The Joys Of Summer

Back to the grind. Ah,  I mean back to blogging! It’s been a while.

I got so engrossed finding new books and new authors for Goodreads’ 2015 reading challenge. I’ve finished  twenty-three books out of the fifty that I promised myself to read this year. YA books, Chick Lit, classics, fairy tales, you name it, it’s a random list of them all.  My last read would be the memoirs of course, save the best for last 🙂 Back when I worked as a student librarian at the Humanities Section of the UST Library, I encountered so many classic books but I didn’t have the chance to read them except for a few titles like Gone With The Wind, Crime and Punishment, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and of course some of the  books of the Bronte sisters. Balancing a full load in my Economics course and a six-hour job at the library was quite hard and I missed the chance to read all those classics.  When I started working, my reading genre changed a lot. I found new authors, more books to read and collect. Anna Karenina and Doctor Zhivago remained on my wish list though over the years. Yesterday, I found a copy of the latter and just started reading it a few hours ago. A fellow blogger and a friend at Facebook sent me the link to Lara’s Theme, the soundtrack of the movie adaptation of Doctor Zhivago.  What a lovely idea, I got more inspired. It’s a long read…perfect for the summer days ahead.

This morning, our ISP was changed from SmartBro to HomeBro. HomeBro is owned by the largest telecommunications company here in our country, PLDT. Since SmartBro is now under PLDT we have to switch to  the new one. HomeBro Ultera includes a built-in wi-fi router so we have to set aside our old router. I quizzed the three installers who took care of the installation and they said that this is definitely faster than the old one. We’ll see. I don’t download much, it’s more of internet search and blogging.

I wonder who is more excited, the mommy or the baby. Nissa has enrolled Nate to summer  school and today is his first day in class. She wants Nate  to learn to interact with other kids. I think it is a 12-session class at one hour and a half every other day. Kids nowadays are so smart. Last night he said, “I’m going to school Nonna”. Pretty excited too, I guess.

Are you shy Nate?

What am I doing here? haha…

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Think Summer

When the sun shines longer each day, it’s summer.

When the wind blows early in the afternoon  diffusing the heat of the morning, it’s summer.

Many of us look forward to summer despite the fact that a day could really become a scorcher. Summer for school kids means a long, long vacation. Summer gives you that perfect excuse to stay longer under the shower, find a nearby place that has a private pool to visit,  go to a beach and soak under the sun or if you just want to stay at home you can join your little kids  in their inflatable pool.  My son loves  to wear the most tattered and frayed t-shirts during the summer months, you could almost see several little holes in them. He says it becomes more comfortable with frequent washing.

What I love about  summer is  the profusion of different kinds of flowers. Sometimes, when you are lucky, those  few annuals show their heads and surprise you with lovely blooms.  Fruits are also something to look forward to.  Mangoes are the best fruits you can find in our neck of the woods. I haven’t visited Pasig market yet but I am sure there are plenty of star apples now, honeydew melons, mangoes, water melons, pineapples, papaya and many, many more.  I am looking forward to tasting sineguelas (Spanish plum)again.  Don’t you just wish you could enjoy drinking fresh buko juice everyday which is so healthy and beneficial to your health? Fresh young coconuts  are available in almost every corner of the neighborhood.  Singkamas (Jicama) as we usually call it  here are  aplenty  during the hot summer months. I know some call them turnips but it is not the variety of turnips that you usually find in other countries. Although it taste bland to some people who are not used to it, it is one of my favorite root crops.  They are best eaten cold with a little salt and vinegar used as dip. They are also mixed with other vegetables to make spring rolls. I haven’t tasted lomboy (we call it duhat in Tagalog and Java plum in English) for quite sometime now but I remember the days of old when my cousins and I would pick these juicy fruits when school is out. Armed with bayong or baskets, we would climb trees  even under the heat of the sun and gorge on the plum, juicy fruits.

There is a fresh mango smoothie cooling in the fridge. It’s definitely summer.

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April Comes Too Soon

We have just been told that today, April 1 is the official start  of  summer. It’s funny really since here we are, a little anxious about a coming typhoon which reports say would be a really strong one. I am keeping my fingers crossed that when it reach Philippine shores it would weaken and let us enjoy the weekend. Easter Triduum will start tomorrow and there is Easter Sunday to really look forward to. This morning my son asked me if we will be able to do our annual Visita Iglesia  as we planned. I told him that if the weather gets really worse, we could just visit our Parish and  do our Fourteen Stations of the Cross there. What is important is to spend  our time in prayer, do our own reflections and remember that this is the most important occasion in celebrating our faith as Catholics. Time to reflect, time to give thanks, time to celebrate God’s overflowing graces. I remember a Lenten recollection I attended a year ago and the priest asked the participants what is their favorite passage in the Bible and most of us had the same thoughts and remembered these words:

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish  but have eternal life.  – John 3:16

This is the message that the season of Lent brings. Pope Francis in his 2015 message for the Holy Lent reminded us to ask the Lord: “Make our hearts like yours”, a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference.

April.

It’s stuck in my head again. Every time April comes, I remember it.  And I sing, silently. My April dreams sometimes are just that, dreams and longings, pleasant thoughts that slowly unravel and envelope me in the comfort of tears. Oh yes, you might wonder, I cry when I am happy. Over the years, silence has become a friend, a friend I seek and welcome.  I need not speak of my thoughts (the words would not  come anyway) but silence is there waiting for me to break into a song.

♫♪♫Little did we know

Where the road would lead

Here we are a million miles away from the past

Travelin’ so fast now There’s no turning back

If our sweet April dream doesn’t last♫♪♪

Here comes April and summer memories.

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