46

Days before my birthday, wifey guessed correctly that I already have more than two bikes (she guessed four, but I think that's her power of predicting the future, haha!), and my mother already knew that I'll be out biking somewhere during my birthday.

However, my mother thought that I'd be biking with my teammates. With the third Enhanced Community Quarantine in place, I've been planning this ride to be solo.

It was a quick visit to my favorite biking spot in UP Diliman. Heard mass from outside the fence of the Parish of the Holy sacrifice. It was a Sunday, so several bikers gathered outside the chapel to attend the mass.

It would be Iska's first long ride, so I chose Antipolo Cathedral to have her blessed.

Iska is my third bike, following Meri (an MTB) and Midnight (a folding bike). It took me a while to decide between a road bike and a gravel bike, but the nostalgia of a road bike won me over.

My family's very first bike was a mini-racer. They were called racers instead of road bikes back in the 80s. I started riding it when I entered third grade (I was eight).

This is my second year of balik-bisikleta, and also my second pandemic birthday.

I'm grateful for the 46 years. 

With Iska (a second-hand Merida Scultura 200) at UP FA

Eksenang simba sa Parish of the Holy Sacrifice

Random eksena paakyat ng Antipolo

Iska is now blessed

Antipolo Cathedral

Water break along Ortigas Avenue

45!

I say my new age with an exclamation point because it feels so badass 😁 Moreso if you say it in Spanish.

This pandemic has been tough on everyone. But it also made me see how much I have to be thankful for. 

Let me start with a heartfelt "Maraming salamat Po sa lahat."

Thank You for my love, family, and friends, wherever they are. Please keep them all safe.

Thank You for my health. The world around me is changing, and I wish to explore it on my own willpower.

Thank You for Your guidance. In this world full of negativity, You are my refuge and strength.

Thank You for the miracles. I consider my 45th birthday nothing less than that.

Thank You.

Intensity Six

Photo by wifey. We were taking a break at the resort's
swimming pool (upper right) when the first quake struck
at around 3 pm.

Last April 8, my wife and I experienced the strongest and most destructive earthquake by far.

We were in a resort in Bagalangit, Mabini, Batangas for a weekend get-together with wifey's former officemates. The sun and sea were perfect for kayaking and snorkeling so that's exactly what we did shortly after lunch.

We were taking a break at the resort's swimming pool when the first earthquake struck at 3:07 pm. I was then at the 5-foot deep portion of the pool. The water around me seemed to boil, and my feet couldn't get a grip of the floor. As I was stuck there, I saw a mother move at superhuman speed towards her son in the pool, while wifey rushed to secure another child.

The first earthquake faded, and I was able to get out of the pool. We were gathering our wits when the second, much stronger wave of tremor hit us. Sounds of rocks and broken tiles hitting the concrete floor filled the entire resort. The water from the pool and jacuzzi next to us were overflowing and splashing around us. We ducked under the beach table and waited for the shaking to stop.

We rushed to the hotel as soon as the shaking stopped. The stairs were strewn with broken concrete and decorative rocks that got dislodged from the walls. The employees herded us to the open lawn next to the parking area. They gave us water, monobloc chairs and towels as we waited for the aftershocks.

The third quake was strong enough to shake the lamp posts, prompting us to relocate to another spot. The employees were calling out room numbers, and were escorting the guests to collect their belongings from the room.

The hotel staff accompanied me into our room at the second floor while wifey waited in the open area. She kept urging me to move quickly as we grabbed our personal belongings and stuff them in our bags.

We were halfway done when the fourth quake happened. The staff shouted for us to run outside the room. We met with other employees at the hallway, and waited for the shaking to stop.

After that, the staff must have had a fresh dose of adrenaline. She finished up with all of wifey's belongings in a flash and before I know it, she was out of the room with all our bags. Mercifully, she stopped a good distance away from the group to let me tidy up our unzipped bags, with our assorted underwear dangling in plain view.

The following minutes were spent waiting for the aftershocks to fade, and for news on whether it was already safe to leave.

Our get-together would have to be cut very short; nothing to do but bid everyone safe travels before heading out in a convoy back to Metro Manila.

The fifth and final quake we felt was when we were standstill in traffic leaving Mabini.

Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt.

The fear is something else. It would be a while before we visit this beautiful place again.

Visual and sound gravity

Mark Helprin described "color gravity" with much detail in his book, Winter's Tale, through the eyes and mind of Pearly Soames.

I came close to that sort of gravity when we watched WICKED, the untold story of the witches of Oz, last March 8. It was my first time to watch a Broadway musical, and every moment of it was magical.

It was also fitting that the day ended with a pyromusical show at Mall of Asia. We were lucky to catch the delegation from China, last year's finalist in the Philippine International PyroMusical Competition. Their routine was solid -- just wave after wave of exploding colors timed to a collection of popular music.

Truly a celebration of visuals and sounds.

Thank you, 2013.

It's been raining non-stop since I arrived here at the old family house in Batan, Aklan. When I took my first shower, I can only thank the heavens that the house is still intact (and that the second floor bathroom is still there).

We were lucky. Most of Yolanda's wind was absorbed by our neighbor's 4-storey apartment building from the north, while another building shielded the south side.

My mother already had most of the roofing repaired, except for the small patch at the second floor bathroom. So... it was quite a shower experience: rain trickled through the kisame (speeding up my rinsing process), and with the solitary glass window shattered, I can see the world outside and (gasp!) vice-versa.

The house is structurally intact, half of the appliances still work, and most of all, no one got hurt. That's so much to be thankful for.

What a year this has been! I don't remember ever having gone through so much turbulence in my personal life -- both at work and with family.

But with every turmoil and trial come the most memorable times of my life.

2013 is a year I should not forget. In no particular order, I look back at my personal highlights.

***

Early this year, on March 27, our father joined the Creator. He was a pioneer in his family, the very first to venture out of the very small family, geographical, and cultural circle that his clan has known for so long. To some, he was that one fruit that fell a tad too far from the tree. But in his last moments, he did good on his promise to bring us back to the roots.

We love you, Dad. We miss you. Happy New year!

***

Nelson Mandela (July 18, 1918-December 5, 2013), Cory Monteith (May 11, 1982-July13, 2013), and Paul Walker (September 12, 1973-November 30, 2013) passed away.

Walker's death has been particularly shocking to me. Sometime this year HBO featured Fast Five, and somehow I never grew tired watching it again and again. My wife could attest to this, but I had commented endlessly how well-written the script was.

***

I give thanks for Joan's smooth transition at work as her former boss retires from the judicial profession. Her new office/boss takes her closer to home, and I probably should be ready to take my work somewhere else anytime soon. ^^

***

I've seen Mayon Volcano, finally, and it is every bit as awe-inspiring as I imagined it would be back when I was just looking at the postcards.

I can also now cross-out Sagada in my Local Places to Visit list. 

And hurray Singapore (Universal Studios!) and Malaysia (Legoland!)!

***

A Catholic pope resigned -- something uncommon in anyone 's lifetime. The Catholic world was then presented a Pope unlike anyone before him, and he wants scientific data! Oh he gets the researcher in me so excited!

***

After over 15 years with mother station, I have an idea of what my weaknesses are, and one of them is handling people. This is the reason why I worked to have the communications and publications section established. Most of time it's a one-man department, but what the heck.

Every now and then, however, due to the sheer size of a project, I get drafted to do field management.

This year saw one of the biggest, most expensive projects the station has ever handled. The project was so crucial there was no room to freely choose the place to go to -- we were assigned based on how well we know the place, the people, and the language. So I, naturally, got assigned to Region VI.

Perhaps due to age and *cough* rank, my old fears were things of the past. That project re-acquainted me to all the things I love about fieldwork -- meeting new people, traveling, getting stranded in strange places, riding motorbikes on remote provincial roads, and, with some luck, rocking under the starry sky to the songs of some of my favorite local bands.

It was a difficult project, both technically and emotionally. The survey instrument was so hard to implement, and the subject re-opened our eyes to the harsh reality of poverty. We've seen mothers who never had any kind of pre- or post-natal care, children who never had a single vaccination, students who walk miles to get to their classrooms, and families so poor the only toys their children play with are the bolos and knives their parents use in the farms.

But these families opened their doors to us in complete trust, offered what meager food they have in their pots, and answered in earnest as we interviewed them for an average of three hours. This sort of hospitality is something you won't find so easily in the cities.

The project broke all our hearts, but made us better persons and so much grateful for the blessings we have.

Oh, and that project made me realize how susceptible I am to aswangs. Tsk. ^^

***

This year Joan and I explored alternative Chinese medicine (acupuncture), and had good results. The root of all my medical woes can now be explained in three words: I'm too hot. ^^

***

Thank you, 2013! It's been quite a year.

Hello, 2014!

Simple Truths: On Love -- by Kent Nerburn

It breaks my heart to see this wonderful article being mercilessly ripped off and plagiarized by so many who have no decency of properly citing its author.

This article is at pages 63-66 of Kent Nerburn's book, Simple Truths: Clear and Gentle Guidance on the Big Issues in Life, first printed in March 1996 by New World Library, 14 Pamaron Way, Novato, California 94949. As per the author's note, much of Simple Truths' materials were excepted from his book, Letters to My Son,© 1993 Kent Nerburn.

My wife bought her copy of Simple Truths at National Bookstore Katipunan, Quezon City, Philippines (Filipinas?? hehe), in 1997. It came as a shock to her, and most likely anyone owning this book, when a then university student got profusely credited for an essay he submitted to his professor, and passed the said essay as his own, when in fact his work was a heavily re-worded and re-phrased version of Nerburn's piece. That story and the alleged original piece done by this student went viral for a while via email. There was no fezbuk yet back then, and I imagine though it would have been so much easier to rectify the situation -- had that student posted his work on his wall.

But like all else that goes awry in social media, that incident was also forgotten.

This is the single most important work on love that I hold close to my heart, and it is only fitting that I put it here verbatim with proper citations.

  

***

On Love

It is a mystery why we fall in love. It is a mystery how it happens. It is a mystery when it comes. It is a mystery why some loves grow and it is a mystery why some loves fail.You can analyze this mystery and look for reasons and causes, but you will never do any more than take the life out of the experience. 

Love is more than the sum of the interests and attractions and  commonalities that two people share. And just as life itself is a gift that comes and goes in its own time, the coming of love must be taken as an unfathomable gift that cannot be questioned in its ways.


Too often, when love comes to people, they try to grasp the  love and hold it to them, refusing to see that is a gift freely given and a gift that just as freely moves away. When they fall out of love, or the person they love feels the spirit of love leaving, they try desperately to reclaim the love that is lost rather than accepting the gift for what it was.

They want answers where there are no answers. They want to know what is wrong with them, or they try to get their lover to change, thinking that if some small things were different love would bloom again. They blame their circumstances. They blame each other. They try anything to give meaning to what has happened. But there is no meaning beyond the love itself, and until they accept its own mysterious way they live in a sea of misery.


You need to treat what love brings you with kindness. If you find yourself in love with someone who does not love you, be gentle with yourself. There is nothing wrong with you. Love just didn't choose to rest in the other person's heart.

If you find someone else in love with you toward whom you feel no love, feel honored that love came and called at your door, but gently refuse the gift you cannot return. Do not take advantage, do not cause pain. How you deal with love is how love will deal with you, and all our hearts feel the same pains and joys, even if our lives and ways are very different.

If you fall in love with another who falls in love with you, and then love chooses to leave, do not try to reclaim it or to assess blame. Let it go. There is a reason and there is a meaning. You will know it in time, but time itself will choose the moment.


Remember this and keep it in your heart. You don't choose love. Love chooses you. All you can really do is accept it for all its mystery when it come into your life. Feel the way it fills you to overflowing, then reach out and give it away. Give it back to the person who brought it to you. Give it to others who seem poor in spirit. Give it to the world around you in any way you can.

Love has its own time, its own season, and its own reasons for coming and going. You cannot bribe it or coerce it or reason it into staying. If it chooses to leave, from your heart or from the heart of your lover, there is nothing you can do and nothing you should do. Be glad that it came to live for a moment in your life. If you keep your heart open, it will surely come again.

#

Cheers to 2012!

Part of my task as the "communications guy" at the office is to put together the annual year-in-survey review -- Philippine history as seen through public opinion surveys. But just this once I'll try a quick review of what my year has been.

Places 

I haven't been moving around much. Hongkong and Macau were the only places abroad I've been to this year. I've let so many opportunities for foreign conferences pass by, only because I was too lazy to write a paper. Hopefully I come up with something for a chance to attend some conferences scheduled next year in abroad.

My domestic travels were just as dismal. Ninety percent of my work no longer require me to do fieldwork. It was only due to sheer lack of field staff that the office was forced to send me to Davao Oriental. It was a great deal, though -- it was so nice returning to that place.

But making up for everything was my first-time visit to Tabaco, Albay. I never realized Mayon Volcano, up close, could be so... mesmerizing. To see it for the first time was magical.

Health 

Four years ago, the doctor at San Benito Farm (The Farm) in Lipa City found my blood cells to be tightly packed and irregularly clustered, indicating my poor state of health.

Early this December, Joan and I went back to The Farm to celebrate her birthday. It was good to see my blood cells looking and acting more normally than before.

But this year has presented us with bigger challenges -- the soothsayer at the A-Ma Temple in Macau was very clear about this. Next year would definitely see us at full-scale effort to address this.

People 

This year we lost a dear colleague and friend, Anna Krista P. Molina. It was sudden and unexpected, but in the end we content ourselves to believing that there is a reason for everything. Instead of questioning, we remember the wonderful ways she has touched our lives.

And for all out there who have touched my life in any way -- friends old and new, friends from long-gone past, and friends from other realms -- know that I am grateful you are there.

Work 

Uhm still there, and still loving it. ^^ But it's time to leave a sort of bigger legacy next year.

Family 

I'm thankful for the blessings life has kindly given everyone in my family. There had been many challenges, but we managed to cope despite the distance. Tonight, new year will find me away from my wife, again. But throughout the year I'm blessed to go home to the person I dreamed to be with in the years passed and years to come.

Happy New Year! ^^

Hulk is a form of pixie?

I blurted out this question while I was lying half-awake (or half-asleep) in our bed. Wifey, ever so supportive of her hubby, treated it like a normal conversation. "Wala naman siyang wings. Tsaka naging ganyan naman siya because of chemical reactions," she said. "Ah okay." And I went back to sleep. Just one of our weird conversations that pop up in the wee hours of the morning, with one of us in a dream-like state. The most unforgettable of these conversations happened during our honeymoon in 2006, in Boracay. "Wag munang gagalawin ang pagkain!" says wifey, loud and clear. But eyes closed. I ventured on a question, "Bakit, pangga?" "Hindi pa napipiktyuran," and she went quiet. Back to sleep. Maybe someday one of us will recite the winning lotto numbers *fingers crossed*. *** Of course my Incredible Hulk and pixie mash up was not without a basis. I have been reviewing Marvel movies, in preparation for the Ironman sequel, coming next year. At the same time, I have the entire Artemis Fowl series running in my handheld device, all eight books of it. I'm now at book five, and so full of fairies, sprites, elves, dwarves, criminal mastermind boy genius, and bodyguard extraordinaire imageries. I guess every now and then I need to nurture the inner kid in me. ^^

Happier

The Venetian, Macau. June 2012.

Last June 28 marked the fifteenth year since my wife and I became a couple.

During the first six months of our relationship, Joan had to go home to the province for a short break.

It was the analog age, and I remember the first time my monthly cellphone bills rose to near five-digit figures.

I think I turned pale at the sight of P9,000++ in the billing statement.

Those brief moments of being apart really messed up my budget nyahaha!


So you can imagine my happiness when she came back to Manila. ^^

After over fifteen years, it's still the same.

Not the phone bills, but my eagerness to be with her at the end of the day.

Some things will never change. ^^

Happy anniversary, Pangga!

***

Strange how right now I readily remember only the phone bills, and not the challenges we had back then.

Indeed, being happier has its perks. ^^

And happier is what I wish everyone be in the days and years to come.

Cheers!