May 12 2009
Apr 09 2009
China in the Dead of Winter; The China Chronicles, Part I
If you remember this post, I said that when the New Year begun, I couldn’t wait to get back to work, as after my first few grueling months in the Home Office, I’ve finally gotten into the groove of things. So Monday, January 5, 2009… the first day of work, I was blissfully working on the heap of paperwork on my desk having piled up during the long Christmas break. That’s okay… I’m a diligent government employee. I’ve organized my work and my staff. And I don’t mind going through all that tediousness. And it’s a brand New Year… and it’s going to be MY year.
That blissful innocent inspiring driven phase of my life lasted for just a couple of pleasant hours. Then that afternoon, I got THE phone call from Mama Bear. “Miss Toe, I just want to give you a heads up. We might go to China on Wednesday to negotiate this thing”.
“Whaaaa? China on Wednesday? Watcha talkin’ about? I have this pile of paperwork on my desk! I’m going to Myanmar next week! I have meetings to attend! Does my boss know about this?! What the heck is this thing we’re negotiating?! Isn’t it wintertime in China?! I don’t have a bloody coat! Wednesday is the day after tomorrow! I. Can. Not. Go. To. China. On. Wednesday. ”
Apr 01 2009
My Blog is Alive!
Yes, my blog is alive… no thanks to me! The first quarter of 2009 has been sooooo crazy I can’t believe it. I’ve been so swamped with work, meetings, paperwork, travels… add to that moving to our new home… that my only breaks are toilet breaks. But thanks to the intelligent, inspiring, smart-alecky, witty, exasperating, cynical, hopeful, cocky, scared, proud, patriotic, sour-graping, impertinent, desperate, helpful, generous, eloquent, stubborn, know-it-all, kind, meek, confused young commenters who inundate this category and this page and exchange views, inspirations, retorts, insults, tips, knowledge, reviewers, my blog is alive and kickin’!
Feb 23 2009
A Day in Pililia, Rizal (second and last of a series)
As I said here, the hike to the top was a piece of cake with nice and safe-looking flower-lined paths with banisters to hang on to dear life. Thus, going up to the goal – the Statue of Christ the Redeemer – wasn’t as formidable as it looked.
In fact, it was very nice and pleasant with flowers and fruit-bearing trees lining our paths
Feb 15 2009
A Day in Pililia, Rizal (first of a series)
One thing about having visitors when we were in Cambodia - when we get back to the Philippines, they can’t wait to return the hospitality. Thus, when Uncle and Auntie were in Cambodia with Mom and Dad, and as a group were dubbed as the “Septos (Septuagenarians) in Cambodia” (Uncle is now an octogenarian though), Uncle was already inviting us to go to his private mountain resort in Pililia, Rizal.
I have to confess though that I was reluctant about going there. I had nightmarish childhood memories about Pililia. When I was a kid, Uncle had not developed it yet and we had to climb miles and miles over slippery dangerous cliffs and when we got to camp, we would sleep on stuffy mattresses in a tree house with giant mosquitoes as our blankets. Dinner was on a slope of the mountain on a wooden table covered by banana leaves - which served as both the individual plates and the serving dish. That’s about as communal as communal can get between our two families (Uncle had 7 kids while me and my siblings were 6 kids). As the table was on a slope, the soup at the head of the table would flow downhill to the bottom of the table, where I, being the youngest of the youngest and at the bottom of the pecking order, was assigned to sit.
Moreover, mountain and Toe don’t exactly go together. Just check my profile photo at the top of the left sidebar of this blog. Do you see Toe and mountain? Nooooo. You see Toe and sea. You blog-readers think you know me so well. Well, there’s one aspect of my life that I haven’t mentioned in this blog to date. Did you know that I was in the swimming team since I was 9 years old all the way to second year college where I was in the UST Varsity Swimming Team and would even compete (and win ha) in the UAAP? Well, that’s another story. The point here is… Toe and mountain - X (heck, I’m such a klutz that I’d trip over my feet even walking on flat land, what more on the mountain); Toe and water - check!
Feb 08 2009
Being Jologs with the Coños or Iskul Bukol 20 Years After
Readers of this blog, though they know me only in a virtual way, perhaps know me better than the real people I know. For one thing, I would never never never never never never never never never admit to a colleague at work, for example, that I’m a sucker for John Lloyd and Sarah Geronimo. On the other hand, blog readers know that I’m an incurable jologs – watching teleserye marathons and Filipino romantic comedies.
Last Christmas though, I think that I’ve wallowed in the depths of kajologans by watching… yes… or rather oh no!… Iskul Bukol, 20 Years After. Yes… that means twenty years after this inane cheesy TV show in the eighties starring Tito, Vic and Joey. Shhhh… don’t tell my non-blogging family, friends and MOST especially my bosses and workmates lest my dignity be tarnished (hrhrhr!). As a disclaimer though, and this is the truth, I have never watched a single Tito, Vic and Joey show on TV or in the movies in its entirety before this temporary lapse of sanity. Even a jologs like me couldn’t quite handle the below-the-belt slapstick that this trio punches at their audiences.
So in my defense, the reasons I, well we (sorry Honey… I broke your cover) watched the movie Iskul Bukol were: 1) they shot a lot of scenes in Cambodia, a place you guys know very well, is close to my heart and 2) our staff in our office in Cambodia were actually recruited as extras in a classroom scene and we wanted to see them in their Aliw Award performances. I couldn’t wait to see our Cambodian driver Sumbo letting the Escalera brother (Senator Tito Sotto and Joey de Leon) copy from his paper and getting reprimanded by Miss Tapia.
Jan 04 2009
Point of Order
Sheez… you can see by the title of this post that I’ve been attending way too many meetings. You see, during these meetings, when the direction of the discussions get out of the hand with heated debates and various digressions, someone raises a point of order to get everyone back on track. Perhaps, it’s time I did the same with my blog… notwithstanding my personal blog rule about not explaining myself in this blog - I mean I rarely excuse myself when I don’t blog regularly enough nor say my adieus when I go on a blog break (which has been more frequent lately). When I came back to the Philippines after six years in Cambodia, I never said “I’m back”. I just went on and blogged about the Filipino movie I watched.
But right now, I feel that things are getting a little bit haywire. I’ve been in Manila for more than five months now having arrived at the end of July. If you are new to this blog, or if you haven’t been dropping by in a while, things tend to be confusing: is Toe in Cambodia? What’s with the Kamuning thing? Is she just on vacation? So let’s try to put things in perspective.
Dec 29 2008
Upgraded in Jakarta
“Our room is so small!” complained my male colleague who was sharing a hotel room with another male colleague so that they could save on their Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) during our meeting in Jakarta this month.
Wishing to empathize with my friend on his complaint, I, too, whined, “My room is sooooo small too.” But I went on to say, “well, at least the second floor of my room is soooo small”.
The view of my picture window from the loft -
Much to the consternation of my friend, the Hotel Gran Mahakam was fully-booked so they upgraded me to a suite which had… tajan…. a second floor!
Nov 30 2008
Bali High (and Bali Low)
Three nights and four days in the beautiful exotic island of Bali in Indonesia ought to bring me to heavenly highs. Unfortunately instead, I was pulled down to earthly lows as I spent most of my time there cooped up in long boring meetings in a conference room. What a waste! Anyway, I did enjoy my beautiful room in our sprawling Javanese style-hotel, the Ayodya Resort Bali. I had a perfect view of this lagoon from my balcony.
My boss though didn’t enjoy his room as much and complained of his small TV and his remote control. So I gaped at him and said, “My TV is a flat-screen”! But seeing his consternated look, I relented immediately and said, “Joke lang sir”. I knew I did the right thing when he heaved a sigh of relief… even if I did have to say a little white lie. Shhhhhh! I did have a flat screen. My work motto: do not aggravate the boss needlessly. 
Nov 02 2008
Sunday Market with the Well-Heeled
So it’s a market. In the Philippines. Thus, it’s scorching hot, the floors are muddy, the narrow aisles are teeming with a sea of humanity, and there are stalls and stalls of fresh produce, food, dry goods, kitchenware, garments and other little tidbits of things to buy.
