Reposting Pictures from France

 Emil at the gates of Notre Dame Cathedral

 River Seine Tour

 Family picture in Paris (less Tom & Angel and children)

 Monet's house and garden at Giverny, Normandy, France

Shopping at underground Louvre

 Versailles 

 Lourdes, France ( I will have a separate posting for Lourdes)

 Louvre

 Roy and the Winged Victory at Louvre

 Sacred Heart Church

 Lucas and the gregarious painter at Montmarte

 We walked the streets of Paris, took the commute train to the Museum de Orsey, went up to the bridge of locks, worked our walking muscles to the obelisk, ate ice cream at the park, walked the stretch of Champ Elysses and triumphantly reached the Arc de Triumph

 One day shopping at Printemps and Galleries de Lafayette

 Three course fine dinning experience

 Saying goodbye to Roy at the airport, and left Paris for the Philippines.

End of our journey to England and France.

Reposting Pictures from England's Trip

 Meeting up with Roy (second from left) and Marion (third from left) at Heathrow.

 First dinner in England along Victoria Street, London.

Four-star Victoria's Lodge, Kenilworth High Street, Coventry.

 Kenilworth old castle ruin

Shopping at Royal Lemington Spa

At a quaint restaurant near Warwick Castle

 The noble knight at Warwick Castle

 The ladies at Kensington Palace 

Reposting 2012 Travel to England and France Via Singapore

Lucas, Emil, Martha and I embarked on a journey to England and France on September 2012. We were going to visit Marion and meet up with Roy in London. The four of us took an intentional overnight stop in Singapore to explore the beautiful well developed country. Singapore is an envy for all Asian nations.

Father and son inside Naia.

Lunch at Lau Pa Sat in Singapore

Mother and daughter on top of the Marina Sands

Taking shots of the building from the ground

At the Marina Sands Garden

Restful snacks at the hotel lobby with the Chinese ensembles at the back.

Pictures Lost

Hey! I lost all my pictures from the Multiply site before I relocated to Blogspot! They were just there few weeks ago, now they're gone. I don't know how to retrieve them back. I thought when I asked my daughter to move my old blog to the new site, all the other pictures posted before got transferred too. I did not know that they would be there only temporarily. Now they are gone!!! What a pity to lose all those memorable photos!! Argh!!!!!

Life

Life has its ups and downs. When things don't go my way, I try to make the most out of what it can offer. Most of the time, I don't get what I want, but I try my best to work and fight for whatever I believe is due me and what I can possibly achieve.

At some point in my young life, where I knew I was deficient in knowledge and abilities, I tried catching up. Although many a times because of my easy-going and lazy personality, I gave up a lot of hard works. But God knows how much I tried to learn and to improve myself. I picked up tips from my environment. I observed and listened and I remembered well what I saw and heard. I practiced my diction, I improved my awful handwriting, I listened to opinions, I read a few, I tried to be socially graceful and later discovered that it was by getting interested in other people, that one gets appreciated. One of my foremost exemplary models then and until now was my cousin Nelly.

When face with life's difficulty beyond my control, I pray. I pray a lot because I know God listens. He helps me go through and softens my fears, heart aches and pains. When I was in my early fifties, I went through a period of depression. I did not want my husband to know. But I cried each time I woke up in the morning and before going to bed at night. It was the best time to cry, Lucas would be at work when I woke up and he was asleep by the time I went to bed. How I got over this depression, I myself did not even know. What I know is that, whenever I pray the rosary, it calms me down. And sometimes I kept myself busy, just like tonight, I try writing this blog to take away whatever is bothering me. And I sing to myself. " God will make a way, where there seems to be no way....."

Life has many surprises, sometimes good, sometimes bad. I am scared of life. Tonight I am not feeling good physically. But I trust my God. He will take care of me and my love ones. Have mercy O Lord, have mercy!

Updates: Updated my grammatical errors this morning, and feeling much better after a good sleep last night.

Pope Francis

Last night Philippine time at around 12 o'clock in the evening, I tried to stay up late, curiously watching CNN for the coverage of the conclave on it's fourth voting, intently looking at the small window beside the big screen that focused on-live the chimney of the Sistine Chapel where the black or white smoke will come out to declare if we would soon have a new pope or not. I waited for almost an hour but my eyes could not take the constant shifting of view from the big picture to the small caption, that soon my temple began to throb and a migraine was clearly on the onset. So I turned off the tv, went to sleep and just hoped to wake up to a good out-come the next morning.

This morning, I woke up to the good news that a new pope was elected. He is a Jesuit priest. (I heard they are like the counter parts of the Marines). Viva Pope Francis! May God bless you in this difficult time of shepherding your flocks. Thank you God for our pope!!! I love You!

Yearly Events

When I was young, I remember my cousin Adele telling me. "If you look forward and follow all the important events that transpire in a year, you will find out that one year passes by so quickly." 

A year does pass by really fast and basing on the events that I follow annually, below are celebrations that I usually observed:

1. New Year's Day - It used to be a family beach day until kidnapping started in the city. Now, new year has become a nice rest day for everybody.

2. Chinese New Year - This is usually celebrated around January or February basing on the lunar calendar. I get to celebrate Chinese New Year more traditionally after I married Lucas. I have been hosting the family dinner ever since the demise of my mother-in-law. She used to live with me and the ancestral pictures are hanged at my home. The Tan family members come to eat together whenever they are around.

3. Valentine's Day - I really do not anticipate celebrating Valentine's Day at all. Honestly, when I was young, I dreaded even the thought of the approach of Valentines for obvious reasons. Hahaha. (Until my husband came a courting.) Generally, Chinese guys are quite passive when it comes to overt romantic gestures. But sometimes Lucas would surprise me once in awhile. Hehehe.

4. Wedding Anniversary - Lucas and I got married on February 17, 1974. Each year, I do all the planning and preparation to celebrate the occasion. Sometimes we spend it together by our twosome, or with our children, other times with friends. Be it big or small, I have so much to be thankful for.

5. Closing of the school year and/or graduation - The event usually takes place in March. I look forward to vacation time. Each time my children finished school, I felt ever so very proud and teary eyed during their graduations. When St. Martha School was still functioning, I headed the commencement exercise. The kindergarten school always had memorable, inspiring and interesting closing ceremonies.

6. Holy Week - I like to observe Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday in Cotabato.

7. Summer vacation - When I was teaching, I had 2 month summer vacation with pay, so I spent most of my time and money by bringing my family to different places in the Philippines. We liked to go to the beaches most specially. Up till now, I look forward to spending my vacation with them.

8. School Opening in June - Whenever I go to the mall and see stores with school uniforms on display and school supplies on stacks, it makes me sad to think that my summer vacation is over, and back to work I must go.This feeling pervades even though I am a retired teacher now.

9. Birthdays - Lucas was born on July 12 and my eldest son Roy on July 15. Traditionally on July 12, we treat our store workers and house helps with meriendas. They look forward to it.

10. School foundation day in September - CCI my high school alma mater foundation day is celebrated on September 3. It was a big event before but now a days, I don't relish attending any of it's program anymore. September 8 though is a special day for our Blessed Virgin Mother. Without her, how can we human ever be saved by Jesus.

11. Moon Festival -This is an auspicious day for celebrating anything. It is a festive lunar event in Asia. It is our house anniversary in Cotabato too. Back when the city was still safe, our group of friends would play traditional mooncake party at home. Lately the friends have dispersed and stayed away, but I still celebrate it privately by hanging a yellow lantern, eating sweet mooncake and drinking Chinese tea with my husband.

12. October - Semetral break happens around end of October to first week of November. My sister Helen's birthday is on October 31. If I were in Manila, I would invite myself to her birthday. We don't observe Halloween here but rather we prepare to go to the cemetery on November 1st - All Souls Day.

14. More birthdays - ever since I was young, November has been a month long celebration of birthdays.  Many of us cousins and kins are November born. My best friends Imelda and Anita, we used to call ourselves "The Scorpians". I tend to get along well with people of the same zodiac sign who are passionate, sincere and honest and those who shun getting too much attention for themselves. Scorpios are known to be dangerously toxic creatures but generally, they blend well with their environment.

15. December is my favorite month. The happy yuletide season: the carolings, the festivity, the holiday greetings and decorations, parties, dawn masses, family reunions, homecoming, new years eve celebration etc. It tops them all! I go through the wonderful events of the year and enjoy each month but deep in my heart, like a child, I wait for Christmas season to arrive.

At the moment, graduation is on the air and school is closing fast. Pretty soon, you'll see me swimming and relaxing in one of the nice beaches of the Philippines. Hehehe.

Dance Exercise Revived

It is good to be dancing again. We have revived our dance exercise. Although it is only done once a week but it feels great to have the weekly session back. We are now on our 4th week. Not bad. We have learned and memorized our first dance moves "the gangnam style" Hahaha! That's remarkable for ladies our age! The second dance which is called "Wakawaka", (I don't know if that's the right name of the song) is slower but needs more hip movements and grace. That will be a challenge for stiff bodies! More ambitiously we are planning to have a ballroom dance activity at home by hiring dance instructors who will take turns dancing with us. I hope to lose weight faster through these enjoyable activities. I hope and pray that Cotabato will be a peaceful and safer city, so that we can have a more normal and active life to live by.