40 Days Without Dad

It's been 40 days since my Dad passed away and the oldies say that we should celebrate it like a birthday party. The party is likely to happen at my Kuya's home (he's in Jakarta) because that's where my Mom is right now. I've requested for masses for Dad here in our Parish and I'll just prepare a yummy dinner for the boys later.

I thought I'd celebrate this day by remembering some important lessons I learned from my Dad.

On being stubborn. My brother-in-law says that we're a stubborn lot. My Dad's very stubborn too. When he's mind is set on something, nothing can really change his mind. I am the same, but I learned something when I was young -- sometimes you need to listen to reason. Read my funniest childhood memory to understand.

On curiosity. Ang batang malikot, nakakadampot ng ipot. When I was a kid I'd poke on anything that catches my attention. I learned to be very observant first before grabbing whatever caught my fancy. I learned that lesson because I literally poked on chicken poop. (It was really shiny and I thought it was a really nice stone!).

(That's me when I was a baby. A lot of people say that I look more like my Dad than my Mom. Even Picasa thinks so because it sorts me with my Dad's photos!)

On heartaches. My Dad was never emo. He thought that dwelling on emo stuff was a waste of time and he'd prod me to work harder instead. It works for me and I guess that's the reason why the past 40 days have really been exhausting (and productive).

On loving. My Dad's love for my Mom is a testament that true love exists. One of his college friends from the Ateneo said, "You're Dad is so mabait. Walang bisyo, never nambabae, kaya ayan nauna na siya sa amin!" That's when I understood why my Dad was always home before sunset. His priority was our family and he was always there for us.

(I remember this photo very well. I usually play this game with my Dad -- hide Daddy's slippers! I loved the sea and it was really difficult to get me out of the water, but my Dad always stayed with me.)

In my work uniform here with Dad. My Dad likes to have his photo taken, 

so we have a number of similar photos hehehe.  

On writing. It was my Mom who started me on writing, but it's my Dad who's the writer in our family. He can churn out more articles than me (and handwritten!). My Dad also showed so much interest in my writing. I remember catching him read my diary and some of my school projects! (And that's why my diary turned electronic haha). I hope to be able to write a book like my Dad someday.

On cooking. It was hard to be Dad's cooking apprentice. He never measured anything! It's like he had magical hands because anything he cooked tasted really good. He just told me to be generous with salt, pepper, garlic and onions.

We both had parties to go to when we had this photo taken. He just

decided to stop dye-ing his hair. It's his "Moses look" haha.

On your mission. My Dad said that each one of us have our own mission here on earth. In his last days my Dad mentioned that his mission has been completed and he has turned everything over to Mama Mary. We don't know exactly what he meant, but my Dad fought for the life of the unborn child. He made a paper on it that was submitted by the Knights of Columbus to CBCP (details are in his book). It's really amazing to see that the projects my Dad did when he lived helped a lot of people and I hope to be the same too.

I miss you Dad, but I know someday we'll be together again.

25 Years After EDSA

Happy 25th EDSA People Power Day everyone!

How time flies! Twenty five years ago I remember helicopters flying over our house every so often. Classes were suspended so I was just home listening to/reading the news and learning how to ride a bicycle. My Kuya went to EDSA and being only ten years old I had to stay put at home. One of our assignments was to put together a scrapbook of news clippings and put reactions about it. I hope I'd be able to find it somewhere. It would be interesting to see what I had to say about what was happening back then.

Wow! So much has happened in the past twenty-five years! Mabilis nga ang buhay! The past two weeks passed like a blur. I was so busy toiling. Working on things I hope would help many people. And I hope, like my Dad, that's something I'd be able to accomplish in my lifetime. I have bottomless optimism, so abangan.

My more meaningful post about EDSA is over here.

It's also been an exhausting month for me, but I completely forgot about it when Miguel presented me this -

I had to dig around to find out what it really means and I found out from my thesismate in DLSU (who now handles their MCO) that the lanyard set was sent to "top passers" across all colleges. Awesome! Congratulations to my all-around, great-genius kid!

Just Got Lucky

Chanced upon this internet cafe on the way to Makati from Mandaluyong the other day.

This song started to play in my mind -

Remembering EDSA I, Let's Do What is Right

It took me two weeks to write this post.

Two weeks ago I was feeling really blue and my Dad visited me in my sleep. The first night he was just making funny faces to cheer me up, but I guess that didn't work too much so the next night he gave me marching orders. He drove me to a 'clubhouse' to meet with some people. On the way to the venue we were talking and he told me to write about honesty. "What about it Dad?" I asked. "Just write something about it," he replied. It was then that we reached the venue, so we got off the car. I was going to ask him more about his "assignment", but when I turned to ask him he had left and I just saw the tail end of the car.

I woke up from the dream when the phone rang. It was my Tita on the other end of the line and she just called to tell me that General Reyes had died by committing suicide. I didn't get it at first since I wasn't really following the news about the AFP issue, but I felt strange that my dream was somehow connected to current events. So I attempted to write my assignment, but it was only today that I realized what my Dad wanted me to share. It took a series of events to get my thoughts organized.

Do what is right. The opening line in the Gospel today was "You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'" (Matthew 5:38). Fr. Luis explained that back then when someone killed one of your relatives, the clan would retaliate by killing everyone in the killer's clan. It was Moses who started to veer things away from that by teaching that life should be about love and relationships and not about hating your enemy. And in loving your neighbor you have to do what is right and not accept what is wrong.

Do not accept what is wrong. Yesterday my Mom told me a story about my Dad which she just recently found out. Dad apparently got a number of death threats when he was still in the judiciary. He once got a note from one of the accused in a case assigned to him. The accused stated in his note that my Dad should absolve him from the crime, if not he was going to be killed. My Dad just said that the hearing would proceed and he would decide based on the evidence.

My Mom would also receive phone calls about these threats. I remember being sent off to Baguio with my brother one Christmas season because of the threats my Dad was getting. My Dad never wavered and stuck to doing what was right. He was really stubborn about it and he continued to fight for it to the end.

Accepting what is wrong is not an excuse. Accepting something because it's "the trend" or because of the notion that "everybody's doing it" when is wrong compounds it. What is wrong, however which way you look at it, will never be right even though everyone else is doing it. White is white. Black is black. It happens all the time in many different levels, but when you look at it closely, it's just very basic. Do what is right because that is part and parcel of the golden rule, "Love your neighbor".

Driving Minnie

After dilly-dallying for a couple of years now I finally closed my eyes and jumped... I mean I finally invested on something that I hope would curb the stress of going out to the concrete jungle. Goodbye evil taxi drivers!

And since this is a totally new experience, I thought I'd journal it in my new blog, Me and My Getz a.k.a. Driving Minnie.

Cheerios!

Androidify Yourself

Got the idea to do this through Jayvee's blog (he's in Barcelona attending the Mobile World Congress). I just downloaded the app (or search for "Androidify" on the App Market), modify and go crazy and you have Androidified yourself.

Here's what I came up with - Jay, me and Miguel:

Love, Love, Love (a follow-up on Single vs. Married? Which is Better?)

Four years ago I wrote a post entitled, "Single vs. Married? Which is Better?" and strangely enough it's still getting traffic and comments! I had no clue back then about my status four years forward. Sweetie and I weren't even a couple yet when I wrote that post! It just goes to show that you'll never really know when your one true love will come because it will just happen!

I had already given up that I would find my one true love. I gave myself a deadline that if by September 30, 2007 I didn't have a boyfriend then I'd take that as a sign that I was just meant for a life of single blessedness. I was already planning on taking a PHD! Anyway, Sweetie proposed on September 29, 2007 and let's just say the rest is history!

I thought I'd make a follow-up post about the question I posted four years ago. I have to say that it really depends on the person really. I have an aunt who never married because she did not want to despite the fact that she had a lot of suitors! And she's about 80 now and still happily single. She dots on all of her siblings, nephews and nieces.

I've been married for more than a year now and I can say the fun never stops! Granted that there are things that are routine (i.e. chores), but there's a lot of stuff you can enjoy together. I mentioned in my previous post that there's a lot of dilemmas that you would go through, but I'd say two heads are better than one when dealing with disasters (read up on our disasters on our marriage blog). Life is so much better with a better half to enjoy it with.

So for me I can now say that being married is better provided you find your one true love. And for my single friends, stay single until you find your one true love! Stay away from guys who will just give you a lot of heartache and tears.

Happy Valentine's everyone!

Pambonete

Pambonete is one of my favorite type of bread. It's about the size of a baby's fist and shaped like a bonnet- pam-bonnet-e - get it? Haha. I don't know it's history, but as far as I remember my Mom would always bring home a huge box filled with pambonete and markina from the Moderna Bakery (now Casa Moderna) in Naga.   The pambonete tastes different compared to other types of bread. It's best eaten warm and is like half-donut, half-bread with a hint of sweetness. It's hard to describe, but I usually gobble up (yes, gobble up not eat) 3-4 in less than 5 minutes.

Casa Moderna is the only bakery in Bicol (as far as I know) that uses the same traditional pugon (oven) it used when it opened over 60 years ago. The oven is higher than one story and is made of bricks.When I was small I got the chance to watch how pambonete is made at Casa Moderna. Ingredients are put together in a mixing bangka (not bowl!) and the panadero mixes the ingredients by hand (more by arm actually). The dough is then laid on a baking table (everything's huge there) and shaped into small bonnets. Then the panadero puts it in the gigantic oven. I'd usually hang around to get some when they're baked.

I'm glad I got the chance to visit Moderna Bakery last year when I was in Bicol. My Dad grew up there because it was his brother who founder it. It's my cousin who runs the business now and they have several branches in Naga. So if, by chance, you find yourself in Naga City, make sure to get some pambonete! Oh, make sure you get it early because supply runs out fast!

Casa Moderna (FB page)
Bagumbayan, Naga City

Belly Dancing

No, not me! I don't want to scare off anyone, but I do admit I tried it once when I managed to get myself really fat. I bought a DVD and thought it would be easy to do. I have two left feet, so I gave up after 30 minutes of jiggling. (You can ask Miguel because he had the misfortune of witnessing it!).

I just wanted to share that I finally saw an authentic belly dancer during my trip to Singapore last month. We had dinner at Shiraz, a restaurant that serves Persian cuisine, and part of their the entertainment they provided was a belly dancer. It was my first time to watch an authentic belly dancer perform live, so I was awed by her graceful moves. Anyway, I'm not going to blab any longer and just share the video. Here it is -



The food at Shiraz was awesome too. I have a post about it at Lakwatsera Ako.

Tangled

Friday night proved to be a busy night for me and Sweetie since we had at least 6 hours to kill. The reason? Miguel's prom. To keep me from hovering and give Miguel some space to enjoy the special evening we just dropped him off at the hotel and left. (He doesn't know though that I had my head out of the window watching him till he got inside the hotel. Haha.).

So we went to Alabang Town Center to have some of my favorite spaghetti, do some window shopping, get some Serenitea and watch Tangled in 3D. I grumbled a bit about watching the movie in 3D because it's about two times more expensive and 3D glasses usually give me a headache (can't live without my eyeglasses so imagine the discomfort of putting on another pair on top of my regular one). Anyway, it was the only movie I was interested to watch and at least we got a discount thanks to the Citibank movie promo.

And... it was worth every peso spent.

The last time I enjoyed watching a Disney film was during the Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Lion King era. I've lost count on how many times I've watched those movies. I am looking forward to getting a DVD copy of Tangled when it comes out because it's definitely another magical movie produced by Disney. I could not help but remember The Little Mermaid since Ariel and Rapunzel seem to be in the same boat. My favorite character though is Maximus, the horse. The horse who acts like a dog! Maximus was both hilarious and adorable, he makes me want to watch Tangled again this weekend.  Take a look, here's a clip from the movie  -



I also took note of the fact that instead of using usual weapons - guns, arrows etc. - the main weapon of choice in the movie was a frying pan! I should keep a frying pan in key places at home!



I couldn't get enough of Tangled so the day after watching the movie I ended up watching a ton of Tangled videos from the Disney Animation Youtube channel. Watch the movie and be prepared to laugh for an hour and a half. (This movie is for kids and the young at heart and not grumpy ol' people... just saying hehe).

My Favorite Spaghetti

I have been so glum the past few weeks, so I thought I'd make a post about my favorite spaghetti. The spaghetti that's been my favorite since I was a kid =)

I've always been batugan and when I was a kid my Mom would nudge me awake on Saturdays by telling me that we are going to the grocery. That would wake me up immediately and I'd soon shower and get ready to go with her -- to the Makati Supermarket. I wasn't excited because I'd get the chance to get any grocery item I wanted (my Mom would secretly put things back on the shelf when I wasn't looking), but because it meant that I'd get to eat my favorite spaghetti!

The Makati Supermarket Coffee Shop offers the best spaghetti in the whole wide world. Yes, that is my belief and I'm glad that they still offer the same until now, except that the Makati Supermarket Coffee Shop is now located at Alabang. And I insist on dining there everytime we are in the area.

Finally got the chance to have my favorite spaghetti last Friday after we brought Miguel to the prom venue. The spaghetti tastes the same after all these years.

Yum! Yum!