Category Archives: Philippines

Bargain Bags

Sunday was spent fussing on a new dog, getting early Christmas gifts, lunching on grilled burgers and getting groceries and the clothes from the laundry shop. In between that, we found a place that sells bargain bags.

Blazing Products bags to be exact. The bags and other sports equipments being sold are old stocks. Some are good as new and look clean. The others need some cleaning up before being used.

There were also binoculars, flashlights, tent, rain gears and other camping and sports products to choose from. Hubby saw a compass and got interested. I wonder if they also sell talking watches.

We got a padded camera bag for me and a small sling bag for my son.

Below is a photo of some of the products being sold there:

That empty spot on the top shelf was where I got my padded camera bag from. The price? PhP400.00 or roughly below $9.

By the way, one can have a laptop bag made-to-order from them.

The Nights are Getting Longer and Colder

November has just started but we are experiencing unusually cool weather here in our otherwise hot and humid country.

Rains have been coming for the past several weeks. The seedlings we have planted have been benefiting from these although elsewhere these rains meant bad news.

The days are getting shorter because the afternoons are getting darker earlier than usual.

It is quite difficult to wake up at the usual hour, which is 5:00am because it is still dark and chilly. Sleep seems to call upon people to stay in bed longer.

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Maalaala Mo Kaya?

“Maalaala mo kaya…? so goes a soulful song, asking the listener to look back and reflect on the promises of love that were made.

“Maalaala mo kaya, ang sumpa mo sa akin, na ang pag-ibig mo ay sadyang di magmamaliw…” Ayan, awit mula sa puso, para sa isang puso, tila ba naninisi, nagpapaalala kaya dapat hindi sumusumpa ng pangako eh 😀

My photo for this week’s theme would not be about love nor about family matters because not only are these personal topics but about the nation’s history.

Ang aking larawan ay hindi tungkol sa aking pag-ibig o pamilya dahil mga personal itong usapin. Ang aking entry ay tungkol sa kasaysayan ng ating lahi.

It is funny to see people answering questions about the country’s history with wrong information. Sure, as time passes by and we become busy and preoccupied with so many things, we forget about history facts and trivia.

Nakakatawa kung minsan panoodin sa TV ang mga tinatanong tungkol sa kasaysayan natin kasi mali-mali ang sagot nila. (nangyayari ito kapag me mga selebrasyon o holiday ang ating bansa) Hindi natin sila masisisi dahil sa pagdaan ng panahon, sa dami ng dapat asikasuhin at gawin, nakakalimutan na ang tungkol sa kasaysayan ng bansa.

But for us to grow not just individually but grow as a nation, we should at least have a clear understanding of how our nation was before and what it has to go through to be what it is today. Never mind if we do not particularly like what is happening.

Pero para sa ating paglago hindi lamang bilang mamamayan kundi bilang isang bansa, dapat me alamtayo sa pinagdaanan ng atng bansa, sa kasaysayan nito na siya namang naging  daan kung ano ito ngayon.Kahit pa nga ba hindi tayo sang-ayon sa naging kinalabasan nito sa panahong kasalukuyan.

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Todos los Santos

Todos los Santos is known in English as All Saints Day. In Filipino this is called Undas.

This is a day when the saints are being remembered. This is mostly a Catholic celebration because other religious denominations do not have saints.

Saturday 6pm we attended the anticipated mass. Then we had dinner here. The priest specifically stressed that the misalette in the pews’ boxes are not to be used for these are prepared for the All Souls Day which is an entirely different celebration.

This is usually the day that the people flock to the cemeteries to visit their relatives who have crossed over (although November 2 or All Souls day would have been more appropriate). This is also a day when scary stories abound in households and/or gathering. This is also a day when people who can’t physically go to their dearly departed’s physical resting place, light candles in their homes.

Did you light a candle and say a prayer for your loved ones?

Remembering

As we cap the celebration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day, the Weekly Question will focus on our departed loved ones. No, I am not asking you to play favorites with the question.

Who among your dearly departed hold(s) a special place in your heart?

My Answer:

I can not really say who among my dearly departed relatives hold a special place in my heart. Both my paternal and maternal grandparents are not with us anymore. I have only seen one, among all four of them, when they died. I miss them all.

My paternal grandfather, Dada used to be active in church activities that some of our relatives thought he must have missed his calling and would often tease him as “Father Porong”.

My maternal grandmother had magic touch in the kitchen. She can cook meals that one would never forget. It just that we didn’t live with them so I was not able to study how she did these things. In fact, I think nobody in the family got her special culinary talent. Except maybe my father who is now not fond of cooking anymore.

My maternal grandfather was a very hardworking man. He would wake up at the crack of dawn and go to work in the field. After lunch, he would sit on the hammock hanging below the house. He would then go back to the field with his cart, pulled by a carabao filled by root crops and vegetables.

My maternal grandmother stayed in the house and did housework. She would sometimes get herself busy playing solitaire or one would find her sitting on her rocking chair by the window facing the direction where my grandfather would walk from the field.

I miss my grandparents. I really wished I was able to stay with them more, especially my maternal grandparents. Now I know why my mother permitted me then to travel to their place by myself when I was as young as 12 years old, to be with them. To enjoy fun times with them, to learn from them, to spend time with them. Because I was young then, I enjoyed playing with my cousins rather than spending time with them.

Alas, we can’t turn back the clock and do things that we would have wanted to do with them.

To avoid regretting not doing these things, perhaps it is time to change how we treat our loved ones by spending more time with them and keeping them closer to our heart, before time runs out.