Con's Despedida - Oct 11

More Basti pics. Hehe.
I tried taking a picture of Chloe and Basti but Basti moved last minute.
He's so cute. Hehehe.

Basti trying out his Halloween costume

I got this costume from Cheryll (thank you, Ninang!). He just looks SOOOOOOOOOOO cute!

Basti at 8 months - Sep 27

I totally forgot Basti's 8 month as it was the day of the typhoon Ondoy. We were too shocked with the devastation that the typhoon wrought in the capital.

We had lunch at ATC the next day to celebrate Mama and Papa's wedding anniversary as well. I got Basti a small cake at Bizu. I got the hat at Shopwise Sucat the day before (it was where I sought shelter after getting stranded in SLEX for four hours).

Basti the Red Nose Baby - Sep 21

Basti had a red dot on his nose as he kept pressing his face/nose against the screen of his playpen. Good thing it disappeared after several days.

Basti at MOA - Sep 20

We went to the BookFair at MOA last Sep 20. The rest of the pictures was taken at the restaurant where we had lunch. He was enjoying the high chair.

World Teachers' Day

Our STRAMA teacher reminded us that yesterday was World Teachers' Day and we should think about our professors in the past who made a difference in our lives. I then thought of four teachers, one person in every aspect of my institutional learning life from MBA down to my pre-school years.

In my MBA studies, one professor comes to mind, Prof. Willy Cuason. He teaches Operations and Production Management and I appreciate how he challenges us and forces us to think for ourselves. Even if it was a Saturday morning class, we all managed rise up to his challenges. One certain exercise (which I don't think we have an answer until now) is why there are teller booths. All our answers were shot down by his rebuttals and we've ran out of reasons. I liked his stories of how operations of some companies (which shall not be named) actually work and the secrets behind them. When I got my 4.0, I knew I really earned it as I worked hard and appreciated the subject. Prof. Cuason basically taught me to question things and to think logically.

As for my College years at La Salle, there's Prof. Tomakin (I can't remember his first name!). He was my Algebra teacher when I was still enrolled in the College of Computer Studies. I recall hating Algebra and Calculus with a passion when I was in high school. I never could understand it but he somehow managed to drill into my brain how the whole thing works and how excited I was doing derivatives. I remember passing his exams and I think if I studied hard enough, I would've passed the finals (which pulled my final grade down as I flunked the finals). He's no longer teaching in La Salle so wherever he is, I hope he's doing well and inspiring students like me to appreciate the wonderful worth of Mathematics.

Moving further, I had a lot of inspiring grade school and high school teachers at St. Scho. But I remember Mr. Pulmones--our Chemistry teacher. Again, if I studied hard enough, I would've passed his subject with flying colors but he made chem certainly interesting. I remember when he was teaching us about conversion, he substituted the weird chemical names to simple names just to teach us how the whole process works and for us to understand it better. After graduation, I only saw him when I watched Ms. Saigon at CCP (I can't recall when that was). He was with me in the line and I greeted him telling him I was one of his students. Of course, he doesn't remember me but I will not forget our classes. I don't know if he's still with St. Scho but he must have a lot of white hairs now. Mr. Pulmones basically taught me how to simplify complicated things by looking at them in another angle.

Moving further on, I will never forget my pre-school teacher, Mrs. Tugade.

Mrs. Tugade owns a small pre-school in the heart of San Antonio Village where my parents used to hold office. It helped that Mrs. Tugade's daughter and my aunt are bestfriends so it was only natural that we study there. I remember looking forward to school. It has a distinctive smell that I can still remember up to now--the smell of crayons and mimeo paper. When we would arrive in school, we have to look for our names on the activity sheets arranged around the tables in the room. Once we find our place, we sit down and painstakingly copy our names letter per letter, perfecting our penmanship. Afterwhich, we would start answering the exercises that Mrs. Tugade drew for us. We matched and colored fruits and letters and afterwards, played in the small playground. We sang songs and got a star on our paper if we did our exercises right.

Those were indeed happy days. I last saw her two years ago at the funeral of my grandmother (and I visited her a year before that) and she amazingly looked the same. The make-up is still the same (I later on realized that she makes her face up differently than other people do--we call it the kabuki make-up) as well as her speech (she enunciates words perfectly). Back then, I thought she was really tall but when I saw her again, I realized I was just really small as I was a few inches taller than her now.

The Think and Try preschool has also grown. Though it's still the little school along Sampaloc, they now have a school bus and they've expanded the space. I would want my son to study in this school but it's too far from our place of residence. I would've wanted him to experience how it is to be a Mrs. Tugade student.

So, to Prof. Cuason, Mr. Tomakin, Mr. Pulmones and Mrs. Tugade, thank you so much for making learning fun. I believe that being a learner is now my greatest strength because you incalcated in me the value of continued learning. May you inspire more students as much as you have inspired me.

Magdasal na Tayo

We know it's already desperation when the weather bureau told us to say our prayers and prepare for the worst.



Pepeng (international name: Parma) is scheduled to slam into Luzon Saturday morning--one week after Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) poured one month worth of rain inundating 80% of the metropolis with floods.



When I went to work this morning, I took with me a change of clothes, a towel, water and snacks and stocked them in the backseat of my car. In case the rains would pour again tonight, I'm prepared to camp out in my car.



In my 33 years of existence, the only memorable storm that comes into mind was Milenyo (international name: Xangsane) when it hit Manila three years ago uprooting trees, damaging property and taking lives. I felt the wrath of that storm when it blew open the terrace doors of our house and it took three of us just to close it again. We ended up blocking the doors with a couch and bed to keep the doors closed.



According to news reports, Pepeng has sustained winds of 195kph with gustiness of up to 230kph. If my research is correct, it's definitely stronger than Milenyo which only had sustained winds of 130kph and gustiness of 160kph. No wonder PAG-ASA intends to raise Signal 4 in the affected areas once the storm hits land.



Leo and I have been stocking up mostly on Basti's needs. I already bought two more bottles of Wilkin's yesterday and though I have 1 can of back-up stock of Basti's milk, I still want to buy more as I'm really preparing for the worst. Leo bought batteries in case the power goes out, at least we can listen to the AM station for any news. I hate being kept in the dark in times of crisis. (However, when I was stuck in SLEX with rising floodwaters, I refused to listen to the AM station as the news was already scaring me).



God help us all.