The World of Second Chances

Alcohol and Me

July 14, 2021

Life & Love

This photo is taken from the web. Subic Hard Rock used to occupy the 1st floor of the building next to the police precint.

“Tagay hanggang mamatay” is the catchphrase of Sharon Cuneta’s latest movie, “Revirginized.” My story has nothing to do with her movie but of my own experience in the city that never sleeps, Olongapo City.

I was a late-bloomer in anything related to alcohol. Most of my college friends and acquaintances spent their Friday nights in Spirits Disco while I preferred the solitude of fog watching and stargazing in the veranda of my first boarding house. The first time that I felt the kick of alcohol in my system was one boring January night when my equally non-alcoholic roommates decided to buy San Miguel Beer bottles for our consumption. I ended up tipsy but not entirely intoxicated. From thereon, I realized that I would never really learn to love any beverage with alcohol.

When I say today that the last time I tasted alcohol was 13 years ago, I mean it in all honesty. Take note that I have nothing against those who consume alcohol for fun or social drinking; I just went back to my old non-alcoholic self.

Alcohol is nothing new to me, my father was a heavy drinker and so were some relatives. I was exposed to this kind of celebration at an early age yet I didn’t acquire a taste for alcohol. In addition, while my father indulged in alcohol, he was against women drinking it. We had a patriarchal set-up at home and women were expected to behave accordingly. This was for this reason why I was in my early 20s when I first went into a bar.

In my first job, they had this Friday night gimmick wherein the goal was just to go to the bar to bond with their officemates. It was a rainy August night when finally, a friend convinced me to try to go with them to the Subic Hard Rock. More nervous than excited, I followed them and mimicked whatever they did to conceal my amateurish actions. The place was badly lit as most bars were expected to be. The deafening music of the live rock band plus the cigarette smoke in the air left me with a sore throat for days. In my half a decade of stay in Olongapo, I’ve been to the other bars, too like Blue Note, Pier One, Gigolo (hahaha!), and some forgettable ones that were beyond my photographic memory. The only reason why I went was because of “pakikisama.” If I had my way, I would have loved bonding over a tall glass of frappe coffee. This dream bonding happened in my late 20s when I reconnected with some high school friends. Sometimes, we went to the bar in Balanga just for the sake of drinking. I realize that the more you grow older, the less you become excited about going to the bar. Like, when you’re younger, you have wandering eyes to check on who to hook up with but that looks awkward when you’re approaching your 30s.

I stopped my bar life and alcohol bonding when I started a relationship with the boyfriend who became my husband. He had nothing to do with my decision, I just felt that drinking was never really my love language to stay with a friend or boyfriend.
Ring…Ring..

July 13, 2021

Life & Love

When I was still connected to my previous company, they issued a Globe postpaid cellphone to me. Voice and data communication were the least of my worries because I also have my Smart postpaid and wifi connection at home. Looking back to the days when technology was not as complicated as we have now, I was ten years old when we had a telephone.

In my previous blog post, I wrote a bit about Ms. Anita Hipolito, the principal in my grade school. For some strange reasons, I found myself in the company of Almalou going towards the principal’s office. She asked permission from Ms. Hipolito if we could use the phone, and the latter allowed us. I heard her talking with her mother that we needed to bring clay the next day for our Art subject. This gave me an idea to call up my mother at work to tell her about the assignment. Then, I realized that I didn’t know how to dial her office phone number! Hahaha! Almalou seemed puzzled why I wasn’t talking so she asked if everything was okay. Out of embarrassment, I told her that my mother’s office phone was busy. We thanked Ms. Hipolito and continued with our recess.

Months after that, we had our first telephone. It was an ogre yellow and white phone with the receiver on the left side. Our number was 7-3X-XX; those were the days of the 5-digit PLDT number in our province. A telephone in the 80s was a luxury, and true enough, it left a dent in our monthly budget. The challenging part was, our party line was always busy using the phone because they were a commercial establishment. When I learned how to dial a telephone, I became addicted to making calls; serious or prank. It was in the mid-90s when PLDT introduced the caller ID phones in our province. Pranksters had the time of their lives before that.
If I remember it right, dial 109 was meant for domestic operator-assisted calls while it was dial 108 for international-assisted calls. It was in 1992 when I had to tell my Tita Jocy about my great-grandmother’s demise. She was then living in Makati with her family.

“Hello, Operator, I would like to place a long-distance call to Mrs. Jocelyn C. Her number is XXXXXXX,” I said to the operator.
I could hear the other end of the line ringing, the operator successfully connected me to Aunt Jocy’s number; it was up to her if she would accept my call.
“O, Iris, what happened?” it was Tita Jocy.

I told her about the bad news and the next thing I remember was seeing her at the wake.
When Ate Gina’s husband passed away, I was the same bearer of bad news to Tita Jocy.

There were good times, too like talking endlessly with Shellah (my friend since childhood) over the phone. I was a late-bloomer in terms of love so nothing came out of my Friday night calls with some callers. I was just in the process of enjoying my life as a teenager by getting to know more people.

My first relationship was between the expiration of the old technology (analog phones) to the introduction of the new technology (digital/texts). While the world was busy preparing for Y2K (year 2000), we were worried if it was the end of the world! (Don’t laugh, we didn’t realize that Kiribati and Australia were already celebrating their New Year at the time we were so worried about it).

11:59 PM, the phone rang and a familiar voice greeted me.
“We have 60 seconds left. If the world ends after this, I would like you to know how much I love you,” he said.
Of course, the Y2K bug did not happen but the relationship ended five months later. It was May 2000 when I bought my first cellphone. When everybody in the family had our owns cellphones, we decided to terminate the landline contract to save on phone bills.

Trivia, my phone’s ringtone today sounds like a ringing analog phone. I miss the old times but I am happy with the present.
BES(T) Grade School

July 9, 2021

Life & Love

I got this photo from Poweradio 104.5 FM – Bataan | Facebook. The architecture and style suggest that this building belongs to a public school. This is one of the buildings in Balanga Elementary School. This building holds half of the grade 6 classrooms. The last time I went there was in 2013 when they used some of the classrooms for the 2013 Election.

Since I am heavily involved with my children’s education, I know much about their school: from the foundation day to the school hymn to the founders. Ironically, I could not say the same knowledge about my former schools. I just did not try to find out. Shame on me!

Balanga Elementary School is in Talisay, Balanga City, Bataan. It is a 15-minute walk from our old place. I was six years old when I started going to school by myself. Of course, I’m talking about the 80s when it was safer to allow young children to be that independent. Those were the days when there was zero to very light traffic, when people knew each other, and when minds and actions were unpolluted. The school is big and an ideal place for adventurous kids. My mother always reminded me not to explore the whole school because I might get lost or kidnapped (haha!). We had sections 1 to 9 during my time; the estimated student population was less than 1,900.

Whoever did this volcano-shaped furnace is a genius! In Grade 1, I spent my time watching the top of the volcano emit smoke instead of socializing with my classmates. Of course, there was some humor too, when a snake went out of the crater! The school had several mango trees and plants and had nearby rice fields, making it a perfect habitat for insects and reptiles.

We had buzzers every block to tell us when it was time to start or end the class. Ms. Anita Hipolito, the school principal, only used the bell whenever she saw pupils roaming around the school ground. There was a time when I went to school late. Ms. Hipolito asked for my full name, grade, and section. She smiled when she heard my middle name. I was clueless until I told my grandmother about it. She simply said that they knew each other because they were both from the academe. Afraid of having a second encounter with the good principal, I tried my best never to be late again. (I was never a fan of “I can get away with it).

The school has a World War II Museum on it because it used to be a garrison. My grandmother said that the track and field area used to be the execution area of the Japanese. The urban legend that I heard was the ghosts of the executed Filipinos reenact the scenes. Another urban legend was the ghost of the chained prisoners walked around the school buildings during campings and overnights. I went to the Girl Scout camping twice but never encountered any of them. Not even the ghost that knocks on the door of the Grade 6 restroom.

Would you believe little has been changed on the design since the 1960s? The right side of the building contains half of the Grade 5 classrooms. We had a flag ceremony every Monday. From Grade 3 to Grade 5, my classmate Elizabeth and I used to be part of the flag-raising ceremony. She was in charge of singing the National Anthem while I was in charge of reciting the “Panatang Makabayan” and later, the “Panunumpa sa Watawat.” Frankly, I had a slight stage fright but I was more scared to say no to my Grade 3 teacher. Hahaha!

I was painfully shy in grade school so I was not able to make a lot of friends. I only knew them by their faces. The teachers probably sensed that I was the shy type so they wanted to develop my personality. In Grade 4, Ms. Pruna assigned me and Mary Ann to be Ate Meding’s store assistant during break time. There was nothing special about it except that we got to take our recess longer than usual. The duty was once a week only. I had a hard time dealing with multiple buyers at the same time. It was also around this period when I felt that I was transitioning from being a child to a tween. Somebody asked me who I thought was the most good-looking guy in the school. I answered honestly. My classmate picked it up and made a story about it. It was a harmless crush, an admiration. I was not even in love yet! The 80s was a conservative time and girls were not supposed to tell about their crush/es. I felt very uncomfortable whenever that guy was around because it was never my intention to expose him or my admiration. On the other hand, kids of today are cool about telling who their crushes are and it’s no big deal.

In Grade 6, I wore a gown that my grandmother paid for me. The shoes were bought by my father’s friend. I was excited to go to high school because, in my young mind, I would no longer be tasked to clean the school grounds before and after classes. Private schools don’t ask their students to clean the school premises. Before the pandemic, I learned that one of my children was tasked to clean the school grounds as a penalty for being late. I just brushed it off, there’s nothing wrong with imposing discipline and there is nothing wrong with cleaning. I have been there, I have done that, I survived! I was just too childish then to appreciate the task.

Credit to Poweradio 104.5 FM – Bataan | Facebook for the photos. Thank you, I remember the good old days.
How to Redeem Your HSBC Rewards

May 28, 2021

Career, Finance & Product
Note: You can check your reward points on your billing statement.
A Once Sickly Child

May 28, 2021

Wedding & Family Life

It has been almost a year and a half, and we’re still in the pandemic. I could only pray that my family and I will survive this deadly virus if it hits us. Had my extroverted parents were alive, they would have been so much affected emotionally and mentally.

I realize that the last time they took care of me was 25 years ago. I was a sickly child, one that would skip a class because of fever and colds. Ironically, I ate healthy foods and took vitamins, but they were not enough to keep the illnesses away.

There is something in the December wind that makes me most prone to respiratory illness. It must have been the cold and dry wind that triggers my allergy attack. As a young child, my father used to heat the unchopped calamansi and extract the hot juice out of it. He mixed the extract with a little oil and used them to massage my back, throat, and chest. He hated anything unnatural and relied much on herbal treatment. On the other hand, it was my mother who brought me to the doctors in case the herbal treatment did not work.

Being prone to colds and rhinitis meant that I could easily get flu, too. I used to catch the flu twice a year. The most dreaded disease that I got was chickenpox. Since I had a weak body then, it took me almost a month to recuperate. I had chickenpox rashes from head to toe. In my 3rd week, my mother put some cilantro in the boiling water. I used that as bathwater when it was comfortably warm. Cilantro has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties that is why it aids in healing wounds fast. Of course, we are talking about the late 80s here as there are available ointments now to facilitate chickenpox healing.
If there’s any consolation in being sick, it’s when somebody (like your parents) exerts more time and effort to help you recuperate. Growing up, the only times when grapes were available on the table were New Year and when we were sick. It took me until adulthood to help me realize that grapes were not that expensive. Aside from that, we had Royco alphabet noodles or corn soup, fried chicken, and soda to encourage us to eat.

I was in my late 20s when I asked my mother how Dr. Hugo Banzon was. She used to bring me to his clinic every time my coughs and colds worsened. I never went to a pediatrician not until I gave birth; I wonder why there were no known pediatricians in our town when I was young. Dr. Hugo Banzon’s clinic appeared to be an ancestral house. There were a few plights of stairs going down to reach the front gate. The front yard was covered with bushes and flowers. I was a shy girl and one who was easily intimidated but he was one of those that I liked as a child. He had a deep comforting voice and a shy compassionate look on his patients. The last time I saw him was 31 years ago, can you believe that? His clinic is still vivid in my memories until now.

Twenty-five years have passed since my parents took care of me whenever I was sick. Sometimes, I ask myself if I was able to return the favor of taking care of them in the same nurturing way that they did. Time flies, I remember the old days but I don’t feel old.
Death of a Girlfriend

May 2, 2021

That’s Entertainment

Note: This may contain spoilers.

Cast:

AJ Raval- Christine

Diego Loyzaga- Alonzo, Cristine’s boyfriend

Arnold Reyes- as the forest ranger

Raul Morit- as the farmer

Soliman Cruz- as the interrogator (voice only)

“Death of a Girlfriend,” tells the story of a high school student named Cristine who was found raped and murdered in the secluded part of the forest. The interrogator summoned the last persons that were believed to have seen Cristine on her way to school.

The first one was Alonzo, her secret boyfriend, and schoolmate, who told the investigator that he believed that the forest ranger was the one responsible for her rape and murder. From the start, Alonzo and the forest ranger appeared to despise each other because of their mutual admiration for Cristine.

The forest ranger and the farmer were already wearing the orange jail uniform so we could assume that they were already the prime suspects in the heinous crime. The two kept on pinning one another because of an obvious personal and professional grudge. Just like Alonzo’s story, the farmer believed that the forest ranger was the one who raped and murdered Cristine. The forest ranger’s alibi was he could never do that because he was a family friend of Cristine. He insisted that it was the farmer who had perverted thoughts about Cristine.

Cristine was an easy target because of her carefree attitude. I think that because she grew up in the area, she trusted the people around her. Instead of waiting for her school bus, she preferred to take the isolated shortcut on her way to school. She was a loner and a secretive girl who had her share of her youthful mischief by smoking which is against her family’s rule. Had she been more open about her day-to-day activities with her mother, maybe she could have told her about the guy who kept on following her to school. But yes, telling more stories might give her mother an idea that there was a time when she became curious and tried drugs with her boyfriend.

I hated that part when Cristine was raped and murdered. Why would her admirer rape and kill her when she offered her friendship to him? The answer is because not everyone thinks like we are. What is harmless to us could be a ticking bomb to another especially if the person is obsessed or a psychopath.

The supporting actors Raul and Arnold are good in this movie and they give a convincing portrayal of their roles. Diego is also good and comfortable in his role, I feel like watching a young Cesar Montano as he is a spitting image of his father. Of course, the talk of the town is AJ Raval, a newcomer and one of the daughters of Jeric Raval. While Cristine’s role calls for someone who is guarded and aloof, AJ somehow overdid it thus appearing uncomfortable and conscious in some scenes. AJ has a strong screen presence and she appears to have a natural talent for acting. She needs to improve her line delivery and attend speech workshops.

Her controversial breast exposure was done in good taste. (Looks like she was wearing body stockings and fake nipples, though).

You can watch the movie on web.vivamax.net.

PS: Please share this article if you find it interesting. Let us continue to support our local cinema! Thank you.
Lazada and Shopee

April 10, 2021

Filipino Culture

I was never a fan of online buying not until the pandemic happened. I have always practiced the “to see is to believe” before I decide if the item is good or not. Some of the items that I bought online were good, and some were just a waste of money.

As a consequence, I am giving these tips to newbie buyers for their guide.
The most popular online selling platforms in the Philippines are Lazada, Shopee, and Facebook. You need to register to be able to access these platforms. Lazada and Shopee offer a wide range of products from toys to carpentry tools; imagine yourself walking through a virtual department store.

Avoid impulsive buying. Do a little research about price competitiveness, product review of those who have bought it, and most importantly, the product specifications like its dimension, color, limitation, quantity, and quality. While trying to tone down your impulsiveness, you can make use of the “add to cart” function before deciding whether to remove or check out the item.

For each item, there are more than two sellers to choose from. Instead of relying on the star rating, read the content of the customer’s review. New sellers do not have a product review yet and trying them could be risky unless you are familiar with the product and you will buy it through COD (cash on delivery). Aside from the product review, check out the product packaging and delivery review, too. Sellers make use of bubble wrap to protect the product.
Some buyers are swayed into buying products that are much cheaper than the ones being sold at the mall. Check the product dimension because you might end up buying just a miniature. Sellers tend to post the best-looking pictures that is why meticulous buyers end up being disappointed when there is a big disparity between the advertisement and the product on hand.

In the case of defective products, there is a 7 days return policy that is free of charge. It’s a hassle for busy people like me that is why buyers need to be careful in online buying. I am not sure if I would still be into online buying after the pandemic. Personally, I want to see and feel the product first before buying it.