crumb trails

To celebrate Halloween, our very small group did a little office gimmick on the last Friday of October and wore some funny headdresses the whole day.

From left: Angel Conrad, Princess Toni, Deer Avi, Bespectacled Darna Jane, Devil Len, Wonder Rose, Queen Meldy, & King Robert

Something to do on a not-so-busy weekend–gardening!

That’s what my sister and my aunt did a few Saturdays ago.

The busy gardeners, seriously committed to create a nice work of art in this little corner in the yard.

All in place after hours of labor. Love the Zen-looking arrangement in the center!

The eager little helper (read: saling-pusa!).

_____________________

Update:

They’ve got new plants yesterday. I think they’re planning to rearrange the little garden again.

I like listening to Vonda Shepard’s song Neighborhood. I was playing it last night while scanning the shelves for a book to read when I spotted one of my scrapbooks, decided to get it, brought it down and sat on my bed. I started flipping through the pages. Most of the photos made me smile, not because of how funny we all looked then, but because of the memories they hold. As I flip through the pages, I was humming Vonda’s song in my mind, too:

Here’s a photo I’ve been looking for/It’s a picture of the boy next door/And I loved him more than words can say/Never knew it ’til he moved away

In my case, it’s not the boy next door (I don’t remember having a crush on one of the boys there–hahaha!) but the kids in the neighborhood–my playmates, my first buddies, my best friends and ates. It seemed so long ago already. Thinking about them now made me realize how much they had influenced my youth, the choices I made in my life as a teenager and even now as an adult. I didn’t know how important and how much they meant to me then until we started drifting apart; going away one by one. It happened unnoticed; maybe because we were all busy creating another world in school, making new sets of friends and discovering new things.

Faded pictures in my scrapbook/Just thought I’d take one more look/And recall when we were all in the neighborhood

Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to spend some quiet moments, refresh your mind, feel close to nature and God, Caleruega is the perfect place to go; located in Brgy. Kaylayaw, Batulao, Nasugbu Batangas. As described in the flyer given to visitors at the gate, Caleruga is a house (place) of prayer and renewal. It is equipped with facilities for activities like retreats, recollections, prayer and renewal workshops, and other religious and environmental-related assemblies. But you can also go for a day’s visit. Like what I did last weekend. For 30 pesos entrance fee, you can enjoy the breathtaking views, clear your mind and find peace.

I’ve been planning that trip for a long, long time and been asking some of my friends to go with me. They’d say yes but we’d end up postponing the trip afterwards. I was awed when I saw the pictures in the Dominicans’ website. I was rendered speechless actually, my breath literally taken away for several seconds. I’m really glad that I was able to visit the place this time and was able to convince one of my college friends to go with me.

Read the rest of this entry »

After much controversy, the screen adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-seller, The Da Vinci Code is in theaters now. The film opens with the bizarre murder of Louvre curator Jacques Sauniere, who, in his dying moments managed to leave behind a number of clues and messages hidden in the artworks of Leonardo Da Vinci. The French police invites Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to decipher the code they found near the dead body. Langdon concedes not knowing that he has already been considered a prime suspect. With the help of Sauniere’s granddaughter Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou, Amelie and A Very Long Engagement), Langdon is able to escape the police only to be trapped in a more intricate labyrinth. Soon they find themselves on the run from policeman Bezu Fache (Jean Reno), the albino monk Silas (Paul Bettany), and Archbishop Aringarosa (Alfred Molina). Robert and Sophie proceed to Robert’s colleague Sir Leigh Teabing to ask for his help to unravel a secret that–according to Sir Leigh–had been kept from humanity for centuries.

Read the rest of this entry »