dinagsa 2011

I never thought that I would make it.

Today probably was the earliest that I was able to wake up. I left the comfort and warmth of the couch before the owners of the sari- sari store next door did. It wasn't my alarm which I set the night before that broke my dreamless sleep but the ringing from a wake up call. It was only 4 AM. To avoid going back to sleep, I took a quick hot bath, and sipped hot coffee while watching "the story of us" to pass the time. I decided it was time to go when the hum

of tricycle marred the morning silence. It was a cold morning. The company of early church goers was a welcome sight. After a short walk, we were able to get a ride.

Apparently, our watches weren't synchronized unless it was intentional. The interminable wait lasted an hour. It would have been worse had I only myself for company. I was never gladder than having a loquacious person in the early bird team. That aside, the trip was smooth. Breakfast at Macdonald's was my favorite sausage in a bun plus a hash brown which I heartily downed with creamy sweet coffee.

At cadiz, we barely greeted the staff and concentrated more on using the toilet so we could start on our exploration right away. First stop outside was getting a cheap sunglass. It was a wise investment considering the heat was merciless. And there was no breeze from the see to blow it away. Even with protection though, I still had to hide from the glare for two hours to keep my eyes from involuntarily shedding tears. But before I had the chance to hide, my face and shirt were already colored from paints I got walking around the main streets.

Lunch was shared with colleagues inside the classroom which doubled as bedroom for the advance party who were there since Friday. I paid particular attention to the "patoten" (whole duck steeped in sweet and garlicky marinade and simmered over time) over fried chicken and broiled fish. The indulgence left me giddy for a spell. I think, lunch had the same effect to the rest of the tourist. We all stayed inside the the air-conditioned van, listening to music to drown the revelry of the unstoppables on the street until coffee time. At a certain point, everyone declared we've had enough so we all crammed inside the van, went to buy dried fish for which the city is famous for and head back home.

It was a novel experience. But not too exciting to be included again in future trips.

a private joke

pay attention...

I should have paid more attention in my graduate accounting class. I never thought that the day would come when the boss would ask of me to create a cash monitoring system. It did. On the day he first joined us in the office, he asked me to make one. The purpose was noble; to get rid of the paperwork (less carbon footprint for this office) which works well with me. I panicked (inside of course). Accounting jargon (debit, credit, etc) ran amok in my brains. I calmly asked what he needs to see in the system and confidently promised to deliver one the following day.MS Excel saved the day. The boss was pretty satisfied with the outcome and made a small modification before declaring it okay. See finished product :)

random rumination

The sun has finally asserted its dominance. After three days of Fork-ish overcast to rainy skies and feeling like the abandoned Bella, today the air was warm enough to lure Bjork out of the house and groom itself in the garden.

The rain came early. While we were enjoying bowls of hot congee at the school cafeteria to dispel the creeping cold, little did we know that three key cities in the province were already under waist-deep rainwater.

Back in the days, this is the time for cold breezes from the north, winds strong enough to lift our skirts, dry earth and sore eyes. The weather bureau forecasted more rains to come until March which meant going to the beach may not be a perfect get away this summer.

Oh, where to go?