ReDiscovering Baguio. A Cold Experience.
After about 12 years, I came back to what was dubbed as the summer capital of the Philippines. I remember quite vaguely the details of how it looked like in the past but what lingered in my memory was how me and my friends enjoyed the city of beautiful tress, flowers, and American architecture.
I love traveling but I hate sitting in the bus for long hours. I usually sleep in my travels so I won’t feel the nausea. When we reached the foot of Baguio though, I reached for my camera and we opened the window to savor the cool air breeze. Baguio… I often thought Baguio is the place for me because I easily sweat. It would be so cool to have an all-day and citywide airconditioning system.
Uphill, I saw the mountains and trees and I felt very excited. I eagerly took shots of the lush green in front of us but halted at the sight of familiar balding mountains… I asked myself: “Is this Baguio or Montalban?” The hell with quarrying, these were not the mountains I used to drool over when going up to Baguio in the past.
The Nine Good Reading Habits
The other day, I was able to meet Mr. Glenn L. Malimban of National Book Development Board (NBDB) through my good friend Vic Jason Cruz, Marikina City Librarian. Mr. Malimban was a guest during one of the events in celebration of Marikina Reading Week. He modified the Nine (9) good Reading Habits popularized by Jonathan Mooney.
1. Use the Cover-Up. For many readers, the words on the page run and blur together especially if you are hard wire. To tone down this, use a three by five index card to cover everything except the sentence that child is reading. When they finish a line, they move the card down and repeat the process.
2. Give the text the finger. Along with the card, have the child follow their reading with their finger, engaging a tactical learning style.
Read more
Living Less but Paying More
I again hit the ceiling last night. When I went home, my nanay told me we ran out of rice and she had to buy some for P40.00 per kilo. My husband also arrived telling me the gas shot up at P61.00 per liter which almost wiped his weekly budget. Whew!
I again realized how much I wanted to watch the latest movie of Will Smith, Hancock, and how sad we do not have the budget for it. No wonder my brother-in-law, an OFW who’s only here in the Philippines supposedly for his vacation, uses his time here in the country searching for better overseas opportunities.
He was telling me about a job offer from Negril, Jamaica. Right now, He works in the Saudi Arabia and he was tempted with this offer from another land.
Read more
Marikenya Go County’
Most of us are music lovers. For many, music is a habit. For some, music is passion and life. I was really sad when I lost my MP4 this month to some snatchers. I missed turning to music when I’m bored. I’m too cheap to buy an iPod. I’m really glad my new mobile is an Ericsson Music Phone where I can listen to new country music stations. I love county songs! In high school, among my habits after I’m done with my homework is to sit down with friends who plays the guitar while I hum the song. I am not a good singer honestly but my love for singing is a passion and I guess my friends were polite and kind enough not to tell me to go home and just watch the television.
Read more
Marikina is a City of Readers
Reading has always been my favorite hobby. It’s not a surprise that I made Marikina City Librarians my friends. The chief Librarian, Jason Cruz, and his assistant, Nonet Angeles, are totally focused on their aim of making Marikina a City of Readers. This week is officially declared as Marikina Reading Week and the City Library prepared week-long reading and learning activities for children and even adults. There is also a Book Fair joined by different publishing houses at the Marikina Quadrangle at the City Hall. This one I recommend you visit. I’ve already bought children books for my son and was able to get freebies (magazines, notepads and pens) for myself too!
Here is the complete program for the Marikina Reading Week as well as the time and venue so you’d know where to go if you or your kids wanted to participate:
Theme: Halina’t Magbasa, Bagong Kaalaman ay Tuklasin Na!
Venue: MCF Hall, 2nd Floor, Marikina City HallJuly 1, Tuesday
2:00PM - Story Telling with Ms. Nikki Gil
4:00PM - Forum on Food PyramidJuly 2, Wednesday
10:00PM - Writers’ Day
1:00PM - Story Telling and Reading Activities
2:00PM - Humor Essay Writing WorkshopJuly 3. Thursday
9:00AM - Reading Appreciation and Readership Workshop
1:00PM - WikiPilipinas
3:00PM - Effect of Music, Movies, and Modern Media in Learning
4:00PM - Reading Comprehension for Young ReadersJuly 4. Friday
9:00AM - Forum on Strengthening Barangay Reading Centers and Libraries
11:00AM- Promotion of Library and Reading Center
2:00PM - Acceptance of Donated Library Resources from the Organizers
Reading and Learning is for everyone. Help cultivate these values in your children. Be readers yourself and show them how fun and helpful reading is!
Read more
NSO Certificate Experience Woes
This year, I experienced a few times being lambasted by NSO’s (National Statistics Office) processes in getting authenticated copies of certificates. It was a pity I had subjected myself to such conditions but I had no choice, I badly needed copy of my birth and marriage certificates and was trying to save money by getting it personally instead of having it delivered.
I realized that going to NSO was more expensive than paying Php300.00 for the delivery service which would have saved me my time and patience aside from money. It was a disaster from the very start. I was only handed my copy on the fourth time I went to NSO. Prior to that, I lost my control on the third visit when the teller told me they still don’t have my copy and asked me to just go back again. I snapped and told her: “Miss, I can’t just go on leave forever just to come here everytime!”
NSO Quezon City was unbelievable. The building cater to thousands of people daily. Yet, it looks like a low-budget cockpit with low ceilings and unorganized and unsightly counters. No wonder there are fixers everywhere. My friend even said they kept their processes that way (long lines and slow service) so there would be need for fixers. I just managed a heavy sigh. I was too tired to comment.
Read more
A Letter of Concern from a Marikenya Reader
I have received a letter from a Marikenya reader, Ms. Mylene de Leon, also a Marikina resident. I have posted it to reach the Marikina City Government and to create awareness for Marikeños, particularly those living in the area of SSS Village in Concepcion Dos.
We would like to seek your help in raising the awareness of our city government on the series of crimes happening within our vicinity in Olive St SSS Village Marikina City. (Creek side)
Just recently, one of our neighbors who had just gone home from her night duty in a call center, was sexually abused inside their home when gang men, forcibly (knife point) followed her entering their home. Previous to that, there have been series of reports of heinous crimes (rape, robbery, hold up within the vicinity of Olive St.) The incident happened when the city government decided to reclaim the government area along the creek side of Phase 2 Concepcion Dos Olive St.
The Government had cemented the area and work on a bike lane. Though the intentions of the government may be good but this just opened more exit doors for unscrupulous people to easily get away of their evil schemes.
The Government had installed lightings however, these were busted, cable wires were already taken by unscrupulous people. We requested that the city government do a regular patrolling within the vicinity and also, kindly INSTALL FENCE along the creekside to prevent entry of Non-resident of Marikina to pass by in the area.and mark as a boundary between Marikina City and Cainta.
Please do something to apprehend those unscrupulous people to bring back PEACE AND ORDER in our area. We do need your Help. Hope this will merit your attention. (It did Mylene. Let us hope it would merit the attention of the local government too.)
Meralco and Manila Water Refund, NFA Rice Mania, and A Mother’s Budgeting Notes
The other day, my officemate was telling me about the refund by Manila Water (former Nawasa). I was delightfully surprised. First,the subsidy from the government for Meralco customers, now, Manila Water’s meter deposit refund! The better news is they will be refunding about Php1,600.00 of our payment for the meter deposit. Wonderful!
When I went back to our office today, there was a memo requiring signature of those who wanted to buy half sack of American NFA Rice at Php25.00 per kilo. I again thought: “another good news.” Because of the rocketing price of rice, our family tried American NFA Rice and to our surprise, it was actually delicious! No wonder there’s always a long line waiting at American NFA Rice distributors in any place.
Although there’s a downer at home (my mother and my mother-in law are both sick), I’m happy that somehow, God was sending budget relief like bill refunds and NFA rice availability. However, it remains a fact that I need to work harder and explore more business opportunities to augment our ballooning expenditures.
There are some business possibilities I was offered by good friends. One was putting up a web hosting services for Philippine bloggers. This is actually promising since there are thousands of new blogs created every day. If you would look at webhosting geeks dot com, you will see the list of top web hosting services internationally with magnanimous earning one would never receive even if she/he works 24/7 and 360 days a year.
Who knows, if and ever our web hosting plans push through, we may even get to theweb review page of this site. That would be the day!
Read more
Wordless Wednesday: Don’t You Just Love To Eat?
Makes me wanna buy kakanin and other native food from the Philippines. This was taken from our trip to Sariaya, Quezon. Yummy!
Best Blessings From God
Last week, I subjected myself to the dreaded ultrasound. I was in jitters. Luckily, I was accompanied by my good friend, Pops. She helped me eased my tension by making me laugh. The ultrasound would determine if the lumps or mass the doctor found in my breast are benign. I was very depressed the night before and I cried very hard out of fear but I thought, tomorrow is the day and soon, it would be over and done.
Read more
-
Contact Form
-
World of Blogs
-
Advertise Here
-
Marikina News!
-
Quick Trip
-
Support Sites and Readers
-
Testimonials
Tintin Rios: Nice article mhel! As always, I am indeed enjoying all the stuff that you are doing. Very honest and very inspiring. Keep it up! :)
Big Brother: Very helpful and enlightening person, always there to lend a hand whenever you’re in need… Keep it up !!! GOD Bless!!!
Zaldy: Very interesting and informative. Lovely as the author.
Kengkay: Ipagpatuloy ang pag blog tungkol sa kagandahan ng pinas… gusto ko ang mga ganitong blogs. nakakataba ng puso :)
Apple Lucero: It's wonderful, and knowledgeable. I love the beauty of marikina, continue blogging, great!
Ed Ebreo: You have a very interesting blog and an even more interesting work. Keep up the great work!
Rino: Thanks for this information. I would never have known about this. Good job and please continue to provide us with more of these…
Eclud: You surprised me mhel!!! This is great.. keep up the good work… (saka parang paganda ka ng paganda..) *From the author: "Aint this the best comment of 'em all?" :D
AnitoKid: Wow! Danda na ng Marikina! It has been a while since I last visited it! I studied at Marist School (Gr 1-6, HS 1-4). Loved your site kabayan! And I kid you not!
MyGlitch: Hi, Mhel. I salute you for promoting Marikina, the only blogger I know who truly loves her municipality.
Alvin Aljecera: Marikina is the Best in TOWN!!!
Lad Madrigal: Nakakatuwa, napaka informative at talagang helpful ang blog mo. Rating: 11 out of 10 haha.
Edelweiza: Hi der! I admire BF, too. I always see him during Cabinet events in the Palace as our office is the one in-charge of them. It’s his strong character and sincere efforts to “urbanize” the metropolis and us city dwellers that keeps me an avid fan. He belongs to a very rare breed of public officials that really walk the talk. I think he deserves all the support he can get from Filipinos. :D
Dennis: I was once a passerby, ngaun mukang magiging regular reader at “avid fan” na din! hahaha!
Ericc: Congrats to this wonderful website! it’s a good advocacy for responsible citizenship and good city governance! all the best to marikina!
Heidelyn A. Camaligan: We are so lucky living here at Marikina, werein lots of educational training are offered.
Islander: Wow! grabe na talaga ang marikina. beyond the legend na kayo. pano pa kami makakahabol nyan? hehe. Alamat!
Reign: I used to pass by Marikina since i’m just 40 minutes drive away from Antipolo but I never thought of these great facts about your lovely place. You’re a sure proud marikeña.
Lotus Flower: Happy Marikina Day to you. Aren’t you glad to be part of this quaint but definitely bustling and progressive city? I am :-)
Meeh: Maituturing na ang marikina ay nakilala sa paggawa ng mga dekalidad na sapatos na nagdala sa ating lugar upang makilala sa ibang panig ng pilipinas at sa ibang bansa…at ipinagmamalaki ko na ako ay isang marikenya…mabuhay!
Tapsiboy: Marikina is my happy and comfort place.
Spinning Lovely Days: I’m so glad there are so many interesting places to check out in our city now. with gas getting so expensive, i’m all for limiting our explorations within marikina. :D as always, thanks for all the wonderful tips.:)
Mera: Ang ganda naman ng lahat ng nakapost dito sa site mong marikenya Ms.Mhel…more of it were very inspirational.interesting and educational…just keep it and godbless u!
Abby: Hi. I'm glad i chanced upon this really interesting blog. i'm from marikina too. we’ve been living here for more than a year now. i'm super excited about your list. you see, hubby and i frequent eating spot in town. we are, still in search for the perfect crispy pata. a lot of my friends say you can find it here.
CallCenterGal: Thanks for the additional tips on improving one’s blog in simple, doable ways.
Sagada Philippines: I like your niche. More power to your blog! =)