Swimming off the News

It was just another mindless impulse on my part, when I held on my mobile phone to check on any messages that might surprise and make me guess for a second who the sender of the text was. Prior to this, I have been extra touched by the very few people who, at this stage of my life, still manage to send words to my phone enough make me feel that I’m at the very least worth a peso to spend on.

I was in the middle of our family vacation in Mindanao, where my roots hail by the way, beating the heat off with my nephews and nieces in a spring pool resort in Iligan City, when I read the first three letters of Angeline’s text message to me: O-M-G, and an exclamation point. Then off to the rest of the news. I then jumped an inch off from where I was seated and went towards my mom who was just in front of me to let her read it herself…

Read More...

The Camiguin Island Getaway

I have always pictured Camiguin to be such a sensual place for I don’t know what reason-- some remote island that lets you enjoy the place without ever wondering what exists outside its circle. Luckily, my unemployed status allowed for a mother-paid expense trip to Mindanao, and it finally let me see what the island has in store.

The trip to Mindanao was more importantly for a reunion that I and my younger sister had the chance to attend to, after a decade, in the maternal side of the family. Personally, the last time that I have been to the province was way back in 1998. My mother is specifically from Zamboanga del Norte. It was after this family event that we then went to visit the island province.

Going back to the Island of Fire, this was how our long trail went:

Read More...

The Good Ole Address Book

One may not appreciate how the most conventional and cheap-looking telephone and address book could do wonders in saving the most precious treasures in this world:

People. Connections. Relationships.

But take it from someone who has lost her mobile phone, and wasn’t able to back up her contact list in it. That’s one lesson learned already, to always back those numbers up that I add in my everyday dealings or new meetings with people. I never know when I'd be needing them. Now in deciding the source for the back-up, I think it still pays to rely on the good ole ways. Hence, the notebook! Haha.

Read More...

Survival Korean

I’ve had this little Korean book with me since this whole I-want-to-work-in-Seoul saga, and this has so far been a mainstay in my bag wherever I go. I’ve always been the type who bring books for what I call “emergencies”, in times when boredom strikes or when I have to do some waiting anywhere when I am out of the house.

I remember having bought this out of a gift certificate from one of the famous upscale bookstores in the metro, which I got it as some prize from my previous work.

This phrase book can really come handy for short-time travelers in the country, enough for anyone to throw common greetings and probably survive a minute or two at a convenience store buying something. You’d have a hard time doing bargains and price haggles though.

In my first-time January trip to Seoul, there were just three phrases I think that I had the bull mouth of speaking out loud to converse and be understood:

Annyong haseyo (hello)
Kamsa-hamnida (thank you)
Yong-O-rul hashimnikka? (Do you speak English?)

Thanks to the book. But if I am to push my way into living with Koreans in my everyday work (for at least a year), then I think it’s time to buy a bigger, more comprehensive text.

Geez, all this waiting for the visa. It’s driving me nuts.

END OF POST. NO MORE

Read More...

Leftovers to Previous Post

You never ask somebody to love you when you only decide to love back at that moment that somebody starts giving it first. That’s selfishness. You never blame your being hurt before in playing loose with the attempt of getting yourself back to loving again. Never assume you know what love is like when all you want are the plain, shallow cuddles and snuggles. It is never that hard to receive it from somebody, only when you know how to regard it as more than a physical recourse.

END OF POST. NO MORE

Read More...

Not Again

It's crazy how I sometimes surprise myself with my own outbursts of emotions.

I don't know if it's plainly brought about by my being naturally passionate about things, or I am just not much into regularly opening up, so I can call myself "The Great Suppressed". I've always thought that I can carry myself through confusing situations alone, but there comes that point when I already call for my own panel, and just cry in front of them. I don't want that same feeling again. Plainly because the outburst went out not for whom it should really be thrown at-- the one who caused the swollen feelings in the first place. It reversibly was shot at people who genuinely care for me-- people who have long warned about letting myself be drowned by feelings they knew too well that would not be reciprocated well. Thank heavens for my own personal stake on these shitty feelings, I was given the slap of a lifetime. I just have to remind myself that there seems to be a bright future that I have to work on, and that I can never drag someone into being with me in the journey, if that person doesn't really want to.

END OF POST. NO MORE

Read More...

The Pagudpud Escapade

Since I have been debarred from the working arena in February of this year to keep my fingers crossed with this out-of-the-country work experience, which by the way, is currently putting the biggest stress on my round-eyed face, it’s amazing how I am so much feeling the itch now to go to more places in the Philippines. I sometimes think if this is actually close to speculating, “Probably because you won’t be seeing your country in quite a while, and you won’t have this breeze of a time anymore when you get to serious, far-away work. So you would like to take advantage of the time remaining.”

That’s what’s good when you don’t have a job and you’re finished with school, you suddenly have all the time in the world to do what you want. What’s bad about it though is you won’t forever have enough dough to spend on everything, with all the available time that you’re boasting. Well, what I just said may be relative, because some people may still have parents who are willing to shoulder expenses while they are bumming around, or probably a big amount of savings from their previous jobs for them to squander and be merry. I neither have both.

Read More...

The Newspaper Job Post

It all started with this newspaper ad by a foreign investment bank.

With how today’s technology is fast eradicating seemingly ancient ways of doing things, it surprises me how luck can be sought, still, in its most conventional methods.

Like my weekly purchase of Manila Bulletin, an ad-bombarded broadsheet, which I usually do on a Sunday after I attend the mass to look for a job.

The choice for the broadsheet and the habit itself of buying one must’ve been gotten from my father whenever he’s on vacation in the Philippines from his ‘forever’ work outside the country. Being the good provider and loving father that he is, he would of course want the best for his family, and for himself as well— and so goes his hope to grab on a job that would keep him with us, if possible.

Read More...

The Primer

I have no idea how to go about this another debut of a blog from me, without trying so hard and sounding so I don’t like. Haha. Well I have been blogging since 2003, and have always wished to maintain what I have perseveringly started. Thing is, there exist other earthly things that I have to realistically deal with, and I simply cannot keep up with this other side of the world. That’s why I have high regard to those who can do both— face the real life and their cyber life. The smartest of them have even been featured on TV and the newspapers, I tell you. This is formally my third blog to date, and though I have considered to use my Blogdrive account to continue things with, I just thought that the black silhouette and the projected theme will be too heavy. So much about being too reflective. Not that I intend to babble nonsense-ry with this new blog, I would like to say that it’s more of an anticipation of a major transition in my life that I want to put a clean slate on. Everybody will understand soon. I am not doing this to have my fair share of the media or print spotlight (though of course I'd love to have a sincere audience), nor create a rant-and-grumble site much like those perverts around, out to haggle audience of the same kind. If you knew me better, you would know that I have always regarded this as a genuine interest and a personal therapy. Written words will always be more outspoken than my baritone voice, and with it, I continue with what I have always enjoyed doing.

END OF POST. NO MORE

Read More...

Moi

My name is Ella and was technically born out of wedlock. My parents were married in June of 1984, and I got out eight months later. Personal medical records can testify that I was born under normal procedure in the dawn of February in 1985, and was not pre-mature. While the information could already suffice such allegation to the slight disorder of sequence in the living-the-family life, my parents had to admit such act to me anyway since I learned how to count and recite the months in order.

I am a baritone woman who recently ventured into the business of exploiting my country’s inability to provide competitive means of earning a living to its people. And in the most ironic of places, fate brought me to where this new place's original inhabitants have chosen to travel to where I come from, and reciprocally exploit such talent that my fellow countrymen have in embracing the English language and its colonial mentality. We live in a world of everyday mutual exploitations, I tell you.

I am a natural skeptic, and once suspected the world of putting me in my own ‘Truman Show’. While my childhood is highlighted by timidity and shyness, I think I have come out of my shell as the cheerful, high cheek-boned individual who have learned to appreciate what she could do well and boost herself of the esteem that she needs out of it.
I still get disillusioned once in a while, though.

To you, people, whom I have since been with, have met, and will soon meet, welcome to my personal space on the web.






Ka-Jologan at 24

•Pinaglihi ako sa santol ng nanay ko.

•Parehas kami ng birthday ng bunso kong kapatid, at 10 taon ang agwat namin.

•Unang ambisyon ko daw sa buhay sabi ng nanay ko ay simple lang: maging labandera.

•May sari-sari store kami noon na madalas naming kupitan noong maliliit pa kaming magkakapatid ng mga barya— ako para makabili ng HAW flakes sa school canteen namin noong elementary. Wala na ang tindahan naming ‘yon ngayon.

•Pinagalitan ako ng titser namin noong Kinder ako dahil nahuli akong kumakain ng toothpaste. Iningganyo lang naman ako ng kaklase kong takam na takam din sa pagdila sa sarili niyang baong toothpaste. Pia ang pangalan ng kaklase kong iyon.

•Umuwi ako isang araw na walang saplot pang-ibaba noong Prep ako dahil dumumi ako sa classroom namin ng dalawang beses sa maghapon. Binigyan ako ng shorts ng teacher sa una, aba noong naulit, e ayun, wala na.

•Nagtapos ako ng Preparatory as valedictorian na may lagnat at beke. Hindi ko nakabisado ang speech ko dahil sa hindi ko magandang pakiramdam noong ‘commencement exercises’ namin, kung saan ako pa naman din ang emcee.

•Kinukuha ko ang mga naiwang bote ng softdrinks sa lamesa ng ‘messhall’ namin tuwing recess at lunch noong elementary para ipila sa canteen at kunin ang deposito. Tamang sideline lang para magkapera.

•Grabe ang pagkahumaling ko kay Leonardo Di Caprio noong highschool dahil sa Titanic na pelikulang ‘yan. Sampung beses ko yata napanood yung pelikula-- sa sinehan at VHS.

•Nanalo na ako ng libreng sine (X-men 2) dahil sa pagsali ko sa isang radio contest.

•Hindi ako sumali sa JS Prom at Grad Ball namin noong highschool. Soiree lang ako lumandi noong sophomore.

•Naging part ako ng volleyball team ng klase naming noong junior year sa highschool para sa intramurals. Bangko naman, I mean, reserve pala. Haha.

•Bagsak ako sa breaststroke session ng swimming lessons namin noong highschool. Marunong pa rin naman ako lumangoy.

•Member ako ng Computer Club for four years sa highschool, na tinagurian naming “Interaction Club” dahil puro na lang interaction with other boy schools ang agenda namin.

•Nag-audition ako sa LSFM para sa unang batch ng Campus DJ. Nakapasa ako sa initial interview, pero bagsak sa formal voice demo. Ayun, Baranggay LS na siya ngayon.

•Naranasan ko nang magpa-MRI at CTScan sa Makati Med dahil sa cyst na tinganggal sa hita ko noong nagtatrabaho pa ako sa night shift.

•Praning ako sabi ng mga kaibigan ko.

•Pangarap kong maging isang travel show host, dahil gusto kong makapunta sa iba’t ibang lugar.

•Hindi naman ako Bikolano (kay bisaya man ko), pero dati pa ay paborito ko na talaga ang LAING. As in.

•Ewan ko ung bakit, pero mashado akong naapektuhan sa pagkamatay ni Rico Yan at ng isa kong katrabaho noon sa Binondo na isang mountain climber. Hindi ko naman crush ang yumaong artista. Yung climber...errr. Parang.

•Nakatulog ako isang beses sa loob ng steam bath nang hindi sinasadya dahil sa sobrang pagod ko sa gym. Buti na lang hindi ako nasuffocate.

•Tatak ko na ang pagiging late sa mga lakaran. Pero nagbabago naman paminsan-minsan.

•Ultimate dream ko ay maging isang pilantropo. Ang bait lang, diba ;-)

•Nakipag blind date ako dito sa South Korea. Try lang, haha.

Next year, 25 na ito. :-)

Read More...