My husband was sorting through his email and found an email I sent to him 8 years ago. Was kinda surprised that he kept a copy of it all these years….
I am posting it here in my blog with a few modifications, hehe…
Anyways here it goes…
I met my husband when we were still in high school. He was 16 and I, 15. I can still remember vividly in my head the day we met. It was a radiant Saturday morning, revealing a clear blue sky. The sun was out with no clouds in sight. The air was balmy with the ground refreshingly cool because of the rain the previous night. We were at Paco Park together with a bunch of students from our school practicing for our chorale recitation. And though we have been bumping into each other all over campus, that day was really the first time he introduced himself. And you wouldn’t believe the kind of suave he pulled on me…
A friend of mine noticed my shoe lace was undone as we were about to cross the street during our lunch break from practice. Just as I was about to stoop down, my husband, well that time he was practically a stranger, tapped me on the shoulder, and whispered, “Let me do it for you.” Then he knelt down in front of me, placed my foot on his knee, looked directly into my eyes before tying it. Talk about total meltdown! I struggled hard to refrain my knees from shaking and to maintain my composure. I could feel my heart skipping a beat, my hands getting sweaty because of a nervousness I couldn’t quite explain. That was the start of it all…
Who would think that we would actually end up together? I still remember the
first time we said “I love you” to each other. It was a feeling that I could never forget. It was like a spell being cast on me. A thousand different sensations shot through my body.
Of course there were times of hardship and heartaches. After all, no relationship is perfect. There was a time we had to part ways because I had to move to the States with my parents. It was a time of our life that seemed like the end of the world. One week before leaving, we would find ourselves crying almost everyday by the pool of our townhouse. The most dreaded day came and when we were at the airport, saying our goodbyes, the whole world seemed to crash on our head. We held each other for as long as we could, as I tried hard to remember every inch of his face. The time when we were apart was so difficult. I was in a place where I could buy whatever I want. I was living the great American dream, but still there was something missing. A part of me was left thousands of miles away. Probably that was the reason why I had to go back to Manila, much to protests coming from my loved ones and the apparent disappointment from my dad. But nothing could stop me from going back to the person I love. Like a teleserye episode, I defied the odds.
When we were finally together, I felt like a perfectly fit puzzle. The day he picked me up at the airport was the happiest I have been for almost 2 years. The moment I saw him, I threw my arms around him and he enveloped me like a cocoon just like before. A year after that wonderful day, we were married. Now, we have three lovely angels.
Looking back at our lives together, I can say I no longer love him the way I did before… I love him more today…more than my life…My husband and my children make me complete.
Life is so wonderful especially if shared with that one great love. After all that we’ve been through, I could say my husband was, is and will always continue to be MY ONE GREAT LOVE!!!
I’ve been staring at my laptop’s monitor for a good 5 minutes… thinking of how to pen down the things that are running through my head.
“Do you know where you’re going to?”
That is the question I have been asking myself since last night. In all honesty, I don’t know where I am headed to. My mind has been a blur.
Something happened, not a long time ago. And from that time on, things have never been the same again. I wish I could back to that night, done things differently. Perhaps, stayed a few more moments at the party we were at. Or asked one of our friends to hitch a ride with us so we didn’t have to drive home alone that night. That night changed so many things in my life. I don’t know how I could have reacted differently to what was revealed to me that night. But one thing is certain… I wished that night hadn’t come to pass…
Everything in life has it’s purpose… a friend of mine once told me..
Yeah, maybe there is. Because who would have thought that the oddest of circumstances would let me find my best friend, my soul mate.
What is a soul mate you might ask… It’s someone you can talk to almost about anything, without hesitation. Someone who you can open your soul to. You may not be necessarily be romantically involved. That person is someone you are so comfortable with you can be yourself. Someone who you can be silly with, serious with, funny with, share your life with. Someone whom you can lean on…
Because I found my best friend, my soul mate, I have a lot to smile about these days…
Just wanted to share my list of memorable 80’s movies… (no particular order)
1. Pretty in Pink 
starring: Molly Ringwald, Andrew Mc Carthy and John Cryer
Classic tale of teen drama of the struggle of two people from
different social background to fight for their love. In the end,
love truly finds a way…
(sidenote: the movie that made me fall in love with Andrew Mc Carthy)
2. Mannequin 
starring: Andrew Mc Carthy and Kim Catrall
A young artist falls in love with a mannequin which comes to life at night. Only Jonathan (Andrew) can see her which caused a lot of suspicion and fiasco in the process.
(sidenote: Believe it or not, there was a point in my life that I wanted to be the mannequin in Andrew Mc Carthy’s arms. Give me a break! I was 12 years old then…)
3. St. Elmo’s Fire 
starring: Andrew Mc Carthy, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson
Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winginham
The story of six college friends struggling to make it in the world after graduating from university. Through the ups and downs they’ve managed to keep their friendship intact.
(Sidenote: definitely reminds me of my friends…)
4. Breakfast Club 
starring: Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheey
and Darren Harris
A group of students spends the entire Saturday at detention. Coming from different social sets, they started off resenting each other but at the end of the day, they’ve learned how to respect each other and even formed friendships.
(sidenote: ‘Friendly Days’ meets ‘That’s Impossible Gang’)
5. Sixteen Candles 
starring: Molly Ringwald, Michale Schoeffling, John Cusack and
Darren Harris
Sam (Molly) woke up on her sixteenth birthday, all excited only to find out that her family had forgotten her birthday because of her sister’s wedding. In school, the school heart throb had learned that she has a crush on him. In the end, Sam receives the greatest birthday
gift of all…
6. Zapped 
starring: Scott Baio and William Aimes
A highschool student gained telekinetic powers when his science experiment went wrong. With his powers, he was able to gain popularity and even caught the attention of the girl of his dreams.
(sidenote: the movie that popularized the songs ‘King and Queen of Hearts’ and ‘Got to Believe’, two songs most played in proms.)
7. Top Gun 
starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and Kelly Mc Gillis
Maverick (Tom) is a promising pilot. But he’s got an attitude problem. In flight school, he struggles to be the best pilot and in the process, he falls in love with his instructor.
(sidenote: the movie that catapulted Tom Cruise into super stardom)
8. Karate Kid 
starring: Ralph Macchio, Pat Norita, William Zabka and Elizabeth Shue
A bullied teenage boy overcomes his weakness and learned karate with the help of a karate master (Pat).
(sidenote: Ahh! ‘The Glory of Love’ (part II)… reminds me of my first puppy love on the summer of ‘87.)
9. Lethal Weapon 
starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover
Martin Riggs (Mel) is a psychotic cop who became partners with a cop (Roger) who was straight-forward and a loving family man. They resented each other at first but due to circumstances developed a friendship that would stand the test of time.
(sidenote: the whole ‘Lethal Weapon’ series was simply hilarious!)
10. Back to the Future 
starring: Michael J. Fox
A time-travelling teenager goes back through time to meet his parents. His life almost got ruined when his mother fell in love with him. Not wanting to alter history, he helps his father win her mother’s love.
11. Pretty Woman 
starring: Julia Roberts and Richard Gere
A hooker gets a second chance in life and turned her life around when a handsome millionaire falls in love with her.
12. Dirty Dancing 
starring: Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray
Baby (Jennifer) goes off to a family summer camp where she falls in love with an intense dance instructor, to the disapproval of his father. When she fights for her love, her father reluctantly accepts that his daughter is no longer ‘his baby’.
(sidenote: Definitely a memorable movie for me. ‘Twas the first time I was allowed to go on a date with my crush…)
After more than three years of sleepless nights, crammy mornings, brain-racking and caffeine blasted efforts, I’ve finally managed to finish my first novel…
Whew! My eyes were reddended and moist as I penned down the last sentence to my 19-chapter work. I almost gave up on finishing it. I think it was almost a full year that I stopped working on it because even though I had been tagged the queen of multi-tasking by my husband, squeezing in writing proved to be difficult to my other gargantuan tasks. I have three kids you know… But then again, I realized that it had been my life-long dream to write a novel, not specifically to have it published but just to share my work with my family and friends who really don’t have a choice! LOL!!! So early on this year, I finally MADE time for it. I worked on it for almost 7-8 hours a day, 7 days a week when my kids are either in school in the mornings, napping in the afternoon and sleeping at night.
I’ve shown my work to a couple of people I know here and they liked it. So here it is, finally. Now the next step for me is to find an editor and publisher which I will do after my 5-day trip to Manila this week. I just hope that one day,I’ll find my published book on shelves of bookstores, being on the bestseller list would be cherry on top of the icing… I’m praying and keeping my fingers crossed.
I’ve watched the first 2 installments of Xmen so I really anticipated X3: The Last Stand.
The first 2 prequels stuck to the core of what Xmen was all about. However, the final (???? I heard that there was a spin off of Wolverine and Magneto’s character though) installment, was different from the comic book version. I’m no certified know-it-all comic book junkie especially when I haven’t read all the issues of Xmen. But I had a friend when I was in high school who had tons of comic books at home. We use to hang out a lot at his crib so I got a chance to read some of the issues.
Cyclops, in the movie died because of Phoenix. But as I recall, in the comic book version, Cyclops got married to the spitting image mortal of Jean Gray and even had children.
I don’t have an idea of what happened to Professor X in the comic book though. I mean if he died or not.
Now Jean Gray aka Phoenix’s character deviated a bit from the comic book version. For once, in the comic version, Phoenix was an alien entity who took over Jean Gray when she tried to saved the Xmen when they had this battle in outer space. In the movie, Phoenix was an evolution of Jean’s character, a part of her persona, her dark side, her alter ego and after she died in X2, this dark side of Jean Gray was awaken. This is not the Jean Gray we fell in love with. When Cyclops’ love resurrected Jean Gray, she was going through a roller coaster of emotions leaving her confused and clueless of who she really is. In the process of trying to find herself, she discovers her powers that she hadn’t known was part of her. This results in a very destructive Jean who had no control over her massive powers which ended up her killing Cyclops and Prof X, 2 people she loved most.
I guess it would have been more poignant if the movie stuck to who the real Phoenix is and how Jean really struggled to control her powers so people won’t get hurt. In the end of the Phoenix saga, there was a battle between Phoenix and the Xmen. Eventhough the core of the storyline of Phoenix was that she was very catastrophic, I mean she was a class 5 mutant, she could never kill the Xmen so at the end, she chose to kill herself than to hurt them and the world, while Cyclops helplessly looked on. So yeah, much as I love Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), he should have not been the big hero who saved the day.
That for me would have been a better ending in the Xmen saga.
There was no doubt in my mind that Pacquiao will win….
From my view point, this match was just a test of endurance for Pacman in preparation for his rematch with El Terrible. As proof of this, he didn’t try to knock out Larios but instead opted to finish all 12 rounds. No matter what other people think, I say Pacman deserves to win… So eat your hearts out all you bitter, sore loser ditractors! hehe!
So there’s really nothing much to say except ‘CONGRATULATIONS! You make us proud to be Filipinos!"
What if I didn’t go back to the Philippines for a vacation…
Then my husband wouldn’t have proposed.
What if my husband didn’t propose…
Then I wouldn’t have gotten married when I was 20.
What if I hadn’t gotten married early when I was 20… 
Then I wouldn’t have to sideline my career.
What if I didn’t sideline my career for the sake of my family…
Then I would be getting a 6-digit dollar salary by this time.
What if I was getting that 6-digit dollar salary…
Then I would’ve been so busy with my work. 
What if I was so busy with my work…
Then I wouldn’t have my husband and three children.
What I didn’t have my husband and three children…
Then my life would have been incomplete.
Chicken Adobo VS Chicken Rice
It was already past 5pm one Saturday afternoon. A strong sun spotlights and the sky was a clear, blazing blue. I wiped my sweaty forehead with a hanky as I glanced at my watch for the nth time. I could feel my eyebrows furrowing upon realizing that we were almost going to be late for our badminton game. We have been waiting for quite some time for a cab to drive by.
“Where have all the cabs gone?” I murmured to my husband, who was almost as giddy as I.
As soon as the words escaped my mouth, along came a blue Comfort cab (the name of the cab company) with its ‘Not Hired’ on top blinking amiably at us. With hands waving frantically, my hubby flagged down the cab. As soon as the cab screeched to a complete halt in front of us, we hopped in and directed the driver to our destination.
Aaahhh! Cushy at last inside the cool, air-conditioned cab. I was thankful to be out of the sweltering heat outside. Adjusting his rear view mirror, the portly Chinese driver began striking a conversation with us.
“You Philippine ah?” he chirped in in his not-so intelligible Singlish.
(Side note: For those who don’t live in this part of the world, Singlish is Singapore English which is the direct translation of Mandarin into English. It doesn’t follow the basic Englishm sentence structure. You know, the subject-predicate agreement.)
So, anyway…
Yup! I am Filipino and I came from the Philippines! I wanted to scream in his ear. Why do they always refer to Filipinos as Philippine? And when I try to correct them and say the people from the Philippines are called Filipinos and it’s Philippines with an S, they ask me back, “Why plenty of Philippine ah?”
Aaagghhh! If that won’t make you seeth with irritation then I don’t know what.
I caught a glimpse of the cab driver’s face, all beaming and friendly which calmed my nerves a bit. In fairness to him, he was very friendly which is not something I would normally encounter in my cab-riding expeditions here.
“Yes…” I replied nonchalantly, forcing my mouth into a half smile.
“Your husband?” he asked again, pointing at my hubby who nodded instantly.
“You have kids ah?” he pressed once more.
“Yes, we do. Three as a matter of fact.” I replied back.
“They study here, isn’t it?”
“Yes, they do.”
This driver was turning into one nosy guy! I thought to myself.
“Someday you have problems.” he remarked while bobbing his head.
“With what?” I asked him rather surprised and curious.
“Because you Philippine and kids study here. They don’t want to come back Philippine anymore.”
“I don’t think so. They would still want to go back to our country someday.”
“Sure ah?”
“Absolutely…” I announced proudly.
At last, our inquisitive driver kept silent. Perhaps he ran out of something to say. But his prodding made me think about Filipinos living here in Singapore, especially those who have been here for more than a decade. Oftentimes, I’ve met and seen Filipinos who have embraced the Singaporean way of life and in the process have lost their identities as Filipinos. Not that the Singaporean way of life is undesirable. I just prefer to keep my Filipino identity, alongside the values and the morals which make me uniquely Filipino.
It just makes my heart twitch a bit when I hear Filipinos badmouth or belittle Pinoys left behind the mother land.
Why am I here? I one time asked myself. But I didn’t have to dig deep into my soul to find the answer to it. I am here, together with my family so we could provide a bright future for our children, which sadly, we won’t be able to do if we stay in the Philippines. It just hurts to accept that fact.
Still, I am grateful for this country for opening her doors to people like us. People who just want to provide the best for their family. But it doesn’t mean I need to lose my Filipino identity, proud of my history, culture and tradition.
If things will be better in the Philippines, economically I mean. I would hop on a plane in a heart beat, my family in tow and go back to the home we miss dearly.
So when someone here asks me,
“Chicken rice, anyone?”
“No thanks! Pass me the adobo please…”
Just to dish out the 411: Chicken adobo is like the national dish of the Philippines while Chicken rice is Singapore’s.
Finally!!!! I’ve watched the movie that rattled the four corners of the civilized world, just when the long line in the movie theaters shifted to XMen (hehe!). I must say I enjoyed the movie. It’s nice to finally see the places described in the book.
There’s one thing I noticed however. Since I read the book long before they showed the movie, I have this preconceived notion of how Robert Langdon should look. Tom Hanks would be the last person to come into my mind if I was casting director. Don’t get me wrong! I am a big Tom Hanks fan, but I think Harrison Ford would be more effective in playing the role. One thing, Robert Langdon has his awkward, geeky ways as described in the book. Remember, he sports a Mickey Mouse watch? Could you imagine Tom Hanks’ persona wearing one? I don’t think so. But Harrison Ford’s persona would.
Over all, like I said I think the movie was great. I still stand by my opinion that having have banned it would have been over reacting because I don’t think the movie was powerful enough to have swayed my faith. Just like Robert Langdon told Sophie when she learned the truth about her real identity, "In the end, what matters most is what you believe in…"
Kudos to that!
