Apr 09 2009
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 [...]
Feb 08 2009
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. [...]
Jan 04 2009
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, [...]
Sep 08 2008
For the first twenty-three years of my life, I had a perennial headache. I thought that I was simply frail or delicate (Frail or delicate? Moi? Hrhrhr). Then suddenly, my headaches stopped? Why? I learned how to drive. I realized that the culprit is the driving of Manoy, our family [...]
May 27 2008
Dear Toe,
I’ve been reading your blog in preparation for going to Cambodia. I am going there to teach in an International School run by a US-based missions organization, but I’m Pinay. Your blog has been very helpful and I’m grateful since I knew nothing about Cambodia until I started reading up when I got the [...]
May 18 2008
As if the stars in heaven were aligning themselves to outline my fate, in May 1970, Cambodia, the country where more than thirty years later I was destined to go for my first foreign posting, was all over the international news.
May 11, 1970 cover of Time Magazine
May 11 2008
I blog mainly to express myself and to record the details of my life. But I am very happy that besides being an outlet for my thoughts, I also have the opportunity, through my blog, to help other people. These people are mainly future FSOs, and recently, future expats and tourists to [...]
Apr 10 2008
It was December 1941. Eight-year old Romy was in the two-story house where he and his family lived in the US military compound in Fort McKinley (now known as the Fort Bonifacio Global City). He couldn’t go out and play with his four brothers as was natural for little boys. Outside, bombs and [...]
Apr 04 2008
I got another email from a reader. Yey!
Hi Toe,
Good Day. I stumbled on your blog a few days ago as I was searching the net for Filipinos in Cambodia. Your blog is a nice read and very informative.
I’m [...]
Oct 06 2007
Today, the sixth of October, I remember Lolo Roman, my grandfather on my mother’s side. Lolo was very fair with smooth baby skin which is very soft to touch. (Note: Lolo is Tagalog for grandfather). Because of his old age (he was 88 when he died), the skin on his [...]
"We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded. This is how writers must think, this is how we must sit down with pen in hand. We were here; we are human beings; this is how we lived. Let it be known, the earth passed before us. Our details are important. Otherwise, if they are not, we can drop a bomb and it doesn't matter."
Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones
