Narnia Revisited

I bought this book, The Complete Chronicles of Narnia, in August of 2006 during one of the sales at PowerBooks. It is a hardbound book and is a compilation of all the seven Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. I think Z still has all the books from when we were kids. They are all paperbacks and at least twenty years old. I figured if the boys were going to read the book, then a new (less likely to cause asthma) hardbound copy would be better for all of us.

After I got it, I read the book and managed to get one of the boys to read it, too. (Am sure you can guess which of my handsome sons met Aslan in his spare time.)

After we finished reading, I put the book on one of our bookshelves. It stayed there for a long time until the lights went out yesterday afternoon.

As you can imagine, when there is a brown-out then there is no television, no computer, no electric fan. MyGirl decided she wanted to check out her old toys. She settled on playing with Play-Doh in the other room. I decided I wanted to read her a book, so I pulled out the Narnia Chronicles, a chair and a fan for us.

I sat down beside her and read to her as she flattened and cut her Play-Doh into different shapes. MyGirl listened intently as I read to her about Digory and Polly, Uncle Andrew and Jadis.

It was getting dark, not to mention warm. Fortunately, the electricity came back on and we were able to read a couple more chapters.

I don't know when she will finish The Magician's Nephew and whether she will get all the way to The Last Battle, all I know is that going through the first couple of chapters together is always a good way to start.

Of Ducks and Dogs

How could I resist? I thought these were so cute! (And I am not talking about the duck and the dogs.)

Sesame Street

Aside from being a tad out of focus, is there something out of the ordinary in these pictures?

Go Metric

In the 80's there was a song which they played over and over in the television (and radio, I think) to help children remember the conversion from English to Metric. This is the song which plays in my mind when I need to convert temperature between Fahrenheit and Celsius.

It went something like this:

It's easy to change from English to Metric

The secret is fun if you know it

So let's all convert from English to Metric

Let's do it, and share it, and show it

Just multiply inches by 2.54 and you will get centimeters

The feet multiplied by .305 will give you equivalent meters

Just multiply pounds by .45 and you'll get kilograms it's true

The gallons by 3.79 will turn into liters for you!

Subtract 32 from degrees Fahrenheit, the result keep it in mind

If you to multiply that by five over nine,

and you'll get Celsius just fine

The yards and the miles are things of the past

Use meters, and go kilometers

So out with the English, we're modern at last

The system of Metric is (the system of Metric is)

The system of Metric is better!

For those that understand formulas better than lyrics, the song simply translates to

1 inch = 2.54 cm

1 foot = 0.305m

1 pound = 0.45 kg (2.2 lbs. = 1 kg)

1 gallon = 3.79 liters

(deg Fahrenheit - 32) x (5/9) = deg Celsius

The Metric system seems more standard than the English system. The origins of the English measurement were familiar objects and parts of the body. Short distances on the ground were measured with their feet. Longer distances were measured by their paces (a 'mile' being a thousand paces). To measure volumes, there were things such as cups, pails and baskets. The word gallon apparently came from an old name for pail.

Sorry, LondonEye, but in this case, I think the English have to take a step back. Let's face it, not everyone's foot is 12 inches. Besides, think of GI and MyGirl both taking a thousand paces. I'm certain that there will be a huge distance between them by the time they finish counting and pacing.

St. Josemaria Escriva

Happy Feast Day!

Let us pray.

http://www.josemariaescriva.info/index.php?id_cat=328&id_scat=284

I Will Be Here

I fell in love with this song, I Will Be Here, a couple of years back. It was Daddy's (my father-in-law's) birthday and their wedding anniversary. In true von Trapp-like fashion, MacGyver's family came up with a program during the celebration. One of MacGyver's nieces played the keyboards while his older brother sang this song.

It was very touching. After that special day in May, I associated Daddy with the song.

(So unfamiliar was I with the song that it was only after I had heard my brother-in-law sing it did I realize that the song was made popular in the Philippines by Gary Valenciano. )

When my father-in-law passed away four years ago, MacGyver's sister compiled some videos and selected photos of the family. One of the songs she chose as background music for the pictures slide show was I Will Be Here.

The words took on a whole different meaning since Daddy was no longer physically with us. Listening to the song while watching pictures of the family taken over the years and ending with pictures taken during the wake often brought me to tears.

I tried to figure out what the songwriter's true intentions were when he wrote the song. Listening to the lyrics, one can tell it is a song about love. Love which is so intense, so pure, so true. It can apply to a variety of relationships filled with love -- God's love for us, a husband's love for his wife, a parent's love for her child, a person's love for a relative or even love for good friend.

It is truly a beautiful song. And when one is in love, it is easy to relate to such songs.

Opting to write something about this song has led me to various avenues I would not otherwise have explored.

First it led me to the anime against which the music was set.

The movie is called Voices of a Distant Star and it about long-distance relationship between a teenage couple who communicate by sending emails via their mobile phones across interstellar space. Fifteen year old Mikako is a fighter sent out into space because the Earth is being attacked by unknown alien forces from outer space.

The story starts with Mikako remembering her time with Noburo. Noburo stays on Earth, while she goes out to fight in space. They stay in touch is through text messages on their mobile phones but as the distance between them gets bigger, it takes longer to receive messages.

Noburo waits a month, then a year, then a total of eight years and six months to receive mail from his love. The added twist is that Mikako does not age while in space while Noburo grows older alone. Each wait hopefully for the next message that seems to take an eternity to reach them.

(I have to look for the DVD to find out how the movie ends.)

Then it led me to the songwriter.

Steven Curtis Chapman wrote this song. Chapman is a Christian musician. He is also an advocate for adoption. He and his wife Mary Beth have adopted three children from China. (They have three biological children of their own.) They started a charity organization called Shaohannah's Hope. Shaohannah Hope Yan is their first adopted daughter.

I also found the background of the song.

In an interview Steven Curtis Chapman explained, "This song was actually written about my feelings for my wife and family. At the time my parents had divorced, and this was a large burden on my wife. She worried that this would happen between us, so I wrote this song for my wife, promising that I would always be here waiting for her. If God is the most important thing in my life, my wife ranks just below. Even if life may sometimes lack warmth, or there's arguments, if it's not always perfect, I'll still keep my promise."

And finally, it led me to discover that when I made my first draft of this message in May, tragedy had struck the songwriter's family.

His youngest daughter, Maria Sue Chapman, 5, died on the 21st of May 2008 after she was hit in the driveway of their home in Tennessee by a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by her teenage brother.

For anyone who has loved, who is in love, or has lost a loved one, I Will Be Here is not only a song of love, but it is also a song of strength and a song of hope.

I will be here ...

This Myth is BUSTED

It is typhoon signal #3 over Metro Manila.  It is pouring outside and the winds are still quite strong.   

We were having breakfast when a strong gust of wind blew.  MyGirl asked why the window was still open.

I answered with total and absolute conviction, "So that the roof won't fly off."

GI and RD laughed.

"It's true,"  I said (still convinced that I had learned this somewhere when Signal #3 meant I could stay home and enjoy the weather from the comfort of my home).

"I don't think so,"  GI said.

"Then why is there another window open there,"  MyGirl asked.

"So that the wind will have somewhere to exit,"  I explained.

GI and RD laughed even louder.

"So the roof won't fly off,"  I insisted.

When MacGyver and Z surfaced for breakfast, I mentioned my theory and they likewise laughed and shook their head in disbelief.

(Doesn't anybody believe me?  I'm sure I heard that theory from somewhere!)

Since the storm had taken out our internet connection, I had no way to validate my theory.    I was hoping to find another sibling that would corroborate my theory.  Or google keywords to see if I was right or wrong.

GI teased me when I told him that both his dad and his aunt had laughed at my theory.  He mocked me, "Closed window, flying roof theory -- BUSTED!)

Well, the internet is back up.  And well... OK ... I admit it ... I was wrong.  Apparently, having a window open during a hurricane or a typhoon is actually more dangerous.  So I guess we're keeping the windows closed from now on.

 

Father's Day

Father's Day -- 15 June 2008

Today is Father's Day. And what better way to show MacGyver our love than to stick in a CD to his liking while we're in the car.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads, granddads, and dads-to-be out there.

Enchanted

I was in a meeting at the office a couple of weeks back. One of my officemates had just come back from her Scheduled Mandatory Vacation Leave. That meant ten straight days of being on leave and out of the office. I asked her how her SMVL was and she said she watched movies with her two-year old daughter. I asked her if she'd seen the movie Enchanted. Apparently, she hadn't. I offered to lend her our copy.

I was unable to find our copy at home and the next time I saw my officemate, she told me that she had gotten already gotten a hold of a copy of the movie and that she and her daughter were loving it.

The target audience is really women and children. People who don't have kids (or maybe only have boys), those who rarely go to the movies, and definitely those who only go for the action and thriller movies, are not likely to have Enchanted in their list of movies to see. But it is a fun movie. (Check out this clip about it.)

Yes, it is a Disney love story. It is the kind of movie that girls love to watch, boys cringe at, and husbands tolerate. True to its being a Disney movie, the songs in the movie are also nice. (At least MyGirl and I like to think so.)

MyGirl and I enjoy singing this song, much to the dismay of her brothers.

I wish you could have seen MyGirl that afternoon in the car. The kids were in the back seat. I played that song in the CD player in the car. Not ten seconds after the song started, GI groaned.

"Why?" I asked. "What's the matter?"

"Look at her," GI said with disgust.

I turned around and found MyGirl swaying to the music with her eyes closed in the back seat. She was having fun.

"Oh GI, leave her alone and let her enjoy the song," I said.

"In fact," I added, "I think I'll join her," as I started dancing to the music as well.

So in reply to the question asked in the song, "How do I know he loves me?" The answer to that is, among other things, he lets me sing this song out loud without groaning.

Kissing Dolls

There was a time when we scouted the stores diligently for kissing dolls. We had a deadline for this -- December 08. As much as possible, we wanted Father and Mother (mainly Mother) to have a new set of kissing dolls to open on their wedding anniversary.

I remember when these kissing dolls were set up in the living room. Depending on Mother's mood, the dolls would be arranged differently. More often than not, all the pairs would be kissing. However, there were days when we had the boy running after the girl. When Mother was in a mischievous mood, we would see the girl running after the boy. It gave Mother great joy to rearrange these dolls.

I am not sure what made Mother relocate these dolls. For a time they moved to the study room. At the moment, they have found a quiet home in a shelf located as one enters the second floor of the house.

Julia Fordham Concert for P45

It's true! I watched Julia Fordham live in Manila last February 10 for P45. P45 was the parking fee we paid at Glorietta that night. She was in Manila sponsored by the Ayala Malls. So she was making the rounds of the malls and we caught her on her scheduled night at Glorietta.

MacGyver wasn't exactly thrilled but supportive enough to bring me to the mall that evening. We had to leave Cebu Avenue early that afternoon to make it to the malls by 7pm. We positioned ourselves on the second floor since the activity area where the concert was being held was filled up (there are youtube clips so you can get an idea of the set-up). MacGyver stayed for the first song then went off (to the hardware or some place) until the concert ended.

Well, I enjoyed myself.

Go Forth and Multiply

In our house, these big calendars have been put to good use.

When GI was in grade school and their lesson was multiplication, I gathered up our old calendars and started cutting out numbers. Using a pencil, I made grid lines on a white cartolina and glued the seemingly random set of cut-out numbers and made this ... our MULTIPLICATION TABLE.

We posted the multiplication table on one of our walls in the room so that GI could refer to it as needed. Eventually, GI memorized his multiplication table and the table got rolled up and set aside.

It gets displayed whenever someone needs to learn his/her multiplication table. RD practiced with this. And now MyGirl is using it.

I expect that we will be setting it aside soon because MyGirl knows her times tables quite well.

Our favorite multiplication tips are as follows:

• Learn the squares first, they are in red.
• 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100
  
• Multiplication by 4 is simply multiplication by 2 two times.
  
• For multiplication by 5, think of a clock.
  
• 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 would cover 1 to 11
• The 7 table is often hard for them so we try to get some of the numbers out of the way
  
• 7 x 3, that's Black Jack. Twenty-one.
• 7 x 4 is 7 x 2 times 2. 14 x 2. That's 28.
  
• 7 x 6, that's Black Jack times two. Forty-two.
• For 7 x 8, that's mom's favorite. Actually, that originates from 7 plus 8 which is 15. We were married on the 15th of the month, so I always consider 15 special. But we call 7 x 8 Mom's favorite as well and they know that the answer to Mom's favorite (when we are talking multiplication) is fifty-six.
• For the nines table, remind them that the sum of the digits equals NINE and that the first number is one lower than what is being multiplied by 9. Showing them the number pattern in the multiplication table helps
  
• to illustrate : 9 times 7 --> take one lower than 7, that's 6; 6 + THREE equals 9; therefore 9 times 7 is 6 3; it is 63 (sixty-three). This of course is due to the fact that 9 times 7 is the same as (10 x 7) - (1 x 7), and 70 - 7 is 63.
  

Am not sure whether these tips help them out. But so far, I haven't seen any of them flunk math. So I must be doing something right.

I do wonder whether the convenience of having a calculator or Excel readily available will render ME the next person to need this multiplication table. I think I'll be bringing out our flash cards soon. I can pretend they are for MyGirl.

Beauty Before Age

I love it when I am mistaken as being younger than I really am. Most of this message relays stories to that effect. But reality kicks in sooner or later. As you will see as the message comes to a close, it came sooner than I expected.

Baguio (2002 ?)

Z and I approached the Baguio Country Club counter and the lady asked, "Are you twins?"
(We are actually ten years apart.)

Cebu Avenue (2004)

Mother and Father invite friends over for breakfast. When I go downstairs to meet them, one of the visitors asked where i was studying.
(At that time I had been working for over 10 years!)

In a jeep on my way to work (2005)

Jeepney fare just increased to P7.50 with special rate of P6.00 for students. When I handed my P10 coin, the driver asked, "Estudyante?"
(Yes! )
Relax. I admitted I wasn't a student. Besides, he paid me a compliment, I paid him full fare. That about evens the score.

BPI (19 July 2006)

One of my officemates prepared merienda to celebrate her birthday. A group of us were eating together and telling stories. Jerome, who had just transferred in from BPI Family Bank, told a joke. I didn't get the punchline. Another officemate Louie, who was originally from Family Bank, assisted him with the punchline. Jerome then said that Louie didn't used to tell jokes when they were at Family Bank. When asked why, Louie said it was because there was nothing funny at Family Bank and it was only when he transferred to Treasury that he could be his real funny self. I said I'd ask my sister what sort of person Louie really was, that should settle the matter, I said, since she and Louie were batchmates in High School. I was going to leave it at that, when another officemate asked, "Older or younger?"

Poor Louie, he has undoubtedly become the division's Kuya.

Medical Exam (16 September 2006)

When I was applying for a new job, I went for my pre-employment medical and as the guy draws blood, he asks, "First job mo?"
(Do you think he was serious?)


The Shang, Makati -- February 2008

I accompanied MyGirl to a birthday party last. Since the party was to be held at an outdoor play area, I asked her to wear a T-shirt, jeans and rubber shoes. She wore a nice orange T-shirt which her godmother had given her. I opted to wear an orange T-shirt as well. With our matching colors, MyGirl and I were a good looking pair.

On our way out after the party, one of MyGirl's classmates asked, "Who's that, MyGirl? Your older sister?"
(YES! I can still pass as my seven-year old daughter's older sister.)

I relayed the story to MacGyver when he picked us up. Obviously I was amused and needless to say, very much flattered. He smiled and said nothing. (Smart guy!)

Back at Cebu Avenue, after the Party

When I bragged about it to my parents and relayed the story to them later that evening, both RD and MyGirl were listening. My parents shared my joy but RD was quick to object. "That's not possible Mom. You're too OLD."

I didn't get much support from MyGirl either. She agreed with RD and said, "That's right, Mom. You're a MOM."
(Good grief! Can't a girl have her cake and eat it, too?)

Conclusion -- 06 June 2008
Well, I suppose all good things have to come to an end.

When Z visited siblings in the U.S., she bought lots of books, including several piano books. As I was scanning through one of them, MyGirl asked in disbelief, "Mom knows how to play the piano?"

Anxious to defend her sister's honor, Z comes to the rescue and says, "She was taking piano lessons even before I was born."

(Ouch! That didn't sound too flattering.)

Anyway, don't we just wish we could be like this baby? When you're this young and this beautiful, it's hard to decide whether beauty comes before age or age comes before beauty!

Not Just Any Cup of Coffee

It was rare for us to wake up without the children nearby. They were at QC with their grandparents while we had decided to sleep at Makati after our sumptuous dinner at Shakey's the night before.

MacGyver invited me over for coffee at a place where he and his buddies frequent. He had often mentioned that he wanted to bring me there so that I could sample their coffee. But there never seemed to be an excuse to go so we would often just brew our own cups of coffee or go instant in the comfort of our home.

Coffee Plus was just a stone's throw away from the house, situated in one of the nearby gas stations. Since there were no kids to worry about this morning, today seemed to be the perfect time for us to make the trip.

When we got there, we checked out the menu. MacGyver asked what I wanted. Typically, I said, 'Get me the one which has the most milk... a cappuccino, I guess.'

While he lined up for our coffee, I bought some donuts for us. (No, not exactly the healthiest of breakfasts, but we were still kind of celebrating MacGyver's birthday. Healthy food and exercise could come another day.)

The donuts arrived ahead of the coffee. When the coffee arrived, I had to smile. There were two cups of cappuccino on the tray but one of them was overflowing with whipped cream. (Can you guess which one was mine?)

As we sipped our coffee slowly, I realized that this was the first cup of coffee MacGyver has ever bought for me. He apologized but he really didn't have to. I have been practically caffeine-free up until recently. So I don't really look for coffee the way some people I know do.

I might actually remember all the instances when I've had coffee from an honest-to-goodness coffee establishment outside the house.

Let me see..

Believe it or not, I have only had ONE cup of Starbucks coffee. It was in a conference room at Standard Chartered Bank. I attended a meeting there along with some of my colleagues. We were considering SCB as the custodian bank for our securities business at the time. They were the gracious host and had some coffee and sandwiches bought for us from the Starbucks located at the Ground Floor of their building.

I got a free cup of coffee from this place when I lined up last 21 July 2007 to pick up GI's copy of Harry Potter Book 7 from PowerBooks. They gave me a free donut, too.

There is a Figaro right around the corner of our building. During lunchtime, I often see officemates having coffee there. One morning, one of our senior officers wanted to discuss one of my projects that affected him. He insisted on meeting at Figaro. He ordered a cup of coffee and some dessert for himself. Come to think of it, I don't know if I ordered a hot chocolate drink or coffee, but I said I'd pass on the pastry. All I know is that when my drink arrived (again in all its whipped cream glory), he said, 'No wonder you didn't order dessert.'

Be amazed .... I've had TWO cups of coffee from this place. This place is right across our building. The first time I was there, i ordered a cappuccino (so typical). The men I had a lunch meeting with decided they wanted to go for coffee. Who was I to refuse? They were all higher ranking than I was.

The other time was with my girl friends. We had breakfast there to celebrate one of my friends birthday. Food was good and yes, even the regular coffee that came with the meal was good. Needless to say, the company was great!

So here is to more good cups of coffee to come.

Who's On First

You must agree with me that this is a classic.

The problem with classics, of course, is that they tend to be taken for granted. One assumes that 'everyone knows that' when in fact the little ones would say, "I've never heard that one before."

Well, RD and MyGirl, after this you should be able to tell me ... who's on first.