Category Archives: nengkoy

2010 in review

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I GOT A MESSAGE FROM WORDPRESS.COM REVIEWING THIS BLOG’S PERFORMANCE.  HERE IS WHAT IT SAY…

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,500 times in 2010. That’s about 8 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 86 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 317 posts. There were 136 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 74mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was December 15th with 178 views. The most popular post that day was Free Hubert Webb.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, en.wordpress.com, en.search.wordpress.com, kellyclarksonexpress.yuku.com, and alphainventions.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for hubert webb, nengkoy, manila doctors college, manila doctors college logo, and free hubert webb.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Free Hubert Webb October 2010
5 comments

2

Manila Doctors College: Then & Now August 2009
4 comments

3

Analyses on Venus Raj Q&A August 2010

4

FlipTop: The Modern Day Balagtasan August 2010

5

Scala Cinema: A Thai Eye Candy Interior Design June 2010
2 comments

Sana Umulan ng Pera

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me, nengkoy & 3 of my monster pamangkins

Last December 31 and January 1, a lot of people received lesser number of text messages as compared to same dates of previous years.  Sending a greeting via wall post on Facebook is more inexpensive and of course reached wider coverage.

Since everyone wished the classic peace, love and harmony among mankind this coming new year, I decided to be more practical in terms of my wish and greeting to everybody.  And since I own an extremely crazy blog, let me post the New Year greeting I sent via text message last December 31…

“Sana’y yumaman tayo at umulan ng pera sa taong 2011.

Happy New Year!!! “

I acknowledge that money is the root of all evil.  But I also recognize the glaring fact that having money is one important aspect to live a more normal, more secured and happier life this year and the years to come.  It pays the bills, it buys you stuff and it saves the future!  You cannot live in love alone.  Love doesn’t feed you, it usually gives you indigestion.  Blame it on the butterflies in your stomach. Mwahahaha! (laughing ala Ursula the Sea Witch)

To all those who greeted me through text message, Facebook or any other form or medium… a big hug, a wet kiss and warm thanks to all of you!

Sino ayaw ng pera? Aber!

Kuala Lumpur: It Grows In You

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I didn’t like Nasi Lemak Daging Rendang the first time I tasted it.  The taste was something unusual –   mixture of cardamom, karisik, tamarind pulp, turmeric, chili, galangal, lemongrass, ginger, cinnamon, star anise, whole peanuts, shallots, garlic and kaffir lime.  It was a spice filled experience!  But while digging into the food, adjustments and fine-tuning of my taste buds took 180 degrees turn so as to appreciate this Malaysian dish.  Until, I am left astounded that I have actually finished the whole dish and was craving for more.  It was a mind-boggling flavor that you would not like at first but learns to appreciate it later.  The palatal encounter would surprisingly grow in you.

This experience is basically similar to what I felt when I, Nengkoy and my sisters went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Because of a busy schedule, I never got the chance to check out the internet on where to go and what to do prior to staying for a long weekend in Kuala Lumpur.  I basically did not expect anything spectacular about Kuala Lumpur.  I just wanted to go there, spend a relaxing weekend and know what this bustling city has to offer.

True enough when we arrived and rode a cab at midnight going to our hotel, the feeling was not as thrilling.  It was unlike the electrifying feeling when I would usually arrive in other parts of the world.  I actually said to myself, “Okay, so this city is a little better than Metro Manila.  How I wish we went to another part of Asia.”

But as the days passed, I am astonished to learn the cosmopolitan ascendancy, cultural grace and inhabitant’s charm of KL.  Civilized eco-friendly urban planning is definitely evident.  My fondness about the city seems to grow! It’s like the longer you stay, the more mesmerized you will be.

On our last day, I admitted to have the wrong notion and impression about Kuala Lumpur.  There really are a lot of surprising things to see and do in KL.  Also, I acknowledge that it is very much ahead and better than Metro Manila (which is actually a poignant thought for my land of birth).

My stay in Kuala Lumpur is like eating Nasi Lemak Daging Rendang.  It’s full of spice, there are multitude of stuffs to offer and “it grows in you”.  I don’t just like it, I loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walang kuliglig sa KL!

My Dove Man

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While wasting time and lazing around in my living room, I learned through a TV ad that Dove has an on-going promo which challenges folks to write an essay or testimonial about their Dove Man.  I am still mustering full courage to send this short essay and hoping that this could be a possible entry.  Instead of sending it, I obviously posted it here in this virtual journal.  Here’s how it goes…

He is the man who taught me the second half of the alphabet.  He is the one who made me aware about the existence of pomade.  He always summons me to buy Rubie blade in the nearby neighborhood store when his shaver’s blade is already dull.

He is Joe, my father who worked hard in the Middle East for more than 10 years to financially buttress me and my siblings’ studies. He left for Saudi Arabia to work when I was still a kid.  Yes, my father was one of the first batches of Pinoys who worked as an OFW.  I even used his Pan Am airline bag he received as a giveaway in one of his flights back to Manila as my schoolbag when I was in Grade 3 until Grade 4.

Before the word Balikbayan Box was coined here in the Philippines, we were already receiving imported goods sent by my father via door-to-door delivery service.  Nengkoy never purchase corned beef and bath towels from the local department stores since Joe always made sure that these items are always included in his parcel of goodies.  Our coffee was either Taster’s Choice, Sanka or Maxwell House.  Our shampoo was either Suave or Head & Shoulders.  Our chocolates were Toblerone, Baby Ruth and Kisses.  Nengkoy never misses to receive tubes of Ben Gay for her physical aches and pains and huge containers of Ponds and Oil Of Olay for her beauty regimen.

Joe’s Katas ng Saudi (products of hard work, blood, sweat & tears) package will not be complete without the bath soap.  Dove.  Multiple bundled bars of Dove bath soaps are the ones that complete the entire package.  Honestly, through the years, I may have tried other bar soaps that lather my gorgeous body.  But let me confess that when it comes to bath soaps, Dove is the first brand that enters my mind.  I admit that the foundation of my childhood’s soft silky skin is because of Dove.  Thanks to Tatay Joe my loving father.

Actually, while I was growing up I actually know that Dove is a bar of soap not a bird.  Because for me the English translation of the Filipino word kalapati was pigeon.  This is all because of Joe, my Dove Man.

Siguro malaking tsansang manalo ko sa patimpalak na yan… Hahaha!

Clarifying Oilyness

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Dry skin is a sign of aging.  Thank goodness I got super oily skin.  It’s so oily I’m sometimes worried that Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron or Saudi Aramco wants to install oil rigs to harvest liquid petroleum hydrocarbon from my face.  I sometimes want to enlist myself in the Guinness Book of World Record for having the face with the most sensational and over-productive sebaceous glands!

My tremendously oily skin is attributed from a deep-seated source.  Its Nengkoy’s (my mom) bizarre food cravings when my astonishingly gorgeous cells were rapidly multiplying inside her womb.  She craved for “kakang gata” (pure coconut milk)!   Nengkoy claim, profess and testify that she would love drinking kakang gata straight from a bowl.

Here in the Philippines, pregnant women’s weird food cravings (or “paglilihi” in Filipino) are a big deal.  We have this notion, regardless of whether such belief has scientific basis or not, that what a pregnant woman craves somehow has an effect on the developing child inside the womb.  It’s like the precursor and fundamental backbone of the child’s DNA mutations and chromosomal translocations.

Because of such craving with unexplained correlation to a child’s appearance, I am the offspring with the lightest complexion among Nengkoy’s children as attributed to the color of coconut milk.  However, as we all know coconut oil is extracted from coconut milk.  And in my specific case, the DNA malformation of Nengkoy’s funky pregnancy cravings happened to have localized right on my face.

Due to this, I learned to accept the fact that I never failed to include the oil blotter film, oil-controller-facial-wash and facial toner for oily skin in my grocery list.  And having a dry skin is the least of my worries.

Buti na lang ‘di sa bao, bunot o bukayo.

HIGHlarious Product of Temporary Insanity

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Here’s a product of my temporary insanity last weekend.  I used pictures of my loving parents (Joe and Nengkoy) to create this video.  I initially posted it in Team Langit, an exclusive Langit Family account in Facebook.  It took me a couple of dollars to purchase the basic video where I super imposed the pictures of my mom and dad.

While pasting the photo faces of my parents during their younger years I couldn’t stop laughing.  And when the final product of the video was finished, it gave me pure joy and HIGHlarious feelings!  Don’t get me wrong, but I love my parents so much…

Aylavet!!!

Thanks Ref!

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Forty eight years ago, owning a television or a refrigerator is very rare in a Pinoy household.  During this era, clean drinking water in the Philippines is stored in a tapayan (a huge and heavy clay jar) for it to get refreshingly cold.

Also forty eight years ago Nengkoy said the magic words “I Do” to Joe inside San Rafael Parish Church in Pasay.  Yes, June 9, 2010 celebrates the 48th wedding anniversary of Nengkoy and Joe (my mom and dad).

I still remember the hilarious moment when I was still a little kid, my brothers and sisters curiously asked my dad what made him fell in love with Nengkoy.  He would jokingly say… “kasi merong refrigerator sa bahay ng nanay nyo kaya ko sya niligawan at pinakasalan!” (It’s because there’s a refrigerator in your mom’s house that is why I pursued and marry her).

I know my dad was joking but thanks to that refrigerator!  If not for it I would have not been born and live a ‘delicious’ life! Thank goodness Nengkoy did not just own a tapayan!  Hahaha!

Kung nagkataon, walang delicious na tulad ko ngayon!

Christmas Eve 2009

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Christmas Eve in Nengkoy’s house has been a yearly side-splitting event.  I bet we are the noisiest and most uproarious family in the whole of Pasay every Christmas Eve.  Annually, it is the time when all of my monster nieces and nephews converge to play hilarious parlor games as organized by my youngest sibling (Joie) and my eldest nephew (Denden).

If last year everybody is wearing hilarious colorful hats, this year, its color-coded shirts with their names printed on.  All my nieces are wearing red.  All my nephews are wearing blue.  While me, Nengkoy (who later changed into a shirt bearing “Mommy Bruha” – my gift to her) and my siblings are in yellow.  Of course with our surname printed at the back of the shirt.  We were like a big contingent who would represent the country in the “most riotous family of the world”.  Which I believe we would easily win!

I wont enumerate the funny moments of 2009 Christmas Eve celebration in Nengkoy’s residence.  But one funny yet sweet moment was when during one of the games, Nengkoy competed against Bea, the youngest niece in the family.

Ang saya! Ala una y medya ng hapon na ako nagising ng Dec 25. Yiheee!!!

Mighty Womanoids

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Power is defined as the ability to act or produce an effect.  It is the possession of control, authority, or influence over others.  It is a physical, mental or moral efficacy.  Recently, Forbes Magazine published Angelina Jolie as the most powerful woman celebrity on earth.  She may have earned heaps of money from the past 12 months but I will never be controlled and lift a lame finger in case she would ask me to do something.  Never will this ham of a celebrity have enough power to affect me.

Since we are in the subject of power, the ladies I consider mightiest for the past twelve months who actually moved my universe and produced physical, mental and moral effects (good or bad) on my being are as follows:

  • Virgin Mary:  She continues to be mighty even if she has lived more than two thousand years ago.  She’s the divine lady I would pray to and ask guidance every time my life experiences are crumbling.  I am a flawed and reckless disciple.
  • Nengkoy:  For obvious reasons, I would not be around without her.  I owe everything to this innocuous woman.  I am her loving son.
  • Madonna:  I could no longer quantify how much time and wealth I have spent in trying to be updated about her.  I am a fan at nuclear intensity.
  • Cristy Fermin & Lolit Solis:  They are the parasitic Perez- Hilton-like figures of Philippine showbiz.  These two thorny ladies simply annoy me.  They are so powerful I go on full metal ballistic rage every time I see them on tv.  I am their scornful senseless adversary.
  • LCA and MDP:  These two deities are my big bosses in my office.  They make me worthy.  I owe the regular monthly earnings I receive which keeps my insane needs achievable.  I am their twisted humble servant.

‘Yan ang lakas ng bebot. Kakatakot!