Sunday, April 30, 2006

We woke up early today and recited the rosary. Then, we went to a nearby Chapel on time enough to light six candles. I thanked God that my kids, as well as Mama and Tintin, joined Randy and I in attending the mass. I was surprised that Fr. Viviano is back and said the mass. There will be a Feast in our area this coming Sunday, May 6th, and mass will be held every night at 7 pm!

After the Church, we went to McDonald's corner Mindanao and West Avenues, and had breakfast there. I told Randy it's about time he should eat Filipino breakfast, as we served heavy American breakfast everyday since he arrived on the 9th of this month! Four of us had rice with sausage and egg.

At home, I hurriedly washed Randy's remaining laundry as soon as we arrived while he turned on the PC to blog. Then I folded all his clothes and the next time I entered the room, he packed his luggage already. We had opportunity to take some webcam photos before we served taco for lunch.

Our airport service buzzed at 4:15 pm. Pearl and I dropped Randy to the airport. I felt so bad I can hardly breathe when I waved my hand to him. Coming back home without him really hurts. After an hour, Randy called up from the airport to inform me he will pass two more check points before his final boarding.

As I publish this entry, he's probably in the air now for over 15 hours flight back to San Diego. Have a safe trip, Randy, in Jesus name!

Saturday, April 29, 2006

I have mixed emotions this evening because tonight, Randy completed his three weeks April visit here in Manila and I'm so sad that this will be his last night with us.

Earlier today, we had breakfast with the kids and mama which we prepared together after we recited the rosary. Kids cannot resist waking up early in the morning because Randy made sure kids would like the food we're serving to them.

While Randy was blogging this morning, I did some laundry and compete with my boys videoke singing my favorite songs. As usual, they teased me when I got over 90 scores considering I had an unusual annoying voice. Windows and doors were closed each time I sing to make sure neighbors will not be mad at us for damaging their ear drums.

Even the weather today is extremely humid, we're having fun except that Randy is suffering from serious toothache for about four days now. I convinced him that I would buy him some antibiotic and painkillers but, I changed my mind when I touched his affected gum. I hurriedly called up at Queen Mary PolyClinic and made an urgent appointment for his dental treatment. Fortunately, we were accomodated as we arrived at Suite 2503, Medical Plaza-Ortigas, San Miguel Ave, Pasig City. Whole Body Dentistry is owned by my friend/family dentist, Dr. Herminia Pascual-Chavez. I was amazed with Dr. Chavez' achievements lately and I am happy to be in her clinic even though she won't be here in Manila until May 2nd. Anyway, Randy's dental problem was handled by Dr. Rosette, who was assisted by Dr. Sandra and Dr. Noemi.

The session lasted for about two hours but, his gum still bothers him when we went to SM - North Edsa to meet the kids and Mama at Max Restaurant. We decided to have dinner there since it's too late for me and Randy to prepare one. At Max Restaurant, located at 2nd floor, SM, we're unhappy with the cold food they served us this time. We often had our lunch or dinner there but, maybe due to their busy staffs, our food was served cold. The place was full when we arrived and we had to wait for couple of minutes to be seated. Ate Neth was supposed to join us but, we had a quick dinner and packed the remaining food home instead of forcing ourselves to eat the cold food.

At home, as I am blogging this, am sadly watching Randy napping. I can hardly believe that 21 days is almost over and he will leave me tomorrow back to San Diego.

It's indeed a very sad night...

Friday, April 28, 2006

We had three reasons to celebrate at Dad's Restaurant - West Avenue this evening.

First, I introduced Randy to my friend, Atty. D, and to my counsel, Atty. R, who is the one handling the three cases I filed this year. Atty. R gave me the filing receipts of Cases II and III! She advised me to be ready for the series of hearings to be held in May and June.

Next, is to celebrate my Pearl's graduation day from the Automotive Course but, she surprised me with her Best Achiever TESDA Award and Certificate! Congratulations, Sweetie!

Third, it's Tintin's 26th birthday! Happy Birthday, Tintin!

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

I stayed in bed most of the day because of knee injury.

Pacette paid 11.5k in my behalf for the publication fee in Today's Ads for three consecutive weeks, for the public notice of the correction of my birthdate.

Randy takes very good care of me. He wanted me to relax and watched the last episodes of House, then we watched also The Fugitive, Dirty Harry, and Forest Gump movies in DVD.

We went to bed early because I was still ill.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Randy and I went to see Dr. Rimando Saguin at Rm 5 Sta. Teresita General Hospital. I had knee xray and underwent yellow fluid testing in my knee which caused severe pain. Dr. Saguin asked for longer IV needle because my left knee is swollen. I tested negative for both yellow fluid and blood but the doctor prescribed Etoricoxib Arcoxia Ac 120 mg. tablet. I will go back next Monday, if the pain continues, for MRI. Dr. Saguin thinks I have arthritis.

We went to do some shopping inspite of bulgy left knee when a bandage was wrapped around it. The treatment caused me to walk limping. I was so embarassed but, it was really painful and I cannot control my steps. Randy told me how the doctor moved the needle in and out on the side of my upper knee cap. I closed my eyes while the test was being done and unable to take photos while the long syringe was inside of my swollen knee.

Anyway, the test gave me terrible knee sores when we arrived home. Randy checked online the name of the drug before he played HOUSE episode in DVD but, I was so sick and went to bed at past 9 pm.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

We cooked breakfast for the kids befoire doing shopping with Sarah and her family.

Then, we took our BS sponsored child, Sarah, to SM Sucat for some grocery items and a pair of sandals as the pair she was wearing were rented from a friend for two pesos, about 4 cents American dollars.

We started out at 10 AM when Rose Marie and Fred, the driver, dropped by at my place to pick us up. Again the traffic was terrible as MMDA was doing some road works along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA). Randy was starting to learn the names of some of the cities around here. Anyway near the airport is Tramo, Parañaque City where Sarah and her family live in a depressed area.

We met Sarah, Shiela, and their mother up at McDonalds and then took a short drive over to the SM Sucat Mall. On the way, we were talking about possible places to eat when I suggested Chow King and we found that the kids had not been there yet, so Chow King it was.

We parked the van in a basement and met Riel at Chow King. I asked the people to prepare a table for 10 people then, we sat down to a meal of Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken, Pancit Bihon, Rice and other stuff. The meal was great and the kids really enjoyed our lunch.

Lunch with Randy, Tintin, Save the Children staffs,
Sarah and her family.

Riel with Sarah and family (left). Randy with Sarah (right).

We went ahead and filled up a shopping cart with grocery items and then took them to Tramo where we put them on a tricycle for home. It was great to see the smiles on Sarah and her sister's face as they left, even though we have the feeling that their mother would probably sell some of the food for cash. Sort of how the welfare folks in the states do as what Randy told me...

We would like to thank the staffs of Save The Children - Philippine Field Office for allowing us to meet our (Blogshares) sponsored child. They gave us some newsletters and Save The Children profile for reference of their charity programs.

Please visit also Randy's blog:

• Shopping with Sarah
• Sarah, our sponsored child
• Letter from Save the Children
• Letter from Sarah
• Save the children
• News

Friday, April 21, 2006

I had a problem with myDSl connection and it prevented me to access my favorites sites. I sent them a complaint message.

We did breakfast and had eaten with the kids before meeting Rose and Fred to meet Riel and Save The Children staffs plus our (BlogShares) sponsored child, Sarah Alea.

Staffs of the Save The Children - Philippines Field Office.

After meeting the staffs and Riel briefed us about Save The Children. We then meet Sarah and her family who were waiting for us at McDonald's. Sarah's mother works as a fish vendor but, it is a really low paying job which is equivalent of 4 -5 dollars a day. Anyway, I learned a lot about the program by talking to some of the Save The Children workers and Sarah's family. Sarah didn't speak English so I translated the conversation to Randy.

Randy, me, and Sarah.

Sarah with her mother and sister.

We then went to a community center where they were teaching job skills with materials they have available. Randy felt really bad as this was an extremely poor area, but the folks at the center were working hard, and there were many volunteers there helping them out.

Tomorrow, we will be taking Sarah out on a shopping trip to a mall. We were thinking of school supplies but after I talked with Sarah, I guess we will be going to do grocery shopping instead, as Sarah prefers grocery items and rice for her family. As a rule, we are not allowed to give any cash donations to Sarah or her family.

Anyway, after that it was time for the long ride home. My left knee gave me so much pain. Somehow, it is really nice to finally put a real child in place of the picture and letters.

We're excited to take her and family out for shopping tomorrow...

Monday, April 17, 2006

Am so busy right now and didn't have enough time to blog about us since Randy is here in Manila.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Atty. R updated me this evening that she didn't receive any reply yet from the respondent. He has until the 5th of this month to submit his reply to the case filed against him.

My counsel will then file a motion to refer case for collussion investigation on Tuesday if she doesn't receive any reply yet until Monday afternoon.

Guess what? I believe I deserve a refund this month from Philippine Long Distance Telepnone Company (PLDT) for giving me a dialup internet speed for ten days now with myDSL personal subscription plan, at PHP 2500 per month!

This morning, I dialed 172 myDSL HOTLINE and Lloyd answered my call but, I asked for their supervisor instead. Belle accomodated my call and asked me to test my bandwidth speed under resources link on their PLDT PLAY website and I got this result:

When I told Belle the site was timing out, she asked me instead to check my bandwidth speed using their rival company website, GLOBE and fortunately, the site was running well and had given me this result... Ouch!

This is unbelievable. I got 77.68 kbps only!?! What shocked me most was PLDT myDSL tech support and linemen were using Globe website instead of their own. I was wondering whether GLOBE knows that a big company like PLDT was using their service...

Also, last February, if I wasn't mistaken, I didn't received my February Bill and I was surprised I received a disconnection notice last March! I barely noticed that I neglected paying my bill because my mind was too busy completing requirements on the three cases I filed with RTC.

Grrrrrr... I'm so lost what I should do about this lousy service. Am I going to get a refund for paying a DSL subscription but getting a dialup speed? How about the charges when I used PLDT VIBE when their internet was completely dead on April 2nd??? I was told they were upgrading their service last week but how they will explain that my bandwidth speed kept dropping as days passed by? Someone out there from PLDT must do something with my dissatisfaction, it's kind of annoying not to get a service what I'm paying for.

My internet is toooooooooo slowwwwwwww while blogging this entry.....

Thursday, April 06, 2006

The New York Times Editorial: "Mrs. Arroyo is no Ferdinand Marcos, at least not yet..."

Source: GMA7 Channel 7's 24 Oras Evening News

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

I would like to congratulate the people of Thailand on the resignation of their leader, Thaksin, as Thailand's Prime Minister. It was indeed an honorable sacrifice and I am hopeful the Philippine president would do the same thing, who is celebrating her 59th birthday today!

In spite of People's Initiative initiated by local government authorities, I say NO to Charter Change (CHA-CHA) which PGMA pushes anew, whose legitimacy as Philippine president-elect remains under question. There were times that I want to convince myself that Gloria Arroyo is the best president at the moment but, whenever I heard another government institution had been used to cover up hot issues, I feel betrayed and insulted!

Now that the Prime Minister of Thailand resigns to defuse Thai political crisis, may Gloria Arroyo makes a supreme sacrifice instead of pushing for charter change to amend the 1987 Philippine constitution.

Nothing personal, PGMA, I just want to say NO to Cha-Cha...

• Thai PM Shinawatra resigns
• Do a Thaksin, Arroyo told
• Marcosian ploy seen in people's initiative
• Choices
• PCIJ: Charter Change
• Well-Laid Out Plan
• The Unmaking of the President
• Garci's faking passport
• Cha-Cha Drive Illegal

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

I had been enduring for couple of days now a very poor and intermittent DSL internet connections which affected my daily online activities.

PLDT myDSL lineman came here in the afternoon and checked the brand of DSL modem assigned to my account as their main office had difficulty communicating with my modem each time I complained of poor internet connection. I found out that they didn't updated their records when they replaced the old modem assigned to us.

Anyway, I conducted this Personal test from Bandwidth Speed Test and emailed the result at 4/4/2006 9:08 PM to PLDT MyDSL Customer Care <rbgdsl_helpdesk@pldt.com.ph> :

Speed:

189.9 kilobits per second
Communications 189.9 kilobits per second
Storage 23.2 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 44.2 seconds
Subjective rating Mediocre

Info:

Date & time Tuesday, April 4, 9:06 PM
Test type IDT4 Free
Connection type ADSL
Region Asia
Data size 1024KB

I have noticed that I have also a new IP address but I was wondering, I have three IP addresses instead of one, which Randy provided to me this evening...

Monday, April 03, 2006

Since last week, we have been pretty busy preparing the house for Randy's visit. He's going to stay with us here at home and we'll be roleplaying a mother/father in Bahay-bahayan (House) game! If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that Randy is my game buddy!

The waiting period is the hardest part and we're contented skyping with Yahoo webcams watching Deal or No Deal, Medium, House, 24, Law and Order, and other random quality movies. Randy and I enjoyed quality time together online by doing things we love like playing BlogShares and Neopets.

If you don't see me blogging, chances are am busy preparing the house. In fact, my eldest son, Junjun, is very excited to meet Randy in person. He was working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when Randy spent the 2005 Christmas and New Year with us.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Mother had been waking me up for couple of times but, I was too sleepy to get up. Kids had been coming in and out of my room, using my PC, while I was sleeping. Sad to say, I missed hearing today's mass (Fifth Sunday of Lent). Randy promised to blog about it so that I will have an idea about this Sunday's homily.

I'd wished to attend the afternoon mass but, Randy and I watched a comedy movie, 8 Heads In A Duffel Bag (Starring: Kristy Swanson, David Spade, Joe Pesci, George Hamilton, Andy Comeau, Dyan Cannon), until 5 p.m. when my PLDT-DSL connection was restored. In spite of 7,401 miles distance, both Randy and I often watch our favorite TV shows using Yahoo webcam connections. Have you ever tried that yourself?

Anyway, mother left to Ate Neth's house early today. She used to spend the weekend with us. Since I cannot attend the mass alone, I asked Pearl to accompany me instead but, the quick shower and preparations made her available at past 6 pm.

We're late then to hear the evening mass...