One More Day

Tomorrow is the beginning of the BER months.

I know some of you will probably react and say, “it’s too early yet”. On Facebook, I saw several photos of our talented composer and singer Jose Mari Chan with captions like”lalabas na ba ako?”, “I’m coming”, “eto na”. All speak on the anticipation of Christmas. I’ve told you in my previous blog posts that we celebrate it the longest in this neck of the woods.

Jose Mari Chan is a Filipino pop singer, composer, TV host, endorser and a business man in the sugar industry. He is well known in those lovely Christmas carols that Filipinos love.

Pandemic? Yes it has changed our outlook in life, changed our priorities, changed how we view our health. We have become so conscious of it but still this virus is wrecking havoc in this world. Last year, I didn’t think of putting up Christmas decorations but I bought family gifts early braving one morning at the mall. This time though, although I am fully vaccinated and had Covid four months ago, I am afraid to go out. We could still celebrate Christmas quietly, attending evening masses online and buying small gifts to celebrate the season with the family.

Christmas is the season for rejoicing. Jesus is coming. It’s a birthday most of us don’t want to miss.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

And More Dog Stories

Nissa, Nate and I had an early video chat this morning. It is so nice to see them again.

Nate was cuddling a dog, it was quite big. I was surprised that he is no longer afraid of dogs. He used to be with Oreo, maybe because Oreo was so playful when he was a puppy. So that big dog is a three-month old pure breed Labrador which they adopted just yesterday from Obet’s sister. How nice to see them all together.

Finally, I was able to pet Nika, our other dog from the pound. I am afraid of the other one because he is not so friendly. Although he visits the garage now and then, he turns back to the garden when he sees me. He destroyed three pots of my Amazon lily.

My little Jennifer flower

I ordered a pack of rice hull the other day. It was only P30 pesos but the plant vendor had no change. I was forced to buy another pot. This plant is called Jennifer (Jenny Creeper). First to have one like this. I’d like to buy more once they have re-stocked their supplies. It has tiny pink flowers that resemble a daisy.

I have so many plants to repot but I don’t want them to be exposed to too much water, maybe I’ll do it after the rainy season.

Read Full Post »

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Joke, joke, joke😂🤣😅

Doctor : “Your Liver is enlarged.”
Patient : “Does that mean it has space for more brandy?”

(This is called “Positive Thinking!” 😄😄)

Lady to her dietician : “What l am worried about is my height and not my weight.”
Doc : “How come??”
Lady : “According to my weight, my height should be 7.8 feet..” 😜

(Now this is called “Positive Attitude” 👍)

A Man wrote to the bank, “My Cheque was returned with remark ‘Insufficient funds’. I want to know whether it refers to mine or the Bank’s”.

(This is self confidence in its peak! 😂😂)

This one is classic !!
A cockroach’s last words to a man who wanted to kill it : “Go ahead and kill me, you coward. You’re just jealous because I can scare your wife and you cannot..!!!!”
😅😅😅

Always be positive even in difficult situations 😊

Me : “Our dog is very clever. At seven o’ clock every morning, he brings us the newspaper.”
My friend : “But lots of dogs do that!”
Me : “I know – but we don’t subscribe to any newspaper!”

😜🤣🤣

CTTO

Read Full Post »

More Doggie Stories

I am featuring our two small doggies. It is International Dog Day today, August 26. Our pets are parts of our family too. 0ur fur babies are growing. Cookie turned a year old last August 22 but they celebrated it at Jovy’s grandma’s place.

• 

Here’s the latest picture of Cookie wearing a hair clip and a doggie shirt.

Compared to Oreo, she is more behaved and so malambing.

We couldn’t take photos of Oreo anymore without him moving around. Last night when I took their photos, he hid himself under the bed.

Here’s the only clear one I have of him yesterday. He is beginning to have that attitude.

Read Full Post »

Blog Update

Just updated my garden blog. You may want to visit: arlene1027.wordpress.com

Read Full Post »

Our New Doggies

Three days or four days ago, Josef and Jovy found Noki at the pound. That was the second day that we were looking for him. They approached the police and they helped them to secure Noki back since he was not at the pound. Those in charge of it know healthy and nice breed dog so they didn’t bring him there. I guess he was also traumatized. My kids would have to buy him back.

The other day, they decided to adopt a dog, a Jack Russell. I was amazed that he is a good dog. He was wagging his tail when we fed him. Noki was jealous of course, he kept on barking but when Jovy finished bathing the dog, they were already friends. We decided to call her Niki.

Yesterday, I was surprised when the small truck of the pound arrived at our gate. As soon as Niki saw it, she readily hid herself under our dining table and she was shaking. She was afraid of those men she saw at the gate. Even dogs know who cares for them and who does not. They brought with them two more dogs. Jovy paid 1k for both. I guess they are Aspin (native dogs). A female and a male. She said the male would be given to her brother. One stayed in the rain yesterday. He won’t budge. They are now in the garden but they haven’t adapted yet to their environment.

I pity the poor dogs, those in-charge of the pound euthanize them after three or four days when nobody claims them. I bet they eat them too. They sell those which other dog lovers like. Josef and Jovy took pity on the two dogs. We cannot pet them yet because they are still afraid of us. They need baths too. It may take sometime before we could even play with them. The male one destroyed my Cosmos seedlings which I planted at one corner of the garden. He slept there last night.

So now we have five dogs in all, Cookie, Oreo, Noki, Niki and the new one. Dogs are family members too. The last three are our guard dogs.

Read Full Post »

Something Nice….Memories

I dreamt again of the old house my maternal grandparents had in the province. I remember that in each window, Hoya orchids were always in bloom. One of my aunts (who is now 98 years old) took charge of growing plants while my oldest aunt had a small sari-sari store in our barrio then.

My brothers and I spent the first four years of our elementary school in our barrio except our youngest. When we three older kids were already in high school at the University of Santo Tomas, my youngest brother was transferred to the public school near our place in Quezon City.

I remember those years spending the first six years in a public school. I started in Grade one, no nursery, no kindergarten. It was just a two-room school house with two teachers. Grade one and Grade two were in one room while the upper grades were in the other. One of our teachers was mom’s first cousin.

Being in a public school here is very different from spending in a private school. In the former, we were taught to take care of the plants planted in the school yard. I spent my last two years of grade school in our town proper. My classmates and I were divided into groups because after school hours, we were obliged to clean the room. Since the flooring was wood, we waxed it every Friday and used coconut husk to clean it.

Us girls had this Home Economics subject where we were taught to keep house, cook, embroider, crochet and make a simple budget. I love that separate building where we spent our H.E. class. It was complete with a bedroom, a small comfort room, living and dining rooms where we had our classes and a tiny kitchen where we learned to make fruit preserves.

I got a shock of my life during my first year in high school. I was a probinsiyana and my classmates then came from different schools in Manila and chose University of Santo Tomas to finish high school. Back in our time, it was not even a co-ed institution. We were separate from the boys. They belonged to the afternoon session. We even had separate entrance and exit. I enjoyed my nine-year stay in UST. Took up BSC Economics and worked as a student librarian for three years. Hence the love of books.

Oh, oh, remembering the years, the life of a younger Arlene.

Happy weekend.

Read Full Post »

Thursday Blues

WordPress says I should blog today but I deliverately postponed it because I got so engrossed reading.

I started a biography of Barack Obama by David Maraniss. Two years ago, I read Michelle Obama’s memoir entitled Becoming and I enjoyed it. I wonder if The Making of the Man is just as good. The book started with his family tree. Since it is pure narrative at the start, I read some short stories in between.

It’s been more than three months now since we had Covid and everything is back to normal if normal means you can now stay in front of the stove, prepare meals for the family, garden and sweep the yard, clean the house and read of course. There is nothing normal yet in my sense of hearing. Group discussions, listening to music and watching movies are still so noisy for my ears. But I could well understand a voice and calls over the phone now.

Life is definitely silent. Last night, I ordered online items from Lazada. You have to pay a minimal forty pesos for each item when you are ordering from different vendors. I’ve come to appreciate some Korean items. Lazada was on sale last August 8 and some items are still on sale until now. They deliver the goods after a day or two. You can even buy appliances through Lazada.

It’s Thursday night and I usually read until 12am most of the time. I don’t wake up early anymore. Josef and Jovy are still working from home, I think since March last year. JP Morgan hasn’t scheduled their vaccination yet.

I laughed when Josef opened our screen door and our two doggies Oreo and Cookie were excited to go out. Oreo was circling the garage but when Josef opened the door of the car, both of them climbed in. They had their check-up today.

I don’t know if this lockdown would end on August 20 as planned. I don’t even know how the Dept. Of Health could readily classify this Delta variant, based on their daily reports, those affected are increasing daily.

Read Full Post »

For My Friends Out There

Let us play a game to break the monotony of not being able to go out because of Covid.

Here’s how:

Describe Love in four words.

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Finding Him Finally

Jovy and Josef cut off their office hours ( they work from home) at around 10am today. Somebody called from the dog pound. They were there yesterday to inquire about Noki.

He is home now. Josef has to bathe him then he had his lunch. Oh my, I cried seeing him again. Thank God.

Read Full Post »