The Morning of Tuesday

8:00 AM, Immigration Office

Told to meet the office's personnel at 8 in the morning for visa processing and exactly eight I was there.  Mind you, I thought it was raining outside as when I arrived the building, I was very wet.  But digressing.

The person in charge from our office was there at 6:45 in the morning to line up but we were already like fifteen people behind the first applicant.  So I am guessing that the early birds came when I was still dreaming of ice cream back in my bedroom.

When I got Number 2 for queueing, I was ecstatic, as I am the second but my luck dissipated when passports upon passports were filed to oblivion as the deputy in-charge wasn't even there to sign the papers.  A match could actually burn the passports like a bonfire because of its sheer height.

There was a man pleading his case to the officer to let him do his business as he was wearing a tank top and shorts, add to that image a pair of rubber slippers. Do you ever think that doing business in Thailand is like visiting the beach at noon?  Nah, we also have what you call dress code, either very long or very short, he,he,he.

Later, it was mayhem, queque machines, all three, broken.

There were plenty of foreign people waiting patiently, for their turn to be called. Number 32, 33, 34!  Which sounds like numb-err tertee to, tertee tee, ther tee for! As even the automated number announcement machines were busted.

So we were given pieces of paper with a felt tip marked number on it, 35, sit down. 36, sit down. 37, sit down.  There were no more seats so saying sit down is pointless.  The hall is filled to the rafters, whatever it means!

I have to run to do some bathroom duties as I was afraid my name will be called.  In my haste, I entered the women's bathroom. Luckily I didn't see any 'pekpek'.  I was just reminded by the bathroom attendant that, 'this is girl toilet, not boy!'  I looked at her and apologized.  I could have retorted, how can you be so sure?  I even thought that this is it pansit, I will be deported because of loitering in the women's loo.

Anyway, I was called later and after all the other 'need to show your face' thingies, I had coffee and some donuts for my late morning snack.

And in the midst of all these madness, I was being courageous.  I opened my love and admiration to MY special someone.  And at 9:42 that morning, I became a new me, a happy me!

Shy

I used to gather grass nearby our old house to feed the rabbits I had as pets. There was always an occasion for me to spot certain interesting things in my daily harvest. One of which is a plant called Mimosa Pudica or Sensitive Plant wherein the discovery of it closing by merely touching it fascinated me boundless at a very young age.

I am a very shy person since I was a little lad. I simply make excuses when asked to attend any social gatherings including our own.  I feigned illness during weekends when there was a scheduled visit to my relatives' home. I am socially challenged and I dreaded family get-together with aunts, uncles and cousins.  Though I love to see my grandparents, it was the ensuing conversation and questioning that pulverized me to a pulp.  I just do not have the temerity to answer back, always lost for words or afraid of judgmental remarks.  I was diffident, I shut myself off like a Sensitive Plant.

But time is healing me, making me open up to more safe situations.  I am anxious of big parties but I thrive in small ones.  I can even be the funny man or the source of joyful encounters.  I have plenty of stories to share and an exuberance to match.  This is within a smaller group though, like two or three.  

One day, the Mimosa Pudica in me will open and will never shut again.  It is in this state that I wanted to be known, or commended so I can be the change I wanted to be. 

Trip to Wang Khaem and Nai Mueang

A group of friends invited me to visit their hometown in Kamphaengphet for the Songkran holidays (Thai New Year) and although the weather forecast was at 43 degrees, it was still a pleasant trip to see the view of the bucolic place as well as to enjoy their camaraderie. 

After touring the place, which was not that big, I opted to stay inside the air-conditioned room as the heat was unbearable.  I was busy being happy, not in a way you are thinking.  ;)

Beef? Sir

I never like airplane rides and I can list the many reasons why.  As a solo traveler, I am always relegated either at the end of the plane for seating arrangement or in the middle.  I would always ask for an aisle seat but still gets the last rows.

I did booked seats on line and have some opportunities to be seated near the middle part of the plane. Anyway, food is served not from the back but from certain seat numbers.  For the last five flights I had this year, I usually get nothing of a choice for food.  The flight attendants would apologize with a smile telling me there is no longer a choice, it's FISH we will be serving you.

I eat fish, but I don't like the smell of fish on board. I feel like throwing up. My nose is sensitive to certain smell while I am traveling. So when my fellow humans started opening the flap of their food, I am already busy stuffing my nose with an inhaler.  Quick, whip, sniff!

Then during my last flight I was already hearing the attendants to the passengers, 'We have beef or fish for lunch.'  OMG, here comes the food and since I am seated in the middle, I will get beef. I WILL GET BEEF!

Just one row before me, I can hear the attendant saying, 'Sorry, we have no more beef, we have fish.'  Shut the front door, I am going berseck.  

Just one row, one row of two more people. Goodness gracious, how unlucky I am of flights.  I better get out of here. Oh, it's a plane so I stayed calm.

Then the most handsome person in the world came with a tray of food of which the plate is covered with gold foil. Beef! Beef! I mean the food, not the man! He stopped in front of me. (Not really in front as there was a seat.)  LOL!

With a smile and those beautiful dreamy eyes, he said the most amazing words I have ever heard, 
'Would you like my beef, sir?" 
Oh sorry my friends, he meant, 
"Would you like beef, sir? " 
I gave him a smile rather than a jubilant jump for joy, which I cannot do because I am strapped by a seatbelt.

Slowly, I unwrapped the cover of the food tray and it was a miracle.  I have beef and I ate them all. I offered the other things to my fellow passenger/seatmate but she refused.  Then the ice cream came for dessert.  I peeled the cover and when I jabbed the wooden spoon in the ice cream, I couldn't dig in.  It was harder than plastic. My knight in shining armour came to the rescue and said, 
'It's really hard now, can you wait for it to melt a bit.'

Ha,ha,ha, duh to the 100th power. But all things end well with help from this wonderful young man, the man who gave me the last beef on flight PR 730. 

A Short Visit to Manila

It was a two days visit in Manila.  I got to run some errands and then walked along Intramuros, to see some historic sights.  The next day, I went shopping for furnitures and had lunch with my best buddies.  My Google+ made this video, which I uploaded on youtube.  It's really something!

Spring Growth

With the recent ongoings both personal and professional, the garden stood at a standstill as I bask in gloomy thoughts in the house.  Sundays, which are my days of wonder and commune with nature, became dark clouds in the beginning of spring.

While sweeping the lawn had been assigned to as part of my evening chores, it had not been oblivious to me that the climber at the back of the house is breaking loose.  I knew that the branches and smaller limbs caresses me every night, as if tickling me to bring me to joy.  It was always dismissed as something nuisance rather than a friendly tap.

So one Sunday, I decided to break out of my tedious schedule and walked to the back of the house for an inspection.  Lo and behold Mother's nature grand welcome, a sprawling brood of leaves and vines.

It was welcoming as the colour shows vibrancy giving the garden a festive mood.  However, it is also the perennial love of bugs and caterpillars so the itchiness part could give my allergy a boost.  So what to do? 

I let it grow and will do so until the rain comes.  I am just wary of the harm it could do to my other plants.  I will, time permitting, trim those curly vines and luscious leaves so as to let sunshine passed trough the lower vegetation.  

When life is messy, we do no just wallow in a corner and mope.  We must do something with it.  As I am not in my greatest mood, there are now some great things happening in my personal being that simply cannot be dismissed.  I get to smile a bit, hope a bit, and feel better.  It is making me joyful.  For now, like the climber, I will let it grow.

Visiting the Manila Cathedral

I was free after my morning errands so I decided to visit Intramuros. I was in Manila for two purposes of which I was able to accomplish in less than a day.  This gave me an opportunity to go back to my roots spiritually, as I visited the Manila Cathedral.  

The doors are important as my mum would always knock for good luck and most of our family pics were taken in front of these massive structure. 

Aside from my brother's wedding where we walked along the aisle as his best men, it was also reminiscent of my weekly queueing to receive the Holy Communion.  This was also where I attended numerous functions, and even met a high school friend who is now a heart surgeon.

It gave me joy to reminisce my first time to sing in a choir for the death anniversary of Monsignor Escriva as a member of Opus Dei.  The songs were all in Latin, a language I took way back in the university. 

It was a day of delight, a time of renewal, and a chance to reminisce.  It was a very rewarding day!

Intramuros on a Lazy Monday Afternoon

Google+ did the short clip about my lazy afternoon in Intramuros.

This is a preview as I will be making a longer clip and some writings to match.

Enjoy! 

Celebrate Beginnings with Endings

A number of bloggers has been posting the great beauty of the wildlife, of visited places, or the joys of existence.  Allow me to share, albeit saddening and disturbing for one, the wonders of nature in a different light or darkness, as I celebrate beginnings with endings. 

A walk in my garden, April, 2016...

I found it dead, maybe from the sheer heat of the weather, or a vicious attack by the stray cat that loiters my garden on a lazy afternoon.  Thought to myself that life is a cycle.  That the unknowing dangers of our everyday existence are bound to surprise us anytime or any day of our lives.

The great flowering tree that gave me joy throughout the years with its full bloom of reds and whites. Nestled at corner of the main door, the towering palm filtered the rays of light oblivious to its growth thus stunted it and eventually succumbed to lost.  Without knowledge, our minds become an empty vessel with no purpose.  We may be alive, but never engaging.

In its beauty, the red flower captured the essence of its existence but the lost of its centre piece gave this protruding branch a sense of lifelessness.  Never let people take the only sunshine you have in life. Once lost, it is difficult to regain it back. 

With the vast growth of this climber, the leaves underneath started to dry up and while new growth were seen, the undergrowth was losing its life. Our facade is something important but a great look does not mean a great spirit nor a soul that is enriched with spirituality.  

Although growing at a sporadic phase what with just cutting and planting, the dry weather and its easily drained soil does not make this plant as healthy as it was in partial shade.  Over exposure does not give us merit but leaves us monotonous in our action, speech and creativity. 

This pleasing beauty with its tiny petals of white declares simplicity in pattern but complexity in structure.  With the passing of days, those little flowers whither and fall, making the prominent stalk lackluster.  We cannot control aging as we will grow old and older, but we can make the best of what we have, in the now.

Rain-like drooping flowers of elegance that bespoke of perfumed scent deliver a long lasting stance in the garden.  But like all good things, there is an end. Losing hope does not go with the browning like farewells, as, in comes new ones, of hope and encouragement.

A series of leaves in one fine stalk does not mean they will all wither at the same time.  The slender leaves will submit to dryness, one by one, standing strong until the whole stalk falls from its mother trunk.  We all need to grow, with our education and upbringing, making ourselves mature in responsibility, determination and dream.  To take flight, one day, from our comfort zone. 

Getting to Know You 10

These conversations were between me and my students aged four and five except for the last one who is only three years of age. This is the tenth of a series. 


Teaching the children how to hold the dragon up for the dragon dance. 

Me:  You need to put your hands up because you will need to put something on your head. 
Student: I know, a brain! 
Me: I said, on, not in.
Student: Then it's hair!
Me: No!

depositphotos.com

Asking the children the illustrations they made.

Me: How come the sun have eyes and a mouth but the clouds do not?
Student: The clouds are blind.
Me: How did they become blind?
Student: God gave them pencils and they poked each other's eyes.

pinterest.com

Seeing two girls clasping their hands in prayer.

Me: What are you doing girls?
Girls: We are praying.
Me: What are you praying for?
Girls: The tree is dying, we are praying for it to be healthy again.

freecoloringpages.co.uk

Asking a child to sit down while working.

Me: Please sit down.  You do not look like you are working.
Student: Do I look like I am taking a bath?
Me (thinking): "Sarcasm at its finest!"

vecto.rs

Drawing pictures of animals.

Me: Could you please tell me something about your picture?
Student: I am drawing a bull. 
Me: Oh, that's a male cow. Do you know what we call a female cow? 
Student: Yes, a cowgirl. 

mycutegraphics.com

Asking a child the whereabouts of someone.

Me: Was Uncle in your house before you came here?
Student: No, she is in Auntie's house.
Me: How did you know?
Student: I saw it, I am not blind! 

123rf.com

Making funny faces to de-stress in class.

Student: Oh my God, that's disgusting! 

Asking individual students to read with me.

Me: B, it's time for reading.
Student: (whistling loudly)
Me: Could you please stop whistling.
Student: chu-chee-beep-bop. (started beat boxing)
Me: Save me Lord!

cadeh.com

Playing with Playmobile figures.

Me:  So what do we play today?
Student: We can put this person inside the cup and cover him up.
Me: Why are you doing that?
Student:  I am going to cremate him.
Me: Wow! ( as the boy is only 3 years old)