spare me from that spa

This is a dish of flowers on the porch of the old-house-converted-into-a-spa where I had my first spa experience last Wednesday. Sad to say, it was not a very good one as I developed an asthmatic attack in the middle of it. It couldn't have been the various fruits and vegetable scrubs that they used because I'm not allergic to any of those. Maybe it was the temperature that was to blame. The scrubs were too darn cold in the chilled room. After about 40 minutes into the two hour session, I had to tell the girl to please use some warm water as the shivers were turning into outright trembling. I think the girl was kind of insensitive. Not once did she ask if her client, who was coughing, wheezing and shaking was all right and was there anything she could do to make said client any more comfortable. Instead at one point she used a semi-wet wrap as a blanket that I had to protest and ask for a dry towel instead. Gah!

The session goes like this: one hour of body scrub using oatmeal, carrots, cucumbers and the like, followed by a shower (with a thermostat control that I could not figure out) then another hour of massage. After the shower I put on all my clothes and ran back to the car to get my salbutamol inhaler which got left behind, and things became much better after that. Hail to the inhaler!

And one more thing. They played this eerie/scary kind of music all throughout, the kind that you would hear in suspense movies where the knife-weilding-killer is stalking the unknowing victim and you, the audience, would silently scream in your seat, "Don't go there! Go to the left! Keep your head down! " Not a very restful audio ambiance.

So overall, I would say, never again would I go to that place for a spa. As you notice, the place goes unnamed but if you're from Dumaguete, I'm sure you would know which place I'm talking about.

the DAY after

This was the Dumaguete boulevard at 5:46 am today, viewed from the pier where we took Karen to her boat back to war torn Mindanao. We are fearful for her and her family, what with the recurrent news of brutal battles between rebels and government troops in her neighboring towns. She, on the other hand, says that they have gotten used to such turmoil.

Last night's farewell and thanksgiving party, graciously hosted by Rummel in his palacial home, was lively and well attended and lasted until the wee hours of dawn, as usual. At around 11 pm, Manila group called to connect and let us know that they were having a fun party as well and to ask if Tata was with us. I almost panicked as Tata had left for Manila earlier and was supposed to attend the Manila version of the farewell party. I berated the Manila people for not coordinating properly with Tata, how could they let this happen when Tata was so looking forward to meeting them? They cowered in (mock) fear and said Ok, ok, we'll go and find Tata. I couldn't believe the craziness of it all, as it was almost midnight. In disgust I said Ok, ba-bye and Tata is staying at this hotel in Makati.

Suddenly a voice comes on the phone. Hello, hello, why are you telling them to go to my hotel when I'm right here! This is Tata! Bwahahahah. -_- They got me there.

As Karen's boat trip was at 6 am she cajoled me not to go home and instead spend the last few hours before her trip for more "bonding." And so we spent the rest of the dawn talking and laughing ourselves hoarse. "A licensed civil engineer" (as she always introduces herself), Karen has an incredible memory and she can quote verbatim our favorite poems in high school. Also a word lover like me, we had a riotous time thinking up possible "mottos" for our next reunion from random phrases that we heard during this 30th reunion. One of our favorite quotes is from K.K., a classmate who is now a military officer. He said, "Freedom is in the mind." I don't know how apt that would be for a reunion theme but Karen and I loved it if only because it sounds so deep and profound amidst all the inane things we've been indulging in this past week.

"a licensed civil engineer" cavorting amidst the red balloons of the S in SU during the Tipon Sillimaniana 2008

Day 7: Farewell Party

Make that parties. Because tonight, Batch '78 will have not just one but two parties. One here in Dumaguete and the other one in Manila.

Here are some images from the past days.

inside the bus that brought Batch '78 resort hopping on Day 3

at the SUHS Alumni Homecoming

after the parade at the SU Ballfield

front view


back view

As for the spa experience, maybe later. Because now it's time to party. Again!

Day 6: Tipon Sillimaniana 2008

The day after the city parade is the traditional D-day of the Founder's Week Celebration. It begins with a morning thanksgiving service at the amphitheater in front of the SU Church. Then there's a breakfast reception for everyone after the Diana Sunrise Service. Batch '78, being a reunioning batch, was one of the sponsors for the food of this morning's university breakfast. However, I doubt if any of us was able to join the Diana and breakfast because, as usual, our previous day ended in the early hours of the next day. The boys particularly had a boys' night out session which lasted until 5 am today. Hmm.

For our girl's spa, I'll tell you more about it when I get back later. Tonight is the Tipon Sillimaniana, the Grand Alumni Homecoming at the SU Quadrangle. It's a big, big university wide party where all the reunioning batches gather together for food, a program and dancing.

Augst 28 is a very important date for Silliman University. It is THE day in Founder's Day. There were a lot of "official" activities in campus today, like the awarding of the Most Outstanding Sillimanian and stuff like that. As for us, we spent the day lounging with some classmates at Bong and Lai's mansion in El Pueblo, where Karen and I helped make the baked prawns in garlic and cheese. Yey! Hehehe. It was a no brainer. Just followed instructions from chief cook, Bong R.

Then in the afternoon we just had to go to Dumaguete landmark Sans Rival for coffee and sweets and raucous stories. Then those of us who were not able to go to the spa last night went for a quick massage at Body and Sole while the rest of us went home to freshen up and prepare for tonight's big event. We're supposed to present a dance number in tonight's program. (!) I don't know if we've mastered it enough to be presentable. Bahala na si Rolito and Susan, our pambato dancers.

So will sign off now, as I've been assigned to go to Basil Tree and order our dinner. :-)

Day 5: The City Parade

Day 5 began with spillovers from Day 4. Since the beginning of this reunion, every night has actually been like this. Each day merged on to the next, the transitions unnoticed as everyone was busy hugging lives and basking in the security of acceptance. No matter what we have become, we can let our (graying) hairs, and our guards, down among these people. They are our freaking batchmates, after all, of our exact same age. Last night (this dawn, actually) we parted reluctantly, assuaged only by the knowledge that later today, we would meet again to continue with our revelry.

Just a recap of yesterday's Batch '78 whereabouts:

1. small group lunches - which means little pockets of friends had separate lunch dates, the better for intimate catching up with each others lives. I had lunch with my high school kaberks Tata, Pam and Karen at MaMia's where Linda B., who is an adopted barkada but who is actually from Batch '77, joined us.

2. two pm - SUHS Alumni Homecoming at the SUHS quadrangle. Our batch wore the white tshirt donated by the Manila group.

3. around four pm - halo-halo at Bethel sponsored by Tata

4. evening - exclusive disco and ballroom night at El Camino, a heavily funded event, meaning we had a lot of generous donors for this activity. Many thanks to Chuchi, Miguel J. and Bong R.

Today is a major event in the SU Founder's Day Celebration because this is the day when the entire SU community and homecoming alumni will parade around the city. If truth be told, over the past years I've developed a dislike for parades because they sort of seem senseless. What's so exciting about watching so many people walk down the streets and causing traffic jams? There was a time, when I was running late, that I seriously thought about writing a letter to the city administration to ban all parades except the SU Founder's Day Parade. Every little event in Dumaguete has to be celebrated with a street parade or a motorcade at least. Add this to the perpetual processions of the Catholic church and you have a city with narrow streets in horrendous traffic jams so frequently that it wasn't cute anymore.

Today is also the one year anniversary of the day my mother broke her hip while watching the SU parade. A contingent, which ironically was connected to the SUMC, was throwing candies to the parade watchers and my mother, surrounded by her little apos, stooped down to pick up some candies, too. Seventy six years old and wobbly, she lost her balance and fell. An intertrochanteric fracture it was. Thank God, my mother, after surgery and rehabilitation, can now walk well. I'm just not sure if she wants to watch today's parade...

Her surgeon, by the way, was Dr. Manny Katada, the husband of my classmate, Chona. Manny, incidentally, is the one who designed our naughty banner for today's parade! Ok, since the entire Dumaguete is going to see our banner anyway, here it is:

Family day at the beach

foreground: Abbe, Eric, Nerry, Cheryl, Sandra

standing: Vangie, Rolito, Zenovia, Marie, Kris, Lina, Zoe, Debra, Editha, Perry, Diana, Tata

So this is the schedule for today:

12 noon - Lunch at La Cavitena, sponsored by Tata

2 pm - Street parade

5 pm - Halo-halo time (again, because they already had halo-halo yesterday)

8 pm - We decided to take a break from seeing each others faces. Magbulag ang boys and girls. Boys will have their own night out event. While the girls will go to the spa for much needed pampering after today's parade and last night's disco dancing.

Day 4: I missed them all

Well, almost.

Remember the events I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to attend?

1. Marjorie Evasco's talk on The Art of Poetry and Healing

2. Miss SUMS

3. SUHS Homecoming

4. Surgery

Guess which event trumped all the others...

I am not complaining. I would have loved to be in all or to be in any one of the above events. But for a doctor, it's always duty first before all else. I wasn't able to attend numbers 1, 2 and 3 because of number 4.

But Day 4 is not over yet. And before it is, I will hie off now to this evening's event: Disco and Ballroom dancing at El Camino.

Day 3: Resort hopping

Batch '78 rented a big bus for today's resort hopping activity. Brunch, sponsored by Edu, was at Jo's Chicken Inato by the Sea in Sibulan, a town north of Dumaguete. It was truly "brunch" as everybody had double orders of chicken, one for breakfast and one for lunch!

Next stop was at the Private Residence Resort in Dauin, two towns south of Dumaguete, for swimming and snacks, sponsored by Rizza.

Then there was the "city tour" aboard the bus where everyone tried to outdo one another in terms of binuang and kabuang.

If the above news are so lacking in detail it's because I wasn't there with them! huhuhu. Diehard Batch '78er that I am, sometimes I have to be away from our batch activities because duty calls elsewhere. We locals had planned to take leaves from our work during Founder's Week but some responsibilities one just can't take a leave from. So I had to content myself with sketchy vignettes of how their day was spent.

Actually, I was driving enroute to the Private Residence already, with Pam and Karen, who just "floated" in by boat from Iligan when I got a call from Zoe, telling me that the bus they were riding just passed by me, going in the opposite direction as they were already going to their next destination. They were on their way to the wake of Debonaire's mother who passed away last night, during the time that we were having our formal dinner.

And so we turned back to the city and met the whole group at Deb's place in Looc. We did not get to talk much about how their day went aside from the above headlines and newsbriefs because I had a pressing assignment that I needed help with. It is this: tomorrow afternoon is the Miss SUMS (the medical school) Beauty Pageant and I was tasked to prepare some of the questions. This is just totally not my bailiwick, I don't even watch beauty pageants, so how could I know what are the appropriate questions to ask? Thankfully, I have a lot of classmates who are beauty queens themselves or aspiring judges or make-up artists or just plain hinawayon so I got lots of suggestions from them. At first, thinking that because it's a medical school contest, my advisers conjured questions that were medically related. I said that would be tiring. We're so full of serious stuff in medicine already, how about some lighthearted, funny, far-from-medicine questions?

Their suggestions:

"If you were on a date with your boyfriend and you notice that he shows signs of being gay, how would you react?"

Or, "If you were stranded on an island who would you want to be there with you?" That's too easy, I think.

Or, "You were stranded on an island with your boyfriend, your mother and your dog. Rescue comes but could only take you and one more. Who would you choose to be rescued as well?"

Duh. I don't know if these are ok.

And come to think of it, I don't know where I'll put myself tomorrow afternoon. There are actually three activities going on simultaneously tomorrow afternoon, all of which I want to attend.

First, there's poet Dr. Marjorie Evasco, Outstanding Sillimanian awardee 2008 who will give a talk on Poetry and Healing at 2 pm at the Audio Visual Room. THAT I want to attend!

Then there's the Miss SU Medical School at three pm, of which I am supposed to be one of the advisers, although I honestly don't know any advise I can give them. THAT should be interesting to watch! Besides we were required to buy tickets for this.

Then there's the SUHS Alumni Homecoming, also at three pm at the SUHS quadrangle. Need I say I want to attend THAT as well?!

And finally there's this text message from the surgery resident that said there's a possible surgery at two pm, too. Now THAT is something I must attend.

So let's just wait and see, where I'll be AT tomorrow afternoon.

Day 2: three activities

Today was a blur.
So many activities.
So many new faces.
So many new stories.
Some jubilant.
Some heart breaking.
Amidst the cacophony.
The memories of shared timelines remain.
And the blur thru the tears is balm.

lunch time at the Pastoral Center

today's three activities: (oh, make that four... or more)

* Silliman Church Service - in memory of our dearly departed classmates

* Lunch for the street children at the Pastoral Center

* Lunch treat by Jayne at Chowking

* Formal dinner/Meet our scholar/Tribute to teachers/Business meeting/Nostalgia emote/Picture taking galore/Dancing till dawn at Don Atilano

* Giving of tokens exquisitely handcrafted by Vicvic and Rizza

Day 1: Family Day at the Beach

l-r: Rolito, Debonaire, Kris, Editha, Abbe, Joey, Eric, Sandra, Lina

,

wish you were here...

the batch with two themes

It all began with Mitch. Early on he said it would be very nice if our reunion had a theme. At first nobody minded his suggestion but when it was time to make our banner, everybody realized that the banner should reflect the theme so if we didn't have a theme then what would we put on our banner?!

And so the lively search for a theme began. A lot of creative and some corny, some baduy and some outrightly risque (not published in my general patronage weblog!) ideas came. Much to our delight and confusion. I was in a quandary and was totally lost as to which theme to choose. Luckily for our batch, we have a very decisive leader, Abbe, who laid down the bottom line. Which is, we're going to have fun this reunion and if having two themes will confuse the audience, we decided that we will not care. Foremost was that we wanted to keep the two themes as the two are actually reflective of the duality of our natures. There's the serious side to us and there's the funny side, even if it's baduy or bordering on inanity.

After much ado, we had three banners made, two vertical and one horizontal.

This is the vertical banner with the bold words Still Solid After 30 Years to showcase how our batch has remained united and has grown even more bonded as the years went by.

That's (l-r) Joey, Marie and John beaming with pride.

And here's the horizontal banner which as you can see has a red rectangle which I photoshopped over the naughty text. Just look at the faces of the people and imagine the shrieks that filled Shakey's when the banner was unveiled last Wednesday night.

(CW) Kaye, Chona, Marie, Leolyn, Debonaire, Cheryl, Jocelyn, Zenovia

This picture below is quite telling of what the above banner says. See what the Joey and Deb are pointing at? Before the night was over, we had new names for the batch mates: the boys are called "Sizzling" and the girls are called "Hotties". Oh, these are all in jest. Middle age is after all the time when "some things begin to change" and middle agers sort of defend their grounds/prowess/whatever. Not to be taken too seriously. Just for laughs. heheh.

(standing l-r) Miguel, Allan, Abbe, Raul, John

(seated l-r) Joey, Debonaire, Eric, Tatoy

Here's a closer look. Notice the ID's the guys are wearing around their necks? This is the prototype of the IDs cum invitation cum Activities Schedule (printed at the back of the ID) so that nobody would be asking, What are we going to do today? Tomorrow? Next day? Plus it's also a souvenir everyone can take home and wear during the next reunions elsewhere in the globe. Prototype because the final ID has some further embellishments including the printed name of each classmate.

( CW) Allan, Abbe, Deb, Joey

If you havent' read yesterday's post yet, go there and see what happened to our Still Solid banner! Boohoo. The Still Solid vanished into Thin Air. Argh. Of all the banners on display, they (dastardly rats) chose to take ours. If it's any consolation, our banners must have been very, very attractive that they barely lasted 24 hours hanging there before they were... ahh... taken. :-(

The good news is that we have two new banners made. Instantly. Whew. Thanks to technology. And resilience. And funds!

bulletin board

* Congratulations to DR. BRIAN CALINAWAGAN , DR. LIGAYA SOLERA and Dr. MARIE ANTONETTE HUYO-A for passing the 2008 Medical Board Exam! Woohoo!! Congratulations also to all the Silliman Medical Center Post Graduate Interns for a 100% passing rate in said exam! Celebrate! Celebrate!

* Our batch banners were put up yesterday! Yehey! Abbe and company hoisted the two banners up on both sides of the overpass in front of SUHS. We are so proud of our beautiful banners!

* The 107th Founder's Day of Silliman University kicked off today with a Torch Parade at dusk around the city. My students came to class today wearing headbands that looked like those on the left. The students' styroballs were painted to look like eyes so when they moved their heads, the eyes looked like they were dancing. They said the headbands were their torch parade outfits.

* SHOCKING NEWS: Our two banners were STOLEN!! As in, gikawat. Unbelievable. Who else would want our banners except our batchmates? Grrrr and huhuhu. Ma'am Leolyn was at the scene of the crime at around two pm and she was dumbfounded when the banners, which were hanging there just a couple of hours before, were nowhere to be found. Clutching her purse under her arm, she ran around rousing the security guards, the watch-your-motorcycle-boys, and the general public, frantically wailing, "Our banner! Our banner! Have you seen who took our banner?!" The guards said, "Sorry Ma'am, we were just shifting duties so we didn't notice the person who took the banners." Some bystander said he saw a kid, a child, run off with a rolled white tarpaulin, going in the direction of the pier, to the Looc area.

Ma'am Leolyn immediately calls Joey on her phone, "Joey, Joey! Where are you? Our banners! Our banners! Gikawat!"

Joey, who was on a catching crooks mission, had a truckful of Task Force personnel with him. They had to abort their current assignment to attend to the urgent distress call from Batch '78. Joey and his Task Force Team sped to Looc and did their reconnoissance. But alas, it was to no avail. Whoever had made off with our tarpaulin banners now have a new mat or a new blanket or a new table cloth in their makeshift home. That was really mean of them. They did not even wait for the Founder's Day to be finished so we could enjoy our banner for a bit.

* The 30th Grand Reunion of SUHS Batch '78 officially starts tomorrow. You would think we'd be saving all our energies and leave credits for this "seven-day, action-packed, high intensity reunion celebration." But no way. Di mapigil ang mga kundatan. Ever since our batchmates have arrived in trickles the past week, they've been clamoring, "When are we going to meet? When are we going to meet?" We locals tried to stave them off a bit, "Soon...soon...soon... Saturday will be here soon." They would hear nothing of it. So in reality, there have been daily parties here, since Wednesday evening when Jocelyn treated our batch to dinner at Shakey's. I've met old and new faces like: Lina C. , Hope T., Miguel J., Nikita P., Rolito S. and Kaye P.

I really have to sleep now because tomorrow we're going to "officially" start our muy grande reunion with a family day at Debonaire's beach house in Bacong.

movie aches

Why watching Voces Inocentes gave me a headache:

First of all, I am not overly fond of movies. I would rather read the book than watch the movie version. A movie forces me to sit down for two hours straight while a book I can pick up and put down anytime, to return to at a later hour that I choose. And besides most movies are not that faithful to the original written text, as a lot of compromises, improvisations and revisions are made for the sake of cinematic effects. Not to say that movies are of a lesser artform than books, only not my preference.

And so with this attitude I sat down to watch the movie, squirming somewhat and tossing and trashing a lot while doing so.

The second reason for the headache is that I don’t like movies involving gunshots. And this movie had a lot. Much too many, in fact. I could not understand how soldiers, government or guerilla, could rain bullets on households and grade schools repeatedly, night or day, knowing full well there are children there. Or how the school administration and local authorities could allow these civilians to continually live in what was obviously a war zone. Or how could the mother not take away the children after the first episode that their “cardboard house” was riddled with bullets? Perhaps they were in a state of denial, wishful thinking, oh this would go away in a couple of days and everything will be normal again.

And most of all, the reason the movie gave me a headache is that I don’t have the stomach for movies showing violence to children. The contents of my stomach sort of went to places it shouldn’t have, like to my throat, ears, head. I think this was the reason for much of the squirming and tossing and trashing. I actually missed a lot of footages of the movie because every time there were gunshots or something terrible was about to happen I would cover my eyes and ears with a pillow and wait for an appropriate time before coming up for air. One hour and forty minutes into the two hour movie, I was almost frantic, when is this going to end? I couldn’t see any respite or resolution coming. It was all violence and senseless brutality all throughout.

I forgot at which part I cried. Was it towards the end or was it after? Or was it at the middle? It is kind of blurry and I don’t really want to remember exactly when or what made me cry. Maybe it was when the little boys, only between 9 and 12, were stripped of their innocence and play because of the beastliness of so called adults. Maybe it was when these little boys were marching in the rain and mud with both hands clasped behind their necks and pissing in their pants from sheer terror. Maybe it’s because I have a 14 year old son who is into drums and pingpong and gelled hair at the moment, as all pre-teens should be. Not forced recruitment into the army, not learning how to shoot other people and certainly not to look at a barrel down one’s face.



Watching the movie gave me a headache. And a heartache as well. Because the movie was not totally fiction. It was based on the true story of Oscar Orlando Torres, the playwright and co-producer of the film. Torres and his playmates had embattled childhoods during the 1980’s civil war in El Salvador, a country in Central America. It was the first time I learned that grade school children have actually been recruited as soldiers in many countries all over the world, including, to my utter dismay but not complete surprise, the Philippines.

In case you're wondering why I subjected myself to the torture of watching that movie, it was a class requirement. I wouldn't have watched said movie otherwise. Nor would I recommend it to anyone. Too depressing. I thought movie watching was for fun and relaxation. This movie was quite disturbing, like you see something unpleasant and you want to turn away and pretend it's not there.

I was also wondering about the harmony of writing such a somber post here, in the midst of all reunion revelry I've been posting a lot about. But I rather like the contrast. How boring it would be if all my posts were fun and cheery. And I learned something in class today: the writer always has some degree of melancholy. So there.

ito na ang umpisa

Uhh... yesterday I sort of promised to write a longer movie review. But...

... the irresistible pizza beckoned...

... and the 30th Grand Reunion has begun!

Many, many thanks to our host, Jocelyn A. M.!

innocent voices

Watching that movie gave me a headache.

And a heartache as well.

If I recover, there will be a longer review tomorrow.

wt ahem

Smartbro is acting unsmart again and it took me forever to access Blogger. With each frustrated click the words that I wanted to write down just flew away, hopefully to come back on another day. So not much posting here tonight. Which in itself is a little wonder already because all other weblogs are inaccessible.

Internet connection was weird. The Olympic sites were fine, Yahoo was fine, emails were fine, IMs were fine, but blog sites were not accessible. The good thing that happened: I was able to chat with classmate Dodie Mae now in Belgium and cousin Pol-Pol (English name: Paul) in UK. Ain't that awesome?! Oh, and it was so funny. Zenovia was online, too, and we chatted for a brief while, updating each other about reunion stuff and then we said enough of this! Why are we chatting when we are both in Dumaguete?! And we just saw each other yesterday. Hahaha!

m.i.b.

Some of the guapo men in my life, with their Filipino and Americanized names: l-r

Gingging/Leandro - in black shades

Ontoi/George - in black suit

Toto/Arnold - in black suit

Ying/Gary - in black suit

Tata/Paul - in black shades and black suit as well

They are all my cousins (the two men with black shades are brothers and the other two men with red vests are brothers, too) except the guy in a blue shirt, who is my brother.

at the Hyatt, SF

They are all naka-porma because it was the 8-08-08 wedding of my cousin, Bingbing/Frances to Allan, in San Francisco, CA.

Best Wishes to the newlyweds!


(sorry, i don't have a good rez picture of the couple yet, hope somebody will send me one!)

my mother's birthday today!

in a spin

My head, that is.

With one week to go before our reunion begins, I'm kinda breathless. Chona and I have been walking in the rain (gapa-ulan) for several days now, canvassing/checking out/making sure everything about our reunion will be silky and smooth. And our "boss", Abe, is forever on the phone, texting or calling, following up this and that. Other classmates here are doing their respective assignments as well (program, transpo, venues, catering, reservations, dance number, a half dozen more etceteras).

The red tshirts are being printed already, even as I type here. The other (surprise!) giveaways are also currently in the making. Other giveaways have been shipped by a classmate all the way from America. By the way, the tshirts donated by the Manila group will be our costume for the SUHS Alumni Homecoming on the 26th. What has stumped us here are the words that will accompany our batch logo on the banner that we will be using for the parade.

A classmate suggested that it would be nice if our reunion had a theme, which would be reflected in the banner, so we brainstormed for a possible theme.

Here are the suggestions:

1. 30, and Going Stronger

2. Still Solid After 30 Years

3. Proud to be 30. Why not?

4. Grateful to SU High

5. We're back after 30 years!

6. Thank God... it's 30

7. 30 years...What a Feeling :-)!!! (remember the Alice Dixon shampoo commercial during the late 70's, the one where she rotates her shoulder then shakes her head, a move that became very popular during our high school days?)

8. Stronger & Better After 30 Years

9. We’re back! And coming back after another 30 years

10. Looking back and moving ahead at 30

11. Still HOT after 30 years (the HOT spelled out using siling labuyo images) And as a partner to this banner, red tshirts with the words "Rated XXX" (symbolizing 30 years) at the back. Plus, little banners carried by some classmates that would say "HOT flushes??" and other bannerrettes saying "Prove it!"

12. Bumebenta pa rin sa Trenta (bisag opaw na) (meaning kahit na kalbo na)

13. Proud at 30. Of course!

14. Thank God, we're 30!

15. At 30, Standing Proud, Strong, Solid...

16. Big Banner: Still HOT after 30 years (siling labuyo images to spell out HOT) Boys' bannerettes: Still Solid After 30 years ; Girls' bannerettes: What a feeling!!

Numbers 11 and 16 are quite popular because of their naughtiness. My initial reaction was, ahh, maybe not… ma censored ta. Too much sexual innuendoes. They’re trying to convince me that it’ll be good for laughs and to stop being so serious. As Mitch said, this will be the first and last time that we'll be 30 (Triple X), next time it'll be our 35th. Major protest here from the girls, regarding the 'hot flushes', "Hey, we're not yet menopausal, pleeeaasse!" Heheheh.

So I don't know... you see my quandary here? Help!

gamu-gamu

Kapag maraming gamu-gamu

maya-maya ay uulan

Ito'y isang kasabihan

Ewan ko lang kung puedeng paniniwalaan

Pero ito tiyak kong sigurado
Kumuha ng palanggana or kaya ay bandehado
Lagyan ng maraming tubig na malinaw
At ilapag malapit sa ilaw

Di magtatagal
Sugod na ang mga torpeng gamu-gamu
Parang mga bulag mga baliw
Inihahampas ang kanilang mala-uod na katawan
Sa dingding sa sahig sa kung saan saan
Basta't kumikinang.

last night

Yesterday, sometime past 8 pm, I was at the second floor of the Turning Point building along San Jose St. talking with some friends. Suddenly we heard Tok. Tok-tok-tok. Tok. I said, "What was that?" Mark said, "Gunshots. Everybody get down on the floor." For half a second we were all stunned immobile then Ailien and I got down on the floor with the children as Mark turned off the lights. The second floor of this building has huge glass windows. We could hear people running and shouting down on the street.

Somebody suggested that we move downstairs. The walls on the first floor are made of solid cement on one side, the side where the gunshots and the running came from. Slowly, with the children's stifled whimpers, we crouched our way downstairs through the dark.

There was a meeting going on downstairs. They had a guest speaker who came from San Francisco and she was talking about how the American dream had become the American curse for some people. We, who were not part of the meeting, sat in and listened as well.

After a while, some of the men went out to the street to investigate and came back with grim news. Somebody we knew was ambushed. His car was rammed into something on the street. The window on the driver's side of his SUV was shattered. There were bullet shells on the ground.

Today I kept thinking, deep thoughts about life and living. Nobody knew that last night would be his last night on this earth. How different the lives of that man's family have become. Because of the act of one shooter. And the mind who ordered it. What has my beloved city now become?

Today I drove around with my window half down. To save gas and to remind myself, glass panes can't keep bullets out.

starting young

My 8-year-old niece, Madison, joined her first triathlon a few weeks ago in Minnesotta.

Way to go, Madie!

______________________________

Meanwhile, here's an insider's view of the Beijing Olympics from an Olympian who weblogs!

And here's Abhinav Bindra's, too.

shoutouts

raise it up

Never let it be said that Batch '78 did not rise up to a challenge.

We are so privileged to have an artist among our ranks who designed this banner for us.


After the oohhhs and aahhhs during our meeting last Friday, we had to make a very crucial decision. Who would have the honor of carrying the above banner (ala-ancient Roman army style) during the Founder's Day city parade? We looked around and scrutinized our able-bodied classmates.

One promptly said, "Who me? I can't carry a pole with a heavy tarpaulin banner all over the city." Another one said, "Why are you looking at me? I'm taking maintenance medications!" Another one suggested, "How about using silky cloth like alpha-geena instead of tarpaulin? That would be lighter." And so on and so forth, they had one excuse after another not to carry the tarp banner on a pole.

Girls (one eyebrow up): "We thought you are SOLID. How come you are complaining?"

Boys (vehemently): "Oh, we ARE solid in all OTHER things. Except that we're too... mature to be carrying poles during the parade!"

Yeah, right. I say, more like LIQUID, considering the amount we've allocated for drinks during the (this is Abe's description) "seven-day, action-packed, high intensity reunion celebration." Well, I hope all this talk is not just hot air, for that would mean the solid has transformed not only to liquid but to GAS!

*muchas gracias, bsmton

...and out of yours as well

Thought I'd take a break from writing about the SU Founder's Day for a change. Not for lack of anything to say, for there are tons to be said and will be said of it. In fact, I've sore throat today from marathon talking last night as we planned the nitty grittys of the FD celebrations. Okay, this is getting to be a paragraph and I said I won't write about it today! haha. The mouth speaks what the heart is full of...

Meanwhile, here's something that someone's urinary bladder was full of:

Urinary bladder stones

What causes these stones to form?

Well, there are many possible causes.

In the case of this patient, the cause of multiple stone formation was urinary outlet obstruction secondary to an extraordinarily enlarged prostate gland also known as BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia). The normal prostate gland is about the size of a pingpong ball but this here below is about five times that.

hyperplastic prostate

And what are the predisposing factors that may lead to BPH ? Studies have shown that the following factors affect the incidence of BPH in a population.

age, family history

ethnicity, medical condition

diet and sexual habits


What I can say:

Drink plenty of water.

Don't hold urination for too long.

Don't ignore symptoms.

Don't chicken out from a check up.

Don't take my word for it. Afterall, I'm not a urologist. See your specialist.




.

coming out of my ears

As the Olympic games begin, Sillimanians are going into full gear in prepation for the upcoming Founder's Day. From 6 pm till almost midnight I was in meetings where the main topic was none other than Founder's Day until Founder's Day is coming out of my ears.

More on that tomorrozzzz...

class of?

Despite yesterday's banners, I hope nobody got confused.

I belong to Batch '78, gladly and loyally so.

To everyone out there, please make doubly sure you know what class you belong to. Don't be like the gentleman in this poem, which I found at Ms. Ellen Bailey's site, to my delight.

CLASS REUNION

by Jim C. Carpenter

I read an ad in the paper one day
In the Dallas Morning News
All about my class reunion in
A town near Santa Cruz

I tried to decide if I should go
To meet my friends and peers
And see how classmates from the past
Had aged in all these years

I finally resolved that I should go
And see what I could see
And meet my friends from the senior class
Of nineteen fifty-three

I rented a tux and a black toupee
Then brushed my shoes and hair
I trimmed my mustache and my beard
And changed my under wear

I emptied the bottle of after shave
And rented a limousine
I brushed my teeth with Ultra-Bright
Then gargled some Listerine

I soon arrived in splendid form
With a flower on my chest
Sporting a rented diamond ring
And smelling my very best

Now I was dressed in the finest garb
Like a monarch at a feast
When I discovered that no one there
Seemed familiar in the least

Well not a soul remembered me
And my heart dropped to the floor
When I remembered that I was in
The class of fifty-four .

reunion banners

A banner with an attitude.


No, that banner above is not Ours. It belongs to SUHS Batch '73 (5 years older than us). And it is now on display at the Hibbard Fence facing Silliman Avenue, fronting Insular Hotel.

And along said fence is also this banner below which belongs to SUHS Batch '83 (5 years younger than us).

And so, nasaan na ang banner ng magagaling na Batch '78?

Duh... ahh... ehh... coming soon. :-)

minding the manila meeting (and menu as well)

Even as we, the Dumaguete Group of Batch '78, are semi-frantically fine tuning the details of our upcoming 30th reunion, the Manila Group has also been having their own "tapoks" or meetings.

I asked Erlyn, "So, what have you discussed during your last meeting?"

Erlyn goes, "Meeting? What meeting? Oh, we had a very brief meeting. But we had a lot of Kaon, Karaoke and Katawa. (Food, singing and laughter). Hehehehe."

Here's Rolito's account of their "meeting." (posted with permission)

I am again requested by the Manila group to update you regarding our meeting held last Saturday, 26 July. Present were Hya, Evalyn, Mitch, Rolito and of course the gracious hosts, Atit and Erlyn. Mitch presented the sample T-shirt with the print and these will be ready a week before Hya's departure for Dumaguete on the 23rd. As earlier mentioned by Mitch, the T shirt design is simple but worth wearing for our 30th class reunion.

For the Manila group people who were not able to attend that meeting, which happens to be our last meeting before the big activity this August, you missed what our hosts prepared. The best kinilaw in town, the delicious lechon from Cebu, courtesy of Evalyn kay birthday lagi niya, the chocolates from Canada, the aromatic tea from China, the yummy buko pie from Tagaytay and the ginger tea with malunggay from Amlan, bwahahahahaha, the sugarcane wine from Ilocos, the nilaw-uy nga isda with camote tops from new manila, the sweety banana cue, definitely not from Bergado's but from Yaya, etcetera etcetera.

Sorry, guys, but I think it was the longest meeting we had because we started at lunch time and we took pa our dinner. Actually, the meeting lasted for about 10 minutes only and the tabi and kaon and tabi and kaon maoy nakapadugay.

The manila group will host any visiting classmate (local or foreign). So please give us a call/text so that we can pick you up. Mitch dugangi ra ni ako gisulti kay morag naa pa to lain. See you guys.

Such posting elicits a wail from Jun U., hankering for Filipino food all the way from Berkeley. "I am so hungry right now! When can I eat those kinds of food again?!"

Rolito immediately comforts him.

"Jun, when you take your vacation to Pinas, paramdam ka lang hahahahahaha. The Manila group is very willing to adopt you or anybody from Class '78. The D. family is opening their doors and windows? hehehe and perhaps the roof bwahahahahaha for any vacationing classmate. Kidding aside, that was one of the agenda we had during our meeting. Kay usahay makadungog na lang mi from the Dumaguete group that so and so arrived on this date and left on this date. Siguro connecting flight. Or just very excited to see their loved ones. Anyway, basta kung kinsa anhi ug Manila please give us a call or a text and we will be there, naks, with open arms, bwahahahahahahaha. Patilawon mo sa mga luto nga wala sa States or any resto or carinderia. Patented na sa ila Atit ug Erlyn."

And so the banter goes on and on. And it's expected to heat up some more as the grand event approaches. I always believe that part of the fun of any activity, is the planning and dreaming about it.

finally finalized

SUHS Class '78

30th Grand Reunion and Homecoming
August 23 – 29 2008
Dumaguete City

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES

DAY 1: August 23, Saturday: FAMILY DAY (and night) at the beach

Debonaire’s beach house, Bacong, overnight, bring families

DAY 2: August 24, Sunday: THREE ACTIVITIES

A. SU Church Service - offering in memory of our dearly departed classmates

B. Community service (Feeding the street children) - Pastoral Center, Cathedral grounds

C. Formal dinner, tribute to teachers - Don Atilano, formal wear/Sunday dress, NOT gown and coat and tie, NOT jeans and tshirt, NOT rubber shoes

DAY 3: August 25, Monday : RESORT HOPPING

A. Jo’s by the Sea in Sibulan – lunch

B. Private Residence in Dauin – afternoon snacks and swim

DAY 4: August 26, Tuesday: TWO ACTIVITIES

A. SUHS Alumni Homecoming - 2 pm, pledge for another scholar starting next school year

B. Ballroom/Disco Dancing – El Camino Blanco, exclusive

DAY 5: August 27, Wednesday: THREE ACTIVITIES

A. City parade- tshirts donated by Manila group

B. Halo-halo – Chowking or Bethel

C. Boys VS Girls : Boys night out/ Girls to spa

DAY 6: August 28, Thursday: UNIVERSITY GRAND REUNION

SU Quadrangle, 7 pm, dinner with all reunioning alumni

DAY 7: August 29, Friday: FAREWELL PARTY, Rummel’s place

Many, many heartfelt thanks to our generous sponsors and thank you in advance to those who would like to sponsor the activities that are not fully funded yet. Just email me or Abe for details.

SALAMAT KAAYO SANGATANAN.

p.s. have you started taking your vitamins already? ;p

vivir para contarla

Who could this cute little baby be? And what stories would he be telling when he grows up? Yes, this is a he, though the outfit looks like it was meant for a girl.

Here's the baby, all grown up and now world-reknowned for the tales he's told, both fictional and not. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is his name.

I don't know much about him yet but I intend to get to know him well enough. Aside from his being very talented, the snipets I read about his life are quite intriguing.

Look at this, this is what he said about education:

"If I had nothing to do and to avoid getting bored I'd hole up at the school library, where they had the Aldeana collection. I read the whole thing! ... From volume one to the last! I read El carnero, memoirs, reminiscences ... I read it all! Of course, when I reached my last year in secondary school, I knew more than the teacher did. "

A regular nerd, sounds like. I found this amusing because as a teacher, every now and then I would encounter students who, I can sense, are brilliant. And students like these make me go, gosh, I have to study, I have to study or else I won't be able to answer his/her questions.

Here's another thing I like about Marquez:

The title of a novel he wrote: Love in the Time of Cholera. Very interesting title. Cholera is not a very romantic illness, in fact it is quite morbid can be tragic. And on a local note, there's been a cholera outbreak in one of the northern towns here in Negros these past few weeks. I am thinking along medical lines here but criticisms about that novel say that the cholera there did not necessarily refer to the medical illness but rather to social ills.

Speaking of medical illnesses, in 1999 Marquez was diagnosed to have cancer of the lymphatics and this sort of jolted him. My golly, he must have said. I have so many words and stories in me yet that need to be told before I bite the dust. And so he...

"...reduced relations with my friends to a minimum, disconnected the telephone, canceled the trips and all sorts of current and future plans", he told, the Colombian newspaper, "...and locked myself in to write every day without interruption."

Wow. Three years later, this is the product of that hermitic life, Living to Tell the Tale (Vivir Para Contarla), the first volume in a trilogy of memoirs.

AND this 81 year old author is finishing a new novel, yet untitled, scheduled to be released by yearend.

meeting minutes and menu

Due to some urgent work, I was able to attend only part of our batch meeting at Abraham's house today. The good thing is, the part that I was able to attend was the Eating part. ;-)

So obviously, I can't share the minutes of the meeting here. What I can share is the Menu!!

Pistacio nuts - for nibble-nibbling

Iced tea - for coolness

Pancit palabok - all time favorite, ordered from Daro

Ham rolls - like lumpiang shanghai except that instead of ground meat, it's a slice of ham that's inside the roll. There was also ham pinsek, same principle as the ham rolls, different shape, like a paper thin crusted empanada.

Flavored bread loaves: Langka and cinnamon

Double dutch ice cream!!

a flyer about flying

This flyer was inserted in today's newspaper circulated in Dumaguete:

This is a kind of milestone in Dumaguete aviation history because once upon a time, before Air Philippines and Cebu Pacific came to be, Philippine Airlines totally pulled out all their flights to and from Dumaguete. For several months or maybe a couple of years, I'm not very sure now how long it was, the airport runway became a veritable grazing ground for cattle as well as the perfect practice place for beginning motorists. This was like a blow to us, a little island in our archipelagic geography, because before this absolute PAL pull-out, we had flights to Manila and to Cebu. Stunned and grumbling, commuters from Dumaguete had to go to Cebu or Bacolod by land or by sea to be able to get flights to Manila. Or take the slow boat from Dumaguete direct to Manila, which would mean spending more than 24 hours at sea.

Flash forward several years later, (don't expect exact numbers from me, I'm totally duh with them) and we had four flights a day that left and arrived within minutes of each other! I'm not going to argue with the flight schedulers, I know they know what they are doing. There's a whole Country to arrange flight schedules for, afterall.

So now we're going to have PAL flying MNL/DGT/MNL twice a day. This is in addition to the present three/four round trip flights that we have. Cebu Pacific flies twice a day, everyday. Air Philippines flies twice a day on some days and once a day on other days. Wow, that's great for the flyers. Especially with the SU Founder's Day celebration coming up fast, these flights are most welcome.

I remember (here goes) that during SU's centennial (2001), one or two planes were chartered to fly reunioning alumni all the way from America. Or maybe it was just a whole plane booked by Sillimanians, I can't be absolutely sure of my data, forgive me, I'm not a journalist, and these stories are products of my, you know... fading memory. But can you imagine that? Flying all the way from America to Manila (and transfering to a smaller plane for the domestic leg) and you are all schoolmates in the plane?! What a noisy flight it must have been!