This is a typical sunrise as viewed from the sea wall of New Washington Bay. My bro took this one and i snatched it from his FS profile without asking his permission.LOL! What are families for??

As a kid, the beach has been my favorite playground especially when it is low tide and about 5 in the afternoon. It is because the low tide gives us ample sand space where we could play tag, build sandcastles, or have fist fights when an argument or two builds up.. you know kids.

At midday where the tide is usually up, we would swim like there's no tomorrow .In my case I will not usually stop swimming till I see my mother screaming at the top of her lungs holding on to a piece of the dreaded "walis tingting". I would usually outrun her and avoid her wrath but on those times where i got unlucky, I would tell her to please hit me with the whole bunch and not just one "walis tingting"... I think you knew what it meant to be hit by just one.

I liked the beach whole year round and in all season.I especially liked it when a typhoon hits us cause it will mean the rock formations under the seawall will appear. I don't know if my other friends noticed it but those rock formations are so grand (those at our backyard anyway) i could stay all day hopping from one big rock to another and be like mario minus luigi. Too bad I haven't taken any pictures of those stones... maybe when another typhoon hits us i will ask my brother to take pictures of those too.. or maybe a--o could do it for me since he is an award winning photographer hehehe.

When i moved to Quezon City and followed the working class bandwagon, I still never missed the chance to go home every summer or Christmas or whenever i feel like to be with my friends and my family. I especially remembered one occasion when we were at this seaside karaoke bar and the weather was not so good the tide was already within our feet.. imagine us singing YMCA with ankle deep seawater on the floor!.. wala lang.. i just want to mention it and at the same time want to express how sorry I am for all those seaside bars in Tambak which were washed out by the typhoon frank.


A view of Sunset from Tambak
Photo By Roy G. Escalona

To this day a lot of establishments has sprouted anew in this little town of mine and i couldn't wait to make my rounds along the seawall where miracles happen after 9 months.. and once again enjoy listening to the sound of the waves while i prepare to sleep at night.. or day .


more pictures.
and more features to come.


Welcome to New Washington!



Photo by Jon Albert Cadag
A view from Sampaguita Gardens Resort, New Washington Aklan Philippines

When i was about 5 years old my mom urged me to join the local church choir since according to her better judgment, i have a good voice and i sing well. So everyday at around 7 PM we would gather around the porch of Nay Bene and make ourselves ready to belt hallelujahs. I was the youngest and the smallest among the other choir members but i also have the tiniest and the loudest voice a small boy could possibly have. No wonder Nay Bene put me to be among the sopranos.

Every given Sundays after officially being picked as a choir member i would get up earlier than the rest of the household to be at the porch of Nay Bene again. This time not to practice but to have the required dose of "salabat" which according to her will improve our vocal prowess. Deep inside I was also hoping for the moment when she announces that all sopranos has to be submerged on a drum full of water that we may also acquire regine's ability to break chandeliers. Too bad that moment never came.

One day a politician wannabe sponsored a local singing contest to be held at the town plaza. I joined out of curiosity and won half a dozen drinking glass and some candy to boot. I forgot the title of my winning song but i clearly remembered the song of my cousin who happened to join the same contest at a later time. It was "twinkle twinkle little star!"-and she won too!.

I was a competitive pupil during grade school when it comes to academics. I was never out of the honor roll and i always manage to secure a ribbon or two during recognition day. I was also gaining popularity since i was always invited to sing in town programs and private parties. That popularity i think led me to be chosen as a candidate for presidency for the pupil government. I didn't do any speech during the rally. I was not hoping to win anyway since i was put against another darling whom i honestly believed would be a better president between the two of us back then.What i did was just do what i know i do best. I SANG "help" by the Beatles and i WON. I won the presidency by a song!.

My parents decided to let me do junior high in Kalibo. It was an adventure for me since it would mean traveling from New Washington to Kalibo everyday. I missed those times when i would ride the jeep every morning and ogle pretty coeds and smell an assortment of bench sprays which was so popular back then. Of course i still sang but something terribly went wrong when i got to my sophomore year. If Michael Jackson retained his voice when he was still "black" and singing "Happy", mine did a sudden back flip and went from Whitney Houston singing "Didn't we almost have it all" to Nat King Cole singing "Unforgettable".

It was then that i did the HIATUS thang which is a popular word here in the blog sphere. I tried other avenues of the arts and pursued dancing as an alternative. I joined several groups of dancers and has tried folk dancing and cheering competitions. It was fun while it lasted and i missed singing along the way but i had no other choice at that time. It was even made to worst when abou told me "you rise and you fall.. but i wonder why you haven't risen anymore". .the ever eloquent abou.^_~

I went to manila to take nursing since again according to my ever reliable mom, "that is where the money comes from!". If i were offered a choice back then i would've taken architecture or visual arts but since i am an obedient son, i had to agree. Mid nineties was the advent of local bands and of course we were not spared by its popularity. We even imitated them!. By then I already accepted the fact that my voice will never be as high as before but on second thoughts, if Ely Buendia could pass his voice as a record selling squeak then i thought me too could be one like him. So one day me and my friends formed a band.

There was this University battle of the bands and a cash price was awaiting the winner. Admittedly we were more interested on the cash price that time and the catch that the winner will have the honor of performing at folk arts theater during the University Concert didn't appeal that much. Duh! We needed money not prestige!(plastic!). And guess what happened? We won the competition by doing my best parody of Ely's "Ang Huling El Bimbo".We never get to play at folk arts theater but who cares? the point was we got the cash!!.

After graduating from nursing school my dad died.It was during my board exams that he passed away.That might be the reason why i got furtive looks from my relatives when i got home during my first day of test. They don't want to let me know just yet since i still have to take the second set of exams the following day. Thank God I passed the board that led me to become a full pledge nurse-then a bum.

I bummed for one year.I didn't do anything except beer/rum/gin guzzling every night. It was one of those moment's when i am happy even if i don't have any money of my own. I still ask money from my mom which i am not proud of, so one day when sam asked me to join his band i said yes without second thoughts.

I did back up vocals for Sams band.I liked being the "chuwariwap" since i am not obliged to go up on stage and make "epal" with the audience. And best of all i got to be paid with the same rate like them so i enjoyed my status for a while.. but like the song "Some good things never last" goes, my being a "chuwariwap" was short lived since they all screamed "not fair!" and off they pushed me to the spotlight..

After about a year of doing a series of road trips i decided to leave the band and pursue nursing for a change.I applied to several hospitals in manila but all of them seems to want only the "uber" intelligent ones and not a mediocre nurse like me. Worst, they said they will only accept me as a volunteer and they also expect me to pay them in return for this good deed.Good Grief!!.

So i accepted the job offered to me as a medical representative. At least by doing this job, it will mean I will have an excuse to wear a suit and play glamorous everyday. I also get to use my drivers license since they are providing me with a car. Now, that's what I call LIFE!. A little "pa cute" there (although i am not cute) and a series of nice chats made my day as a rep. I also get to be on places i wanted to be on a whim. Baguio,Antipolo and Tagaytay are just one of my weekly hangout... Of course the company shoulders the gas tab.

For two years I spent my life on the go. But at some point i also got bored. I lost the drive of being competent with the job that feeds me. And at the same time i fell in love with my wife and she got pregnant. I was already having trouble with my job back then so i decided to resign and head back to Aklan to carefully think things over. I know i am ready to become a dad but what bothers me that time was if i can carry on with being an "able" dad.

The moment i told my mom that i got my GF preggie was the hardest moment of my life. It took me weeks before i had the courage to finally tell her. she was calm, not the freaky kind of reaction that i was dreadfully expecting but you could see the disappointment that she felt. I guess i got the transparency of my facial expressions from her that what i feel shows before i even try to say it.. And her face showed it all.

I worked for a hospital by day and I sing at clubs by night. The fallen has finally risen and i came back with a vengeance. I never got enough sleep though because of my schedules. And the worst part was when the spotlight finally died down, another window will open.. called reality. That will keep me awake the whole morning again and i still have to do duty at 7 am.

Remembering these events of my life kept me sane i guess. I have no regrets for whatever decisions I've made and I treat them as my lessons in life. I may have made mistakes to some but that's how we learn, by trying not to repeat the mistakes we did in the past..

TO BE CONTINUED:

(at to be continued pa daw sa haba nito? hehehe!)

AYOKO MAG LINIS NG ISDA. AYOKO, AYOKO...

Ito ang mantra ko pag napipilitan akong maglinis ng isda.

At an early age.I've learned the art of teleportation(biglang wala) everytime my mom asked someone's help in gutting fish. Although laking dagat naman talaga ako or what you call "taga baybay", gutting fish is one job i hated.



To those who care to know.I came from a small town in the province of Aklan(New Washington). Kumbaga our place is like florida in the states, naks!. "Taga baybay" means from the coastline-and i am it!.

Naturally i should've known this basic task since taga dagat nga ko pero ang totoo, kumain lang ng isda ang alam at gusto ko.

I finished my nursing degree without knowing how to gut fish and when i got here in saudi arabia I found out that most of my colleagues has the same dilemma (Ninoy, hindi ka nag-iisa).Initially, i satisfied myself with fried chicken, beef steak, burgers, sardines, tuna, etc. or basically anything that will avoid my face to face encounter with a live and slimy marine inhabitant.

But the reality is i cannot forever live on frozen dinners, and fat saturated take-out stuff. Aside from the unhealthy side of eating those things (which is a minor point). It is extremely very expensive to be eating out everyday (which is one hell of a major point!). So one fine day i decided to visit fish market here in jeddah..

FISH MARKET
Due to insistent public demand.I succumed to my friends urging and joined them fish hunting at downtown jeddah. Nakakagulat ang mga binebentang isda dun.You can choose from any category of COLOR, SIZE, SMELL, AND PRESENTATION.

Meron isang matanda sumisigaw "kilo, kamsa riyal!"(5 riyal per kilo!). Ako naman na curious kung bakit ang mura yata ng benta nya, so I decided to check him out... nung makita ko yung 5 riyal per kilo na pinagmamalaki nya, sabi ko sa sarili ko-salamat na lang..

kelangan ko pa kasing pag aralan kung pano magluto at kumain ng pating...

Nakabili ako ng bangus at galunggong..

Ang problema.. pano ko kaya to lilinisin?

I decided to access my memory archive at kunyari nag flashback sa kin ang image ng nanay ko (naka holograph ha)...

Lesson 101:Hawakan ang ulo ng fish then try to pull the gills out.

Lesson 102:If you were successful sasama ang intestines and everything na nasa loob ng fish.

Hindi po ako Successful.

I decided to cut everything in half.
Paborito ko naman ang daing e- so i had daing for 1 month.