My extraordinarily ordinary life!
Whispered a prayer for the US elections. Because however way you look at it, whatever your political persuasions are, the results will affect all of us. We are no longer individual economies, not really. We are all part of a global community.
I am praying for discernment and intelligent, sensible voting.
Arthur C. Clarke said “I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.” I beg to differ.
In my opinion, Brigadier General Florencio A Medina had one of the most brilliant minds in the Philippines. He was a soldier in the armed forces of the Philippines and fought the Japanese in WWII, when he was captured, he endured the Japanese prison camp he was put in and survived it. He was instrumental in the development of what is now the Department of Science and Technology. He was a proponent of the Philippine Science High School (which paved the way for excellent and specialist science-centred-education and this gave a lot of Filipino students a chance to study in an excellent learning environment for free) and served as one of the early chairmen of the school board. He was the first Filipino to be elected chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He was a mathematician and a chemist and a published author.
But most importantly, he was my grandfather. He was a good father and provider to his 13 children. To those of us, his grandchildren, who had the opportunity to grow up with memories of him, he was a loving and very present grandfather. He was very active, larger than life and…just…there. I will forever cherish the memory of our time sitting together at the square table in the apartment in Mabuhay with the blue and white porcelain mantle clock and you teaching me how to tell time.
You would have been 111 today, Lolo Isiong. I am so proud to be your granddaughter.
I love you three Lolo!
I got to the airport REALLY early I got put on the earlier flight (I ordered an UberX cab for 4AM because I had to be at the airport at 8AM for my 11AM flight. But there was no traffic!). I got a chance to use the relatively new Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. I didn’t get much of a look when I arrived because my main goal was to get through immigration and customs really quickly so that I could get home and see my family. My brother and I spent about 4 hours being stuck in Manila traffic so the rushing through was time well rushed! They told me that traffic was bad but I didn’t really think it was THAT bad. I’ve been away from Manila too long. I’ve lost the ability to plan journeys and understand Manila traffic and predict travel times!
Terminal 3 has been reported repeatedly as over budget, over priced and not worth the pesos that were spent on it. I’ve been looking forward to seeing it and I must admit, it left me a bit underwhelmed. It needs a bit more zhuzhing. The terminal was mostly dark and I constantly wanted to ask people to switch the lights on (I didn’t, of course). For an international/interisland airport it looks just a tiny bit tatty (super shiny floors and wide-screen Samsung tellies notwithstanding). I shouldn’t really complain because at least it’s being used and Terminal 3 is a lot less shabbier than Terminal 1. My favourite terminal though is the Centennial Terminal or Terminal 2. It was the terminal we were in when we flew out of when we flew to Edinburgh in 2007.
I do love the windows though…I just really wished they switched on more lights…and probably courted more food places so that there would be more choice of food places to get food from before the flight.
In a few hours I will be traveling to the airport to get on a plane to get back to the life I have in a country 6,754 miles away. While my visit was (too) short, it was (very) sweet. I got a chance to see my family, celebrate my father’s 80th birthday with him, laugh and bond with my brother and sister and hug my mum loads. I went to church and saw my church family and met the new additions to our growing spiritual family. I managed to see the dentist, stuff my face silly with food that might not be, for all intents and purposes, exactly ideal for a diabetic, experience Philippine traffic in all its stand still glory, learned to use Uber and Grab, melt in temperatures that I would usually consider a heatwave, see my hair snap into weird unruly waves, and marvel at how much the Philippines has changed (how we are considered a third world country with all these vehicles on the road and all these malls and condominium developments, I will never know).
I will be going back to colder weather and it is with a heavy heart that I leave my loved ones yet again (kung pwede lang magkasya kayong lahat sa maleta ko!). But my heart is full and my spirit is recharged. It’s trips like these that make me realise how much I have in my life and how blessed I have that the people in my life are in my life. For that I will always be thankful to God. I have new memories to tide me over until the next trip.
I’ll see you all again soon!
I am finally celebrating your birthday with you! Happy 80th birthday Abbadabbadoo!
We are so very blessed by your life. Thank you for everything that you did and that you continue to do for us. Your strength of spirit continues to inspire us. Words can never really fully express how thankful for and truly blessed we are by you.
I love you more than I can ever say
This photo was taken in 2014 but this is one of my favourites.
The sight of this city made my heart skip a beat. I told myself that the next time I came home, I would take a photo of the cityscape from the plane window. This was the view from my window when the plane was coming down to land today.
Ooooh apparently, on Tuesday, 18 October, I had 64 views on the blog. 64! That’s the highest number I’ve had for quite a while. I’d like to think that apart from my most popular post on salt and chilli belly pork, I’ve shared something else interesting!
Thanks to everyone who came by and read my musings. Please leave a message as I’d love to hear from you! 🙂
I’ve always had music in my ears ever since I could remember. It started with my father having these huge headphones (which funnily enough would have probably been de riguer these days) and I started listening quietly these Hebrew children’s songs that my dad used to play on constant repeat so that we would speak Hebrew (apparently, I was fluent! How I wish I still were! I can sometimes understand the Hebrew and I remember being so happy that I didn’t necessarily have to read the subtitles when BBC showed The Honourable Woman on telly! Yep, high point in my life. I love being such a geek!).
I had the 80’s requisite walkman and warbled to Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. Of course, I had the double tape deck and of course I had the portable CD player that eventually you could plug into the double tape deck as a line-in (I think! Am not entirely sure that’s what you called it!).
It was only when I moved to the UK that I started listening to audio books. Stephen Fry’s readings of the Harry Potter books helped me through the long walks to work (I had the first generation iPod Touch by then). After finishing the Harry Potter books, I started collecting music and creating playlists.
Then in 2014, Alan introduced me to Serial, THE PODCAST. Along with the rest of the world, I was hooked! I would listen to the episodes twice; once to listen to it as soon as it became available to download and listen to, and then again later in the week, before the next episode came. It was great because Sarah Koenig spoke like me (I’m Filipino but I’ve always had a decidedly American accent – which made working in call centres decidedly easier since they required someone with an American twang! My dearest dad flatly refused to allow us to speak in Filipino or watch Filipino shows. Even my nanny spoke in English to me! Oh and no, having a nanny in the Philippines did not mean we were rich. It was just an acceptable thing to have in households with two working parents. It was the only acceptable solution really.). After Serial finished, I went back to listening to my music playlists. I did miss someone talking in my ear. So imagine my joy when Serial released their second season! But of course, once the podcast is finished, it finished.
I started exploring the podcast world and found a lot of interesting listening available. I listened to Richard Herring a lot for a while, except that it became a bit too sweary for me (I use the occasional expletive like “sh*t, sh*t,sh*t, oh sh*t”, or “f*ck!” or “bugger, bugger!” but even I surprise myself when I say them out loud. Alan says I swear a lot, which probably means I feel so comfortable around him that I say what’s on my mind…even if it is a swear word!) so I stopped following his podcast. I also listen to The Allusionist podcast because I love listening to people talk about etymology and language (and yes, because I’m a bit of a grammar monkey!). Once in a while, I download No Such Thing As A Fish podcast episodes because I am a QI fan!
These days though, my train rides are entertained by 3 amazing women:
I love Emma Gannon’s podcasts because whilst I am not a millenial (I think in the timeline of generations, I am a Generation X-er, only just), her insights and the insights of her guests are inspiring. Emma’s podcast Ctrl, Alt, Delete introduces her listeners to a diverse line up of creatives and successful people who have made social media their playground; people who have created niches in the social media world and aren’t stingy with sharing their experience and knowledge to people who want create their niche in this rapidly growing platform. I realise that talking about Emma so much might made me sound like a sycophant (I don’t really care if I do!) but she is amazingly brilliant and the people she talks to are equally so. It’s perfect listening when you want to stop hating your journey to work, perfect listening when you want to get inspiration to make a difference, perfect listening when you need to refocus and understand that your current job will probably be a means to an end – the end being doing something that you really, really want to do!
Another lady I love listening to is Dawn O’Porter. Dawn was also a guest on Emma Gannon’s podcast and I soooooo enjoyed listening to that episode. It was very laugh-out-loud and I must admit, I did get strange/annoyed looks from people sitting near me on the train because I was constantly snorting, laughing into my sleeve or making funny faces. Dawn has this very easy-on-the-ears voice that makes you just listen. I was so happy she started her own podcast Get It On by Dawn O’Porter (I know you can get it on iTunes and acast..and I think, PodOmatic). I loved the trilogy on men’s style that she had. She talked to Jason Segal, Dermot O’Leary and her husband, Chris O’Dowd, about their sartorial choices. I blame you entirely Dawn for the looks I got from that man who gets on at Colchester. He was very annoyed with me because for several days, I interrupted his relatively quiet train journey!
I’ve only just VERY recently discovered Sofie Hagen. My introduction to her Made of Human podcast was her conversation with one of my favourite comedians, Sara Pascoe. I first listened to her this morning and let me tell you, it was another LOL journey. Sorry Mr Sourpuss Colchester. It was just too funny.
Also, I’ve taken away a few, very cool, quotes that Sofie and Sarah shared during their conversation:
From Sara: “Don’t find happiness where you lost it.”
From Sofie (sharing a Frida Kahlo quote): “Leaving isn’t enough; you must stay gone.”
When I heard this I was slightly blown away because for some reason, it fit the situation I was struggling with (it was mostly about relationships that didn’t really matter anymore and that I shouldn’t feel guilty about not liking people – I will probably write about that at some point!).
Also, the nerdy chick in me will read about something Sara Pascoe talked about: the zero-sum game. Have you heard of it? Want to discuss it? Wait, no, not yet! I’ve got read up first!
I think I’ve had a proper breakthrough today. It’s finally hit me, very properly (right in between the eyes, so to speak), that sometimes, it really isn’t me. Sometimes, another person’s inconsistency isn’t how they’re reacting to me. It’s really just who they are, and no matter how much one tries to be efficient to manage everything in the background, sometimes it just isn’t possible to manage someone else’s inconsistencies. I’ve always had an overdeveloped sense of responsibility. When something goes wrong, my first instinct is to think “What have I not done?” But sometimes, it’s not my fault. I need to stop taking it on as my fault. Because I know that I’ve always done my absolute best with what time I have.
I can only do what I can do, in the time frame that I have to do things. If I can’t get it done, then, well, I can’t because I can’t create time magically. It’s not my fault and I am not taking responsibility for something I don’t have control over (i.e. someone else’s priorities). It’ll have to be done another day. I am only one person.
Yes, Alan, I am finally listening to you properly!
Soooooooooo…I received a very interesting phone call yesterday afternoon. Last Friday I was on the receiving end of a hard sell cold call. Coming from a call centre background, I do have a few years of phone-based customer service experience and that phone conversation was particularly uncomfortable. So I wrote about the experience and put it out on social media.
Who should call me yesterday but the sales manager of the company because apparently one of their directors saw what I wrote about my experience. I got an apology and an acknowledgement that their agents should get training on the hard sell vs the soft cell. They asked me if I could take the post down because their company name was on it, with the caveat that my concerns would be taken into consideration when training their agents. So on the basis of that conversation, I am placing faith in that telephone conversation, that blog entry is now marked private. I hope they deliver on the soft skills training! I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what I went through.
I didn’t think I should delete that blog entry because even if I’m the only one that sees the post from now on, it will remind me of the power of social media. It will remind me of how magnified one’s voice can be if channeled responsibly.
Yellywelly 