Tatay at Nanay

My parents are back in the Philippines!
They arrived last week, I fetched them at the airport. They look trim and healthy.

Their trip from Canada was uneventful, and they arrived just rightly, when the weather here improved, no more rains.

From the airport, we proceeded to Makati, and they have a wonderful reception from Lola, Tita Madre, Jing, Noli and the kids. Lola cried, saying those were tears of joy. After lunch, I accompanied them to Ospital ng Makati, where Tito Ben was confined. This was also one of the reason why they have traveled much earlier compared to their original plan of going here before Christmas time. Tito Ben was still very weak, but was quite glad when he saw Tatay and Nanay.

On their first weekend, the whole family went to dinner in one of the "market restaurants" in Pasay - me and Judith were there, Noli and Jing's kids were there, Bado, Lare and Alicia also were there. The food was great, and we all had a great time. We wished that Jay and Biboy were also there. I'll post pictures soon.

Then Tatay and Nanay finally settled in Las Pinas. They were glad that they're finally home. Tatay congratulated Judith for taking good care of the house, and of course, they were very eager to see Zia and Enzo for the first time.

The succeeding days were not as good, Nanay has started to have some asthma problems again (which she did not have when she was in Canada), and Tatay had some flu and diarrhea. Jet lag is still a problem, compounding the issue.

All in all, I am happy that I am again in the company of my parents. They are planning to be here until the first quarter of 2008.

Nice!

Mommy's Birthday

Birthday kahapon ni Mommy Goody, September 29, pero ngayon ang celebration dito sa bahay. Dumating sina Mhek, Joy and Kyla, nagdala sila ng cake.

Sarap ng lunch, liempo, hipon at ginataang gulay.

Ok talaga pag dito lang sa bahay at kasama ang pamilya! Next week, parating na sina Tatay.

Kulit Enzo

My baby boy beginning to be demanding...

Family Time

I am blessed with a beautiful wife and two gorgeous babies. Agree?






Enough said!

Mu vs Phi

I am a fanatic of my fraternity - the Mu Sigma Phi Fraternity of the UP College of Medicine. In fact my whole batch - Batch 98 - is very emphatic about the frat. (And I'm the Batch Leader)

During the recent PGH Centennial Celebrations, Dr. Armand Crisostomo, the over-all chair (who is also a Brod), decided to have a basketball game between our frat and the other frat, the Phi Kappa Mu.

It's not an ordinary game, the last time the 2 frats played against each other was more than 10 years ago. And for this game, not only the undergraduates can play, even the alumni. So the game was set on a Thursday afternoon.

All the brods wore red, the others wore yellow (chicken?). Our team was made up of the strong team mostly from the late 80's and the early 90's squad. The Others were mostly undergraduates.

Of course my role in the game is to heckle along with my brods in the sideline (and to be the waterboys for the team).

Jumpball - the Phi got the ball but was called on a backing violation. My cohort hecklers -Jotek, Archie and Nick rained down heckles to this poor Phi "May linya dyan, ta_ga!" "Bobo mo di marunong tumingin" "Patingin ka sa OPhtha" - This was just the first 2 seconds of the game. When the Mu team got the ball, the first shot went in - CHAOS ensued (in our court) - 20 seconds just elapsed.

Some of my undergrad brods were initially timid, and were quite surprised that our group, the Consultants, are the leaders in heckling. They were just not accustomed in a game like this.

At the baseline of the court of the Phis were Raffy Consunji, Ebang Evangelista, Dave Leal and 30 more brods, all heckling the lights out of the shooting free throw shooter from the Phi. Sometimes "Mu,mu,mu,mu..." endless until the shooter shoots the ball, othertimes just shouting "WALA!", sometimes Raffy would shout from the baseline, "Brods quiet! Sayang lang, di naman yan papasok!", and sometimes the old dirty fingers wagging before the shooter goes up for his shot.

Of course expect another round of heckling for every blocked shot, steal and acrobatic shot from Tony Perez (who would fix his sidehair after a shot in front of the Mu bench while running back for defense). Marlon Oclarence (Ocla) played the pointguard position. Because the young Phis don't know him, he would always be left open at the top of the keyhole area, for his first 2 open shots, no success. But when he was left open for the 3rd time, he connected a 3! While running backwards for defense, he pointed at the face of his defender while shouting "Bantayan mo ako!", for all to hear.

To their credit, the young Phis were really good. After the 1st quarter, we led by only 2 points, and at the end of half time it was tied. The young players from Phi were quick and athletic with good shooting. There was one poor Phi however with the name Pakks. He is a good player but quite hot on the collar, so he was one of the favorite of our group to heckle. There was even an altercation between him and the star player Tony Perez, so all the brods were shouting "Sandara, sandara, sandara! Then from behind one voice will shout "PAKKS!", of course that will be Jotek. Specially when he fouled out! Poor fellow.

After the 3rd quarter, they were leading by 2 points, of course c/o Maxie Escano's 3 point shot at the end of the quarter. Some of our players were getting tired, until Rodney Dofitas gave a pep talk during a time out, they were all rejuvenated, specially after seeing Rodney getting chunks of ice and icewater from the cooler and splashing it to his head and torso. The Mu players played it very smart. They drove the lane and fished for some fouls. Penalty became the enemy of the Phis, and every foul that they gave was a free throw. The lead balooned to 8 at one point and 2 of the Phis fouled out. Then came Iggy. Gar Eufemio's lips can be read as "Sumusuko na yata sila, pinasok na si Iggy"

In the waning seconds of the game, Jotek went inside the court during a time out and led the whole Mu supporters in shouting 'Walang iiyak, walang iiyak", of course with his trademark yosi on his hand.

When the final buzzer sounded off, the score was 57-50. Best Frat March singing in a long time, inside the court with the Phis in attendance.

I wasn't able to attend the post game inuman in Orchid until 10 PM, when me, rainier, Archie and Jotek arrived, most of the players were still there. Raffy was drunk but still kept on shouting "Pakks u" "Fuc_ing Phi sh_t" and the like. Bunny Valdez, Tony, Ocla, Gar, and the younger brods were still there along with Kups. It was a great day to finish the day.

I was hoarse for 3 days.

PGH Centennial

The Philippine General Hospital celebrated its Centennial Celebrations last Aug 13-17, 2007. Of course, it was a very busy week for us because the whole week was packed with activities. For me, it was very tiring since I'm the protocol officer of the hospital.

Monday was the opening day, and the guest of honor is Vice President Noli de Castro. the day itself is quite stressful, everybody was excited. I had some problems with the staff of VP de Castro, but the day ended with very well. During the afternoon, the Chief of the Civil Service Commission was our guest - Karina Constantino David.

Tuesday is giving recognition to PGH's donors, and the guest of honor is no less than the Speaker of the House Joe de Venecia. Again the event is very stressful, 2 congresswomen attended, most spouses of the senators arrived, and most of our guests came to participate. Again, the day ended well.

Wednesday has no big time activity, just some shows for the employees. However, I came home late since I waited for Judith who had a patient in nearby Manila Doctors Hospital.

Thursday is another big day, the PGH officials went to Malacanang to meet President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. She was so happy with PGH that she gave additional P250M to the hospital. From the palace, I went directly to the Basketball game between Mu vs Phi. That would entail another post from this blog.

Friday is the actual founding day of PGH. In the morning we had the Senate President Manuel Villar as our special guest. During the night, Gary V had a concert benefit for PGH at the Manila Hotel.

It was really a tiring week, but all worth it. During the whole week, there was severe raining in Metro Manila, floods all around. I was thankful that the following Monday was a holiday, so there was a long week end and I was able to spend family time with the kids.

The thing is, additional activities are still lined up in the last week of August, there's the visit of US Amb Kenney and the Oration in PGH of DOH Sec Duque.

Ganda.

Tito Ben

My Tito Ben is one of the younger brothers of Tatay. He is very sick right now in Ospital ng Makati, with lung and heart problems.

He used to look after not only me when I was small, but most of the apos since he did not have a family of his own. He is my companion when I was watching basketball in TV, and taught me the good boxers from the 50's to the 70's.

Hopefully he recovers from his condition right now.