Kutsero for a Day

We finally decided to split the cemetery visits into 2 weekends. We went to Pampanga yesterday and plan on going to Makati next Sunday. We're glad we moved the Pampanga trip ahead. Typhoon Paeng is lashing through Northern Luzon as of this writing. Had we gone on the 1st, it would've been wet and muddy.

Morning of Saturday, we brought our 21-inch old Sony tv to the service center. I guess the power outages of Typhoon Milenyo finally conked it out. Luckily we still have another unit at home (the tv won by DH) so the two big sisters sem-break wasn't really so bad/dreary. Not many folks there at the center so it was fast getting it in for service. Just don't know how fast (and how expensive) it'll be getting it back. After that we went to Metropolis to buy storage boxes and some tetra drinks for the cemetery visit.

Sunday morning, we motored to Pampanga. Nothing unusual - no traffic jam - and it just took us 2 hours. After a nice breakfast we went to pick up the flowers and then on to the cemetery. Deng drove Bina's Revo and left the car. Renz actually went with Bina and his ate's had a field day waving and shouting to him from our Revo.

Here's the bored-looking group after putting on the candles. Karen doesn't seem too excited getting her picture taken. DH is just too "camera-shy" for this shot. Ate Che and Dada contented themselves with playing the ever-reliable game of sungka.

A couple of candles were stolen from a distant tomb thanx to some kids. Grrr... These rascals didn't even let the candles drip for a while. Nopes, they took 'em as Jess turned his back around.

Ahhh... finally some action in an otherwise boring situation. Insects! Yan-yan and Jing-jing (don't these names sound like Chinese Pandas?) found a praying mantis and wowed little Renz with it.

Okay. Time for some snacks. And on cue, everybody breaks into smiles. We had nice crunchy biscuits, choco flakes and banana chips. For drinks - Zesto!

The weather was just perfect (at least for me). There was no heavy rain to drench us and there was no sun either. It was mostly cloudy overcast. It was basically just as there visiting. The rest were just cleaning the tombs. When the threat of a drizzle became apparent, we promptly left at 10:45am.

Kalesa Kutsero for a Day

After a heavy lunch, I decided to rest and sleep. After an hour, I was awaken by some shouting and laughing from the PPG girls. Apparently, Uncle Jess took Renz to buy some fruits and came back riding a kalesa! But the thing is, and this was what the shouting was all about, Renz was pulling on the ropes! The mamang kutsero said that the horse is really tame and would take "orders" from anybody. Here's Renz "driving" the kalesa home.

Corz, the horse was practically just crawling coz Renz was gentle on the reins. After getting down, Renz was all excited:
DH: Anong color nung horse?
Renz: Brown po.
DH: (impressed) Ahhhh, brown pala!
Renz: Opo, at girl po siya.
DH: (even more impressed) Wow, at girl pa, ha? Paano mo naman nalamang girl?
Renz: Kasi po, may pony-tail.
DH:
Luckily, DH was quick to take this action shot of Renz. Renz liked the trip so much that he's asking Uncle Jess for a gray horse.

An Eventful Day

Once again today, we hosted this year's HOM. And for the second straight year, I'm doing the emceeing role. Well, this time though, I think I was better prepared. For one, the script I wrote was more organized and finished earlier.

Too bad though that my co-emcee, Flor, didn't come in time to practice the script. And she's not feeling well that her voice is not too good. Instead I asked Mimi to fill in for her. She's a toastmaster as well and readily accepted. And she did well like a pro!

We had a hugh crowd. Too bad they don't show in the pics. But here's the group that prepared for the event. Well, not all of them though. The APO numbers (Yakap Sa Dilim, Nakapagtataka, DoobiDoo) were a hit! I cannot believe how good the band has become.

Here's the gang waiting for the order at Chowking Mamplasan.


On the other camera, it was Renz's Investiture.

That's Renz wearing the Donald Duck hat and raising his fist (?).

With DH who took half-day leave for this.

And the monster sez... it's 60 days to Christmas !!!

Birthday Holiday

Birthday wasn't too hectic. Thanx to Eid'l Fitr (end of ramadan) holiday, I automatically had the day off. And this meant no heckling from officemates for a blow-out at the office. I even managed to trim some more the branches of our mango tree, bucking and splitting them in the process. After having a hearty lunch at home, we went to Festival to buy come vcds. I bought a pair of replaceable windshield wipers. We bought a couple of large pizzas and ate them at home while watching "The Perfect Storm". The rescue scenes from this movie looked similar to those in "The Guardian". It was really a satisfying day. I'm done with the basic layout of my online resume website to boot!

We're having problems scheduling for the All Saints' Day holiday. First off, the government decided it'll only be one day. This practically crams everybody's schedule to go to their dearly departed on just one day! WTF? I believe this is a precedent. I certainly don't want going around on THAT one day. It'll be virtually impossible to park. And the traffic jams - ugh.

Balloons

2 polos, 3 frees, lots of eback
There's must've been a childrens' party yesterday. Here are the clues I got from this morning's swim:
  1. There were a couple of balloons(!) in the pool.
  2. The training platforms were in the pool.
  3. The pool boy moved the kiddie slide from the big pool back to the empty kiddie pool.
  4. Lots of beer bottles in one of the huts (okay, maybe not this one).
Today, I asked the counter girl if the pool gets vacuumed and she said yes. I doubt that. Some of the debris at the pool's bottom have been there since Typhoon Milenyo.

Last Saturday afternoon I got body pains all around that every movement ached when I attempted to sleep. I suppose the Friday workout and the Saturday morning wood chopping was too much. I kinda kidded DH that maybe I should return to weights - just to keep the arms, chest and back ready for hard activities. And I think I might just do that.

Today, Monday, feels like a Friday coz it's a holiday tomorrow - End of Ramadan or something.

Late Afternoon Swim

I took half the day off today. And this was to renew my driver's license. Wow, it took more than 2 hours to finish! Gosh. Maybe it's because it's Friday. That tells me not to renew during Fridays. It's great though that they use the "number" system there where there are no queues and you just wait your name to be called. Well at least it's more convenient for me that way. Plus, I actually didn't expect to be getting the plastic id today, but I did! No more waiting for 90 days (or was that 1 month?) I was just a little stress out after that renewal and so I decided to go back for a swim at around 4:00pm.

They added more water in to pool so it looked greenish but the pump was on. I suppose this is in preparation for the weekend revelers. I did maybe 3 polos and I learned something:
  1. Keep the mouth closed. Polo-style free isn't like Dog Paddle/ Crawl coz it is so much more splashier. So keep the mouth closed and just take short quick breaths.
  2. Be sure to keep in lots of air. Hardly release air while paddling. Do release a lot though when you're ready to breath. This ensures that the chest part remains buoyant and you don't have to strain so much raising the head above water - which I actually felt at the first lap.
It's good that I always bring spare goggles in my swimbag. After doing a strong push for an elemback I somehow lost my goggles and I realized they were missing from my forehead when I came back at the push-off wall. Initially, I scoured the bottom part just looking from above the surface, but didn't see them anywhere. So I put on the black goggles and presto, there they were at the bottom just near the push-off wall! It's really so much easier to see with goggles - no contest. And this reminds me of a nagging question about lifeguards and rescue swimmers. Why don't they wear goggles if it helps visibility?

If there's one thing I need to keep in mind about losing the goggles is this. It is better to wear the goggles lower on the forehead, no matter how 'awkward' it feels or looks. This is so that I could always see the rim of the gogs and feel them on my eyebrows.

Stamina Wanes

3 x 50 free, 2 polos, 1 dog
Couldn't manage much today. After a long layoff, the stamina simply wanes. The past few days, the kids had periodical exams. Karen wanted to leave early with DH and so I left with them. I had lots of stuff to do at the office. [Sigh], so many things on my mind right now. My project to update my resume is in full swing though and I'm happy.

The pool's place seem really bright today coz the 2 of the big mangoes there had toppled, no thanx to Milenyo (or is that Milenio?), and had to be cut. Sad - these were prolific fruit bearers. Here's what's left of them:


Watched the Guardian

DH, Sandra and I finally watched "The Guardian" last Saturday evening. I didn't realized that going to Festival mall on a Saturday evening (around 7pm) could be a breeze! All I knew was that Friday night's traffic is always horrendous. We analyzed the reason to be the office gangs that go there straight from the office on Fridays. Anyway, the movie was okay. I think watching too much trailers kinda spoils the fun. But Sandra liked it a lot! She was the only one who tagged along coz Renz slept even before DH came from the doctor, Che slept coz she was too tired from the review and Karen was busy tapping away on the computer. I just promised them that they could watch a movie they'd like more on sem-break. Coming out from the cinema, Sandra had this wondering look in her eyes as she saw most of the shops already closed. I supposed it's the first time she saw closing shops and people leaving the mall.

Polo Freestyle from "The Guardian"

Sculling. Tried the water polo-freestyle today for 3 lengths. For the first length, I was fairly smooth compared to how I fared in the past. It is still too splashy though that I gulped some water. The heads-up breaststroke is still smoother and quieter. But still, I'd like to learn and do this polo style freestyle some more.

I saw some of the trailers to the movie "The Guardian" yesterday which showed the actor, Ashton Kutcher, as a lifeguard/ rescue swimmer doing the water polo freestyle (heads-up). He seemed fast. Well, not as fast as Ian Thorpe, but still his strokes were smooth and much quieter than mine. Here are a few action shots of that trailer. These were taken in open water showing him on the side and front:

This evening I was at Philips Calamba (now NXP) as a Guest Evaluator at their Toastmasters meeting. I evaluated two speakers: Marifel Espedido and Delia Aquino (the Club President) for their speech projects number 3 - Get to the Point. Both speakers are very good.

Here's a pic of the Toastmasters Club Members at NXP:

Tiring Weekend

With Milenyo gone, so many branches and trees were fallen. DH and I had the fine opportunity of hauling some of the debris all around. Some of these branches have been cut to haulable size already and even bundled up just for the picking! How convenient! But for us to conveniently dry, store and use them as wood fuel, they had to be further cut and split. Here's the bunch that I worked on last Saturday using my handy saw.

Yesterday, Sunday, Jorge Gaviola from Toyota was at the house to clean the Toyota Revo's dual aircon. I was surprised at the amount of work required to dismantle everything just to clean the aircon's evaporator at the front and at the back. They started working at around 8:30am and finished at almost 1:00pm, breaks included. I couldn't believe the number of screws that were taken out and put back in. While they were working, I cleaned some of the rubber lining on the doors and windows and took some pics. Here's how the dashboard part looked like fully dismantled with the steering wheel resting on the driver's seat:

Here's the back part of the airconditioning... dismantled:

Here are the parts laid out in the garage:

Luckily there were no rains that day to disrupt the work. It also helped that water and power has been restored so Jorge was able to clean the dirty evaporators using just the hose. Today, I'm having a fever from this body pain from last Saturday's activity.

Apartment Check and a Day-Off

With the power outage last Saturday, we hied off the kids to Makati. Along the expressway, we saw a major cause of the power interruption - stupid billboards going down crashing on houses, buildings and power lines! We took the opportunity to take back water since we brought along carbuoys, jugs and a plastic drum. We filled 'em all up with water 'cept the drum that we filled up to one-third. So we left the kids there at Makati.

Sunday, we inspected the apartment for damages. Luckily, there were no major damages. Even Unit D with the aircon hole left open wasn't as bad as we expected. And there was no flooding in the immediate area either. DH did a lot of trimming and me, I jotted down notes and sawed off the pesky tree intruding into unit A. We finished almost at 11am and then passed by LaCo which was devastated by floodwaters courtesy of Milenyo. We proceeded to have lunch at Ho Chai Lai - my treat for DH. DH had patatim and I had beef curry which were both good! The chicken curry I had there a long time ago wasn't so good. Plus we had some seafood noodles and dumplings this time. We even saw and talked to Jimmy Ventura on the way out who were dining there right after their Sunday service at Jesus Our Shepherd Church across Ho Chai Lai.

Late in the afternoon, we went to MunSci just to inquire about school. Turns out there won't be classes until power is restored. And with that, we canceled our trip back to fetch the kids in Makati. Instead, DH and I had a date at Festival Mall. Yup we even watched a movie "John Tucker Must Die" which is mostly a kikay movie. Dinner was at Ted's Batchoy which went great! Not many people there. DH and I enjoyed dinner immensely. Here's what we had:

I had Extra Super Batchoy and she had Super Misua (doncha love these names?). And we both had yummy puto. The great thing about Ted's Oldtime Batchoy is that you can always ask for free soup. Hmmmm... so yummy!

Karen's Creatures of the Night

Still no power!

Last Friday (10/01), I noticed that the kids were becoming restless. For the past couple of days, there's been nothing - no power, no water, really nothing to do. While waiting for dinner, Karen was doodling some shadow figures with her hands. By the light of a candle, she let her broad imagination take over. And she did all these lying down! The shadows were cast on the wall behind me but a different angle. Because her silhouetted hand contrasted sharply with the candlelight, I took these pics - not of the shadows but her silhouettes. Since they were shot at a different angle from her point of view, the shots looked imperfect compared to what she was seeing on the wall - like the funky looking crocodile.

The funny thing is that she was simply busy doing and experimenting. There was no stopping at just one figure and no making sounds. I remember as a kid when all I did was the "dog" and made the howling sounds.

You can't even see Karen's face coz of the darkness. She is lying on the sofa on the left side. The shadows cast by the plant at the corner provided an even better backdrop to the silhouette. I thought that Karen's rendition of the Llama or Donkey and the Gorilla were pretty cool.

Finding that Karen had so much fun with the shadows, Sandra and Renz joined in. Sandra is standing on the right side doing a flying bird and Renz is on the left, trying to attempt a who-knows-what.