A Reunion to Remember

Yesterday, I met my two friends, French and Shey, for coffee and years worth of updates. We’ve been planning to meet since French expressed intention to finally leave her cosmo life for good.

I met French through Sharlyn 8 summers ago when we both stood as Godparents of Matthew, Shey’s endearing son. Later that year, we became housemates at Teachers’ Village, cooked dinner together, and stayed up all night to watch CNN’s coverage of the World Trade Center attack. A year later, I went to law school while Sharlyn became a producer at a giant television network and French produced a film called Luna that earned her a Gawad Urian (Philippines’ version of the Oscars) nomination. Then we went on to live in different places, got married and have kids (except for French), and went on to search for our passions in life.

Yesterday, the three of us met here in Iloilo—the town we left 12 years ago in exchange of becoming scholars of the people.

A few weeks ago, I got an unexpected Facebook message from French announcing that she’s going home for good after living in Manila for more than a decade. I made the same decision last year when we—my husband and my son– relocated from the central business district in Makati to a friendlier (not to mention more quiet) neighborhood in Iloilo. Sharlyn followed suit, after living a semi-recluse life in the heart of a pineapple plantation in Marbel. The place is nothing short of heaven-on-earth for those who love nature but all she heard at night was the air passing through her lungs.

We were supposed to meet at 3 but I couldn’t leave the house with my hair dripping wet. Living in the tropics has its pros and cons and blow-drying your hair, which takes around 15 to 30 minutes depending on its volume, is one of the most frustrating things a woman can deal with especially when she’s already late for her appointment.

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Today’s Inspiration: Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent

A classic example of shy courage and unadulterated talent. I’ve listened to many Broadway renditions of “I Dreamed a Dream” but her version is truly special. I was gobsmacked!

Here’s her version of Julie London’s Cry Me A River (1950-1955), which was recorded in 1999. Her voice is simply stunning!

Trying out something new | Hong Kong video experiment

Yesterday, Amarind and I were talking about our film clips that take up almost 50% of our remote hard drive. We wanted to edit and turn them into short clips with background music and the like and compile them in a CD. I did edit some videos from our trips before but this time, I wanted it to be more fun. This is what I came up with:

Iloilo City: One of the most pleasant places to live in the Philippines

This is a great video of Iloilo City, which is my hometown and where we currently live. Taken by our videographer friends. Enjoy!

Visiting the Po Lin Monastery and the Wisdom Path

We’ve been away three times since March that we didn’t have much time to blog. So today’s blog will still be about Hong Kong (yes, we did a lot of things in HK!), focusing on the charming and old-fashioned Po Lin Monastery, which is a must-visit for anyone who wishes to see the other side–the more laid back side–of Hong Kong. In fact, this monastery may catch you by surprise.

Lantau Island is where people go for a restful weekend trip–oftentimes a wise decision to escape the usual weekday hoo-has in the city. Lantau has so much to offer to those who want to experience nature and be awed by majestic sights along meandering mountainsides. The island bursts with color and culture of ancient China that it was impossible for us not to take as many pictures as we possibly could.

A beautiful flower inside the Po Lin courtyard

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