Clickety-clack

By the last week of January, "sweater weather" seemed to have vanished, making way for an unusually early hint of summer. Gone are the delightfully cool early mornings in Manila, which is why these days find me daydreaming of nothing much besides digging into a Jack Frost Eskimo pie, straight out of the chiller! Eskimo pie. The mere mention of those words conjures images of parka-garbed me basking in an endless field of snow. Eskimo pie is not an Eskimo invention but a positively delicious treat off Jack Frost Premium Ice Cream's menu which I got to try around Christmastime last year -- just a month or so after it was launched. Now, with the summery temperatures in February, it is again beckoning to me. To order or not to order -- that is the question. One would think that such a decision is easy to make, what with these balmy afternoons that are fast becoming a daily occurrence (Valentine's week is also coming up, and if there's one reason to go for a special gus...

  Art: luckycharmznet/Pixabay Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference, said a statesman many years ago. Whether one's concerns revolve around governance, business matters, friendship or personal improvement, a person's outlook definitely has a major bearing on the way affairs turn out. Even the way we face our own experiences -- dragging our heels or looking resolutely at what needs to be done -- determines the outcome (not to mention the extent to which we learn from the experience). Hence, if you're regarding pregnancy with less optimism than you'd like, here are thoughts to help bring our that sunshine in the way you look at this stage in your journey as a mom: It's easier to think positive when you're in tiptop shape, so prioritize healthy eating Maintaining a balanced diet is not the concern solely of expectant moms. It's a must for anyone who cares about herself. Therefore, with the guidance of your doctor, load up on nutritious foods an...

Mickey Mouse money. An amusing name for currency bills which anyone born way after World War II would associate more with   Disneyland   than with wartime   Philippines . But then that’s just what they were -- legal tender in the form of Japanese notes whose value was so low people had to carry them in big bunches to be able to come up with substantial amounts for a purchase. “We did not carry  pitakas  to the market. We carried  bayongs  because we were using Mickey Mouse money! Our money was not the Philippine peso but Japanese notes, and we called it Mickey Mouse money -- it was like play money,” relates Pacita Jacinto as she launches into accounts of life during what she calls the “golden years,” then of living through a world war that had Filipinos awaiting liberation by the American forces, which finally came in 1945. The bombing of  Pearl Harbor , Gen. MacArthur’s famous “I shall return,” the Leyte landing, the fall of Bataan and Corregidor...

Few conversations have been more interesting – in an anxiety-inducing way – than the one I had with the locksmith who worked on my bedroom door one afternoon. I had unintentionally locked myself out of the room, and when I realized that the key was inside the room, I asked my mom for the spare. For some reason, there wasn’t any in the bunch of carefully labeled keys we perused.   Okay, no problem – one can find everything on the Internet , I told myself. All I had to do was look for a video on You Tube on how to pick a lock (thank God my laptop was in the living room).  Little did I know that they only make it look easy in movies – just a few seconds of tinkering with two little tools on that knob then the door magically opens. The burglar is in business! At least that’s how it always is in cop shows and suspense flicks I’ve seen. Why couldn’t I do it? I even tried using an old credit card, sliding it up and down the narrow opening while testing the knob if it yielded to my c...

  Thanks to  @nancy.drew.collector , who recently marked her fifth anniversary on Instagram, I was prompted to take snapshots of some of the books I'd acquired since my renewed interest in Nancy Drew mysteries kicked in early this year.  I read the matte yellow revised edition as a child, and because I had the first 55 volumes in my collection (later sold to a nice family shortly before our move to a much smaller home), there was no reason for me to go out and purchase the same books all over again upon rediscovering the fascinating world of the literary detective.  Part of the rediscovery was the new discovery of the existence of various formats in which the books came--I had no idea there were different kinds! Another discovery: original text (OT) and revised text (RT).  I sure would love to see how the author really wrote them... or at least the closest to how Carolyn Keene initially fashioned the mysteries , I remember thinking. All manuscripts undergo editi...

Suddenly you realize: another carefree summer with its sun-and-beach lifestyle is about to end, rains and floods are soon to come again, and the year is almost on its halfway mark…”Huh?   Nangangalahati na ang taon?   What have I accomplished?” Time does seem to pass by at a frantic pace sometimes, or…is it we who are frantic? Well, one thing’s for sure—when you let the harried pace get to you, this can affect not just your work or family duties but even the way you relate with yourself and others. So how do you juggle being a daughter, sister, parent, friend, worker (or student) and other roles you may be playing, and still maintain your sanity (and your good nature) — in other words, not be too weary to live life meaningfully and with direction? The secret is to make time for reflection. If you feel like your days are so hectic that they seem to whiz by, you can begin by literally stopping right now, sitting down, and savoring the stillness. Now is as good a time as any to s...

Photo: Carolina Heza/Unsplash Pressured at work. Valued relationship gone sour. Wonky WiFi connection when it's desperately needed. Household chores leaving no time for me-time. About four hours of slumber night after night. Zoom meetings day after day. Utility bills month after month. If any of these apply to your situation and you find yourself experiencing headaches regularly, it’s hardly surprising as these are all potential stressors. What you may be experiencing is called a tension-type headache and it’s the most common kind of headache worldwide, said neurology resident Dr. Jon Stewart Dy during a recent virtual forum on common neurologic disorders, organized by the Institute for Neurosciences of the St. Luke’s Medical Center.  This condition can last from half an hour to as long as a week. If it’s the entire head that is experiencing pain, it’s most likely a tension-type headache (as opposed to a migraine, which is normally characterized by pain in only one side). “Many des...

 Imagine headlining a concert, knowing that people bought tickets to see you perform. Imagine standing onstage, spotlight trained on you. The massive audience is fired up, applauding your mere presence.  Imagine being Kitchie Nadal, performing to an excited crowd. They know the words to your songs, and as you hear them sing along and see them clap with gusto, you are elated and you think, "Oh, I'm so good!" But you're not Kitchie. Photo: Mari Arquiza The 26-year-old singer-songwriter has her feet planted more firmly on the ground than to let the apparent adulation conjure fantasies of, say, being the object of hero worship to millions. Sure, a double-platinum album and a huge following among the concert-going populace are nothing to balk at, but based on what she says, she sees the whole concert thing in a different light. "Humbling ang mag -perform (Performing is humbling)," she insists. "Humbling because you bare yourself, and you can make mistakes. A...

The next time I decide to open a can of Spam, this experience from over a decade ago will be top of mind! Back then I was editor at a parenting magazine, and for a time it was only our excellent writer Nicole and myself sharing a room where we threw ideas around and planned the details of each issue when we weren't quietly typing away on the computer, engrossed in our own stories. Or when we weren't out satisfying rumbling tummies.  * * * * * Late last week, my co-worker, Nicole, and I walked over to the supermarket two blocks from the office and invaded the "chips" aisle. We were after "healthy" chips, so none of those MSG-superloaded kinds -- just the "healthy" kind. She picked out a very Japanese-looking seaweed variety (imported from Thailand) while I chose a nicely packaged pack of vegetable sticks. Since I was also hankering for pretzels, I grabbed a small bag of those as well. Back at the office, we dug into our snacks. Frankly, it seems Nic...

I think a follow-up to the piece below is in order. I wrote it in 2011, and the incident I had related in it took place at least five years prior to that. Think Yahoo Messenger and Buddy Lists, and that pretty much says when my brief convo with the nameless RT jock happened. Read on. * * * * * Photo: qz.com "You can call, you can text, you can post..." said Jeremiah Junior over the radio this morning as I drove to my destination, referring to the assortment of choices listeners have should they want to request a song for him to play. Funny how the voice was so familiar, yet the things he was saying reflected a different era. Different from what? Well, different from the era in which "texting" and "posting" were unheard of. Specifically, the 1980s, when the only way to request a song -- or to get to talk to the jocks on board for anything -- was by dialing a number on the telephone. It was something I knew well. Now, however, things are done pretty differen...