Happy Friday🥰❤️🤩

The sun is shining bright, perfect time to visit the garden again. For the last two days, I did a bit of gardening very early in the morning and late in the afternoon, I was able to trim and shape my Fukien Tea plant. And my sweet-scented Camia and Kamuning are in bloom again.

I don’t know why but I have suddenly lost interest blogging every day and visiting other blog posts. But I can’t just ignore blogging, it has become a way of life for me.

It’s cheat day. Once or twice a month, I let my ears rest from wearing my hearing aids. Kind of weird not being able to lie down and take a nap when I am wearing them. When I go out, it feels so inconvenient wearing eyeglasses, face mask and hearing aids all at the same time. You might ask why I still wear face masks until now. The truth is, when I was done with my chemotherapy almost fourteen years ago, I started wearing one every time I go out of the house. I have lots of cloth face mask in different colors but when the pandemic struck, I switched to N95 disposable face masks. I have low immunity that is why it is so easy for me to get sick. The effect of chemo is long-term.

Been reading non-stop. Found these lovely e-books lately. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay was just so arresting. De Rosnay offered a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under the Nazi regime. Sarah locks her younger brother in a cupboard in their apartment before the French police took her and her parents to a detention center before being sent to camps in Southern France. Along with another child, she was able to escape and taken cared of by a French family. Sarah is a Jew. When she came back to their apartment, she found her young brother dead. The story revolves around her life since then. I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Sparks Like Stars, one of Nadia Hashimi’s new books. She is one of my favorite authors, an Afghan-American. I am fascinated by Afghanistan’s history. Read several of Hashimi’s books in the past. This is another ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me. The Last Green Valley by Mark T. Sullivan is a historical and incredible story of daring, survival and triumph. It deals with a family from Ukrain who were forced to evacuate the harsh realities of war under Stalin’s forces. One more ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me.

I have alway been fascinated by historical novels but I love poetry and memoirs too. Peter Mayle is another favorite. Loved his Provencal life. Sadly though, he died in January 2018 in Mènerbes, France.

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Everyday Life Nowadays

Okay, I am blogging offline, will have to publish this when we have internet connection. The past two days, Globe Telecom has been down. I wonder when it will serve our connection again. Though I could blog and read other blog posts, they are not updated on my tab.

I usually wake up at 5am almost every day except when Josef reports to the office three times a week, from Monday to Wednesday. Since Jovy brings the car to work every day ( she works different time), Josef takes a ride with his officemate who lives in the town as ours. They pass by every day at around 4:50 am since our street is a short-cut to Pasig area then to Bonifacio Global City where JP Morgan Chase is located.

You know the morning routine of a senior citizen like me. I sweep the yard, clean the dogs poop, water my garden plants, then hose the garage. I clean the house first before preparing breakfast. Since I only take plain oats and nuts every morning, I only need hot water for it and for my chamomile tea. I only prepare breakfast for mom and Josef. He works at home twice a week. By around 8:30am and 9am, I’m usually done with the morning chores. Lunch is at 12pm. I take a slice of whole wheat bread with what dish I have prepared earlier. Then I’M FREE.

Take that to mean the rest of the afternoon is my “me” times when I am able to read and update our Catholic page and group on social media where I’m one of the admins. Reading takes the cake of course. I recently read two books which I both rated five stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

Home Before Sundown was written by Barbara Hannay while The Sweetness of Forgetting was penned by Kristin Harmel. Both are new authors on my list. I just copied some lovely words from Harmel’s book.

– the dawn’s narrow finger are just reaching the horizon

– life changes you, even if you don’t realize it while it’s happening, and it turns out you can’t take back the years that have passed by

– you do not always have to see something to know that it is always there.

Presently I am reading We Were The Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, another e-book about the holocaust. Seems like an interesting read too.

The mother of a friend died and they live in the same town as we do. My friend and her family are coming home from Australia and we’ll see each other tomorrow together with some priest friends and brothers from the Society of Saint Paul. Fr. Pao will be celebrating mass.

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The Tin Man And Other Stories

It’s been a while! And that means it’s been three days since I last posted here.

There is nothing much really except I got caught reading some books that I just could not put down.  Would you believe, in all the years that I am into reading and  discovering new authors, this is the first time I encountered a story like this. Tin Man by Sarah Winman is vastly different from the young adult books that I used to read before. It tells about alternative lives, two boys and a girl caught in a love triangle. The first part of the narrative tells the story of Ellis who wanted to be an artist but his father was opposed to it. It tells the story of two teenage boys who fell in love briefly then Ellis got married and Michael became the best friend of his wife Annie.  The poignant remembrance, the memories kept in between the years. The second part tells the story of Michael  and being caught by that dreaded disease. It tells how he treasured those early days of his friendship with his best friend Ellis, the impact of grief, love lost and loneliness.  It is actually a short book but made an impact to a reader like me.  I also read some excerpts on Timeless Moments by Michelle Kidd, another new author in my list.  I started earlier with Stephen Orr’s Time’s Long Ruin but I got confused by the character so I switched to another book called Welcome to Harmony by Jodi Thomas. It is actually the first book in a series.  I wish I could find the other books.

When books reign in your world for a while, you forget to update your blog….haha 🙂

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Monday Musings

Gosh, three weather disturbances just waiting in the offing.  I hope they won’t turn into dreaded typhoons. We are having monsoon rains, those type that won’t stop in a blink. Honestly, I hate monsoon rains. We still have at least a month probably before the end of the rainy season, sometimes though, strong typhoons still happen during December.

My son Josef who is so fond of playing games in his cellphone and in my computer, downloaded some games on my tab. I am not really into these online games which take so much of one’s time once you start playing one. He said that I could play them when I get tired of reading. Haha!  I have the block puzzle and I am trying to reach more than 1,000 scores on the classic level but all I was able to reach so far is a measly 931. It’s not really that hard but you need a little strategy to get a high score. He also downloaded Wordscapes which I like better  than the block puzzle. Creating new words out of four or just five letters with sometimes only one vowel. Great! I am challenged by this. Sometimes, one thinks of longer words but a three-letter one does as well.

He asked if I want movies downloaded on my tab too. I don’t. I rather  watch one on YouTube when I feel like it (on my computer with the bigger screen, that is). There are several Tagalog movies that come free but I am not into watching films because I easily get bored and sometimes the story seems like culled from one of the books I’ve read before.  Playing music is better for me.

I am presently reading this book about the life of  Hedy Lamarr which was written in fiction. But who  is Hedy Lamarr? It’s the first time  I heard of her. She is Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, an Austrian-born  American film actress and inventor. I am still in the middle of the book but I find it an engrossing read. I would love to know what her scientific contributions were to the world.

Starting Monday right. Getting in touch with some friends via Messenger and trying to reach out. Have a nice and lovely week ahead everyone.

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More Books…On A Thursday Morning

It is cloudy but it is not raining. PAGASA says that the official rainy season will start in two weeks. I love the rain but I hate the flood. I think we are the most- prone country when it comes to typhoons. We get an average of 18-20 weather disturbances a year.

My gosh, every day I wake up earlier than usual. This morning I was awake at 2:30 am. Couldn’t sleep because of my throbbing knee. The pain is tolerable  but I can’t find the most comfortable way to sleep. It feels better when I sit or walk.  Imagine, loading the washing machine at 3 am. Done at 6 am. Such is the daily and weekly routine of a senior citizen like me.

I had time to read though. Done a reread on one of Danielle Steel’s books entitled Remembrance. I read it seven years ago but I could no longer  remember the story. Aren’t I lucky? Found another book, my second one of Ruth Reichl, another gourmet memoir entitled Save Me The Plums. I  am excited to start it soon. I am still looking for her other books. They were highly recommended by a friend.

I am still in the middle of Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain. The prints are so fine that sometimes I could not read them for long. But this kind of memoir really needs a longer time to digest  and peruse. There are still so many new books I haven’t read. Time is of the essence.

I have a  lone Adenium in a large pot. Lately I noticed two pods growing at the tips of the plant. I didn’t know this is where the seeds are. You just have to wait for the pods to mature. What a blessing.

Adenium seed pod

 

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The Bell Jar

Ah, we really had nothing in common except we share the same birthday. The very first time I discovered her works, I was working at the Humanities Section of the UST Main Library. Ariel was the first book I read of her. Then last year I found a copy of The Unabridged Journals  of Sylvia Plath. I read a few paragraphs in between my Goodreads’ reading challenge. She kept a diary during the last twelve years of her life. Her life was tragic. She died at the young age of thirty.

Finally I found a copy of her book  The Bell Jar  which is a sort of semi auto-biography of her.  This has been on my wish-list for so long. I was curious to find the real reason why she  committed suicide aside from the fact that she was betrayed by her husband later in their married life.  I am still curious to read about her life.

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy”.

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Becoming

The last time I really read a good memoir was when I discovered Peter Mayle’s books two years ago. I read all of his three books entitled A Year In Provence (giving it  a five-star rating on Goodreads), Toujours Provence and Encore Provence. Back then, I couldn’t get enough of how he described his adventures and life in the south of France. I even googled all those places that he mentioned in his books.  I got sad though when he died last January 18, 2018 at the age of 78. He was a British author.

Then here comes another book that got me hooked up to the last page.

Becoming by Michelle Obama.

Of course we all know who Michelle Obama is, the first African-American First Lady of the United States. The book of course is not about politics. It’s about the life of a future First Lady from when she was a child growing up with her brother Craig on the South Side of Chicago.  She belonged to a middle class family, graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. The book speaks of the times when she was a child until her family left the White House after eight years.

From time to time, I would read some quotes of hers but I was never curious to know how she lived her life as a mother to two beautiful kids and the wife of Pres. Barack Obama. Becoming is an intimate account on how experiences have shaped her, a warm story-telling of her life as a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother and eventually as the First Lady of the United States of America. With honesty and wit, she described her disappointments and triumphs in life.  Her beauty, elegance and intelligence were clearly manifested in her detailed descriptions of how life was back then.

Here are some  quotes that I jotted down while reading the book.

“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”

“For every door that’s been opened to me, I’ve tried to open my door to others. And here is what I have to say, finally: Let’s invite one another in. Maybe then we can begin to fear less, to make fewer wrong assumptions, to let go of the biases and stereotypes that unnecessarily divide us. Maybe we can better embrace the ways we are the same. It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about where you get yourself in the end. There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.”

“Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.” 

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MND

I am venturing into another memoir, It’s Not Yet Dark. The author is practically unheard of, at least in my reading journey.  Simon Fitzmaurice, an Irish film-maker, was given four years to live.

I researched what MND (motor neurone disease) is and  it is another term for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ). It is an uncommon condition that affects the nerves and brain. It progressively damages parts of the nervous system.

The first time I heard of this disease was when I read the inspiring book Tuesdays With Morrie. Morrie was afflicted with the same ailment and a former student of his documented it.  I watched the movie adaptation too.

I promised myself I would read other memoirs  for my reading challenge this year. I’ve only just started  and it is definitely engrossing. What does it mean to be at your lowest of low and those moments when your health is compromised? Short of saying, “I’ve been there, done that”, you always cling to the hope that you will get well in the end. Despite everything, you cling to your faith that everything would be okay, that you will live a normal life again. It’s hard to get sick, and it is even harder to maintain that composure amidst hospital and doctor visits, laboratories, drugs and low self-esteem.

It’s Not Yet Dark!  It’s my 13th read for this year. I got a feeling it would be another unforgettable read. I have just finished a historical novel set in Tuscany. I love anything that has Tuscany in it…haha!

Here’s one quote that I love about It’s Not Yet Dark.

“Our lives are not the legacy we leave behind, or the value of the work that we do. Our lives happen in between the deeds and ideas that define us.”

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On A Quiet Journey

Yes, Saturday is family day.

Saturday is time to relax.

Saturday is  time to read.

This is one of those weekends that there is not much to do at home except read, read and read some more,  browse a little at Facebook and visit my wall at Goodreads.

Yesterday, I finished re-reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The first  time I read this book was more than four decades ago. I was in college then. Treated it as one those book reports that one has to summarize as a requirement in an English subject.

Reading it today,  it gave me a little more perspective. Oh yes, it is a love story. Jane Austen  wrote this more than a century ago about the English gentility.

It seems somehow different from when I read it the first time more than forty years ago. The story is a rich-boy-meets-poor girl which has been adapted in so many story lines in recent Tagalog movies. The long conversations, not familiar with it anymore. Overall though, the novel still carries that long ago thrill and excitement in reading again a Jane Austen book.

This is my first classic book read this year. I gave it 4 stars at Goodreads.

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My Virtual Life

I didn’t really expect anything from this book. I seldom read YA books now since I found so many new authors that I like. A light read actually.

It was a nice surprise though – a coming of age story, relationship between mothers and daughters, friendship, love of animals and most of all blogging.

I love how the story revolved around Tara and her mom. Fellow bloggers would surely appreciate how this was told through Tara’s blog. You know, those day-to-day happenings in a young teenager’s life, her dreams and aspirations, her love-hate relationship with her mom and her discovery of her extended family. Her blog was entitled Lonely Girl and the book ended when she gave up blogging, lonely girl no more.

The last time I read about a book premised on the  blogging world was when I encountered Julie and Julia by Julie Powell.  There was a movie made on this starring Meryl Streep. I enjoyed watching the movie so I bought the book but I was not able to finish it. I only reached page 50. The movie adaptation was so much better than the book.

My Virtual Life is my 9th read this year.

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