What? That Long?

It has been ages since I last posted in Pinaymomblogs! A lot has transpired in the year past and I think I was just totally overwhelmed with events, work, family matter et al. In the process, I lost touch of the blogging world. The last time I was invited to join an event was almost a year ago. So what changes happened in my life? First, I was busy designing and building a house for a client. That alone, took a huge part of my time. Second, we have a new baby (well, a year old now)in the house. Third, my two other grandkids are growing up so fast that the house feels crowded which brings me to... Third, there is an ongoing construction in the house for two additional rooms. Fourth, D4 got engaged. That news should have been met with sheer joy but it was kinda marred by that fact that a day before the proposal she had a surfing accident. She's well and good now.

 It is November already. In a few more weeks, Christmas will hit us right smack in the face. It is quite disturbing to hear Christmas songs blaring at malls as early as September as majority now equates Christmas with commercialism.Well folks, on this day of November 4, let me just reiterate that Christmas is for "Christ".

RIP Eduardo T. Malinis

Ex-Insurance Commissioner Atty. Eduardo T. Malinis joined his creator on Friday, May 23,2014 at past 5:00 p.m.His untimely date leaves his family and everyone he knows dumbstruck. He was known as Kuya Watts, Tito Watts, Lolo Watts by close family and friends. Though he is my husband's first cousin, we call him Ninong Watts for he was one of the principal sponsors in our wedding.

We will surely miss his quiet and unassuming ways. His colleagues are now left with  less  one credible and honest person. His one and only son is now an orphan. Rest in Peace Ninong Watts! God's justice will prevail!

Malaysian Airline Flight MH370 - What's the Hush-Hush?

Malaysian Airline flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing failed to reach its destination on Saturday, March 9, 2014. The Boeing 777 carried 239 passengers and crew. The plane literally "vanished" as the plane did not make a distress  before being "lost".

Much speculations are a buzz regarding this flight. Aside from the failure of the captain to send out a distress signal,. there were no signs of an airplane crash. There were a couple of debris and an oil slick found near the alleged crash site, and that's about it. There are speculations that the plane turn around right after passing Vietnam. Another speculation is that the plane could have been hijacked as there were at least 4 stolen passports carried by 4 passengers of the flight. Another speculation was the disintegration of the plane at 35,000 feet.

What's strange is that some relatives of the passengers tried to called their mobile phones and  they rang! Unfortunately, the calls were left unattended. What's happening? Why the mystery?

Let us all pray for the safety of the passengers of MAS flight MH370.

  Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries as she walks past journalists at a hotel in Beijing March 9, 2014.
ast swathes of sea around Malaysia and off Vietnam are now being scoured for signs of the Beijing-bound Boeing 777, which vanished on Saturday with 239 people on board. There was no distress call.

Aging Gracefully

Aging brings a lot of changes more so to women. As a woman hits the golden years, her skin's elasticity is almost a thing of the past. The facial  muscle sags, so do the rest of her body. The eyelids :"fold". The bags under eyes become more prominent, making the sagging face look older. I used to "fear" growing old. The notion of a wrinkled-sagging-old face  gave me the jitters. Now that I've reached "that" phase in my life... well, it's not that bad. I just need to learn to grow old gracefully and graciously. I really have to start eating right, exercise regularly, keep a happy attitude and bask in the knowledge that aside from my family, God  loves me!

I still look forward to dressing up and putting on makeup when the occasion calls. The only trouble is I find it hard to tame  my unruly hair. A friend of mine "does" her hair wonderfully by putting on a hairpiece. Here, click for rachel welch hairpiece and see her fave hairpiece of all.  FYI, Raquel Welck is past 70 and she's still gorgeous! Maybe, a great-looking hairpiece is an option afterall.

Dear BIR Commissioner: Doctors are Noble and Not "Cheats"

The medical profession suffered another blow from BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) when the agency approved the release of its latest advertisement regarding the payment of taxes. The AD shows a lady doctor piggybacking on a teacher with the caption : “When you don’t pay your taxes, you’re a burden to those who do. Do your share. knowyourtaxes.ph.”

The Philippine Medical Association headed by Dr. Leo Olarte, voiced out the sentiments of the physicians that the said AD generalized all doctors as tax cheats. The PMA asked the BIR to take down tha offending AD but Commissioner Kim Henares said that AD in question was not offending or insulting since the print AD was a statement of fact.

What is wrong with this?

Yes. There are doctors who do not pay the correct taxes  but there are other professionals who do not pay the correct taxes too. Heck!  I guess most politician and their cohorts do not pay the correct taxes! Why not go after these people? Why not go after those who "fix" their taxes c/o legitimate BIR representatives?

The print ad was in bad taste. Disrespectful. Offending. Insulting. Demeaning. What was Kim Henares thinking? 

Henares forgot to consider the nobleness of the medical profession. True. There are doctors who are filthy rich because of their practice as there are doctors who barely make ends meet because they have dedicated their life in "really" helping those who need their services. It does not follow that those rich doctors and "poor" doctors  are tax cheats!   A survey of the best paying job indicated that doctors ranked only 5th.

I know a particular doctor who does pro bono surgeries on a weekly basis. He said that due to the BIR ruling, he now has to charge his charity patients 100PHP instead of them presenting an affidavit of free medical services.Why? An affidavit costs at least 300 PHP therefore it's cheaper  (for the patient) to just pay 100 PHP professional fee.

In connection, a brief demonstration was led by Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and Gabriela on Friday, March 6.  Shoulder to shoulder, teachers and doctors condemned the BIR AD that portrays doctors as tax evaders. The  protesting group challenged the BIR to go after  conglomerates and business tycoons instead of doctors (and other professionals).

Kim Henares. What gives? Why are you so fixated with doctors?

Need a New Casio Keyboard

 So there we were... intently practicing three sacred songs for the coming worship services this March. The choir is "young" as it was only formed on February this year. It is also "young" in a sense as the male choir members are only in their late teens and early 20s. The problem with such a young choir is the inability of the members to "read" the music piece. I literally have to play each note so they could follow the tune.

As I keyed B and B flat, the keyboard barely made a sound. This can't be! I'll make myself hoarse if I sing every B and B flat outloud! Really, it is time to consider buying a casio piano keyboard from musicians friend. Heard the rate is very affordable.This is a good-enough keyboard for choir practices.

#100oklangdays

So there's this ongoing posts in various social networking sites with the hashtag 100happydays (#100happydays). The idea is for the participant to snap a pic of whatever or whoever makes that person's day "ok". My daughters and I decided to make our very own hashtag of 100oklangdays (#100oklangdays) which when roughly translated to English means "a so-so" day. My first post was this:

using the stair's first tread for bench aero #100oklangdays

Sax Case

My son started studying the alto sax back in high school. I bought a pre-owned sax from a friend who was based in California. I think I bought the sax for 25 k PHP which I think was a fair price for the make and brand of the instrument. It's too bad that my son no longer plays on a regular basis. He was quite good. I was cleaning his room the other day and noticed that the snap lock on the classic saxophone case is broken. I think it's time to replace the old sax case.

Princess Sophia in Tutu

Today, it's "come as your future self" in granddaughter 1's PK 1 class at Gymboree. We can't really decide what to dress her. Ballerina or as Princess Sophia? We combined the two. She went as a ballerina in her tutu then completed the attire with a tiara. When her teacher introduced her as Princess Sophia, she gracefully waved her hand to her loyal subjects... us! 

Ok. The tutu is a bit big as it was D2's tutu of  25 years ago.

Engagement Ring

One of my daughter's friend is about to get a proposal. A marriage proposal, thank you! The boyfriend showed my daughter a set of really beautiful diamond rings in various colors, clarity and sizes. Yes, diamonds do come in colors of pink, yellow, blue and green. I'm not sure if there are other colors but I have seen the ones I mentioned. I particularly like the very light mint-green diamond. It's quite stunning. I also like the pink one as it looks so dainty. I'm not sure which one my daughter chose. I guess, whatever it is, it would look fantastic on the her friend's ring finger.

Mines View Park's Resident Doggie

I have never "seen" a St. Bernard dog up and personal. True. My neighbor has one such dog but considering that I only had a glimpse of the said dog (and a fleeting view of my neighbor as well) I am convinced that I have not seen the likes of a St. Bernard. Thanks to our spontaneous trip to Baguio and our disastrous trip to Mines View Park (which I swear has lost its attraction), I would never have seen a real-live-friendly-cuddly-hug-able St. Bernard doggie. For 50 PHP, one can pose with the dog and take as much pictures as one likes. I know!

Baguio City

The City of Pines, Baguio City, was a big surprise for me. The last time I went up to the Summer Capital of the Philippines was back in the mid 1990s. Though Baguio back then was a far cry from the Baguio of my childhood days, it was not so bad. I hardly recognize the city now. It was so congested with people, cars, commercialism et al.

The old Session Road's topmost part has a humongous mall sitting on it. It was teeming with people that I thought I was in good old Manila or Makati. I had to make a quick trip to the mall since I needed an electric kettle to "sterilize" Tabby's bottle. The mall has all kinds of specialty stores. I could even buy a keyboard at guitar center if I wanted too!

What is sad is the fact that the once beautiful City of Pines has transformed into a crowded, polluted and highly commercialized city where the whiff of pine trees is no more. 

Baguio City Trip

Okay. It was an impulsive decision. There were so many things to consider and I purposely disregarded them for my want to take my two older grandkids to Baguio. I "blame" a close friend of mine for my unplanned trip to Baguio. She told me of this inexpensive place to stay off  Legarda and Kisad Roads and coupled with the fact that the temperature in Baguio City was hitting 11 degrees Centigrade... I just had to take Ethan and Tabby to the City of Pines.

Tabby in her "cold-weather" outfit taken at Cafe S'apore at Legarda St., Baguio City

Dr. Dre Beats Headphones

Who said you can only use a dr dre beats headphones if you are an a musician/composer? With today's technology, a headset is a "must have". You use on for listening to good music. You use one when quietly watching a movie on your tablet, in the middle of the night. You use one, plugged to your MP3 or mobile phone, as you go about with your daily tasks and chores. The bottom line is, we all need a particular type of good quality headset.

Vhong Navarro: Beaten Up! Cries Foul!

Just what is the truth behind the Vhong Navarro incident? Navarro's badly beaten-up face was plastered in all types of media including social networking sites, on Thursday, January 23, 2014.

A group of men, allegedly led by businessman Cedric Lee, beat the crap out of  Navarro. According to Vhong Navarro, a certain Deniece Millet Cornejo invited him over to a condo in BGC on Wednesday, January 22, only to be blindfolded and trashed by Lee and his cohorts. According to Navarro, the collusion was all about money as he pointed out that Cedric Lee was asking for 1 million pesos for an alleged "rape" video clip be kept private. Yup! Navarro said he was being framed for raping Deniece Millet Cornejo. and that for that news not to get public, he has to cough up moolah.

On the other hand, Cedric Lee said Navarro attempted to rape Ms Cornejo and that he interceded to abort  the dastardly act. Hmm.. I don't know. The "lines" of the two opposing parties are not clear. There are loopholes to contend with.  :Let's see what happens next.

New Amplifier Please!

 It was quite nerve wracking to hear and then "not hear" the PAW team as they sang praise songs at the church service this morning. Something was wrong with the amplifier. Loose wiring? Nope! More on broken amplifier that has been ready to "retire" two years ago! What to do? As part of the music ministry I should take the initiative to consider purchasing a mesa boogie amplifier, no less. I better see how much one costs before I make my recommendation.

Choosing an Area Rug

Choosing an area rug for a specific room seem to be easy IF you only have a handful of choices and IF you are choosing for one room only. But if you have more than 2,000 choices and about 10 rooms to choose an area rug for, then THAT is not easy. I have spent hours and hours and hours contemplating on what rug to choose. I have to think of the overall concept design of the house, the color scheme, the type of rug as it pertains to whether it's hand-woven or power-loomed; hand-tufted or hand-knotted; wool or polyester and so on. I saw these area rugs at Jaipur Rugs. Simply beautiful. Can't decide which one to buy.

From ZEN to Contemporary

The residential unit that I have designed and supervised is now almost 100% done. The owners have plans of moving this coming February and I am just so stressed to make the deadline. The house's style is contemporary but I started out with ZEN. However, the owners kept on asking me to do modifications that I finally decided to change my approach.

The house is big! About 600 square meters including a roof deck. It was a tough job supervising the construction as  there seem to be an unending task of conceptualizing the interior on all areas of the house. I employed several approaches in completing the house - and the systems seemed to have worked! I can't wait for this house to be completed.