All Saints' Day Musings

It was really a solemn and quiet day today...

For some reason I didn't go home to join my household in the observance of All Saints' Day. Well this was the third straight year that I did that. I really don't feel like going home, I guess....

I missed the time, though, when I was home during the sem break, when I was tasked to go to the public cemetery on November 1 or 2 to light and guard (yup, guard...) the candles for my departed lolos and lolas. Even though I really wanted to die then with the inhabitants of the place because of soooo much boredom, I just busied myself making miniature figurines from the melted candles, like "snowmen" (or...candle wax men?) or elves. I even had two of them in my room, with one of them almost melted and deformed due to exposure to sunlight.

So much for the reminiscing....

And for some reason I couldn't sleep from 2 to 6 am... I caught up with sleepiness by 6:15, but needed to wake up by past 10 am to catch my 12 nn mass service. I just went to a computer shop and played my favorite Command and Conquer: Generals Zero Hour to "command and conquer " my boredom and sleepiness, then went home to snooze a bit.

After the mass, while waiting for a jeepney bound for Philcoa, I really felt the emptiness and quietness of the place. A few people were walking around, the Coop and almost all SC stalls (except Rodic's) were closed, and vehicles passing by were so few you can actually dance, do some cartwheel, and even lie down on the street for quite a while. It was really, really serene...the exact opposite of the chaos and commotion in the cemeteries today.

Oh well, it was really one of those days of the year when you enjoy peace and quiet...^_^.

Removals, Billiards, and Lumpia

Some snippets of what I had experienced today....

Removal Rip Off

A supposed day in a seminar turned out to be different.

Because a co-teacher can't make it in proctoring in the removal exam this afternoon, she chose me to take her place.

It was my first time to proctor a removal exam... and Math 54 pa. I was a bit uneasy at first but things went on smoothly. I got to know the requisites for taking such exam and how to handle the proctoring job.

Being a bit bored from looking at the examinees and reading Sherlock Holmes, I roamed around to chat with co-teachers and peep at the rooms of my students who took the removals. I gave them either a smile, a thumbs up, or a whisper of "kaya mo 'yan!". What really made me smile, though, was when Prof. Ocampo went inside the Math 53 exam room, approached her student and gave her a rub of encouragement. Wow...such a touching sight. ^_^

Free Food!

After the removal exam, we had a share of some free pizza and spaghetti from co-teachers who celebrated their birthdays: Marc and Rose. Happy birthday sa inyo and thanks for the free food! It was a free lunch for me wehehehe.....^_^

Billiards Boo-boo

After meeting with a tutee after the removals, I decided to join a few colleagues in playing billiards at the AMF Puyat Center in Ever Gotesco Commonwealth. It was a treat from my friend Chris who (finally) got his much-awaited salary as a new instructor. Aside from Chris and I, Laarni, Romar, Marc, and Gerard joined the fray to play 8-ball billiards.

It was really my first time in playing billiards (well, it was my first time going to a billiards playing zone), and it really showed while we played! I either miss hitting the ball or even making the white ball jump! I really would want to melt, especially when I bungle a supposedly easy shot, but I survived such embarrassing experience because of the laughters and jokes that all of us threw to each other while playing. We really had fun and had much laughs about how we play (especially during my turn, hehehe....)

Chillin' at Chowking

After hitting balls on the the billiards table, we went to Chowking to hit the tables for dinner. It was my first time in years(!) to eat at Chowking Ever Commonwealth. If I'm not mistaked, I ate there when I was a still a tutor for this tutorial company whose office is near that mall).

We had fun eating and talking and watching Laarni eating her Lauriat in a snail's pace.... I also got to eat my favorite lumpiang shanghai meal, but got a bit disappointed with the fried rice...at any rate, it was still a good meal, with some good laughs in between....

Well, to sum things up: I really enjoyed my day today ^_^.

Earthquake!

It was really an earth-shaking experience....

At about 10:36 pm last night (or so the PHIVOLCS Bulletin said on its website), parts of Luzon got its share of tremors from the subducting Manila Trench (wow, panalo ang term). The epicenter of the said earthquake was about 7 km, 61 degrees west of south of Tagaytay City. The magnitude of the earthquake was about 6.4, but the highest intensity recorded by PHIVOLCS was intensity 5. Here at QC, according to the bulletin, it was intensity 3.

At that time I'm inside my favorite computer shop surfing the net. I was treating myself since I finished checking those Math 17 fifth exam bluebooks. Suddenly, at around 10:30, I began to feel dizzy. No, it was not of too much playing of Zero Hour....I just felt the shaking. At first, I just thought that those kids playing Ragnarok were the ones shaking the computer table because of excitement. A few seconds later, it just sinked in to my mind, after looking at the only guy near me at one side of the shop, that we were experiencing an earthquake. It was really an earthquake! Whoa.

After the quake I hurriedly turned on my headphone radio to listen to reports. Yup, it was affirmative: we had experienced an earthquake.

The tremblor was still the talk of the town, even in the department, until this morning. But what really struck my mind as I hear them talking about it was this: we should always expect the unexpected. Yup, we may never know when another quake will strike the place, and how strong it will be. It's also the same in our life: we may never know what will come our way. We might be caught off guard, just like many of us who were caught by surprise by that quake that night.

Bottom line: we should be prepared...always. ^_^

P.S. The quake brought back the memories of July 16, 1994. I was in Grade 6 then when all of us in the classroom felt the tremblor at about 3 pm. It was really unforgettable especially for those who were hardest hit by that quake. Scary, huh....