Mama's 80th birthday

These are the slides from the power point presentation shown during her surprise birthday party at Fairchild Cafe.

Ramilo Reunion 2006

Reunion held at Ate Norie's videoke place in San Mateo, Rizal on December 30, 2006.

Ling's House Blessing

Family affair only with close family friends, the Cosios. Blessing was by Fr. Jerome Cayetano, SVD.

Grocery Store Wars

My Bench

I no longer sit there. No more brooding over lost loves and friendships. No more regrets over what might have been and what I should have done.

I will sit there again soon. To give thanks for the gracious blessings of family and friends who have stayed. To reflect on where I am going and to conceive in my mind how I will make my dreams come true. 

Nature according to me

My chalk and oil pastel interpretations of the Lord's glorious creations!

Christmas decor mania

I couldn't resist the call of making my own Christmas decor. Especially since I could get the raw materials from the source and I know I could replicate if not create more exciting versions of the beautiful decorations in department stores, at maybe half the cost. So upon the suggestion of Mia, I have posted them here for everyone to see.

LCM

My Love Affair with Meringue

I bought this cookbook last week just because it had a recipe for meringues in it. Looking at the picture, I could almost taste the sweet, satiny texture of this simple, straightforward concoction of egg whites and sugar. Instantly, my endorphins kicked in!

I've had a long standing affair with meringue. I think it must have started when I was in elementary when Roxanne Arcilla sold little, pink and white ones to us, her grade 6 classmates. From then on, I've tried any version I could lay my hands on. There was the cheap, firm kind you could buy in the sari-sari stores. Then there's small, white airy ones made in Lucban, Quezon in those cans with blue and white labels. But my all-time favorite are those from Panaderia de Molo - the light beige, slightly burnt, gooey ones with casuy. Last night, I had a taste of Parisian macaroons in Bizu. I'm guessing that somewhere in the heart of that dessert is meringue, what else. From a melange of flavors and colors, I chose only two: rose and caramel. Wooh, I thought I was in meringue heaven!

When I get the time to bake (which I probably never will!), that picture in the cookbook will materialize to feed my senses. In the meantime there's dark cherry, mint, vanilla, lemon, etc. calling out to me. Soon, my loves, soon!

MULA SA AKING BINTANA

                            Image by Gari Buenavista (http://pananaw.multiply.com)

Agaw-dilim, Agaw-dilim

Bakit pangamba ang dulot mo, agaw-dilim?

Katahimikang bumabalot sa naghihingalong araw

Bumubuhay sa mga alaalang nahihimlay.

Agaw-dilim, malupit na agaw-dilim

Sa iyong pagyapos, tila lakas ko’y nauupos

Ulirat ko’y pilit ibinibigkis

Sa mga pinipilit limuting hapis.

Agaw-dilim, agaw-dilim

Pakiusap ko sa iyo, agaw-dilim

Aking tanong, ihatid sa puso ng tinatanaw ko

                                          “Paminsan-minsan ba’y naaalala mo rin ako?”

Automatic Confession

Just in time for Holy Week!

Villa Escudero 2006

The Darwin kiddoss were over for Christmas. Here they are enjoying the man-made falls and the swimming pool of the resort.

Bong's birthday

Start:

Nov 22, '07

When I turned 50

There was no big celebration. I don't even remember what we did on that day. More significant was the personal retreat I had in the Dominican House of Prayer in Tagaytay. Two days of looking inside of me, taking stock of what I've become so far.

Kara's high school graduation & dance

Graduation held in Club Filipino - April 10, 2005

High School dance held in ... - April 17, 2005

Silver Wedding Anniversary Celebration

Pighati sa UP Sunken Garden

Green upon green
Grief upon grief
On my bed, On My bench
A face I cannot recall, Words that I've been waiting for
They are one and the same.

The tears on this breezy morning are not new
The salt stings, they blur scenes
Played in a mind that foolishly hopes
Images of waiting...waiting in vain.

I don't want this, I no longer need this.

The well of despair in my being
I will dilute
With the cold green tea in my hand

The spark of the forgotten feeling
I will douse with lines
From the pain-drenched journal in my other hand

I will let the scent of newly-cut grass
Soothe me, intoxicate me
Until the longing is no more.

Family Portraits

Primadonna pictures

These were taken to accompany an advice column I was supposed to write for a glossy fashion magazine. Wrote the first column and posed for these pictures but alas, the magazine never came out.

Graduation pictures

More pictures

http://myspace.com/jangrc
More pictures in another site

Do penguins fly?

Kiwi!

Memories of my neighborhood in the 60s & 70s

You are of my generation and a certified Quezon City resident if you remember:

1. The Ysmael Steel robot on Espana Extension (now E. Rodriguez Ave.) which seemed to be 100 ft. tall. A joke went this way when I was in high school - "Gusto mo ng summer job? Malaki ang suweldo pero madali ang trabaho. Araw-araw, ipapasyal mo lang yong robot ng Ysmael Steel!" (Oh well, it was funny then!)

2. The Malt Shoppe on Timog Avenue. That was soft-serve vanilla ice cream in a blue paper bowl. You had a choice of different syrups and toppings. My favorite was caramel syrup with nuts!

3. The creek you could cross from the street behind our house to get to Sampaloc Ave. (now Tomas Morato Ave.) Once my yaya picked me up from school and we used this way as a shortcut to go home. I slipped and fell, getting all slimy and wet. Bistado ang yaya! Nagtitipid pala. We walked home when we should taken a ride home.

4. The original tiangge on Morato Avenue. It started out as a flea market selling antiques. The front of the Morato building was transformed into a flea market on Sundays. There were lots of interesting stuff which I couldn't afford to buy but I looked, anyway. Then the range of goods expanded and the parking lot wasn't enough. So some people moved to a vacant lot somewhere in front of the original site. Soon the whole length of Morato would be filled with stalls selling what have you. (One Sunday we even rented a stall to sell blankets. I think we sold one). But after a while, Manoling Morato, the man behind the concept realized he had created a monster (as in monster human and vehicle traffic jams!) and stopped his tiangge in the original site. It would last a few more months until a building was built on the vacant lot. It died but without spawning into various forms and in different locations in the metropolis.

5. Timog Ave. and Sampaloc Ave. without the restaurants, bars, and shops. These streets were pleasant, tree-lined residential areas housing genteel people in large, sprawling bungalows.

6. Vermont's Modiste Supply on the way to Kamuning market. It was a treat looking at the multi-colored threads and buttons, the notions, the odds and ends which made H.E. life more fun than it really was.

7. The original Max's Restaurant on Scout Tuazon St. When all they served was fried chicken. When you could take-out fried balun-balunan (gizzard) and atay (liver) in little paper bags. Yummy! Everyone knew where it was because when people asked directions to my house and I said "malapit sa Max, they never got lost.

Please add your memories to this list!

Ling's Birthday

Start:

Nov 30, '07 08:00a

Yehey!

First day of classes for the 2nd semester, 07-08

Start:

Nov 9, '07 08:00a

Why oh why on a Friday, no one knows!

Bangkok 2006

Kara opted to celebrate her 18th birthday by visiting and SHOPPING in Thailand. No big coming-of-age party for her!

Bong's Awit ng Petiburges

 http://media.imeem.com/m/iy-ptEdJ2_/aus=false/

Cantiller Family 2006

Aparri

Photos from my celfone...Where the South China Sea and Cagayan River Meet

One more

May oras pa ba ako para sa isa pang blog?

Ang mga papel, laptop, at libro nga ang katapat ko ng ilang linggo na.
Laman ng aking mga panaginip at pangamba.
Ito dapat ang tapusin ko at hindi magsimula ng iba.
Ngayon, at now na!!!

Hihirit pa ba ako? Napatula na nga ako kaya eto na ang unang blog entry ko! Hay!

All Souls Day

Our words immortalized in Ling's work in granite.

We remember our dead today. We look back at the last days but we try to forget all that which caused us doubt, confusion, and pain. We recall how we smiled at the foibles of old age. The scent of tears, we smell when we glimpse once again the last attempts at living.

We forget. We weep. We forgive. And we love forever.





(See http://tibok.multiply.com for Ling's other works )

The Look

There's a story behind the look. Someone described me in this picture as "radiantly beautiful". But this person might think twice about saying it again if it were revealed how the image of me got that way. Well, the secret is about to unfold.

A request from the editor of a glossy fashion magazine for a columnist from our department was referred to me by my boss. With little hesitation, I agreed to write an advice column and one of the requirements was I had to submit a picture they would put with the column. So after I had written, submitted, and edited the final version of the column, my work got the editor's approval. But not the ID picture I submitted along with the column. It was too teacherly, perhaps. Not consistent with the image of glamor they wanted to project.

So they scheduled me for a photo shoot. Huh, me in a photo shoot?! What happens there? What do I need to do? What clothes should I wear? PANIC! But the editor told me to just relax and they would take care of everything.

And take care of everything they did. The shirt in the picture is theirs, way too large for me but held back behind me by a bulldog clip to make it appear it fits me perfectly. The lips are Angela Jolie-like (Well, not really!) because of something called "Venom". It's like a balm applied to the lips which plumps it up (As warned, it did sting a little). My straight-as-a-pin hair was made even straighter by a straightening iron. And smeared with gel in some places to make stray wisps of hair behave. Of course, there's the foundation and blush expertly applied to disguise the brown spots and wrinkles and instead show in-the-pink-of-health cheeks. And then the eye make-up to open up my eyes some more! Even my smile disguised my wicked thoughts then. "Why am I subjecting myself to all these just to be able to see my words in print in a magazine?"

Yes, this picture was a result of a conspiracy to fool those who would behold it! But you might think that surely there is something in the picture that is genuine. Oo naman - my shoulder, the color of my hair, and my pearls!

So those of us who admire the models and actresses with seemingly blemish-free skin in the magazines, think again!!! If an ordinary person like me could be made to look this way, how much so with the celebrities whose bread and butter depends on looking glamorous and divine?

And incidentally, the magazine never came out (But that's another story)!