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Mom

May 092011

Candy. Barbie dolls. Braces. An old tee. Shoes. My favorite pair of baston slacks. These are all things that I eventually outgrew. But one thing I will never outgrow in my life is having my mom around.

I have been blessed to have my mom constantly there for me since day one. She swam through a flood to fetch me from school. She cooked a week’s worth of ulam every weekend so that I could have a home-cooked meal even though I was holed up in the dorm. She called me every night to ask how I was doing and how college life was treating me. All these, she did while taking on a fulltime, hectic job as a government employee.

She dreamt big for me when I was still too little to realize what a world of opportunities there is out there-doing ballet, going to a challenging school, trying for that seemingly unattainable job. For each dream I ran after, she supported me- from the time I had to commute to and from school to the time I had to commute to and from the Philippines for a job abroad, she was there. And when I cry out and complain about the disappointments that come with being an adult in an imperfect world, she props me up and reassures me that God has bigger plans.

Yes, my mom is in the big moments of my life. But she is also there in the lighter, smaller moments-shopping partner, chick-flick date, travel companion, tsismax accomplice, ka-FB and Angry Birds competitor.

And she is all these things not just for me…but for my sister as well!

Happy mother’s day mom.

Thank you for the gift of life and love.

Embarking on a Misadventure-How not to lose your mind after losing your embarkation card

Family, Travel No Responses »

Nov 292010

I would like to consider myself to be a savvy international traveler. I have the whole routine down pat. From bringing all the necessary documents (passport, visa, print out of electronic tickets-and photocopies of each), packing the essentials to fit into a small-sized luggage, to picking out a day bag that allows me to compartmentalize my things and secure my documents, I have got it down to a science. Just the same, I am still very much human…and so I continue to learn from my mistakes.

On a recent visit to Singapore, I had inadvertently misplaced my embarkation card…I realized this just as I was leaving for the airport to catch my flight back home.

What on earth is an embarkation card, you may wonder. Well, different countries would have different methods to track the movement of tourists in and out of their area of jurisdiction. Disembarkation and embarkation cards that are linked to a single serial number would be one way to do this. The disembarkation card, also known as an arrival card, is the form that a foreigner accomplishes when he arrives the host country-this card would contain information such as the name, nationality, passport number, country of origin, date of arrival and local address of the foreigner. The embarkation or departure card, on the other hand, is the card that the foreigner surrenders on leaving the host country-this would contain similar information as the disembarkation card except that details regarding the date of departure and destination country would be reported instead of the date of arrival and the local address.

There I was, hours away from my flight back home, missing a legal document: my embarkation card. I panicked but decided to still make my way to the airport without the card (I really didn’t want to miss my flight. I figured, the earlier I get to the airport, the sooner I can talk to the immigration officer). I had the phone number of the establishment where I last took out my passport, and may have dropped the card, so I tried to call them-no dice. I tried calling my airline but, as expected, they couldn’t offer much help.

My husband and I debated what would happen to those who lose their embarkation cards. We spoke of body searches and interrogations, half-jokingly. Surely, I wasn’t the first idiot to lose such a small card that is just inserted (not stapled) into a passport. Besides, we were about to leave the country, what danger could we pose? Continue reading »

Applying for an Electronic Passport

Family, Travel No Responses »

Aug 092010

Our family counts travel as one of the few activities that we still do as a family now that we kids are all grown-up. As far as travel goes, nothing seems to get us as excited as going to Europe so it came as no surprise that we started planning for yet another trip to Europe this year.

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Now retired, my father spends considerably more time listening to the news and surfing the internet. One of the tidbits he picked up from his various sources of information was that an electronic passport (e-passport) was now required for Filipinos to travel to Europe. Diligent travelers that we are, we immediately went through the motions of getting an e-passport, even though our old green passports were still valid, without bothering to confirm if this piece of information was true…big mistake as I later found out (but that’s another post entirely).

I went online to check out the procedure for applying for an electronic passport (also known as a machine-readable passport or a biometric passport). The DFA website provided straight forward information as to the requirements for electronic passport application http://dfa.gov.ph/main/index.php/consular-services/passport . The website also required that we fill up and submit information regarding each of the applicants online to secure an appointment. We were shocked at how long the waiting time was…we applied for an appointment in the first week of June and were given an appointment for the early September. Luckily, my parents, both of whom are senior citizens, and myself found a way to get an earlier appointment through the courtesy lane. Continue reading »

A Thing of Beauty

Family, Shop No Responses »

Jul 112009

“A thing of beauty, no matter how fleeting, brings with it a measure of joy.”

I draw this quote from memory…I therefore beg the pardon of the author of the said quote if my memory isn’t as accurate as I would like it to be. But as I read this beautifully simple quote, I couldn’t help but subconsciously nod in agreement. It is a universal truth: people are wired to enjoy beauty.

Proof of this truth is all around us. I, for one, need not look any further than my daily routine of dressing up for work. A pretty blouse, stand out accessories and the right pair of shoes never fail to tickle me pink …never mind that the fuzzy feeling falls away as soon as I hit a patch of traffic.

Recently, the thing that strummed at my heartstrings was this lovely little fellow….

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Ain’t she a beauty? My mom brought her in from the province.

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Mom, how does your garden grow?

Family No Responses »

May 292009

I’ve always been in awe of people who discover what their true passion is. It’s amazing how fatigue can be held at bay when people are doing the things they love doing…be it shopping, painting, writing or gardening. As my sister says, “whatever floats your boat.”

In my mom’s case, “floating her boat” involves a lot of garden soil, fertilizers and plants. Ever since I could remember, my mom has always been fond of planting. Her choice of plants may have changed over the years-from roses, orchids and anthuriums to cacti and now, produce, but the itch to touch dirt has stayed with her.

From this...

Quite a number of my childhood memories were built around the plants that my mother nurtured…the macopa tree that she planted in a vain attempt to stop me from picking fruits from our neighbor’s tree (She missed the point. It was the thrill of competing with the other neighborhood kids that I wanted. The number of macopas I got to bring home was incidental and entirely irrelevant.), the roses and orchids that were plucked from our garden just minutes before I left for the church to attend flores de mayo and the kaimito tree that yielded the fruits that my cousin and I hawked at what was then an outrageous price of two pesos per piece. When I was in that stage where I had to do everything that the grown-ups did, I was allowed to have my own mini garden complete with mini roses and corn plants (seeds supplied by my dad whose work at that time involved working with a lot of agricultural products).

I also had a chance to dip my hands into the less glamorous side of gardening. Back then, my family was living in the province, where there was a wealth of “natural fertilizer” supplied by the cows and carabaos who grazed near our house. I spent many summer days walking around with my cousins, picking up the dried up “cakes” that our bovine friends left so that mom could fertilize her roses. Who would have thought that such fragrant flowers would thrive from such stinky mulch?

Mom continued to nurture her love for planting even after we moved to the big city. Now that she’s retired, she slips on her crocs most mornings so that she could tinker in her garden, sweaty brows, nguso and all. Now that her plants are mostly produce, we are literally able to taste the fruits of mom’s labors. “Harvest yan, tikman niyo”, she often says. Dutiful me then wolfs down the chubby piece of latundan sitting on the table…even though I don’t like eating bananas. For the most part, her garden has yielded many delightful treats-kamote tops, lettuce, alugbati , eggplants, ampalaya, malunggay, calamansi, jackfruit, guavas (never mind that the worms got to them before we did), bananas and rambutan.

I’ve documented quite a number of mom’s babies over the years…enjoy!