break

i don’t really know what to write about. just taking a break from writing. recently, i got this writing job. i don’t know how i got that job when im not the writer that you may think of. im currently making an ebook about table tennis. gosh i miss playing that game. it’s been a year or two since i last played table tennis. i wonder when i’ll be able to finish this ebook. hopefully soon!

anyway, going back to work now. here’s a video of me warming up for the competition during the milo olympics last 2006. credits to silk yongco (a good friend of mine) for taking this video. unfortunately, the video’s not that clear and it’s black and white. it was captured using a cellphone camera only. enjoy!

-walsy

poffertjes

as i was browsing through my old eurotrip photos, i found these:

poffertjes

they’re called poffertjes… a traditional dutch cake which looks exactly like a pancake. its just that they are smaller. i guess they’re just the same. as you can see in the picture, it is served with powdered sugar and butter balls. here’s a picture of how it’s made:

its preparation

so cute aren’t they? tastes so good as well! i miss them! here’s another picture of a woman as she gets them ready to be packed: see the prices at the back? quite expensive huh, but all worth it! and now, i give you another photo:

my aunt jessica

tadaaaaa!!! that’s my aunt jessica or as i call her tita ika holding the poffertjes we bought. we had those at volendam. a tourist spot in the netherlands. known for its old fishing boats. it is also there where you can have your picture taken wearing their old traditional costume. i had mine there too! anyway, back to poffertjes… they’re not just served with powdered sugar and butter balls but may also be served with syrups, whipped cream, strawberries, etc. so if ever you’ll have a chance to visit the netherlands, make sure you try one!

here for now… watch out for the next post! cheers!

-walsy

back

hhhmmmmmm don’t really know where to start. the last time i wrote was friday midnight. i was uber busy over the weekend, i barely had time to check my email! we had last minute choir rehearsals saturday afternoon. i felt so guilty having been absent the past 2 practices so i really had to join the last one since we we’re having it the next day already. before that, we had halo2x with some family friends who were balikbayans from saudi arabia. then headed to choir practice afterwards. i badly needed coffee that time! i was super tired. anyway, choir was fine during practice (i guess). there were problems with the drama team though. i can feel the pressure tita doods was feeling that time. it was already quarter to 7 in the evening when we sang the finale song and ended a few minutes later. tiring yet excited as well. here’s a picture of us during our rehearsal:

last minute choir rehearsals

sunday finally came. i had my alarm set to 4am since i had to do my hair and my make-up. but due to severe exhaustion, i ended waking up at 5:30am. i kept snoozing my alarm! everything was a rush. hair. make-up. etc. our call time was at 7:30am but we left the house 7:45am. it was so embarrassing when they were all present already and about to do the sound check. they were just waiting for us. the cantata went well. thank you lord! here’s a picture of us, we’re not complete here though:

new life sounds choir

after cantata, i can’t believe how we managed to go out. we were all very tired. haha went to ayala. and surprised by the very big discounts on almost all boutiques. so i got myself a blouse from memo. it was super worth the price! we had bento for dinner and gelatissimo for dessert. another picture of us:

andrew, me, axel, tito roy

i sooo love my hair here! it was in a bun the whole day and came out like this when i removed the bun.

cutting it short now. cheers!

-walsy

maxine’s 18th

it’s 2:18 in the morning and i can’t believe i’m still here writing. my eyes are falling! i am trying to discipline myself to make it a point to write everyday.

i just got home like an hour ago. or maybe two. went to a family friend’s party. debut to be exact. loved her party’s theme. travel. she wishes to travel the whole world and i’m sure it won’t be impossible for her to do so since her mom’s a flight stewardess. isn’t that amazing?!

anyway, i will be cutting this post short for now. really very exhausted. here are two of the photos i got from tonight. will be posting a picture of the debutante tomorrow. for now, my face first. kidding!

with the garcia cousins

with tony rose and muscle

nice eh? cheers!

-walsy

running errands

today was a very busy day. let me start off with a little introduction so you may understand what this post will be all about.

on the 21st of may, my parental grandparents will be celebrating their golden year of being married. i am so honored to be their first grandchild. biologically. i get almost anything i want. well, not really. but most of the time. so back to the topic… since not all my dad’s siblings are around, i have been tasked with responsibilities that go way beyond my capacity. excluding financial stuff of course. such event will be very impossible if i were given the responsibility. invites, documentation (photo/video), AVP, program, and the cake. those are my assignments. at first i was like “sure, no problem. i’d gladly do it.” without even thinking if i was capable of doing those. but since it was for my grandparents, i didn’t bother to reject it. now i know behind the scenes are the most difficult part. i hope you agree with me! i can totally attest to that. i can’t wait for next month. the whole month of may will really be a blast! all of us(dad’s side) will be complete again. the last time we were complete was when i had my debut 3 years ago. not that there’s a whole bunch of us that we find it difficult to gather ourselves together. we’re only 14 all in all! up to the third generation. my dad’s youngest sister (jessica) is in new zealand. second (miriam) is just around. third (lynn) is around but goes back and forth to amsterdam since her husband is based there so it’s pretty difficult for us to be complete.

now we go to my responsibilities… here are what i have finished: cake, program, AVP. i lack 2 more. the invites and documentation. actually, the invites were finished like 2 weeks ago after months of brainstorming on what or how it should look like. however, due to some here and there comments, i had to change it. not just once, but lots of times. and when i say lots, it means lots. finally last monday, it was finished. however when i had it printed, the owner of the shop where i had it printed who was also a family friend, suggested for it to be colored. i couldn’t change it right there and then since i used photoshop in making the invite and saved it directly to a jpeg image which was also my bad. if only i saved a .psd file of it, i could’ve just changed the color right away. but no, i had to do the whole invite all over again, for the nth time! we had no choice but to head back home since there was nothing more we could do that afternoon. thank god it was quick for me to finish the colored one.

so today, i woke up kinda late. after lunch, my brother axel and i headed to copytrade where i had the invites printed. it all came out nice and looked like i had it made somewhere else. BIAS! haha after the printing, we went straight to familia house to get the best ribbon to match the invite. but before that, we passed by pacifica agrivet to get our super spoiled cat, mingkay, her whiskas. she may be one ordinary cat, but she’s treated more than how you treat the most expensive cat ever. lol

now arriving in familia, i was shocked by how crowded the place was. although they had priority numbers, it didn’t seem like they had one. thank god our number wasn’t that far. woooooh! i feel so sorry for the woman who accomodated us. it took us so much time to decide on which ribbon to get. she had to climb up here and there in order for us to see if the ribbon had matched the invite. after 30 minutes or so, we have finally put the searching to an end. yes, the ribbon did match the invite. im glad we found what we were looking for. well, not exactly. but the nearest though! i was also surprised to see our pop jazz choreographer back in my freshman year. he didn’t change at all. reason why i noticed him quickly. and oh, here’s a picture of the invite:

for documentation, i am still in the process of deciding which between two of my friends will i be hiring. both are good however, they both differ with the inclusions of their packages. lord, help me decide.

despite the heat, we headed next to this electrical shop to get what my dad asked us to buy. since we were in the downtown area, we decided to drop by gaisano metro colon (cebu’s times square as to how my brother calls it) to have ourselves cooled for a moment. i could barely remember when i last went to that place. i think it was some 2-3 years ago. they were on sale and i was so surprised at how memo had their prices drop so low that you can get a pair of jeans for only P300. anyway, after an hour in metro, we headed to my grandma’s store (since we we’re already in the area) to eat and get a ride home with them.

so that was my super busy day. really a narration. i’ll be cutting this short now. i hope you enjoyed reading. watch out for the next post. cheers!

-walsy

repost

original post written by Salome Oro. this is just a repost.

here it goes…

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PHILIPPINES: LAND THAT I LOVE

When I look at my own beloved country i have mixed emotions. I look at the wealth of natural resources and natural beauty and I gasp in wonder and awe, speechless at the creation of God: the beautiful smiles, the sun gold skin, the welcoming faces of islanders just waiting to please and to serve. But, on the other hand, my heart is filled with grief at how beneath the thick veneer of smiles and hospitality, there lies within a ‘wounded soul’. the soul of the Filipino has had to endure much pain, much conflicting emotions, much shame and rejection. And for most filipinos or for most ‘masa’ or the general public, in order to survive the beatings of the soul, they resort to putting on some ‘bandages’ just to cover up the real issues of the heart, which are many.
here are several common ‘bandages’ that i have observed some filipinos put on:

FUN – fun has become a national sickness. fun has replaced ‘seriousness’ or the ability to determine what is important and what is trivial. in the name of fun, we as a people, would like to mask our pain with parties, fiestas, beach outings and the perennial ‘hanging out’ syndrome. We value fun above morality, transparency and work. Some of us are always looking for the number of holidays we can take and we are excellent on fun more than we are on work.

JOKE, JOKE, JOKE – you know when a filipino is around because whatever is the situation we can always think of a joke to make it funny. no matter how serious the situation may be, we resort to laughing at everything under the heat of the sun even if it means ‘embarassment’ for the one who has to take the brunt of the joke. we make joke of national disasters, we make heroes of those who know how to make jokes even when it’s beyond acceptable, even when a person, a topic or a situation, or what have you, should be treated delicately and with much respect.

TITLE CONSCIOUS – some if not most filipinos are so title conscious; wouldn’t matter if you’re practising what the diplomas claim, diplomas which hang on the walls of the home. we have ‘engineers’ who never built anything, we have ‘doctors’ who never healed anyone, we have ‘accountants’ who’ve never balanced a check book, we have nurses who don’t like the sick, we have ‘business graduates’ who never went into business and gained profit.

‘GET IT NOW, PAY IT LATER OR NEVER’. – just by observation I see how the kids are given what they want even if it’s beyond reason, beyond budget or beyond reach. we are raising up children who hates to work, and loves to play. children who can’t even fix their own beds, nor clean their own rooms; children who wants the latest gadgets but won’t take care of them.

I remember what my mom, who is now 93 years of age, shared to me about her hard working parents. they labored and they did it with dignity just to raise 11 children. my lolo or grandpa was an entrepreneur who gave business to farmers and gave them ample time to pay back their debts to him. he gave people dignity. he didn’t look down on the ‘uneducated’ masa but instead allowed them to rise up and be a fruitful person in society.

Where are the fathers of our nation? where are those who will encourage ‘hard work’, moral integrity, and productivity in labor? my mother’s hero is her father. she saw his heart and his dream and she herself dreamt big. She finished education and law and she worked hard just to send her 7 children to school in the best universities of our choice. my father who was also a lawyer, died when I was twelve but i saw and remember him as a man who took care of his wife and his children very well. When he died my mom was left to fend for us in all areas of life. she would rather walk home than let the monthly allowances of my siblings studying in Manila arrive late. She is a real life heroine. So when i hear of mothers selling their own children to make money that rends my heart.

Where has our dignity as a nation gone to? Why does it not bother our law makers enough to implement justice and to alleviate poverty? Why are we always out to impress outwardly with grand productions but yet, when we cruise along the streets we see people sleeping on cardboards in sidewalks, we see children roaming the streets hungry, some taking rugby to alleviate hunger, some abused sexually and are numbed to the core.

Philippines, you are made for greatness. Filipinos, wake up. Leaders, be the fathers of our nation. lead us to greatness and do not waste our natural and human resources by having a ‘What’s in it for me’ mentality.
As President Kennedy once said, DO NOT THINK ‘WHAT CAN MY COUNTRY DO FOR ME?’ INSTEAD… FILIPINO LEADERS PLEASE SAY: WHAT CAN I DO FOR MY COUNTRY?

To all the unsung heroes of our nation: the ‘cargadors’ in the pier who are ekking it out just to provide for their families, the employees who are giving excellent work but never gets paid enough, the mothers and fathers who are teaching their children right moral standards and the value of hard work, I SALUTE YOU! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK FOR IN DUE SEASON, YOUR FRUITS WILL MAKE WAY FOR A GREAT PHILIPPINES. GOD BLESS YOU!

-> just one of the wonderful beaches in the Phils.

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i hope this touches you too…

-walsy

#1

hey y’all!

starting today, this is where i will be posting my thoughts, daily activities, etc. enjoy reading and watch out for more. cheers!