I Lost Another Rosary

I cannot remember when I started wearing a rosary in my pocket. I cannot even remember how many I have lost. I used to wear black beaded rosaries initially but I eventually loose them and bemoan how expensive they are. Since then I started wearing the brown wooden ones. I love the rosaries I have lost because all of them are the ones I have put my strength and devotion in through the rough times in my life. The prayer have guided me when my thoughts hover all over the place. Before the rosaries were placed in my right hand pocket but since I wanted to make my body symmetrical for the feeling that I have been using the half of my body most, I flipped the orientation of things in my jeans pockets. So there, I lost the rosary I have been using since fellowship. I thought it will suddenly turn up in my clothes or room or the car, but its been five days now. Now i officially declare that it is lost and I opened a plastic case of the rosary given by the Carmelite sisters last year.

I just took up Oil Painting Classes

My teacher called my work emotional. I don't know what is emotional about a green cup with a pink background, but painting class sure makes me focus my anxieties on a piece of canvass. I get frustrated when I cannot work out a figure and get flustered with joy on a piece well done. Each session gives me new insights into different techniques. Just when you though you knew it all, on the next session, the rules gets changed or improved. Ah, the wonders of the medium never ceases. If you happen to be in need of a good destressing hobby, then painting is it. You can get lost while painting in a canvass.

Dumaguete, Apo Island

All I know about Dumaguete used to come from my readings and its fame as the very first city to offer a writing workshop in Silliman University. Images of a tree lined boulevard by the sea and the iconic Silliman Hall are staples of documentaries and picture books on dumaguete. Beyond these, Dumaguete offers a myriad of places and activities to fill up a vacation without being bored. Being groomed as the next tourist itirenary with its neighboring Cebu and Bohol, Dumaguete is on the right tract.

By now the city has a very cosmopolitan air. With tourist flocking the area near the sea and expats with their Filipino wives building beach resort after beach resort along the shore.

I hope it does not suffer the fate of Boracay. At any rate it was good that I have been there first before that happens.

When in Dumaguete:
1. Visit the St. Catherine of Alexandra Church and the famous belfry.
2. Visit the mini-zoo which houses flying foxtrot (the inspiration for dracula turning into bats), the rare Philippine spotted deer and the wild boar.
3. Visit the seaside resorts like Santa Monica
4. Visit the mountain resort Forrest Camp.
5. Visit the Silliman marine life museum.
6. Take a Silliman University tour. See the iconic Silliman Hall. The very old water fountain. The teacher and student dorms. The grounds with old acacia trees. They say although the College of Music has only one student it was not phased out because it was the oldest college in the university.
Walking the grounds, I am reminded of the Ninotchka Rosca's short story of the lady violin teacher having an affair with her student on a southern university town. At last this could be the place of inspiration.
7. Eat at Malatapay. Original home of the Sutukil. Take one fish a make soup from the head, grill the tail and toast the belly in vinegar. That's sugba (grill) tula (make soup) and kilawin. Every wednesday is market day. The place turns into a festive chaotic scene of a fiesta reenacted every week. With rows of stalls selling fresh seafood and livestock and vegetables from the mountains and the nearby islands. Get the feshest seafood and vegetables and ask you favorite cook the prepare them exactly the way you like it.
8. APO ISLAND. If you are into snorkeling and diving, this is the place to be. Not for the faint hearted though. Be ready for a rough boat trip to the island with constant spraying of seawater as the boat splashes against the waves even on calm days. The snorkeing area is fantastic. Although not as good as El Nido. Except for the rough waves and sharp rocks that caused my bruises while maneuvering into the waters, it was a good experience. Take a picture from the rock formation in the island and then buy t-shirts from the lady vendors. Plan to go early in the morning because the waves are really rough in the afternoons or stay the night at one of the resorts and then go back the next day.
9. Sans Rival. Indeed the pastry shops in Manila faces a tough competition when you taste the heavenly-mouth-watering-to-die-for silvanas from this famous restaurant.
10. Take a walk along the Boulevard at night. There are several gourmet restaurants doting the strip. One can get the traditional grilled seafood dinner, or eat italian, japanese and swiss. "Why Not" was our instant favorite with their breads baked fresh daily. Try the cereal bread which is the best bread in town, by the way. Choose from a variety of pates or ham as filling. Get the curious looking cookies shaped like bread with different flavors and wash it down with coffee.
11. Bethel Hotel. Clean, spacious, quiet, by the sea. It is the best place to stay when you are in the area. Eat the bubod. Suman or sticky rice with millet seeds.

Macbook Hate it !!!

It was a toss between the smallest Vaio and the black Macbook. It was really the sleek lines of the Vaio that I was attracted to, but the 1.2 Hz bugged me plus the unavailability of an international warranty and the thought of having to buy anti-virus systems yearly just to keep an investment safe made me buy the 2.5kg black Mac. Of course it saved me the hassle of buying the antivirus, but little did I know I have a new ballgame all together with my purchase.

First, it does not run on Windows yehey I'm virus free. But I have to learn how the whole Leopard thing works. So half of the time I am lost in the new screen maze I am overusing the help function of the computer. Next there is supposedly a way to work windows vista with all the added software into the computer. Hell who really knows how to do that except some mac expert who is nowhere in sight at least five hundred meters away from where I live.

So here is the deal. Next time I buy it does not have to be that conservative thinking of not paying off for a antivirus software or warranties. As with my previous computers I never needed them anyway. I still have to see what is the great advantage is using a Mac.

Uniquely Singapore

Everytime I come back to this city state I discover something new. It was a difficult decision to come back and spend my vacation here. I told myself I have seen enough of the country to last me a lifetime. But I was mistaken. We were billeted this time at the opposite end of the Singapore river. The first night we went for a walk along the banks and discovered a lot of things that amazed us. The bridges vary in design and purpose. My favorite of course is the bridge painted by Pacita Abad. The establishments delighted us and was like an urban Boracay. The next day we toured all the museums along the civic district. The Singapore Arts Museum it turned out was a former Catholic school with the image of St. John Baptist de la Salle on the entrance. The National Museum was exhibiting Greek masterpieces from the Louvre. The nearest thing I can get a view of the works before I can afford to go to Paris. Of course, the Esplanade has always been a focal point of all my satys in the island this time I get to watch performances. I got to tour Little India longer compared the last time when I got scared by the idea and the smell. But it was ignorance as I found out. The people in Little India were the best and friendliest among all the areas in the country I've been to.

So why do I keep coming back to Singapore? It's not the usual thing all the time. It changes. It's vibrant. It's uniquely Singapore.

The Talented Spin-off

We have been glued to the blog of Brian Gorrel and the misadventures of DJ Montano and the Gucci Gang for quite awhile now. It has validated that mysterious reason why I prefer the Inquirer over the Star.

I never could explain why, but I never liked the Philippine Star ever since and have not read it except if it's the only paper left when the stewardess is handing out the papers at the start of the flight. I would agonize over columns written like elementary school kids and an occassional romp by a high school magazine editor.

Anyway, I refuse to think they can do it but what I am afraid of may just actually be happening. I have heard the stories my friends using the internet in China and not being able to find any google results for some terms. I didn't believe it. i told them it could be a glitch. Until the past four days of attempting to open Brian's site, the site downloads after scrolling a few lines the screen suddenly poofs, I get a scrren that tells me I have no internet access. Is it a virus? Or there is now an existing overlord of internet blog posts? Democracy ending in a medium that was suppose to propel it. Let me be the first one to say good-bye to an era.

Rice Shortage

The rice I grew up eating was fragrant and had a bite on chewing. It is called kinanda and does not grow on wet rice paddies but rather on dry land ploughed starting the onset of the rainy season and harvested in early december. No one plants this variety of rice anymore. It consumes a lot of overhead expenses and harvest comes only once a year. In short farmers are at a losing end when they plant this variety. I saw my father loose money for several years when he was planting this variety until he eventually gave up on cultivating rice and shifted to livestock.

I do not know about the agriculture situation at present having committed the worst crime of a son of a farmer, forget about the land. What I know is that when I start farming, the problems that will beset me will be more than handling patients at the hospital. First raising capital is not that simple. The bank has interest rates like they should be the only ones who should profit. Next there is the uncertainty of the harvest including pests and bad weather. Next there are farm hands who does not only do the worse jobs, but poach from your produce. And then there are the neighboring farms who do not respect your privacy. And then there is marketing of the produce. The prices are so low that only the middleman gets the beef. So in the end its the farmer who suffers the most. He does the work and everyone else gets the profit.

Other farmers have moved on and taken lives away from the field. Or the field have taken another life. When I was young when you drive throught the south super highway, all you can see are long strecth of rice fields. Now only housing projects and industrial plants liter the scenery.

I do not condemn development. But I condemn the process by which we are developing. Our leaders do not have foresight. No one is planning for us. Nobody foresee anything except the end of each leader's term.

Unless we see ourselves in such bad situations, only then will we realize that we have to change things. So bring it on. Let's have all kinds of food shortages, increase the price of fuel and transportation, provide no health services. Let the people know what it's like, so they will wake up from this long long sleep.