If you sense that something is not going well, believe it. Don’t dwell on the possibility that like any other problems, “this too shall pass.” If you think that you need to find your way out of the situation, believe your intuition. If you feel so powerless and fate is not favoring you, gather your strength and look for ways to survive. Nothing can be so depressing than being trapped in a situation that you have no choice. Believe in yourself, have faith in God but most of all, be confident in yourself.
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1. The year was 1998 and cellphones were not quite popular back then. My then bf agreed that we would meet at their house after classes. Both of us were not aware of the typhoon signal. I was at the middle of a classroom discussion when the messenger sent a memo to my instructor that the Dean suspended the classes due to storm signal # 3. A Nepalese neighbor asked me if I wanted to go home with him. I told him that I would be seeing my boyfriend. I took a cab and went to my boyfriend’s house. My then boyfriend was surprised to see me. He said he didn’t expect me to come as he became aware of the typhoon.
2. I could be paranoid at times. My then (2nd) boyfriend and I agreed that he would go to my place after work. I did not eat supper because I was expecting that he would take me out. When it was 9PM, I ate some crackers and texted him. He was not replying. I fell asleep after that and when I woke up at 2AM, there was still no text message from him. I texted some of his officemates to check if he was with them. They said that they left him in the office. I was very worried that something bad happened to him. He was accident-prone and always absent-minded. At 2:30 AM, I decided to go to the office and asked the security guard on duty if he happened to see my boyfriend around. I went to his office and found nobody there. His PC was still warm; a sign that he must have left just earlier when I arrived. I went to the satellite police station not knowing what to do (forgive me, I was just 24 then, easily frightened) Then, I called up one of his officemates and told him that my boyfriend was missing.
“Iris, believe me, he’s just unwinding somewhere else,” he said.
“No, he’s not. It’s very unusual of him not to text me. Could you go here in front of the police station and accompany me to the police?”After 10 minutes, my then (2nd) boyfriend arrived, unimpressed. Hehehe….I should have listened to his officemate that he could be unwinding somewhere else.
3. Miel gave me an engagement ring after a month of dating. I consider it the craziest thing that I did for love. No woman in her right mind would easily accept a marriage proposal from her boyfriend whom she barely knew. But I was in love and when I’m in love, I do the crazy things that I wouldn’t do when I’m not in love.
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The reason for my aspirations…
The reason for my happiness…
The reason why I keep going…
The reason why I’m excited to go home after work…
My family is my life…
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I’ve always been a great fan of roses. There’s something in this flower that awakens the romantic side of me. Allow me to reminisce my romantic moments with this flower.
White rose- I got my first white rose from a puppy love if you could call dating someone at 17 a puppy love. His love was pure and intense. We were young. He was ready for a relationship, I was not. He was a gentleman, I was immature. I hurt him many times, he forgave me more than those many times. He set me free when I met my first real relationship.
Red Rose- My first red rose came from a law student. He was seven years older than me. He was experienced, I was a neophyte. He wanted to go back to his youth, I wanted to know how it felt like to be twenty-five. He dated a number of women, slept with them and was still casual with them, I had no experience at all when it comes to relationships. At some point, he nearly took advantage of my innocence, I was lucky to found friends to protect me from him. The match did not materialize. He ended up with my friend. For some reasons, he wanted me to date his friend who was a law student, too. He set up the date for us. Law Student # 2 gave me red roses, too. We went to Camp John Hay. It was very cold that day. He offered me his jacket. I politely refused to get it. He held my trembling hands. Just like Law Student # 1, he was older than me and experienced. I knew that the match would not materialize. Two weeks after that date, I became closer with my future first boyfriend. He was a classmate; snobbish and aloof. Maybe the projects that we did together became the bridge that moved us close to one another. Before I knew it, we were dating. He gave me red roses on Valentine’s Day. It was my first Valentine’s with a boyfriend. A week after Valentine’s, Law Student # 2 visited me at the boarding house. There were red roses on my bed. I was touched. I thanked him and I told him that I needed to sleep.
“See you tomorrow at school,” he said.
After my Technical Drawing Class 2, he was outside the classroom. He offered to carry my T-square. My first boyfriend arrived. Both of them were clueless of each other. I broke my silence, I introduced them to each other. Law Student # 2 was silent. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I was just being honest to my feelings. I was very much in love with my first boyfriend.Artificial Pink Rose- My second boyfriend could me every materials things that I wanted except a flower. It was our first Valentine’s Day. He gave me artificial pink roses. He justified why he gave me an artificial one instead of fresh ones by saying that plastic roses could last forever. Our love story was doomed from the start. It was complicated and stressful. No wonder, we didn’t last. I said to myself, if he would give me yellow roses, the fresh ones and not the plastic ones, then I would stay in the relationship and I wouldn’t mind our differences. I waited for the yellow roses. I waited until the relationship had to end.
Yellow Roses- My third boyfriend and my future husband was short of the qualities that I was looking for in a partner. He was five years my junior and the idea of dating somebody younger did not appeal to me. He was religious, I was an atheist. Okay, to make it less harsh, maybe I was agnostic. But love really moves in mysterious ways. I embraced his religion and did not felf uncomfortable with the 5-year age gap. In my mind, if he could give me a yellow rose, no questions asked, I would marry him. He gave me yellow roses on two separate occasions. That was it, I took the cue and accepted his engagement ring.
My husband loves me to give me roses. The last rose that I received from him was last October, for my birthday. =)
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It’s love month once again and love is in the air so let me be a little romantic on this post.
When my husband told me two weeks ago that he needed to go to his home province (Bohol) to visit his ailing grandfather, I did not ask how long he would be away from home because I knew that family visits could mean overstaying. Two days after that, he asked me to join him on the trip. Being a working mother, I told him that I could only be away from February 3-6; I needed to be back in the office by February 7. Then, he thought it would be nice to bring with us the kids. The initial plan was, he would be bringing some goods with him to Bohol via roro and I and the kids would fly to Tagbilaran two days after his roro trip. In the end, we decided to fly together as a family.
I was expecting a problem with Cebu Pacific but to my relief, everything went fine from my phone booking to our flight to Tagbilaran. The flight attendants were not only good-looking but they were friendly as well.
We left Manila at 10:50 AM and reached Tagbilaran at 12:20 AM. It was quite cloudy that day so I didn’t see any view from the airplane’s window except large clouds that looked like cotton candies. Adi was fascinated by the clouds; you should have seen how big his eyes were!
From the airport, we headed to the nearest mall and looked for a place to eat. The crews at Jollibee were very friendly, I forgot that I was tired.
From the mall, we headed to Talibon where Miel’s grandfather is staying. Ah, Bohol! The greeneries, the seas, the people—they were all captivating. No wonder a Boholano captured my heart.
Tagbilaran to Talibon took us two hours to travel by GT Van. Fare is 200 pesos per passenger. We stayed at his grandfather’s house and for the first time, I met the rest of his relatives.
His grandfather was sleeping when we arrived. Miel woke him up and I gave them the much needed privacy for them to bond after ten years of separation.
Their place was provincial. The lifestyle was simple yet pleasurable. Kids were inside our grandfather’s house. They were looking at Adi and Chang. I exchanged pleasantries with Miel’s aunts though I could not understand some of the Cebuano words that they said.
I went outside for a brief inspection of the surroundings. The air was very clean. It smelled of freshly cut grass.
Friday morning, we went to Sagbayan Peak for half an hour. It was similar to sight-seeing in Baguio. It didn’t excite me at all. But yes, the landscape was awesome. My kids enjoyed the picture-taking.
We decided to have lunch in Loboc River. Most of the tourists were foreigners. The fee per person is 400 pesos. We were six in the group. We brought along his two uncles and a driver. I learned that Visayan foods are simple to prepare than Tagalog foods. But I missed the salty flavor. They were not fond of fish sauce (patis) there. The only thing that impressed me were the native cakes, sweet watermelons and salad. The Loboc River is green and quiet. There were two groups of entertainers at the riverside. The waterfalls were not really tall but they were eyecatching. After the one-hour trip, we bought some souvenirs at the shop and headed to Carmen where the Chocolate Hills are located.
Yeah, it’s probably a hundred steps to reach the peak of the view deck. There were at least 500 hills around. They looked like giant turtles in my eyes. Hahaha.
Saturday afternoon, we went to Barracuda Resort in Talibon. Would you believe that the entrance fee was only 20 pesos? Wow! What a way to relax! I got scared and excited at the sight of the beach. I have never seen such a large body of water surrounding me! It was a different experience there. Fishes and crabs everywhere; the place was still unexploited.
What I like in Bohol is its less expensive lifestyle. The people were even honest. A kilo of shrimps that would cost me 380 pesos in Manila costed only 200 pesos in Bohol. I never experienced that food tripping in expensive Sabang (Puerto Galera).
We visited his maternal grandmother on Sunday. The reunion between grandson and grandma was heartbreaking.
Am I missing the simple yet pleasurable life in Bohol? Yes. Bataan will always be in my heart. Now I found another place that I consider HOME.
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http://chealth.canoe.ca/drug_info_details.asp?channel_id=0&relation_id=0&brand_name_id=575&page_no=2
I bought 5 pcs of Bonamine for tomorrow’s travel. Motion sickness sucks! I am easily nauseated when riding on any kind of vehicle be it a car, a bicycle, a ship or a plane. I read somewhere that Asians are more likely prone to motion sickness than Caucasians.
When travelling, I eat light meals, usually salty ones, instead of sweets. Salty foods prevent me from throwing up. I don’t read or text while travelling. Thinking of green ricefields and cold water divert my attention.
Wish me luck tomorrow! I don’t want to spoil the vacation!
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http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/headlines/27185-10-workers-plunge-to-death.html
Heartbreaking. Depressing. They were just working.
My condolences to the family of the victims.
The World of Second Chances 