Life, Take 2

April 12, 2009

Reasons and Seasons

img_4239-medres

This is an old email making its rounds up to now. I decided to post this here because its words hold a lot of meaning for me these days. I have had the chance to reflect on how people come into your life, make an impact, then go. Many times, you see the blessings in the presence of these people. At other times, the experience is painful and unexplainable. This Lent, I have been reminded of one thing — to trust in God’s Divine Wisdom. Everything in our lives happens for a reason.

I want this poem to constantly remind me of this so that when I lose people who come into my life, I would be reminded to turn to Him who will never leave me.

A Reason, A Season, a Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are.

They are there for the reason, you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people any way; and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

April 3, 2009

Book Launch: A Time for Dragons

We almost missed this book launch.

M1 was eager to go to this one because his teacher, Vincent Simbulan, was launching an anthology of dragon stories written by a pool of authors including himself. But when we went to Shangri-la Plaza Mall last March 26, there was no such event!

Thanks to a heads-up by Dom Cimafranca, my online contact who happened to also be one of the authors, I found out that the launch was for March 29 (not the 26th) in the mall. So much for date mix-ups!

A Time for Dragons (under Anvil Publishing) is a collaboration consisting of 17 short stories and 1 essay by Filipino writers who, as stated in Anvil’s website, “aim to present the dragon in new and inventive ways, and to renew and refresh the dragon for a more sophisticated and mature audience”. Vin Simbulan mentioned that unlike other parts of the world where the dragon is often depicted as an evil being (including in the Bible), Asian dragons were depicted as heroic, gentle creatures. Even the cover of the book was truly a work of art. It was awesome! And when we met the illustrator, Andrew Drilon, who did the cover as well as all the illustrations inside, I remember thinking how young he was. Truly gifted!

Here is the book’s Table of Contents to give you a flavor of what is inside.

“Glass” by Nikki Alfar

“Dragon Brother” by Cyan Abad-Jugo

“The Annotated Account of Tholomew Mestich” by Elyss Punsalan

“The Clockwork Dragon’s Heart” by Vincent Michael Simbulan

“Moondown and Fugue” by Alexander Drilon

“Gunsaddled” by Alexander Marcos Osias

“Lex Talionis” by Paolo Chikiamco

“The Final Tale of Zhang Bai Long” by Elbert Or

“A Fishy Tale” by Apol Lejano-Massebieau

“Johnny Tatô and the Dragon of Pasig” by Joseph Nacino

“Capture” by Gabriela Lee

“3:30pm with Sir Galahad” by Kate Aton-Osias

“A Change of Guards” by Oscar Alvarez

“The Fossil” by Angelo R. Lacuesta

“A Little Knowledge” by Dominique Cimafranca

“The Bridge” by Yvette Natalie U. Tan

“Fallow’s Flight” by Dean Francis Alfar

“Dragons Among Us (Essay)” by Charles Tan

Book signing followed after the launch and M1 got each of the authors (at least those present) to sign NOT on the introduction pages but on the 1st page of their respective stories. How’s that for being different!

Some pictures from the launch follow:

M1 with his professor/author, Vincent Simbulan

M1 has his book copy signed by his teacher — M1 has his book signed by his teacher

April 3, 2009

MV Doulos on its last voyage

Through the newspapers and blogs of some friends, I found out that MV Doulos, the world’s largest floating bookstore was making its last voyage. It was actually here last December 2007 and that was supposed to have been its last trip to Manila but they decided to extend their Asian trip and return in 2009.

Right after the Krispy Kreme event in Makati, the 3 kids and I traveled to the Port Area where we were directed to the ship. We had to walk a short way, line up (thankfully lines were reasonably short), pay P10 each (M2 was exempted due to his age), then work our way up the steep ladder to the ship itself.

Here is some trivia about MV Doulos and its last trip to the Philippines:

* Doulos is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest active ocean-going passenger ship.

* Doulos is owned and operated by Gute Bücher für Alle e.V. (Good Books for All) – a charitable trust, registered in Germany. The ship is registered in Valetta, Malta, and so the Maltese flag is displayed at the stern of the ship.

* It has received over 20M visitors, made 500 ports of call, visited >100 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and many island nations

* Its volunteers (over 300 of them) come from 40 countries, mostly young people who dedicate 2 years on board.

* No crew or staff, including the captain, receive compensation. In fact, each one of them has to raise the funds to cover the expenses of their stay on board.

* MV Doulos is supported in the following way: Half of the funding comes from the volunteers themselves, their family, friends and supporters; 25% comes from the sale of books and other items on board; the last 25% comes from gifts and donations by individuals, trusts, foundations and community groups.

* On this last voyage to the Philippines, the Doulos volunteers tutored 36 hearing-impaired students in Cebu. Prior to these lessons, the kids were also taught woodworking, welding and soap-making at their school.

That was a terribly humid afternoon and the bookfair area was NOT airconditioned. But despite it being on its last few days in Manila, the bookfair still had so many visitors, including children. I noted that most of the books were Christian books and books for young children although they had other books on health, the arts, food, sports, science and philosophy. CDs were also being sold (mostly Christian) as well as Doulos souvenirs.

We came away with a Doulos souvenir book, a Doulos plastic glass and M1’s book on scientists. Not much, really. We could easily have bought that in an ordinary bookstore. But I wanted the kids to experience Doulos because of its historic significance and because we may never get this chance again. I think the kids appreciated the experience as well because they did not complain as much as I expected. M2 even went up to one of the foreign volunteers before we disembarked and chatted him up. He was told that there could be plans to transfer the bookstore to another ship. Let’s hope so…

Here are some pictures of that afternoon.

Kids at MV Doulos

Me at MV Doulos

M2 on his way up MV Doulos

Bookfair view of MV Doulos

Checkout area with view of Doulos Cafe

With a Doulos volunteer

April 2, 2009

Krispy Kreme brings on a Chocolate Karnival

When I brought 3 of my blogger kids to Bonifacio High Street’s Krispy Kreme (KK) to attend the launch of their chocolate doughnut line, I thought we would just go there, listen to an introductory speech, be treated to samples of the doughnut and that’s it!

What greeted our eyes when we came down from the car was this — a full carnival at KK complete with clowns on stilts and bikes, carnival music playing, lots of games for the kids inside, and free-flowing doughnuts and beverages. They even had a Leaning Tower of Pisa Chocolate made of KK boxes!

Krispy Kreme in carnival mode

Brewed coffee served at your table on demand (woot!)

My kids had fun playing the games like Doughnut Ring Toss, Stack It, Speed Stacker and Pachinko. M2 met this 11-year old speed stacker who truly amazed us with his stacking abilities. Mind you, he stacks cups 3 levels high in seconds!

img_6025-lowres

Pachinko

View of the Doughnut Ring Toss and Stack It games

The Leaning Tower of Chocolate

Another view of the Leaning Tower of Chocolate

My mommy blogger friends came with their young kids. It was my first time to see most of the kids whose names I was already familiar with via our online communications so it was a thrill to meet them. My own kids seemed so grown-up beside all these young ones!

Lunch was served to us all – pasta, sandwiches, chips & dip. Afterwards, there was a magic show inside (but there were so many people already that I dared not try to squeeze my way in.

The assembly line of Krispy Kreme was covered with a brown curtain. Wow, that made the unveiling of their new chocolate line even more exciting. I got a good view of it as I was standing right at the entrance to the production area. When Az was allowed into the area, I instinctively followed him, as did Noemi. Only the 3 of us bloggers got INSIDE! But…we were required to wear the KK hats for good measure.

From our vantage point, we were able to see the glazed doughnuts roll down the conveyor belt. The chocolate syrup was flowing and everyone hooted and clapped as the first line of doughnuts went through the chocolate “waterfall”, coming out on the other side with dripping chocolate syrup. Yummmmmy!

This picture, courtesy of Noemi, shows me eating the chocolate glazed doughnut fresh from the production line.

Taken by my friend, Noemi

Here is a short video of that moment. I got to interview Az as he took his first bite of the chocolate delight.

My kids and I had a blast that afternoon. Never mind the summer heat. The fun, carnival mood made us forget the humidity. And the company was just purrrrfect…

On your next visit to Krispy Kreme, do try all their chocolate varieties.

Glaze your friends too! Visit www.chocolatekarnival.com.

April 1, 2009

Urban Time’s Brand Ambassadors

Urban Time, the country’s upcoming and hippest watch boutique, introduced its 5 brand ambassadors to the bloggers last March 25.

Urban Time SM North EDSA Mall

The search for 5 young girls to become the icons of Urban Time were launched on the web. Part of the scoring came from online votes while another part came from 3 judges, one of whom was my good blogger friend, AJ Matela.

In the end, 5 young and vibrant girls from 5 different schools made it:

(L-R) Miki Hahn from La Salle International, Portia Silva from Ateneo, Anna Monica Villaverde from Trinity University of Asia, Stephanie Sol and Rachel Rustia from UA&P

Continue reading “Urban Time’s Brand Ambassadors”

March 31, 2009

Tales of Busy Bee Me

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

It’s that time of the year when taxes fall due.

Since my Dad passed away in 2001, I have taken the cudgels for settling the yearly real estate taxes for some of his properties, including one belonging to my uncle (his younger brother). We normally pay the entire year’s taxes in order to avail of the discounts. What was supposed to have been the usual round of tax payments turned out a bit different this year. I was told at the Pasig Municipal Hall that I now had to go all the way to Antipolo to pay the taxes. So tomorrow, the last day of March, I head out for Antipolo to do my citizen’s duty.

In a few weeks more, income taxes fall due. Even now, hubby is busy attending to his clients’ financial statements and audits. I do not need an alarm clock to wake me up. By 8:30 or thereabouts every morning, his mobile starts ringing or the telephone in our bedroom does. And sometimes, it is the client wanting to fax the financial statements for his review. I am steeling myself for the amount that will need to be paid in addition to what has already been withheld. Crunch time…

* * * * *

When It Rains, It Pours (literally!)

It was another one of those Murphy’s Law stuff.

Hubby had purchased roof tiles to replace our old, galvanized iron roof. The carpenters were waiting for a truly dry spell to start and a few weeks back, they thought it was a good time as any to do so. On the first day they set out to tear open the galvanized sheets, the skies began getting dark. They spread a tarp over the exposed roof part but not well enough. That night, the rains fell really hard, water slid to the part of the tarp that had a hole, ran into the open roof area, and before we knew it, it was raining INSIDE our bedroom!

Thankfully, the downpour was on a part of the room that did not have much furniture so we had time to move stuff out of the way before they got real wet. The leaks came about an inch close to my side of the bed and missed me — just barely! Some wooden parts of our bedroom ceiling warped terribly and had to be changed. I still see other parts beginning to warp and guess these will need to be replaced too. *sigh*

The blessing in all this though was that the water came to our side of the room. Had it gone the OTHER way, there would have been a lot more damage because in that room were the computers. M1’s iMac and our brand new printer/scanner would have suffered the greatest water damage.

* * * * *

School’s Out!

All the kids are home most days. It’s summertime!

But with so much time on their hands, you get the intermittent “I am bored, Mom!” comment.

Years ago, I would get stressed finding things or trips to entertain them. After a while, I gave up and told them I was not their entertainer and they had to find things to do. Summer sports or arts programs were the in thing then so I enrolled them in swimming, cooking, chess and whatever they fancied. Now that they’re a lot older, they thankfully leave me alone most days as they play computer or video games amongst themselves.

However, with M1 entering his last year in high school, one of the things we had to do very quickly was find a good review center for him to prepare more for the coming college entrance tests. I took him to review centers close to home and though he initially was reluctant to review at all (one of his good friends kept saying he did not need to — a view I took exception to), he finally agreed to enrolling in one review center. It turned out to be the same review center the 2 girls went to before. I knew the Directress of the review center and actually liked them for their low student-to-teacher ratio as well as their 95+% record for gaining entrance into the top 3 schools (UP, ADMU and DLSU).

Realizing however that summer is the only time I can truly bond for longer periods with my kids, I have taken them to blogger events that cropped up in the past weeks since they are all bloggers anyways. And I am planning some educational and fun trips around the metropolis also for them in the next few weeks. They are growing up so fast that I feel I need to do these things with them now before they totally outgrow me!

* * * * *