Saturday, December 06, 2008

Sentimental Fool

What a sentimental and romantic fool doing on a wintry day like today.

Just to let my favorite people know how this old sentimental and romantic fool is doing these wintry days. It has been cold for over a month here in Virginia.  Of course cold is a relative word.  To me it’s cold when I can’t go out to play golf and that’s when it’s below 50 degrees.  But looking at the brighter side, 40 degrees is a lot warmer than a lot of places at this time of the year, upstate New York and Chicago for example. So what do I do on days like these, besides going to the gym, reading books and watching TV, TFC—the Filipino Channel? 

On a wintry day like this, I find myself being nostalgic especially when I looked at the bare branches of the trees at our backyard through the glass wall from the computer station downstairs. Maybe that’s why we have winter to give us time to reflect. Somehow moment like this always brings me back to my youth. And when fortified with songs, like Let Me Call You Sweetheart and Stardust on the background where else one could travel to but back to memory lane.  I don’t know about you but in my case it seems there’s only fond memories of those good old days, especially the high school years. Even when disaster struck, like when the entire community was flooded with water rising four to six feet above the first floor of our homes the memories coming to me are of happy times. I remember roaming around the neighborhood in a swimming trunk helping the neighbors and had gotten into some mischievous situations (secret) and that was fun too. It was so much fun that we looked forward to the next flood, and flooding is a yearly occurrence in the Philippines.

I also find myself thinking of you and the happy moments we shared, the Philippine vacation, the high school class and family reunions, the wedding anniversary, and holidays spent together.  I just want to say that I am thankful for having the chance to spend good times with each and everyone on this mailing list.  I wish you all a happy and blessed yuletide season.  I love you all.

Tiger in the Woods
Ely

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

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Sentimental Fool

What a sentimental and romantic fool doing on a wintry day like today.

Just to let my favorite people know how this old sentimental and romantic fool is doing these wintry days. It has been cold for over a month here in Virginia.  Of course cold is a relative word.  To me it’s cold when I can’t go out to play golf and that’s when it’s below 50 degrees.  But looking at the brighter side, 40 degrees is a lot warmer than a lot of places at this time of the year, upstate New York and Chicago for example. So what do I do on days like these, besides going to the gym, reading books and watching TV, TFC—the Filipino Channel? 

On a wintry day like this, I find myself being nostalgic especially when I looked at the bare branches of the trees at our backyard through the glass wall from the computer station downstairs. Maybe that’s why we have winter to give us time to reflect. Somehow moment like this always brings me back to my youth. And when fortified with songs, like Let Me Call You Sweetheart and Stardust on the background where else one could travel to but back to memory lane.  I don’t know about you but in my case it seems there’s only fond memories of those good old days, especially the high school years. Even when disaster struck, like when the entire community was flooded with water rising four to six feet above the first floor of our homes the memories coming to me are of happy times. I remember roaming around the neighborhood in a swimming trunk helping the neighbors and had gotten into some mischievous situations (secret) and that was fun too. It was so much fun that we looked forward to the next flood, and flooding is a yearly occurrence in the Philippines.

I also find myself thinking of you and the happy moments we shared, the Philippine vacation, the high school class and family reunions, the wedding anniversary, and holidays spent together.  I just want to say that I am thankful for having the chance to spend good times with each and everyone on this mailing list.  I wish you all a happy and blessed yuletide season.  I love you all.

Tiger in the Woods
Ely

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

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Sunday, September 28, 2008

PI Trip 2008 the Final Chapter

Lunch at Sonya’s Garden.

PI Trip 2008 Chap 22

  08/25/08—Nothing much happened this morning, just the usual
breakfast and computer time at CAVA.  Carina after breakfast called
and informed us that they will come by around noon to pick us up for a
lunch at Sonya’s Garden in Tagaytay.  I had plenty of time so I went
to Glorietta to exchange some dollars and do some more shopping.  The
official bank rate of exchange is 45.65 pesos to one dollar.  However,
since today is a holiday, National Heroes Day, the banks are closed.

  I went to Sanry.  It is located underneath the escalator in one of
the wings in Glorietta, a very tiny room no bigger than a closet.
Their rate of exchange is 45.45.  Right off the bat I lost 20 centavos
for every dollar.  However, the alternative if I did not change the
dollars to pesos is much worst.  Because if I had to pay our hotel
bills in dollars, the hotel rate is 43 to 1 and that means I would be
losing 2 pesos and 20 centavos for every dollar.  Just in case you
have forgotten it would cost an extra three percent if I were to use
my credit card.

I went to SM (Shoe Mart) the connecting mall next to Glorietta and
found what my son Benny wanted, a boxing trunk like the one Pacquiao
wore for his championship fight against the Mexican boxer, Barerra or
Baretto the one who lost.  And then when I passed by the shoes I
became my wife, as if hypnotized I drifted to the shoes on display and
wound up buying a pair.  At this moment I wasn’t me, I was still under
the spell of whatever shoe magic that captured my sensibility. I was a
pawn of the shoe clerks and they took advantage of me.  They guided me
towards the socks and unloaded a dozen pairs that I happily accepted.
When I got back home in Virginia I wished I would have bought more,
these are good golfing socks for one dollar each.

  Went back to the hotel just in time.  I was about to sit down and
do some journal writing when Eunice, Chen’s daughter called and
informed us that they (Chen and company) were on the way.  We, Chen,
Vivian Chen’s wife, JR Chen’s son, Al, Carina, Inday Sister Sally my
sister, Inding Tita Lou my other sister, Lomy and myself and Chen’s
driver Joe, drove all the way to Sonya’s Garden in Tagaytay just for
lunch.  Sonya’s Garden is about sixty kilometers away from Manila.
Time wise it took about an hour and half to travel 37.5 miles. For you
edification, 1.6 kilometers equals 1 mile.

  With 10 people in the van as you might imagine there’s a continuous
flow of conversation.  However, at times I tune out my surroundings
and get engrossed in my own reflections.  I was in awe how fortunes
changed in our lives. I can’t helped to be amazed thinking here we are
traveling 60 kilometers just to have lunch in a nationally advertised
classy place, Sonya’s Garden.  When once upon a long time ago my
fondest wish as I trudged on the sidewalk of Padre Faura on my way to
Normal School was to be able to go inside this soda parlor.  Each day
I passed by this place I had that same wish. Just once I would like to
experience sitting inside and luxuriate on a bowl of vanilla ice
cream. When I went back to the Philippines while on leave in 1959, I
was stationed in Fuchu, near Tokyo at that time.  I had a little money
in my pocket so I went to Padre Faura looking for this Soda Parlor to
fulfill childhood dream, to finally have that bowl of ice cream.  But
not to be, the Soda parlor was gone and yet that dream lived on in me
to remind me of what it was like to have nothing at all, not even a
few centavos (cent) for a cup of ice cream.  So when you see me
walking tall, five feet two inches do not take it for arrogance.  I am
just so glad to be blessed that now I have a few dollars in my pocket
and I can afford to buy ice cream anytime I want. Every time my
grandchildren want ice cream I asked them what flavor and buy a quart
each to the chagrin of daughters.  Now you know why your children get
ice whenever they asked for it.

  The food was well worth the sixty kilometers trip, though not for
everyone.  The house specialty, salad and pasta as much as you care to
eat, calamasi (small lime just slightly bigger than a marble) juice
for drinks and two kinds of desert chocolate cake and native pastry.
If you are a carnivore this is not your cup of tea.  It would take two
hours if you were to order chicken.  The salad is organically
homegrown right on the site and the dressings are delicious.  I ate so
much salad I did not even attempt to taste the pasta.  While we were
eating, Sonya the owner came by our table, very gracious, she chatted
with us for a good 15 minutes.  We told her that Lomy and I saw her at
the Basil and Kuh’s concert as usual all dressed in white.  It’s well
known that’s the way she is dressed, in white all the time as she is
now, in white pants and white blouse.

  After lunch we roamed around the garden, beautifully landscaped and
manicured, more picture-picture.  I noticed that the impatience grows
up to 3 feet but not so much flowers like I am used to seeing in our
backyard.  The impatience in the States grows about 6 to 10 inches
endowed profusely with flowers all through the summer until it dies in
the late fall.  Let me clarify that, the impatience in the East Coast
dies in the late fall and does not come back the following spring.
It’s an annual plant. By the way today’s lunch is Carina and Al’s
treat.  Thanks Al, Thanks Carina we enjoyed it very much.

  We got back to the hotel at 6:30pm said our final goodbyes for this
trip.  After an hour of respite we went to the Old Swiss Inn while
Lomy had her dinner I was on the computer. I did not eat I was still
full from all the salad from Sonya’s Garden.  We got back in the room
packed our things then we called for masseuses. I tried what they call
Twin Massage while Lomy had a regular massage.  Twin meaning there
were two lovely girls kneading me at the same time like the spearmint
gum advertisement, double your pleasure double your fun.  Believe it
or not it only cost 250 pesos for an in-room massage, 500 pesos for me
since there were two working on me.  That’s how Lomy and me ended the
day.  Goodnight Daisy.

  This concludes our story for this PI Trip 2008.  Thanks to all who
in some ways helped us navigate the streets of Metro Manila by giving
us a ride and drove us around, first and foremost Carina, Chen, Emil
and Dino.  Thanks also to all who invited us to their homes and fed
us: Inding, Mae, Vivian and the Columban Sisters, as well as to those
you treated to the different restaurants, Al, Mae, Carina, and Mae.
By the way, a Special thanks to the Columbans also for offering this
Sunday’s mass, 28 September to the Oyzon Family.  A very especial
thanks to Dom and Cathy for getting married and for the wonderful
Covelandia experience, otherwise we would not have had the opportunity
to meet these wonderful people: Steve, Charlene, Lisa and Landon (the
Wildman) Rose, Tosh and his girlfriend Nikki, Riley, and Ann Cutner,
and Pat (Pete) and Flora Watt. Also, because of your wedding I had the
pleasure to bond with my nephews, Jared and Marcos and my niece Sam
and with Ken and Grace as well. And thanks to all the people we met,
friends and relatives for it’s the people in the end that makes a
vacation worthwhile.  May all your traffic lights be green, your skies
blue and you pockets full of dough, God bless.

Tiger in the Woods
Tio/Unc/Dad
Ely

 

 

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Sunday, September 21, 2008

PI Trip 2008 Chap 17

Visited lomy’s aunts, Tia Consuelo and Tia Nena and had a wonderful dinner with the Columban Sisters in San Juan.

PI Trip 2008 Chap 17

  08/20/08—Woke up late this morning too much nightlife last night.  After lunch Lomy and I taxied to the Good Shepherd Convent to visit Tia Consuelo.  She is doing well but can only walk with the aid of a walker.  She looks good but can’t remember things anymore.  Then we taxied to the convent of the Holy Spirit to visit Tia Nena, Lomy’s other aunt who is also a nun.  She is also doing well, and she can also walk using her wheelchair for support.  She is still mentally sharp.  Lomy gave both aunts a bag of candy—the only pasalubong we have for them.  We did not spend much time with them because we have a dinner engagement with the Columban Sisters at 6 PM.  Tia Nena gave us a bottle of holy water to sprinkle around the house in Virginia to protect us from calamities.  She also told us to go to their chapel and pray 3 Our Father and 3 Hail Mary and make 3 wishes, so we did.

  We left Tia Nena but not before she personally blessed us individually, so you may say Lomy and I are blessed couple.  We walked to my sister, Sister Sally’s (Inday to the family) convent, the Columban Sisters on Rosario Drive, a quarter of a mile perhaps. By the way there must be at least six different convents of different denominations within a radius of a mile in this area.

  I was hungry so Inday served me a biscotti and coffee to tie me over before we taxied to the other Columban Sisters house in San Juan.  We stopped at a Mini-shop close to the convent and bought several bottles of wine for dinner.

  We chatted a bit before dinner with the Sisters: Leticia, Pat, Annrita, Carol, and Sister Bernie.  The reason for the chitchat was partly because we waited for Father Mike a guest for the evening as well.  Father Mike is a diocesan priest. From what I understand, the diocesan priests do not belong to a particular religious order like Jesuits or Franciscans, etc. they serve the diocese under the bishop, sort of a religious general practitioner.

  Anyway we had a delicious meal and delightful conversation.  We talked about the frailties, tribulations, and tragedies of the cloistered life, or rather they talked about it and I listened. They discussed for example, a nun serving abroad who absconded funds from the collection/donation and sent the money to her family in the Philippines.  Father Mike talked about the diocesan priests retirement home in Loretto, Manila. He claimed no body wants to stay there.  Namamatay agad ang tumitira doon.  The priests who stay in that retirement home die quickly.  That’s the literal translation.  Additionally, he says, the house rules are too strict even the priests could not endure them. It was enlightening to listen to them.  It shows the humanity of their being—tao silang pareho natin na nagkaksala din. They are just as human as we are subject to the same sins.

  I really enjoyed the dinner conversations, but even good things must end, so we bade our goodbyes.  We dropped off my sister and Sister Bernie at their Columban Convent on Rosario drive and went home to SFDM.  Lomy and I watched TV for a while.  Bloomberg is the only business cable news I could pick up here in PI, no Fox, and no CNBC, but glad to see the DOW is up.  Goodnight Pete.

  This is a short chapter so I’ll include one of the folklores of El Nido.  Maybe some of you probably would enjoy it.

  This story came from an old lady who still lives in El Nido, Palawan.  Hepe was her grandfather.

                                                  HEPE

  Once there lived a young man in El Nido named Elias. He was born in 1894. Orphaned at a young age, he took care of his two younger sisters.  At the age of fourteen, he had already taught himself and his sisters how to read and write in Spanish, which was the custom at that time. He also claimed several islands with caves that yielded edible nests of switlets, a lucrative trade even then.  He had paddleboats and eventually acquired tracts of land.  He was hard working and well liked that the local folk called him Hepe (from Spanish “jefe”. meaning chief), in spite of his youth.

  Since there were very little schools at that time, Hepe taught El Nido’s natives simple arithmetic, using seeds for addition and subtraction.  He also taught them the proper way of constructing their houses, raising chickens, hogs, and cows.  Since paper was not available, banana leaves were used for writing tablets.

  Life with the natives was not always harmonious.  When problems arose, Hepe would be fetched.  Only he could settle their disputes amicably.  One such instance was when a lady who was already betrothed eloped with another man.  This sparked a revolt that decimated the natives, who used bows and arrows.  When Hepe returned from a distant island, he was very much troubled and frustrated to see the people disobey his code.

  Hepe’s Code
1. No one must eat any fruit of his neighbor’s tree.
2. Nobody must go to his neighbor’s house at 1:00 pm or during breakfast, lunch or dinner.
3. For special occasions like birthdays, weddings, every family must give something to help in the food preparation.
4. One woman for one man.

When he turned 21, Hepe had considerable wealth.  He owned rights to caves in several islands in Bacuit Bay and he was ready for marriage.  He married Lomy, a young lass from Binmaley, by whom he had five children.  While he was very strict with his children, they did not seek education the way their father did.  They married early and depended on their father’s business.  They also had many children.

  As he grew older and his grandchildren increased, Hepe worked as hard as when he was younger.  In all that, he did not forget his love for music, playing the banjo and accordion, composing his own Eracai, a local form of folk music.  In 1965, upon seeing his two newly built motorboats, he played his accordion in happiness.  Shortly, Hepe breathed his last, surrounded by family and friends who were celebrating his good fortune with him.

  Hepe was irreplaceable, both to the natives whom he loved and to his family.  None of his children were able to match his business skills, such that shortly after his death, his caves and property were taken over by other residents of Bacuit, later called El Nido.

Footnote:  Nido soup is made from the swiflets nest from El Nido. That’s how the Hepe made his fortune. I changed the names of the characters to protect the innocent and tweaked the story a bit.

 
 

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Friday, September 19, 2008

PI Trip 2008 Chap 16

The Bakla show at Punchline.

PI Trip 2008 Chap 16

  08/19/08—Having breakfast at the Old Swiss Inn is becoming our norm.  It would have been much easier if Somerset Olympia has the same provision as Somerset Salcedo their sister hotel, which has a free Wi-Fi in the lobby and the dining room.

  I brought this disparity to the attention of the front desk people yesterday.  I was given a song and dance explanation that only infuriated me more so I asked to speak to the hotel manager.  When the manager called me on the phone she started telling me Salcedo’s problem with the Wi-Fi last year.  I tried to be calm and civil but I lost it so I told her in unfriendly terms that I was not interested in Salcedo’s last year’s problem, all I want to know is why they have free Wi-Fi and Olympia is charging 650 pesos a day? Period.  Then she told me that Salcedo is no longer providing free Wi-Fi because they were having problem. When I told her that we stayed in Salcedo last week and their Wi-Fi was up and running, there was a long silence.  She was probably trying to come up with some plausible answer and when she did it was another shallow made up one. About their different carrier, one being PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone) and the other being provided by Globe.  I told her in what I thought in a nice way, that does not explain why you are charging 650 pesos.  She finally told me she would call Salcedo and find out to which I told her why don’t you call your general manager who runs all your hotels, instead of Salcedo. There are three or four different Somerset’s in the Makati area. I never did get an answer.  I fired up the computer and found that the stock market plummeted down—bad news. 

  After breakfast Lomy and I taxied to the ITI terminal and picked up the bag we inadvertently left behind in Miniloc.  I stayed in the taxi while Lomy collected the bag.  We went back to Makati and shopped at the Balikbayan Handicraft Store close to Glorietta Mall. 

  I parked myself on the swing that’s on display in front of the store and wrote my journal.  Before Lomy started looking around I gave her some more pesos.  She now has 6000 to shop with.  I lost track of time busy writing. I moved to the store’s complimentary table next to the checkout counter where they have pastries and coffee. Lomy called me.  She wanted more money.  When I got to the counter she did not need more money she needed a bank.  Her total purchase was 15,500 pesos.  I didn’t have that much with me. The associate said I could charge it, no thanks.  Do you know that if you use your credit card outside of the USA you are charged an additional 3 percent?  The credit card companies do not tell you this.  If you do not believe me call your credit card customer service and ask. 

  The store manager had their driver take me to the hotel a half a mile away. I got the cash and we drove back and paid bill.  While I was gone they boxed all the stuff in a Balikbayan box.  Balikbayan box is a term used for any cardboard box that’s used to ship either to or from the Philippines by Filipinos.  In gratitude for spending so much money the store manager shuttled us back to the hotel. We left the box in the front office for safekeeping until we check back in on the 22nd. 

  We went to our room and hurriedly packed our luggage and left it to the doorman.  We then went to Wasabi restaurant through the back door that’s next to the hotel lobby.  We went through the kitchen and waved to the chefs.  It was a most delicious lunch though it’s a little pricey.  We checked out and taxied to SFDM.

  We did not stay long at house when we (Dom, Cathy, Lomy and me) rode with Carina on her way to work.  Carina dropped us off on the corner of Roces Ave and Morato Ave across from Excelsior Spa where Lomy and I had our massage.  Dom and Cathy took the bus to Dagupan to process Cathy’s paperwork to come to the USA. After being kneaded and rejuvenated we went back home and relaxed until it was time to take the girls, Mimi (Al’s maid) and Anna (Inding’s maid) to Punchline for a bakla (Gay) show.  The bakla shows are very popular among the bakya crowd.  I think I already explained what a bakya once before, but here it is again.  Bakya is the word for wooden shoes not in vogue anymore since the development of the flip-flops. But at one time it was what the less fortunate wears instead of regular shoes.

  We arrived at 10 PM and the show hasn’t started yet. The main attraction for the night is Anton Diva, the first male I fell in loved with.  The first time I saw shim (shim is the pronoun for the half and half, gay in order words) 5 years ago she looked so beautiful and so feminine that I could not believe she was not a woman.  Anyway when the show started and the performers were warming up one of them spotted Lomy and me, and right off the bat shim knew we were balikbayan. There’s that word balikbayan again, it means any Philippine born returning to the Philippines, like us.  Even though we are American citizens now.

  RR of Wowowee, that’s her name, was the only authentic girl.  Wowowee is a popular noontime variety/quiz show.  She was the featured attraction, beautiful and curvy but has a long way to go talent-wise.  The other seven performers were fill-ins with different body types: obese, skinny, short, ugly and talented in a vulgar way and very loud.  At one point RR used the N word publicly referring to an African-American man.  I don’t think she knows its implication. In the Philippines it’s okay to use names that might not be considered politically correct in the U S.  For example, if a person is blind he/she will be called bulag (blind) instead of his/her name, and no hurt feelings. Whatever deformities a person may have he/she will be called accordingly.

  At one point Inday Garuday, one of the shims made fun of Lomy and me.  She made jokes of us being seniors and asked questions like are we still doing it.  Shim apologized and atoned by dedicating the song “Kung Maputi na ang Buhok ko”, loosely translated when my hair turns white. Carina joined us at midnight and we stayed until they closed the joint. For the show, drinks, and food for five people 35 bucks, can’t beat that.  Goodnight Sam.
 

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