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One Finds Friends in Unexpected Ways

Life In Italy, Musings, Personal By angkulet September 2, 2017 Tags: life in Italy, reflections, teacher, Torino 1 Comment

At the beginning, I did not want to blog about this but it gnawed on me all night. That feeling that something extraordinary has happened to me that I just have to share with the rest of the world.

What is the lesson in this story?

That it pays to be nice, all the time, even if you are being disrespected and treated badly, and even if you know it is not your fault. That one must always stand up for oneself but not lose his or her head. It pays to treat others with respect regardless of their profession and that they are truly more than what meets the eye. That is is good to apologize, to accept apologies, and to give thanks where gratitude is due.

I was thankful to the other lady who rescued me from the first one when she was beside herself in anger. And I was thankful when the other lady, after realizing her mistake, apologized to me. I accepted her apology wholeheartedly and graciously.

In memory of Franco Loja R.I.P (Greenhouse Seeds)

Franco Loja – A Tribute to Life, Passion, and Friendship

Family, Musings, Personal By angkulet January 7, 2017 Tags: franco loja, friendship, strain hunters 2 Comments

I met Loja for the second time only the day after. He didn’t have so much time. He got up every now and then to talk to my daughter in her bedroom. He stood outside her bedroom, leaning against the door, asking what she is doing, and making a comment on how organized her room is. Loja, a father himself to two boys, was great with kids. My daughter said she liked him because he was funny. And he spoke English. That was always a plus to her.

He was leaving Torino to bring his kids back to Barcelona after spending the Christmas with their grandparents. He would not be able to make it to our wedding. We all came down the stairs together, and he helped us load our things into the car. And for the last time, he hugged me, and kissed me, and said, “It was so nice to finally meet you. And congratulations.” I said thank you In Italian and got into the car. I watched him walk away, and down the street. In a black coat and a black bonnet, his silhouette barely visible in the dusk.

Life is Better with Hope

Lifestyle, Musings, Personal By angkulet January 7, 2017 Tags: environmental protection, family life, health and wellness, healthy living, homemaking, inspiration, Kondo, Konmari method, Lifestyle, Mari Kondo, minimalism, seasonal eating, wellness No Comments

Now blessed with a lovely home, I struggle to keep everything neat and organised. Pinterest has been such a great help to me these past months – assisting me in designing the flat for renovations; choosing themes and colour palettes; decorating, and now organising. I now have a good home and my primary job is to be a good homemaker.

I make weekly meal plans and grocery lists. We strive to eat according to season, and eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables from local grocers that put up stalls every morning at the square near our home. I try to live by my goal of eating natural and organic, being environmental-friendly by bringing my own biodegradable and reusable plastic bags and paper bags, and segregate our trash accordingly. We live a minimalist lifestyle by only buying what we need. This applies to personal care and even clothing. Years ago, I decided to clean out my closet. It took four years of slowly getting rid of things I did not actually like or need. Some time ago I also realised that being an environmentalist also went hand in hand with being a minimalist, so I decided to invest on good quality and expensive clothing, and made the effort of keeping and following the washing instructions to best preserve them. I was Kondo-ing even before the word Kondo came out. I am a strange person and maybe I am becoming more and more strange as years go by.

To All Things Old and New – A Look Back at 2016 and Years Past

Family, Musings, Personal By angkulet January 1, 2017 Tags: new year, New Year 2017 No Comments

Today I start the new year as a new wife. Having been married before, never did I imagine myself getting married again. In fact, I didn’t want to. I balked and bailed. I took two steps forward and one step back. I started and stopped a million times. I have commitment phobia. Maybe I even have abandonment syndrome. Maybe I have a gazillion of other undiagnosed mental disorders. Maybe I just didn’t want to be married, committed, and my sense of freedom and independence bound. Or maybe I did not want to make the same mistakes or fail again. But Lia, the light in our lives, the center of our big universe, the cord that ties all of us together, is the reason why we are here.

We All Just Do The Best We Can

Family, MOMents, Musings, Personal By angkulet April 18, 2016 Tags: family, Lia, MOMents, mommyhood, parenting 2 Comments

As a mother, I know enough not to judge anybody else’s parenting or mothering skills or approach. I always say that we can only parent the way we know how, and in the way we know best. No one can teach you to become a good mother or parent. We all just do the best we can. And this is a story of how I did it, at least in all the past seven years. Last year, I embarked on this two-month journey on my own to find myself and thankfully, I did. I came home with the realisation that I must prepare my daughter for a life without me and I came home with a journal. In this journal, I write letters to her when I can, for her to read in the future when she is much older and hopefully, much wiser. Let me share with you what I wrote on the very first page…

The Half-Rice Bill – Are You Kidding Me?!

Musings, Other Events By angkulet October 2, 2013 Tags: Agapito Guanlao, AGHAM, anti-wastage bill, half-rice bill, Mark Llandro Mendoza, rice crisis, rice shortage, Ronald Garcia 2 Comments

Yes, are you kidding me?! Because that is Lia’s favorite line and because, if you know me, I eat at least 2 cups of rice every meal. Not that it shows, but that is not the point. According to this bill, if I go to a restaurant and order a meal, instead of ordering 1 extra rice for myself for say Php10-30, price depending on what kind of restaurant, or where this restaurant is located, I will be ordering 3 extra cups of rice! And that means Php30-90 more on my bill, right? Unless of course they only charge half the price because it is only half the standard serving.

As if it is not enough that it irks me endlessly to know that we, as an Asian country, and the location of the Rice Research Institute no less, cannot produce enough rice to feed the population and have to resort to importing rice, these lawmakers have the audacity to propose a law that will supposedly reduce rice wastage. Fine, I may be one of the few who eat more rice than the usual serving (and actually have nothing to show for it) but this bill does not address the problem at all – which is rice shortage.

Mikka Wee of Pepper.ph wrote about the issue yesterday on her article, “Will Serving Rice at Half Portions Now Be Mandatory Because of a New Bill?” in reaction to the article that came out on Manila Standard Today last month, “Amid rice crisis, two lawmakers push anti-wastage bill“, while HecklerForever made mention of it in his blog titled, “Megan Young Pork?”

To quote from the article that came out on Manila Standard Today:

“…Two administration lawmakers on Tuesday vowed to file a measure that would address the P8.4-billion worth of rice that Filipinos waste every year.

Mark Llandro Mendoza of Batangas and Agapito Guanlao of Butil, chairmen of the House committees on agriculture, and on food security, respectively, said that their proposal intended to address the increasing rice prices amid uncertainty regarding rice supplies.

Once enacted, the bill would require restaurants and similar establishments to serve rice in one-half cup portions, instead of one cup each serving.

Citing the International Rice Research Institute, Mendoza said Filipinos waste rice worth at least P23 million every day, or about P8.4 billion a year.

On the other hand, the Food and Nutrition Research Institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) revealed that every Filipino wastes an average of 3 tablespoons (9 grams) of rice daily, which is equivalent to 3.3 kilograms per year.

“This means that 96.7 million Filipinos waste as much as 319,000 MT of rice annually— an amount even greater than the amount we imported this year,” Mendoza said.

Photography Journey: Early 2013

Musings, Photography By angkulet March 13, 2013 Tags: Mark Terence Sy, musings, photography, Photoshop No Comments

I said, “Welcome back to me, Photoshop. Long time no everything,” because it is only now, in the past three months, that I have opened this application to work on my photos. So long that I have, I believe, forgotten how to use it.

If you notice, I have a new watermark, and I am trying to do justice to it by putting it on photos that I am proud of myself and amusing myself with its placement every time.

If there are some differences in the ways I process my photos now, I have the following to thank for:

1. Mark Terence Sy – for the mentorship and the workshop last December where I learned a few camera tricks and tips, as well as how to use Adobe Bridge in some ways, among other things, of course.

2. My workshop classmates who basically taught me the existence of some, as well as how to use, awesome Adobe Photoshop plug-ins. I have not mastered them as I have not been sitting long enough in front of my laptop in the past months to effectively learn anything.

3. Some cheap filters that I acquired in November 2012 that I have also not mastered enough but yes, I will get there, that because they are cheap and I do not know anything, have also taught me how to use my camera in such a way that I shoot with the knowledge that I will crop the vignetted edges.

4. Some people and experiences to draw inspiration from. Not to mention infographics brought to me daily by my fantabulous Facebook feed.

Wandering Thoughts

Musings By angkulet March 11, 2013 Tags: musings No Comments

It is my first day back in Manila, after spending almost 11 days in the Visayas area – mainly in the islands of Cebu and Bohol. I have a lot of catching up to do: four months worth of photos and quite a number of blogs. My blog has been eerily quiet for the past three months. The days fly by, as do my thoughts, and my life. I try my best to keep up and basically live my life as quiet and productive as possible.

I have a lot to write about, a lot of people to see, a lot of places to go to, and it seems the days aren’t enough. Or even me, there is not enough of me. But again, I try my best to keep up.

Sometimes I do not know what exactly is happening, but I try to do things, always with my fingers crossed and hope and pray that what I am doing is right, or at least leads to something useful and worthy of the time I spend on it.

In my wanderings in the past months, I have managed to lose friends, and make friends, at the same time. Some of these friendships, I have surprisingly, managed to keep and nurture, regardless of time and distances. This gives me something to be proud of, despite many failings and shortcomings.

There have been a lot of changes in my life or the way I live it, but I am more inclined to wish that there are some changes too in the way I think and approach things, which I consider more important, for what is the purpose of changing things, when my heart and mind do not?

I once read a blog on the harvard business review website and thought about writing about it, a few months ago, when my life has not taken a significant turn just yet, but it got buried in the complexities.

It made me think about the many people that have been in, out, and around my life, and can only marvel at how much I owe them what I am. I am what I am right now because of these people, who have shaped me, and I cannot be grateful enough. I can only hope that they are as happy to have me in their lives as I am to have them in mine. All that I am, think, and do, have been shaped by the many people and things that I fit into my life, no matter how fleeting or enduring, and deep or shallow.

In the coming days, I hope to be able to post the photos from the following events since December, in my website, or my Flickr, or even in my Facebook. I have not really posted anything much. A friend messaged me last week to inform me of his observation, “How are you? You have been quiet on Facebook of late.”

Do Not Spend Your Time Crying

Musings, Personal By angkulet February 5, 2013 Tags: family, Jesse Robredo, letters, love, parenthood, personal No Comments

“According to his family, the late DILG secretary Jesse Robredo loved writing them letters. When he was in Germany for official business in 1992, he wrote this letter to his oldest daughter Aika, who was four years old at the time.

Photo from Aika Robredo/Robredo family via GMA NEWS”

I was in El Nido when news of Jesse Robredo’s plane crash reached me and I spent days, agonized, hoping, praying, wishing for the best but bracing myself for the worst, on standby for the latest news and updates by the minute, by the hour, like he was my own father. And I wondered how I could be so distressed about someone whom I have not really known.

Born in Naga City and raised in Pili, Camarines Sur, I only spent four years in Naga as a student at the Colegio de Sta. Isabel. I saw him around a lot, and his family, as I was schoolmates with one of his nieces; but being young and carefree, I never really knew him for the great man he was.

But I have been a witness to how this man transformed the city and everyone around him through his words and actions.

And I wept and wept with the rest of my fellow Bicolanos at his early and unexpected demise. And maybe, we were also weeping for the loss of the country. He was a great man.

And he was great, not only because of what he has done, but what he stood for.

Public servant, friend, uncle, husband, father.

I still wept when I saw this letter, as if I was his daughter, and understanding the pains of being separated from one’s child because you have a job that a lot of people need you to be a better person for. And perhaps, I still will when I reread it. Over and over. This sadness just does not stop; but we all have to move on, whatever it is we are going through at this moment, or this day, or even tomorrow, we just have to keep moving forward. Stand on your two feet, put a smile on your face, and most especially, do not spend your time crying.

I just feel that this needs to be shared.

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