Missing my bicycle
Auto insurance quotes have never been much of a concern for me as I have never owned a vehicle. Well, not a four-wheeled one anyway. Years back I did drive a motorcycle, and a scooter, sometime around 20 years ago. While I never got insurance for either of those vehicles, I also remember having a lot of fun driving them, even with the few mishaps I’ve had on the road.
What I do miss most is my bicycle. I think if I hadn’t gone into photography as a hobby I would probably have bought myself a bicycle for Christmas. Especially so because I need the exercise and I need to lose weight.
No smoking (for me)
I quit smoking more than 5 years ago, after my OB-Gyne told my husband and me to quit all vices if we wanted to have a baby this late in life. I was in my very late thirties and my husband was merely 4 years younger.
Having said that, I probably will have no need to know where to obtain cigars online, but I’m putting it here for the benefit of those who do. Cigars remind me of my late grandfather. He smoked Alhambra Coronas if I remember correctly. Days after he died the house would smell of it every now and then. That was him, checking up on us 
Dead and dying
The original Nayong Pilipino here in Pasay City is almost dead. Two weeks ago, the Nayong Pilipino Foundation turned over more than half of what remained of the 42 hectare property to the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR). This is in “exchange” for a much smaller piece of real estate in the so-called Bagong Nayong Pilipino Entertainment City Manila on Macapagal Avenue.
While there is nothing left to do but lament its demise, I must also say this to the Nayong Pilipino Foundation:
Newer does not always mean better.
And in my heart there will only be one Nayong Pilipino.
Fashion Failure
My dad’s elder sister, the one who raised me in my pre-puberty years, is a bona fide fashion plate. In her GSIS days (between the late 60’s to the early 80’s) she had a new dress for every party, and most of the time I had a miniature version of what she had. She was always aware of the latest women’s fashion trends.
I remember every other weekend my aunt would weave through the maze of Zurbaran with me in tow, shopping for the latest in fabrics. We would then take our booty to her mother’s dress shop at the corner of Taft Avenue and Nakpil, where my grandmother would conjure a design with a pencil on a corner of her pattern paper, and by next weekend would bring out the finished product with a flourish. My grandmother, well-known among students (and their mothers) who went to the Philippine Women’s University across the street from her shop was considered to be one of the established women’s clothing designers in her time.
I’m rather disappointed that I never got to spend my teen-age years with them. If I had I wouldn’t be the fashion wreck that I am today. Back then neither my aunt nor my grandmother would allow me to attend a wedding in my denims, much less go to the office in them. The office always meant formal clothing, sensible skirts or slacks and Dansko shoes. And makeup. I am helpless in all of that, preferring to wear the office uniform (dark blue polo shirt with the company logo on the sleeve) and either loose slacks or denims and my trusty pair of Converse moccasins. If they were here with me now I’d bet they’d be dropping magazines that offered style resources for women and tut-tutting at me for the way I dress.
About Me
