Summer 2

My eldest son gave us this giant watermelon because he's feeling generous and grateful. He got promoted at work and the big boss is sending him to Dubai. My daughter Christine suggested we take pics first before cutting up the melon.

The real Philippine mango is all yellow. This is a different variety as it has a reddish bottom(?).

This is like a bonzai rose plant. The flowers are too small, just the size of a penny and is aptly named pitimini.


Summer is never complete without the steamed crabs. There's even a recipe where the crabs are marinated in beer and called Drunken Crabs.

Summer

the gumamela in my sister's garden



It's been a year since my last post, now that's incredible.

There's this little headache - forehead over right eyebrow to be exact. I want to drink extra strength coffee but I have promised myself to quietly quit so I made myself bland, thin coffee just so I can say I had coffee. Like a placebo effect har-har.

It's the middle of summer and it's very hot out here. Makes me wish I were a fish or better yet a mermaid so I can stay in water all day. And at night I wish I can pull my bed and bring it outside and sleep under the stars. Summer is lovely time of the year when flowers bloom and there are many summer fruits in the market. I just got to thinking, it's now the 52nd summer of my life and it was awesome. I want to press my hand on my chest to feel the beating of my heart. There's this nice feeling like joy, like comfort, like confidence, like peace... like I have never known pain, or fear, or sorrow, or suffering...

Never Before Batch '74

Gonzalo Malihan aka Gonzy was my Editor in Chief at our school paper publication Ang Maglalala (The Weaver) Filipino Edition. At his left is Mrs. Constantino our Guidance Couselor and at his right is Mrs. Lumague our class adviser.




Engr. Soledad Cruz is my bestest friend in high school. She invited me to sleep overnight at her house and we shared 35 years worth of stories, happy and sad till the wee hours of the morning. Before I left for Manila, Sol's husband Levi picked mangoes, bananas, and papayas from their farm for me to bring home. They were such sweet, lovely couple.




Mr. Tolentino and Mrs. Grcia, my Geometry teachers. Everyone cheered when Mr. Tolentino was able to guess who I am. Well I'm his best pupil, ok, ok?










Last Saturday, April 26th Mariano Ponce High School class batch '74 held a Grand Reunion. Most of us classmates have not seen one another for 35 years already so you should know how glad we were to be reunited even for just one day. We felt like we were in high school again and we had fun remembering and each other's names and faces. Back in senior high we were just sweet sixteen then. Now we are 50 or 51 years old already. Some of our classmates have not changed much as in the girls still look pretty and the men still look handsome.

Batch '74 Grand Reunion was attended by five 5 sections namely - Mayon, Arayat, Banahaw, Makiling, Samat. Back then our sections were named after Philippine mountains. Anyways, each section prepared a presentation which were entertaining and funny. Section Mayon, where I belonged prepared a retro dance number. The key dancers wore retro clothes of the 70's - mini skirts and fishnet stockings. We even dressed up Manuel Aquino, our Chinese looking classmate with the same dress the girls wore and he was knock out queen of the day. Sadly when our turn came to dance, the cd of the music to which we will dance will not play! So we were not able to perform and our president announced on the mic that there probably was a sabotage. Lol.

Anyways, here are some pics.

The Lake in Taupo

I forgot to ask my sister the name of the lake in Taupo. It was a beautiful lake with a warf. The water was very clean and clear you can see the sand and peebles beneath. I think the place was very romantic and I wish I can have a house by that lake. Lovely.

More NZ Pix

The tea served before the noodles was bland and tepid.




The menu book of the Vietnamese restaurant where we had dinner.




The seafood noodles which tasted sweet came with bean sprouts and lemon.




Viet me. We were making fun of the spoon (?) which looked like a mini laddle.

Asleep as Lard

It's fun to edit the layout of my blog. It's like repainting and redecorating my room. The color idea came from the flower in the blog header I took while in NZ. It was actually the first flower of the plants my sister plucked from the garden of the campsite where she works. I planted the plants in my sister's own garden and watched the flower from tiny bud to full bloom then I took the pic. You will see the date when it was taken at right corner of the pic altho I'm not really happy with those scandalously big numbers in there.

This Sunday morning I woke up at seven to prepare myself for church. I tried in vain to wake my daughter up as we have planned the last night to go to church together. She sleeps like lard as the saying goes. I have taken a bath, have worn a nice Sunday dress, made up my face, sprayed myself twice with perfume and still the daughter was as asleep as lard. I opened my computer to check mails and then I went to blogger, then to flickr, then to composing a post and the plan to go to church was finally called off as the daughter was still as asleep as lard.

Well, the real purpose why I'm posting today is because I want to share my insights into this quote from The Shack book by William P. Young - "God has no expectations, just expectancy." It was delightful to finally realize that God because he is God and is complete in Himself does not expect anything from me actually. All he has for me is expectancy. He joyfully expects the best to happen to me. He waits patiently, with expectancy until I learn to trust fully in his love and goodness. I am the center of his affection and I am loved by him with a love incomparable. While reflecting on this, it gradually dawned on me - what reason is there to be sad, what reason is there to be afraid, what reason is there to feel hurt when someone so loving ang so good holds me close to his heart. It's simply awesome!

Nothing at all

I was first very excited as I thought I can finally post my beautiful NZ pics here now that my usb cord has arrived. I left it in NZ along with my other things and my sis shipped them after me. It was very frustrating because it takes forever to upload in here blogger and then in the middle of forever it aborts. Haruuump!

So your irregular blogger has nothing much blogworthy to show off. Valentine's passed by without fanfare and me without a Valentine even. At least as a consuelo de bobo, Betina and Chloe came over to say Happy Valentine to Lola. Betina's first baby tooth fell on Valentine's day also and I want to take a pic of her with one missing tooth but Beti will have none of it. She said lola will only post her pic on lola's blog and it's a very shameful thing. Aaaah!

I have to finally settle for another Phonak model for my heaaring aid as the one I showed off to everybody in my last post was very noisy. The upgrade cost me an additional 18,000 pesos. My experience with hearing aids has shown me that there's no perfect hearing aid for every individual. There is always a problem or imperfection. The upgraded aid is not very noisy, yes but speech sound is not very clear. I think I have to try different brands for longer periods of time but hearing aid centers in the Philippines cannot offer such choices to its customers. Anyways, my resolution is to just accept the new aid from God's hand and thank him for it.
Amen.

My new diary gift from my sis Luisa also arrived with the big box from NZ and I'm writing entries in it ala Bridget Jones using v. for very, etc. but minus the entry for alcohol, cigarette and calories as I dont drink, smoke or pig out. On Friday, the 13th of Feb I wrote - Box from NZ arrived today. God has no expectations, just expectancy.