Whirlwind (ipo ipo) in Quezon City

Friday, June 24, 2011- It was a lazy rainy day. My cousin Adele was coming over to visit my daughter-in-law Angel and the new born baby Yuri. Adele arrived around 11:30 in the morning and stayed for about 30 minutes or so. When she was about to leave, the rain started to get stronger. I walked her to the gate, thank her for the social visit and told her to be careful for the weather was getting bad. Then before I sat down for lunch, the lights went off. Although it was the noon time yet the sky was dark and so was the house inside. Lucas, Marion and I took our lunch in candlelight. I always had handy candles for emergency.
We didn't even notice anything wrong until about an hour or so when Martha and some of my daughters' friends began texting them to inquire about our safety at home. It seemed that a baby whirlwind had traversed several streets in New Manila and caused havoc and the disruption of electricity. I estimated that the baby tornado began sometime after my cousin Adele left. Scary to think that her car passed through the vicinity and she was that close to getting harmed. Thank God for protecting her.
The whirlwind incident was freaky because there was no wide open spaces for it to begin with. And in New Manila, there were aplenty of shrubs and trees growing around. Weird! According to news report, the whirlwind lasted only for few seconds, but the property damage was pretty bad. A lot of shrubs and big tree branches fell down on the roads. Fences were destroyed and roofs blown away. I saw uprooted trees and toppled down electric posts. To think that it was near our place. ( 9th Street, Balete Drive, Camias St., Poinsettia Street etc) No wonder electricity was cut off. This weather disturbance was really weird. It happened during a storm season.The typhoon did not even make a land fall, none the less it rained the whole day through. The rain was continuous and the weather was bad that Lucas and I were kind of worried about Emil who was enplaning to Manila from Davao from a corporate business trip. Emil's flight was delayed. Thankfully, the rain stopped late at night. We fetched Emil from the airport around 11PM. Thank God for his safe flight home. And thank God for keeping us all safe that day. We thank you O God.

Repairs .........

A lot to repair:
1. Leak in our water pipes. We need to re-pipe the whole water system. Work on going. Urgg!!! What a mess!
2. Re-tile some toilets and bathrooms. Work also on going.
3. Lucas supervised the repair of the front gate yesterday. The gate was so heavy that my brother Boy provided me 5 men to do the task. The back laundry gate was done last month. Thanks to my brother Boy for the men and the use of the welding machine. They could not have been done without his help and concern.
4. Lucas fixed the loose plug and electric wire of our living room stand fan.
5. Changed the blades of two other electric fans in the house.
6. The helpers unclogged the kitchen sink.
7. Lucas saw a mouse inside the house this morning! Help!!! We bought catch papers to possibly and hopefully catch the mouse. I hope there is only one mouse to catch. Help!!!

Yuri Isaiah Tan

Yuri Isaiah Tan is my second grandchild from Tom and Angel. He was born on June 18, 2011, an 8.2 lbs and 51 cm baby boy. He has round face with big cheeks. I thank God for the safe and smooth delivery of Angel. With all my heart I have been praying for the safety of both mother and child. Thank you Lord for this wonderful gift! May Yuri grow to be strong, healthy and good. May the good Lord bless him always.

2011 Cotabato Flood Pics

Cotabato Floods

In 2008, I blogged about flooding in Cotabato. 3 years later, today, the flooding has become worst. Local officials have not really solved the problems. There may be intermittent reliefs but that was because of the dry weather or season. The waterways have not really been cleared to prevent flooding.
Notre Dame University suspended the opening of classes due to its low lying location. All the areas around it are swamped.
My alma mater CCI suspended classes today because the school quadrangle was wet with water seeping out from the ground. I knew all along that it wouldn't take long before the school has to suspend classes. For one the kindergarten lawn will be the first to get flooded. The toilets there will be smelly and non-functional due to overflowing of septic tank. Really, we don't have to wait for the Matampay Bridge to break from the high rising of water and current.
Water level is high in Cotabato City due to rains and the clogging of the Delta Bridge from hectares of waterlilies that have formed into some kind of a land mass and water barrier.
If you want a clear picture of the extend of flooding in Cotabato City, Know that Notre Dame Avenue? This morning, the whole street was flooded up to Charley's Bakery area. 
I offered Jean Valentino to come stay with us and also my sister-in-law Rosita Chua to stay dry here on higher grounds. But they all prefer to stay inside their own homes, fearful that their properties will be stolen once they leave. That is another sad truth.
Poor Cotabato!

Meeting Rita

Despite everybody being busy in Manila, my friend Imelda and I scheduled a lunch date to meet Rita who came home from Canada. Rita was going to leave the Philippines in two days time. We had to meet despite all our busyness. So we decided to have lunch together in the nearest vicinity which was at Greenhills. Rita, Imelda and I, we all grew up in Cotabato City. We shared cherished childhood memories of a well loved hometown and school which is sad to say, have seen a lot of deterioration these days.
Most of my high school friends are no longer living in Cotabato but they keep abreast of the latest news and we keep in touch with each other.
And so we met, chose a quiet restaurant, shared paella valenciana for lunch and had chorus con chocolate for dessert. It was so nice meeting one another and sharing our personal life experiences. We had so much to talk about that our lunch lasted from 12:30 to 3 PM. If we could only stretch our time but all of us had to leave because each had other appointments at 3:30PM.
"Next visit," I said. "We have to spend one whole day together. One lunch is not enough."
Rita's next visit will be next year which is our 44th year class reunion. Time really moves so fast. Have we even noticed that we're getting old?! Hah!

Everybody Is Busy

So I come to Manila for a lot of things: personal follow ups of documents, make important inquiries, visit my children, commemorate my father's 20th year death anniversary etc.
People may think that I am busy but not quite. I finish half my errands in two days time. My children, they are the real busy ones. They work hard and are very conscientious with their responsibilities. Before I get up in the morning, they are already gone from home, on their way to work. Last Wednesday, when I came home from Baclaran at 1 AM in the morning, Tom was still up doing his homework. Even my friends here are all preoccupied. I don't get to see anyone of them this time. What I hear from my friends, kins and siblings, and what I get most of the time here in Manila are domestic help problems. For me, it has always been an un-ending one problem after the other. One of these days, the young ones should try to be self reliant and not depend too much on them like me. Domestic help it seems is everyone's household problem these days. Everybody is busy at work and at home too!