The Road not Taken

As early as January, my batch mates in Corpus Christi School have been regularly sending invites and teasers for our 15th High School Reunion in December this year. I can’t believe that it has been 15 years already. I hope I can attend this reunion as I was unable to attend our 10th reunion for reasons I just could not remember. Also constant updates and communication among batch mates have been regular as of late due to Joey Castil’s recent bout with lung cancer. I’m so happy though that he won the fight for Round 1. Here’s hoping he’ll continue to grow stronger with each passing day. As I’m feeling nostalgic of late, it can’t be avoided that I remembered my most favorite poem. Special credits go to Sir Ralph Cecilio who made every Corpus Christian who crossed his path know this poem by heart….Rest in peace Sir Ralph….

 

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

photo credit:  http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5oI9aC5WG14/SlfxcbV5CsI/AAAAAAAAA5M/_db0LFU6JCQ/s1600-h/forest.jpg

 

What I Miss About Home

My kids have always been and always will be my strongest bond to CDO. There is never a time or a moment that I do not miss them. But aside from that, there are certain things I miss about home. Life for the past month has been pretty lonely for me. I’m just at the house 90% of the time. I only go out when I have to go to certain offices to pass applications, go to church or to malls to buy something. SG’s style of online application can get pretty frustrating at times because I was never great with the waiting part. Patience is a virtue that I never had. I want to just go the offices and do walk-in applications but only blue collared jobs have walk-ins. Plus I do not like the fact that certain companies and offices are discriminating towards hiring foreigners. Urggghhhh…..coming here in mid January was really wrong timing as they have just started their hiring process after Chinese New Year. SO basically, I’ve been here for a month doing nothing and receiving nothing save for the fact that I got the two job offers that I could not accept.

I’ve always been independent but as I grow older, I have become more and more homesick. I truly miss the comforts of home. I’ve listed below the things I have truly missed:

1. Food- they say only Filipinos love Filipino food but I don’t care. I love it. In the house though we cook Filipino food but even though we are using seasonings brought from Filipino store, the taste is not just the same. It’s probably because the rest of the ingredients are not from home. Plus majority of my house mates are Seventh Day Adventists so pork is off limits here. And I’m a pork eater. Lechon, crispy pata, lechon kawali, sinugbang baboy, patatim are just some of my favorites. That means I have a pork less diet for about a month save for a time or two when I had roasted pork at Lucky Plaza and it’s not just the same. I also miss the crabs and the shrimps and the squid. Also the shawarma from Oro Shawarma and the tempura, squid balls and fish balls you can buy near Xavier University. Hmmmmm…what else? The Margherita pizza from Figola’s in Cebu. The manggang hilaw with bagoong that you can buy almost everywhere, the cheap but the sweetest fruits in CDO like the lanzones (actually it’s really from Camiguin), rambutan, siniguelas, and mangosteen. The best tasting banana que that can be bought for P8 or P10 opposite Trinidad Building and the siomai sa Tisa. Ahhhh food…..just thinking about it has my stomach grumbling. hehehe.

photo credit: http://www.lovelyphilippines.com/recipes/pork-and-beef-recipes/filipino-lechon-recipe-or-roasted-pig-ham-or-pork-recipe/

2. Night outs with friends- I do have friends here in SG but they are so busy with their own separate lives that going on night outs has not yet materialized. In Cebu, it’s an SOP that weekends are spent with friends and having a blast with some Mojitos or Tanduay. I miss my favorite hang out places in Cebu like Tonyo’s, where I am a regular customer who’s on a first name basis with most of the waiters, Zux and even Formo. Night life in CDO is not as lively as Cebu but in the rare occasion that I am meeting friends in CDO, it’s almost always in Rosario Arcade and it’s strings of restos and bars.

photo credit: http://www.metro.com.ph/christmas/baskets5″>

3. My favorite restaurants- this is actually in connection to number 1 but I really do miss eating at Panagatan and Tabing Dagat with my family. They always been our restaurants of choice for special occasions. For weekends in CDO, there is always the night cafe which also gives me an excuse to browse and shop for bags and other ukay2x. hehehe. For Cebu, Larsian is our default choice though more special occasions are spent in Ocean Garden, AA’s or Chikaan.

photo credit:http://philippinephototravel.blogspot.com/2010/11/panagatan-sea-side-restaurant-opol.html

4. Booksale- Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I’m a voracious reader and would really spend money to buy books. That’s why Booksale has always been a haven for me as I can buy books from my favorite authors at super low prices. I have yet to find a bookstore here in SG that sells pocketbooks on sale and their regular priced books are ridiculously expensive for a jobless person like me. I miss reading of course. My brother has several books but they’re of a genre not to my liking. hehehe, sorry Stephen King. I’m more of the Jackie Collins and Nora Roberts kind of girl. I can go their library and read to my heart’s content but the nearest library is a bus ride away and I’m too lazy to get out of the house just to go to the library. I’m reading Breaking Dawn on iBooks though but I miss turning pages of an actual book.

photo credit: http://neolle.wordpress.com/

So there you have it. SG is very nice but I miss even the traffic and the pollution associated with the Philippines.

Day 38 of My No Smoking Campaign

For 2011, I made only one New Year’s Resolution. That is to quit smoking and so far…I have not fallen off the wagon. I realized that for the better part of 2010, I was already smoking like a chimney. I would lit a stick as soon as I’m done with another. My smoking got out of hand that I would buy 1 or 2 packs of Marlboro Red in a day and smoked at least 15-20 sticks on a daily basis. There were many reasons why I decided to quit smoking and this includes:

• My cough has not healed. I’ve been coughing for almost 4 months already and it’s not getting any better. Probably it has something to do with the fact that I absolutely detest taking medicines.
• Smoking can age you. I’m about to turn 32 in April and though most people tell me I look younger than my real age, I could never deny that my age is starting to haunt me especially on my eye area. Hello laugh lines and wrinkles. At the alarming rate that they are appearing, I would probably need to stock up on quality moisturizers and anti-aging skin care products.
• Second hand smoke is more dangerous and I don’t want anything to happen to my kids.

I just found out that a former class mate from Corpus Christi, Joey, has been diagnosed with lung cancer and I join in praying that he will be able to storm this test. His sister Jury mentioned in her FB page that Joey will be having his first chemo therapy session tomorrow and I really hope that his body will respond well to the treatment. Get well soon Joey and remember that God is always there for you no matter how great the battle may seem.

photo credits: click me