IngliseraKuno

Happy Birthday RD Pearl!  She started to use canes to keep her graceful gait, although there are times she could do without them. She had that cane on her hand while waiting for the elevator, then I ran to her to hug her goodbye, about two years back. We just concluded a conference in Vigan, which we hosted. My colleagues in the province worked very hard to make the conference as smooth and hassle-free, we did the groundwork for a week before the schedule. We hosted the event quite well. So when she hugged me back, she said, 'Proud na proud naman ako sa yo, anak.' I did not think about my reply for so long, I told her, 'You taught me well, Ma'am.' Fact is, Mommy Pearl taught me a lot, not just about work, but about life. Hers was not really a walk in the park. Though told me only in snippets, I know that she is the woman she is now shaped by both joyful and sad events. To describe her as intelligent, hardworking and dedicated will fall short of the person she is. Sh...

These days, it is getting more and more difficult to smoke just anywhere, I think there will come a day smokers will be pushed off the edge of the earth (I am pretending no one discovered the earth is actually round to stress my point) to rid of the second-hand smoke. So I am always in the moment when I have a stick, not only because of the satisfaction of it but more for the interesting stuff that comes with getting stuck with friends and non-friends in a designated smoking area. I met Mr. Good-Looking this morning as I chanced upon him in the smoking area of the hotel we are at. I sat on the empty chair by his table and introduced myself. Small talk ensued. And really, we overrated him the day before. Moving on. I learn new stuff each time I go to any designated smoking area, aside from the fact that I should stop smoking (?). I have conversations. That, I like best. Most times, the small talk among friends and colleagues remain just that, 'small talk'. There are times, howev...

He said to end his message today, (paraphrased): '..thank you for the opportunity to be of service to all of you...I know that along the way, I have done wrong, for that I ask for your forgiveness...I am leaving with a heart that is thankful and have forgiven, too...' Everyone in the room replied with applause. Not thunderous, restrained even, I felt. The team incoming was in the audience and perhaps many among us thought it was awkward to look sad, and to afford the appropriate respect to the man who led this department for the last five years, by clapping more enthusiastically. I wanted to stand, for God's sake. But I did not, lest I will be looked at as attention-seeking, from the perspective of the 'old' and the 'new'. I really did not care, but I did not stand up just the same. Lost once again in this battle of wills.  We were not really friends, Sec Gil and I. The closest we could call what we had as friendship is the minutes we spent smoking. It was n...

 It is not a surprise that one becomes emotional about change. I am that way all the time: I see change in the face and I see the 'loss' of moments when I  could have been kinder, a better person. Two stories in my life the past couple of days, one painful, the other joyful, made me take a good look of my life, in rewind.  A colleague passed yesterday, a victim of a vehicular accident. I rushed to the hospital to check on him, to find out from his wife (who is also a colleague) that the prognosis was not good at all. I could not say anything proper to his wife, I just held her tight and told her to be strong for her children. She kept saying 'hindi ko kaya', repeatedly. But I told her, 'kayanin mo', which I know is easier said than done. I assured her she had a family in DAR, and that we will hold her hand through all of it, whatever we could do to ease the burden. I did not want to cry, even if I wanted to. Ninoy, our colleague who passed on, was someone I grew...

When I was in my teens, I used to walk with my friends in Caba from the Poblacion to San Carlos (I have no idea the stretch of that in kilometers) but the walk took about an hour at a leisurely pace. We went there to watch the lovely sunset. I was the Mayor's daughter then so when passing by homes, most would stare. Not only because I have a pretty face (yes, I am so full of myself) but because they were curious. There were spots were young men would wait for us to pass by, then whistle. Back then, I basked in those whistles, I thought they were a form of compliment. The rest of my friends walking with me were, and still are, headstrong, so they laughed off the 'whistles'. Of course the men who wasted carbon dioxide on us were smiling, content with what they have accomplished, whatever that was.  In college, I became friends with a beauty title-holder in Physics class, well, because we were both idiots in Physics. After each class, we would walk together by the quadrangle, ...

The inn we stayed in had plants all over: every direction I look, I see leaves, of potted plants, of trees from the room deck, even where I write now. A potted plant dominates the round, plastic table. It started raining at around  3pm , which is usual in these upland parts of the province. The roads to Cervantes are concrete and well-paved, dangerously hanging from mountains, and with the steering wheel of one's vehicle will tire of the winding, sharp curves about. Like sticks in a matchbox, we were literally shaken in the vehicle. Sliding to one side of the vehicle, then to another, at each sharp turn. I yelled 'punyeta' several times, (sorry) directed at our driver, Claro, who had no choice but to laugh and do his job: drive. Two and a half hours of that kind of travel. On top of the land travel from the lowlands of about two hours.  But the mountains are lush these days, so that is my consolation. My frustration is that I could not take a decent photo of the scenery, wh...

He came up to me, this old man, dressed neatly in red polo-shirt tucked in cream slacks. We were in a queue, heads of agencies which were to receive an award from a partner agency for our successful engagements. He thrust out his hand and gave me a firm handshake, firmer than one would expect from a man his age. He said, 'Ma'am, how are you?' . I was trying to place him, I knew him from somewhere, I was sure about that. But as usual, I could not remember his name. Thank God for registration IDs. I casually glanced on the name printed on his, and checked where he is from. He is from a cooperative in a province I served for six years before I was assigned to my present area. Slowly it came back to me, he is a manager of one of the organizations we helped build a small enterprise. So after the obligatory smile, handshake, and reply of, 'I am fine, Tatang, thank you for asking.', I asked how their business was going. He said they are doing all right, despite of challeng...