The Journey. It’s Mine. [Raine’s Mom, Problogger, Techie-wannabe, Wheelchair-Traveler]

Last week, I got a reply from a two-year inquiry of possible internet service in my ‘remote’ location. I’m not going to say what the name of the provider is but it is a satellite internet service. Sounds fine right? Besides we are already on satellite TV. Seems like satellite is the only thing that’s gonna work there.

I haven’t seen how the thing works, maybe they changed their minds for a possible demo. I said the equipment was too expensive and I can afford it.  Well, it definitely isn’t like buying a KVM switch. It’s like buying a high-end laptop — which at the moment I cannot afford.

Sometime. When the price comes down. By then I guess broadband would have reached me. Meanwhile, I remain on 3G GPRS…unless I move to town or the city. Gosh…now I wish I live in a trailer!

We did not watch. He he. For the love of some peace and quiet in the house. We got it, for awhile until the group came home after midnight on Saturday.

The twins’ band? They won 2nd place! Imagine? Ha ha ha!

Even my other bro can’t believe it.

They won 7000 PHP, enough to pay for a new base guitar (all along I thought they owned one!) and pay the rent for the drum set they’ve been using for practice.

They sound good I told them. The band’s name by the way is ‘Stone of Heaven‘ — just a bunch of lanky boys (old friends in high school) who wanted to have fun playing music instead of bumming or drinking around.

Lakad lang sila, mga walang pera, walang sasakyan. Ang papayat pa! Puedeng sipain ng ibang hardcore band players.  They said the audience was just in-synch to their music. But then I guess when an amateur group like theirs just wanted to play good and have fun doing it– they often win over those who are so fixated on the price and the fame. I hope they don’t loose the attitude. Otherwise, I’d pull their feet back! Sulit daw ang galit ng mga kapitbahay na naingayan sa practice nila.

I would have posted photos and videos, but my PC at home is still “out-of-order”.

Oh…don’t ask me the titles of the songs they played — because I just don’t know!  Maybe Raine knows?

Last night, I indulged my young brothers (the twins) and I went to the city where their band played. Raine and I ended up in a long table with youngsters (aged not more than 20). Raine had a blast of course, he really felt he was the same age as my brothers’ friends.

From 7- 12 midnight, he had 4 hotdogs on stick, some chips and 2 bottles of iced tea. I had 2 12-oz.-bottles of Coke, just so I won’t fall asleep. He he.

The place was like a beer plaza , reminded me of UPLB’s Feb Fair — except that the booths are of local stores and not of student groups. Everyone on all the tables surrounding us was groups drinking beer, cheering and jeering to the performances on stage. Raine had his own share of cheering in the performances he liked. I suffered listening to 15 local singers! Nobody told me before hand that there’s going to be a singing contest…before I can witness the band play.

Anyway…I was a good sport of course. It wasn’t my kind of music, but I enjoyed the band’s performance. Maybe lackng in some showmanship, but they sounded pretty good. One of the twins is on base guitar, while the other is the band ‘manager’! Ha ha ha.

It’s not with any of them to brag, but it turned they made it as finalist to the battle of the bands on Saturday. I told my mother she should go then. She passed on last night’s gig because she said she didn’t want to leave the house empty. For all I know she wanted some peace and quiet because the band has been practicing here for days without end. He he.

Next time? I will push her to go. I want some peace and quiet too! Ha ha ha.

Well…I’m just happy that they are expressing themselves into something artistic and fun. I don’t want anymore girl woes. They don’t drink, don’t smoke and are not into illegal substances. So I guess they’re doing fine. Just lazy at times but better their friends hang out here than them hanging out somewhere else and we can’t see what they’re doing. At least that’s what my father always said.

And I am sounding a LOT like him!

This has been long overdue. I should have mentioned this a long time ago. Sorry Ging, ha? I’ve been busy! He he.

Anyways, I would like to inform the readers of this blog that if ever you find yourself near the area of Los Baños, Laguna (Philippines) and would like to order home made specialty foods for just about any occasion, maybe she can help you.

I can veto guarantee on the quality of food she makes, her husband and I were the first guinea pigs of her kitchen “experiments”. We were housemates, but really whatever she whips up turn out great. Whether it be a new recipe or an invitation card or whatever trinkets -big and small - for bridal showers and birthday parties.

Okay, now I am sounding really biased! Ha ha ha. Well I just want to mention now, just in case I haven’t told her before: I haven’t never met anyone as passionate as her in all these little things she does — from song and dance to choreography, from one fashion statement to another, from cheese sticks to fajitas.

Mind you she’s an animal scientist/nutritionist by profession.

Ging, I’m really happy you took this first step of many, knowing you…this little thing you started is going to get big. Time will come, you will be the party planner to beat. All the best!

I just hope I can order soon.

Well I shouldn’t really complain. He he. I’m just grateful the typhoon didn’t hit the bicol region. Otherwise, I would have been in deep shit. Not only in my online commitments, but also in so many ways. What I might have saved from Milenyo, Frank would have taken in a whirlwind.

I am still a work in progress in not caring about some sentimentalities. I still feel bad throwing away the photos, books and stuff of importance to me. The appliances, shoes and clothes (and even the roof!) we lost then…I know I can replace those in no time, somehow. But the letters, the cards, the photos and the likes I had to throw away? That was just horrible.

This time when Frank was threatening bicol, I told my mother to let stuff be. Don’t get tired putting those in a safe place where they hopefully won’t get wet or blown away. It’s better to be detached that way I guess. If the storm wrecked us, we just save ourselves, our wallets and our important documents.

Thankfully it changed direction. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy. Frank wrecked Manila, Cavite, Bulacan and Zambales. I have friends and family in those places. Any natural disaster is not something to be rejoiced about, really.

Of course I panicked. Some people received my panic as well. I had an anxiety attack, just thinking how long the internet and electricity will be restored, knowing how things are in bicol — I just couldn’t breathe for a few minutes! Besides, since I have been online at home, I slacked at budgeting and planning my online times. When disasters strike, I have not a post scheduled in advance. He he. I never learn — and now I’m blaming the crappy connection. Ha ha! Seriously? This connection is the crappiest. I’m switching to the other network , very very soon.

Okay… i better go to work now.

And look what I found:

Don’t ask me how many times I read Gone With The Wind. A LOT!

(bought in 1993, as I wrote in the inside cover)

Halos maloka ako na tatlumpo’t-isang oras walang kuryente. Ngayon humahagalpak naman ako sa kakatawa. Dun ba naman sa isa kong sinulatan tungkol sa kalusugan eh merong nagtanong: ano daw ba ang mga sintomas ng kanyang hinihinalang sakit dahil nahihirapan daw siyang umihi?!

Duh?! (Haller?! — sabi nga ni Reynz) Eh nakapaglagay ka nga ng katanungan sa ilalim ng artikulong iyon, eh di siguro naman eh may kakayahan kang hanapin sa ‘mundong abot ng dulo ng mga daliri mo’ ang mga sintomas ng sakit na yan. O kaya naman eh i-text ang iyong manggagamot, di baga?!

SUSME. Gusto ko na talagang sagutin ng: kuyang…maglaga ka ng dahon ng bayabas at gawin mong tsa-a ang katas. Palagay ko makaka-ihi ka na nyan! BWAHAHAHAHA.

Naloka na yata ako dahil kay pareng frank. Pero nasa wisyo pa naman siguro ako dahil alam ko pa rin na walang sintido kumon ang taong nagsulat nyan. Hayyyy….dapat binabaril na lang ang mga ganyan! HA HA HA HA. Patawarin ako ng diyos. Sino ang hindi mababaliw sa mga ganyan?! Buti na lang matagal na akong baliw. He he he.

Typhoon Frank that is!

At least our electricity has been restored our 2 am today. Buti na lang! Else, I think I would have gone totally berserk. 31 hours of no electricity is NO JOKE folks. You’ll get anxiety attacks you thought you’ll never have. Besides, Milenyo and Reming is still fresh in our minds. ‘Pamasdo’ pa ako to the bones because of Milenyo (Sept 2006).

Waaahhhhhh! Times like these? I wish I don’t live in Bicol! Hayyy.

And this ‘uragon’ virus couldn’t have come in at a better time.

Well…I guess all is well now.

I have always complained that i haven’t done some decent book reading since I got pregnant with Raine. I mean reading to feed my soul or something, he he. I think all I’ve really read since then are stuff on parenting, pregnancy and babies. Then when I started blogging, it has gotten even worse! Who needs books when everything you can read online?!

But I really want to read books again.

(I am not counting 7 books of Harry Potter in this category, okay? No offense to JK Rowling. I soooo loved the way she turned around her life and wrote Harry Potter instead. Who would have known, right? Besides, my whole family loves HP, the books and the movies too. My younger brothers who I guess has never read a novel their whole lives, has picked up the HP books with enthusiasm and read all 7 from cover to cover. How can I not love JK Rowling, if only for that?)

I’m just hungry for some real reading. You know the kind that doesn’t include the words antioxidant, stem cells, flavonoids, metastatic or autoimmune in any paragraph or sentence!

Of course in the last 5 years, books are a luxury. I was buying diapers, milk, baby food; paying the nanny, the rent…you know, stuff — far more basic than books to feed my soul. Ha ha ha. Besides, I just couldn’t find a real quiet time all those years.

Anyway, my amazon shopping cart are filled with books I have been wanting to read. Ready for checkout. Then my PC monitor went kaput. I had to buy a new one. Again, goodbye books. Stay in the shopping cart longer. Maybe next month? I really hope so.

I could have gotten lost you know…the road getting there in Paguriran Island (Bacon, Sorsogon) is just getting narrower and narrower. I thought we’ll never get there!

But we did and made it back too. It was well worth the travel and if you know me, I want a beach/island that is as least developed or commercialized as possible.

(Well except for Panglao Island in Bohol! Bohol Beach Club’s shore was just too long you practically won’t bump into anybody else. It was the last week of January (off-peak season) that Raine and I went with Ruth’s family, so it wasn’t really crowded. Besides, the clusters of rooms there are so scattered apart, you won’t see much of all the other guests and so you’ll feel kinda “alone”.)

Anyways…going back to the appeal that Paguriran has to me. The place is just so raw. But then I just wonder how long it will stay that way. People have started to flock in there. (Philippine Tourism, hello?!)

Well I just wish that eco-tourism will be adapted and not otherwise. It is just a shame to spoil a natural beauty such as this:

Okay…enough pictures for now. Those were all taken on Sunday, June 15. Just watch my set on Flickr as i complete my photo upload. The place is just breathtaking and so refreshingly crisp. A hidden paradise indeed. But I gotta stop here before my internet goes off once more. And it’s Wednesday already! Gosh..I haven’t done any decent blogging this week. Either it is my internet…or the electricity is out.

Okay, this isn’t as if I am lusting over LCD TV. It’s just that the TVs in this house are almost gone kaput. One’s display picture just went off one time while in the other, the screen we see isn’t centered anymore.

Then my computer’s monitor is still flickering off and on, on its own! I would love a flat screen. But I don’t have money to buy it. Until then, LCD TVs and computer monitors remain a (bad) dream. He he.

I told you already I went to UPLB over the weekend. As usual, the sights sounds and smell of UPLB is truly refreshing. It feeds both my body and soul.

Here are some photos I would like to share:

Many things have changed in the place but my memories remain the same. I get this secret smile only people who lived here in transient (or permanently) will ever understand why — which made me more at home in this place than anywhere else in the world.

Hopefully if I don’t fall asleep again!

I got back home from Manila/LB on Sunday afternoon around 3 PM. On the way home, I was thinking of going back to blogging that Sunday night. Who am I kidding? I fell asleep of course, even in the middle of an online chat.

Came Monday, the mumps I came home with has gotten a lot worse. What a birthday gift eh? I spent it lazy in bed because Smart Internet has been forever having maintenance activity. I left and came back, the same problem.

(more…)

My bag isn’t packed yet and I’m not done scheduling posts for the week in a couple of my blogs.

But I’ve got tickets already and I’m flying to Manila tomorrow to see my best friend. We’re going to LB and I’d probably get that pancit malabon I’ve been craving for.

Just when I was thinking of having a barbecue party and a live band, it started raining again! I thought I can clean and take out the Ford grills — no, not that kind of grill, but just an outdoor barbecue grill.

Hmmm…maybe on my 50th birthday! Ha ha ha.

That’s what I get for living in bicol. It’s either brownout or raining like hell. Sometimes both!

But, these are better days…actually.

And I never had a barbecue party ever. I gotta keep that in mind. Someday.