Christmas in the Philippines, anybody?

Christmas Carolers at the Dusit Hotel, Manila..


Christmas Carolers in our old house in Asingan..



Miggie at the lobby of Manila Penn, while some New Year decors were being put up...


Xmas display in a Makati store...


An almost life size BELEN in a residence in Makati ( the house of the Mr. and Mrs. Bocaling )



One month from now, we will be back again in Asingan and will be there for 6 months!..It is actually an experiment in living..We want to find out for ourselves whether life in Asingan is more enjoyable than life in Toronto..

Moving back to the Motherland is just like starting again fresh..You are retired. You like to relax from the hustle and bustle and pollution of a big American city. So you opted for the nice and quiet life in the old hometown.Oh boy, it remains to be seen, and of course, I will surely keep you posted..Jeez, there are already some free WiFi areas in Urdaneta ( like Jolibees or McDonald )..And some Bus Lines going going to Ilocos have free Wi Fis too in order to keep the passengers amused...We might wait for a few more years before the Asingan bound Viron will have a free Wi fi service..:)For now, the best way to use your laptop in the Viron bus is to buy a SmartBro USB in Manila and subscribe to its Net service..That would cost you 1000 pesos a month for unlimited service..I need Net services to pay my bills online...Well after one has sorted out all of these technicalities, including acquisition of a dual citizenship from the Phil. Consulate here in Toronto, then

I guess we are ready to try out a holiday away from the snow in Toronto.And from the commercialism of the Holiday here in North America..!...Well, several Asinganians have staked out their retirement in our town and they seem to enjoy it...right guys?..:D

A sketch of the old Agno River, Asingan

-photo by VDCabanilla-This concrete bridge I believe took the place of the wooden one that marked the boundary between Poblacion and Aragaag..


A typical house in Aragaag before. The neighbour would be quite far away. But this house maybe would belong to a tenant looking after a nearby agricultural land...

Comparing Asingan to Toronto is like comparing apples to oranges, but for me each place is dear to my heart for each of them helped in my growing up..Asingan saw me grow as a child, Toronto saw me attain maturity as a man...So how can you forget the scenes you saw through the eyes of your child hood?..You can not..These are always be lingering in remembrance like an old song which you heard when you were still going about as a happy, carefree individual..I loved to be alone then..So sometimes I walked to the riverside and played amongst the thick underbrush ( talahib ) and sand dunes of the old river.But I do not wander too far from the houses beside the river.There was an old wooden bridge going to Aragaag before..There were many clothes washers at the river below looking up at whoever would pass over the bridge: carromatas, Pantranco busses, cyclists..no motorized tricyclists yet at that time...A few meters away from this bridge was a sort of trail going down to the river..It was quite an experience going down this elevated downward trail riding on a carromata just to see the splash of the river as the wheels hit the water..This place then was scenic. There were lots of CAMANTERES ( KAMACHILE ) trees all around, and a bit upriver were the remains of an old bridge..It looked like a pier or a dock at that time and some kids used it as a diving board because the river was deep ( lipos, they say in Ilocano ) and only the good swimmers dared jump into its waters...Alas, one rainy season came, the river overflowed its banks and it took away EVERYTHING changing the topography of the land forever..Afterwards, the river banks became flat and plain looking. That scenic spot where we used to visit every Saturday morning ( where Mom and the servants spent the whole day washing clothes ) disappeared forever..It taught me a lesson: the constant law of life is constant change. Nothing stands still. There is always motion even if you say you are sitting down on chair or lying down on a bed. The chair and the bed are moving with the earths rotation on its axis and rotation around the sun. Such is one of the miracles of daily life which we mortals sometimes take for granted. But then, we must not be afraid. Fear not, because as the hymn goes: HE GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS..Amen!!!---#

CALLING RIZAL ACADEMY CLASS '58

hello class '58!

wE MIGHT HAVE OUR OWN CLASS REUNION ON APRIL 2012..NOT A VERY LONG TIME TO WAIT!

ANYWAY, HERE IS A LIST OF OUR CLASSMATES TAKEN FROM THE ORIGINAL GRADUATION DAY PROGRAM LAST 1958..CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT..IF YOUR NAME IS HERE AND YOU WANT TO "CONNECT" WITH US, DROP ME AN E MAIL ASSUMING YOU ARE FOND OF USING THE COMPUTER..MANY OF OUR CLASSMATES ARE NOT...ANYWAY, LET US HAVE OUR OWN REUNION, EVEN JUST TO SEE AND CHAT WITH EACH OTHER AGAIN..PLS. GET IN TOUCH!! THANK YOU!!!

In a winery at the Niagara Penninsula

a sign in an ice cream parlor



Shows how old some of the wineries are



Grape vines as far as the eyes can see. Original owners of the land were the victors of the British-French wars.In principle, Canada is still "under" the British Empire. Now the monarchy are just figureheads who receive some money from the Canadian government..



An old machinery used in the wine production trade. Now a days everything is modernized but some kinds of grapes for expensive wines are still hand picked..


Have you ever visited a winery in the Niagara penninsula which is about an hour drive from Toronto? I have been staying in Toronto for more than 30 years already and it was only last week that I entered a winery ( with other visitors of course, a whole busload of them )

Before we entered the wine distillery, the tour guide brought us first to a nearby row of grape vines. It is the kind which produces a semi-dry white wine called Reisling. After the half hour explaination, I found out that making wine is no easy task, it entails so much time, money, patience and knowledge of grape vines...

Then we entered the winery itself. We saw silos containing grape juice that someday will be bottled in the same area. There is already a bottling paraphernalia in the same building which could produce some thousands of bottles in 24 hours. That is lots of booze, I heard someone comment..

Then we had some wine tasting before we left the building to proceed with our bus excursion.

STRATFORD, ONTARIO

A few shots of Stratford's main street. Nothing much there except some restaurants, delicatessens and computer shops. The Computer seems to be the only sign of progress here in this place..




STRATFORD, Ontario is one of those very quiet towns in Ontario which do not believe in progress. So the population thru its Council of Elders ( or its equivalent ) resolved that there would be no huge Malls, factories, shopping centers in the town. They believe in living the kind of life enjoyed by their forefathers. So the bottom line is, if you stay in this kind of town in Canada, you won't find much jobs, unlike in the big cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal or Quebec. That is if you enter Canada with an Independent Immigrant visa.

Of course, if you are already fed up living in the cities, visiting these small towns ( or spending a week end in them ) is quite refreshing.

Stratford is one of them. We visited this community last week end just to watch a live performance of CAMELOT.

There are around 4 live theaters in this town. The theaters are really luxurious in their set up. These kinds of cultural centers do not exist in Toronto. The theaters in my city are small, plain and they pale compared with Stratford when it comes to live theater presentations.


CAMELOT was something to watch but one must have seen the movie at least once and one must also have a grasp of the Arthurian legends in order to appreciate. You see, the live theater can not tell much when showing these epics the way the movies would do it. Cast of thousands, the movie poster would announce. In the play its good if you have a cast of 20 actors and some of them would have 2 roles to play.

Anyway, I enjoyed watching the play because of the stage set up, the costumes, the musical talent of the actors. They really SING unlike in some Hollywood musicals which used dubbed voices in the musical numbers. Thus, when you watch a play, you will feel different compared to what you feel when watching a movie. The movie is fake but nice, the Play is more realistic. The actors are really acting and emoting. They do their lines and actions in just one TAKE, no room for errors..

The opening scene of this Camelot in Stratford is unique. Again you must know that in the legend, Merlin tutored King Arthur from the time he was a child until when he became a King..

So in the opening scenes, they showed Merlin and a LIVE HAWK which flew from nowhere and landed in Merlins arm. The hawk in the story is King Arthur for Merlin's magic transformed him into different animals. With his experience becoming a hawk, a deer, etc. Arthur acquired a kind of insight that made him the wisest and kindest King of England.

To continue my description of the opening scene: the hawk flew again from Merlins arm, and seconds later a young boy appeared. The young boy was Arthur changing back as himself. The hawk of course, is already in someone's arms back stage. The boy Arthur likewise disappeared, then a teen aged Arthur showed up in a fleeting non speaking part. He also vanished and at last came the actor who would play Arthur as a King. All three actors have the same outfit. The boy Arthur grew up to be the King in just less than 2 minutes!..
I found the sequence absolutely cool!


Movies are very good..Now I am convinced that live plays, when produced very well are better than film!!--#