lia almost never smiles when she is outside the house, at anyone. She just gets that serious expression and never ever smiles at anyone. The saleslady was a nice mother of two herself and she was a lot of help to the clueless first-time mom in me. I discovered that Lia’s feet is, contrary to what I thought, not fat and pudgy, but long and narrow, exactly like mine. And her shoe size is for a one-year old.

Thursday: A short trip back to Sta. Lucia to buy gift wrapping at National Bookstore.

Today: Ryan will take a half-day at work so we can do our packing and a little bit grocery-shopping for this weekend’s trip to Bohol.

I am not too keen on making a daily habit of going to the mall because that can be expensive. Like I only dropped by NBS to buy gift wrapping but ended up snatching few items for scrapbooking – that resulted in my bill jumping from the supposed P50 to P300.

I have this urge to just take that tricycle all the way to Sta. Lucia, get in one door, get out the other door at the other end and get into a tricycle that will take us back home. I find the idea of strolling with Lia around the neighborhood morning and afternoon everyday excruciatingly boring. I have been taking driving lessons from Ryan every now and then this year, but that stopped after Ondoy. We still do not even have the car back yet to this day, two and a half months later.

Ryan now wants to enroll me in formal driving lessons, with “your practice is going to be picking me up from work everyday with Lia.” Honestly, that sounds good.

Lia now sleeps at around nine in the evening, unlike the six thirty or seven when we still had our maid. Sure, Ryan gets to rest when he comes home from work at seven-thirty or eight but they do not get to spend time together. This week, we have dinner all together, play for a little bit (either before or after dinner whichever comes first) before changing Lia into her bedtime clothes and putting her to sleep. Ryan and I hang around for a bit doing a little bit of cleaning up and some TV watching while we chat in the quiet privacy of our home. I have not felt this peaceful in my home in months. This is how it used to be when it was just the three of us too, back in April, May and June. The house is quiet and I feel calm.

I do a lot of housework though… but doing housework makes me feel productive and my feeling of productivity makes me happy. Even if I am more tired, it is definitely worth it. I am glad to have my house back. More importantly, I am glad to have myself back. You can not imagine how difficult it was for me to not act like myself in my own home.

Now, if I could find a baby sitter to watch over the baby in the evenings, while she sleeps, so we can go out with friends every now and then, things would be just perfect.

On the wee hours of the morning of September 26, I couldn’t sleep. Nick and I were chatting about nothing in particular, although we were bantering on Facebook about the the PAG-ASA website, which was triggered by my post on the satellite image of the big blob over the Philippine archipelago that was Typhoon Ondoy. Turns out, I couldn’t sleep because I was worried about the typhoon although it seemed like no one else was. I even woke Ryan up at 2am to show him the satellite image, and he said, “Huhhhh? Whaaaa…? Uh, okay….” Zzzzzzz. Exhausted and sleepy he was after drinking all night with his friends in Eastwood. I kept thinking that it had not stopped raining all night.

10:30 am September 26, 2009

Lia woke me up the usual way, “I want to play Mama…” Ryan came into the bedroom, after just having had coffee in the garage. The three of us played, with the baby rolling and creeping around on the bed, such is the usual activity on a Saturday morning.

11:00 am

All three of us went downstairs to hear Siony telling us, with a little bit of panic in her voice, “Water is coming up from the kitchen out back and from the drainage in the bathroom.” We went to the garage and true enough, water was coming up from the streets. I told Siony to tell the landlady next door that water was coming in into the house from out the back. She came back to tell us that they told her, “Sa amin rin!”

We started moving things from the floor starting with the carpet. We started moving everything on the floor to the second floor. I took out my camera to start documenting.

12:15 pm

Kitchen

The water was steadily rising. Ryan started putting other things, like the sofa bed and the sofa, on top of chairs.

Living room

We went out to hang out in the garage, to look at how things are progressing and the water was to our knees.

Garage gate from the inside

I went out into the street to see our car half-submerged.

Car parked half on the sidewalk and half on the street

It was too late now to bring it to higher ground. Unlike the neighbor’s Isuzu Trooper which the neighbor frantically drove to the end of the street and parked onto another neighbor’s garage entry which was a little higher than the street.

Isuzu Trooper on the driveway at the end of the street

Standing under an umbrella, I caught a glimpse of a man walking at the corner of ours and the main streets in waist-deep water. We were horrified. We hastily had lunch, still sitting on the dining chairs, taking turns as the table was half-filled with things taken out of the refrigerator. We already shut the main power off.

2:15 pm

The water was almost waist-deep inside the house, deeper out in the garage, even deeper out in the street and deepest at the corner of Bonn and Soliven Streets.

No more sitting for tonight's dinner eh?

4:05pm

We were having a bit of a rest from all the carrying and moving stuff up the stairs and hanging out in the garage.

At least the water is not murky?

Our landlady said, “Iniwan ko yung kotse ko sa opisina. Lumangoy ako pauwi. Yang pagkalubog ng kotse mo, marami pa sa labas na mas lubog pa. Bumili na nga ako ng salba-bida para lang makauwi!” I went out in the street to look at the car and the street. Not a car in the street, except ours.

Nor is there any current...

I felt really bad for ours.

Too late now for the stuff inside the car

Then after a few minutes, our landlady came out to check on the neighbor across the street. Dala niya ang kanyang dolphin. Hahaha.

Overheard the next day: Landlady talking to man on phone for a rescue: "Ano?! Pabibilhin mo pa ako ng trak?! Eh bumili na nga ako ng dolphin!"

5:30pm

With the remaining light and whatever resources were still downstairs, we cooked dinner, cleaned and sterilized baby’s bottles and prepared for the night. We had dinner on makeshift tables on the second floor hallway. Prepared the second-floor balcony as a makeshift kitchen and bathroom. Lia had been amazingly calm the entire time. I suppose, so were we.

7:00pm

We prepared to sleep for the night. Water was still steadily rising and was past the dining table.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Ryan had moved the refrigerator on top of the table. The sofas were moved on top of chairs that were on top of chairs.

10:00pm

It was still raining and water was still rising.

...Who's the sturdiest of them all?

We watched how the staircase steps steadily disappeared under the water. We hoped for the best and went back to sleep.

Row, row, row your sofa.. gently down the flood...

2:00am September 27, 2009

We have been fanning the baby to keep her cool as it was hot and humid in the bedroom. She woke up nevertheless for a bit of play time. It had stopped raining at least. I went downstairs to check on the water and it was the deepest yet. The refrigerator on top of the kitchen sink was floating, and so was the sofa. The light switches on the wall had completely disappeared under the water. I was too tired to take a photo. Of course now I wish I did. I remember jokingly telling Ryan, “Isuot mo na yang snorkel and fins mo, check mo kung andiyan pa kotse mo sa labas!”

6:15am

I woke up four hours later and the water was going down. I could see the light switches again.

Inabot rin ng umaga

Through the windows, I could see the rays of sunshine coming in. Sunlight reflected on the mirror on the wall and on the water. It was going to be a sunny day.

Sun shines after the rain

We had breakfast, whatever was left from last night and some canned food.

9:00am

Ryan was out on the roof. I joined him to take a look at our neighbors. We walked on the fast-becoming hot tin roof of the neighbor at the back, which was accessible to us by way of the fire exit. Some residents in the neighboring village were wading in the flood with whatever belongings they could carry.

Neighboring village

On the street in front of our house, we caught a glimpse of a sandwich walking above the flood, oh no, it was being held by a hand right above the water. Some one must sure be hungry.

The a flock of birds started circling above the muddy waters at the border of our village and the next.

Hope

I went downstairs to check on the water. I still had not ventured to wade in the water because I have a baby who is breastfed and tap water was running out. I could not afford a bath. Uh no, we didn’t even have a bathroom.

Receding but very slowly

Some neighbors without second floors spent the night on their roofs. The night before, we were kept awake by the whimpers and howls of dogs that were drowning in the flood. It was hard to sleep with thoughts of poor little animals dying.

Camping on the roof

Globe cellular signal disappeared the day before. We were using my Sun celullar number to keep in touch, though not without problems. Though I could receive text messages and could even at times be called, I was unable to send text messages. We made use of the internet and whatever battery life was left on the laptop.

11:30am
We had an early lunch. Some canned tuna and rice that was cooked the day before, before the water made the LPG tank float and before we had to evacuate the gas burners to the second floor. The balcony on the second floor was too small for us to be able to cook anything. Still, there was enough food for all three of us. We all took to napping right after lunch. My brother Carmelo was texting to ask how we are and that he was coming over. I could not reply back.

2:00pm
We woke up to see my brother standing in the doorway of the bedroom, soaked all the way up to his chest, holding plastic bags with red Jollibee printed on them. He brought us food and a lot of stories. He said the deepest flood water he had to wade through was at the corner of our street.. but that at the village gate, water was just about waist-deep. He said people out in the flood were asking him, “Jollibee delivery? Jollibee delivery? Bukas ang Jollibee?!” And he said, “Uh yeah, bukas. Dun sa C-5.”

4:00pm
Carmelo asked us how he could help. We told him we were okay staying at our place. He offered to buy us supplies. We asked him to get us more water for the baby and some candles. We told him to bring the baby’s bathtub to help him carry stuff. The water was slowly receding and we could see the mud settling on the walls and surfaces slowly being exposed. It was a good time to start cleaning. Baby refused to stay upstairs in the bedroom while we splashed and cleaned around. She wanted to stay in the staircase and watch. Interesting she must’ve thought.

6:00pm
Ryan’s parents arrived on a rubber boat for which they paid P200 to ferry them from the village gate to ours. They brought food but forgot to bring us some candles. They thought of staying the night but we told them there wasn’t any space. They asked the enterprising boatmen to pick them up again after an hour and a half.

7:00pm
We were getting worried about my brother. We thought he was taking so long just to buy water and candles. He arrived shortly bearing three 5-gallon bottles of water in his bathtub. He told us candles were all sold out everywhere and that he had to plead his way into a closed 7-Eleven with almost-empty shelves to get the water. He told the guard he needed the water for the baby. The guard took a look at his bright blue bathtub and let him in. Upon leaving, he was told, “Please don’t tell anyone you got the water here. Maraming gumagaya eh.” He laughed when he told us how embarrassing it was to lug the bath tub around in Amang Rodriguez Avenue where there was absolutely no water but that the bath tub was very helpful in getting inside 7-Eleven and carrying three 5-gallon bottles of water in the flood. Sabi sa kanya ng mga nasasalubong niya, looking at bathtub floating in the flood water, “Wow, okay yan ah!” Sabi namin sa kanya, “Sikat ka na ano? Sikat! Bida na ang bathtub mo. Hehehe.”

8:00pm
Ryan’s parents and my brother all left at about quarter to eight. We were left wondering to ourselves. Ryan’s friends/officemates arrived shortly and found us trying to catch a big, bright colorful koi out in the garage. They had brought a car with them, which was parked out in the basketball court where there wasn’t any water anymore. We thought they were just visiting too like Ryan’s parents and offered them softdrinks. Hahaha. Apparently, they had come to take us to Eastwood where one of the office’s condo was waiting for us. We really didn’t want to leave because we were fine where we were but we were all in need of a bath, use of a bathroom and it was getting generally stinky. They said the water was only deepest at the corner of our street and the main street, but that in there, it was about waist-deep and shallower in other areas. We decided to make a go for it. If only for a little respite.

We packed things enough for an overnight’s stay, made sure baby was comfy and warm and waded out. We wanted to lock the house but was unable to do so because the door wouldn’t close. The wood had expanded and did not fit into the doorway anymore. Afraid of looting, we stored our valuables in one bedroom and locked the bedroom. There was no other way.

I remember walking in the dark, in the flood waters, looking at baby. Ryan, being the tallest of the group, had her in his arms. She was really calm. Just curiously looking at everything. We were telling her, “Look baby! What an experience! Your first flood! So sad you won’t remember it though.”

11:00pm
We were finally able to shower, get into fresh clothes and have some hot food. We were quite exhausted. We spent some time having hot pizza in Eastwood.

Ryan came back with Siony the next afternoon to clean up while I stayed in the condo to take care of the baby. Power was back up by about seven in the evening Monday night and we were back in our own already-clean home, with running water and electricity by about midnight. Lia especially missed our house.

In the neighborhood, we are actually considered lucky. We finished cleaning the house ahead of the others. We did not lose a lot of things. Maybe because we did not have a lot of things to begin with. We did not lose our dog. My brother said jokingly, “In your dog-loving community, those who have dogs who died are being ostracized.” Our only major damage, aside from the broken dryer and the soaked sofa, is the car. The car is now in some shop somewhere. We don’t know when we will get it back or how much we will have to spend on repairs. Well, at least it’s still intact.

Going out these days to hang out with my friends in such places as Mogwai or to such events as gigs in Genre Bar, I realize how big my world is. I know a lot of people from college days. I know a lot of people from those days when I was still very much in the entertainment scene. I have friends who play in bands, friends who make independent and even mainstream films, friends who write for TV and film as well as for stage, friends who act in movies, television and theatre, friends who do production design, lights design, stage design, friends who make animations, friends who are professional photographers, friends who direct television shows, movies and plays, friends who teach, friends involved in science and are involved in environmental concerns, friends who are doctors, friends who are into travel, and friends who are in the corporate world. I have been around. Sometimes I think I am everywhere.

There was a time when I thought my world was becoming too big and too fast for me to handle. A time when I thought I was not mature enough to be living my life. A time when I withdrew into my own shell simply because I thought I was not prepared to live the life I was living or where it was heading.

Now years later, my world is coming back to me and I am coming back to it. One evening last week, I took a step back , like I sometimes do, to look at how my life is and where it is heading. Years, careers, a wedding, a dog, four to five homes, a child, many islands, many friends and a whole lot of experiences later, I think I have grown enough to live this life and it is time I do.

***

Note:

This blog entry was scheduled for publish. Who would’ve thought we would be hit with a storm over the weekend?

It took me a long time to figure out how to add a watermark or more importantly, add a watermark by batch, in Photoshop. A long time meaning years. Up until now I still do not know how to use the Photoshop. Sometimes I am able to do something, but as with every other skill, if you don’t practice, you eventually forget.

So one day, I finally decided to sit down and figure it out, all in the hopes of being able to make my life easier somehow in some not-so distant future. Google always works of course. Where would we all be without it? But then, much to my frustration, not a single one of the helpful sites on how to do watermark batch processing wrote it all down completely.

For my own future reference, as of course, I might forget; and for everyone else there who might be even slightly interested, here is how I did my watermark in Photoshop. For those who are experts, ignore me. Thank you very much.

***

This is how I added a transparent watermark and copyright info to a whole folder of photos.

Some prep work…
Use a transparent watermark for protecting IP rights yet showing off pictures. Try to make all images looked consistent when viewed as a collection, for example in terms of size, effect, position etc. So first, resize all images to a certain size (use Photoshop Actions and batch command to resize images.) then group landscape and portrait photos in two source folder (i.e. Source_landscape, Source_portrait) Then, create two actions: e.g. ‘watermark Landscape’ ‘watermark portrait’.
Create an ‘output’ folder as well.

Copy the copyright sign from Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Character Map

Watermark…

Step 1) Open a landscape image, go to your actions palette and create a new action.  For example, “Watermark Landscape”. Press record.

Step 2) Add new layer. Choose Horizontal Type Tool from your Tool Palette. Paste your copyright sign then write your name or your company or your site, whatever it is you want to be in the watermark.
Step 3) Layer menu: Rasterize > Type
Step 4) Filter menu: Stylize > Gaussian Blur
Step 5) Filter menu: Stylize > Emboss, angle 135

Step 6) Set the layer blending mode to “Hard Light” to let the image show through.

Step 7) To embed a copyright note go to file.
File > File Info
This brings up the file info dialog. This is where you enter information that you want embedded into the file itself.

Step Layer menu: Flatten image
Step 9 ) Click on the stop icon at the bottom of the Actions Palette to stop recording. Close working image.

Step 10) Open the original image. Test “Watermark landscape” action or re-record to satisfaction.

Batch process all images
1) In Photoshop, go to File > Automate > Batch
2) In the Play section pull down “Action” and select “Watermark Landscape” action you created earlier.
3) The “Source” Section:
Since we did not create an “Open” Command in our Action, we need to make sure the “Override Action “Open” Commands” is NOT checked.
“Suppress file Open Options Dialog” should be checked.
“Suppress Color Profile Warnings” should be checked.
4) Click the “Choose” button and select the folder “source_landscape” you created in prep-work.
5) “Destination” Section:
The “Destination” should be set to “Folder”. Click on the “Choose” button and select the folder you created called “output”.
Make sure the “Override Action “Save As” command” is checked. Otherwise batch will create two identical files for each image – one named after original name (this is what action records in ‘save for web’) and the other name after the following pattern.
6) “File Naming” Section.
I prefer to prefix original image file name with something like ‘forWeb_’ just to differential it from original file. To do this:
Set the first box to ‘forWeb_’
Set the second box to “Document Name”
Set the third box to “Extension”.
7) Uncheck ‘Override Action “Save as” commands’
Now, to process your images, just click “Ok”.

And that’s it. (Repeat this for portrait images)

Credits to this site for the images used in this blog.

Also credits to this site for most of the text or instructions used in this blog. Thank you very much.

As illusive as sleep was last night and even the entire day, I did not let that deter me from spending time with my childhood best friend Oliver, whom I affectionately call Olive, home from Papua New Guinea for a short vacation.

He came to the house to see the baby even in the middle of heavy pouring rain that caught him unawares, as is the case these days, being of course the month of August. He brought me four packs of wonderfully aromatic PNG coffee. (Oh I am in heaven.. *sniff sniff*)

PNG coffee

We had lunch at Robinsons Galleria, a mall that I have not found the time to familiarize myself with despite having lived in relative accessibility for ten years; and spent a considerable amount of time walking around looking for shoes (basketball for him and wedges for me), bought 18×18 throw pillows at the department store (something that I actually should have done like a month ago), bought the Jason Mraz limited edition CD+DVD and and ended meeting up a business contact in Multiply for some dresses I ordered online.

I came home just in time before Friday afternoon traffic kicked in and in time to give the baby a bath before feeding her and putting her to sleep. I also found enough time to harvest and plant on my virtual farm.

Then in the early breezy evening, the quietness refreshingly interrupted every now and then by the tinkling of the capiz shells hanging on the balcony, I log on into my multiply site and see my complete name plastered in big blue bold letters on my screen. I panic! I send a text message to my business contact and politely ask them to remove my complete name on their site in respect of my (supposed) privacy. I google my name (as I do every now and then, really, sorry) to check if the site turns up in the listing.

And then I see this…

Gawad Chancellor

- 02:31 – [ Isalin ang pahinang ito ]my complete name Undergraduate 1. Abejo, Laura Jermina R. 2. Abubakar, Nadira A

. 3. Acas, Ivony A. 4. Alcaria, Trixie Louise S. …
www.upd.edu.ph/…/htm/magaaral.htm – Naka-cache – Mga katulad na webpage

…and I think, what the hell is this all about?!

Gawad para sa Mag-aaral

Isang pagbibigay-pugay at pagkilala sa mga natatanging mag-aaral na nagpamalas ng katalinuhan at kagalingan sa kanilang mga gawaing mag-aaral mula 2^nd Sem, 2007-2008 at 1^st Sem, 2008-2009. Pagbibigay Puri sa mga Iskolar at Natatanging Mag-aaral

Ika-25 ng Pebrero 2009, Ang Bahay ng Alumni, Ika-8 ng umaga
Unibersidad ng Pilipinas Diliman
Lungsod Quezon

UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS CONVOCATION

ARTS AND HUMANITIES

College of arts and letters

Graduate
1. Alcudia, Fina Felisa L.
2. Molina, George D.
3. Santos, Dino Carlos S. 2*
4. Sicat, Aileen V.

This is all I can say, Ewe Mah Gawd!!!

As a side note, I love that “katalinuhan at kagalingan” part. It serves as a wonderful reminder that at one point in time, I had brains… and brawns also.