Friday, January 17 2025

End of another workday. Looking good.

Joel dropped by our dusty construction site to give me four cans Charms Sour Candy Balls.

I now feel very charming. Joke!

But, after these, I'm graduating to sugar-free drops.

Still proofreading Small Toto's printout of Nobyembre for publication,. Quite tedious and a strain on eyesight.

Big Toto reported for work today. Neil and he are working on the side and front of our house.

John also reported for work and is currently still encoding Disyembre on his laptop. He brought us a bag of ensaymada.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Afternoon sunlight paints abstract images on the wall and floor in my dialysis room.

Taken with Marvin's camera.

Busy day. 

M. claimed a bag of blood for my transfusion, then escorted me to hospital for my nth dialysis session.

Big Toto reported for work today. Neil, Bertod, and he resumed construction work in front of our house.

Jerome's day off from the Chinese restaurant. He cleaned the rear passage and gave the three doggies a shampoo.

Small Toto printed out a copy of Nobyembre that John encoded in his computer shop.

 There can be no peace until justice is served.

Get in character beforer acting.

Offstage, I mean.

To be dandruff-free and rid of the smell of sweaty hair, rub your scalp once a week with a cotton ball and Listerine antiseptic.

Your children's days are thrown off kilter whenever they can't have their morning shower.

Even the proudest will be humbled by illness and death.

Big Toto reported for work today. Neil and he are now buying more materials and will be resuming the reconstruction of our front gate.

John also reported for work this morning. He is now encoding Disyembre on his laptop.

Had a BLTC sandwich at M.'s cafe.

A workday done and I am pleased with the results.

Big Toto reported for work today. Neil and he are now out buying construction materials at hardware stores.

So glad to have work being done on the house again. It's like giving the house a deep tissue massage on a full day at the salon.

You become forgiving of others. young and old alika,  when you remind yourself that they, too, dream.

A second-time Christmas Day occurs January 25.

You cannot clear yourself of a crime by accusing others of the same crime.

Whenever you take your family out, it is all right to be realistic and practical, but, remember that no matter how much you end up spending for them, you are not buying good food and good hotel accommodations but the most wonderful memories that will last everybody a lifetime.

M.'s birthday. He turns 40 today.

I wonder how the cafe plans to celebrate his birthday later today--or tonight.

When both of my sons were still in school, I worked eight hours at the U.S. Embassy in Manila and then proceeded to the taping site of my teleplay for _Lino Brocka Presents_ in some god-forsaken place, where I worked another six hours. I would get home at dawn and have only two hours sleep before rising again to go to the Embassy.

Whenever I walked through mny sons' bedroom at dawn, their radio would be on Veriutas, playing the family rosary being recited by a group.

To this very day, whenever I hear the risary being prayed by a group on Veritas, I think of my sons sleeping cozily in bed and imagine myself lying down and going to sleep myself, safe in the astral arms of the praying groups.

I am now overjoyed to be retired. Never will  I work 14 hours straight again, ever.

https://www.facebook.com/veritaslegazpi/videos/393001060485254

If I ordered a keyboard that had only keys I use and need, the usual keyboard would be reduced in length by half.

Actually they forgot to use the panyo and ritual of Tatlong Batang Nagsayaw Sa Apoy.

It will always be the year to disassociate yourself from everyone who bogs you down.

As a general, rule, spirit guides bless underdogs with longer lives.

The baby will tell you when it wants to sleep.

If news of a revolution comes to you, of all people, that means that its organizers are careless and that it's not going to happen.

But, when it is my turn to die, never say that may I rest in peace, as I never say that of anyone who passes.

Souls NEVER rest in peace--no more than energy does. Souls are continuously alive and proactive, earthbound or not, watching over loved ones, or else reincarnating into new lives.

An inert soul or spirit is inconceivable to me, and is even an insult to Creation.

I suspect that, when people wish souls to "rest in peace," it is because they are afraid of being visited or haunted.

It is all right to look back over the years and wish that you had done things differently.This happens to everyone and is perfectly normnal.

Do not allow such wishes to haunt you like ghosts from the past.

January 9, 2025

My mother's death anniversary

Bought a third set of everyday, drinking goblets--these, champagne-colored--inasmuch as we've been hosting meals every so often.

Love that big-diamond-cut design!

Photo by Neil de Leon

The amber man sent me a photo of another, irresistible piece.

It is quite strange that, whenever the amber man is no longer with me, I cannot remember his face and his voice. He must be some kind of elf.

So unlike my Maranapo antique dealer, I mean, whom I remember vividly, including all of the facial expressions I've ever seen on him.

If you have friends or students whom you like well enough to want to see them often, make them feel, whenever they come to you, as though they've just come home.

Sleep in warmth--not bundled up, but in a room slightly but adequately heated.

Happy Birthday to my youngest sister, Sylvia!

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

New Year's Eve lunch with my youngest sister, Sylvia, and brother-in-law Rey

Angelique did an early check-in for us at Novotel, where we proceeded immediately after lunch.

That same evening, Sylvia and Rey flew back to Sydney.

The best candidates for unFriending are those who "highlight comments for you to read," those who "mention you in a comment with other followers," and those who "invite you to like..."

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

First breakfast of the year

Good friends will always come by unexpectedly.

Old post:

TONY PEREZ\S GUIDELINES FOR HIS FACEBOOK FRIENDS FOR THE COMING WEEK (MONDAY, JULY 29 - FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2024):

1) Remember the heat and how it was unkind to you.

2) Live to the fullest without having to wait for any big break.

3) It is unwuse to rely only on your memory.

4) Do not be generous to a fault.

5) There will always be a work-related inconvenience.

6) Focus on your own concerns before focusing on those of your co-workers.

7) Give only in reciprocation.

8 ) Do not feel obliged to give in to relatives outside your immediate family.

9) The arrogant skeptic ends up with nothing.

10) Sherbet is a dessert for all seasons.

11) Long trips are a bad idea at this time.

12) Do not force yourself to attend a function if you are not feeling well.

13) A former classmate says goodbye.

14) Ensure that you have good finances. 

15) Supervisors will praise you only to a certain extent.

16) Do not ingest too much potassium.

17) A long-lost acquaintance surfaces.

18) Something red on your bed will protect you from roaming spirits.

Good morning, Cubao! The day serves a slice of chill pie.

Say "I wish" into the sunlight and nothing more.

Someone will leave a house somewhere south of Quezon City, and will never come back.

The amber man insisted on having our photo taken. That's the nth time someone wanted a photo with me over the past months. They make me feel like they're post-mortem photos, i.e. photos to show others and say of me, "He was still alive at the time."

I think, Joel started it when he had our photo taken after his photo session for The Magician in a professional photographer's studio. He hasn't released that photo yet, and I believe he will only after I die.

Morbid.

Shared from M.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Early birds at their dinner table for the New Year's Eve countdown 

in the ballroom of Novotel Araneta Center.

After the waiter took our photo,  the crowds filed in.

My New Year's resolution is, after having retired in 2015 and having successfully become an urban hermit, to now live in hibernation and in social isolation.

Do not ask me to interpret your dreams.

Do not pull a poem and a novel out of your pocket and ask me to read and comment on them.

Do not request oracle and card readings from me.

Do not ask me for birthday messages and predictions.

Do not ask me to sell you a bottle of gayuma.

Do not ask me to check out the ghosts in your house and neighborhood.

Do not ask me to regress you to a previous lifetime.

Do not ask me whether to pull or not pull the plug on someone's respirator.

Thank you.

Go to sleep with the four elements:

--the soothing effect of a glass of drinking water

--the caress of air, with a brief air bath by an electric fan

--the spectacle of fire, by lighting a scented, bottled candle at your windowsill

--the feel of earth, with a deep tissue massage

Thought this would finally be a post-holiday, lazy Sunday with nothing but our family mahjong session and dinner, but today was the only day I could schedule my amber jeweler's visit. He is not in my Friends List and has no idea that I've been undergoing dialysis. For the past few months he'd been sending me photos of amber necklaces and bracelets, none of which, thankfully, appealed to me. Our relationship has been long and strange. He is a relative of a very popular movie and TV actor. Whenever I buy something from him, he showers me with freebies. He also tried his hand at oil painting, gave up, and gifted me with an entire sack of unopened oil paint tubes--these are the tubes I used for my latest painting titled _Descent of the Holy Spirit_.

And then...

Last week he sent me a photo of an exquisite  piece I could not resist.

M.'s cafe's new menu additions

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

All of us at the entrance to the ballroom for the countdown dinner, Novotel Araneta Center

Yesterday was bank day. Marvin and Neil escorted me. Withdrew money, had dollars changed to pesos, paid our electric bills, and had lunch out.

Today Rose and Princess are joining Marvin and me to go to hospital for a check-up.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

At the entrance to the ballroom for the countdown dinner, Novotel Araneta Center

With my sisters Remi and Alice

They turned back time to the dance music of the 80s and the 90s.

Be careful when scamming the general public. A witch, a wizard, and a mage will always strike back, and you will lose ten times more than  what you made.

Do not render services to others when you are ill, and do not even heroically try to do so.

The university is a dream existence. It is not real life.

"The fountain pen cannot write by itself."

--Brahmachari

Democracy and human rights do not exist in academic institutions, that is why they also do not exist in society.

 
"You can love them all, and when you're through/
Maybe that'll make a man out of you/"

A lesbian is finally fed up with her butch lover's multiple women lovers.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

At the entrance to the ballroom for the countdown dinner, Novotel Araneta Center

With my granddaughters Angelique and Aubrey

Wearing the Dumbledore beanie that Joel brought me from London

Love is the creation of good memories.

Love your family. All other blessings will then come into your life.

I love photographers who smile when taking photos as though they themselves were in the picture.

Tuesdau, December 31, 2024

New Year's Eve family dinner at Abe Restaurant, Gateway 2, Araneta Center.

The countdown dinner at Novotel is at 10:00 PM and too late for us. We'd be very hungry by then, that is why we have an earlier, interim dinner at a nice place we've never been to before.  

Family leaving later to check into a hotel for the New Year countdown dinner and an overnight stay, so let me take this opportunity to wish all of you a New Year of blessings, both usual and unusual.

Remember: We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.

Light wishing joss sticks at your altars tonight.

2025 will be no better, and wars between tribes will escalate, but always be bright and cheerful and hopeful. Most importantly, do not allow cynicism to get to your children.

Save money for yourself and your family. Do not go into debt. Do not owe anyone anything.,

Everything on this planet has a gender.

Never discuss business on an empty stomach.

If you take away the moon, something else will shine in its place.

The more you see, the more you understand.

The guilty will always live by their guilt.

We are always obliged to do better than the previous generation.

Choose only the best for yourself and for your family. That is why you have to ensure that you can afford it.

Chill winds bring on the  most annoying illnesses.

Your faith does not determine your fate.

Mawil dropped by with a box of sansrival cake. She couldn't stay to try the cafe's chicken sisig.\

Must invite, Elline, Nene, and Allan to lunch sometime soon.

Monday, December 20, 2024

Jerome is on work holiday for the New Year. He cleaned the rear area and gave Keiko Kashigawa, Yukiko Taka, and Cloudy doggie shampoos.

Later, he cooked pansit bato, a Bicol noodle specialty, and my sisters Remi and Alice and I had some Really good noodles with soup! I thought this was the Asian equivalent of stone soup (of the old, Junior Classics' Aesop's Fables), but, apparently, not. The noodles were made near a place called Barangay Bato in Libon, Albay,

In the photo is a single serving of pansit bato.

Photo by Neil de Leon

My youngest sister, Sylvia sends me kidney-friendly lollies (Australian for "candies"). Not included in this photo is one of my favorites, red licorice. Peppermint and candy cane were on the list but I am not fond of those.

By the way, do NOT order Charms Sour Balls online. The vendors will keep cancelling your order and eventually ask you to pay up in advance--and the candy will never come. My sister got scammed for PHP600. Besides, I like Charms Sour Balls the least in this array. They are not the candy I recall from when I was a kid.

The same is true of Excelente Ham online--Excelente Ham recently announced on a TV news program that it does not have an online outlet of any sort. And, yes, I got scammed for PHP2,500.

We consumers need to look after one another.

Photo by Neil de Leon

2025 will be the year of the goddess of "the wind, lightning, storms, rivers, and children." She resides in marketplaces and in cemeteries. Typical offerings to this goddess are "eggplants,  plums, figs, kola nuts, legumes, porridge, gin, grape wine, red wine, rum, chocolate pudding, purple grapes, rice, black beans, rain water, starfruit, shea or coconut butter, yams, coins, and cloth." When her card appears in a reading (such as in the Tarot of the Orishas), it indicates "a time of upheaval or sudden change, of a destructive and chaotic but necessary nature." Her number is 9.

Since this goddess is associated with scarves of nine colors (especially including black, brown, and maroon), there is no real color of the year.

--Information from tne Internet

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Third visit by my youngest sister, Sylvia, and brother-in-law Rey this month.

We'd finished up with lunch and Neil began clearing dishes.

On the right is my former university student John, who is now encoding my full-length play Nobyembre for publication.

A pack of Vietnamese jasmine tea from John.

I've always wondered why the Philippines never grew tea like the other dragon countries do in Southeast Asia.

John flew in from Cambodia yesterday and reported for work today to start encoding Nobyembre for publication.

Lunch with my sisters Alice and Sylvia and brother-in-law Rey.

Two-hour, deep tissue massage. Ended 10:10 P.M.

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Christmas party at the hemodialysis section.

Three female nurses and one male nurse gave me wrapped gifts! Absolutely unexpected!

I should have brought crystal tumblestones to give in reciprocation.

Food overflowed, and from caterers of good repute. I am so tempted to believe that this hospital is being run by a board of billionaires. Only last Sunday the staff nurses were brought to dinner at Vikings Gateway 2.

Living as a painter and as a writer 24/7 in the mid-20s

Left, my painting taboret currently in use. Right, writing desk.

Photo by Neil de Leon

Today is my daughter-in-law Ivy's birthday.

Sunday, December 15, 2024

Relatives on my father's side from Illinois, USA and Santa Maria, Bulacan visit.

Dinner after family mahjong session.

Wearing a pink, Tausug head kerchief. It is possible that, for some tribes in Asia, pink is a hot, aggressive, masculine color.

Things are hopping tonight. Relatives are visiting from Bulacan and are staying overnight at my sister Remi's place. The construction workers are having a Christmas party with food, liquor, and karaoke on the compound. The videoke at M.'s cafe is in full swing.

Home alone. Neil is doing worship at Iglesia, Jerome has not yet arrived from work, and Elma must be with baby Princess at M.'s cafe or having dinner out with Neil after worship.

Had a bowl of ice cream while listening to all of the sounds around me.

A conservation-framed Conte crayon drawing will be raffled off to my classmates at our Christmas party.

And this set of anatomical figures (unflayed, half-flayed, and fully flayed) will be raffled off to the medical staff.

Now John is off yto the airport to catch a flight for a six-day tour of Cambodia.

Took a very hot bath, and feeling better.

John reported for work today. Now reformatting the script of Oktubre... for publication, following the template of my series.

Your Messenger message:

"Good morning, Tony. I hope you're doing good and feeling good. Happy holidays! "Last night, I had a dream with you in it. You were riding a motorcycle and I was a passenger behind you. I clearly recall the feeling of my hands on your shoulders. "Our companions were in a van behind us. We were going to your house. But when we got there it was not in Cubao but a new house that you said you recently purchased as an investment. It's still in Manila though, and it looked unfinished. There were still a few workers. "'We're here,' you said. We all alighted fr the vehicles and entered the house. You removed your helmet, we followed you around as you gave us all a quick tour of the new property."

My reply:

Hello _____!

Dreaming of being in transit on a vehicle means that you are at a time in your life in which you are making major choices and possibly taking new directions in life. That I am at the wheel, so to speak, means that you consider your present challenge an adventure into the unknown.

A new property, likewise, reflects a change in attitude and in values.

Take time to reflect before plunging into anything new. Are you bored? Are you short of income and wanting more? Do you need a mere vacation and temporary change of environment?

Always keep in mind that whatever you decide will not only be for yourself but also for your child.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Left, Tanghalang Pilipino's 1983 working script for _Oktubre, Noong Tayo'y  Nagmamahalan Pa_

Right: John's work in progress encoding the play for publication

It is not life that death extinguishes.

It is talent.

Rest day for me. So glad to stay in the whole day for a change.

In the meantime Big Toto and Neil are working on the roof and the roof deck, and Princess, the cafe baby, is playing with Elma in the living area.

Small Toto printed out John's encoded _Oktubre_, and I did some proofreading, especially on formatting for publication.

Still waiting for the new, cradled canvas to arrive.

In retrospect, I must thank Allan for the tuob he gave me. Immediately after that, I started painting again, I was able to walk long distances, I renewed my interest in writing, and, for some strange reason, I resumed wearing my jewelry in rotation.

Mary Grace Piattos, Jack Cornick, Jill Cornick, Marty Oishi, Juan Tipas, Dingdong Muhlach, Nena Ferino 

My Complete Clavo en corona Collection

Popularly known as Clavo Corona, Corona Clavo, and even Cristo Clavo and Clavo de Cristo (and not to be confused with the talisman Cuatro Clavos, which I also have), the legend behind this talisman is that Emperor Constantine's mother, Helena, a.k.a. Saint Helen, was able to obtain the three brads that were used in the Crucifixion. She allegedly threw one in the middle of the sea, nailed another into the emperor's saddle, and placed the third inside his crown.

Background: Raw linen Panyo with complete oraciones, purchased from Ramona Singian in 2010.


Clockwise from Top: Brass talisman; stainless steel talisman (attributed to Frederick Bayas); sterling silver ring (antique); copper talisman (the most widely-produced version, attributed to Jeffrey Limuco); sterling silver talisman with spiral pattern (antique); and sterling silver talisman (antique). Center: antique, silver medallion.

Clavo en corona is allegedly a talisman of triumph.

Two-hour, deep tissue massage. Ended 10:00 PM.

Did you know that "highlighted comments" are almost never viewed and are a waste of time?

Monday, December 9, 2024

M. and Rose have their picture taken in front of their portraits. The painting is now bubble-wrapped and ready for delivery to and installation at Maryhill School of Theology.

Photo by Neil de Leon

There is no need to improve the best version of anything.

It will improve itself when the right time comes.

It should be possible to live a life of heaven and then go to heaven after one dies.