SPeaking of…..

I got tagged by Jolana on this:

My top 5 to-do-list

#1 on my list …… play badminton with jof (while the kids play at the park) when i reach home tonight

#2 on my list …… do my roles in the Water Exhibition grand opening tomorrow

#3 on my list …… finish support letter requested by Singapore Polytechnic, chase the boss on the Cambodia proposal i passed and which he has not given back yet and review my draft of the NJRC Challenge Announcement.

#4 on my list …… look for a new bike for Lance as he has just recently learned (all by himself) how to cycle on 2 wheels only.

#5 on my list ….. fix our documents all scattered in one part of the closet (this one i keep on postponing).

A few weeks back, I decided to exercise again.  Im turning 32 in July and I can feel it.  My body is not what it used to be, say, 7 years ago.  I can feel stiffness here and there and on a number of occasions I had to slow down while walking because of a pain in the lower back.     These "getting old" feeling became very evident to me during Lance’s Sports Day in school. 

Being the supportive parents that we are, Jof and I applied for leave from work to support the little athlete.  Parents were required to wear sports attire as there was to be a parents’ race.  Lance competed in two games and their team placed third in one of the races.  After the kids’ games, parents were asked to line up and form 6 teams with each team having a leader.  Again, being enthusiastic parents, Jof volunteered to be team 4’s leader and we were in front of the line.  Anyhow, the race started and when it was my turn, I ran as fast as my legs could bear, in my mind praying that I don’t fall flat on my face like what happened to a couple of parents :(.  We won 1st place and as a prize, each member got a trophy.  It’s my first ever sports trophy! Yahoo!.  Lance, of course, was very proud of his athletic (kuno) parents. 

The next morning, I couldn’t move.

I felt like I did a 30km marathon and my muscles were stretched to their limits.  I thought my daily portion of walking from the MRT Station to my office (often in heels) was a good enough "warm-up" and excercise.  I was wrong - very wrong.  That was when I realized I needed to do something about it before its too late.  Its true what they say that when women hit 30s, their bodies are never the same.  That’s when a huge majority start to weaken and, in most instances, gain weight.  The latter is definitely not my problem - yet, but who knows?  And by the way, I am still very often mistaken for a single student (wink wink) here especially when I am not in office attire and people get the shock of their lives when they find out I have 2 school-going kids (haha!, yabang no?), so my concern is not so much of the external but the internal.  That feeling of weakness, lethargy or whatever you might call it.

So the next day when I happen to be in the mall, I bought myself a nice pair of jogging outfit (but of course, I had to wear something nice para ma inspire!).  Since then, everytime I have the chance, i grab my running shoes and head off to the nearby park.  I also bought badminton rackets to take advantage of the badminton courts - free or otherwise (you can choose), that abound in Singapore.  It helps that Singapore has parks conducive to jogging and exercising.  It also helps that Jof is now more active exercising and less active eating.  His diet and exercise plan is so effective that he has since lost several kilograms and his "5-month preggy" tummy.  So lest we change places, with me the bigger (and more sluggish) half,   I might as well nip it in the bud, so to speak.

So here I am, trying my best to fit into the real sense of the word "fit" and hoping that ageing would not catch up on me sooner than expected.

Here are some shots of that fateful day  in East View Primary.

Proud daddy (or proud son)

My brother

Missing Carl (nasa school e)

Because of the nature of my job, I get the chance to rub elbows with ministers, ambassadors and other high-ranking officials both from the public and private sector.  I’ve also had the chance to spend time with artists and scientists and through my conversations with them I realized what beautiful (albeit diverse) minds these people have.  One person that stood out from among these people though, is a guy I met just recently.  He was a speaker for a Camp I was organizing and he was to handle Digital Animation.

Roy Wilson is not the typical animator you see these days.  To start with,  I was expecting someone much younger.  It surprised me to see a rather “matured” guy appear in the auditorium and introduce himself to me as the guy who would be doing the lecture.  He is 70 years old and a retiree.  He does not own a handphone, does not carry a laptop (I had to provide for him), and inisists on opening the doors for me.  To be honest,  I didn’t expect much from him, and it didn’t help that he came with Nickson Fong, who was an essential figure in the technical productions of very famous Hollywood movies – think Shrek, Godzilla, Scorpion King, Matrix (the entire series) to name a few. 

Anyhow, the Camp started and I would soon find out that Roy was an animator for Disney, Warner Bros and Marvel.  He has more than 50 years of experience in the field.  He brought with him some of his sketches and, (like all his participants), these sketches caught my attention.  They were sketches he did for Disney, Warner and Marvel.  That was probably the closest I could get to those animations in their raw form. 

In between the five lectures he did, I got to know the guy better.  He was simply overflowing with creativity and he spoke to me with the tone of a mentor talking to a student.  Even my boss, who is a difficult man to please, was impressed with this guy who personifies “creative” in the real sense of the word. 

I requested him to draw something for Lance and Carl and he did so very willingly and very quickly.  Many other talented artists can probably do similar drawings but there is an added value in knowing that these were done by the same hands that once upon a time gave life to Mickey Mouse, Batman and other characters we see on screen.

To Roy, thanks very much!

My mom said my dad had wanted me to become a teacher.  I shivered at the thought of it.  At one point I asked her what my Dad was thinking wanting me to become a teacher. 

I used to have a pre-conceived notion about becoming a teacher.  If I met students who were taking education courses, I would ask them why in the world would they want to be teachers.  The reason behind my thinking, I don’t know.  But all that have changed when my kids started going to school.  I began to appreciate the profession because of these people:

Ma’am Payoyo as all her students call her, was Lance’s kindergarten teacher.  She was I think about 50+ years old.  At first I though she might be strict or fierce, but I was wrong.  During the first weeks of his class, Lance would always give me that "im so sad my mommy is leaving me" look everytime I left him.  He was always on the verge of tears.  One time when we arrived late in school, I followed him to where they hold their flag ceremony without him and his teacher knowing.  And there was Ma’am Payoyo, who upon seeing my Lance wrapped her arms around him to comfort him  and guide him to his seat as if it was his first day in school.  Needless to say, I was touched.

She cried when Lance left her class to prepare for Singapore.  I too shed tears watching the gentle lady hugging my son tightly for the last time.

Then there is teacher Julia, Carl’s nursery teacher who we just spoke to several days ago for the meet the parents session.  In one of my previous blogs I echoed my worries about Carl’s first days in school.   Once I, Jof or Ate Delia brings him to school and their classroom door closes, that’s the last we see of him, we just had to wait for dismissal.  We never got a chance to see how he was inside, but I know for sure he would cry during the first few days.  But I also know that teacher Julia would carry him, pacify him and try to distract him with all sorts of antics.

Teacher Julia said that after he outgrew the crying spell,  the next problem was that he would fall asleep inside the class!  He is so used to having a nap after lunch that he brought the pattern to school.  And my Carl is one child who can, the moment he feels like it, sleep seating, standing or even walking.  After these two stages, he was okay.  I observed that he was eager to go to school, no excuses.  I asked him why and he told me its because teacher Julia is very kind to him, that’s why he loves her. During our meeting, I thanked her for making Carl’s first school experience a very pleasant one.

We have not met with teacher Julie (not Julia this time - Lance’s K2 teacher) as she became sick on the appointment date and we never had the chance to reschedule, but I know she is equally good.  Our kids are the best persons to tell how good teachers are and Lance just adores his teacher Julie.

I know I can never be a teacher.  First because my patience is very limited and second because my patience is very limited :)  It is not my passion, period.  Now that I have 2 very active kids, I can perfectly imagine the depth (and breadth) of a teacher’s patience - having to handle 10 to 20 times more than I have to.  So I totally take my hats off these people - in whose hands we entrust our kids. I realized that being a good teacher is not bounded by nationality or culture.  It comes naturally to those who have embraced this profession with such passion and commitment.  Not only are they able to teach and influence our children, but they also have the natural ability to touch parents’ hearts, yours truly included.

Teacher Julia is on the right.  Carl is in front, 2nd from right.

Teacher Julie is on the 3rd row, leftmost.  Lance is on the 2nd row, 3rd from left.

Sweet!

Today is the 1st birthday of our lovely niece, Andi.  Neither Jof nor I have seen her yet, only Lance and Carl had a brief moment with her before they joined us here in Singapore.  But thanks to modern technology, we are kept abreast with her developments that she practically grew before our very eyes, in front of the computer that is.   

I wish we could all be there for her birthday, but since we can’t, we will have to be contented with pictures of her - wonderfully taken, amazingly beautiful! 

Happy Birthday Andi! We love you!

A few days old

3 months old

Kikay na!

Proudly showing her teeth

Now learning to walk

After months of searching, viewing, computing and whinning, we finally settled to our new rented home two saturdays ago.  This is my 2nd time to move house since i arrived and jof’s 4th.  Singapore flat rentals are so expensive that moving to a new home financially bled us dry.  If my memory serves me right, our 1 month rental here on a 2 bedroom flat can very well afford us a big place with lawn and garage in an exclusive village back home.  And i miss how much more convenient renting in the Philippines is.  You just find a house for rent that suits you, talk to the owner, agree, and you can move in.  In some instances there are simple contracts.  Here in Singapore it is not as  easy.  From finding the right agent to finding the right landlord and flat that suits your budget, the whole process is just so disappointingly tedious at some point you just want to pack your bags and go back home.  But which you know very well you cannot do, and you remind yourself that you chose to be here and it is part and parcel of living in a first world city.

Anyway, this one we found is conveniently located right smack in the middle of everything.  Groceries, shops, bus stops, schools….  We like its cozy feel inside and jof, being the more "interior designer" between the two of us cannot keep still, wanting to get and get home stuff.  I, on the otherhand want to discourage and discourage. Having experienced the difficulty of packing and transporting our things to two different locations before leaving the Philippines, i no longer want to collect things that are not functional and which serve only one purpose - display.  But i guess it is inevitable, having a husband who loves to arrange the home.  I just have to keep my fingers crossed that we stay in this flat for long.  Now we have one big project to complete.  The aquarium.  It is big, no, huge, that i think it will need more things and money than i have calculated.  And it is something we cannot "not" complete, because it is permanently sitting between the living and the dining rooms.  Unless we want it to look like a glass case for bugs and crickets in science museums, we can do away with the fishes.  But since we don’t want that, and Jof has long been dreaming of having an aquarium, fishes it will have to be.  Right now, we are testing if everything functions properly before we dump in any living creatures. Meantime, my kids will have to be contented with seeing only water in it and make believe that their turtle and "actapuss" (as Carl prefers to pronounce it) bedtime buddies are inside.

The placemats were bought for a song.

Wait mommy i have to sit there!

Love the kitchen!   

Green is not exactly my favorite color, but this aint bad.

Where else can you see a blue octopus and an orange turtle inside an acquarium?

Last week my two boys started school in Singapore.  It is Lance’s 3rd year as a student and Carl’s first.  Lance was okay, except for the first few minutes when he was nervous so I had to talk to him, kiss and embrace him and assure him that mommy will be waiting outside.  Carl didn’t want me to leave, just as i expected, but Singapore schools don’t allow parents inside the classrooms even during the first day.  The teacher said (comforted me) that she will handle my Carl and i had no choice but to take her word for it.  At that moment I think i felt more helpless than my son.  Being his first ever day in school, i wanted to stay inside the room you see!

In the same manner that school is another milestone for my kids, it is also one for me.  It is an avenue where i have to loosen the ties and accept the fact that my kids are growing up and now have an added world, aside from that of home.  It is exciting, knowing that they will learn new things and meet new friends but it is also a bit discomforting, taking the fact that each day spent in school is a day nearer to leaving the nest.  And like a mother eagle training her young to fly, i have to learn to let go, knowing fully well that if i do, they will soon be able to soar….

My father died when I was four so i practically grew up not knowing and feeling a father’s love.  Save for those few precious moments i had with him that my very young mind was able to retain.  So when i grew up, i promised myself that if and when i have children, i will never deprive them of a father’s love and (presence).  Of course i had to find the right guy to begin with. 

So imagine the joy i (we all) felt , when after 16 months of them being apart from each other, my three boys are together again, never to be apart anymore.

Share my joy, see the album (Dad) and let the pictures speak for themselves.

DAD
God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle’s flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it … Dad

My work is a good 1 hour and 15 mins away from where we live.  That includes 50 mins train ride, 5 mins bus ride, 5 mins walk and the rest are spent waiting for transport.  The office and the home are literally poles apart, only that it is east and west not north and south.  Moving nearer is not an option as it means moving farther away from my husband’s office, and his schedule is more hectic than mine.  So everyday, i spend around two and a half hours on travel, back and forth.  Not that iam complaining, after all back home I used to travel 2 hours one way to get to work.  Not to mention having to ride the minibuses that most often seem to take all the wits out of you. 

Singapore transport is way better i should say.  Its clean, no smell, at least for the transport although sometimes i encounter a few fellow that have, no one is allowed to eat although i once saw someone puke.  Among all the transport here, its the MRT that i find interesting because its where i get to "people watch" and "fashion watch", for lack of better things to do after i finish reading the free daily given out just before boarding.  But i do this only in the mornings as in the afternoons iam too tired that i just either fall asleep or simply close my eyes, assuming i manage to get a seat. 

I have also managed to stand without holding on to anything while the train is at full speed, brakes and all.  A skill which i found too difficult to handle in the beginning.  But practice makes perfect - look ma, no hands! 

One thing I find so amusing here is that most often, when a seat is vacated, people will wait for a while, making sure nobody else is interested in taking it.  Other times when two people try to go for it at the same time, both would give way and ask the other to take the seat.  I remember back home, people would fight tooth and nail just to make sure they get the seat. 

Going back to people and fashion watching, there is the young husband and wife seated beside each other, hands clasped, girl’s head resting on hubby’s shoulder both trying to catch some sleep.  I could easily tell they are married even without looking at the ring fingers.  Don’t ask me how, i just know.  Then there is the boy-girl duo that seem to think everyone around them are blind, with all the smooching, touching, gazing and what- have-yous.  To be honest i sometimes find it difficult to ignore them that i just stare and wait for what they are going to do next :)  And then there is the mother-child or father-child team,  where i get most of the touching scenes from. 

Oh, the fashion watch.  The MRT is where i see all the latest fashion in the country live, not from posters or magazines.  I see it from living, moving and realistic bodies, cellulites and all. By the way, i think its better than seeing it from photoshoped images.  If i like it, i then try my very best to search if the brand is written anywhere on the apparel, and then i buy it (who am i kidding!) of course i don’t buy it! because i find out that i could not afford it, unless i decide to make my fashion a priority over my kids, food, rent, utilities, payables,,,,,, which iam assuring you all (and my husband) will not happen in this lifetime.

Which is why i like to fashion watch.  It makes me enjoy a bit of that horrendously expensive piece of shirt or jeans, only that its just in the imagination.  I picture myself wearing those, and thats it.  I still end up buying items that are on sale and which are last season’s pieces.  And although in my mind i would love to wear other styles and designs, i always end up buying plains, stripes, black, white, blue, nothing fancy.  Well, i actually prefer those, its just that sometimes my mind plays tricks on me and makes me think otherwise.

Lately though, my people and fashion watching have taken a back seat in my MRT priorities as i am just too busy and tired to even care about it.  As soon as i manage to get a seat, i doze off, mornings included.

As far as I’m concerned, motherhood is the best thing that can happen to women.  When you become a mom, you become the person you never thought you are capable of becoming.  You become patient, understanding, loving, caring and most importantly, selfless.  These traits you might already possess previously but the capacity in which you are able to practice and express them you will never know unless you have kids come out of you. Mothers have instincts so amazing that no man ever dare argue about its existence.  Its just there.  From the time we find out from that two stripes in the pregnancy test kit that a new life has began inside of us, we start taking responsiblity of the precious blessing entrusted to us by God. 

Taking care of a child inside our wombs and bringing them into this world is one thing, but raising them up is another thing altogether.  They start out cuddly and helpless, but before you know it, they have grown up so fast, right before your very eyes!  (Check out my photo album). I cringe at the thought of my sons becoming teenagers and courting girls.  God forbid they start at 15!  (im looking at 40).  I cringe some more at the possibility of them becoming interested in serving the military.  This early I talk them out of it and discourage them although Lance my eldest once told me that if I don’t want him to become a soldier, he’d be fine becoming a security guard Carl wants to become a horse, and when i clarified the question and asked him again, when he grows big (not anymore up), what does he want to become, he says "big? okay, giraffe then."  Case closed.

I know i cannot forever be choosing for them, i just have to keep my fingers crossed.  It scares the hell out of me thinking what kind of big guys they will become, what kind of friends they will meet, etc.  But i get comforted by the fact that what they grow up to be is in Jof’s and my hands (at least while they are young).  It is tough, but the paradox of it is while we complain of the difficulties, we enjoy the process.  We fume at the noise, but miss it when its not there. While we can’t wait for them to grow up, we dread the day when they totally cut off the umbilical cord.  I said "they" because i know we mothers will not be the ones to cut it.  No way.

Next week i will be on official overseas trip, and as usual, my ever protective husband was telling me a litany of what not to do, where not to go, etc. But his reminders are all realistic. And then I called to inform my mom.  After asking me all the details, she told me this: "Remember not to accept and eat any food from people you do not know, and be careful not to follow strangers".  I nearly fell off my seat, because those are the same words she tells me as far back as i can remember (i was 4?).  Of course i laughed, but deep inside, now that iam a mother myself, i understand perfectly, for who is to say that she is wrong in saying that to me, and who can tell if i will never do the same thing when my kids are all grown up.  You can ask all the mothers, but no way we will cut the umbilical cord…….

To mama, mamita, jolana, tess, ann marie, JIA mothers and all the mothers out there - Happy Mother’s Day!!!