A few weeks ago, I went through a Media Training. The council thought that I got to undergo such training in order to prepare me for what might set me on the difficult spot. As a council staff who got to be on the field, I can be subject to the brutal unsolicited, inescapable and uncomfortable interrogation. “Don’t worry about the question,” mentioned the trainer. “Worry about your answer.” My first reaction is “phew” I told myself that as long as I am true to myself and I am not doing anything wrong and I have nothing to hide, I should not worry about my answer. As the training progressed I found myself putting my money where my mouth is. Being true and not hiding anything is obviously the least of my worry but how the media turns your answer around is what I should keep an eye on. There is such thing as fishing for dirt, putting words to my mouth and hitting my vulnerability. “This is how media works most of the time,” trainer from the public relations commented. This training is very useful and I think this should not be put in a package for media correspondence alone but in a wider package of socializing with people of all walks of life. I used to know people and I am sure that I will encounter more people who have nothing to do with media but take the business of being nosy. I knew people who make the opportunity in a gathering such as lunch breaks and dinner parties to fish for valuable comments that they can twist and can use against the prey. If they can not fish for controversy they will make one by putting words to the prey’s mouth. I know people who play this sinister business and I know that I am in the DANGER ZONE when I am in the same zone with these guys. I got to avoid them. You can’t imagine what they can do to your reputation. These people does not mind how serious the outcome of their back slashing whether it affects livelihood or serious illness. They just wash their hands and act as if they know nothing. Tsk tsk. Like the media, they consider it as playing politics and that this is just a job. Yeah right. I have no time for them. I will just exert my effort to cultivate good relationships with my loved ones and friends who know and believe who I really am and who know and believe how I treasure them.

Many agree that in order to keep relationship strong, steady and long lasting they should be honest with each other. This is not always true. Sometimes, best kept secret should be best kept in order to preserve relationships. There are instances that people can’t handle the truth. Revelations may serve as haunting and that makes the relationship cracks and eventually caves in. Testing faithfulness by opening your dirty closet may not be a good idea all the time. You may ask yourself first “Is the testing worth it?” You may say if he is not alright with your unpleasant past then he is not meant for you after all. Yet you might have an unpleasant past which was just one take off and can never happen again. Digging a one-time madness and reveal to loved one may not be worth it. For one thing, relationship is an on-going build up based on constant and present cultivation of affections not based on the past. Everything may be explained much clearer by the film Sleeping Dogs Lie. Amy lost her fiancée when she was persuaded to reveal her icky encounter in the past. She apparently learned her lesson. Her next boyfriend did not know anything about her one-take yuckiness in the past which preserved their relationship.

The other night, Da Vinci Code was shown in TV2. I did not watch the whole film that night for the reason that I have read and watched it for how many times. But I got to watch the first minutes of the Louvre Scene. I was not in it for the indulgence of the gruesome murder of Jacques Sauniere or the clues within the Da Vinci’s paintings but the gratification on bringing reminiscences on my fantastic journey inside the Louvre. There are so many remarkable places in Paris. Louvre is definitely one of them. The Louvre, the palace full of famous artworks is so huge that it will take the whole day touring inside. One of the main attractions was the famous Mona Lisa. I was advised to go straight to where Mona Lisa Painting was before I ran out of time seeing it. And so that was the plan. There were arrow signs pointing to where Mona Lisa was and that made the whole endeavor much easier. But it was not as easy as I thought it would be when I kept on being held back by other enticing artworks on the way. As much as I wanted to hurry up, the haunting and mesmerizing artworks seemed like moving and speaking to me to just be still and to absorb them. But I needed to be strong and to stay focus for the sake of the one-in-a-million smile. I got to see Mona Lisa. And Lo and behold……Click! Of course I took pictures like the other visitors did. On my way out, I tried to consume as much artworks as I could the rest of the Louvre time. I may not know most of the names of the masterpieces, I may not have a good idea how most of them became famous, I may not be a huge fan, but the tour inside the Louvre would just forget who you are or where you are coming from for few hours as you are consumed by the wonderful works inside the Louvre.

Before I was introduced to Blogger, Multiply, Facebook, Friendster, LiveJournal, there was GeoCities which I used to compile all of my memorable stories and pictures. Now, GeoCities has emailed me saying that they’re gonna shot down the site and no one will be able to visit them again. There are suggestions on how to retrieve them so that I would maybe transfer them another site. But I think it will never be the same. I mean, there were pictures there being published on the same months they were taken and it will not be the same when you have to publish them again as some sort of a part of a personal history. I may be so overdramatic here. But GeoCities has served me very well in compiling them that is why I haven’t given up its service.  Now that they are saying “bye-bye” there’s nothing I can do but to pull them out. But first I would like to have the last visit of the site. Come join me:

http://www.geocities.com/jonsaint2002/jonsaintfamily.html

Grant and Fiona, characters from the movie Away from Her, were so in love with each other and has shared their dearly affections for more than 50 years until Fiona was stricken by Alzheimer disease which made her to separate from Grant in a Nursing Institution. To show his undying love, Grant never seized to visit her regularly. This plot is similar to the plot of the film the Notebook: their everlasting love is cut short when the lady forgets. However in the movie Away from Her, Grant’s heart was twitched a little harder when the forgetful Fiona fell in love with a co-patient, a wheelchair bound mute. Realising that her affection to the other guy was what kept her intact, Grant with his unselfish love kept on visiting Fiona and kept on watching her from afar while she nurtured her affection to the other guy even though the only heaven that Grant could get from this setup is knowing that she wouldn’t deteriorate which will lead to a possibility that she can get a glimpse of what she was with Grant.

I have been wishing that MJ would be given another shot to stardom because I believe he deserves to be up there.  I always knew he would pick up because his talent would raise him up to greatness again.  I always looked at Michael to be extraordinarily gifted regardless of what he was in private.  He's gone.  Maybe this is the only way in which most people would look at him in his good side.  The Wacko is dead but the King of Pop Lives!

            Dear Jonathan!

Nice to hear from you again! I am Maria Laura the Argentinean woman friend of Jose Maria, and the whole Latin group, who was always in the party's at Mina with her child ... in that time of 3 years old. Do you remember me? I start to work at IHE 6 years ago and I am very happy to be here, 2 days as Social Cultural Officer and 3 days as Alumni Officer. Of course your group 98-99 is my alumni group, I continue being in touch with most of the Latins and I meet with Jose Maria for a good drinks once a year when a visit Argentina. I am doing very well, my child too, he is now 13 so as tall as me but very nice teenager.

I hope you are also very well and always with your nice humor and character.

Warm regards from Delft!

Maria Laura Sorrentino, Alumni Officer

UNESCO-IHE, Institute for Water Education

Wow! This simple letter returns memoirs when I was doing my masters in IHE, Delft.   I was single at that time and most of the friends I hangout with almost every night where Latinos. There I was introduced to Salsa. We usually booked the function room of the fourth floor of Mina, bringing along a simple CD player with a bunch of Salsa Cds and off we go Dancing Salsa the night away. Then Jorge introduced me to another league of Salsa Aficionados when he brought me to a Salsa Club in Laiden. Then I never stop going to Laiden every Saturday night.

Most of the students who were doing masters in IHE were staying in a big condo named Mina. I was staying in a unit with two rooms that I shared with Jimmy, from Iloilo. Nar from NEDA shared his two-bedroom unit with Lu, a Taiwanese Batchmate who has been part of the Filipino Barkada because of his fondness of hanging out with us. Sometimes Tata and the gang, Filipino Students doing masters in Technical University crashed our place for drinking sessions. Our favorite drink was Raghatti. We were introduced to a gazillion kinds of beer as we learned that there was a lot beer factories there but we all reckoned that nothing can beat San Miguel. An American friend of Jimmy who had been in the Philippines for over 10 years and decided to settle in The Netherlands affirmed that San Miguel is the best beer in the world. Nar’s wife Rollette gave a visit and brought a San Mig Beer Grande which we gave to the American Friend. The American guy placed the Grande in the shelf like a trophy and we settled in drinking Grolls.

The Delft Gang attended the Mass in Den Haag every Sunday. The Church was one of the few Churches which celebrated mass in English. In the church, we got to meet more Pinoys. Then once in a while we crashed the Den Haag gang’s condo who were taking masters in the University in Den Haag. Most of them were females.

Ate Cynthia who was a staff in the University of Den Haag and who was once a Bayanihan Dancer choreographed several folk dances that we performed during the Asian Night. We introduced VST & Company in IHE when the pinoys from Delft and Den Haag joined forces to perform Swing. This swing was not most of the Europians had in mind. They were accustomed to the west side swing. So the DJ from Tobacco branded the dance the Filipino Swing when we had the international dance party. Later I saw in Youtube that the swing that the pinoy knew was actually named the Hustle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez4AsDKDFmk&feature=related). And the hustle that I knew was the dance step being introduced by the Wea Dancers in the 70’s with the tune of the same title, The Hustle by Van McCoy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFz2WkVAk38).

The experience in The Netherlands was not all the time bed of roses or we might say bed of tulips. We had our tough days in the university. I had some cramming for exams that got me imprisoned in my room for several days. I witnessed a classmate passing out during the exam in statistics. Some students gave up schooling half of the year because of the pressure. Preparing for the thesis about a flood design should have been easy when you had an adviser who provided me with what I needed like computer program and textbooks but knowing the panel who had the reputation more ferocious than Simon Cowell placed me in hell. At the end of the year, I found myself graduating. I realized that the reward is sweetest when you’ve gone through hell. I realized that one will shine the best when emerging from tough battle. 

It was exactly ten years ago. The diploma may have lost my reflections in it as I intended to manifest that I don’t have to prove anything. Being rusty may take the sharpness. Viciousness may pan the flame taking advantage of the injury. And since the credential is already imprinted, it’s just a matter of oiling and getting back in shape and sharpness is there again. Pardon if it bounce back. Nevertheless, time is lousy in maintaining youth and energy. The ability may melt down and when that time comes, the good old days are just preserved in your memory. But one thing for sure, I can say this to those who gave up in the middle of the school year, “Maintain whatever you wanna maintain, but I have finished the race.”

That simple email brings back so much treasures that I have forgotten I still possess: friends whom I shared the joy and sorrow with and the sweet achievements.

Thank you, Maria Laura, for bringing back the treasures.

What is good about having a Facebook Account is that you get the probability to touch base with your long lost classmates. It all started when a certain guy which I did not recognize in his default picture by the name of Alex commenting “ If I am not mistaken, you were UST Batch (Bleep) 5 ECE. Right?”   And then he produced a class picture which included me 60 pounds ago. “O yeah, he is Alex from Class 5 ECE. And then a few days after, several of my classmates from 5 ECE sprouted and asking to add them in my Facebook Contact List. Amazing! It’s like I feel young again. There is also a feeling that you want to catch up with them and see how they are after all the decades. Ooops! Years. What do you know? Most of us haven’t been in touch after graduation and after the Besavilla Crash Course for CE Board Exam. 

We were grocery shopping in Raeward. When we were picking up some vegetables, right before our very eyes was a bunch of Sayote. You see tinola is the all-time favorite dish of JC. It has been a frustration when we couldn’t cook tinola in NZ for the reason it has been hard to buy sayote. Not today. All of a sudden we were excited to go home and cook tinola. JC had missed tinola so much. It was obvious in his drooling mouth at the very first sight of sayote floating in that rich tinola soup. We wanted to hoard because we never knew when sayote would be available again. We just bought few of them so as we are able to cook tinola every other day till the next four weeks. Naahh. I am just joking. Rayward is few houses from our house. It’s easy to buy them maybe…..tomorrow again? Tinola, anyone?

I have been aware that ANZAC day has been an annual celebration both in New Zealand and Australia. The question is what is ANZAC? There are several forms of commemorations during this day. Commemoration? What do we need to remember about ANZAC. People should be aware of its importance and as much as possible every establishment should take part in their own ways to commemorate it. For instance, the shopping centers. Well yeah, they help us to be informed about it alright with all those ANZAC sales. If I would be interviewed on TV and be asked about what is good about ANZAC day, I would say that I got my duvet covers for five bucks each. This ANZAC day rocks! So why do we celebrate ANZAC? Well, aaaa, you know, we celebrate it because you know, aaaa, without it, it there is no easier road from pages road to QEII. You know ANZAC road is the route I always take from Pages Road going to QEII. That’s it!   EEEEEEEE! Wrong!

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC day is the anniversary of the first landing of ANZAC at Gallipoli in 1915. They were about 2,721 NZ soldiers died in service for that Gallipoli Campaign. ANZAC day is in commemoration of the bravery of those soldiers.

At least when I sleep with my new duvet cover, I feel brave.

I want to practice the Quadrant 2 principle that Covey has thought me. Better do it now before it’s too late. Better do it now when there are no red flags. There should be balance in everything. Quadrant 2 would help me balance everything.

This morning, I craved for a Filipino Sweet Style Spaghetti. And so I told Claire that I was gonna go to the Asian Store in Cashel to buy that Del Monte Filipino Sweet Style Spaghetti sauce. She told me that she wanted to come along so she would see what else she could buy in the store. Then JC has to come along with us. There is one store that might become popular soon for the pinoys in Lincoln called Filipino Mart. However, since I was in hurry to cook and to satisfy my craving, we settled to visit the nearer store. And so we shopped and shopped in the popular Asian Store in Cashel.

Along with the sauce and spaghetti, I prepared grinded meat, Kransky (substitute for the Purefoods hotdog which we do not have here), onions, green pepper, carrots, and garlic. And so I cooked. I was sure I could never go wrong as long as I have the Filipino Sweet Style Spaghetti Sauce. It was almost like I thought that I could do with more or less ingredients and still I could come up with delicious spaghetti. This is almost like I am advertising the sauce. JC loves spaghetti and I knew we would have a blast eating. Slurp!!