Foot and Fire

Three university friends who love to experiment in the kitchen long before the celebrities decided to enrol in culinary schools and long before cooking is chic and fashionable and long before "instagrammable" and "elevated dishes" are in the lingo convene to a memorable crazy sweaty kitchen cook-off.

  Nestled for several meters from the highway, this ruin is a little intriguing when one is heading to Isabela, Negros Occidental and coming from La Castellana so that one day, I and a friend decided to stop by and take a look.  That was two years ago. Nothing grand is left actually, just columns and pillars and some steps as well as vines growing around it but it pays to drop by and see for yourself before everything collapses.  No horror stories, just remnants of an old mansion of Isabela. Perhaps, the past affluence of Negros Occidental is far and wide that it extends to Isabela, not just Silay City or Bago City. Next time you go to Isabela, don't forget to drop by because there are things that need our attention that need no travel so far. Happy side tripping!!!     Vines of flowers will be great addition to this site.    ***   From afar, big trees are extending their arms. ***     A very rural setting. ***

Michael Franks' voice is as soft as the cotton and the lyrics of his songs are fine poetry. I love the artistic energy and output he produced during his productive years. His discography is what I can listen to without a skip. Check his song Eggplant here. Colbie Calliat is my less-than-a-month find but I really liked her Malibu Series (2016) and it led me to many of her past songs. I was so inspired by her voice and the lyrics of her love songs are so light like a honey poured from a foot above my morning mug of oatmeal. The fact that she is an independent artist makes me love her more. Check her top chart song Bubbly which I'm not so fun of and one of my faves from her, Goldmine. I love the southern accent of Blake Shelton as well as his sexy-big-man but emotionally versatile voice. His country songs capture my beachy mood but I admit, I couldn't listen to all of his songs. I'll try my best to love more of his songs. Here's the Some Beach song which ha

I was happy that I was able to spend time with the Panay Bukidnon in 2015. One of the good things I miss there is the Saturday school of children being taught chanting. Panay Bukidnon is known for their oral tradition and the Sugidanon or epic, among others. See of my blog posts on the Epic that was published by UP Press.  Funded by NCCA as I learned later, Teacher Romulo “Amang Baoy” Caballero taught the children chanting and it was fun listening to them. Aside from the chnating of the epic, I heard them sang a folk song on domestic life that's both funny and tragic. I wished I can go back and enjoyed more.

I was in for public service because I want to give back to the country, and I admittedly avoided adulting at 25 by maintaining or joining a private law office which has to maintain paying the bills and taxes and salaries and collecting fees. I signed the rolls of attorney in mid-2004 but it was no coincidence that I only submitted my applications in November of the same year to the two public offices which I deemed helpful in rearing my enthusiasm to serve. I was hired in February the next year.  I mentioned that it was no coincidence that I deferred from applying as soon as I got my license to practice law. Yes, I got me months of me-time because I was raring to read the books I wanted to read, not just read but imbibing them. Of course, ebooks are not yet around at the time but Booksale was the good source, and I had the best days of reading out of my own time, my own reason for choosing and my own pleasure. I believe that reading has fuelled me in not letting down my w