Peggo!

Yesterday I got 3 Peggo cards - for me, Jonathan and Charles. 

For the past three years I've been buying the monthly passes, mainly for the convenience of not having to go back more than once to the shops. When our family would be out of the City for long periods of time, I would just bear the wastage (sometimes 15 days out of 30/31 of the month).

But voila! Here comes the Peggo cards. It all makes perfect sense: you can buy the cards online or at designated sites (like Shoppers); same goes for loading cash into it. You can go to outlet stores or after registration online, you can put money into it as much as you want or need. In short, you can decide instead of being locked into a weekly or monthly pass. Progress, it is!

Random kindness at the US Consulate

It's Sunday, July 10, 2016, 10:41 am (11:41pm in Manila). I was just on Viber with Nix sharing updates - among them her "one fine morning" at the Greek Embassy. It reminded me of my own adventure at the US Consulate in Calgary 2 years ago...

I was getting ready for a work trip to the US and holding a Philippine passport, visa application has always been in my list for any international trip in the last 15 years. One would think I was prepared when I showed up at the US Consulate but to my horror I missed one very important notice... The security guard upon managing the line for applicants informed me that 'purses of particular size are not allowed" at the visa centre and so I will have to leave my purse (tote bag) in the car. And of course, I have no car as I flew from Winnipeg to Calgary for a day trip, just for the visa application!!!

Upon realizing that no plea nor explanation will sway the security guard to allow my bag inside the visa centre, I started off my mad quest to find a host for the bag. One by one I went to the shops at the ground floor of the building and asked the cashier or a staff if I could leave my bag with them for an hour (I was being very optimistic here since the application process definitely exceeded 1 hour with the waiting time and interview). I wasn't surprised but definitely disappointed that none of the shops agreed to a stranger's request.

I slowly walked back to the line, feeling down and sorry, thinking that I would be wasting my trip, flight, and visa fee because of the size of my bag. I noticed a lady heading to the same direction and with her holding a folder with documents, I suspected that she was also a visa applicant. I asked her, and she confirmed my guess was right. Since I also noticed her tote bag, I decided to inform her about my 'bag problem' and that the security guard may ask her to do the same.

Just like me, the lady was just in Calgary for the visa application and had planned to go back to Edmonton after US consulate appointment. Other details are blurred but the one thing I didn't miss was her mentioning that she will bring her bag to a locker room at the train station. I readily asked: could I also get a locker room there even if I'm not a passenger? Bless her heart as she offered to host my bag in her locker room as well.

After the consulate, we walked back to the locker room where I thanked her profusely before we went our separate ways - myself headed back to the airport for the flight back to Winnipeg. That night I also sent her a thank you email... but now after two years of reliving our encounter (thanks to Nix's embassy adventure) I just felt compelled to celebrate this random kindness I've experienced from a nice lady back then.

And I suspect this won't be the last time I'd be sharing this story... actually, for sure!

Life

Life is a journey of finding answers to many questions. We may not live long enough to get the answers, and this really is a mystery. However, the rewards are the little things we stumble upon when we keep going, despite the twists and turns, the bumpy roads sans streetlights. These are the diamonds (of wisdom, grace and special people) we can choose to pick along the way... Life's journey is a joy, never a bore.

Seeds of Philosophy

I remember when I was vacationing at my grandparents’ house how my cousins thought our young neighbors from another Christian denomination were not like us and treated them in a different way.

I think that was also the first time I started asking questions about faith and belief systems. To my young mind I asked if the Jesus they believed in was not the same Jesus I believed in. These thoughts later recurred when I first heard about Buddhism. When they pray to Buddha, does Jesus hear those prayers too? Are we worshipping the same person? If Buddha was not great, why would people pray to him? At the end of the world, will Jesus save Buddhists too?

from 31 to -31

It's been 6 weeks since I left Singapore, indeed a month and a half. And after a STRING of flights from Singapore, Scotland, England and Toronto, I am here in Winnipeg - safe and cold!

I'm taking this relocation as a chance to go back to writing in here - to record observations, culture shock, new acquaintances, people and places until I could say I've found my stride, I've formed new habits. We'll see :-)

finally doing things...

a few weeks ago i decided i will go for a swimming lesson (yes, to really learn how to swim and save myself from "self-embarassment"). check, as on the 7th of july, i will head opposite NUS Arts Canteen to meet my swimming instructor for the first time.

Monday i called Julia's number and was booked for 16th of July by a French guy - for haircut, and not just a trim this time!

mundane stuff, but happily ticking out from the list!

good for 3 flights

still i Q'd, but now that i'm home (and more level headed), i could say that i was still satisfied with the service i got from the embassy:

1. i've got my OWWA membership renewed (with not much questions);

2. i've got 3 OECs (t'was a bit annoying to request for the multiple OEC, but i prevailed ;-)

and most of all

3. i was welcomed by the new look of the embassy premises

i don't know if that was a new building. i'm not a construction expert to determine if they could have a new one in about 8 months (the last time i was there was in October 2010 for the renewal of my passport). nevertheless, it was great! the windows, the number notices (i don't know the name of the thing), the waiting tables/chairs, the entrance, are quite decent. so much different from the last time i was there! see the few photos pls (thanks google images)

surely, there are still some improvements to be done (i.e. electronic OEC application/request as well as payment by NETS or card). but for the time being - i feel good and 'dignified' with the gradual improvements.

have to pick up...

yes, i have to pick up on many things. this weekend was quite productive. i got to catch up with myself, watched some travel and cooking programs on TLC, watched a movie, found a duck place, got together with wiki and youtube, etc. its great to have a 3-day weekend!

talk to you soon kuya charles :-)

spring of absurdity

flashes:

• crossing the streets of berlin allows you only about 7 secs versus about 20 on toh guan road. now i pay so much attention to the seconds ticking while crossing streets!
• there is a vegetarian kebab - we learned this the hard way in berlin :-(
• gebraten or gebraken? i was ordering grilled chicken at this thai resto along Oranienburger Straße and ended up with breaded chicken cutlet. hhhmmm... what's wrong with our german-english dictionary?
• english is not necessary for a hotel receptionist in an international city!
• at a time of panic such as the ash clouds, we thought the services sector would rise to the challenge. we were proven wrong courtesy of a not so nice lady at the central train station.

i remember najwa always mention murphy's law and sure, i only realise this in april 2010. thankful JB is around to hold my hand.

the rain and a burglar

and so apart from the soothing effect rain brings, here's another reason for such affection:

one early morning, years back in my hometown, we found a drunken creature hanging along the edge of our roof. we never knew what was the intention - if he just got the wrong address or twas an aborted burglary.

anyways, since that incident, every night i prayed to the heavens: pls, pls rain. i thought back then that once it pours weird creatures won't dare climb our roof since it's too much of a hassle to sort out and carry the umbrella at the same time!

when will the wounds of partition/s heal?

http://www.economist.com/node/16364484?story_id=16364484&source=most_commented

everytime i hear stories of ethnic conflicts (like what is currently happening in kyrgyztan), i couldnt help asking why this is still possible in our time - when we hum of dialogue, tolerance and respect...

I love you rain…

What is it about you rain that refreshes
Drops lazily caressing the leaves
Before they pass on the waiting grasses?



Something’s intimate in you leaves,
When you sway gently
To the whistle of the wind



Aaahhh… I’m mesmerized, I’m frozen
Drunk in this moment
Soothing this tired soul, my heart leaps!

ape adventures

- briar fields

- snow-by (aka slimer; trap door)

- traditional chippy

- porters - authentic northern english pub (and nice machines in the 'little rooms')

- tesco (its not japanese dear)

- heritage centre (silk museum)

- barrats and river island (ape-shoeses)

- manchester piccadilly

- pop boutique where barberella is! (probably the toughest haircut ever...)

- forbidden palace?

- night and day

- empire exchange (all about canada in 2 pounds!)

- affleck's palace (kiwi, lime, mango, fancies and masks)

- arabesque, withington

- fuel (twice-filled)

- solomon grundy's (dove è il mio prosciutto di Parma?)

- cafe nero

- slipped my way to waterstones manchester but nicest store assistants, rewarded by the Empire of Gold and Blood! ;-)

- red chili restaurant @ portland street

- samuel alexander building, manchester university

- chemist @ oxford street

- london, euston

- wellington hotel

- waterloo grill

- waterloo station (hard to find the oysters)

- the southbanks (hello 'uncle ben')

- opuz (a turkish kebab in london - by fatos!)

- franco's ristorante pizzeria (if you're a willing spend-drift)

- gielgud theatre (everyone's a little bit racist, sometimes)

- o'callaghans hotel

- abbot lodge

- eddie rockets diner (o'connell st)

- cafe sofia, wexford street, dublin (24 hour breakfast)

- farringtons, temple bar (yes, white pudding is alright with the extra chips!)

- costcutter ballybofey, monaghan, donegal (the best wedges so far...)

have i shared my food choices in Singapore?

apespecials (can be fun too!)

- mango crazy http://www.makansutra.com/eateries.html

- mango pudding (just go to the chendol/dessert stall) http://www.wismaonline.com/stores_sub1.aspx?lvl=4

- kebab (this is the resto not the stall but ok the same kebab) http://www.shirazfnb.com/index.html)

- snacks (i know... but its still apes' choice) http://www.oldchangkee.com/

- pies/tarts (or however you call it) http://www.fancydelight.com.sg/products.html

- blujazcafe + haji lane



for meals (dining variety)

- chicken rice in the world (the best part is the ginger purée with the dark soya sauce!) http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/wee_nam_kee_hainanese_chicken_rice_restaurant/

- indian

1. Rangoli (my first taste of Indian food after 28 years of living - need i say more?!)

http://singaporenet.blogspot.com/2009/03/rangooli-northern-indian-cuisine-pasir.html


2. Lagnaa (good service, nice food which comes with "spicy scale")

http://www.lagnaa.com/


- italian

for nice food, reasonable fare, casual setting (excuse the sound of the cars and buses though...) http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/donna_carmela/

fine dining http://www.garibaldigroup.com.sg/


more to come...

spielberg effect

if an artist's work is shared (as he opted to) and results to a deluge spielberg effect, who is it to blame? is it the artist, the mob or the media?or perhaps we should go back and rethink our definitions of art, art appreciation and promotion? is art to be shared, shared-targeted, all or none of the above?

i remember a friend once telling me "all art has been contemporary". i interpreted it as "individuals having to always struggle at the beginning to be noticed or for their work to be appreciated." but what about the other side of the coin?

i am often amased at how popular culture is viewed in a sort of contempt - as i myself is guilty of. what is wrong if works are hugely embraced and i don't? i ask myself...

A Discourse on Myself...

I may not be perfect but I can love. I can care with all my heart.

I can be stubborn sometimes but I know how to obey. Humble myself is not that hard.

I may be a dreamer but I can start from the low. From there I can get the stars I dream for.

I may be a critic but I know how to listen. And accept mistakes and shortcomings.

I may long for freedom but the responsibility I know. Limitations are always there.

I can smile and laugh, find the simple joys of life, but I know how to cry too.

I may be hard and composed outside but I also feel pain, pains that crush my heart.

I can be silent. But I know how to shout, how to sing, sing what’s inside, shout what’s on my mind!

I maybe a singer, a poet, a writer, a day dreamer or a philosopher, but for sure I will always be the simple me.



* * * * * * * circa 1999-2000 * * * * * * *

a north in the compass...

How can we manage to maintain so beautifull memories in our lives forever? As every time we talk about Turin... my blood warms... or something happen... as I immediately get drunk and start to dream, to feel good, to have "saudade". I am afraid that these memories just became "memories" as ordinary ones... cause these beutifull feelings are still moving me and they are like little deep hermetic secret treasures that only sometimes I open and makes me air to breath in this ordinary life. I hope it will be forever as you say.

Thanks, I always loved you moved by my words... as we would have the same code. Thanks... I also need sometimes to enter to our secret sacred space to feel alive.... Thanks to share this with me.

"Happiness is a time, a place." I lately succeed, I am ok, but of course every time I remember Turin, like now, I felt that that was a real happiness you know... as a model... a "north" in the compass.


- turtle habibi reminiscin' 09

memories and amnesia...

"memories are alive"... funny but this phrase just popped up again after well - 4 years and i am transported back to Turin times, again as i remember a famous line from gora.

back to the present... its one of the striking lines from a movie last Wednesday called Waltz with Bashir. the last i think of the Animation Nation 2009 (a pity!). the movie was ironic, heartbreaking and artistically done. the rock soundtrack is fantastic, funny in a dark way, as you see the brutality and stupidity of the raids and air strikes.

and then there were these other images -

looking at violence and war through "a lens" because there is no other way to look, participate and experience it without being broken, torn apart. the metaphor is as much interesting as is the symbolical meaning it connotes - that this lens is a kind of an adoptive mechanism of the subconscious. perhaps this has been studied many times in the psychological field. (i don't know... i should read about it)

firing a gun in a state of trance...

5 or 6 people shooting like mad on a car...

hearing rock and roll music onboard a battle tank and just suddenly seeing the head of your buddy knocked down (and later realising its bullet from somewhere, anywhere)...

was i surprised to meet a friend of a friend who actually revels in being a “rock star” when welcomed to new places?! that kind of attention, of people prying on you. such curiosity that is weighed down by the color of the skin, eyes, hair, one’s might, height or anything strikingly uncharacteristic of the locals. and for sure, many of my “white” friends complain that people always suspect of their purse’ rosy, fatsy status.

certainly, i never enjoyed such. going to some place unknown makes me free (or gives me such an illusion). it’s a break, a getaway, a solace... not just from the hassles of the city but even perhaps from the trappings of my own self... in an alien place, i’m kind of reborn - entering a kind of tabula rasa state. bliss, yes! and then all images come clearer - hues, sound and scent more vivid.

i love the feeling of walking in the sidewalks knowing that nobody will ever call your name, to be lost in a market scene, to get lost in bus or train rides and not be bothered by the time clicking. most of all, to be met by random smiles, raw kindness from completely alien people as you are.

So why do you travel?

Quest-ce que c`est l`amour?

Love is science, love is white magic, love is balladry, love is doggerel, love is doo-wop-wop-wop, love is a myth, love is ambiguity, love is the letter of the law, love is food, love is sophistry, love is subject predicate and object, love is the gulf of the incommunicable, love is a physical sensation, love is a social utopia, love is revolution, love is servitude, love is a marketing tool, love is torture, love is a colour, love is silence, love is white noise, love is the part of someone that doesn`t exist but that you can see, love is salvation, love is a trick of the light, love is hydraulics, love is the celestial abode, love is pretending, love is sickness, love is medicine, love is an armistice between warriors, love is a word I wish I`d once not used, love is like riding a bicycle and love is art. Did I leave out anything? - J.B., 30 may 2007