Along Coolong

MacGyver passed his driving test yesterday so when the kids wanted to go to the park, he proudly announced that he could drive us there.

We went to the nearby Coolong Reserve. The place has netball courts, a very large grassed area, some picnic tables, a place for barbecues, concrete pathways, children's play areas which include swings, slides, monkey bars and a big climbing web.

This is one of my favorite views of the WEB at the park.

Can you see the diamond patterns?

We usually climb the web when we go to the park.

Here is MyGirl within the diamond patterns ...

... and RD within the hexagons.

That was yesterday.

We went back to the park today and I was able to get a picture of MyGirl within the square patterns.

Our main purpose for today's park visit was to log some biking minutes for RD. Prior to today, RD had a total of zero minutes on the bike here in Australia and possibly less than an hour of biking over all. And I desperately wanted him to learn how to ride a bike.

We were fortunate enough to get a good bike from his first cousin's first cousin and borrow a helmet from one of his cousins. The hitch to biking in Coolong is that we would have to walk to the park because the bike doesn't fit in the trunk.

So walk to the park we did.

When we got there, MacGyver patiently coached RD on how to ride a bike, how to press on the hand brakes, how to break his fall, etc. They went along the concrete walkways taking advantage of the available downhill paths. MyGirl rolled around on her scooter for a while before deciding to climb the spider web. While we were on the web, we watched RD from afar as he balanced himself and manoeuvred his bike.

I was amazed at his progress. He was actually riding a bike.

No major falls, no minor scratches, no tears. (No aching back for MacGyver.)

(RD and MacGyver are the tiny images in the background of this picture, right above the horizontal bar. This was RD's second run on the bike along the path.)

I was so happy for him.

As you can see, he was happy too.

Time to head back home.

I would say this will be one of the more memorable trips to Coolong, especially for RD.

Skype Reunion

We scheduled a Skype reunion the other day. I had sent of an excel file with our respective time zones and had blocked off time slots between midnight and 5 am (even if I know of family members that move furniture at 3am).

I thought it would be easier for us to get together since some family members had flown off to be with family or in-laws for the holidays. J was in the home country, Mindy had flown in on New Year's Eve to be with Eldest Sis, both Sunshine and Slash-M were spending Christmas and New Year's with in-laws. That meant we had less countries and time zones to juggle.

Given the countries and the time difference, the most feasible time slot I found was

9 am 04 Jan -- Sydney (me)

6 am 04 Jan -- Manila (Father, Mother, J and Z)

11 pm 03 Jan -- Spain (Sister Deer) and Sweden (Slash-M)

10pm 03 Jan -- London (London Eye and Sunshine)

5pm 03 Jan -- New Jersey (Jersey Girl) and Virginia (Eldest Sis and Mindy).

Most of us were able to log-in and chat. We got to hear Eldest Sis' daughter play the violin. I was fortunate enough to get GI to play the guitar for everyone to hear. It was an impromptu performance on his part. He wasn't looking at a piece or anything. He just played away -- Ouray by Andy McKee.

(Until I am able to get a video of GI playing, people will have to make do with the original artist.)

Cheap Thrills

GI has been DYING to try out one of the Mythbusters features -- how to tear a phonebook in half. I still can't figure out what all the fuzz is about but I allowed him to try it out just the same.

I'm not sure if this was the technique he applied but apparently he is not alone in these 'check out how strong I am' 'macho man' 'phonebook ripped in half' things.

Was GI up to the challenge?

Apparently so ... check out his "accomplishment for the day."

He tossed the phonebook into the recycling bin. He wanted to try it again but I said one is enough.

First Lesson of the New Year

Christmas often bring new toys and gifts for the children. The New Year gives them the opportunity to play with these things.

RD got a PAPER AIRPLANE 2010 calendar for Christmas. He placed the calendar on the bookshelf in the dining room and he has made one airplane so far. This led MyGirl to dig up the 365 Tiny Paper Airplanes we had included in one of our shipping boxes. GI received this several years back (it was a 2006 calendar) but had not folded up and made them into airplanes.

MyGirl worked on several planes one after the other. She would fold them up then let me see them. My question would always be the same, "Does it fly?"

After several folded planes and test flights, she came upon one which stumped her.

"What kind of airplane is this?" she said as she completed the plane. "It's called TWISTER."

Without even looking, I told her that it was something that would fly vertically and recommended she go upstairs and drop it down.

She was dubious but tried it nonetheless.

To her delight, the twister flew beautifully.

She immediately called her brother to check out her new plane. (He was busy playing with his DS and replied that they had made something like that in school last year.) MyGirl didn't care, she ran up and down the stairs and made the twister fall over and over again. She would call my attention before every flight so that I could see the plane fly.

There was a long break between two sets of flights and I assumed she was making a new plane. However, when she called me to look at the next two test flights, we were sorely disappointed. It was still her original twister but on both occasions, the twister failed to turn and simply plopped down as she let go.

"Ohhh," MyGirl sighed as the twister gave a dismal second performance.

I suggested that she re-fold the plane and try again.

"But I already glued it," she replied.

Eureka!

I explained to her that these airplanes are able to fly because the paper is light. Putting glue on the plane, I told her, weighed it down making it impossible for the plane to fly properly.

She immediately understood the consequences of her actions and decided to use one of the previously folded sheets to make a new twister. After a couple of minutes, she called out again to show me her new twister.

It few magnificently.

I am reminded of a story which (I believe) Sister Deer had once told me about how ducks constantly clean themselves to be free from dirt and mud. She said that they do this because if they are packed in muck they are unable to fly. Her point? In order to "fly" and reach heaven, we too should be clean and free from 'dirt.'

It is the start of the year -- the usual time for resolutions to be made. The New Year, just as each new day, gives as the opportunity to do the right thing. Besides, it never hurts to try to be better everyday.

Happy New Year, all. And Good Luck on all those New Year's resolutions.

Jacob and Rachel

You probably don't know Jacob and Rachel. The truth is, neither do I. All I know is that Jacob and Rachel were both welcomed into the Catholic Church last Sunday during our mass at St. Bernadette's. It was a beautiful day to be baptised because the Church was celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family on that day.

They say that the day of our baptism is the one we should celebrate more than our birthdays. It is the day we are truly born. MacGyver and I chose special days for our little angels to be baptised. GI born 10 September 1993 was baptised on the Feast of the Guardian Angels, 02 October. RD who was born 30 December 1997 was baptised on the Feast of the Child Jesus (Sto. Nino) the following year, 17 January 1998. MyGirl was born on 26 January 2001. She was baptised on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 11 February. (I don't know for sure but I think I was baptised on Father's birthday.)

Going back to Jacob and Rachel.

We usually stay on the side of the church where the tabernacle and the baptismal font are located. However, last Sunday was the first time I'd seen the baptismal font at work. The baptism was incorporated into the mass. The couples and their respective babies, Jacob and Rachel, were asked to stand in front every so often as various rites were performed.

At a certain point, the priest left the two couples in front as he turned on the water at the fountain. To my surprise, when it came time for the babies to be baptised, the priest carried the babies one at a time and immersed them into the water. Yes, they were in their birthday suit.

Both Jacob and Rachel cried as their bodies touched the water. They didn't stay underwater for very long. The priest quickly returned them to their parents and all was well again.

I found the whole ceremony very impressive indeed. Very different from the baptismal rites at the home country which are normally done in a secluded corner of the church with only the immediate family and godparents around.

Now, I wonder what happens during adult baptisms here.

BCP Nightmare

I was standing outside the K-Mart at Castle Towers at 6:55 am last Sunday. It was their first day to open after the Christmas and Boxing Day holiday. It also meant that it was the first day of their post-Christmas sale. Like most stores, there were advertisements online and they had distributed pamphlets several days before Christmas showing which items would be on sale.

I was just after a small non-stick Tefal pan. The flyer said Tefal pans would be 50% off!

I thought that I wouldn't be able to wake up before 7 because I had slept past 2 am that morning determined to get the collation of chapters for a book Mother is working on. When I went to bed, I told myself -- if the pan is for me, the pan is for me.

At 6:30am, MyGirl was pushing against me although she was still asleep. It was nice and cool, and frankly, I needed the extra shut-eye. But MyGirl just kept on pushing so I took that to mean I was supposed to get up. (Go for the Tefal pan. Go for the Tefal pan.)

I dressed up and headed for K-Mart on foot. Castle Towers is a 15 to 20 minute walk from Northern Views. When I got there, there were about twenty or so people scattered by the entrance of K-Mart. A few minutes after 7am, two ladies came out and an announcement was made, "We're sorry for the inconvenience but we are unable to let you inside yet. We are having problems with the power and it is affecting our cash registers."

There was immediate feedback of murmurs, groans and objections from the crowd. One fellow asked if they could let people inside even if the cash registers weren't up yet. All he wanted to do was pick up the item he had come early for and according to him, he didn't mind waiting for an hour at the cash register. His main point was that in 15 minutes, there could be an additional hundred people waiting outside with him.

Unfortunately, the sales lady said that they could not do that because it was their policy not to allow shoppers within the premises if they were not equipped to process the sale. She also mentioned that there was a security issue involved.

As the minutes passed, I overheard conversations being exchanged. Each with their own different opinions about the situation at hand. Someone said, "Of course they can't really let people in, especially if they aren't able to secure the cash in the registers." Another person said, "The lady is just doing her job. He should understand that and give her a break." One lady said, "Well if the power is out then their security alarms might not be working so naturally they can't let people come in."

The K-mart ladies came out again at about 7:15am to repeat their message to the increasing number of shoppers. In spite the announcement and explanation, there was a repeated request to be let in from one of the gentlemen in the crowd who had just arrived. Naturally, the man who had spoken up earlier harped that he had asked that fifteen minutes ago.

I couldn't help but feel bad for these two ladies. Yes, they were only doing their jobs and surely they were doing their best. I am certain that the last thing they had hoped for when they went to work at 6:30 am this morning was to find that they would not be able to power up.

I could somehow relate to them. First it was MM2, then it was OPICS, then Oracle BIEE not to mention those PC-based programs. These were the systems I had to work with while at the Bank. Whenever one is directly involved in systems, there is always that risk that something would go wrong.

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery have, in the recent years, become more common terms in the Philippine banking community to provide some sort of preparation for potential problems. I can't be sure if the need for this was highlighted as a result of the feared millennium bug or the inability to access the Makati Business District during the Oakwood mutiny in 2003. All I know is that banks have certainly heightened their awareness over the reality of the risks involved and have dedicated time and resources to mitigate these risks. I am also sure that way back in the early 1990's when the employee union went on strike at the Bank (and we had to sleepover at the Bank), we didn't have a manual telling us what we were supposed to do. We just did it!

I would think that manufacturing and other service- and operations-related businesses have years of experience ahead of banks (in the Philippines) in this field. I wondered whether K-Mart and the like have these kinds of contingency planning and disaster scenarios in their operations manuals. I suppose they do.

However, there is nothing like experiencing the problem first-hand. One thing is for sure, when disaster strikes in real life, it is never as simple and straight-forward as it was during the BCP exercise.

Fortunately for the K-Mart personnel, they were able to resolve their problem and open up the stores before 7:30am and I was able to get a new Tefal pan for the house.

Christmas Past

I have always, always spent Christmas at Cebu Avenue. This is the first Christmas I have spent away from home. As you know, we are starting anew and now I have a new place to call home. (Or is it 'Now I have to call a new place home'?)

Although we did have a very good Christmas here, I think my mind will always wander back to the Cebu Avenue living room on Christmas mornings. We would wake everyone up at the wee hours of the morning and check out the gifts under the Christmas tree. As children, we never did the Noche Buena thing so waking up at 5:30am was not a big issue. We wanted to be able to open gifts as early as possible and have enough time to take breakfast before catching the 9 am mass.

We used to have piles of gifts under the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree would be in the corner on a Christmas tree skirt with all our names. (Was I the one who practiced my calligraphy and made outlines of our names on the tree skirt? Did we paint it using the Tri-Chem? I don't remember now.) The tree would have been put up some time early December and decorated with an assortment of Christmas ornament gathered through the years. A star would be placed on the top of the tree and the lights would go around. As gifts were received from godparents, family and friends, these were placed under the tree.

On Christmas Eve, family members would place his/her gifts for the others under the tree before going to sleep on Christmas eve. Imagine ten people giving gifts to nine other people. (RD's math tells me that there would be at least ninety gifts under the tree!). Our gifts would often be simple (hair clips or stickers or the like), practical (T-shirts or books), whimsical (puzzles) or fun (toys or games). If bigger gifts were in the Christmas list, siblings would pitch in and split the cost so that the gift could be bought. The wrapper would range from fancy Betsy Clark (either for or from London Eye) to practical Manila Bulletin (signature Slash-M and J). If it were wrapped "innovatively", in all likelihood, Mindy was the giver of the gift (Snap-Wrap has yet to be patented). We would play the Ray Conniff Christmas CD (I have a copy of the CD with me and perhaps this is the first year I have not played it since it is still in its shipping box) and sing along and "... count our blessings instead of sheep." If it was cold on that particular Christmas morning, we would look for the blue mink blanket (which I believe is with Eldest Sis now).

Someone would be in charge of distributing gifts. Names would be called out and piles of gifts would be formed in the living room. When all the gifts had been distributed, we would wake Father and Mother up (if they were not yet awake) and then we would open our gifts. My memory fails me ... I don't know if we opened gifts one by one or if everybody opened their gifts at the same time. All I know is that by the time Mother called us for breakfast, there was wrapping paper and gifts galore all over the floor.

Breakfast would usually include food we had received as Christmas gifts -- ensaymada, ham, apples, oranges, grapes, etc. If we were lucky, we'd have hot chocolate as part of our meal.

Christmas mass would be the 9am mass at Twin Hearts. After which we would be preparing for Christmas lunch. (Yes, more food.)

Christmas lunch was special because relatives we hardly see during the year would make the effort to drop by and have lunch with us. There was always a lot of food because we are quite a big clan and we never really knew who would come. I think Mother's invitation was never really RSVP. It was more "you know where to find us, if you are free for lunch, come on over."

Father's brother would come with his family, usually bringing extra fruits or dessert. Most of the other visitors were Mother's cousins and their families. Sometimes family friends would find their way to the house and join us. We had a particular aunt who would often come home for Christmas from the US. She was always fun to have around. And prior to one of her sons taking up photography, she would be the one pulling out her camera and calling everyone for a group photo. As things turned digital, she was still holding on to her camera with film and manual focus. (I should ask her to scan our family photos over the years. That would be a sight to see.)

This family gathering has dwindled to fewer relatives in the recent years as more of my generation has gotten married. I suppose many have conflicting lunch obligations, some have moved away, others are probably just too tired from the Christmas Eve activities. Regardless of the number of people, if I know Mother, rain or shine she will prepare Christmas lunch and will welcome those who comes over for Christmas lunch with open arms.