There are many beautiful places in the Philippines that I have made the resolve that each time I go there for personal and/or business purposes, I would go to at least one place I have not visited. Recently, an opportunity to do this came. I joined my Mother and…
“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.” Dale Carnegie (American lecturer, author, 1888-1955) Al Fresco ceiling at St. Mary's Cathedral With the recent resignation of Catholic Pope Benedict, and when the German-born leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics said…
It’s jolting and quite eye-opening really when one wakes up to a sad realisation that I have not, for almost two decades now, produced “great literature” since I migrated to Australia in 1993. Looking back the last time I won a Palanca for a one-act play Isang Dulang Romantiko Sa…
Aside from the dreaded medical tests that we, the fairer sex, have to undertake every two years, the annual date with the ‘Vampire’ is another I would avoid if I could. I nearly hyperventilated just from looking at the long list of tests that my doctor had ordered to be…
“Salad Days as Opposed to Darkest Hours” Just as there’s more than one way to skin a cat, there will always be two sides to a coin. Ergo, everyone relates to a significant past in his/her own way given an unimaginable gamut of wide ranging experiences buried in the hearts…
Today – 21 September – will forever be etched in my memory, as I am pretty sure it’s the same in the collective consciousness or unconsciousness of the people affected by it. The fact that the people I love, and my lifetime friends or BFF’s (Best Friends Forever) treat me…
(Lines written in a whirlwind, inspired as I am, by the photo sent by my bosom friend Benny Chan, Saturday, 8th of September, 2012) I feed you back what you have fed me for years Each seed, every crumb, are all bits and pieces That succoured my wounds Bled, sweated…
If you remember in the early 1980s, the catch-phrase “Life. Be In It” was a phenomenal success in Australia, campaigning for physical sports and to encourage men and women to be more active in life eg. walking as an exercise for fitness. In order words, to live more for our…
Dear Faith, After years of waiting for a daughter to call my own, becoming a mother for the second time was a thought gradually swept in the dark corner of my imagination. But the grand plan was never mine so when the great news was announced, your father and I…
Jose Garcia: 'Everyday is an adventure...' Notwithstanding all the privacy and security issues we have written about Facebook, we still find the social media site as a truly effective sharing site. We don’t mean “sharing” in the sense of those status updates which look mundane, but of those gems from…
Commentaries on Philippine Studies