While in Transit

I'm here again at the airport, in transit and just finished reading a book. Like other people, books and ebooks keep me from getting bored when I'm traveling alone particularly if I have a long layover. 

Earlier today I never thought of finding this book but after seeing it, I got it from the shelf and went straight to the counter to pay minutes before boarding. It was worth every penny. I read it during the flight instead of sleeping (had all three seats in row 12 to myself). I read it again when I reached this airport in Bangkok. I was able to read all 15 chapters after a few hours though I needed to stop reading while walking to get my luggage and during the time I waited for it.

I had this side of the row to myself and it was the emergency exit.

I think every woman (and perhaps every man too) should read it though I have to disagree with the author about a thing or two. He wrote this bestseller with the hope of empowering women and understanding men more. 

So who says you can't find English books at Hatyai International Airport? Well, check out the pictures I took. 

Hatyai is located in South Thailand and its airport has daily flights to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur as well as numerous domestic flights to Bangkok and Chiang Mai. 

30/June/2013

Nature's wonder!

I had this wound and I wanted a herbal remedy. I researched and found out that Hibiscus flower and leaves could help. I had a problem though because I considered this flower a kryptonite (the pollens) but to my amazement I was able to cut the flower into pieces and smash it into a paste without sneezing. It did work. My wound was healed. I then discovered that its powder form (you need to dry it) can be added to your favorite oil and apply it to your hair to make it soft and silky. This flower is indeed one of nature's wonders. 

Functional Crib

I had this dream to be a professional interior designer when I was little but I chose a different career path. My love for drawing and designing though is still there. I could spend hours reading magazines and taking pictures of different designs. One of the favorite things I do when I check in to a hotel room is to take pictures of its interior.

We are going to do renovations hopefully next year and I will try to do the designs. I've been living in rented studio flats for years now. I moved in to a new one last year. Designing a bigger space would be daunting but I am excited.

There is little I can do with my current flat, but this one is much bigger than the previous one. There is more space. My favorite spot is the sleek table near my bed. It is my workspace at home. 

A Nepal Encounter

While waiting for the rain to stop, I suddenly remembered the picture I took with a friend from Nepal the last time I was in Singapore.

I have always been fascinated by Nepal even before I was tasked to write about Kathmandu a year ago. I learned more about this Himalayan country when I saw a documentary about the tragedy that struck the country's revered royal family in 2001.

After seeing the picture again, I became curious about what really happened that fateful night resulting to the abolition of the monarchy years later. I searched online and came across articles about the royal family. Tears then flowed. I was saddened to know how lives of promising young royals were cut short and how a country was left with uncertain future. I did not know them personally, but I felt this grief.

I refuse to write here what is really on my mind after reading eyewitness accounts. Anyone who knows them could still be hurting up to this day. A loss is a loss. Life is precious whether you are a king or a nobody. I truly understand that.

A New Online Home

This blog was previously hosted by Posterous. I love it as a blogging platform, but it has to close so I need to move on as well. I was able to move all my posts through its autopost option except the videos and audios. That is the reason why there are no videos and audios here except those from Youtube.

Thank You for Being a Woman

The world celebrates International Women's Day this month and I want to pay homage to the women in my life to whom I am forever grateful. 

I am grateful for my mama. She reminds me to pray and to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground. She teaches me the value of respect, honor, and gratitude. She is a born survivor. Whenever I am down, hearing her voice assures me that everything will be okay again.

Her mother, our nanay, is someone we all look up to. I can't imagine my childhood without her. She is the most caring, hardworking, and forgiving person I know. She used to be my storyteller when I was a little girl and she never missed any of my promotional program in primary school. The bond I have with her is something that I really treasure.

All her daughters, my aunts, have different personalities but they all share a common thing - they are my cheerleaders. I terribly miss one of them, but I know someday we will meet again.

I am also grateful for all the other lolas and aunts as well as for my female cousins and friends. My life isn't the same without them.

To all the awesome women I look up to, thank you for being who you are.

Ancient Script

Baybayin is a pre-Spanish Philippine writing system. It is fun to write using it.

Once there was a man...

My brother, my cousin Rj, and I grew up having Uncle around. I knew him even before he married my aunt because the stubborn little me insisted to join one of their dates. He treated us as his own niece and nephews. There was a time after they got married that my brother and I stayed with them the whole summer. This was before their precious daughter was born.

I have many things to write about how great he was but tears keep on falling right now. There is no one perfect in this world but Uncle was one of those people who made me believe that good men still exist. My cousin Rj described him as an amazing man who loved his family and would do anything to help others just to make things right. He was calm. He loved the Lord and his family. All of us can say that he was a great family man, someone who was forgiving, loving and caring.

Uncle, I know you are in good hands right now up there. You died in the place you loved, the sea. I believe that even before your body reached the waters, the Lord's loving hands carried you.

Uncle, you will be missed terribly. I will always remember you. I will never get tired of saying that once there was a man who walked on Earth like you.We love you and see you on the other side someday.

Dear self, I dare you to move! :)

If my life has an official soundtrack, Switchfoot's I Dare You to Move is surely one of the first tracks. I love this song. I wrote something about moving on before and included this song...

I_Dare_You_To_Move_-_Switchfoot.mp3 Listen on Posterous You can't access it? Reason.

Now why am I daring myself to move? It's really not about moving to another place soon. I just want to do something that is bigger than me. I've always wanted to do something, but these recent events make things clearer.

Craig Kanalley: Addicted To Facebook?

It may be time to rethink your priorities and consider a "Facebook Diet." - C.K.

According to a former Facebook addict/author/illustrator Gemini Adams, Facebook addiction affects us by the following:

Belief we have to always be connected: "We're plugged into these machines, and I think because they're on 24/7, we think we have to be as well. We forget they're plugged into this electricity supply that gives them endless energy, and we don't have one of those."

Over-activity: "As a society, we are spending more time on screens overall. It's having a huge impact on our stress response system. We're sort of over-activated all the time."

Lack of concentration: "It's affecting our ability to concentrate. We're more prone to disruptions. It can lead to angry behavior."

More stress: "It raises our levels of hypertension and likely some sort of inflammatory disorder. It lowers our emotional intelligence."

Comparing ourselves to others: "It raises our feelings of envy and resentment. We're constantly comparing ourselves to what other people are doing. People are shoving their holidays in our face which is one of the things that causes the most anxiety on Facebook."

Losing sense of reality: "It undermines our satisfaction with life in general and can lead to depression in life."

Physical impact: "Physically, when you're sitting looking at a device, it affects the biological makeup of our body. We're hunched over, we're feeling lower, and we're less infused on life."

Loss of free time: "The time drain obviously has an impact too because we have less time to do things that will build us up, whether physical activity or spending time with loved ones."

Other issues: "We have a serious increase in mental health disorders. It's as if we haven't evolved as quickly as the technology. We haven't evolved in a way to keep up at it."

via huffingtonpost.com

So it's time now to consider a Facebook diet and possibly a technology diet. -j.

This is my way to say thank you.

I do believe that that the things we learn during the early years of our lives are important. I'm thankful to all my teachers from pre-school to grade six. I'm thankful to all my teachers, but I want to focus now during those early years. I have to say that my classmates and I were blessed to have them. There might be a few not so good things during those times but as whole it was a good experience.

I don't have the sharpest memory but I do remember important things:

1. Our teacher in nursery school told us that sharing was a good thing to do. One classmate (I don't know if she can still remember) brought to school biscuits. They were round, big and orange. After our teacher told us about sharing, she gave us one each. 

2. Our grade one homeroom teacher taught us that it wasn't good to hurt others and we should learn to say "I'm sorry." 

3. We heard many wonderful stories in grade 2 from our homeroom teacher. She was a great storyteller. I couldn't remember everything but she told us about the "house" of the ants and how hardworking they were and then there was the story about Genevieve and Count Siegfried. The story that made me cry though was about the ungrateful son. He mistreated his father. He put his food inside a coconut shell. It was really awful. His young son saw all these. Many years passed, the ungrateful son also became an old man. His son also did the same thing to him. He wasn't allowed inside the house and his food was also put inside a coconut shell. This time the coconut shell was clean unlike during the time of his father. What was the lesson of the story? Be kind because you reap what you sow. 

4. It would take us all night and day if I would write everything but certainly all our teachers taught us that cheating was bad. They also encouraged us to study hard and help each other. There was one time in grade 5 that we had this "competition" with grade 6 in Math. I couldn't remember why exactly, but there was a need to beat them. The whole class participated in a "multiplication contest." We all needed to get a perfect score to win. It was the same thing with the grade 6 class. We won. We all got a perfect score. What was our strategy? We were united. We had this goal to beat grade 6 so we had study sessions with those who were weaker in multiplying numbers. I'm not sure if my classmates can still remember, but that moment really made me grateful to be part of that class. I wished we all went to the same school in high school.