Singapore: Highlights Reel

1) Singapore Needs A New Shopping Mall Like A Fish Needs Breasts
-- from the sleek and svelte Luxe City Guides, Singapore

The spectacular, spectacular Kinokuniya where I bought my very first Moleskine notepad, Jonathan Franzen's The Discomfort Zone, and the Luxe Guide of course.
Forever 21, Topshop, and a sale at Charles and Keith.



(1) shopping bags (2) Murakami books in Kinokuniya (3) The Lift at Park Hotel (4) Forever 21


2) A Visit To The Merlion/Street Photoshoot




JC (to the concierge, concerned at the late hour) : The merlion, can we still go there?

Concierge: The merlion won't run!

Emil: Nadali ka dun Jerome!


3) Thriller Nights At Orchard Road



After the trippy time at Acid Bar, where we met a friendly Filipina waitress (reprezzent!) we walked down Orchard Road to our hotel -- but not before doing a kuba walk, and Thriller dance moves. I don't know - blame it on the Heinie and Mr. Castro's insane ideas.


4) At The Cannery (Clinic Bar complete with wheelchairs and IV drips! Crazy Elephant Bar with the green jokes)



Where Edsel would drift away from our talks about 80s movies and music to focus on the green jokes constantly flashing on several TV screens.

JC: Edsel!! Are you still with us?


5) The Last Frame

Of course it was Mark, former-Jesuit-seminarian-Mark who would pose with this store -- right smack between a 7/11 and, I don't know, a Giordano. It was also Mark, who delivered the most memorable line of the entire trip.






Scenario: After dinner at the resto that served the best Hainanese chicken in Sing. We are discussing our plans to go to the Night Safari. Mark and Edsel had previously blown all their money on an MP3 player and a PSP respectively.

Mark (to JC, putting his elbow on the table and facing JC earnestly): "Ah sir, hindi na lang po ako sasama."

Edsel (does the same elbow thing): Ako din po sir, hindi na rin sasama.

JC: Dendendenden, dendendendend (humming/singing the Henry Mancini drama theme
from Love Story)

Help for A Former Junkie

My friend just got out of rehab. Which is a cause for celebration in itself, and I don't need to share all the sordid details because just the very fact that it had to reach the point where official, outside intervention had to come in, means that in his life, shit had really hit the fan.

I always knew that he would pull through. In fact, when I was in Takashimaya in Singapore, I saw this wonderful card that I had just had to get for him, though he was still in the center.

From the good people of Knock Knock ("a semi-spanking new design company with aspirations to greatness") I love the cheekiness of it all, and this card I love the most because it's so apt for my dear former junkie friend:



I realized that second part of the card really is true. It's difficult to stay on the straight, sober path if the rest of the world goes on its crazy ways.

His first year sobriety anniversary will happen in May. So, as a pledge of support, and this is all I can do anyway since he's oceans away, I won't drink a drop till May also.

It's not much of a sacrifice really. I don't drink that much, I've been looking for a perfect reason not to. And this is as much for me, as it is for him.

Meet the Uncles

1) Frat Pack Humor

There's this certain type of guy humor, that I tend gravitate towards -- absurd, crazy, Will Ferrellish -- and I think I now know where it stems from. My Tito Hayie plays the arrogant, self-absorbed, loud buffoon to a hilt. They were late for our Christmas reunion, and immediately, he body slammed my kid cousins screaming maniacally. He did the same to my 80-year old grandma.

When my eight-year old cousin opened the Christmas program with his recitation of "Santa in Manila", with all the pomposity of an-early-learned Atenean twang ("Santuh in Manela"), Tito Hayie played the rapt, over-reacting audience member, whose face contorted with all sorts of emotion as Darren recounted the beauty of a Philippine Christmas. When Darren emphasized a phrase by speaking loudly and stamping his foot, Tito Hayie nearly fell off his chair in a fit of emotion.




2) Retro Love

If my life were a movie, Tito Butch would be the embarrassing uncle who gets drunk during reunions and embarrasses everyone with his slurred speeches and dated dance moves. This Christmas, he was on his third Red Horse before it hit noon. So unsurprisingly, after lunch, during the talent program, he got up, grabbed the mic from my kid cousins and started rocking to The Dawn's Envelope Ideas.




He sports a semi-mohawk, skull rings and torn jeans. My brother's kindred spirit, we all figure. But he's also (like me) a high school History teacher, and the only one with an M.A. degree among his siblings.


3) The Forever Bachelor
Then there's Tito Manny -- who just laughs at absolutely everything that goes on. He laughs at Tito Hayie, he laughs at Tito Butch. He laughs when he distributes his Christmas gifts -- pin-up posters
of Piolo Pascual, Toni Gonzaga, Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson.




I could tell he was really tickled pink by the bewildered look on our faces when he handed these around.

Christmas at Reedley

My first Christmas in Reedley: A Wholesome, Hug-filled Bonanza.

1) The Message-In-a-Parol that covered the school's ceilings with crayon-colored stars. The best by far was Leo's Christmas card to his sweetheart Sharon. Leo is a Korean student with puppy dog eyes, and who is forever entertaining us teachers with the endearingly cute things he says and does. This Christmas, he did not disappoint with his message to Sharon - "I'm going to Korea, you take care. I love you so much. Forever."

2) The Beatles-Mania Christmas Party where my group lost by one point in the Name-That-Tune contest because I mistakenly identified the tie-breaker song as "She Loves Me" when it fact, it was "She Loves You" (yeah, yeah, yeah!)

3) The Reedley feeling of ohana - family, which nothing in the corporate world can beat.Thank you Miss Norms, Miss Rose, Reg, Jaimie, Ginny, Dianne, Andrey, Ben Lloyd-Kinkajou and everybody.

It has been a blessed year. And at the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card, nothing beats the feeling of peace and family. Thank you thank you thank you.

The Girl Most Likely To

If I were to be nominated for anything -- it would probably be "The Girl Most Likely To Change Her Mind."

Hence, my fifth online blog.

Hey, at least it's only blogs that I'm so flippant about.