Sunday 27 September 2009

Great Floods in Manila



Philippines was in the news again this weekend in German media.
I heard about the overflooding of Manila on the radio but took
the news as one of the usually not pleasant reports about the
country.
Then came more photos and videos showing the aftermath of
the tropical storm Ondoy overflooding Manila, the worst
floods to hit the capital city since 40 years.
The photos I am posting here are from the Philippine
Daily Inquirer but the daily misery is left with the victims
of this natural tragedy.

Monday 21 September 2009

September 21...Remembering the day...

It was in 1972, September 21 when the dictator Marcos declared
Martial Law in the Philippines.
I would not dare to write anything political about
this date...just a silent wish that such notorious
moment would not be repeated in the Philippines and in
other countries as well.
Well, I am just writing that I have finally connection
to our new Wifi...and it is working well, so far so good.
It costs us around 80Euro (no receipt) for an hour work otherwise
one has to pay value added tax, etc, etc. This is friendship
price so to say if one wants fast work done...no extra food
to be served, no tea. Oh, he has worked well but too
official...no beating around the bush, just router
connection and commenting that I have a slow laptop!
What this is Vaio, I thought...a brand new at that.
Anyway, to make the story short, we are or I am
finally connected to the big cyberspace out there...
on this notorious day September 21. Something positive
to remember.
Tama Na, Sobra Na, Palitan Na...as I was telling our old
router. New connection, new speed,new internet life.
More later..

Thursday 10 September 2009

Counting the Essentials



„Anong ginagawa mo?“, my friend Emma called me up this afternoon.
We have not seen each other since I left for Italy last June.
“I’ m farming,” I answered, continuing my work with harvesting
the pineapples in the Kaingin ni Karlo. I was hitting the
180,000 coins with VIP title, and level 17 seemed to be so near.
I could finally expand my Farm.

“Okey, come to my place and I have pandisal for you,” she
hurriedly hung up.I finished my pineapple harvest and did plowing
for Christy, my neighbor in this Farm Town who actually resides in
faraway Padova together with the other distinguished Farmers.

Feeling secured to face her without a pasalubong but with
an over-due gift for her birthday last November,
I took the bus and went to Emma place, to her garden actually.
She had some guests: a Balikbayan couple from the Philippines,
Baby W. and her husband on a visit to Europe, another
Filipino-German couple and Emma’s husband, Ingo who seemed not
to be bothered with the wasps swarming on the table full of used
glasses, beer and liquer bottles. I just came right on time, I thought.
Her garden was in full bloom:
green grapes hanging on an arched gate leading to her collection of
flowering plants, bushes of all sorts, potted tomatoes,
a wide assortment of herbs, apple trees and crawling alugbatis and
a kiwi which according to her hubby has not decided if
it is a female or a male plant.

Emma wanted that I take some of the grilled stuffs but I told her
I just had my Wednesday Reibekuchen
and took two pieces of the famous
pandisals of Baby W. while chasing the wasps away from me.
Ingo commented that I should not bother, the wasps lived here
and they won’t do any harm.
In between chasing the wasps away, we managed to chat about
tidbits of topics from Durian fruits in Mindanao, ampalaya and its
cure-all benefits, to God and the World and about Benedetto.
How convenient in my Farmtown, no wasps, no heavy talks, I thought.
Then when I was about to leave, Emma gave me a bagful of pasalubong
which I photographed for a summery memory this year:

marmalade from her holunder fruits, pieces of really fiery
peperoncini, Basil and Parsley leaves, bunch of aromatic tomatoes
from Spain and a bunch of green grapes. There were pieces of grilled meat
and handmade pandisal.

I feel a bit humiliated, honestly, thinking of my Farm Town.
My digitalized Farm as compared to these real fruits of her sweat
and loving labor, a real-life hobby.


Tja, there is life beyond chatting and harvesting.
I envy her for not surrendering to the call of digitalized
friendship and farming.

But hey, the pineapples of Sudhiira are ready for harvest in two days!
I have to secure the contract to get the online coins.
Encomienda ni Pinay von Alemanya, here I come!