Happy Father’s Day to all dads out there. I lost my Dad three years ago, but his memory is alive and well in my heart and mind. I especially remember him this day, Father’s Day, as he was one of the most significant persons in my life.

In his very last letter to me, dated on my 31st birthday, he wrote:

My daughter, Katherine,

Your birthday always fills my soul with floods of unspeakable joy – HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY CHILD!

Don’t know where all these therapies may lead, but I’ll hold on till the end. There is always limitation to the knowledge of medical science so everything is before God’s will – that I go or not go. But until then:

My heart will go on singing
Until then, with joy I’ll carry on,
Until the day my eyes behold the city
Until the day God calls me home.

That was the chorus of one of his favorite songs. I thought about sharing this song with you. It is a powerful song. May you find inspiration in the lyrics of this song. 🙂

Until Then
Words and music by Stuart Hamblen
© 1958

My heart can sing when I pause to remember
A heartache here is but a stepping stone
Along a trail that’s winding always upward,
This troubled world is not my final home.

Chorus
But until then my heart will go on singing,
Until then with joy I’ll carry on,
Until the day my eyes behold the city,
Until the day God calls me home.
The things of earth will dim and lose their value
If we recall they’re borrowed for awhile;
And things of earth that cause the heart to tremble,
Remembered there will only bring a smile.

Chorus
But until then my heart will go on singing,
Until then with joy I’ll carry on,
Until the day my eyes behold the city,
Until the day God calls me home.
This weary world with all its toil and struggle
May take its toll of misery and strife;
The soul of man is like a waiting falcon;
When it’s released, it’s destined for the skies.

Chorus
But until then my heart will go on singing,
Until then with joy I’ll carry on,
Until the day my eyes behold the city,
Until the day God calls me home.

Listen to the midi here.

Want to know how much of the Philippines you have visited so far? Found this cool application created by Eugene Alvin Villar, called Lakbayan.

Here’s my score:

My Lakbayan grade is C-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Pretty cool, huh? I was able to visit several places in Luzon, way back in high school, by attending press conferences (nyehehe, those were the days; I really thought I’d end up as a journalist.) and other extra-curricular activities. I’ve been to some places in the Visayas region – hey, I was born in Antique!!! My dad brought my mom to Antique in time for my birth, but we moved back to Manila when I was about three months old. However, in the Mindanao region, I was only able to visit one place: Iligan. And that was 12 years ago. 🙁 I really loved that place. I saw Maria Cristina Falls for the first time. Tinago Falls was so beautiful, it so rightly deserved its name – the hidden beauty. And the lechon was to die for.

Baggy and I have always talked about how wonderful it would be to see more of the Philippines – but sadly, we always seem to run out of time whenever we go home for vacations. There’s always next time. Sigh.

Anyway, here’s hoping that I get to improve my pathetically low score of C- somehow, someday.

So how’s your score? 😀

I was getting pretty tired of seeing Billy’s Boot Camp tele-ad on TV. Day in, day out, I would see Billy and his little band of six-pack-abs girls and boys crunching on TV. Showing off their bodies is more like it. Just order and pay 14,700 yen for the videos and the greatest product ever to grace the world of TV, the “Billy band” – touted as the elasti-wonder that is supposed to help you work out and lose weight in the process. I wondered why that ad was strategically aired on primetime on Cartoon Network. Why the heck is it even on Cartoon Network, anyway? It’s not like kids would drool over six-pack abs. I don’t get it.

Why am I even blogging about it? Because I really hate that commercial. And the rest of similarly-themed commercials that are targetted towards the “unfit,” “unhealthy,” and “fat” individuals like me. Excuse me, but don’t you think that being fit is an option, not a commodity? People are getting rich out of suckers who think that buying a product would be the solution to their problems. Change your mindset and lifestyle, people! You are what you eat, and you are what you do.
I want to lose weight, too, but damn if I would spend a single yen on any product. I want to be fit, too, but I wouldn’t be duped into shelling any money just to achieve that.

So starting last week, with much encouragement from Baggy, I began riding the bicycle to work again. Lose the wheels, lose the weight – this is my mantra. I won’t drive to work unless it rains, hails…or I get a broken leg. I make sure that I take in a lot of greens, and cut down on the carbs. It seems to work for now.

I don’t want to boast here, but since I have resumed biking last week, I’ve already lost one kilo. Hurray! And by not using the car, I’m even saving up on gasoline (it’s now 132 yen to 1 L! About 50 pesos!). Maybe I’m even doing the environment a favor by not contributing to gas emissions due to vehicular use. Hmm.

I’ll keep this up, and who knows, maybe come summer time I can finally wear that spaghetti-strap blouses again. “Don’t embarrass yourself,” my wicked sister promptly warned me. I have to thank her for the reality check, but I also found myself quite challenged. The more people mock me, the stronger my resolve will be. To quote from King Leonidus (of the 300 movie fame): What is YOUR profession?!!!!!!!

OH-HOH!

You are probably familiar with the “interview meme” that has been doing the rounds of many blogs lately. Anyway, I had the opportune time to visit SexyMom’s blog where she posted her own interview, and I promptly left an “Interview me!” request.

My heartfelt thanks to SexyMom for obligingly granting my request for an interview! I think there were about half a dozen people there who requested for interviews, so I really appreciate her taking the time to formulate these personalized questions for me. I had fun answering them, thank you very much! Without further ado, here are her five questions and my answers:(1) 40 is still far off, but seriously, does it bother you?

Seriously? Not really. I would consider it to be a real blessing. I’d probably get my hackles up over the extra wrinkles that would inevitably line my face, but hey, looks aren’t exactly my best asset, hehe. When I turn 40, my daughter would be about 11 or so, so she’d be big enough to be my “barkada.” That should be interesting. 🙂

(2) scientists have been stereotyped as SERIOUS. what does a scientist like you consider as fun? what is the wildest thing you have ever done?

I used to think that way, too, until I’ve met several scientists who are nowhere near that kind of description. Some of them are fun, cool, hippy guys and gals – sometimes it’s hard to guess that they’re serious people working on extremely difficult scientific disciplines. Some of them are serious athletes, even health-conscious persons.

I have always been classified as the “nerd” in the family, lol. Most people would actually think of me as the serious, quiet type – that’s the usual first impression. And I just happen to be in the scientific field – so it’s not like I was turned into like this because of what I chose for my profession. As for fun, you should hear me belt it out at the karaoke. That’s one of the things that help me unwind.

As for the wildest thing I’ve ever done – hmm, I guess one “safe” answer would be the time when I was at a youth camp for high school students. I forgot what the event was, but we were required to cross-dress. So I exchanged clothes with one of my male friends – he used my dress, I used his. 🙂 Okay, maybe that wasn’t too wild enough, hehe. No, we didn’t exchange underwears. I wasn’t too adventurous enough. lol.

(3) how much of you have been japan-ized? would you rather stay in japan the next 20 years, or have you considered coming home for good?

Whew, tough question. After having stayed here for more than a decade, I think I’ve assimilated several habits (like bowing even when I’m just talking to the other person on the phone, making sure that I stay “out of the way” of other people, etc., etc.). But I would like to believe that most of it is just on the surface – a way of getting along with the culture and adapting the behavioral traits of the people in order to not feel so “alien.” Deep inside, I still feel and think like 100% Filipino!

As for staying here for the next 20 years or so: that, as they say, is the 100 million yen question. To go or not to go? There are many things to consider before we can make a final decision on this. What else can I say? We’ll cross the bridge when we get there. 🙂

(4) fusion–can a scientist be an artist at the same time? and what kind of artist will you be? will it be traditional? bizarre? what?

Once an artist, always an artist. I may not always have the opportunity to express myself through “works of art” such as in the recent competition. But I believe that there are really several avenues to express one’s artistic side. I do get to tinker around with my technical presentations and posters to make them more aesthetically pleasing, not just informative. Furthermore, I also get to express myself through several websites which I personally manage with my husband. Just check out first four links in the FAVORITE SITES on the sidebar. That’s just some of them. We’re forever thinking of what to create next. So there’s still a way for the creative side to be expressed. 🙂

(5) if your life were a song, what would it be?

This has got to be the toughest question of all five! It had me thinking for the past few days, seriously! Ehhhh???? Wala ata akong life-song? 🙁

I guess the best song that I could think of is Nat King Cole’s “Smile.” It doesn’t exactly represent my life, but my attitude towards life. You see, that’s what people easily notice about me when they see me. Always smiling, all dimples out in full force. 🙂 I follow this simple rule in my life: I can’t always control what happens to me, but I can control how I react to situations. So, even in the worst, lowest point of my life, I smile.

Here’s a nice video I found on YouTube. The cats do seem to need a little cheering up, don’t they?

So, now it’s your turn. Want to be interviewed next?

Here are the rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone
else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them
five questions.

Oh sheez, this video is soo wickedly funny. I just had to put it in my blog so I could easily access it and watch it again. *lol*

For me, listening to the voiceover is even funnier (I guess that only works if you do understand Japanese). There are some practices that I am already familiar with (like you shouldn’t pour your own drink; somebody should do that for you), but I think most of it is just satire. But then again, for someone who does not know Japanese culture, would it be just as funny? I wonder.Two phrases to watch out for: “Maa maa…” “Oh toh toh toh.” Enjoy. 😉

In Japan, summer season is BUG season. I can handle the occasional fruit flies and the blood-sucking mosquitoes, even the centipede-looking hairy thing that turns up every now and then. But one thing that definitely gets my hackles up is the La Cucaracha, the bane of every household, the vermin that appears out of nowhere, and that can make unsightly appearances in the most unexpected places.

Baggy not only hates them; he also fears them. A cockroachaphobia, if you will, although no such term exists. According to him, when he was a child, he was “attacked” by a flying cockroach while he was alone in the house one day. Yeah, and I bet the cockroach also wore a helmet and brandished a sword, and was excessively menacing. 🙂 So if he chances upon a roach anywhere in the house, he could never bring himself to kill it. He always calls on me to do that grim job.
Sorry to destroy your image of Japan being all clean and antiseptic, with no traces of bugs anywhere. Bugs will always be there, surprise. Most especially in rundown, old buildings. In fairness, one can be amazed at the variety of pest control gizmos that can be bought at the local drugstore. Looks like they take their bug control seriously.

Fortunately for us, save for summer, the vermins are nowhere to be seen during the other seasons. We suppose that they are somewhere under the ground, recouping their losses, happily mating for all we know, and planning their strategic attacks to be carried out next bug season.

I, on the other hand, have my attack weapons ready. I don’t like the idea of fumigating the whole house just to get rid of these pests. It’s not like they would be found crawling in broad daylight across our room, you know? But they’re most definitely around, always hiding in places seldom used or opened, locked up in shoe boxes or other containers, just waiting to surprise unsuspecting people.

Once I bought a pest-control chemical which you only have to pour water on in order to emit smoke. But the instructions also indicated that all furnitures must be covered or removed from the room in order not to be contaminated with the chemicals. After giving it some thought, I decided not to use it anyway — too tedious. I don’t want chemicals settling on any part of our furniture or clothes because we have a young toddler in the house.

Anyway, my two tried-and-tested weapons are these:

1. Cleaning sprays – my so-called “active” weapon. Any cleaning spray will do, as long as it produces a lot of foam. Spray on sight. The マジッククリン (Magic Clean) sprays work marvelously. The foam can effectively contain the enemy, and reduce its mobility to zero with succeding sprays. It’s actually more effective than the usual “pamalo” or bug whipper (is this the right term for it?). Watch in grim satisfaction as the bug dies a slow death while trapped in this deathly foam. Wipe clean with a tissue afterwards. (Ok, I’m really taking this bug business way too seriously, haha.)

2. Gokiburi Hoihoi – my so-called “passive” weapon. “Gokiburi” – this tongue-twister is actually the Japanese word for cockroach. Try saying this ten times, haha. “Hoihoi” on the other hand, is a trap. I don’t know when this contraption was first invented, but it appears that this was a registered, maybe original product of A-su Seiyaku, the same company that sells household pest controls. Basically it is just your usual sticky paper with bait. It is extremely easy to setup. Its slim body can be inserted especially in those narrow areas they usually crawl in.

Once they’re stuck, there’s no escaping, har har har.

Ok, I’ve yet to see a roach playing baseball or wearing a backpack. But you really have to wonder what they do with their spare time, eh? 😛

Open wide! Here’s the inside of the hoihoi. The brown paper must be removed to uncover the sticky surface.

Ashifuki matto = mat to wipe feet. Yeah, wipe those essential oils for more efficient sticking! I think of them as “welcome mats.”

Here’s the bait, placed at the center. The corrugated pattern, apparently, makes it more difficult for the roaches to “slide” their way out of their sticky doom.

Join the flaps at the top, and you’re done!

Well, do come in, won’t you? 😉

I’ve set out the traps today. It’s a buggy bug world, after all. (And I write this to end this post, for lack of anything more creative or witty to quip, heheh.)

Got back to Nippon a few days ago. It is so much more tiring on the trip back, and in the days following. Our bodies have to adjust to the local time again. Aya didn’t seem to have any difficulties getting back into the rhythm of things. Well, she wasn’t the one doing all the walking and lugging of luggages, now, was she? And if there’s one thing I absolutely abhor most of all, it is reporting back to work after a long-haul trip. For the last few nights since coming back, I kept waking up in the wee hours of the morning (how does 2 am or 4 am sound?), and thus felt like a zombie while at work. What can you do, eh?

Germany was great, but after a week or so of dining on cheese and bread, Baggy and I just craved for good ol’ Filipino food (Sinigang! Nilaga! Adobo!) served with hot, steaming rice. Talk about eating but not feeling full nor satisfied. How could they eat bread all their lives? Beats me. Even potato couldn’t do the trick for me. While there we ocassionally dined at some Chinese restaurants in order to eat rice, but it just wasn’t the same. Aside from the familiar tastes of homemade cooking, we still missed the round, sticky and soft rice that Japan is famous for.

Speaking of food, lemme just share these mouth-watering pictures for your drooling pleasure:

Currywurst – fried sausages served with sauce and topped with curry powder. A local specialty, so I heard. It was quite yummy for me (although my German friend disagreed).

Fried sausages, again. German size din yung sausages, grabe di ko maubos ha! Served the “Berlin style.” Whatever that means.

I actually liked the beer. Too bad I missed Oktoberfest! The black one was a bit bitter, according to Baggy.

Just give me a few more days to finally adjust and get back to full-time blogging again! In the meantime, regards to everyone – faithful readers and lurkers alike. 🙂

Hello from Berlin! We got here safe and sound. Many thanks to those who wrote their well-wishes for the trip. Nakakapagod, pero enjoy. 🙂 I am able to snatch a few minutes of internet time (of course I wrote this post offline first, hehe), so time for an update. I don’t know when I’d be able to post again, so might as well try posting one while we’re here.

Although Berlin is the capital city of Germany, ironically, it doesn’t accommodate international flights from Japan. All flights from Japan are routed via other major cities like Frankfurt, or in our case, Amsterdam. We took the KLM flight because we wanted to gain points for our mileage program, hehe. 🙂 So after an 11-hour non-stop flight from Narita to Amsterdam, we found ourselves “stranded” at the Schipol Airport for another four hours before boarding another flight for Berlin.

Lounge chairs at the Schipol – don’t you just wish all airport terminals have these?

Baggy was able to catch a few winks while lying on the chair, but I wasn’t able to because Aya kept pestering me. 🙁 For some reason, she was frisky, alive-alert-awake-enthusiastic when we arrived in Amsterdam. No rest for the poor mom.

When we arrived at the Tegel airport in Berlin, we immediately looked for a taxi to take us to the hotel. The first taxi we approached had a driver who immediately shook his head at us and shooed us away, for some reason we couldn’t understand. He talked to us in German and pointed at Aya. He then gestured to the next taxi in line, whose driver was only too glad to have us. The woman (yes, a woman!) immediately took out a child seat from her car’s trunk and smiled and nodded at us several times, as if to assure us that we’d be in good hands. So apparently, the first taxi who refused to let us ride was because he didn’t have a child seat in his taxi. Hmm. Interesting. This is the first time for me to be in a country where child seats are mandatory, even for public vehicles. This is not enforced in Japan. There is a law, of course, for private vehicles about using child seats. But I could see for myself that many people just don’t bother putting their children on child seats anymore. I think the law enforcers are getting way too slack on this matter.

Anyway, our hotel is within the Charlottesburg district. Our first day was spent exploring the immediate area within our hotel. I was shocked, though, to find a relatively modern city, devoid of any distinctly old and ancient buildings or structures. Save for the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche or Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which happens to be one of Berlin’s best-known sights. The chuch was built in 1891-1895 in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Much of the building was destroyed during the World War II. What remains of it still stands, and is flanked on both sides by modern structures, which looked pretty drab on the outside but rocks on the inside. 🙂 The inside of the octagonal chapel is decorated blue stained glass windows on all sides. It is simply stunning.

(Pictures to follow!)

Fortunately, Joy, a fellow Pinay and who is one of my long-time friends and also lived in Tsukuba several years ago, is also here with her family. What a happy reunion! I guess, as long as our husbands attend the same conference, there would always be an opportunity for us to meet. 😉 The last time we met was about three years ago, when her husband attended the same conference in Kyoto. Anyway, during our second day, Joy and her daughter Sinta were kind enough to give us a tour to Tiergarten and Mitte districts.