Anything & Everything

I think that all Madridistas are thirsty for a win over Barcelona and tomorrow... That was supposed to be my intro for my blog update last Friday in time for the El Clasico the next day but then I wasn't able to finish it...had to write my articles first as well as the reports before I could give a take on one of the most exciting matches of all time.  Friends, and blog readers, know that I have always been a Madridista...long before Azkals came and even when Manchester United was on everybody favorite football team. While I am still a Madridista, I have opened my heart and my loyalty to 2 other teams: the Philippine Azkals because I am a Filipino and I am proud that we now have a National Team, and FC Schalke 04 because Raul my ultimate football fave is now with Schalke. I felt bad when he left and felt let down by what I felt was set down by my own team to one of their legends but still I held on. Real Madrid hasn't been winning much the past years so much s...

After a long drought for Rafael Nadal, it was quite nice to see him help the Spanish Armada - together with Feliciano Lopez, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, Marcel Granollers, and team coach Albert Costa - win the Davis Cup for Spain against Argentina. Below is the video of him against one of his bffs Pico Monaco on the first day of Davis Cup, which of course he won. It was great to see him play so passionately again...the past matches have been plagued with illness and the likes and I am always gutted to see him so sad. He has admitted though that the next year will be better for him....which the fans are all waiting for. On the very last match of the very last pro tennis event on the calendar he played against Argentina's del Potro. He was in a position to clinch the win for Spain and he came through. The game was not all win for him as he played at the first game of the match without a win in the service game. It was only when he was down 6-1, 2-0 when he roared back to eve...

On the first day of December, fourteen years ago, I got an early Christmas gift. Up until now, and most likely until the end of time, it remains to be the best gift I ever got. Can literally say he was a big, bouncing baby boy but boy was he also expensive. He is what my beloved ob-gyne calls my miracle baby since a year before that I had a miscarriage and an operation to remove my left ovary was done. Only a small portion of my right ovary was free from ovarian cyst but my doc painstakingly removed the worse off it which took her almost four hours to do. As of my last check up before I reported back to my office back in 1997 I wasn’t fertile enough to get pregnant. But the good Lord had other plans for me and gave me this blessing. The past 14 years is something I cherish, it wasn't always smooth sailing and there are some things I regret but, the one thing that I can say I truly don’t regret 100% is having my son. So anything related to that fact may be a little painful but ...

The other day I had a discussion with my 13 year old son about his blatant disregard for my instructions and the PDRRMC Advisory 2:  “Even in the absence of signals from Pagasa and in view of emerging consensus that the rains are likely further accelerate, for the safety and health of our community, we hereby order the EARLY DISMISSAL OF CLASSES in Kinder, Elementary and Highschool, private and public, in the entire province of Albay. School administrators and teachers should advise their students to no longer report in the afternoon. Parents are advised to fetch their children from school. This is an early dismissal, not a suspension, thus classes automatically resume tomorrow without need for lifting. I came home from the office earlier than he did and so I talked to him. He was silent and at first I thought he understood why I was very mad about it. But then when he replied to me with three suggestions including transferring him to the school in our town so he would not be able ...

While reading some parenting articles, I read this one article about manners that I knew I had to blog about it. Kids are easy enough to teach manners, it's actually following it up that sucks. Because when they see somebody else doing something really gross but funny they tend to do the same thing...that is when it's crucial to say it is wrong. If they get away with it even just once then they will do it again. Pin It Parents tend to let them get away with it, especially when they do it in public and some people find it hilarious. Make no mistake about it, there are people who find it really funny when a kid burps so loud, well, this still falls under manners right? Seriously though, at my age, I still tell my dad where am going and how late I will be home and I expect my son to do the same thing...for me that is simple courtesy. And up until now, I remind my son to say thank you (he does say thank you normally but sometimes when busy he seems to forget). Not reminding ...

Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Things We Can Do In Support  via HubPages As October is just around the corner, my FB inbox is getting filled up again with messages from women friends asking me to update my status which of course keeps a lot of men friends guessing what’s with the intriguing status. Who wouldn’t be with such a status as this?

A list of funny things that Moms say! Pin It A little birdy told me Always wear clean underwear in case you are in an accident Am I talking to a brick wall? You’re the eldest, you should know better! Just wait until your father gets home. You will always be my little baby. Are you trying to poke your eye out with that stick? You’d forget your head if it wasn't stuck on your shoulders. You had best take that look off your face before I take it off for you. You could grow potatoes in those ears. Just who do you think you are talking to? When you have kids of your own, you’ll understand Do you think money grows on trees? Were you born in a stable? Close that door. Some day you will thank me for this. I've had it up to here with you. I’m going to give you to the count of 3. I don’t care who started it – you are going to STOP it! I can’t believe you did that! Don’t put that in your mouth, you don’t know where its been. Did you flush? Not under my roof you ...

Probably my favorite line in his speech to the 2005 Stanford University graduates in the commencement address. Something that we all can learn from.

Just got invited to vote on Miss Bus Stop Contest but unfortunately I can't decide yet which one to choose as I feel that I would love to wait for a bus here anytime. I will wait for other representatives, am just truly sorry I cannot share any nice enough bus stop here in the Philippines. I never really had much experience with bus stops since the system of transportation in the Philippines is quite different and less disciplined if I must say. Bust stops in the Philippines are either bus terminals housing not only several transportation buses going to different places but also food stalls and even supermarket so one can buy 'pasalubong' for their friends and loved ones. Or they are random bus stops somewhere in the middle of nowhere or in between stores. The one thing that those working in the corporate world doesn't like about is the fact that when riding the less expensive non-air conditioned bus or jeepney you don't seem to be in control of the passengers and...

Retailers and some online clothing stores never learn. Just a few weeks ago, in time for back-to-school shopping, JC Penney was forced to yank a sweater that read their “ I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother does it for me ”. There was an online outcry and concerned parents, furious moms and disgusted customers made use of petition website Change.org to produce thousands of signatures from people and forced them to take it off their shelves. Cited as not giving kids today appropriate messages but rather sexist messages, these retailers should have learned especially since kids, tweens and teens are their clientele. But no, some have to do it again and force parents and customers to file a petition against them. The recent perpetrator of these inappropriate messages on their cheap t-shirts is Forever 21, a California-based chain of stores that sells inexpensive clothing to teens. The cheap tee shirts retail for $12.80 and really look good with jeans to give teens a relaxed g...

The Americans in the US were not the only ones paying tribute to their loved ones who perished in the different events that made up what we call the tragedy that changed the world, Sept 11. Maybe unbeknownst to many Filipinos, there was one American married to a Filipino who died that day. And her legacy lives on in a once squalid and reeking with garbage slum in Manila turned into an orderly village that bears her name with 50 brightly one-storey colored homes built in her memory by her husband. As the world pays tribute to their fellowmen in the US, residents of Marie Rose Abad GK Village offered roses, balloons, and prayers for their benefactor. According to her Philippine-born American husband Rudy, he had it built in her memory in 2004 as a tribute to their 26 years of marriage and her unfulfilled desire to help the poor in the Philippines. This she saw when they first came here in 1989. After having described to her the Philippines as a paradise, they were appalled to see t...

I am gutted because Rafael Nadal did not win the 2011 US Open but at the same time proud that he really did well on the match. The Rafa of old was back and I am so happy for him.  Though some do question the timing of Noles medical time out we cannot accuse him of doing it to stop the trend Rafa was on...he was serving and being good at it as usual. We have to admit that Novak Djokovic played brilliantly. As one reporter described it and I quote: Djokovic’s style will never be quite as mellifluous as Roger Federer’s, and neither does he have the pugilistic quality of Nadal   At the moment, though, he is a more complete player than either. He has become unbreakable – an agile and beautifully balanced athlete who has developed a near-mystical faith in his own ability.   The certainty of his vision is uncanny. We saw it in the semi-final, where he faced match point on Federer’s serve and whipped an untouchable return crosscourt. And we saw it again yesterday. Rafael Nadal ...

Ten years ago, on Sept 11, it was late at night or should I say almost early morning and I was watching TV alone when suddenly CNN broke the news about the Twin Tower attack. I was shocked that it could happen to a country like the USA. Then when I saw the tower collapsing, I felt it was crumbling, people jumping from the tower and people looking up at them in shock and horror knowing that they couldn't help. I have not always agreed with some of the US policies that affected our political will and human rights but on that day I wasn’t thinking about imperialism and ideology…I wasn’t an activist rallying for change. I was just a human being shocked by the capacity of people to hate that they can do something so horrendous without any qualms. Maybe they had, but I didn’t see it the first time they hit the tower, nor the second time they did, or when they tried to hit the white House or the Pentagon. They didn’t have qualms about killing some 2,819 innocent people. Visit msnb...

Been wanting to write about a lot of things but time has been running really fats for me…at the end of the day all I want to do is stretch out on my bed, put up my legs, and pray I get to sleep the soonest. But alas it isn’t possible with several kids wanting this or that. I have only one son but have several nieces and nephews.  Yesterday though I saw this girl wearing what I thought was a one of those simple plain t-shirts only to realize there was a slogan on the front which was quite small I had to stare at it to read. Then I saw her looking at me, I guess waiting for my reaction which of course she didn’t have to wait for long.  I gave her what my son calls my ‘tiger look’ or the ‘stare that could kill a thousand ships’…oh yes, my own son has different names for it. Going back to the girl…how would you as a mother or a woman feel when you see a girl wearing a t-shirt with ‘ Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful, hate me because I have huge boobs. ’ I did not give her a l...

Very recently Matt Damon gave a speech thousands of teachers, parents and others who attended the Save Our Schools march on the Ellipse near the White House to protest the Obama administration’s education policies that are centered on standardized tests. While this has nothing to do with the education here in our country, I just had to commend and thus blog about Matt Damon’s stand. I also do not feel it is right that the salaries of teachers, whether here or in other countries, should depend on the results of the standardized tests of the school children. While I certainly hope that children all learn to read and write because their children were concerned about them learning we have to agree that children have different learning capabilities. There are different ways to teach a child and one style would not work for all. Children’s learning process does not run the same way. Some may learn fast while others need special attention. Some may learn easily in groups while others may wa...