vacation feel

the christmas vacation feel has set in. but school is not over yet. some of the people i'm working with are unwillingly sliding into that vacation mode already. the weather is cooler which doesn't really help.

the neighborhood too seems quieter. slower.

robin is swimming in vacation mode. he doesn't want to go to school. lazy. he wants his gifts from santa yesterday.

and i've been wanting to go to the mountains again (san pablo). i saw this one there the last time time i visited.

week long weekend

its starting to feel like the week is a long weekend. which is bad because it just started -- robin goes back to school tomorrow. and i have some work to finish. i feel so tamad (lazy).

i had a physical exam today. it seems like the blood pressure is slightly up. i have to get some more exercise. the results from the blood work will come in seven days so i'll know for sure if the ldls, hdls and sugars are good. or bad.


robin at rsun.

sick

robin's sick. fever and sniffles. and i think i'm getting it too.

waaaah...

well, it is a good day to be sick. its raining. its cool and its nice to curl up in bed.

but that's not my style. unfortunately.

prayers for rain

robin and i just finished our before-sleeping prayers.

he prayed for more rain. i asked why.

"... so that i don't have school tomorrow. goodnight"


har har

new old house

it always surprises and amazes me how moving to another house can alter the day to day rhythm of life. we recently moved to another house although i did live here several years ago when i was lonely and single. but this time around i have a family.

these days, i wake up a bit earlier than usual but i still try to sleep by 10:30. there is more to do because we don't have any help. there's more to clean. ugh. there's lesser plants around but we have started greening up the place -- a couple of young palm trees; several white angel plants - potted by us and placed along the window lines; a handful of celias (hanging plants) in the windows; a garlic vine; a red leafy, grassy 'thing' -- well, its growing like crazy; along the stairs there's a trio of potted san franciscos with strange colors, certainly not the usual colors; a dama de noche in a really large pot and i just planted a handful of climbing ivy along the base of the walls behind the house.

its a bit tough on the finances and more hard work than usual but all in all, we are, i am, happy.

pictures later.

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.

been riding

i know. no new stuff again.

well, there is. actually.

i've been out. riding. on my bicycle. meeting new people. having coffeee with friends. its been great so far. i'll write the stories down in a bit. its holy week and the summer vacation is here so i should have more time to write.

privacy

yesterday while robin and i were heading home from school, we were called by a couple of his classmates — lawrence and janet — to hitch with them. after a few seconds of goading, we agreed. it was a short trip since we only live a few minutes from school.

this morning robin said, "dad, don't pick me up today okay?".

i gave my fatherly perplexed look and robin said, "i want to ride home with lawrence and janet today."

me, not really sure if he made arrangements already, said, "okay, you can hitch a ride with la (lawrence) but i will have to be there."

and robin indignantly said, "dad, i want my privacy."

and he's just eight.

the pick-up

i don't really know if this would make sense to the non-pinoys who are reading this but i'll put translations in parenthesis...

i was fetching robin from school a couple of weeks ago and i noticed that they have new guards. the guards were not suppose to let any grade schoolers out of the premises without a fetcher or someone to pick them up — be it a school service, a yaya or maid, parent or grandparent. so here comes robin going out through the gate and the guard doing his job:

guard: "boy, boy. teka. nasaan sundo mo?"
(boy, boy. where is your fetcher?)

robin keeps on walking, not noticing the guard.

guard's supervisor: " 'pre, inglisin mo yan. hindi yan nakakaintindi ng tagalog."
(partner, talk to him in english. he doesn't understand tagalog.)

guard: "boy, boy. where is your pick-up?"

dang! i just had to laugh.

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 !!!

new habits

i've noticed a couple of habits that has been slowly and semi-conciously developing since last december.

first, i have been turning the computer on after 7:30 in the morning and off before 10:30 in the evening everyday. of course on sundays it has a much shorter "on" time. i feel that, for me, this is good. a handful of you might say that 13 hours of using the 'puter is still a long time. and i would not argue with you on that point but i used to turn it on at 5:00 in the morning and shut it down around 12:00 midnight. almost automatically. everyday. even on sundays. that's about 17 hours of computer time right there. everyday. even on sundays. for about two years.

second, i've been wanting to go out and ride my bicycle. my bicycle is 87 kilometers away in san pablo and i want to go out and ride. i'll be bringing her to manila soon along with the clothes and gadgets that come with cycling. i just have to figure out where to store her here. that's a dilemma. and i've been nearly obssessed (i think) with anything related to road bikes. i don't know why this is but i think its good.

third, and most importantly, i think i am spending more quality time with my girlfriend and son. and i think i have been more patient with robin for the past few months. that is definitely good.

toothpaste

robin: "mom, if i swallow toothpaste will i die?"

mom: "ummm..."

me: "no. your stomach will just grow teeth."

the deodorant

i just saw my 8-year old son put on deodorant.

its nivea's deodorant (whitening). his armpits doesn't smell bad nor do they need any whitening. he's white enough as it is.

the funny part is that he began rubbing his armpits with his arms (like when you're running) to spread the deodorant around. much like what his father does.

i just saw

on the way back from school with robin, a frigging ferrari. i said, "wow." robin said, "whoah!"

its not like the street in our neighborhood is lined with them. i've only seen a modena once in a posh neighborhood. but this is the first time i saw one in our area.

bad day

its been a bad day. i felt sluggish and tired for the most part. and it was pretty hot and humid during the middle of the day.

and robin's not really cooperating. well, he is a kid.

i'm tired. i'm going to turn in early.

cable off

we had the cable taken out today.

we broke the news to robin last night and was sad that he won't be able to watch his favorite cartoons.

i feel sad for the guy but i also think that he's spending waaay too much time in front of the teevee. this also gives me an opportunity to try to make his time off the television more productive.

having no cable is fine with me. strangely, i'm having fun. i actually welcome it. there would be extra money for the house which can be put to better use. besides, i don't get to watch the telly that often anyway.

let's see what happens within the next few weeks.

summer's over

well, its official. summer's over.

the first tropical storm named "caloy" just arrived and i heard over the radio that we are the only country in the world at this moment which has a tropical depression.

ugh. only in the philippines.

the upside is temperatures are certainly on their way down. which is great! i look forward to getting a more comfortable sleep.

this also marks the time when i need to get some school stuff for robin.

he's growing up. give it a few years and i'll have a little bundle of ranging hormones. that would be interesting.

its drizzling already.

holy week break

cherry, robin and i went on a holy week break of sorts. we went out of manila to san pablo city, 87 kilometers south of manila to visit my folks.

it was definitely cooler there since there's an abundance of trees and we're about five minutes walk from the city's biggest lake — sampaloc lake.

we also went to visita iglesya or church visit. we went to the underground cemetary in nagcarlan, laguna (there's a chapel there that used to be the town's church)

and to liliw, laguna.

in liliw, my girlfriend treated me to a lunch in this nice and very cosy restaurant called arabela. the food was great and the place is full of character. you guys should visit if you're in the area.

a conversation with robin

over a week ago while robin and i were walking from school we had this interesting conversation.

"dad, do you know i have a girlfriend?"

blink. blink.

ok. that stopped me. literally. right there. on my tracks. the mind goes blank for a moment.

robin just kept on walking, stops, looks back to me and says, "what?"

"nothing." i said, catching up to him.

my mind goes from a standstill to a fast series of images, videoscapes, sounds and finally i was able to blurt out, "you have a girlfriend?"

"yup."

" do i know her? is she one of your classmates?"

"yup."

"who."

"secret."

grrrr... well, the thing is, at that time, he was just seven and will be turning eight in a few days. i opted not to pursue the "who?" anymore and just concentrate on being the "cool" father. although to be honest i was excited for him.

"well, that's great! really! so how is it? having a girlfriend, i mean."

"its ok," robin said with a smile starting to break.

what the...? he's not excited about it?!?! but he was smiling while we were walking so i guess there's a bit of excitement there.

i'm also excited about the fact that he's comfortable enough with me as a father and maybe as an older friend to confide in me.

robin's 8th

24th of march. robin's 8th year on the planet. we think he's having fun. we had a small gathering of cousins. nothing fancy really. just a handful of balloons in light and dark blue, a chocolate fudge cake, chocolate ice cream, some spagetti, chicken, siopao, a square pizza, dalandan and orange juice.

the kids played first with go kart, bicycle with guide wheels, b-daman, whatever. they're kids and kids play. the chaos started at around 3:00 pm and everything was cleaned up my 9:30. the adults were all bushed but he keeps saying. "but i'm not sleepy yet!" well, with all that chocolate stuff he ate he wouldn't be!

if you want to see more pictures click over to my flickr collection.