transposable element

inspired by the philippine tourism campaign “it’s more fun in the philippines”, i’ve been looking up places all over the archipelago i haven’t been to, and man, forget about the list of that 1001 places book; i think i could come up with a list of 1,001 places in the philippines alone that i would love to set foot on before i die!

the sad part is that i know that i probably won’t make it, though. living abroad kinda limits the opportunities to pack up and explore. and a lot of the places are not easy to get to. or too expensive to get to. or not suitable for the kids. etc, etc.

i know i sound like i’m making excuses, but i guess it’s time to admit that i’ve lost the wanderlust spirit since i’ve had kids. finding it too tedious/cumbersome to travel with kids, we’ve been opting for easy holiday options: beach, hotel/villa, 3 hour flight max.

but batanes beckons. rolling hills, rustic furniture, windswept landscapes, rugged cliffs, peace and quiet.

soon.

this may be my first post of the year, but ain’t too late. after all, in this country, the lunar new year is more important than that dictated by the gregorian calendar. not that i’m a convert (lo hei isn’t enough of a converter), but after 5 chinese new years in this country, you already kinda get the drift.

well, whichever calendar you follow, here’s to a bountiful, successful, memorable year ahead!

christmas may be over, but the shops are still out to squeeze the last dollar from people’s pockets. now they’re offering further reductions to everything, from clothes, food, books to electronic gadgets and lcd tvs on sale. unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, most people have yet to receive their annual bonuses, typically given (if at all) in the first quarter of the year. this little red dot is a haven for shopaholics!

i thought we’d be done with christmas shopping early this year. the kids’ wishlists are very straightforward, and they were very consistent, no matter how many times we asked them. they knew what they wanted, and luckily they were easy wishes to fulfill. no need to go to extremeterrain for jeep parts or some such requests.

but there’s 9 days to go til christmas, just one weekend left, and there are still a few things to cross off the list. looks like i underestimated our santa duties, arrrgh!

and so i’m back. just as i thought everything was honky dory, i couldnt login to my blog for the longest time. just when there were things i so wanted to write, murphy’s law strikes yet again and i was locked out. oh well.

it’s already the second advent! yet another year almost over. but before that, a shopping fenzy awaits! actually, we’ve already done a small spree of sorts for this year’s advent calendar for the kids, running around town and searching for small items that could fit into the pouches i had sewn… by hand! we’ve also got a few items from this year’s wishlists ticked off although we’ve still a way to go before we’ve got everyone covered.

am also contemplating whether i should attempt (!) to write a family newsletter this year. i skipped writing one last year, as christmas came early whe we flew to europe on the 2nd week of december last year. this year, i’ve no alibi, except that life is just hectic. it’s crazy at work, and there’s no sign of letting up in the last weeks of the year, so am not really sure if i can manage to write one. it’s probably more realistic to get personalised postcard printing done, though: a photo, a few lines and it’s good to go. but then, am not sure if we actually have one decent family photo. hm, we’ll see…

geez, i can’t believe someone actually bothered to hack my blog. for at least two days, my url was unavailable and displayed a link to a sleazy pinoy site. i probably have to put a spoke in their wheels (with steel rims), but i wonder - why my blog? was it a random pick? was it something i wrote that put my blog on their radar?

if they were as smart as hackers ought to be, they should know that my blog is hardly worth their effort - it’s not like there are millions of daily pageviews to hijack. hello.

there have been a number of promos the last couple of weeks at cebupac, and you bet i was checking! of course i knew that there was a near-nil chance that there will ever be promo fares for december, but ey, one can hope, right?

oh well. christmas invitations to celebrate with friends are appreciated, but i wish we could spend the holidays in pinas this year instead. not gonna happen, though, for reasons that are not just budget-related. sigh.

ah, and so the groove comes back. i’m taking to blogging again, and hopefully, it will stay now. i regret the one year hiatus; i hate to think that years from now, i will look back on this blog and feel that there has been a one-year gap in my life. one year that hasn’t been blogged about, hasn’t been chronicled in any social media. pity, as it has actually been one colourful, eventful year.

one thing i was sure, though, is that it was never in my plans to stop. afterall, i didn’t cease paying my domain renewal and hosting fees. it was just a matter of finding the time and getting the ball rolling again.

i’m approaching another turning point in my life. this time, i won’t leave it untold.

my facebook status reads: would you rather be a big fish in a pond or a small fish in the sea?

it’s telling of the next life steps i’m pondering on. actually, i think i’ve pretty much decided what’s best for me even before i posed the question. i’m ready for more. i want more. and i’m willing to exchange being a driver to just being one of the spokes in the wheel, if that’s what it will take me far distances.

because like flowers in the wild, this fish needs more room to grow.

and so the -ber months have started. brace yourselves folks; for some reason, the last third of the year always goes so fast for us, what with all the holidays and school breaks in between. jan’s got a week of school break this month, and then his birthday is coming up. once he returns to school, his schedule is somewhat all over the place - shortened classes, off-schedule school hours due to PSLE, and barely two monts into the last term, the year-end exams. as for mia- she’ll be starting her ballet classes this month!

the next several months will be a flurry of activities, we’ll be sending out personal and business holiday cards before we know it. i hope this year i manage to actually send snail mail ones, at least to close friends and family. yeah, call me old-fashioned, but i proudly belong to the diminishing species that keep the postman going. to colleagues and work contacts, electronic greetings are good enough, but if if could spare the time, i’d rather make the personal effort to send real cards to friends and family, handwritten text and all. kinda makes it more personal, especially nowadays when most of the writing people do are done by tapping on keyboards and touch screens.