Free Transport Service for Filipino Voters Offered By Two Auto Groups
The Pinoy Expats Auto Club in Emirates (PEACE) and Filipino Offroad Auto Club (FORAC) are offering free transport service this Friday, August 28, to their compatriots who want to register as overseas absentee voters (OAV) at the Philippine Consulate General in Al Ghusais, Dubai.
Both clubs will dispatch their members to pick up future voters from 9 to 10 am at the following areas: Al Attar Shopping Mall in Karama; Lal’s Supermarket in Satwa; Philippine Supermarket in Murraqabat; Ibn Battuta (fastfood parking area) in Jebel Ali; Mega Mall (facing main road) in Sharjah; and Atlas Mall (back entrance area) in Rolla, Sharjah. More…
A Grief That Can’t Be Spoken
Brother Eraño G. Manalo, Executive Minister of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, passed away last August 31, 2009, he was 84. He was laid to rest today at the INC Tabernacle inside the INC Central Complex in Quezon City.
His passing gave me a sense of emptiness inside me. I felt a loss I have never felt before in my life. I was very sad.
Since I learned of his death I have wanted to write about him and his great achievements for the church, but words fail me. An unexplainable grief engulfed the whole of me that even thinking of writing about his death is unbearable. My sadness even deepened as I watched his wake which was held at our Central Temple in Quezon City. Thanks to our website Gemnet.tv I was able to update myself of the things happening through the live streaming feed provided by the site. More…
I’m giving it a shot: The Philippine Blog Awards 2009
Well, here it goes! I just nominated my blog to The Philippine Blog Awards 2009, and I’m very nervous. This is the first time I’m doing this, and looking at the blogs that won last year’s awards, I still don’t think my blog has what it takes to even be nominated (getting cold feet here…). Due to the work I have, my schedule doesn’t allow me to always update my blog. Most of the time, I tend to back date some blog posts because the things I am posting should have been posted last week or even last month! I am sure I am going to learn a lot from this experience, there are a lot of things I still don’t know about blogging that I want to learn through the blogging community and I hope this awards will pave the way for that. More…
Iglesia Ni Cristo at 95
Today, the 27th of July 2009, marks the 95th anniversary of the reemergence of the Iglesia Ni Cristo in the Philippines. I join all the brethren around the world in celebrating this momentous event for the church.
As part of the celebrations, huge religious assemblies were held in fourteen venues around the Philippines and in five sites in four other countries. In Metro Manila, the “Iglesia Ni Cristo Day” were held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City and at the Rizal Memorial Complex in Manila. In the provinces, the brethren gathered in the following venues:
- Butuan City Sports Complex in Agusan del Norte
- Bicol University Sports Complex and Commencement grounds in Legazpi City, Albay
- Cebu Sports Center in Cebu City
- General Santos City Oval Plaza, South Cotabato
- Davao Agro-Industrial Institute Football Field in Davao City
- Quirino Stadium in Bantay, Ilocos Sur; Central Integrated Terminal in Santiago City, Isabela
- Ashton Field Subdivision grounds in Calamba City, Laguna
- Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental
- Villa del Sol Subdivision-Olongapo-Gapan Road in San Fernando City, Pampanga
- Narciso Ramos Sports Center in Lingayen, Pangasinan
- Ipil Sports Complex in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga-Sibugay
Abroad, gatherings were also held at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. and HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, USA; Central Hall Westminster in London, UK; Parco Esposizioni Novegro in Milan, Italy; and Hills Center in Sydney, Australia.
Here in Sharjah, because we were far away from the said venues, a celebratory gathering was also held at our temporary house of worship that we are using at Pioneers Modern School (PMS) in Dasman.
By joining us in celebration of the church’s anniversary, Malacañang last month announced July 27 of every year as a special day to commemorate the founding of the Iglesia Ni Cristo. A TV anniversary special was also aired on Sunday , July 26 at 8 p.m. over GEMTV-49 and Net-25 that featured international renowned singer Lea Salonga and other INC talents. Last Saturday, July 18, the INC through its “Lingap sa Mamamayan” socio-civic program, conducted a health service mission in the village of Maharlika in Taguig City as part of the anniversary celebration. Around 20,000 residents benefited from the free medical and dental services, vitamins and medicines, and a package of rice and canned goods.
At 95, the Iglesia Ni Cristo has over 5,400 local congregations in 90 countries and territories, with a membership composed of 102 nationalities,
Our First Month
Our first month together went by like a breeze! Maybe it’s really like that when you’re happy, you don’t even notice how time flies. It was just like yesterday when Rachelle and I got together “officially” that I still remember everything so clearly in my mind. This first month is so special for us that I planned to do something different.
I thought of us eating in a posh restaurant (so common), go out of the country (so far) and take a hot air balloon ride (so expensive). But none of those I thought of were viable in the time frame I have. I was already alarmed and in deep thought when I remembered one of those talks that we had about some of the things that we still haven’t done here in Dubai. She at one time mentioned about she and her friends’ plan to go on a Dhow Cruise but they were not able to do so. That gave me the idea to take her to a Dhow Cruise by surprise.
A week before our “first monthsary“, I devised a plan on how to go about my little surprise. The “hopeless romantic” in me kicked in and with that, this plan materialized: I gave her three roses, but not all at the same time. I gave her the first rose in the eve of our “monthsary”. When the clock ticked at 12 am, together with a card, I gave her a long stemmed red rose and we greeted each other a happy 1st monthsary. I told her that we’ll just go out tomorrow and eat out to further celebrate our first month together. What she didn’t know was I already talked to a friend of hers, Freia, and asked her to give Rachelle the second rose in the morning with a card. Inside the card, there are instructions on where we would meet in the evening and what clothes we should wear (I still didn’t mention anything about the Dhow Cruise). I asked her to wear the clothes that we wore when we had out first date. That moment was so memorable for us that I want it to be a part of our celebration. I also asked her to meet me at Al Ghurair Mall in Deira. It was already close by the Dhow Cruise area and I want her to think that we would just eat our dinner in one of the restaurants at Al Ghurair.
When we met in the evening, she played her part well and she wore the clothes that I asked her to wear. At this moment, I gave her the third rose and another card. But unlike the other two fresh roses that I gave her, this one is an artificial rose. Of course, she asked me why. So, I told her that those roses will represent the love I have for her, that as long as one of those roses is alive, my love for her will always remain (I would no longer go into detail on the dramatics that followed that moment, I’ll just let you all play with your imagination…).
After that, we took a taxi ride towards the Dubai Creek where the Dhow Cruise I earlier booked was at bay. She was still clueless as to where we are going. She keeps on guessing on what restaurant in Deira we are going to eat. Not until we reached Dubai Creek that she realized what we were doing there. I saw the glimmer of happiness in her eyes when she learned of my plan and that was more than enough for me, my efforts paid off, I’m sure I made her happy.
We dined at the Falcon Oasis Floating Restaurant which serves a mix of Arabic and Oriental food. While we were eating the boat is cruising the length of the Dubai Creek, which gave us a good view of the creek and Dubai at night.
It was truly another night to remember for the both of us and we are looking forward for many more to come…
“Sorry, you can’t go for vacation…”
These words rang like bell in my ears when me and my immediate manager were discussing about my chances of going for a vacation this year. Sadly, I can’t go because of our upcoming Rosetta 2 website project. Just last month, I was assigned as a team leader of our team and because of this I became responsible for all the project requirements pertaining to the website. According to my boss, initial testing and deployment are all due this coming month of May, so my presence in the office is critical for the smooth workflow.
I was devastated. Everybody back home is already expecting to see me this May, but I guess we all have to wait for another year to see each other. Hopefully, if everything goes well in the project and deployment from testing to live goes according to plan, I can again talk to my boss about my chances of going for vacation before the year ends (maybe October or December), but I don’t want to put my hopes up high, projects like this take not less than a year to stabilize and run smoothly. For sure issues will arise after the website is deployed and more will appear as we go along the testing.
Just wish me luck, I hope I can still conquer the longing of seeing my loved ones again.
Feels Like Home
I can never thank Chantal Kreviazuk enough for singing this song…
I will never see the 15th day of March as ordinarily as before. Today marks the beginning of my new life with my girlfriend (and future wife!) Rachelle. Finally, after a month of courting her, she decided to give me her sweeetest “YES” that made us officially “together”. But it’s not as usual as it sounds, she didn’t give me her answer the traditional way (as in I asked her and she said “Yes”).
When I visited her at her place earlier, she had me listen to a song on her phone, telling me that she heard a song and wants to share it with me. She also said that surely I will like it. As it turned out, the song was “Feels Like Home” sang by Chantal Kreviazuk. True to her word, I did like the song, with its soft melody plus the enchanting voice of Chantal made the song very appealing to my ears. As I listened to the song, I was surprised to find that I can relate to its lyrics. It just purely conveys my feelings for Rachelle: how I feel when I’m with her, how my heart beats when I see her again, how lonely my life was before I met her and how it became happy again when she came. As I was in reverie over the song, I suddenly realized that it was her that wanted me to hear the song, not the other way around. So I quickly gave her a quizzical look! And I found her staring back at me with anticipation. Not hearing the song, she asked me what part of the song was already playing. Before I could utter an answer, the last part of the second stanza was already playing with these lyrics:
If you knew how much this moment means to me, and how long I’ve waited for your touch. If you knew how happy you are making me, I never thought that I’D LOVE ANYONE SO MUCH…
Honestly, I was caught off handed. She must have seen my reaction over the song that I saw her smiling back at me when I looked at her again after the song. I asked her if that was the answer I was waiting for and she nodded…
At that exact moment I was engulfed by unexplained bliss that I just hugged her instinctively. Oblivious to the rest of the world, I took her hand and gave it a light kiss. I thanked her for trusting and believing me and for loving me back. Today instantly became one of the happiest days of my life!
I have to give it to her, she has style. I never would have suspected that she’d do it like this. And I am very thankful it happened this way, for if not, it would not have been this special…
With Rachelle in my life, I truly feels like home…
Feels Like Home- Chantal Kreviazuk
PBA095o5sq6o
Eraserheads “The Final Set” Concert
After the Eraserheads’ last concert was unexpectedly cut short because of Ely Buendia’s health problem, “The Final Set” reunion concert of the band was held today at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds. Thanks to MTV Philippines, the Filipino’s (and my) fab four was seen again on stage singing all their hits. Unfortunately according to Ely himself, this would be the last time the four of them would be seen performing as the Eraserheads.
Again, I was not there to witness this momentous event which for me is a must see for all Eheads diehard fans (well um, like me!). So I promise myself when I go for my vacation on May I would collect all their albums as a tribute to this great band.
Long live the Eheads!
The Feeling of Being Betrayed
I have always put an utmost importance on trust. I have always been a very trustworthy person and friend. I am devastated to know that the people to whom I entrusted my trust, shared my secrets and called friends, betrayed me; stabbed me behind my back. No words can describe how angry and disappointed I am.
Well, sorry for them, they just lost a very good friend and earned a very irreproachable enemy.
Training’s a Bore
As part of our transfer to the Rosetta Phase 2 website project, me and my teammate Filsan underwent training for the new back end and front end interface of our GNAds4U.com website. Suraj Pant, a senior developer for HCL, visited us and provided the necessary training.
I don’t know but training really bore me to death. Although I know what would be shown to us on the said training will provide us the essential knowledge for the proper maintenance of the website, still not even an ounce of interest is bursting out of me that would make me listen to what the trainer is teaching us. Luckily, they have provided us a manual that explained everything what Suraj was discussing to us earlier or else I would not have any information on how to go about the website’s new features.