The Journey. It’s Mine. [My personal take on love, life, parenting and blogging.]

Today was day 1 of the 2-day public transportation strike in the whole province of Sorsogon. Since we live near the highway, today was quite a change.

Private-owned vehicles pass by in veryyyy long intervals. Zero jeepneys and tricyles. Quiet yes, but everyone else going back and forth are on their motorbikes and scooters. Not really that quiet, let me take that back! All three school boys are in the house!

I’m wishing for no more motorbike accidents though. I’ve heard enough since Friday night. It is either a reckless teenager, a male adult professional that had too much to drink or another reckless teenager that is often involved. Well…sometimes a dog crossing the road can be involved too. It’s really just crazy.

Today was quite a sight too, everyone (and everything!) were loaded on motorbikes. Even an office furniture was delivered on a motorbike with an open side car (like a tricyle but without the roof) much like the ones used to transport live pigs out here. I saw one today pass by I swear.

Hopefully we don’t end up like Vietnam where I’ve seen more motorbikes filling the roads than other vehicles are.

Since this has been a really lazy, gloomy Saturday, Raine didn’t want to take his bike outside in the mud. He seemed a lot less-hyper today (yehey!) and we’ve been having a little picnic in front of the tv. Raine is still on a writing frenzy and in the process we all had been on a family movie marathon. From Garfield to Shaggy Dog, from Santa Junior to Little Miss Sunshine.

The ‘little picnic’ was made of macaroni soup, breaded fried saba bananas (bicol sinapot!), sardines omelette and lots of bread and rice. My mother most probably got nervous ’bout the heavy rains and thunderstorm, can’t sleep and so she got up early and cooked stuff. The saba bananas are from our backyard. What would we do without her?! He he. She joined the movie marathon so she feels a lot better. We all were cracking laughters about it all. We just get awfully nervous with bad weathers here.

But, it’s already Christmas at the Hallmark Channel. Shouldn’t Halloween invitations come first? Well then, who needs Halloween when with a family like mine, it can be Christmas everyday if we want to. I don’t mean the festivities alright? It’s just that the presence of each other can be the best gift ever.

I’m still such a night owl. I’ve always have been actually. I just love the peace and peace and quiet a lot. The thought that everyone else around you slumbers and you the only one up is just too comforting I guess. Either I clean up some mess, watch the tv shows I can’t watch during the day, blog some or just stretch my back lazily in bed and listen to the crickets in concert outside. Sometimes the gecko will chuckle on the roof on odd hours, sometimes a lost small bee makes it inside buzzing around.

Those are quite fun to watch I’m telling you. Various little bugs attracted by the light of the computer’s monitor. Sometimes it scares me, I gotta just slap the bee to death, i don’t want to get the sting! But when a big grasshopper landed on my keyboard one night, I couldn’t beat it to death, i picked it up on it’s wing edge instead and throw it out the window.

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My email inbox suddenly stopped receiving spam emails on ED drugs sale or discount. The old, hoax mail of million dollar inheritance and investment money are back. I mean, hello?! Do these spammers think that people forget? But then I guess there are still people out there that remains gullible to such offers in the mail.

On Friday morning, while I was waiting for my order at Jollibee Sorsogon…i received the following SMS in my cellphone: (I’m copying it here exactly how the text was written)

D/Auditor/s of PGMA Charity foundation inform u dat ur cel# Won P950,000 2nd prize winner draw last:JUL-17-2008 DTI1550 s2008 call now i’m Atty. William F. Gomez

Well…it’s been a long while since I last did forwarded SMSs or emails for that matter and I’m sorry to some few who keep including me in their mailing list for such forwarded emails — i DELETE them immediately, yes without even reading it first.

Going back to those hoax/spam SMSs: I searched Google for ‘PGMA Charity Foundation’ and bloggers’ accounts of receving such spam SMS date back to as old as 20o5. I remember my brother getting SMSs that he won a car in some contest. Even my mother who only send SMSs to her friends and some of our relatives purely for important stuff get those kinds of SMS!

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Good news. I’ve been online at home since Friday night and my weekend was spent downloading and re-installing stuff in this PC whose Windows OS has been reformatted yet again.

Seems to be working so far. Except that this is back to the original low memory chip. Apparently the new 1Gb RAM that was installed months back was having some incompatibility issues with the motherboard, not to mention some corrupt windows file, virus, etc. Something like that…so my computer guys said.

Well…the whole process cost me some photos I didn’t get to upload in my online albums. Then it was too late before I can think of compact flash disks. But then I should learn to put private folders online, print, and back up. And back up. Did I say back-up?! Gosh I never learn. Hayyy.

Well I’ve got back up in CDs of photos earlier than 2006. Since Raine and I went home? Everything was just either online or in the hard disk. Well…till next time, right?

For three days in a row now I’ve been blogging in the city (Sorsogon City, that is!), my windows PC broke down for the nth time. It’s going to need a replacement soon, but that’s another story.

My brother, a student of a computer school has been fixing it.  He does the best he can and I’m really really thankful for that. I don’t know if he is reading this (maybe he does too), so I just wanna say sorry for being such a pushy Ate. I expect too much sometimes. Besides, the unit has got hardware problems already.

He’s young and pikon. I’m 15 years  older and still pikon too. In that sense, I know I am worse. But…see? We really have the same genes! He he.

Well…it’s gonna be a long weekend. It’s just a lot weirder not being online at home.  He is still at it (brought the CPU when he left this morning)..and we are all crossing our fingers for a temporary solution until we can buy a decent one.

Hmmm…maybe I should have let the CPU wore a religious jewelry? Yes, we need a miracle! Ha ha ha.

Anyways…I’ve got maybe an hour here, tops. Then I’m calling it a week.

Eto po ang totoong pili tree on bicol soil. In our yard. That is still young. Maybe 5 years old? I’m not really sure…

The ‘dwarf’ versions lining Pili Drive (road connecting UPLB Engineering block and IRRI  gate) that bears fruit with shell only (no nut inside) not included in the real pili category that bicol considers. He he.

Before I left in ‘89 to go to college, I had this picture inside my head about bicol that was really bad: poor, remote, poor, no TV, typhoon prone, poor, undeveloped, un-modern, poor, with terrible insurgency problems and poor. Did I say poor already? Hahaha! Forgive me bicol, I’ve been so harsh on you.

Well now that I’m back? I see that here are more private schools (in all levels), better hospitals, television, internet, cell phones, landline phones. And should I forget the department stores, bigs supermarkets and fast food chains? I’m not so sure though if that means people are richer and not poorer. Just check out the queue in Jollibee Sorsogon even on normal days. This definitely isn’t the bicol I used to know.

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For the month of June, this main PC that I use crashed several times. The main reason is that the twins use this as well. Not for internet though, but for the files they have on flask disks, MP3 players, CDs…you name it.

Well of course they download stuff from the internet outside (school, net cafes, friend’s computer) and bring those at home.

So I guess they both should not complain if I nag them to fix the unit ASAP…and until I can buy my own unit (running on windows!), I should stop complaining too. He he.

But now they are using a friend’s laptop for all those music videos they keep watching/listening to for band practice.

Recently, I hate going to Sorsogon City. They keep moving the jeepney terminal somewhere else. Now it is located outside of Sorsogon proper — Balogo. You have to ride a tricycle from downtown to get to the jeepney terminal. It’s not near, mind you. More than a kilometer I guess. It’s okay if you go there and come home empty handed: no grocery bags and stuff, I wouldn’t mind walking.

But I just go to Sorsogon, first and foremost for the ATM machines — at most twice a month as long as my internet and computer at home is working well. Next is the grocery/supermarket, since I am there already then why not buy the food and other supplies we need, right? It’s just stupid to go back all the way to Gubat and hit the wet, right?! That’s a whooping 19-km distance.

Yes folks, there is not one single ATM machine in Gubat that’s why I don’t normally go there. (That’s right, rural bank only is what’s there, which I’m sure haven’t heard of paypal funds!) It’s not about being maarte or snobbish of what’s in Gubat like some people here think I am. Besides, my mother is the one who buys stuff in Gubat. She picks up Raine in school and does her regular palengke and saud shopping there.

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Several times I’ve been asked: what happened to that house project you started two years ago?

It’s a project on hold, I always replied — because the house money went to college (err…2 college students!).  Of course there’s a lot more to it than that 1-line standard answer.

Like the US$ to PH Peso exchange rate is down 10 pesos now compared to when I just came home. Then blog payment schemes have changed as well. Several times in fact, in the last 2 years. Which didn’t surprise me. The changes were bound to happen at one point or another and it did.

Besides, college tuition here these days isn’t a joke at all. Not for the fainthearted so to speak. We just gotta make necessary adjustments. Basics first: food and education — as has always been my parents’ priorities while raising us kids.

So…it’s going to be awhile before we can be window shopping for a door hardware. The house project is currently on hold. Maybe next year, after one of the college students graduates. Yeeha!

I mean I can work at home again. The broken PC is back home. Seems to be working fine now — well…except for the few times that FF3.0 crashed this weekend!

My bro (my unpaid computer technician!) brought home the PC by the end of last week but without its CD-Rom. So I had to download some software I need. Like the phone tools I am using. And other stuff. You know how crappy the internet connection can get here, downloading just takes forever.

Over the weekend? Raine was his usual energetic/hyper self. He stops only when asleep at night. It’s Monday again and I’m still tired. I need energy pills or maybe couples of hour of sleep later will do?