Monte Vista at Sariaya, Quezon

A 3-day weekend trip.  21-23 August 2015.  There were three cars, my car - which our eldest drove.  our youngest crv which she drove, and my sister-in-law's van which our nephew drove.

We occupied two adjoining cottages, enjoying the shared back veranda that overlooked what we laughingly called a moat.  There was a small romantic hut (well, we were a family group - but a honeymooning couple might enjoy it) and there was a swing - like the ones we had at College of the Holy Spirit (Mendiola) back in my grade school days.

We went to Sariaya, Quezon for a spot of the beach.  It was short walk - about 10 steps - to the beach.

Very nice place, i definitely recommend it. Twas a windy and rainy weekend (Ineng was battering Luzon), and i enjoyed the sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline.  As usual, it reminded me of the poem of John Masefield ...." I must go down to the seas again....", and in fact, i recited it as the waves lapped against the shore.

The rooms were clean, the decor Filipino, and there was cable. The a/c was in excellent condition and there is only one thing i have to suggest - and that is that they equip the cottage with faucets near the stairs so that the sand does not track into the cottage.

The food was delish, and very Filipino. The veggies were fresh, in fact - they were freshly picked from their gardens.  You could taste the freshness - simply cooked food was great!

You ought to go, and enjoy the beach, the sun, and the local sites, and local delicacies - and if you were into cooking, you could play at cooking.

My brothers and nephews played poker several nights, with the winnings changing each night.

I caught up with prayers and meditations, and generally rested.

We were able to visit 2 churches.  The cathedral and a local church.

We bought lukban sausages, of course!

And though there was breakfast, we also bought delicious tapa. yummy.

and i didnt know how sick i really was ............

pics to follow......

Corregidor: A Trip to the Past

I encourage you to visit Corregidor.  It is an unspoilt beauty, very rough edges - with weapons of war.  Nature and men. Juxtapositions.

Battery. Huge guns.  Heavy artillery.  Caves of the Dead.  Forests.  Monkeys.  Lizards.
Skittering animals.

Memorials.  Honors.  Agonies Remembered.

The white altar was the only one i remembered from the past.  It seemed I had visited that place with my Dad, who was a WWII veteran.  The white dome, the shaft of sunlight.  that stung my memory.

Visit.
Remember the past. Remember the price of freedom.

Enjoy the beach.  Have a barbeque.  Enjoy the pool, too.
and if you are into it, there's a zip line.

the only thing i have to suggest - make it more friendly to individuals who are disabled.
soldiers may want to visit, and see the weapons of war then....

Pictures to follow.  (i have to download from my cameras).

Answers to some questions to a post

for some people who do not pay attention to instructions:

someone asked if they can continue the payments of a deceased member so his wife can have a pension.

No. If the member is deceased, no payments are allowed after death.  The member is already dead.

There should be funeral benefits - 20 thousand, and since the member had payments, there would be death benefits.  The person asking the question did not say how many payments had been made so I cannot say if the widow is entitled to a pension just the same.

Someone asked about gaps in contribution payments

Let me stress again that SSS does not accept retroactive payments. Once a payment is delayed, it creates a gap. It is called a gap because there is a space instead of a payment.  Ergo, a gap is at least one month and can be as long as several months (or years for that matter).  There are no SE or VM late payments except those for OFWs.  OFWs can pay the entire year before the year is up.

On quesions on penalty and interest on loans -

There is already a post on this.  However.  Note that all delayed payments are charged penalties, which is 1% per month - so if a payment is skipped, that payment will have penalties charged until it is paid.

Someone mentioned migrating payments to VM and selecting lower payments

There is no such banana in SSS. Payments are NOT migrated.  Payments are simply recorded as dictated by the status.  So payments made as an employee stay are reflected as employee-employer payments and voluntary payments are recorded as is.  As previously mentioned, do NOT decrease payments as it will affect pension computations to a lower amount.

a Robert Frost quote

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. 

Robert Frost

August 1, 1915: Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken was first published in the Atlantic Monthly 100 years ago today. While the poem works as a metaphor for the weight we put on turning points in our lives, Frost later insisted the verses were simply inspired by a literal walk in the woods.

i love a lot of Robert Frost's poems, 

Mending Wall, 
The Road Not Taken, 
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

 - to name three favorites.

stop asking questions on post dated 13 SEPTEMBER 2012

I DONT KNOW WHY SOME PEOPLE CANNOT FOLLOW DIRECTIONS.

STOP ASKING QUESTIONS ON THAT POST BECAUSE I HAVE ANOTHER POST, SAME TOPIC.  POST THERE.

TOO MANY QUESTIONS ON THAT POST.

Amadeo, Cavite: 1 August

Amadeo, Cavite.

a place of childhood memories.

My cousins have a place there where Ama (Dr. Bibiano Angkaw, MD (+)) had his practice.

In the days of my youth, there was a loom, where Aling Isay did her weaving - and where i learnt to do a bit.  It was an experience - there was a method, and the tinny patch i was able to weave will remain in my memory.

We spent summers there when we were small, and the Church seemed miles away .... and there was a bakery right beside the house,. i remember Sundays (we had to wake up early to go to church) and the smell of baking would waft though our noses as we walked past it to go to church - making us doubly eager to finish the mass and mess with the baking.  And yes, we were allowed to bake a few loaves.

The Church now is just a few steps away.  Truly, a child's perspective is quire different from an adult's view.

my cousins had a farm and summers came with the fruits - supsupins, or small delish mangoes would come in bushes or kaengs, as we call it.  And each of us would get one kaeng each (which i suppose would contain about 100 small mangoes) and we would commence to have an eating contest - first one to finish the kaeng's contents.  Not a single one of us finished one bushelful, but it was not for the lack of trying.  those mangoes were delicious.  they still are.

i wanted the windows open (it was cold so some of us felt the windows should be closed) because i like the wind to blow in and freshen the room.

they had a pump and a water tower, so when the water flowed in, someone would have to pump the water into the tower.  i remember a particular warm day when my cousins and i thought we would do the duty.  we all got wet, but we did the job.  One of my cousins who did the duty now lives in Canada and the other cousin is a physician, like his father before him.  He practices here in MetroManila. 

more later....