Noontime and Nostalgia

DEasy: Today's workout was at noon. I had to pickup some old tapes this morning. Watching the videos of all the Blenders performances and the HOM numbers (Finance and IT) was so nostalgic. Those were the days. Most if not all of my choreographed numbers are now on the electronic video. No more tape jamming problems, mold problems and tape deterioration problems. If I have time, I'll have snippets of these precious videos posted in some website. Don't know yet how to do it but it will happen.

I had fun in today's noontime workout. I was so fascinated watching my hand's shadow racing past the pool tile's below. Time went by like a breeze. It's been a long time since I had a noon workout.

Getting Warmer

DEasy: Pool water today's getting warmer. I hope this keeps up with the sun shining all week. We have so much wood to dry thanx to Emma's chopped mango tree. I'll be busy exercising (sawing and chopping wood) for some weekends to come.

On open turns, I need to stop splashing too much. Avoid raising the head too high and then dropping. I sink too much and it's difficult to recover with the rushing water. It's also better to exhale a final burst of air to clear the nose just before the breath-in.

During today's swim, I've thought of a new speech topic entitled "My Kawasaki Girl" and I've composed the outline already. Yesterday's short impromptu speech for Table Topics in Toastmasters went very well. I got good feedback from April and Roxy. I'm looking forward to my Icebreaker Speech next week.

New Roads!

DEasy: The market road extension was finished over the weekend! That corner is a source of bottlenecks coz the market road is so narrow and when there are big trucks, vans or jeepneys, vehicles from the opposing direction need to give way. At least that's good news. Thnx Mayor Dahlia Loyola! Now, if only something can be done at the corner leading to Timbao - like posting a traffic enforcer during rush hour?

JLo 3 Resort at Pansol in Laguna

DEasy: Pool's still cold today inspite of the all-day sunny day yesterday. With today's workout, I've thought of some nice ideas to incorporate in my future Toastmasters' speeches.

Yesterday we attended a birthday party for Nadine and Nicole at JLo 3 resort at Pansol. We left the house at 8:30am and fetched Susan.

Even Colder

DEasy: Rushed today's workout coz it's much too cold to linger in the pool. Brrrr. The sun was out though, so that helped a bit. I noticed that if I skipped pool for a long time, as in last week, I get some soreness on the chest esp where it connects to the shoulders. Massaging it feels good though.

Still Cold

TEPTE: Although the sun is attempting to show up, the water's still cold. One downside of not having swam for a few days is to load up on the eating. With the rains, it's just tempting to eat more. So today, I felt sluggish in the water.

Renz's dance at the family day yesterday went well. All that practice and preparations for the Bump-It dance number finally paid off. There's Mr. Pure Energy himself and the "Manoobers". This is the number prepared by Level 1 Daycare.

He was just warming up when they had to bodily take him off the stage to give way for the other numbers. There were song numbers, a poem and the Level 2 (with pompoms) number that followed. Level 3, the first number also did the Bump-It dance.

All that dancing, twisting, bumping and kicking left Mr. Pure Energy out of energy and hungry. Buti na lang maraming pansit thanx to Tita Gay and the food committee. There was also puto, menudo, lumpiang shanghai and rice.

Rainy Week

With morning rains all week, yah, no swims until today. There was a horrendous traffic today everywhere here in the south. We heard on the radio that the SLEX was clogged due to floods as early as 5am !!! So I left early at 6:15 hoping to dodge it by passing through national road. Guess again. I reached the office at 9am!!! And I almost ran out of gas.

On a happier note, we got our new computer last Tuesday. Ian, Susan and Irene ordered it, had it assembled and got it home same day from PCXpress. They were back the following day to install software. Our setup is typical; printer on top, monitor in the middle and cpu below. That's Karen, the model with shiny black hair, trying her best to look serious. Those speakers are ancient. I've had them since the 90's and they still work. The table was on sale at megamall and we've had it for months.

Tired

Easy: I was simply too tired to do a double. Besides, my tummy's feeling a little queasy. I wasn't able to rest well from yesterday's driving to Pamp. and had to forgo ironing the school uniforms. TY to DH for filling in for me.

Here's a shot I took of one of the spacious rooms at the Pampanga "mansion" yesterday. There's Renz in his signature longga-longga briefs. The house is huge. Before we went to Pamp, we got the report cards from LaCo and we were pleasantly surprised with Sandra's academics. She's second in her section! She's adjusting very well. Yeyyy Dada! Karen has some difficulties with Science and Reading, but I'm sure it's nothing that she cannot handle.

Our CEO, KJ, visited us for his annual tour of the factories. For a CEO, I thought his presentation was rather dry and so uninspiring.

Remember Fist Drill?

DEasy: Almost didn't go today as I've got to look at a website. But then the sun showed up bright and it was such a beautiful bright sunny morning to waste. Irene and I went back to the White-House at Pansol yesterday evening to pickup the LA gear sports towel and another towel that they forgot last Saturday. We bought buko pie, espasol, vinegar, lanzones and rambutan going home.

I did a couple of fist drills today. I could do an entire length with these. I just didn't count the CPL. I imagined it's more. This drill teaches you to use the body and the forearms to move. When I used the palms, it kinda felt harder/ slower to push the water away coz it felt "heavier" somehow. Will do this more in the future.

Stuffy Mind

DEasy: Swim after 3 days of cold mornings and dark skies due to Talim, Jolina and now Kiko (typhoons). Was late at the pool today coz I had to rush Karen's science project (molds on cheese). I didn't think I'd finish this DEasy workout with so many stuff in my mind. But after an absence, I "felt" the water again with my palms.

Despedida at Pansol

Irene, Sandra, Renz and I went to Pansol for Ian's despedida. It was supposed to be an overnight/ night-swimming affair but we just decided to join in the swim and the eating. Che had to attend to a school group project while Karen was not up to it and was her usual sulking self. Dada and Renz were the go-getters and the pic at the left was taken by me at the pool. That thing on Sandra's spoon is a quail egg from the delicious but super hot sopas. The place is called White-House. It's hard to find coz, we didn't have a sketch just landmarks (Villa Florencia at the right of the national road, turn left at Pansol ark and straight). Even then, we got lost and had to seek help from some PTGA (Phil Tourist Guide Assoc.?) guys on bikes.

That's Renz and Dada doing the requisite "Peace" sign. The pool is too deep for Renz so he simply rode on my back half of the time. Rest of the time was spent chatting with Ate Dada on the pool steps. The place was simply called White-House coz it's painted white. Such an imaginative name, huh? No wonder we and the others got lost. The food prepared by Susan was good though. There was inihaw na liempo, tilapia, adobo, pipino in vinegar, and yummy sawsawan. We packed up and went home at 10pm and bought buko pie (Collette's) on the way home. Five peeps rode with us and we dropped them at Susana Heights. Had to leave early coz there was work by Mang Bert on the apartment's leaking roof the following morning at 7.

2nd Complete Workweek

DEasy: It was a relaxing double easy today. Wasn't rushing it. Corz, I skipped today the dizzying flipturns - but only for now. Maybe I should break-in to them gently. Why is it that rains only come in the afternoon and it's bright and sunny the following morning? We've got rains all week, but I still managed to complete the workweek. Maybe completing workweeks will now be the usual. Here's a shot of the pool where I go to. It is in this tranquil spot where I spend most of my mornings relaxing and contemplating.

After seeing the HOM video, I think I should lose some weight. Maybe I've got a career in public speaking? I've gained more confidence now after the training and the emceeing. I've even printed some ebooks on presentation and speaking yesterday for bedtime reading.

Worse

TEPTE: Almost did DEasy until these mean-looking nimbus clouds came a-looming. At that point, I was no longer waiting for a clap of thunder before I left. The flipturns today were worse than ever. I kept "falling" on my left side when I resurfaced. When I approached the wall, as I turned, it became a dive to the bottom when I need to tuck tight and spin. So bad. To top it all, I still have a slight headache from all that turning and stretching (nape and back). After watching the HOM video today, I even felt more nauseus. Footages were shot with sudden zooming in-out, fast panning... terrible.