a song for my mother

for my beacon,
my north.
my mother.

an afternoon in adriatico

she was there
after thousands of miles
she just walks in
and she was there
after a glimpse of familiarity,
a small happy smile,
a small wave of the hand.
after a brief hello
and after a handful of small words
a fleeting handshake
that meant a thousand stars
that meant a farewell
that meant my goodbye.

– 20 january 2014
written for that january 18 afternoon in cafe adriatico

really really really funny video

its pretty rare that i get to laugh really really really hard. i think the first really-laugh-hard-with-tears-in-your-eyes event happened years and years ago with cyn -- a friend of mine (wonder how she is).

this video is one of the latest ones (i'll likely post the other one another time). pump up the volume so you'll hear better.



hope you like...

march 2007 updates

aye, i've been remiss. march was too busy for me. this is a record, of sorts, so i can keep track of what's left of my sanity.

the 12th to the 14th should have been robin's finals but he was a participant in a school play so he was excused so he can attend rehersals the whole week with the show on the 16th. the thing was the schedule for fetching him was a bit topsy turvy.

the finals for the particpants was reset to the 19th to 21st and then there's more activities on the 22nd and 23rd. the 23rd was particularly weird because he received certificates on stage for participating in the school play and for him being enthusiastic about learning basketball. and robin and i didn't know about it until we got to school. we had to go back and get dressed properly — robin was in his pe uniform and i was in shorts! ugh.

the 24th is his birthday and we spent in the mall with his friends and cousins — all in all, cherry and i were taking care of eight kids. its not exactly what i want to do but it turned out really fun! and most importantly, robin enjoyed it!

on the 25th, we had to meet with my parents, my brother and his wife in makati. its a celebration of sorts because on the 28th was my dad's 70th. 70 years on earth. wow!

i can't remember much of what happened for the rest of march though... see? leaking sanity.

notes and shoutouts

lito: dude, christy was asking when you'd drop by at the bike shop and get that chain replaced

jay: good to meet you bro and the best of luck tomorrow on getting in a team for the tour

eboy: nice sweet opera dude. opera — carbon/titanium road bike dressed in carbon records. caramba. glad to meet you.

kikay notes: jun mentioned that rey ranada was the one who brazed my bike and ave was the one who filed the lugs. even i get confused with the tidbits i get.

funny stuff

robin had to wear a tie for a 3:00 pm procession. here's what happens after...


have you ever seen yours? tonsil !!!

hare hare

we went out to walk around the town a bit. the first stop was the park near the lake. with sampaloc lake and mount banahaw as a backdrop, i saw these hare krishna folks chanting/singing and dancing about. its been a while since i saw one or two.

cartimar

i got to visit cartimar today to look at some bike shops. cartimar, located in pasay city, is a known haven of sorts to the cyclist. there are lots of cycling shops there carrying a wide variety of brands at relatively low prices.

i was able to visit ballistic to say hello. that's where i got most of the components in my bike but that was years and years ago. i was able to visit the bike room and beng was in her lively self. lots of kwento. and lastly, i visited the ever popular christie's bike shop.

christy was there and in a good mood. i was told that she can give you nice discounts if she's in a good mood but unfortunately my wallet wasn't in a good mood. so i just looked at items in my list of bike needs. i'll eventually get them soon but i'm giving priority to the helmet and the cyclo computer. someone over at pinoy roadies recommended getting a wireless speedometer and i found a cat eye vectra that goes for pesos 1450. good enough for my purposes.

one surprise was i found out that jun (my old bike mech) is now working for christy. he was the one who convinced me to get a custom frame made and he had some nice columbus tubing to go with it. i got to ask him who was the framemaker and it turned out to be ave maldea. this means that ave has been at it for more than 10 years.

my custom bike is still in pretty good shape and it still rides pretty well. steel rules baby!

i'll try to take good pictures of kikay when i get to san pablo this weekend and post them here or on flickr.

photo of cartimar from staff1

elmer, gerry in the news

i saw my brother's face on the newspapers today (inquirer). nothing bad. it was about the new comic book that he made — elmer. its an interesting take on chickens. i don't have the promised copy yet because i have to get it in san pablo. which is ok by me since i want to visit the place every so often.


the comic book is currently available at comicquest (megamall), comics odyssey at robinson's malate and druid's keep in magallanes. get your copy now!