Captain’s Blog

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the durian… the stinkiest fruit in the planet. The scent is incredible and I had the great misfortune of standing next to a giant stall of durians on my way home.

I’m sorry… it’s supposed to taste really good, but I for the life of me cannot imagine eating it.

The closest thing I can tolerate is the durian frapucchino.

Oh well, thus endeth my Davao adventure.

I’m off to Manila and guess what? Something stinks more than the durian. It’s lateness! MY FLIGHT IS DELAYED AGAIN!!! 3 hours this time. Never again shall I fly the notorious Plane Always Late… PAL!!!

Oh well. That’s three hours of my life gone forever.

Life is boring if you don’t try daring things. Two things i’ve tried today… 4Play Mineral Water and a Durian Frappuchino. Bet you never imagined a concoction like a Durian Frap. Well there you have it.

I took it and I can happily say I survived albeit with really horrendous Durian breath!

And a bottled water called 4Play? Do you take it before you play or while doing foreplay? The possibilities are endless!

These are the things you don’t see in Manila.

Aujourd’hui est l’anniversaire de des encore de mes plus chers amis. Et en l’honneur d’elle, j’écris ce poteau de blog en être français l’amoureux français qu’elle est. Minerva Delena, vous êtes la femme de loin la plus folle que j’ai eu le plaisir à savoir. Merci d’être toujours par mon côté. De me montrer toujours le côté lumineux de la vie. Vous êtes mon idole pour le “deadmaness.” Je suis si heureux que votre carrière décolle. S’il y a n’importe qui qui la mérite, c’est vous. Vous avez été une bénédiction de Dieu à moi. Je le remercie de me donner un ami si affectueux par mon côté. Voici à une tonne de grandes aventures à l’avenir quand nous sommes gris et vieux !

I knew something was different about Davao when, as the plane was landing, the flight attendants warned the passengers that Davao is a no-smoking city. Wow. I’ve heard of flights being no-smoking flights and hotels rooms being non-smoking rooms, but this was the first time that I heard of an entire city that was a NO-SMOKING CITY.

The person responsible is none other than Rody Duterte, propagator a Davao development project creatively called the RODY PROJECT. You got to hand it to the mayor of Davao. This guy has a lot of balls. It’s incredible. He imposed a no-smoking rule in the city that effectively prohibits smoking in almost every private place. The only place you can smoke in are empty fields and parking lots. As a result, my lungs are happier! No second hand smoke for me!!! Yes!!! Imagine this, if you are caught smoking you are literally PICKED UP BY THE POLICE!!! As in they haul you into a police vehicle and drive you down the station. You are then blottered, pictured and fingerprinted. The whole nine yards of the prison experience.(Which I wouldn’t know because I haven’t been to prison nor do I have a desire to go to one) And a blotch has been added to your record. No more clean NBI clearances. You’re a felon!

One of my pet peeves is really second hand smoke. I hate the fact that you smell like an ashtray after being with a smoker and no amount of cologne can eradicate the stench of smoke that clings to your clothes and your hair!!! Not to mention that second hand smoke is up to three times for damaging to your health than first hand smoke.

So this city is a blessing for me. I’d sooner tolerate the smell of Durian wafting in the air than the irritating and choking scent of cigarette smoke strangling my aevioli. One more thing to love about Davao.

GOVERNMENT WARNING: CIGARETTE SMOKING IS HAZARDOUS TO YOU IN DAVAO!!!

This is what happens when you smoke!

Nothing demonstrates the relativity of time than going to the province. Last night, in search for something to wear, Dennis and I tried to look for that temple of commercialism called SM. Parang di ba sawa sa SM sa Manila, di ba? So we asked the concierge where the mall is. He said it was nearby. Around 15 minutes away. Oh 15 minutes, that’s not so far, I thought. Quick Manila mental calculations led me to conclude that it was a mere 5 km away. So we hailed a cab and hied off to SM.

Around 10 minutes into the trip, I noticed that we must have already traversed around 15km already. Then it dawned on me to ask the driver how far away SM was because I noticed that the houses were getting a bit sparser. He said it was still a couple of kilometers away.

It’s funny how traffic and the rapid pace of life in Manila makes time compress in Manila. 15 minutes is nothing in terms of distance. So much of our precious time spent inside cars travelling miniscule distances. In contrast, 15 minutes in the province is literally a journey. Time slows here but the experiences multiply.

Makes one want to reconsider city living.

The day after the storm, I found myself in Davao. But not without an adventure. It started when I dropped by the Domestic Airport to take my flight. It was pure bedlam with the poor souls whose flights got cancelled yesterday scrambling for whatever few seats were left. I was looking desperately for my companion Dennis because my tickets were with him. I couldn’t find him and to top it all of there was no cellphone signal.

So in the midst of my paranoia, I decided to hunt for something that I haven’t used in centuries… a PAYPHONE!!! And I found one in the middle of a rinky dink carinderia at the front of the airport. True enough… I WAS AT THE WRONG AIRPORT!!! Apparently we were booked in a PAL flight which meant that I NEEDED TO BE IN THE CENTENNIAL AIRPORT!!!

So rush, rush to the centennial airport where I found Dennis waiting for me. Checked in successfully despite the throng of angry people congregating outside the airport only to find out that… OUR FLIGHT WAS DELAYED. Well they don’t call it PAL - Plane Always Late for nothing. Mental note: ALWAYS TAKE CEBU PACIFIC FOR LOCAL FLIGHTS. And i’m not saying this because they’re my clients. You may be stuck at a rotten airport but you’re sure you’ll arrive on time.

When we boarded the plane more waiting… apparently they were waiting to fill up all the seats with the waitlisted people. Wow parang jeepney, I thought. Anyway after almost an hour delay we finally took off. One and a half hours later I find myself in Davao. My first time in this place. Not as metropolitan as Manila but sufficiently developed. For once a province looked better than Manila. Where I found uprooted trees, fallen billboards, leaves on the street, many buildings in various states of damage, I found sunny skies, clean roads and pleasant people in Davao.

Durian country at its finest as can be evidenced by the olfactory assault I endured when I exited the airport terminal. Well here I’ll be this weekend trying to break a basketball dribbling world record. Well, not me but a ton of Davaoenos. Let’s hope they break it. The winner gets a million bucks and a shot at fame. What do I get? The satisfaction of a free trip to a destination I’ve never been to and the gloating rights of having been able to successfully escape the inconveniences of Manila if only for a weekend.

I sincerely hope power is back when I get back!

See you Sunday!!!

Tropical super typhoon Milenyo slammed into Metro Manila today. This is by far the strongest storm that I have witnessed in recent years. Within a couple of hours, our electricity went down. Next were the trees. The park around our subdivision looked like a war zone with trees uprooted. Thankfully none of the trees in our home fell or flew.

When the winds calmed down I set about to look for a wifi enabled zone. Every Starbucks in Alabang was closed. Unfortunately the call of duty was so strong so I wound up going to a hotel lobby to do my work. Driving around Alabang was also an eye opener for me. Although the weather calmed down considerably there was damage everywhere. Trees were uprooted. Billboards and signs torn down. There were pocket floods and get this… there was NO CELLPHONE SIGNAL!!! Talk about being cut off from civilization.

As i assessed the damage, I also thought about the enormous task involved in cleaning up everything and my mind made a comparison in our lives. Storms come and go into our lives and most of the time we either are not prepared for it, nor do we expect it, but rest assured after the storm, we inevitably go back to our lives reconstructing and rebuilding.

It’s not the damage that counts but the rebuilding that defines who we are.

I love my life.

It may not be perfect.

It may be filled with trials.

It may be full of thugs and annoying creatures.

It may not give me everything.

But I love it nonetheless.

I guess with a viewpoint like this, nothing can break you down.

My sister summed it up succinctly, “whatever troubles you I’m sure you’ll overcome it. After all, you’re a Miranda. You’re bred to survive.”

And survive I shall… with a smile on my face.

A tragedy happened in the office today. One of our officemates lost a son. But that’s not what makes the situation hard. This same officemate lost his wife and brother just recently this year.

When such tragedies occur we’re forced to ask the question: “Why?”

Why does God allow such tragedies to occur? Why does he punish good people? Why does he cause so much pain?

It was ironic that these events transpired just a day after I got a new spiritual high. Just one day after I was convinced of God’s great love something like this happens that puts my conviction into doubt again.

Then the thought hits me: You are known and loved beyond everything that you can comprehend.

Sir B. is a very good person and I’m sure that God loves him. These events are, at best, mysteries that may never be explained in this life. Maybe the answers will be revealed in the next life.

But for now, all I can do is trust Our Lord that he has a marvelous plan up his sleeves. I can also pray for God to send a loving embrace to Sir B. These are dark moments of his life that I wish I could do more than just stay at the sidelines, but the best thing I can offer is a prayer for strength. God doesn’t give us what we cannot bear. Crosses come in our lives and after every cruxifiction you can be sure that a resurrection awaits.

Sir B. my prayers are with you. They may not be much, but I hope God fills what is lacking in them.

God bless.

Bet you got tempted to read the blog post just because of the title eh? Well just as most of you who have read this blog know, I have just arrived from a recollection sponsored by my beloved SE family. It’s supposed to be a recollection for the leaders of the apostolate so I was honestly expecting a lot of talks about leadership, but what struck me wasn’t about leadership at all. It was this line said by the priest:

“Be aware that you are known and loved beyond anything that you can conceive.”

Despite this cheerful face, many of my closest friends know that I too suffer some bouts of sadness. Especially when I think about my being single. Doubts and insecurities pop up, especially when I compare myself to my other friends who are coupled. However, despite all of this, the single most nagging question that pops into my mind is whether someone will love me.

My closest friends would probably conk me in the head with a wrench because they do say that I am loved and yes, I do believe that. But sometimes, loneliness hits you hard. That’s why when the priest said this line, it felt like I was hit by a train. The awareness that God knows me and loves me beyond anything that I can conceive was such a powerful thought that i left Tagaytay with a great new high! If He knows me and loves me obviously every single trial that I have faced, has been carefully thought of. And that prayers will be answered in due time. A smile on my face that stretched from ear to ear.

Someday, I may find that special someone that I can make happy and that can make me happy. Or maybe I wont… But the fact remains that come what may… at least the one person who really does count in all of this, loves me unconditionally. And who knows what surprises HE has in store for me?

So happiness again!

It’s a going to be a great future!!!