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Friday, May 12, 2017

Beautiful May

The month of May is hot and humid here in the Philippines, more so here in Cotabato, but we love the month of May for many things:
1. It is vacation time. Parents sigh with relief and children play without care. The sophisticated goes abroad, but there are more fun with beach and sun and sand here in our islands.
2. May is the month of our Blessed Mother, hence there are also plenty of fiestas in her honor. My parish the Queen of Peace Church will have its festivities on the last Sunday of May. There are on-going catechism classes for neighboring kids. First Communion and Confirmation will be held during the fiesta mass. There will be the customary brunch fare also for the community after the mass.
3. Tomorrow May 13 is the 100 year anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima. I plan to attend the early morning mass and a celebratory breakfast afterwards. I will be sharing 2 rolls of Red Ribbon cakes. There will be pancit, bread and coffee, etal, as per voluntary contribution of some members. 
4. There are weddings. My husband Lucas will act as one of the primary sponsors during the wedding of the son of our employee Nestor this coming May 18.
5. Birthday celebrations too - I just attended the 91st birthday celebration of Cherry Lao this May 10th. My daughter-in-law Angel also celebrated her 38th birthday that same day in Cebu. Today is the birthday of my uncle Fernando Go in Manila. Good health, long life and a happy disposition are my best wishes for him. The most popular May birthday celebrant though is our parish grand dame Lily Uy (everybody calls her Mother Lily). She is well known for her big and varied and generous gala spread. Her birthday theme this year is Hawaiian. Lily has hired a party coordinator to teach Hawaiian dance numbers to the MMLC for her birthday programme. She also offered to pay for their costumes too. Everybody is now in a competition to be the best hawaiian dancer I suppose. I will not be joining this party though for I plan to go to Manila to continue with repainting my house before the on set of the rainy season this June. I am happy to get out of the way. I pray for the party to be a big success, only the best for this generous and kindhearted lady who is the pillar of the ladies organization of our parish. And here I also have another invitation from Juliet Tsang for the birthday celebration of her father in Davao on May 30, but which I will not be attending since I may still be in Manila. Wishing all the birthday celebrants the best of everything.
6. And by the way, this coming May 19, my daughter Marion is going to Paris for a ph.d conference from New Zealand. It is going to be a long tiring trip but may our Lady keep her safe always. I pray for her to have a safe, happy and successful journey most specially because she is doing this on this beautiful month of May which synonymously belongs to our lovely Lady.
Here's wishing everybody a happy and beautiful month of May, with blessings from the Lord.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Social Events....

My simple retiree's life looks forward to enjoying social events such as church activities and other happy celebratory occasions:

1.Last April 28, 2017, my sister-in-law Conchita Tan celebrated her 80th birthday. The gala celebration had her children coming home to Cotabato to grace the important milestone. They were George and Maria coming from Boston, Grace from Atlanta, Giselle from Singapore and Eugene and Aimee with three young kids from Davao. From the extended family, the children of Luna and Tina (Tan in-laws) also came to grace the occasion. They were Apollo and Leizle with two boys from Tacloban, Dominic and Carol and children from Davao. One of Conchita's siblings, Jose Atienza came over from Manila, her brother-in-law Chua Yu Beng and his wife from Kidapawan and his children all from Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod and Manila were present too.

The arrival of kin had the Tan households and hardware store becoming busy centers for family greetings and gatherings. My children did not come though. They were all busy with their work and other activities. Infact Tom was heading his high school batch reunion in Cebu, Martha was swimming and running her first aquathlon at Ateneo de Manila, Emil busy in Cebu, and of course Roy at work in Seattle and Marion in New Zealand.

I participated as lay reader in the birthday con-celebrated mass presided by Cardinal Orlando Quevedo. I also joined the choral group that rendered two songs for the celebrant. Food were aplenty: Roasted (whole cow) beef, lechons, fresh (whole fish) tuna sashimi, sushi bar, liquor bar, buffet stations and dessert corners, not to mention the aperitifs that were laid on each table before hand. Sadly though, both the birthday mass and the birthday party were not very well attended and many fondues of food were shelved away by unscrupulous people. Other than that, the trivia game was interesting and the celebrant and her family and the party attendees, all had a good time.

2. The Sunday of April 30, 2017,  I was formally inducted together with Garland Lu and Norma Lim as lay-reader (late) inductees for the year 2017. After the mass, during the Lecom meeting, I conducted a brief English pronunciation sharing to my fellow readers. I was glad they were all interested. In general, they were happy to get updated and learned or rekindled something from their old school. During the meeting, I did not like to appear as though I was a better reader. Many of them were community achievers like a lawyer/school principal, nurse, teacher, business women, etc. The fact that I personally and brazenly volunteered to give this talk because I did think I had something to share to the ministry. I thank them for their kind attention and also for giving me this opportunity to fulfill my promise to share my humble little knowledge.

3. In the afternoon, my husband Lucas and I went to visit James and Siolan Yap. James was just recently released from the hospital for prostate problem. He had not fully recovered from his medical condition yet, and he was physically ill at ease with his movements while lying down, but he was stronger than the time we visited him at the hospital. That afternoon he was happily more audible and talkative. That for us was a good sign. We hoped he gets better soon.

4. In the evening of the same day, Lucas and I attended the birthday party of Violeta Tarangco at Connie's restaurant. Violy is  a window. She is active at church, a daily mass goer. Her party was composed of small group, mostly church members. We had karaoke singing and food was more than sufficient enough for everybody. I was kind of hungry and  had second rounds. The guests had fun chorusing and dancing to lively singers. Lucas did a couple of songs. Mostly everybody in the party was sincerely cajoling and enjoying the night away. It was indeed a happy and gay celebration!

And to think many people at times, ask me. " What do you do these days?"
The answer is "I am enjoying my retirement." Hehehe. Truly I tell you, that is not a lie!