Greeting my cousin at the Honolulu Intl airport who arrived yesterday for the very first time brought back fond memories of the day i arrived in Hawaii as a 13yr old girl dressed in blue.
24 years later, i still wonder how different life would have been had i or my family stayed behind in the Philippines. I give my parents credit for having the courage to uproot and move the family to a land unknown and begin a new life.
To my cousin, who left behind her high school teaching job, family and friends, to start a brand new life with husband to be, the opportunies are endless. Welcome to Hawaii!..you wont regret it!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A classic Filipino birthday food:pancit
Today's my sis birthday and of course, mother made her traditional pancit recipe...it looks as good as it tastes.....enjoy!
Sometimes i wish i cooked more often than the occasional chicken soup made of leftover rotisseri chicken from costco!..may i add that i do a killer fried eggs..a favorite on saturday mornings! I have a lot to learn, what can i say.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Run to live
If someone had told me way back that i'd be running marathons, i'd say only the crazy ones do it...but here i am crazy today coz last year marked my 10th Honolulu Marathon completed thus far. Marathons dont happen overnite....it takes lots of training and discipline to get up for those early morning runs and willpower to overcome the fear of not finishing (unless you're from Kenya or Africa where you're born to run and expected to win!) A big cup of coffee always helps too before any run for me.....My very first one was recorded at 7:30 hours. Despite the physical pain and anguish not to mention lots of blisters, i vowed to do it again the following year and the rest is history! Cant imagine running w/out my ipod though...i remember owning only a radio in those early marathon years. My ipod has become my bestfriend and i am usually listening to my favorite Christian artists such as Chris Tomlin or the David Crowder band to name a few. Anybody who has done a marathon will tell you about this invisible "wall" that they face at some point during the race. It's when your will to go on is greatly challenged by strong physical pain and discomfort. Often times it could be the 20th or 22nd mile mark. For me, it's usually the 23rd mile mark where not even the beautiful million dollar homes along Kahala Ave inspire me to take one foot infront of the other. As i search around me or to my ipod music to give me hope and motivation i find myself daydreaming that 45 more minutes or so, i'll be holding the prize---a finisher's T-shirt waiting for me at the end. At this point, no joke, i'm reminded of the poem "Footprints" and become desperate, praising my God for 'carrying' me thru the entire race. Corny, i know, but somehow my strength is renewed. Pride and accomplishment takes over the pain, discomfort, blisters, muscle aches as i take the last step accross the finish line. They're there but it's only temporary. What lasts longer or at least until the next race is the joy of accomplishing something big for an ordinary, non-Kenyan, slow runner like me. It is the reason i sign up year after year after year one step at a time....
My next challenge? a mini triathlon? Nah, but i can dream, can't i?
My next challenge? a mini triathlon? Nah, but i can dream, can't i?
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Am i ready for this? Big brother thinks so!
This is huge for me, monumental, a big deal, historical really to be writing my first ever blog! It's kind of exciting and fun to be honest...but this blogging thing is very new territory for me...(heck, i just got the hang of IM a few days ago)...so, i'll just start slowly and hopefully most of what you read and see here will move you in any way somehow! But, first i think i owe it to my big bro, Rol, for this chance to explore life differently, and in the process perhaps even enhance my life thru sharing with you all! Gee, thanks bro, for the vote of confidence! I like what you started!
william's card.
head on over HERE. this is the new mode to send greetings across the miles, folks. even the remotest friend [or foe] can sign in. the only drawback is that there is no WAY to remit that cash [euro, schekls, dollar, peso] that is itching to get to the recipient.
the business model ought to consider sending a gift ,via a credit card-- or Paypal-- all electronic as already the only way to send the poor chap, in this case the young relative in quezon city, william, his beer money is sponsoring the card itself. allright- you can still do it thru snail mail... considering that i don't have to fly to PI to extend the wish, the signed card via the website, is indeed quite effective enough! [i still think that the designers/webhosts can utilize linking photos to flickr and permit a higher resolution for the photos well-wishers post on the cards...] but live and learn- the next developers and rivals will think of this next [amongst linking youtube and vimeo videos]. let's just hope that someone from silicon valley is reading this.
a video: the recent family reunion
pasion re-union from [sub]urban rambler on Vimeo.
to watch, password: pasion
[with music, so turn up the volume]
music by the argentine, carlos gardel's por una cabeza, [translation here] guitar instrumentation and played by another porteno, juanjo dominguez. more of juanjo's music here. and here. another version done by a bandoneon [group] here and a quintet here. [youtube after links]
a fantastic recent use of 'cabeza'-- in a denouement of a scene which stars al pacino as the gruff + tuff, but passionate [no pun- but see why the music was used?], if cynical and hopeless blind former military officer-- the central character here, in the movie: 'scent of a woman' [youtube], see also and as discussed here.
incidentally, a related story on the reunion here [and of the yet-to-be-delivered series of familial tales promised in same-- look for it at your local barnes & noble or amazon.com.]
reading about a tragedy in the philippines...
from the NYTimes here re: the disaster in the philippines.
"MANILA — Hopes faded on Monday that more survivors would be found in what could be one of the Philippines’s worst sea tragedies as rescuers failed to find signs of life inside a capsized ferry that had held more than 800 passengers and crew members when a typhoon struck on Saturday.
Rescue officials said only 38 survivors had been rescued, including 28 passengers and crew members who came ashore Monday after drifting at sea since Saturday.
A total of 13 bodies believed to be from the ferry, Princess of the Stars, have been recovered, including nine that washed up on land on Monday.
The known dead from the ferry brought the death toll from the typhoon, named Fengshen, to at least 176, the Philippine National Red Cross said. Fengshen, packing winds of up to 121 miles per hour , struck the central and northern Philippines on Saturday, knocking down power lines, causing landslides, flooding rivers, and inundating entire communities.
Divers who beat against the hull of ferry on Monday in search of survivors heard nothing that indicated life."
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