Hong Kong Diary by Eliza ( written in Taglish )

Two views of Hong Kong........

Riding high above cloud 9

at the Departure Lounge, DMIA....

the DM International Airport

Eliza's Hong Kong Diary

page 1

January 16, 2009

with Joy and Mia

From Diosdado Macapagal Intenational Airport to Hongkong International Airport.

Ang tagal namin sa HK International immigration. Bad trip, akala yata nila mag do-domestic helper kami. Alam namang taga travel agency kami! Akala siguro placement agency. Bwiset talaga!

Pero pag tapos namin sa immigration inantay na namin yung sundo. Syet!! Mercedes Benz kamo. Kaming tatlo lang. Hindi namin alam na private transfer kami. Hehehe ayus!!!

So private transfer kami from airport to hotel. Newton Place hotel kami nag-stay. Mejo malayo lang sa city center. For starters, we had free breakfast and halfday city tour .

Salamat sa aming supplier Dream Quest. ang lakas ko talaga!!!

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THE RIVER IN THE SKY

one

Under a moonlight drenched scenery where the leaves of the acacia trees seemed to be plated with pure silver, no one could see a shadow lurking in the bushes. No one except someone like Diego, an outdoor man, a hunter and until recently, a guerilla fighter right after the Philippines was invaded by Japan. His fellow patriots
convinced him to join the underground movement because of his sharpshooting skills.

His markmanship was extraordinary. When he was younger and the country was still enjoying the peaceful, pre-war days, he would scour the hilly forests at the edge of his hometown. His hobby was hunting wild boars and other wildlife for meat. He can shoot a game from a good distance, then he would bring home the meat so
his family and their neighbours could have a little feast. He also cultivated an eggplant farm, his main source of livelihood.That time was the period of a serene pastoral life in that far flung barrio in Pangasinan..

Then World War II broke out and his country was brought to its knees by the invaders.. Curfew was imposed by the new masters. Everybody was forced to bow their heads when passing by a sentry otherwise, he/she would be slapped on the spot.Not long after, Diego left his small home, his wife, her parents and a 5 year-old daughter to join a small guerillia unit. The unit hid in some caves on the hills not far from the barrio. His wife would sometimes bring some provisions for them and also news of what was currently happening in the municipality.

As long as no pro Jap elements knew that such a place existed, the guerrilas were safe.

His duty that night was to be a look out over a trail that would lead to the caves.That afternoon the guerillas heard that some Japanese informers have learned about these hiding places.A detail of a few Japanese soldiers might patrol the area where the trail begins.

Thus that night, the full moon came out at 6:00 pm casting an eeire radiance over the parched rice fields, the skyline of the town proper and the foothills where Diego used to do his hunting. He stationed himself behind a rock about 15 feet away from the mouth of the trail. At around 10:00 pm, he noticed the shadow lurking
about, seemingly ready to penetrate the entrance...

No guerilla would enter the trail at this time of night..Diego's instructions were .."shoot first, question later.."

He carefully aimed his shotgun towards the creeping shadow. He waited for a minute or two while his heart pounded and sweat came out of his forehead inspite of the cold December air. When the shadow continued to advance forward, his fingers pressed instinctively the trigger. The volley rang and his target fell on its face.

Did he kill him?..

Diego waited first if some others would be arriving. When there was nobody, Diego moved forward to examine the body.

As he knelt to check the man's pulse, he smelled something accompanied by faint hissing sound."Oh God, " Diego said. "Grenade!"

The last thing he heard was an explosion. He felt his chest ripped like a cloth while a flashing light blinded his eyes. Then there was silence.

two

Suddenly, sight came back to his eyes. He was standing in front of two mangled bodies and he realized that one of them belonged to him. Two spirit like beings were also hovering near the corpses.

"Is that you, Alpha?.." Diego said. "yes, Beta.." was Alpha's answer.

Diego or Beta felt like a new man with new knowledge, new senses, new everything."It is strange why we can only recognize our spiritual identities after our mortal bodies cease to exist." said Alpha.

A third creature whose luminiscence was different from theirs, began to speak with a very commanding voice..

.."I am your Guardian who will accompany you to a spot which will bring both of you to your final destinations..Hold on to me and fear nothing while you are with me"

Alpha and Beta found themselves floating on the air with the Guardian. They were gliding over the hills and then they headed for the massive ranges of the Caraballo mountains. Beta and Alpha were incapable of doing anything except to listen to his commanding voice..

"You still have two options," the guardian continued as they glided through the mountain scenery. "you can still remain here on earth but you will remain an invisible spirit to people, including your relatives. Youwill be visible only to your fellow spirits., You will retain your old earthly identity and the same knowledge of
your recent past life..." Beta immediately recalled his wife and his 5 year old daughter. .."Your love ones can not see or hear you or feel your touch. Sometimes they might smell a scent that will remind them of you, but that's all..You will see them triumph or fail with their own free will as they continue to spend their earthly time, as you have done during the course of your own life..

"Your second option is to be reborn with a different mortal identity. Whatever knowledge of your past life which you have when you died will be erased once you will start life anew as a baby.And you will be.going through the same procedure of
birth, childhood, adulthood, old age and finally, death..."

Alpha asked.."If I chose to follow you to our final destiny?"

The guardian said..""You will travel with me and many others to a beautiful place you never dreamed existed.You will see Paradise.You will see your loved ones who left the world before you.You will be imparted with the Supreme knowledge which you never gained as a mortal. And you will finally see our Creator"

Beta looked at Alpha. One was waiting for the other to speak...Meanwhile, each of them was astounded. Both remained silent until their motion stopped..

Their journey stopped at a very high peak of the Cordilleras. They saw a very wide river which flows UPWARDS towards the heavens.

The guardian said.."Alpha, Beta now is the moment to decide.. Either step on the river's water or go back. where you came from. It is your last act of free will. Nothing will be held against you if you opt to stay behind.

"Alpha who wanted to see Paradise, looked at Beta with imploring eyes..

Beta finally said.." I am staying behind. My earthly ties to my wife and my daughter are not ready to be severed ..I still love them and I want to see what will happen to them..."

"Good bye, Beta..." said the Guardian and Alpha. Beta saw them step into the river and they started to rise towards heaven..

Meanwhile, Beta turned back and he saw many other spirits going back where they came from. Several times along the way, he heard the moaning of a mother about to give birth inside a house. Then he saw one of the spirits enter that house.

But he kept on moving as swiftly and silently as the night wind. He felt no fatigue, hunger or anxiety. He became a spirit full of nothing but unending love. He felt a different kind of love from the one he felt while he was still the mortal Diego.All of a sudden, he himself in front of his old home.

"I am home again.." he whispered.."Oh to see once more my wife and daughter.."
Then he looked upwards and saw the trail of a comet racing upwards to the heavens. It looked like a river going upwards to the heavens..

He smiled and whispered:
" Someday I will join you Alpha, together with my wife and daughter..."

the end...

Noche Azul

For me, the sky is still the most fascinating place of all..Beyond the blue firmanent with just our naked eye, we can only see cloud formations during the day time and an infinitisimal number of stars, galaxies and nebulae at night..We can see some stars with a simple telescope but the bigger ones in observatores ( like the one in LA ) reveal cluster of stars, galaxies, and swirling cosmic dust, etc..

When I am bothered by minor problems which earth men are usually confronted ( rising cost of goods, rudeness of people in the bus, , etc ) I usually think of OUTER SPACE..

Why can't the planets collide with each other?..Why are we still alive when other stars have became black holes and whole systems are sucked in like a vacuum cleaner? How big is space as we see it?..

No I will not talk about sci-fi movies. I just want to skim the surface of this big, big topic that even Albert Enstein was not able to explain..


I will let my art show you what I sometimes visualize..if I imagine riding in a stellar vehicle..My drawings of stars and galaxies and nebulas.

Accompanied by the piano styling of Ernesto Lecuana, a well known Cuban composer..Name of the piece?..NOCHE AZUL..Blue sky..

If you heard this piece before, it means you belong to the same age bracket as I am...:)

ENJOY the music!!

cruel days of winter

One of the best ways to soften the blow of a harsh winter is to have flowering plants inside the house. This orchid, which came all the way from San Diego, California bloomed right during the first week of January while the strong blizzard winds were raging outside...It has a faint sweet smell that reminds one that "spring is not far behind.."


The cruel looking icicles hang down from our eavesthrough in front of our house. They are still there as I write. Remember in one of the DIE HARD movies? Bruce Willis used one to kill a bad guy by sticking an icicle into one of his eyeballs...

These winter babies are caused by the heat going through the roof of our house. It melts the snow capping the roof. The water runs into the eavesthrough and when it overflows, these weird looking thingies are formed. Need ice to mix with your beer? Just snap a couple and put them in your glass. They will make fancy stirring sticks too...

Icicles under the evergreens. Strange how pine trees survive the chilling -30 during these cold days...

Welcome to 19 Dixon road..Pay us a visit..Maybe you can help us shovel the driveway!!!!!!

(Just kidding, as usual )

photo essay bt VCostes

additional text to the article below...

Our JANUARY 20 trip to Washington DC

Dave ( my husband ) drove to the metro station (subway or train)with me and our friend Ronen from Israel. Took 20 min., then we took the train and it was packed. That ride to DC was 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was usually about 40 minutes. Once we got to DC we walked and walked towards the MALL* and we ended up in the Washington monument. That was the closest we can get because so many people(estimate 2 million).

In going home, we were stuck for about an hour. We couldn't get to the parade route because of all the security. There were so many people going home at once. How long did it take? It was hard to tell. We just learned how to be patient.

People actually are very nice. We met people from California, New Orleans, Houston, Texas and other places... We were all happy and jubilant. The excitement was overwhelming!

Want to know how cold it was? Lowest was 10 degrees, highest was 32. but it was so windy! One has to consider the wind chill factor... Ve-rrrrry cold.!!!!

We were dressed in layers. (Long thermal underwear, sweat pant then ski pants 3 wool socks, sweaters on top of sweaters, then boots) I was probably carrying 10 lbs. of clothes. I was walked like a duck. I felt so fat, but at least I was warm. My nose got cold and red a little.

So we left the house at 7:00am, didn't get home till 5:00pm. Ben and his friends left the house at 5:00am. They got there earlier so they were closer to the Capitol .

We didn't get a ticket but outside it's free to the public. Our congressman can't get tickets for everybody. We are fine where we are, we watched the proceedings on the Jumbotrons(big TVs that were set up all over the mall area). We were standing the whole time.

Obama isn"t Superman, but the world is expecting him to be. However, there is a lot of hope from every one, everywhere.

submitted by Marcie Uson Wise

from Marcie Uson-Wise

Marcie and Dave went to Washington DC...

Weather was fine as long as you do not mind feeling like a snow man, I mean snow woman...:)

The milling crowd with the venerable White House in the background..

The historic day when the first African American President was sworn into office...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Manong Vic,

Just sharing inauguration photos. What an experience to remember! I'll be able to say 20 or 30 years from now that I was there for the inauguration of the first African American President.

We were so happy to be able to attend (after convincing Dave--just kidding) this wonderful event. We were impressed by the truth and grace of the new President's speech. May God Bless Him.

Cheers,
Marcie

Reaching the Horizon...

..BY LEAVING THE SHORE

A few months back, I was wondering whether I would make it once I would move out of my cocoon into the real working world.

With nothing but faith in God, I left my last job which was slowly burning me out. Believe me, a live-in work is one of the most stressful ( and financially unsatisfactory ) job out there. Then, I received my open work visa and I decided to quit, unsure whether I could get another kind of job..

But I still remember the lines: You can never reach the horizon, if you just remain on the shore.
Thus I left my ocean shore and embarked on a new journey towards the unknown. I was not scared anymore. Once you have landed and worked on a foreign land all by yourself, you are never scared anymore of anything standing across your way..

After a few weeks of daily search ( and leaving resumes to the RIGHT persons,) God answered my prayers. I found work in two places close to each other. After my first days of work in both places, I came to like both jobs.

Now, I have 2 full-time positions. The work fits up my alley because both involve sales and customer relations.

I even have a 3rd job which I do now just once a week ( another 8 hours ). I do not like to give this 3rd one up because my employer is one of the nicest persons I met here in BC. She would not like anybody else to work for her except me.

Now I am wondering where I get my strength in performing those several work-hours. I amaze myself ( and my co workers too )how enduring I am to my jobs.My smile seem to attract new and steadfast customers in both places! In most of the seven weekdays, I have only 4 hours sleep..Even if I am given 2 days off, I am still called to work ( if I like ) during those free days... Why not? I say to myself. It means more money and God knows how much I need the $$ now-a-days!

My present life is a testimony on how good God is. I was never sick in all the years since I arrived in Vancouver. One time I thought I could never get anymore my Immigrant papers, but someway, somehow God showed me the way...

"Praise the Lord!!" will always be my battle cry....

( by Rain )