It's More Fun In The Philippines (official video)

There are 7,107 reasons why It's More Fun in the Philippines!

Enjoy this video of my homeland made by the Department of Tourism office.

It's more fun in the Philippines!

The Philippines' Department of Tourism unveiled this morning its new international tourism campaign dubbed "It's more fun in the Philippines."

I definitely agree on this statement and I'm helping spread the word. And if I may add, not only the Philippines but also the Filipinos are more fun!

Revocation of US Independence

Photo: Elite of the World

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections. 

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

Philippines - Experience the 7107 Islands video promotion

Experience the Philippines, its 7,107 islands, its natural wonders, colorful history and warm and engaging people. Video brought to you by Best Destination Travel TV channel (www.BestDestination.com), travel guides and travel directory by Travelindex Network (www.travelindex.com).

School field trip to Moor Farm

Photo: geograph

Last week, I joined my younger son's class on a school field trip to Moor Farm, located 7 miles northeast of Peterborough. This was the second time I joined my son in a school field trip as a parent helper. Because of his multiple allergy, either my wife or I will accompany our son during a field trip as requested by his schoolteachers.

Moor Farm is a medium-seized mixed arable farm (200 ha in size) with cattle and sheep and run by a husband and wife team. The farm offers free educational visits to primary schools. When we arrived at the farm, owner Judith gave a brief welcome orientation to the children before going out on a short educational tour around the farm.

Filipino food store opens in Peterborough

MJS Sarap Mabuhay, which sells Filipino and Oriental food products, opened up its shop located in the heart of Peterborough city centre last 18th of April.

Located at Unit 1 of 2 Park Road in Peterborough (post code PE1 2TD), MJS Sarap Mabuhay mainly caters to the needs of the growing community of Filipinos in the city and its surrounding towns and villages. The shop is owned and ran by entrepreneurial Filipino couple Sergio and Jennifer Fabian who took heed of the Filipino community’s growing demands for Filipino food products to be sold in the city.

Filipinos in Peterborough United

The growing population of Filipinos in Peterborough and its surrounding towns and villages have formed a community association, Filipino Community of Peterborough (FILCOP) last 17 January 2010, which realised the long-standing dream of uniting themselves towards a common good.

Peterborough is a dynamic and thriving multi-cultural city with a population of 167,000 (2007 estimate) located in the county of Cambridgeshire. It is famous for its beautiful cathedral, considered one of the finest in England with a history dating back over 1,350 years and the current building approaching its 900th foundation anniversary. Peterborough is also one of the four Environment Cities in the UK and is now working to become the country's Environment Capital.

The driver

Note: I got this story from an email from a former work colleague back in the Philippines.

After getting all of Pope Benedict's luggage loaded into the limo, (and he doesn't travel light), the driver notices the Pope is still standing on the curb.

'Excuse me, Your Holiness,' says the driver, 'Would you please take your seat so we can leave?'

'Well, to tell you the truth,' says the Pope, 'they never let me drive at the Vatican when I was a cardinal, and I'd really like to drive today.'

Peterborough's Filipino Catholics joined One Mass celebration

The small Filipino Catholic community in Peterborough contributed to the One Mass celebration held in Peterborough last July.

Graphic Tees thanked me recently for sharing the story of Filipino Catholics from the eyes of a foreigner. Then, I remembered the SMS or "text" my kumpare sent relaying to us our local parish priest's message of thanks to all Filipinos who joined the One Mass celebration held in Peterborough Cathedral.

The One Mass was held to mark the rich cultural mix of the Catholic religious community in the city. More than a thousand people of 50 different nationalities attended the celebration. In particular, the small Filipino community was asked to provide the choir. Apparently, the parish priest was impressed with our singing during a mass he celebrated for the local Filipino Catholic community a while back. Unfortunately, our family was unable to attend One Mass. Still, I was proud of the others who attended and provided some of the angelic singing during the mass.

There is a news article from the local Evening Telegraph that reported about this event, which you can read here. In the main picture, the Filipino girl holding a red and white flag is my son's classmate at his primary school.

Giraffes 3 and 4

I submitted 2 more giraffes for the One Million Giraffes project last Monday morning, making it a total of 4 giraffes we contributed so far.

I've gone primitive on giraffe no. 3, which I made out of pebbles from our garden.


Cean created giraffe no. 4 out of Lego bricks, another of his favourite playthings.


I will talk more on these giraffes on a later post.

Story behind Sunday's giraffes

The two giraffes we submitted for the One Million Giraffes project last Sunday was a family effort by me and my sons.

We brainstormed a bit before we created the giraffes. I wanted them to make some drawings to submit to the project.

But the boys have other ideas. Cean wanted his giraffe created out of his Hot Wheels toy cars. He did not agree to some of my ideas on how it will look like, so the giraffe I submitted last Sunday was all Cean's effort.

Here is a photo of Cean proudly standing beside his obra maestra.


The giraffe I created out of bowling pins was for my younger son. He didn't want to participate as he was busy playing with his bowling pins at that time.

I convinced him to let me borrow the pins for awhile to create a giraffe for him. After I finished and took a photo for the project, JP was eagerly waiting to bowl it. But before that, I took a picture of him beside the giraffe.


It was great fun creating the giraffes with my boys. And we plan to create some more for the project.

One million giraffes

OneMillionGiraffes.com aims to collect one million giraffes by 2011.

It started out as a challenge between two friends, that one of them can collect one million giraffes in two years time. The giraffes can be created in any way except from a computer or store bought objects like stuffed toys.

I knew about this site through BBC Click last Saturday. It seems fun and interesting especially for the kids. This is an opportune time since it's summer where you need to come up with something interesting to occupy their time.

I encourage my older son to draw a giraffe so we can send it. He didn't, instead, created one out of his toy cars. Of course, why didn't I think of that? He's crazy about his toy cars.

Here is the giraffe he made, which we submitted to the site yesterday.



I created a giraffe from my younger son's bowling pins. I asked him to do it himself but would not. He had fun bowling it though, after I took a picture to send to the site.



There are two rules to the One Million Giraffes project:

1. You have to tell your friends about this project (otherwise it won't work)
2. Your giraffe(s) can be created in any way and form, but not on a computer.

I've been faithful to both rules. I have already told my friends in Facebook yesterday. I wrote this post so that you will know; later, I'll post a link to my Friendster account. My high school Yahoo group will be able to read this post later on.

I've submitted two giraffes yesterday. I have just send another two but it was not accepted yet.

Why don't you join and support this project? It's all for fun especially for the children.

We are (tennis-crazed) family

I am teaching my family to play lawn tennis this summer. By family, I mean my very eager wife and very excited sons age 6 and 4, respectively. By the end of summer we will be one tennis-crazed family and my sons will be tipped as the future British No. 1, perhaps the future world no. 1 player!


I have to say that I have not touched a tennis racket for seven years, that's quite a long while. But it didn't feel strange holding one again last week. The skills are still there as well. I played with a friend last week although my family went with me. I gave them a taster afterwards, which they really enjoyed. My younger son had great fun trying to hit the balls. It didn't surprise me at all as he loves all types of ball games.

Last Monday afternoon after work, we all went down to Central Park to play tennis. The scattered rains didn't put off Daisy and the kids. They scampered towards every ball despite the rains. I was playing with Daisy most of the time and the kids would just cut in and try to hit the ball. But most of the time the kids were happy left to themselves with their own rackets desperately trying to hit their balls.


We probably played for a couple of hours. We had mixed reactions from the kids afterwards. The older son, not exactly sports-minded, enjoyed just running about the tennis court with racket in hand and hitting, or rather, not hitting, the ball he carried with him. The younger one, however, was not such a happy bunny. He tried hard to hit the ball but most of the time he couldn't. He did erupted into big smiles and shouting hurrahs when I hold his hand and racket and let him hit a few balls.

So, if you come looking for us on Monday nights during this summer, chances are you will find all four of us in Central Park playing very competitively against each other. Game on!

Photos: Andy Murray in contactmusic.com and Central Park in Discover Peterborough website

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all fathers like me! I'm sharing with you all the special card made by Cean in his school. They do this every year and the first one he made was last year, which I posted twice last year in this blog.

If You Like Chocolate You Will Like This

(I came across this fun post by Pinay single mom through Ungkutan blog. I tried it and it works. If only they give out chocolates as a prize for doing this quiz. Enjoy!)

Check this out!!! This is fun!

Don’t tell me your age; you probably would tell a falsehood anyway but the Hershey Man will know! YOUR AGE BY CHOCOLATE MATH

This is pretty neat.

DON’T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!

It takes less than a minute .

Work this out as you read .

Be sure you don’t read the bottom until you’ve worked it out!

This is not one of those waste of time things, it’s fun.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 — I’ll wait while you get the
calculator

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759. If you haven’t, add 1758.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born. You should have a three digit number. The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2009) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS.

chocolate Calculator.

Bad (Transport) Day

Yesterday started out well for me. Cean and I arrived at his school with plenty of time for me to catch up the Stagecoach bus to city centre. I got to the bus stop thinking the bus will arrive shortly. It did arrive...half an hour later, much to my annoyance!

Stagecoach assures its passengers of a bus ride to town every ten minutes. The half hour delay means they missed two schedules. The result was that halfway to its journey's end, the bus I was in was already full. I have to say many of my fellow passengers were not happy bunnies like me!

This is the first time this delay happened to me in a long while now. I didn't know the reason for the delay; even so, this is still unacceptable. Stagecoach failed to deliver their promise to its customers. We actually have no choice because they are the only bus plying the route in most of Peterborough centre and suburbs.

That bad start of the day was to continue in the afternoon. After work, I catch a different bus because it goes to my neighbourhood. If I took Stagecoach, it is a longer walk home for me. Obviously, I opt for a less tiresome way to go home after a hard day's work sitting in the office!

The Local Link bus, which is funded by the city council, missed a scheduled trip. Only a one missed trip, that does not matter, wouldn't it? You might ask. Well...it does matter actually. Unlike Stagecoach which have a 10-minute interval in their schedule the Local Link bus that goes to my home has a 30-minute interval. Again I lost another half hour of my time waiting for a bus trip home.

A situation like this sometimes make me miss home. I chose third world transport anytime over the first world one when these things happen. At least in Cebu you can get a jeepney anytime you want it!

Jaundice Baby

I was checking SELaplana's blog when I came across his post on his new-born son who has neonatal jaundice. The baby had photo therapy because of it. I sympathise with what he and his wife are going through as I know it from experience.

Our first born son Cean had the same condition when he was born. My wife, a nurse with several years experience in a maternity ward, noticed the yellow discoloration in our baby's body. We went back to the maternity hospital where Cean was born. He was admitted and undergone photo therapy for 24 hours.

Cean was stripped down to his nappy during the therapy. He lied down in a special bed for babies that was lighted underneath with what looks like a fluorescent light. His eyes were covered to protect it from damage from the light.

It was crucial that the bilirubin level in his body will be down to normal within 24 hours of photo therapy. Otherwise, it will be a cause for worry. Thankfully, his body responded well to the therapy. He is now an active and healthy 6 year old boy.

According to Wikipedia, neonatal jaundice is usually harmless and is often seen in infants around the second day after birth, lasting until day 8 in normal births, or to around day 14 in premature births. Serum bilirubin (yellow breakdown product of heme catabolism that is responsible for yellow discolouration in jaundice) normally drops to a low level without any intervention required.

The jaundice is presumably a consequence of metabolic and physiological adjustments after birth. In extreme cases, a brain damaging condition known as kernicterus can occur. Neonatal jaundice is a risk factor for hearing loss.

John Paul, our second son, also had neonatal jaundice when he was born but he did not undergo photo therapy. He was born in spring where sunshine is plentiful. In contrast, Cean was a winter baby and that is why he had photo therapy.

I mentioned sunshine because neonatal jaundice can be addressed by exposing the new-born child in the sun for a few minutes during their first week of birth. Children born in the Philippines are quite lucky because sunshine is plentiful most of the year.

Now I know what those scenes of mothers sitting outside their houses getting sunshine together with their new-born babies, were for. The sun's rays breaks down the excess bilirubin in the baby's body during those crucial first week of their life; thus, preventing damage to their health.

Dayrider

Cean and I walk to his school everyday. Afterwards, I catch a bus nearby to go to work. I pay for a dayrider ticket costing £3.30, which saves me money. A single ticket to city centre costs £1.80.

Public transportation is quite expensive. With the amount paid on a dayrider, I can have a nice lunch instead. My usual lunch consists of a tuna & sweetcorn sandwich (£1.60), Doritos crisp (£0.42), Coke can (£0.45) and chocolate bar (£0.40). And I still have some loose change to spend or save for the next day.

A dayrider ticket from a Stagecoach bus can be used throughout Peterborough and valid all day. Anybody can use it subject to the mentioned conditions.

Britain's Got Talent

Photo: Daily Express

Forget Leona Lewis. Forget Girls Aloud. Forget Sugababes. They are the past.

Meet Susan Boyle (pictured above), Britain's Got Talent's newest singing sensation. Oh, but you would say, "C'mon, you're pulling my legs." I know why you said that. You're not alone. Even the mighty judges and the audience of the talent show thought the same.

Here's an account of what happened last weekend:

"Last Saturday, viewers saw Boyle, with double chin, unkempt hair, frumpy appearance and eccentric demeanour, step onto the talent show stage and proclaim her dream of being a professional singer.

The judges rolled their eyes and the audience pulled incredulous faces. Onlookers, on set and at home, were rubbing their hands at the prospect of another hopeless, deluded loser being crushed by a withering Simon Cowell insult.

Then she opened her mouth and sang I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables.

Her voice confounded all expectations - the judges' eyes bulged, the crowd went wild and Boyle became an instant star."

And what a hit she became in YouTube with more than 26 million views (and growing fast). In fact, she has become a world sensation because of YouTube. She's a big hit in America, too.

But why has she become such a phenomenon? Here's what a celebrity magazine writer has to say:

"In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging - the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts - the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace.

She pierced my defences. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective."

You have to watch the audition to see for yourself why she is music's newest sensation. And to think that she has not won the competition yet. Amazing!

If you want to know the rest about Susan's story read more at BBC News.

Free Online Game

Bloxorz Get the block to fall into the square hole.

Play this free game now!!

I love playing this game. Guess who introduced me to this game. Yes, it's my 4-year old gamer son. He is so into online games (the free ones only, of course) especially those involving balls. I'd like to think that playing this game will exercise my brain by making me think. Why don't you give it a try?