adventures in neverland

(with apologies to mr.  ian mcewan.) (to read the first part of this odyssey, click  here ) bone tired, ravenous, with painful joints after sitting nearly four hours in an old jeepney that bounced lyk a horse on bumpy, dustry roads and aching for a cold, cold shower, we arrived in sagada at a little past one in the afternoon. the sun was at its hottest, it felt lyk summer in december. i thought by going to banaue and sagada, i would escape the heat in manille. how totally wrong i was. to say that i was disappointed upon reaching sagada is an understatement. aside from the chilly weather, i was expecting a rustic village and sceneries straight from a botong francisco painting - people working on the rice fields, women washing clothes in the river, children playing with carabaos along muddy fields, houses built of nipa and bamboo and surrounded by vegetation. (bahay kubo comes to mind) instead, a thriving community with rows of concrete houses reminiscent

(an avid reader asked me very, very kindly to repost my recent trips to banaue, sagada and baguio in time for the long, hot summer ahead. so here it is.) "seeing the beauty that is banaue up close convinced me that there is a benevolent, merciful god after all. the god of all things beautiful; of small, tiny creations." -- chinezza del bianco vda de duboise, channeling the first lady of the good and the beautiful, the one with a thousand pair of expensive shoes while her people, whom she confessed to love and take care, were  suffering, dying from hunger, tortured and killed. the one whose name should never be mentioned at all. wanting to unshackle myself from the madness, paranoia and chaos that has become my life for the past few weeks, i hopped on a bus going to banaue, hoping for some peace and quiet. i have been wanting to see this nth wonder of the world - the rice terraces - made a hundred years ago with bare hands, sans technology or modern science. if

(*in the light of the recent brouhaha about homosexuality, i am reposting this. enjoy! grammar police, bigots and moralists please go away. this is not for you.) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ dear  you, yes, the wonderful you. i know how you are feeling and what you are doing right now. sleepless, troubled, bothered? sitting on the veranda right outside of your room, staring at the darkness. it's raining, yet you can't sleep. everyone else is now asleep. in fact, the whole neighborhood is humming, dreaming, like there is a contest on who can snore the loudest or sleep the most deep. the rain has cast a spell on everyone and put them to sleep. even the usually noisy cicadas are quiet. except for you. you keep on thinking -- what's going to happen next? tomorrow when you go to mass?  when you see your friend r again. i can tell that you are confused. guilty. scared? i hope not. but you are thirteen. too young to know what's going to happen next. you wish there is someon

let's take a break, shall we, from the stressful news about the worsening situation in sabah, the forthcoming elections dominated by trapos and their scions as well as movie stars, the worsening criminality, the rising consumer prices, filthy and foul smelling roxas boulevard, and instead focus on something more fun and wholesome - show business. and specifically, the stars of tomorrow! hurray! (never mind that these ingenues and their male counterparts will probably be our society's headaches in the future - drug users, maid abusers, gambling addicts, serial polygamists, corrupt politicians, etc. of course, they could also turn out alright like...) ^^^^^^ now that i got your attention.... showbiz has been experiencing a slump since the heydays of the eightys and ninetys when the then biggest movie company in the country regal films earned millions by lording it over at the box office, showing hit movies week after week and giving birth to some of the most talented,