stories from the middle earth press room

a former journalist told me yesterday that at the end of the day it's not worth it, running yourself to the ground. for what? dahil masipag ka sa yo lahat itatambak ang utos. oo nga gagaling ka nga pero at what price? and you're serving the agenda of your bosses, which is beyond your control and all you can do is bow, being a slave that you are.

at dahil masipag ka lahat ng trabaho sa yo ipapasa tapos yung iba pakuyakuyakoy lang. at dahil alam nila may magtatrabaho na iba, mas lalong masarap ang pagkukuyakoy nila.

that's the wisdom imparted to me by a former practitioner who is now quite happy and i think who is now growing rich in his new field.

an older colleague yesterday also commented that it's still monday and i am already scowling and deep in my reveries. too serious. taking things too seriously as if what i'm churning out everyday have to qualify for the pulitzer prize.

maybe i let myself be pushed around by my bosses and the whole industry.

i need a break. i hope i get sick. i'm so f*cking tired.

i was reading again the Vogue December 2006 article on La Fallaci (Oriana Fallaci) and the similarities in her and the article author's (janine di giovanni) lives. they both were feisty female journalists who eschewed personal life for journalistic excellence. la fallaci died without a child nor a husband (her lover died tragically in some car accident) but di giovanni opted to take the opposite direction -- she left baghdad and decided leave her life as a war correspondent to have a life. after years covering conflicts, she realized that her work has eaten up her entire life and she didn't have any life to speak of.

i am far from being a celebrated journalist but i can relate to the part there that my work is eating into my life. i don't see my friends anymore because i am too tired to do so. the rare moments i get to hang out socially is when i am with my sisters and cousin. Other Half and i couldn't take our annual vacation because of my tight schedule.

i don't know if i am being exploited already. i do a lot of special reports left and right on top of my daily spot reporting without extra pay. problema kasi there is no way you can say no to a boss. i don't know how my other colleagues manage to go out and have fun but it seems like they can. maybe because their employers are not as demanding as mine. sometimes i envy them.

but then again i don't want to be mediocre.

i guess that fuels me to be a workaholic, as crystal told me many times. i am a workaholic. i don't want to be just a run of the mill whatever.

but then again, i am trading quality of life for a name.

i am already tired and freaking out.

but who says being a practitioner is a walk in the park? i need help.

yes, it's so funny. my desire to exact revenge on sisa died when i learned she is now gay.

as in she likes girls.

in fact she is chasing girls. i don't know why but now it seems like i don't have any reason to be angry with her anymore. she may still be a bitch but my anger may have mellowed down because of the fact assumption that she is not a threat anymore. is she?

that's kinda sad for me (yeah i know it's sick) since i love to hate her. i often fantasized how i would let her eat my dirt. i have played the situations in my head how i would humiliate her or put her down. now that desire has gone kaput.

yeah i know it's kinda crazy of me since it has been years ago but i still harbored this hatred, this anger towards her. i don't let go of petty things like that, things that shook me hard. it's the scorpio in me.

i remember i used to love to hate this girl in college...

let's call her christine.

i never hid the fact that i hated her and she knew it. now don't ask me why (it was all in the past). the thing here is, all my excess energy was spent on hating christine. she was like a this doll that was thrown at me to show that i was not her. christine became an embodiment of all my insecurities -- like i was not "girlie girl" like her (for crying out loud, i was a football varsity player!!!), i didn't dress like her, i didn't grow her hair like she did, she was not uncouth like me, like i was not as pretty as christine, etc. etc.

i never felt uglier in my life. and the f*cking part is i felt like that for YEARS.

i hated her for that. what hurt so bad at that time was that there was this someone who asked indirectly why can't i be like christine. (looking back i can't believe i let myself fall into that trap!)

thus this inexplicable hatred.

i wanted to hurt christine by telling people how i felt about her. my bestfriend was friends with christine and her circle of girlie girl friends but i didn't prevent my bestfriend from going out with her/them. i may be crazy but i'm not that harsh. i had another highschool friend who was also friendly with christine (since both of them were pursuing pre-med degrees) and i didn't hide my dislike for christine from my friend because i want my friend to let christine know that.

it was so illogical, this intense negative feelings toward christine but i relished it. so weird of me.

i knew my only "edge" over this girl was that i knew i was more intellectually gifted than her. i took up a zoology course (which was like planets away from my bachelor's degree) to prove that point. she was also taking up zoology at that time but with a different course number. there was this one time i topped an exam, my professor (god bless her soul she just passed away last week) posted the names of the topnotchers on the zoology department board or door (can't remember which). i knew christine saw it. i wanted to throw that fact to her face. and it has been like that ever since. my name was plastered again on the bulletin board of the chemistry department for being one of the topnotchers. i fervently wanted her to see that.

that is one sick motivation for studying and topping exams at that time.

it was like that for almost all of my college life. it seemed like there was this imaginary rivalry between us. the sad part was it was just on my part. i was creating my own demon.

i knew she was unhappy with the way things were going between us. christine was a nice girl kasi. she didn't like agonized over the fact that someone like me hated her, a common friend told me. she wanted us to be friends and she even arranged a heart-to-heart talk with me inside the campus church. i obliged and we did talk. but that didn't ease the pain, my anger didn't subside. i still hated her. i told her i wouldn't be able to put on an elastic smile when we meet on the street. i just told her i'll live my life as if she didn't exist. i was that rude to her.

it was only when i got out of that deceitful whatever that i realized my folly, my irrationality. yeah, i was demented.

i committed a grave error. towards christine.

it was too late to realize that christine was just used to make me feel bad about myself because someone couldn't handle the truth that i was too good for that someone. that's why that someone planted the seed of insecurity in me. and that seed's name was christine. it was a deliberate effort to put me down, to make me feel worthless, unpretty. it was a horrible feeling, i tell you.

but the damage has been done.

it was a long time before i woke up to the truth that i didn't have any reason to hate her. and it was idiotic of me for believing that, all the lies to make me feel like a public toilet during a dysentery epidemic. it was a long time before i believed that i was pretty, that i was charming and all that crap. that guys like me. i was too blind to see that. and i just drove them away to the sidelines. SAYANG! i was just too wrapped up in my own f*cking little world filled with filthy anger and hatred.

it took me a while to learn that if i only believed in myself and stopped trying to measure up to christine, i would've been a happier soul. i should've spent my energies elsewhere, to something more productive like...trying to be a better football player? i sucked at that.

too many tears wasted. too much putrid angst locked up inside. i wanted to tell christine i was sorry but there was no point.

but i was able to say my apologies to her at one point. i don't know if she recognized it as my way of saying sorry but...

about four years ago, i heard that christine was being a slave to this on-off boyfriend of hers from college. she was agonizing whether she should go back to him or not, christine's sister (who is the gf of a friend, let's call him M) said. christine could not move on.

one day, i caught her ex-not-so-ex boyfriend cavorting with another girl inside a van parked *somewhere*. that somwhere is notorious for all the unholy things done there. anyway, he saw that i saw him so he shut the van's door, hoping i didn't see him.

i told my friend M about it, who in turn told his gf (christine's sister). i think that settled it for christine. her sister (who also knew of my past with christine) thanked me for telling the truth about christine's shmarmy bf. i guess christine is happier now with that.

i ran into her in megamall in january. i said hi. she said hi.

but i saw in her face that she was having a hard time recongnizing me. and i knew that when we both turned around she remembered ME. who i was.

and i didn't feel bad that she wasn't able to recognize me because i've become fat.

i wasn't insecure of her anymore.

and now back to sisa. what i felt towards sisa was somewhat similar to what i had with christine...the betrayal, the lies, the insecurities...

and now, do i still feel the same? i guess her being a lesbian changed all that.

my boss gave his nod to my so-called study leave this july to september to finish mg friggin' thesis. plus i'll be attending classes again as penalty for not finishing my studies on time. sheesh. if only i could get out of the rut i am in similar to that comic strip above...

and the comic strip below is so true. i'm actually applying it to my thesis, which is in the same stage as that of the comic trip above.

aside from the lack of comfortable working areas, we practitioners/road warriors are often targets of these effing thieves.

tapos pinapatay kami.

kawawa naman si tatang ted. kabibigay (salary deduction) pa man din sa kanila ng office yun sa kanya,

2 journalists lose laptops to robbers

The Philippine Star

Two journalists lost their laptop computers to robbers Wednesday.

Ted Torres, editor of The STAR’s banking and finance section, lost his Apple Ibook laptop at the UCC café in Makati City Wednesday morning.

He said he was in a meeting at the café, and when his companion left the table to pay their bill, a man allegedly walked by and told him that his money was on the floor.

Torres said he took the money. When he looked toward their table, he saw that his laptop bag was already gone. He said he did not report the incident to the police since the chances of retrieving his computer are very slim.

Makati City police chief Superintendent Gilbert Cruz said he will order an investigation into the incident.

Manila Standard Today reporter Joel Egco, 35, said he parked his van in front of the City State Tower building in Pasig City past midnight Wednesday to attend to his radio program on dwIZ.

However, when he returned home in Bago Bantay, Quezon City, he discovered that his P29,000 laptop and two Nokia cables worth P3,000 were missing.

Egco believes that a suspicious-looking person who used a nearby automated teller machine had something to do with the robbery. He hopes the footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera will help police solve the case.

He said there have been many robberies in the area.   – Michael Punongbayan, Non Alquitran

 

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whatever happened to newsbreak? sorry, i'm so out of the loop, i don't know if they've already closed shop or what. kasi ilan sa kanila nasa ABS-CBN interactive na eh. kaya nga nagkaroon ata sa kanila ng reshuffle. on the other side of the fence, GMA.tv has new bosses also kaya nagreshuffle din sila. the past few days parang wala sila masyadong coporate stories. hmmm...

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aside from the systemic problem with the agriculltural sector (naku nangunguna dito DA, anlalabo ng programa, isa syang malaking sore thumb. GMA rice and GMA corn my ass! i should know, i've worked there for almost 3 years!), accelerating population growth ang isa sa mga problema natin. di na natin kayang pakainin ang sambayanan.

the catholic church's dogmatic teaching re population control is a throwback to the middle ages. so stupid, really. and this government is more stupid for following the catholic church's edicts.

sa tingin mo ba sa taas ng bilihin ngayon (6.2 percent inflation rate!) sa tingin mo ba kayang pakainin ng isang trabahador sa ang 10 nyang anak na nagsisiksikan sa barung-barong on P325 a day?

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where is my deutsche welle channel?! sky cable, where is my german channel? where is my tv mundo? where is my NHK and KBS? SHAME ON YOU!!! we're sky cable silver subscribers for YEARS! di makatarungan ito. eto na nga lang pinapanood ko eh.

oy benpres, sumagot ka!

buti pa cable namin sa probinsya. may history channel na, may discovery travel and living pa. hmpph!

...is the kind of person you are.

i was so disturbed this afternoon when i found out how an acquaintance treated their househelp.

i rode my japanese bike (with the basket and all -- the kind that you see in japanese movies and tv series) this afternoon and went to Other Half's *whatever*'s (let's just call them acquiantance since i don't know them that much) house also in the same phase in our subdivision to give our much belated wedding gift.

i rang the doorbell and the househelp went out of the townhouse's door but couldn't open the gate. it was locked. she was locked in. she was helpless. she didn't have a key and her employers were out. there was no way -- no opening or anything big enough -- where i could shove the big box into the other side of the gate. you see the gate ran from the top of the garage ceiling (it's a townhouse, you get the picture) sagad hanggang sahig.

i was aghast. i asked her why she didn't have a key. she couldn't answer me straight. she said her employers are out and may come back much later.

i mean what the f*ck are these people thinking?!

they lock up their househelp from the outside while they're are gone. she was prisoner there! i wanted to ask her why she was locked up but that was already too nosy of me. but probably she could sense my indignation when i asked her why she didn't have a key.

what kind of people are they? did they lock her to prevent her from enjoying a quiet sunday out of the house? doesn't she have any day-off at all?! what if the house was on fire? the househelp would've burned to death!

because of that, the couple -- Other Half's whatever went down several hundred of notches lower in my list of people whom i would be friendly with.

i texted my husband about it (he was on his way to the North for a trip) and of course maanghang na naman ang mga pinagsasabi ko. he said "do not judge a book by its cover". tanginang cover yan.

sorry, but i hate people who do not treat their househelp well.

the househelp for me is part of the family.

i was raised by a yaya who had been with us since i was a month old and left us when i was already 14 (but she was not under our employ by then but she lived with us still after she got in as a clerk in our univeristy). she and her sister, who also took care of us, were flown in by my mother when i got married to witness how i've grown up. without my yaya (but we never called our yayas yaya but ate), i don't know how my parents would've managed since they were both busy with work, graduate school, and their sidelines.

my mother's current househelp has been with us for at least 10 years. she cried with us when my father died. we've been through a lot with her there. she's also family. we share with our househelp what we have. whenever my mother goes abroad, she also gives her househelp pasalubong.

i'm not saying that you should treat your househelp like how we treat ours but at least you could give them more dignity by not locking them up inside the house when you're not there. you could be at least generous with food. and do not scold them by saying harsh words that make them feel undignified. if they committed an error, focus on the error and do not degrade their character like "Ang tanga-tanga mo naman! Sa uli-uli ipasok mo sa kukote mong maliit na ganito ang pagpunas ng mesa!"

how would you feel if your boss said something like that?

please do not take advantage of their desperate situation. i call it desperate because they wouldn't want to be employed as househelp if they had a choice.

there is this old biddy that i love to hate dislike (the former was such a strong word) because of a lot of things but one of which is she is overbearing. she also treats her maids like trash. her maids have separate food (of course the food is much inferior compared to the food the rest of the household has) and i don't remember if i heard that they should buy their own provisions i.e. food.

that is so cruel. i could only imagine their anguish while cooking the sumptuous dinner of their amo that they could not eat.

Other Half said masama daw ugali ko pero i can't stomach it, being "friendly" to this woman. di ako plastic. i'm not forcing people to like somebody so i don't want people to force me to like somebody, too.

anway, i hope i don't sound so righteous here but can't help myself. i am so angry until now because of what i've seen this afternoon. and i thought they were a decent couple...

that's appleseed: ex machina. it's far better than the appleseed released in 2004 but it's not as gripping as ghost in the shell (*i wub GITS!*) -- any of the ghost in the shell movies or series in general.

here's the gist. i'll just grab something from the internet since i'm not in a mood to tell the story.

"The utopian city of Olympus is under attack by high-minded terrorists bent on controlling the will of the world's population - be they human, cyborg or the artificially-created Bioroids - and it's up to spunky ES.W.A.T. enforcer Deunan Knute, her impossibly skilled cyborg partner (and lover) Briareos, to bring them down. Added to the mix is a brand new Bioroid model named Tereus, created from Briareos' DNA, who finds himself developing feelings for Deunan..." -- from animenewsnetwork

Other Half told me that ex machina is already available locally so we went to astrovision at the podium yesterday to grab an original DVD copy. yes, i was that impatient to watch it (not waiting for a bootleg copy of it) since i know that the appleseed manga author is the same one who created ghost in the shell.

but i had apprehensions about the movie since they had john woo as the producer. i suddenly had visions of deuna (the lead protagonist) doing major-motoko-kusanage-moves in slow motion (think matrix's trinity falling from a building firing two guns at the same time). with falling bullet cases to boot. in slow mo.

cheekily john woo.

i was right.

in the first scene in the cathedral, there were so many john woo signature moves and camera shots/angles that it seems like the director, shinji aramaki, was not left with no other choice. ok, i correct myself. aramaki's signature moves and john woo's were the same (and you'll see that in the 2004 appleseed movie): back-to-back (as in they literally had their backs on each other) gun fighting, deuna flipping a la cartwheels while shooting enemies with both hands using machine guns, etc. woo and aramaki should marry each other.

the whole movie i was like "oooh, i already saw this in face off" or "ah, i've seen this before. where was it? (probably broken arrow)".

don't get me wrong. i love the action scenes. but there was too much john woo in it that it gets so tiresome. like i've seen all these things before...the big explosion at the background while the characters jump for their lives in slo mo -- like they're flying or something -- to grab the door of a futuristic helicopter ready to depart a sinking floating laboratory of some mad scientist.

really.

as for the storyline, it's simple enough for neanderthals to understand. no mind games like ghost in the shell: innocence.

as animenewsnetwork said:

"Ex Machina feels a bit more like an American action movie, with a simple plot that zips right along from action sequence to action sequence, stopping occasionally for brief expository conversations between the principal characters..."

and that's the most beautiful part for non-cerebral people. they don't have to think hard to follow the story. nor the contrived love triangle.

i was quite taken with the art (CGI that doesn't feel like CGI) on hindsight the CGI still isn't at par with umm...ratatouille. i like the action sequences but that's just it. i was expecting something more from a shirow masamune creation.

i was left hanging. like i was shortchanged. i want to have my P500 P250 back (Other Half and I split the cost). maybe the problem with me was i was looking for ghost in the shell or full metal alchemist-type of japanese animation.

i wanted to scream, "you don't need john woo! you don't need hollywood for any stamp of quality!" but hey, it's a business. they have to penetrate the US market. maybe that's the reason why they stayed away from GITS because that kind of cerebral movie is not attractive to the land of simpletons.

the movie is very pretty. if you wanna watch it for its visuals, you'll not be disappointed. this movie has not taken the standard a notch higher when it comes to animation but otherwise great CGI. good mecha. (yo! mecha fans out there!). and please don't watch it in english dubs, there are baduy lines there (as usual in english dubs). opt for the original japanese dubs. as the critics said, japanese dubbing is an art form. just in the case of get backers.

but if you want something more, better wait for a live action GITS. with kate beckinsale in it. haha, just joking.

seriously though, this is not the type of movie you'll talk about after viewing it. except for the art.

found this for some reason here in carlos celran's blog.

"Hello. Call me "Zippo".

For the weekend after my 40th birthday, I decided to treat myself to finally read Kitty Go’s “WHEN CHIC HITS THE FAN.” I used the word “TREAT” because the work I read before this was Samuel Huntington’s tome “Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the New World Order” which, took me a grueling whole month to digest.

I also use the word “TREAT” because the book was so deliciously wicked and juicy! When I finished the book, I literally made a sign of the cross and thanked the Lord for yanking me out of the world inhabited by the likes of Alicia Santos-Daniels, Tommy Hu, and Raissa Molina.

I was born to a pretty well-off family. Home was that subdivision called Forbes Park and was on the same street as “Silverio Han’s” parents’ house.

Dad, may he rest in peace, was a great businessman whose only “vice” was fine art. I grew up with the works of Amorsolo, Luna, Hidalgo, Ocampo, Malantic, Simon Flores, and the Old Bohol Masters hung around our home.

Mom was a woman of leisure who threw great parties and got invited to fabulous ones. Thanks to her mother and the fact that she was an only child, my mom had an extraordinary jewelry collection which she would use quite often (think: canary yellow diamond studs while playing mahjong – which was quite often).

Mom and dad’s parties were dutifully covered by “Tommy Hu” (he was still writing for the Times Journal [pre-EDSA 1 days]). I could still remember “Corina Caballero” attending one of the parties (nobody really paid much attention to her at that time). “Mrs. Ponce” was a constant staple at these parties (although she was not yet a newspaper publisher at that time). So was “Zenaida Zulueta’s” step-mother-in-law and “Emilio Lorenzo de Vergel’s” legitimate wife, the gracious “Maria Luisa Concio.”

Needless to say, my surroundings affected me. I went to the most exclusive of boy’s school in the Philippines of which my dad was an alumnus and of which my parents were benefactors. Even with other rich kids around me (some are now Congressmen, Governors, even Senators), I pretty much had just “a little more than the others.” “Mandy Jacob” from the book (c’mon, we all know who HE really is) was a schoolmate. So was “Raissa Molina’s” husband.

I had my first proper bespoke suit at 12 (London, not Hong Kong). I was wearing a gold Cartier Tank Watch at 13 when my classmates were wearing Citizens, Seikos, and Casios. I pretty much “ruled” high school.

Upon graduating from high school, dad gifted me with a solid gold Patek Philippe (which was originally HIS father’s), an Amorsolo canvas, and an imported European sports coupe with red paint, red, leather interior, red carpeting – hell everything was red including the f***ing steering wheel.

The family vacationed in either Hawaii (where my lola had a hilltop house overlooking the Pearl Harbor), San Francisco (where the folks had a Victorian Townhouse), New York (usually at the Carlyle or the Pierre – had to be Upper EAST Side baby), London (where the folks “invested” in a townhouse off Kensington Garden), or Paris (where we’d usually stay with this family who owned the most prestigious Cognac company in France – friends of my folks).

I hung out with the “right” crowd (with the “right” family names). I remember meeting “Alicia Santos-Daniels” in college (up HE and I went to the same University). He was this ever-smiling guy who was soft spoken (and was, at that time, a “newly converted” Born-Again Christian). Our group would, at times, invite him to lunch with us or play backgammon during class breaks because we kinda took pity at him because he was hanging out with no one.

My barkada went out with the right girls, also with the right “pedigree” (NOT Alicia, of course, as we suspected that he was sort of, uhmmm, swinging another way but we never took it against him). The right girls meant girls like “Raissa Molina” (no, I never dated her) and other debutante types. In fact, for 2 consecutive years, I had girlfriends who were named by Tommy Hu as the “Debutante of the Year” in his annual year-end “Who’s In and Who’s Out List”. I also dated some models but, thankfully, never “the willowy Nicky Nivera” (whom we all know is really a WOMAN).

I took up law where I met my wife (another spoiled brat like me). We were the “IT” couple who eventually had to get married because I knocked her up and her dad, who was, at that time, running for re-election, was about to make good on his threat to kill me.

Marriage was a grand event courtesy of my mom who asked the well-known cousin of “Ned Nivera” to assist her in the wedding preparations. Covered by the “society” columns of ALL newspapers and by, at that time, the ONLY glossy magazine in the Philippines.

Lawyering was great. Great because of my parent’s connections. I was made partner at 31 of the most prestigious law firm in the country. I sat on the boards of various corporations together with such personalities as: “Silverio Hans” and his father Henry; “Pedring and Gloria Quesada” (sabi na nga ba he was gay, I always suspected); “Christina Lorenzo de Vergel’s” now late uncle Eugenio; “Zenaida Zulueta’s” now late father-in-law (although because of a sorry accident in Spain never really attended board meetings that much); “Alexis Carbonel’s” estranged uncle “Eduardo”; and “Felicia Muñoz’s” uncle Jorge.

I was a “Boy Wonder”. I was so good at what I did that because of a written legal opinion that saved him billions, Kitty Go’s mythically miserly taipan uncle actually ordered and PAID for a bottle of Dom Perignon 1976 and actually SHARED the bottle with me (the last lawyer who saved him billions before I did, he made into his son-in-law!).

Lawyering was great also because of what it gave me materially. A house in Wack-Wack, a Piaget platinum watch, a limited edition Panerai, a Mercedes 280 SEL, golf memberships, etc.

I ate at the best of restaurants. Played golf. Skied. Fooled around. I wore bespoke suits made with material from Loro Piana and Zegna. I only wore custom-made Ascot Chang shirts with my monogram. I amassed a collection of over 1,000 neckties.

It was great until I lost it all during the Asian economic crisis. One wrong stupid investment and I was wiped out. I couldn’t run to my parents as dad just died and, besides, I was too proud to ask for help.

I had to sell EVERYTHING. Goodbye house. Goodbye cars. Goodbye club memberships. Goodbye watches. To top it all, the wife ran off with the son of one of the country’s leading industrialists taking my one and only own son with them.

I resigned from the firm and from all those boards which, just a few years back, considered me as their “legal eagle boy wonder’. Unlike Kitty, I couldn’t afford to go to the French Alps. I was penniless. I had nothing except a few hundred thousand pesos, a 2nd hand car, and a Seiko Kinetic watch. I did keep my dad’s gold Patek Philippe which I turned over to my mom for safekeeping (I was actually afraid that I might be tempted to sell or pawn it). I want to leave this to my son.

One day, as I was lying down in bed back in my mom’s house in Forbes, I decided to end everything. No, not my life. I decided to end my dependence in things material.

I took my measly belongings, boarded a plane for a southern province, and decided to start over.

I decided to immerse myself in criminal law to help the under-priveleged. I took on cases nobody wanted to take because the clients had nothing to pay. I was sometimes paid with freshly caught seafood, chicken, eggs, sacks of rice, or, a great number of times, with a smile and a simple thank you.

I learned to wear a barong to Court with no cuff links. I learned to take public transportation to save on gasoline. I learned to eat with just a spoon and a fork (stainless steel with unmatched patterns, no knife). I learned that a tea and scones at Claridge’s is equivalent to 3 months’ income for most people. I learned how to pray. I learned how to give thanks for what I still had. I learned how to look at a person straight in the eye. In short, I learned how to LIVE.

Four years ago, in that Southern province, I met a woman 15 years my junior. She did NOT have the right family name but she was well-educated and a voracious reader. She was a fresh engineering graduate from UP who went back to her province to help. She was the most beautiful and down to earth woman I’ve ever met. Over the objection of my family, we got married (no pre-nup). No member of my family attended. Only my best friend way back from high school attended.

Last year, she got an offer from a multi-national corporation. I also got an offer from an old client to start a BPO.

I am now back from where I came from. Much wiser.

My mom has a condo unit at One Roxas Triangle (the same condo building where “Alexis Carbonel” lives with her new husband James). Mom was offering the condo to me for my use. I politely refused.

We’re now in a rented 3-bedroom in an old condo in Legazpi Village from where I am writing this piece. It’s a simple home. Nothing from Firma. Nothing from Old Asia. No McGuire furniture. No Sub-Zero ref. While we do have a car (a Toyota – courtesy of the office), we walk about a block and a half to Ayala Avenue to our respective office buildings in order to save on gasoline.

We rarely eat out but the wife and I and our 2 year old daughter always make it a point to have dinner together and always with my 15 year old son when he visits us during the weekend.

My only vices are: (i) books; (ii) reading to my 2 year old daughter; (iii) my daily 1 hour telephone call to my son at 9:00pm when we talk for the first 30 minutes and then simultaneously watch “Jeopardy” on Channel 53 at 9:30pm while still on the phone with each other; and (iv) sharing thoughts with my wife. We go to mass on Sundays, pray together as a family before going to bed. I couldn’t be any happier.

A few months back, I was in a simple T-Shirt, jeans, and an old pair of rubber shoes. I was at a mall with my wife on our way to buy some groceries. I see a familiar face walking towards me. It was “Alicia Santos-Daniels.” I smile at HIM and called out his name. He looks at me. I tell him, “It’s me” then I give out my name. He stares at what I’m wearing. He gives me a very faint smile. He walks away.

Earlier, I wrote that AFTER reading “When Chic Hits the Fan”, I immediately said a prayer of thanks. I thanked the Lord from the bottom of my heart that I am FINALLY blessed with a happy life.

Anton, I also prayed for you that, someday, you’ll be blessed with one too..."

i mean, this is a heart-warming story and all but is there really somebody out there like him? is he for real?

in my short stint as a practitioner, wala akong sinasanto or i'm not really in awe of "high people" because that is my job part of my job. but i know some of these people in alta sociedad whom i cover everyday are far removed from my world and therefore i guess they do not know about the joys and sorrows of people like me contend with everyday. so that's why i question the authenticity of this person, this blog commenter who claims he personally knew the supposedly characters in kitty go's books.