This slide show feature photos I took during my last Balikbayan trip last Christmas, 2002.

My wife's aunt works at the Manila Penn in Makati so she was able to secure for us a room with really cheap prices. We even paid in pesos not in dollars..Some shots were taken in the lobby..

Some more photos were taken at Nympha Salom's house in Urdaneta Village, just a stone's throw away from the Penn. She owns that life size ( almost ) Manger which rests atop of their stairs. We had a photo with her sisters Alejandra and Epifania.

Susan D. Santos joined us in some shots at the Penn inside our suite.

The slide show closed with my delivering a talk at the party hosted by the Delmendo Cable Company..

Visiting our country is easier on December because the weather is very comfortable. The hitch on the other hand are the exobirant ticket prices, since Christmas is a peak season and it seems every Filipino likes to be home for Christmas---#

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WHISPERING HOPE

 

For some unknown reasons, the song WHISPERING HOPE is considered a Christmas song. Only in the Philippines. It is not, but who cares? The words are about hope and angelic voices, the important elements of  Christmas...

As early as September, some radio stations in the Philippines during the '50s would play the song and I would turn the volume control up then would shout.."Hey, they are playing Christmas songs already!" I would be in euphoria. Such is the blissful innocence of children . They are born with childlike joy and faith. Unfortunately, these traits get rubbed off ( more or less ) as we grow up to face the hard realitiess of life..

Thanks for the kudos to Annete, Icarus. Her infectious laughter, which could be heard at the start of the video is well known in Asingan. She is well loved by the townspeople. Never noticed any bad bone in her person and I guess that's why she survived all this time. I do not want to guess her age, nor ask her about it. All I know is that she is older than me by a few years.

I can not forget the lubi-lubi she made one time to treat us, the choir. It was made by pounding boiled cassava in an alsung under her house. And then it is mixed with brown sugar. Yummy..

Anyways..Let us enjoy this one..I confess I do not know ( or can not recognize ) Katy which you mentioned, Icarus. Maybe you can point her to us. Was she the daughter of the ex Chief of Police of Asingan?---#

post notes--

*Annete is the lady in green..Norma Pico is the the one with short hair sitting in the middle.

*This video clip was mastered with the highest speed ( more Megabytes ) but the new PC transformed it into a web-friendly file which is clearer in sound and in picture..Not much pixellation..

*It is just too bad weeks after I learned how to use the machine for video production, AOL decided to close down its Blog Department. Murphy's Law! When you do not expect something bad to happen, then it happens! AOL is still the easiest to use and it can accomodate videos, special text formatting..and other goodies which other Blog sites does not But what can we do?..We'll just enjoy it until the last day of October..:(

 

for JUANITA

A caroling group came to our house in Asingan that Christmas.The song leader was Juanita Orpiano a long time singer at church. One of the singers I recognized was Norma Pico from Domanpot. She might have been one of my co-teachers at the Rizal Academy...

Going back to Juanita: she must  be the singer with the longest track record as far as church singing is concerned. She was a teenager when she started singing at the Roman Catholic church in our town. She has a very fine soprano voice which never blemished through out the years..She started singing with my sister Aurora and that must be during the early 50's..

As far as I know, she has never stopped her volunteer work: singing  every Sunday and church holidays. I heard and saw her again last December 2002 ( not 2003 as the video title says: sorry it is a typo and typos on video are hard to rectify ).She outlasted many of the singers at church. A few of them died already e.g. Josie C. Velasco, Erlinda del Rio and Editha Gante and maybe some more.

I think she might still reside in Dupac, near the Nitcha family's residence. Her sweet temperament and her sense of humour never diminished. She also worked as an offcial in the Barangay level here in our town at one time.

In a certain way, this video clip is dedicated to her. ---#

vic costes

Let us dance the OCHO-OCHO, now a vintage dance..

Same dancers as in the previous video. As of today, I am sure these guys do not look the same anymore. ..I hope they could see this video!!!

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Another Blast from the Past!

This home made clip was filmed by my late nephew Gildo Sampaga featuring his son, daughter and niece doing the SPAGHETTI DANCE, popular in 2002..This was shot Christmas eve, 2002..

Enjoy!

A View of Miguelita's award winning garden...

 

A Garden is a place where one can be close again to Nature.

It is a small piece of Eden where we can refresh ourselves and attenuate our minds once more to the Creator of  the Universe..

 

Part of last summer's CNE is a display of vintage cars in prime condition. Owners from all over Ontario came to show their "treasures.." Some collect these vintage cars like collecting paintings. Of course, they never use these cars for going to work or shopping for groceries...:)

birthday greetings...

Happy Birthday, Sue!

more photos...

fantastic photos......

 

 

photos submitted by Annie Camo

holiday photos from Annie

A view from 33,000 feet..Getting almost there..

That's a mushroom cloud?? Heaven forbid!

 

Ahhh..the sand, the sun, the sky!

 

Beachcombers of the feathered kind...

Such a nice  view, indeed!!

 

Look what we got, tourists!!!

 

and YIKES!! Iguanas!

This must be the other lizard's girl ( boy ) friend!

more photos nex time

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRE-- IKE PHOTOS...

Like..nothing happened, huh?

See?..No signs of truama..:)

 

Annie's pride and Joy

Man overboard! Its Annie's hobby, I  mean hubby..:)

All's Well that Ends Well!

MORE TO COME..:)

tracing some family roots....

Hi Manong Vic,

 

Siak ni Danny,  that was my dad Herminigildo (Indong) Malalang, who was one of those four musicians.  Thanks for remembering him.  He really loved playing his instruments.  He did the Diana and the funerals until he came to the US in 1975.  He passed away four yrs ago at  age 94.  

 

The Malalangs and Tabions by the munisipyo are my cousins.

 

Please say hi to Madam Ester we use to be boardmates in Bagiuo at Mrs Elay Agne ( my mother in law) when she was taking her Masters at SLU.

 

***************************************************

 

Hi Danny,

 

Thank you for the response..!

 

The members of the Malalang family I know are: Manang Bitang  ( the retired school teacher Miss Malalang ), then Juan Malalang who was a constant friend of Herminio Tabion during our Elementary and High School days..They come and leave the school together, and they were a very quiet pair..Our classmates knew they were cousins...

 

I was breaking my head trying to remember the names of the four Asingan musicians..then I finally remember the 4th one who is Valeriano Badua, a cantor who teams up with the other musician Antonio Sison and they are invited by many households in Asingan to sing some religious songs ( I think the hymn is the Litany of the Holy Rosary sang in Latin ) ..Even if the hour is late on the eve of All Saints Day, they would still come to do their prayers in song..They sing in perfect harmony, by the way because they are gifted with fine voices.. They were paid for their time. Of course, there was also the PAMPANTAWAG  group who made rounds during the same night. They sang dirges of the poor souls who died and are still in purgatory...

 

Your dad must have played the  slide trombone. I confess I forgot already his countenance.. 

 

Mr. Badua the clarinet, Mr. Sison the snare drum and Mr. Guillermo was the sax player.  They could play a wide range of music, ala Dixieland style. But they have their own way and for many years, they were music icons in Asingan until age caught up with them.

 

Mr. Guillermo would assist also in the church choir at the St. Louis Bertrand church  for his daughter Flora is a member of the choir then. He would sometimes join the caroling that takes place from the start of the Christmas misa de Gallo up to January 6, the feast of three Kings..It was a tiring but happy activity and whatever funds we raised went to the church needs..

 

The choir then was most active during the administration of Fr. Lazaro de Guzman,  with his assistants Fr. Aurelio Ruiz and Fr. Geronimo Marcelino.---#

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Gemma's photos...

Gemma's Garden

Hi Manong Vic,

 

I love Manang Nitz garden, I wish I have time to do all of that in my backyard too.  But I want to share you our pond garden that my hubby and I built.

 

Best Regards,

Gemma

**********************************************

Gemma Fonbuena Agius' parents Mr. & Mrs. Fred Fonbuena were good friend of ours when we were still in Asingan. Before we left for Canada, we practically spent most of our remaining days in Asingan visiting Fred's shop ( KING'S CROWN )  near the northern gate of the Asingan Market.

 

 

Good photos, Gemma!..These were made more beautiful by the way you shot them. There are ways of shooting photographs which by the way is also a very fine art. You can make or unmake beautiful scenes from Nature by the way you handle and aim the camera...

 

Enjoy the photos!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more to follow----

Miggie's Victory Party

The  Sept. 15th LAWN PARTY

Mig's Victory Party for winning the first prize garden in Ward 2 was originally set for Sept. 7, but there was a conflict with another family shindig, which was our daughter's baby shower. Yes folks, my 7th grandchild is on the way and if she arrives ahead of her ETA ( estimated time of arrival ) she might become a third September 28th b-day celebrant. with Miggie being the first, and Emma being the second...

So we diligently planned the Victory Party inviting just a few people, mainly neighbours and friends along Dixon Road, the street where we live since 1983.

It was only then that we invited to our home the residents of certain Dixon Road houses. Such is the situation in some neighbourhoods here in America ( yes, Canada is part of the North American continent ), some people wants to be CLOSED to their neighbours instead of being friendly with them. In fact, we never talked with our neighbour in 15 Dixon Road for  years already and I do not think we will ever talk again. Why? It's a long story so we will just go back to the original topic.

Thus we had that friendly meeting with some people from our street. We invited occupants of houses number 5, 9, 13, 20, 23, .

I was the babysitter for an Indian family in no. 5. They are from India. They are such good people. I brought their  young girl to the school bus pick up point everyday for the past 4 years. I did that routine for the last time on the final school day of this school year. This year she can already go to school by herself.

The occupants of no. 9 are Caucasians. The lady is a very friendly character who loves gardening too. Her husband is a quiet bearded man who looks like Richard Attenborough.Their two kids are almost my children's age. They stayed in Dixon Road much longer than us. I have been wanting to invite them to our house for the past 20 years because the couple  very friendly and we just talk on the street or in public events ( Farmer's market in Weston, etc. ).

My daughter and their daughter were members of the same Brownie team decades ago. It was only yesterday that I learned the man ( his name is Wilf )  is working for a big digital  laboratory processing company here in Toronto. The company ( to use exactly his technical jargon) converts "daily film rushes from film to digital format " Unlike the old days, film editing now a days are done digitally. He helps convert the original shots are still in celluloid form into digital format. Very technical and exacting job. The monitor they use for viewing the finished digital format of film shots to go back to the editing consoles in the US is around 80, 000 $.. Of course, we did some shop talk on the state of the movie industry here in Toronto which in his words is suffering financially for the past 2 years..

He said Toronto used to be called Hollywood of the North because US companies used to shoot their movies here. Cheaper production costs. Then US started wooing back their own film makers with almost 50% tax rebates. Thus there are no more major film shoots in our city. The last one was CINDERELLA MAN directed by Ron Howard.

Occupants of No. 13 are just recent arrivals to our block. They are from Viet Nam. The lady works seven times a week. The husband has just lost his job. I befriended them one Saturday when I dropped by their yard to check out their garage sale. The couple have a 10 year old daughter who befriended Emma only this week end. The two kids from number 9 and 15 lingered in the house playing in the basement with my old PC until the party broke up at 8:00 pm. This was long after their parents left for home. The kids did not like to go home, which is not surprising.

The occupants of no. 23 are from Shri Lanka. My wife always see the Shri Lankan lady at the bus stop and as such they became good friends. Again we got more acquainted with them through their garage sales.

The occupant of no. 20 is a Korean guy and he runs the Convenience store across the street. That is the store which Emma frequents  each time she visits us. I accompany her in crossing the street ( Dixon Road goes to the Airport so it gets busy all the time ) and to pay for her snacks when we check them out.

When the Korean guy arrived, his first remark to my guests was: "Hey, I know all of you!" All the guests have visited his store at one time or another to buy something.

 

The weather man predicted rain for Toronto yesterday Sept. 14. The party was supposed to start at 12:30 pm. Rain clouds were arriving and leaving the whole morning threatening a downpour any minute.But nothing happened.

At 12:00 noon, the rain clouds dissapeared and the blessed sun came out in full regalia. I almost broke into the song:

"Never saw the sun, shining so bright, never saw things going so right" (Blue Skies, Cole Porter )

It stayed with us until 6:00 pm. By that time, all guests left the house after enjoying Mig's egg rolls, half of a roasted pig and some pleasant chats. Men on one side of our deck, the women on the other. I did not invite any Filipino guests this time.

At about 6:30 pm, rain started to pour and it never let up until early morning.

Coincidence? I call it providence. God still answers prayers even just a small one like a few hours of good weather on what is predicted to be a blustery day.---#

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE GARDEN

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Presenting Miss Teen Asingan 2008..

For a complete coverage of the Coronation, click the following link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9678518@N03/

Photo Album courtesy of FRED PALMA...

 

bird talk

A GATHERING OF SPARROWS

Every morning when I open the patio door to check the backyard, the first thing I would hear is an initial chirping of one sparrow. A look out bird, I would say. The yard is still an empty expanse of grass with freshly fallen brown leaves from the big tree where the bird feeder is hanging. I know then that my pets are hungry and they are waiting for their feed. I would fill up a cup with bird seed then go out and empty the contents into the bird feeder. Then back inside the house..I can not stay outside to watch them feast. For some reason, these sparrows just do not come out when they see a human watching them. Then from inside the glass patio door, I see them coming out from the bushes. One, two then a multitude would appear from nowhere. The first four would find a perch in the feeder. The rest would be down on the ground waiting for some seeds to fall out. Soon there would be about 20-30 "brownies" chirping and pecking their hearts away!.

 

Sparrows are mentioned in the Bible. These birds must have existed even then..."There is providence in the fall of one sparrow.." or something like that.

According to birdlore, the sparrows are originally from the Old World. Then some Europeans brought them over to the New World. From then, these multiplied to a point that some people in the US started advocating for their elimination because they say, they are pushing away the native American songbirds away..Which is true.

Sad to say, nowadays, I seldom see Blue Jays, Cardinals or orioles visiting my backyard. Before I started feeding the sparrows, many robins would come and visit my place, looking for a worm or two to pick. One spring, a mother robin hatched some eggs in the pine tree in front of our house. I also saw several times some cardinals ( their red feathers remind me of the mythical firebird ) checking out what form of nourishment is available in my place.

When I started putting some bird feeders in front of the house, then more sparrows would come. The same batch in the backyard would just fly over to the front yard, squabbling and pecking at each other as usual. Plus they would crap on Miggie's Hosta plants ( much to her consternation ) . I would say, "well people would say ' oh there is a new breed of Hostas with white spotted leaves! ' ". She thinks the crack is not funny.

A friend told me, " do not feed them during  Summer..there is too much food for them around. Then they would become too lazy." I wish I could and then I would.

But then I have grown to love the company of birds. Especially I am alone most of the time in the house. I enjoy watching them do their bird antics. I am fascinated ( and a tad envious) of these creatures because of their ability to fly. We homo sapiens just confined ourselves to walking or driving our cars.

But then, as someone said "If men are meant to fly, God could have given them wings.."

In the meantime, I just keep watching them fly about, hither and yonder against the brilliant blue sky...

--VICTORIO COSTES

 

I found these pictures  and I would like to share them with you and  to to the A+Teamsters at AMB and to all Asinganians.   I remember this was the moment when most of my classmates in boys trade (remember! I am the only female electrician graduated in the history of ASAT!)  wished to dance with me,  but everyone wants to dance with me first.   They were thinking of drawing thier names by lottery  so I told them not to worry because I will be the one dancing with them. What I did to solve the situation was for me to stay in the middle and they will circle me around, the result was amazing! They dance around me in circles and I get to dance with each other one by one pulling them in the middle. It works!. It was a night to remember from all of the alumni's. Ms. Poly, Director  of Philippine Flood Commission Fidel Ginez (Alumni  of Asingan High School,) who donated the Orchestra "ANGELS",  Angela, Marcie and her mother and  of course the Principal of LMNHS   Mr. Venenciano  and the Orchestra  with live dancers graced the party as well. 

I hope some will recognized their faces.  If you noticed one of the great dancers in this group is Kagawad Recto Romero of  Baro (dressed in white shirt) and of course, Rudy Salon, and Kagawad Patricio Tandoc of Domampot along with Cesar Estrada  (the owner of the  well known Sound system in Asingan whose daughter was one of the Princesses in Miss Asingan).

I would like also to thank  Susana Delmendo  (whom I invited to attend the alumni night  when she invited me to her house with his brother Joe)  and her DI partner.  That night was the busiest and hectic night of my life..

God Bless to everyone and take care. See you all next year!

Thank You and Respectfully,
Fe Arsenia

THE PHOTOS ( the last one was too dark to be used )

******************************************

Meanwhile at the EX....

"Elvis is in the building!!!..."

..with Miggie and JS Bach!...

 

Miggie with Anne of Green Gables in front of her famous house!

 

Ruben Tagalog's  Immortal Tribute to the Filipina

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hey Ricky! our Blogs could still make us filthy rich, ha-ha!

pare vic,

yes pare i read your woman named kitty somewhere in one of your numerous blogs.  i hope you'll get your producer!

     tiningnan ko rin pare ko yung iba pang mga pangasinan blogs and they are so numerous pare ko! meron pang pangasinan bulletin board at halos lahat ng mga taga pangasinan na nasa america ay nakalista sa mga blogs ninyo plus their comments.

     yung isang successful pangasinense family pare ko organized his blog very well, parang he arranged his family picture from the day he got there, then how he brought his family, then how he got his job, his house there, etc. etc. etc.

     you know pare ko, there are blogs here and also websites whose owners are already millionaires! ! ! ! you know what they did pare ko?

they organized them so that advertisers and various contacts came in ! !

and then yung mga local media networks natin dito came in also and got their services, and presto! ! ayun pare ko money started pouring in ! !

      sabi ko dun sa masscom daughter ko siguro get in touch kako with your ninong vic so you can start something dollar or peso productive on the internet by using your blogs and/or websites ! ! ! !

     what do you say pare ko? diba magandang ideya yun? tingnan mo pare ko yung sinasabi ko sayong very successful pinoy blog. ang title nya ay yugatech.com

 

       till next time !.

ros

*******

Ros is a UP MassCom graduate and I worked with him in UP Los Banios. In fact he was the one who hired me. Both of us are fond of writing and we wrote human interest stories during our spare time ( which could fall between 8 in the morning and 5 in the afernoon ) just to escape the drudgery of writing articles, slogans, pamphlets about forest conservation which nobody seem to read anyway. But it was our bread and butter.

We stayed in this gorgeous UP Community in the slopes of Mt. Makiling for 4 years until he quit and my visa for Canada was also approved.

Los Banios became a second home to me. It has everything an academic community has to offer. It has an auditorium and once in a while the Philippine Symphony Orchestra would come and perform.

When Martial Law was declared, some of da Apo's military forces swooped down on this place and went after the "activists" which UP is so noted for.

Many "citizens" of UP Los Banios are Asian students who came to learn our "secrets" of rice propagation from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) another research center which is located in the area.

Same students, after classes and during weekends would frequent the beer gardens outside the UP gate bringing revenue to these small joints.

After their schooling is finished, they would go back to their respective countries, apply what they learned. Ironically enough, our government would buy rice from these countries because we could not produce enough rice to feed our own people.

Anyways, I was happy to meet Ros again after so many years through the Internet. ----#

First Visit at the EX

One of the items in my list of "things to buy at the EX " is a slingshot. So upon arrival, I went to the Thailand booth and looked for one. I got 3 slingshots for  6$. Individually, they cost 3$..I never used them yet because I never saw Sammy the Squirrel show up yet..But the slingshot is there on the deck, waiting, waiting for his black bushy butt to show up..

There were a number of other items - big and small , cheap and expensive - to buy here in the Exhibition.. And it will end on Labour day..

So if you happen to be in Toronto this time,  drop in and check what the  CNE has to offer..You will be glad you did!---#

The following video clip shows a part of the Thailand booth..They are selling noisemakers..Rub a stick against the spine of this wooden lizard and it gives a semblance of a croaking frog.  Good for New Year's festivity or for playing in a Latino band...:)

 

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video clip #1---free rock concert at the EX

THE STAMPEDERS

blackbirds vs the brown ones

August 16 in Toronto started as a balmy pleasant day. Hoping it will remain that way.

It is still too early to go out ( only 8:30 am. ) The malls here open at 10:00..

Anyways, I started the day's routine by throwing the day-old rice ( kelab-ban ) into my backyard.  Less than a minute later, a host of hungry birdies came out from the bushes and trees and started pecking their hearts away. Way to go, little ones!

Yes, we have the rice birds in the Philippines. How are they called again ?  Maya?

Anyway, hope you will enjoy the short video clip.---#

the Martin and I

About 55 years ago  a certain lady named Margarita Macaraeg  was managing a school of Fashion Design and Dressmaking under the Bureau of Private School in the first floor of our house in Asingan. Since dressmaking was a lucrative occupation  in Asingan during those days, ( I suppose even at the present if the fashion designer is  VERY GOOD ) she always had a big number of  female students.

Like the other schools in town.they also started every June and end on  March just before the Town Fiesta..During one graduation day, they celebrated it with a picnic. I was invited ( I was still a young kid in short britches at that time ) and my Mom allowed me to join the picnic since she and Ms Macaraeg  were very good friends.

The picnic took place in Cal-litang.From the Poblacion, we took a carromata ride up to a barrio ( I think it was Carusucan ) then from there, we transfered to cart pulled by a carabao  until we reached the picnic site. I could not remember much about the place except we crossed the river which to a young kid like me, looked as wide as the Mississippi, then we finally stopped at a nipa hut surrounded by lots of damortis trees.The place was gorgeous especially on a quiet summer day.

I was the youngest  and the only boy thrown in with a batch of women ( dressmaking graduates ).At that time, I did not care much about the opposite sex since I was only 8 or 9 years old. So I just explored the site taking care not to go into the thick underbrush for fear of stepping on some snakes.

They slaughtered a goat ( and a few chickens ) and pretty soon the air smelled with the aroma of pinapaitan...Ms Macaraeg whom I called Nana Intay saw to it that I was given ample food being the special guest when it was chow time.

Everybody was chattering with everybody..I had no one to talk with.Soon, I was getting bored until I had some company.  And you can never guess what it was..

It was a black bird locally known then as a Martin or a Martinez (?).It just appeared from nowhere and it started hanging around flying from one low tree branch to another.

The locals from Cal-litang who were with us knew the creature. After it arrived, it was constantly whistling..just like a person. If you could not see it, you would swear it was a person whistling Dixie or whatever.

And strangely enough, the bird seemed to take fancy on me. It was always looking at me and following me wherever I went.. One of the men said, this bird does not mix with the others of his kind..It was a loner..but it loved  human company.

Then one of the girls teased me, "Hey, this guy seems to be in love with you! It is always whistling in your direction.." Yeah",I said. And I added silently.."and of all my luck, it is not even human.."..

Well, the Martin hovered around close by  until the picnic was over and then when it saw that we were about to leave, it just flew away and dissapeared in the damortis trees.---#

Note: In the following video clip, the Martin looked like the crow, but not as ugly. Some elders said before that if you trim its tongue regularly, it will learn how to talk (!) I do not know how true it is, but how will you catch the bird? Some birds appear to be so smart they seem to be able to read your mind..

know some of the ASAT alumni in this photo?

a vintage photo of me and the ASAT choir..

I am playing the guitar to accompany the school choir, former Miss Marrieta Micu conducting..

photos of my grandaughters in New Brunswick

Heeeere's Ollie!!

My first born Oliver with his wife, Teresa...Ollie is presently working as an animation artist for TV commercials ..

 

The three apples of Ollie's eyes...

 

Audrey,  the youngest...

 

What's this? A huge elephant leg?

 

Children just love playing with mud...

 

Enjoying the sunset, girls?

 

Nothing like water tickling the toes..

 

Olivia, the elder sister

Nice panorama

 

Making a sandcastle, Audrey?

 

Goodness, we need a surfboard!

Miramichi is Audrey's kind of town..Peaceful, quiet. The only hitch? No malls around!