Unless you are on a diet, never wear perfume or cologne to a sumptuous dinner. It depresses your appetite.

At A Loss For Words 2

Even Filipinos who don't usually speak English use the phrase "at least" in their Taglish, because of verbal economy.

Example:

"At least, nakakakain pa rin tayo araw-araw."

Without the phrase "at least" the sentence would be longer: "Kahit papaano, nakakakain pa rin tayo araw-araw", "Anupaman ang mangyari, nakakakain pa rin tayo araw-araw". "Sa madaling salita, nakakakain pa rin tayo araw-araw". "Huwag nang magpaliguy-ligoy pa, nakakakain pa rin tayo araw-araw". "Sa bandang huli, nakakakain pa rin tayo araw-araw".

Aubrey's new study table was delivered today, and I am poorer by thousands.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun keeps a collection of gold lockets.

Good night, Cubao!

The night shift gnomes craft exquisite wax flowers under glass cloches.

One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Learn patience by watching plants grow, in the sunshine and in the rain.

A delivery of two items arrived.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

All teapots and teacups should be placed facing the interior of the house, not away from it, to ensure that the residents receive more blessings than they give away.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Good morning, Cubao!

A portion of your house should allow you to relax under an open sky.

Good night, Cubao!

Alley cats croon at the moon.

One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Do not get involved in your supervisor's personal and domestic problems.

Learn the art of appropriate detachment.

Gave another bag of hair ties to Cynthia and two sets of earrings to Brian and Bertod.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

My sister Sylvia sent me this fabulous, batik tablecloth for 12 from Sydney, but the design is too occult for my granddaughters. I'm using it as a bed cover instead.

M. and Bertod visited the roof deck garden and transferred some decorative plants to my sister Alice's front porch garden.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Good morning, Cubao!

The orange cat basks under the noon sun.

Good night, Cubao!

Night gnomes set up curio shops along garden walls.

One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Seek to make things better rather than worse. Do not turn your back on situations that need resolution and improvement.

Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Jughead and Archie and a Netflix movie.

Manny Pacquiao will fight again. And again. And again. It's his only means of a big and an honest income. He will get paid in millions of dollars to win--AND to lose. And he needs that income for the upkeep of his house in the U.S., his houses in the Philippines, the lavish lifestyles of his family members, and his generous dole-outs. Without that income he becomes just another public official.

Fundamentalism is one of the major reasons why nations go to war. People usually cannot stand people who practice other religions, perceive them as devils, and do not hesitate to kill them.

If war must still be waged, all recruits of opposing armed forces should be comprised of fundamentalists only. That is the only time we can really say that all is fair in war.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

If you are a writer, remember this, that only straight Tagalog is timeless. When you use coined and faddish words in your works, your works will eventually become dated and obsolete.

That athlete will never garner medals. He has a serious personality problem--he loves sabotaging himself. He propagates videos showing his potential skills, bemoaning his lack of funds, and gathering donations from those who admire him. And then, at the last minute, he backs out of competitions, presenting injuries as his excuse.

In the end, no one will care about him, and sports history will remember him only as one big joke.

M. and Bertod visited the roof deck and balcony gardens this evening. 

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Left a bag of books at the cafe for my neighbor Gleenn to pick up.

Asked M. to go to the center and buy some stuff for me.

Good morning, Cubao!

Sunshine always provides consolation.

Push your ailments through your fingertips into the TV show you are watching.

Good night, Cubao!

The playroom has a neighborhood of enchanted dollhouses.

One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with three syllables in your name: Reinvent yourself during the pandemic period. For example, and this is only an example, do not write plays when there are no producers and directors to stage them, and do not mount art exhibits when no patrons and viewers will come and see your works. 

Instead, adopt forms of art that go well with staying home and that do not rely on live audiences in order to succeed.

Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with an Indonesian horror movie on Netflix.

Staggered dinnertimes.

One-hour, late afternoon nap.

Swung by the neighborhood grocery with Aubrey after the rain stopped. Did minor groeries.

Happy Tenth Birthday to my fourth granddaughter, Chevy!

Grandpa loves you!

There are three Rabbits in our family: Chevy, Aubrey, and I.

Angelique's first day of classes for the first semester of the new school year.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

A brief drizzle.

Good day, Cubao!

The afternoon sun is always a welcome guest to high tea.

Sometimes my work at the Embassy was a comedic rigmarole. Washington would message me directly about a heritage conservation project, and I would gather all the information needed. The Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer would come to me to take the information and claim it as her own. During an ensuing staff meeting, the Public Afairs Officer would ask me for the same information and I would give it. Then the Public Affairs Officer would look at me as though he were putting me in my place and say, "I have to check with the Assistant Cultural Affairs if that is correct."

No one has the right to tell you to be humble, especially if you have many things to be proud and arrogant about.

Learn the art of pretending to be humble while not actually being so.

Good night, Cubao!

The hungry bachelor takes a stroll through the night food market.

One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Because you love your family, you already hold the world in your hands.

Staggered dinnertimes. Angelique and Aubrey are having take-out food for their dinner.

Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Shou Chen Tan begins rehearsals for an experimental production of On The North Diversion Road, retitled for Singapore as On N. Diversion Road.

Brian installed eight planters on my sister Alice's front porch garden.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Booked Toto to drive for Angelique to the bank to pay her tuition for the first semester of the new school year.

Mario reported for work today and I assigned him to clean the floors.

Intermittent rain.

Good morning, Cubao!

Never expose cooked food to blazing sunshine.

Two-hour, deep tissue massage. Ended at midnight.

Good night, Cubao!

House spiders spin dream catchers in bedroom windows.

Some 20 years ago on a work-related mission to Mindanao, I purchased two printed cotton, malong-type pajamas at the airport. I used them briefly at home. My eldest sister Lourdes, who lives in Sydney, asked me where I bought them, but I couldn't give them to her because I'd been wearing them already. I eventually stashed them away and rediscovered them in a backpack only two nights ago. I decided to start wearing them again last night. After all, what else could I do with them? Surprisingly, both M. and Brian admired them so much and asked for them, and I gladly parted with them. (I have too many night clothes; ironically, I like sleeping naked.) Truly, one man's trash is other men's treasure.

One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Challenge neither your fate nor your destiny, and both will be kind to you through the rest of your life.

What I hated most about ALL of my grade school and high scbool teachers was that they always had to have the last word, no matter what, even when I was right and they were wrong.

I am certain that none of them have changed, which is why I'd been avoiding all of them since I said goodbye and good riddance to school.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower and spending some time watching online videos.

Afternoon deliveries: metal hanging planters, a lighted, miniature bus station for the small loggia, and dog food for Keiko Kashigawa. 

Spent the rest of the afternoon with Brian on the side and front balconies. He installed more hanging planters, moved some plants to the side porches, and watered the plants.

My sister Alice sent us half of the birthday cake that my other sister Sylvia ordered from Sydney.

Happy Birthday to my sister Alice!

Good morning, Cubao!

Day fairies dive into air as humans dive into water.

Good night, Cubao!

The sentinels' bedrooms have double-deckers in every corner.

One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: It is a glorious waste of time to keep hoping for the love of someone who does not even think of you. Love yourself instead. Improve your status as a person. Be successful. And then others will keep hoping for your love.

Dinner at home with Angelique; Aubrey retired early to bed.

Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Jughead and Archie.

Brian and Bertod walked Keiko Kashigawa and Yukiko Taka on the compound and then gave them a lavender-scented, anti-flea shampoo and bath.

A brief, heavy rainfall in Cubao. Lighted the ceramic house in the small loggia.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Replenished our soda supply.

Two types of people are hardest hit by the pandemic: big-time business operators and prostitutes.

Good morning, Cubao!

Fairy princes love disguising themselves as humans. 

Good night, Cubao!

Care for your house gnomes and your house gnomes will care for you.

One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with six syllables in your name: Do not allow your reeatives, co-workers, and friends to pressure you into a settled life you are not really prepared for. You will only discover, with much regret, that what people call a settled life is most unsettling.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Jughead and Archie and Hallmark Mystery Movies.

Cubao rain.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

I was in high school when this picture was taken. My grandmother and my Jesuit uncle have already passed away.

Photo sent by my sister Alice, second from right. My sister Sylvia is third from right.

I have no idea who the man standing beside me is. Possibly a cousin. (I was always very distant from relatives on my father's side, and I still am.)

A big breakfast, as in The Color Purple.

Good morning, Cubao!

Fairy children weave crowns of garden flowers.

Good night, Cubao!

Fairies bake chewy cookies all year round.

One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with one syllable in your name: One does not look for a role model, it is the role model that finds one.

Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Jughead and Archie and Hallmark Mystery Movies.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Aubrey cooked hot sardine pasta with sliced sausages.

One-hour, late afternoon nap.

Handcarved, pinewood box from Russia. Pine trees are abundant there because of the cold climate. This kind of wood is even used to line their public and private steam baths.

A perfect humidor for my ziggurats.

Most people hold faith in superstition. It works because it is genuine faith. After all, one can have faith in anything, for faith is the conviction that even the impossible can be made possible. It is not the exclusive possession of any religion.

The gnomes make transactions not only on the branches of the dragon tree but also beneath its roots.

Angelique and Aubrey are taking their lunch in the dining room; I woke up late and am still settling down with two cups very black coffee.

Good morning, Cubao!

Sunbeams follow happy children into their playrooms.

Good night, Cubao!

House mice use fresh-water pearls as scrying balls.

One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with three syllables in your name: Consider a second occupation that will earn you more money, one you can easily and painlessly manage and one you won't fret over should you fail in or lose it.

Maferefun, Chango!

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Jughead and Archie and more Hallmark Mysteries.

"Pixie-like" is a 1980s term that women used to describe other women.

Never purchase a plaything that is stubborn and overpowering.

If you feel uncomfortable visualizing eight elemental kings in the cardinal and quarter directions, visualize eight saints instead. They will guide you through your day.

The same goes for the power animals (in front of you, behind you, on your left, on your right, above you, and below you).

Once a priest manifests bipolarism, avoid him completey.

A virus can be brought down to manageable levels, but it never really goes away.

A stray cat always exercises keen judgment.

Haunted in bed by mental images of the deceased? Just keep your back and shoulders covered in a blanket and go to sleep.

Whenever tempted to buy an expensive item, simply pretend that you've bought it already, that you've had it for some time, and that you've gotten tired of it.

Do not kiss a frog even in your wildest fantasy. He may turn into a man, but not into the man of your dreams.

An aging athelete gradually loses his strength and his practice. An aging artist gains deeper insight into his craft even as he grows much older.

Art immerses its audiences in illusions. Unfortunately most artists are immersed in delusions.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Festival of Hungry Ghosts 2021

Good morning, Cubao!

Skylights are symbols of unattainable dreams.