MEComposing

... I get a social life.

Words cannot decribe how inexplicably happy I am right now, all because I have a social life.

Last week, it was merienda with LATCH moms and dinner date with hubs.

Yesterday, twas dinner and coffee with friends.

Today, I assisted in a LATCH training of nurses then met up with college friends later. I was goe for the whole day and much as I missed my son, I couldn't deny that I was happy as a lark to be out. What's more, I had make-up on and a kinda sexy top.

Sigh.

It's not that I miss the party fun girl I was before. But I do miss dressing up and owning cute outfits. And I do miss being out. And it's great to be validated that am still engaging and fun.

*~*

On a sad note... I hate finding out that two friends of mine are/were battered women. I just pray they find the love for self they've lost and fully recover.

Nature does know how to protect its creatures.

puffer fish at the beach


tough and hairy shell of crabs

I'm hoping though that we'd do more to protect them in turn...

Hubs and I have booked our flights to Marinduque this May and Boracay in July.

Did you know there's a Starbucks already in Boracay? I know I should actually be offended by the fact. I know this is another testament to how commercial Boracay is, how exploited, how unpreserved.

But since it's been six years since I was there last... I am uber excited! And I cannot help but fantasize about sipping my fave choco cream chip drink while in my bikini. Not that I can fit in a decent bikini at the moment (more like a well-designed maillot). Ok, most probably I would be wearing a tankini and board shorts when sipping that blasted drink, but i'd still be sipping it sitting on pristine white sand and after having eaten my fill of seafood.

Yes!

These are wind chimes being sold at the Moriones Expo in Boac, Marinduque last Holy Week. I absolutely loved this shop because all the chimes and decor and dividers they were selling were just so lovely.

I feel so sorry and sad for Ted Failon's family... because this is a tragedy and it seems to have been bungled with right from the start. Or too sensationalized.

I also can't help but speculate that Ted has annoyed a lot of police and other authorities, for them to be so aggressive with all the arrests they've been making. I mean, I actually expected him/them to be treated better. But everybody is having a field day over them, even ABS CBN is exploiting the case.

I just hope it will be an eye opener, at least for him, how violating media people can be. So that maybe, the next time he reports news, he'd be more considerate... or at least, he'd know that there are real people in those news. Ones with loved ones and families.

The Moriones Festival is one of the more famous festivals in the country. I have known my husband for around nine years now and we've been married for three, but it was only this year that I got to experience it with his family. See, they have a beach home in Gasan, Marinduque.

Here are some fave shots:


my favorite Moriones puppet, which could be
made to bat his eyelashes, open-close his jaws
and brandish his sword (Gasan town)


Moriones roaming the streets and expos
"looking for Longinus"
(even kids and girls/women partake)


female penitents who join the procession
barefoot and clad in all black with
pupua wreaths on their head, which they
offer and leave at the Church after


one of many flagellants
(it's hard taking pics of them since
they're obviously drunk, and they wear caps
or keep texting)


as I was saying :)


I found the Independencia Church statues
more beautiful


my favorite part of the street dancing
procession

Hopefully, this is the start of me really being able to witness other big festivals in the country before they become defunct or too commercialized.

Just got back from spending Holy Week in Marinduque with my in laws.

Anyway, there I was, shooting pictures of the gathered Moriones at the Boac plaza when I was dustracted by a growing crowd on a sort of hill near the plaza. Mustering courage (and dictated by laziness), I scurried across the plaza, in front of the Moriones, to get to whatever it was the crowd were watching from the hill. I was in such a hurry that I mised the pool of water being swept dry by two men and I slipped.

I tried to get up immediately from my disgraceful fall but the soles of my shoes couldn't get a grip on the wet floor and I kept coming down. In front of at least a hundred Moriones. Ugh.

And the blasted thing was, no one offered a hand. Worse, the sweepers kept telling me, "Miss, madulas dito (Miss, it's slippery here.)"

Duh!

*~*

Oh, but a nice-looking guy with a bigger camera did ask me later if I was ok.