A September Hello

One more day to go

the BER months are coming.

May your September be

full of fun and blessings.

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Conquering Your Fears

91% done! Ayayay 🙂  Did you know that I finished two books in three days? And that is why I missed blogging again. I was quite engrossed reading. I am almost there, nine books more to go before I finish the challenge and that means 25 books ahead of schedule. I read a lot at night. The best way to spend the time before going to sleep. Sometimes, I could consume two hot mugs of tea in different flavors of course. I have Manuka honey,  cranberry and ginger now by Lois tea. I alternate it with the Twinings flavors that we bought earlier.

I had a dream last night but it was kind of weird. I dreamt of riding a ferris wheel, a big one at that somewhere in Tagaytay.   It does exist and is called Sky Ranch, a 5-hectare leisure park south of Manila. I don’t know which is better, Enchanted Kingdom or this one.  I’ve been to Enchanted Kingdom during one of Bank of PI’s family days.  My two kids have been there a lot of times and enjoyed the rides.

The truth is I am afraid of heights  (you may visit the link I posted above,those rides in Enchanted Kingdom). Even a height of 20 floors in our  office before makes my knees shake and wobble.  It still does when I go to places high enough for me to look down. The first and last time that I rode a ferris wheel was when I was in high school.   Years ago when we were still living in Quezon City, we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart during the months of June and usually, ferias in strategic places were constructed and one of them was the ferris wheel.  Feria is a Spanish word meaning carnival or a festival. That dream that occured last night is an antithesis  of my fear. I was actually enjoying the ride. I don’t really know what it means.

Had I finally conquered it?

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It’s Definitely Yummy

More than a week ago, I talked to one of my nieces (wife of my nephew  from a  first cousin). They have also set up a small business aside from their old one. They called it  Breadville. So we talked about  the different breads that they make – cookies, muffins. the latest craze now here called ube pandesal,  banana bread and cakes too. Tina learned baking when she stayed in Ireland for a year. I was surprised this afternoon when she called me up asking for our address because Jeff wanted to send banana bread so I could taste their products. I told them, “baka malugi kayo” because deliveries are definitely costly aside from the bread of course. They were generous enough to send me these two loaves of banana bread…..yummy!

The one we opened have different nuts on top and it is so delicious. Paired it with a new blend of Twinings’ Four Red Fruits and it’s perfect.

What blessings!

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On Blogging Still

Come to think of it. I read complaints about the new editor recently introduced by WordPress. Nope, I am not yet that brave enough to try it, maybe until we are all obliged to switch to  the new one. Why fix it if there is nothing wrong?

I am still using the free platform, careful enough not to post high resolution shots that uses my limit.  Anyway, I have set up a new blog called  Dreams Never End about four years ago and some of you followed it but sad to say, I haven’t updated it for quite some time. It is a different set-up from this one since every post is accompanied by a high-resolution shot, pictures I  took long ago.  Then I have Colors set in a duotone and I just love it but like the other blogs I have, it is not updated. For my new followers, you may visit them if you have time. I have a gardening blog too and Nate’s of course. You can all see them on my personal links on my blog wall.

I have yet to thank all those new followers who left some comments in my blog but some of them never came back….haha! Thanks too for the bloggers  I follow and who follow me back.  There are only some loyal  bloggers who like and make comments on my posts. Oh yeah, visits have reached almost 623,0000 now and active followers are maybe about 30 to 50 more or less, some just follow without any interaction.  I wonder if they ever read anything here. And I agree with Pete, some follow one’s blog so you could follow them back.  One important thing that we should not forget though is the blog content. It is not enough that we just write, there must be something that other people could relate to for your blog to be called a success.

I guess, blogging is here to stay unless we find it more difficult to navigate this site in the near future. Change is welcome but it must be user-friendly too, don’t you think?

 

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Eight Days To Go

Nah, I am not counting the days till  Christmas, I am counting the days till September 1. And that’s eight days till September 1. Curious? I bet.

Our famous singer/composer. Jose Mari Chan would say, “I’m coming, I’m coming”. He is the first voice you’ll hear come September 1 because  music airlanes  somehow conspire to play his songs by then.  Jose Mari Chan is one of the famous faces of Christmas. Among his popular songs which they usually play on radios are Christmas in our Hearts and A Perfect Christmas.

Yes, the start of the BER month is coming. It’s the beginning of Christmas celebration here in the Philippines. Let’s forget Covid for a while.

Remembering those days in grade school.  At the start of December (we had Christmas break then), we would decorate some small tree trunks without the leaves and are usually painted white by our teacher. Back then, Christmas trees as we know now were practically unheard of in our school in  the barangay. Garlands would be crepe papers of red and green (those are the Christmas colors we knew then), stars that  we hung on the tree are from the silky inner wrappings of cigarettes cut into small stars with  ball thread. Art papers in different colors are also used for decors. You can make them into poinsettia flowers, ribbons, wreaths and what have you. Small boxes are wrapped to place on the tree branches while some bigger but empty ones are placed under the tree.

culled from the net just to show you how it was done.

Of course we had exchange gifts too at the last day before Christmas break. We had singing and dancing and sometimes declamation contests too. Usual gifts we received during those times were a pair of  face towel and bath soap, pencils, candies, toothbrush paired with a little box of toothpaste, and small things that a child of 7 to 10 would appreciate. Our teacher would bring a “bilao of bibingka” which we usually share after the program.

Those were the days. A simple way of celebrating Christmas but they were fun days too.

 

 

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Sweet Sunday

It didn’t rain yesterday and the sun is shining brightly this morning. Took advantage of it and gardened for a while. The squash I planted didn’t grow well, the leaves are yellow and have holes in them so I removed the plant this morning. I cultivated the soil, removed some weeds and arranged and replanted some of my prayer plants growing side by side with the squash before.

I have plenty of Crossandra seedlings growing at the back of the house, they are self-propagating. I transferred  some of them to the area where the squash used to be. When they bloom, the orange flowers are lovely.  The rain lilies are flowering too. I only have the pink ones, I wish I have other colors. Wonder of wonders, my lone Kamuning plant is flowering again with that lovely scent close to Gardenia and Jasmine. I am thinking of transferring  some cuttings in a pot then plant them later direct to the soil when they have sturdy roots.

Though I wear gardening gloves,  sometimes I prefer my hands bare. It feels so nice when you can cultivate the soil with bare hands and you can arrange the plants nicely.  There is something incredibly satisfying about getting your hands in the dirt and watching your garden grow as you nurture each plant.  Blisters, scrapes and cuts, not to mention the soil embedded under  your nails.  Gardening is not what it would be without getting your hands dirty. Do you agree?

Starting early and finishing the task before catching up with the 8am Sunday mass online. Happy and blessed Sunday folks.

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Know The Difference

Got this on my feed at Facebook today. Sometimes, most of us are paranoid that a simple cough or runny nose is a sign of COVID-19. When I feel that I have a sore throat when I wake up in the morning, I  chew a little fresh ginger and let its juice slide down my throat and it helps big time.

I lately learned that in some hospitals,  in almost every case of death, they link  it to COVID-19 and some of them charge Philhealth so much. Did you know that there is a case of 15B missing in Philhealth’s coffers?  Corruption is rampant everywhere and I find it funny that every time we discover such, the heads of such likely corporations end up in wheelchair. Talk of Ex-Justice Corona, Pres. Gloria Arroyo, Pres. Erap Estrada and now the head of Philhealth begged to be excused from the Senate hearings because accordingly, he is on chemotherapy. The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) was created in 1995 to implement universal health coverage in the Philippines. It is a tax-exempt, government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) of the Philippines, and is attached to the Department of Health. A lot of people are clamoring for the resignation of the Dept. of Health Secretary but the president would not let him go even if it is obvious that the department is being mismanaged and they don’t even have complete plan to address this pandemic.  Philhealth is the only hope for us Filipinos when we are hospitalized and yet they are saying that by next year, there will no longer be funds that could be reimbursed for each patient/member  of it. Where could you find that the head/task force leader in this pandemic is a retired Army general when most nations have doctors/epidemiologists/ science researchers in their midst. Only in the Philippines.

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What A Lovely Place

I had a good chat with Fr. Lovell last night.  I consider him my oldest son. He  said before that I am his spiritual mother. He was transferred to Angelicum Iloilo sometime last July  and he is now the official treasurer of the school. He told me to google Lizares Mansion which is now called  Angelicum School – Iloilo.

According to Wikipedia, “Lizares Mansion was built in 1937 by Don Emiliano Lizares for his wife Concepcion Gamboa and their two sons and three daughters, the mansion has three floors, a basement and an attic. It has a winding wooden staircase and big bedrooms with floor and doors made of hardwood. It has 59 doors which indicate the intricacy of its layout.”

Facade of Lizares Mansion from TripAdvisor

In 1962 the Lizares Mansion was sold to the Dominicans. In 1963, it was converted into a House of Formation for young Dominicans in the Philippines.

In 1978, the Lizares Mansion compound became the home of Angelicum School Iloilo.

Fr. Lovell told me that he likes it there and hopes to stay longer because he will be taking up his doctorate degree soon.  We had this standing joke that he would like to stay there until he is 55.  At age 55? That would be 16 years from now.  Oh no, by the time he might be transferred to UST, I may no longer be able to visit him…haha!

Fr. Louie, another Dominican and is our chief administrator at Filipino Catholic where I serve as one of the admins posted this photo on his wall at FB.

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Be Strong And Courageous

My gosh, I got so excited when I saw it.  There are several designs actually and all with Biblical passages. One of the vendors in our  subdivision is selling them. Although I have lots of cloth face masks,  I’ve been using one since I was operated on eleven years ago, I bought this because I love the message it conveys.

I may not have the chance to use it, I have more than a dozen washable face masks here and also N-95 and  ordinary surgical masks.  I like looking at it and  I am uplifted by its message.

BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS!

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Messenger Chats

I was surprised to receive a message from Nissa early this morning asking me to add Nate to my list of contacts on Messenger.  Only Messenger is installed on my tab, no FB because I use it for my e-books. Nate prefers video chat where he can see me. Our conversation goes like this:

Nate: Hello Nonna  (with so many love emoticons). I Love you.

Nonna: Love you too baby. so glad to see you online.

Nate: I am studying. (Nissa says he had live lessons a couple of hours ago).

Nonna: Study well and please don’t go out.

Nate: I won’t Nonna.

A few minutes ago  he called me up again and he said he is on a class break.  I asked him if he is enjoying his online study and he said, he does. Well and good. Nissa created Nate’s messenger account so they could talk when she is at the office. He knows how to send a text message now but is still quite slow. Oh my gosh, my message chat box is full of emoticons from him. Now we think of it, I know it is not that healthy to let kids stay too long in front of their tab or PC but that is the new normal now….online learning. They could adopt to it but there is still a need for supervision from parents especially those kids as young as Nate. A teacher friend told me that only two hours continuous stay in front of a computer is allowed and in-between they should rest.  Nate said his class is until 1:30 pm.

This pandemic is changing lives and we are forced to adopt to it.

 

 

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