Snapshots of my Life

If you will be traveling would you pay for a business class seat which is 3x the price of an economy seat?

This was one of the topics when I was listening to Good Times with Moe radio show this morning. Moe was arguing that he will never pay 150,000 for airfare, because it’s like paying for a P150, 000 overnight stay in a motel room.

I’ve traveled business class twice already but I did not pay for it. The company has to pay for our airfare and we have to take business class seats since its part of the company’s policy that anyone traveling more than 12 hours should get a business class seat for comfort.

I love the luxury that comes with a business class seat. I have more leg room and I even have a sleeper type of seat so it’s like I’m lying down on a bed when sleeping. The food is also great and they even have a menu selection to choose from. Plus I have my own TV where I can select the movies that I want so anytime I want to watch a movie, even in the wee hours of the night, I can do so. There is also unlimited supply of wine and food and they will even leave a cart of food in the center aisle at night time just in case any one wants to eat in the middle of the night.

But if you will ask if I will travel business class if the money that I’ll use for the airfare will come from my own pocket, well hell no. I agree with Moe. It’s not worth it to pay 3x the price if all I’ll be getting is this comfort. Besides, I only have to deal with cramp seats for just 12-16 hours. And Moe also said, since business class are located at the front part of the plane, business class passengers will probably be the first ones to die if the plane crashes. LOL. Bitter….

(Excerpts from the paper that they are distributing after the mass)

Aerial spraying is a way of applying pesticides to agricultural crops using aircrafts. In the Philippines, export Cavendish banana plantation has been using this practice to kill the Sigatoka fungus since the 1970s. Aerial spraying allows the plantations to spray more of their bananas in lesser time.

Aerial spraying, however, showers down poison indiscriminately from the skies hitting not only the target pest but also anything human or non-human within the range of the toxic fallout. Studies have shown that toxic drift reaches 3.2 kilometers on the average.

Communities within and around these plantations complain of the nuisance aerial spraying brings to their lives. It is rain they try to but cannot actually hide from. It is unwanted, worse, being drenched and hit by the toxic drift makes them suffer various ailments, from skin infection to respiratory illnesses, nausea, blindness and a host of other ailments including goiter, neuro-developmental delays in children and various forms of cancer. People’s water resources get sprayed and contaminated. Livestock get sick and die. Non-banana crops like lanzones, coconut and durian trees die.

Due to its effects on people’s health, environment and livelihoods, there is a strong clamor to ban aerial spraying in the Philippines. This call is led by the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (MAAS) composed of aerial spray affected villages in Davao City, Davao del Sur, Davao Del Norte and Compostela Valley and supported by the coalition National Task Force Against Aerial Spraying (NTFAAS).

Viable Alternatives

Instead of aerial spraying, plantations could utilize various ground spraying methods such as truck mounted or manual spraying. While the long-term goal is to do away with the pesticides altogether and to go organic, ground spraying with other mitigating measures, lessen the toxic drift and protect more people and the environment from pesticide contamination.

What can we do to help?

• Organize for a, educational activities within your group or community to increase awareness on the issue.

• Tell as many people about this issue through blogs, emails and texts.

• Write letter of appeal to DOH, DENR, DA and the Office of the President to issue an Order banning aerial spraying in the entire Philippines:

Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo

Office of the President

Malacanang, Manila

• Write to PBGEA urging them to stop this deplorable practice in the country: PBGEA 183 Rizal Street, Davao City, Philippines

• Attend/organize prayer vigils, creative street actions to protest against aerial spraying and call for its ban in the entire Philippines.

• Sign the petition at www.dirtybananas,org and volunteer to support this cause.

Can you guess what these are?

They are mimobot Designer USB Flash Drives with an artistic twist. Aren’t they cute? I have a 1 GB flash drive but the design is so boring. So when I found this, it really caught my attention.

You can view more designs from the mimobot website. They even have a Star Wars Series.

My husband had a short trip to Bicol last week to attend the 40th wedding anniversary mass of his parents. On his way back to Manila he decided to take the Cebu Pacific flight and before his flight he was able to take a picture of the famous Mayon Volcano. He is lucky as the sky is clear that time that he was able to get a good picture of the volcano. I remember, when I went to Bicol a few years ago, it was a little foggy that we were not able to take a clear glimpse of the Mayon Volcano.

The Mayon Volcano is an active stratovolcano and can be found in Legazpi, Albay. It is the most active volcano in the country. It erupted over 47 times in the past 400 years. It is knows as the Perfect Cone volcano because of its near perfectly cone shaped and is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

“If ever you will be coming over later here at the hospital, please bring my lipstick and my powder.”

This is the text message that I received from my mom when she is already in her room after her D&C (Dilation and Curettage). Very typical of my mom. She is not like me who can go out without a makeup. My mom is a little high maintenance type of woman than me since she can’t go out without her make up on. I remember when she was about to give birth to my younger sister, she told my dad that she is already experiencing labor pains. When my dad suggested that they should better go to the hospital, my mom said that she will put her make up on first before they go to the hospital. LOL.

My mom is doing okay now. She was admitted around 1 PM and was taken to the operating room around 2 PM for her D&C. She texted me around 4:00 PM and she said she is already in her room.

We visited her this evening and looks like she’s doing well after the procedure. Thank you for all your prayers and may you continue praying for her and that the result of her biopsy would just be ok.

It’s funny how a simple joke can make me react negatively that I was able to say things that I shouldn’t have. That’s the problem with my personality, if I’m mad, I became tactless and won’t even think about the words coming out of my mouth.

Maybe I’m just too sensitive, or I’m just having a really bad day or I just wanted to be a bitch that day. LOL. This is the first time that my best friend and I had a blow. We usually are in common wave length that we always laugh at each other’s jokes. But I don’t know what got into me that day that I reacted negatively to a joke that my best friend threw at me.

But I’m happy that my best friend still loves me in spite of what I said. I guess that’s what friends are for; you will stick with each other no matter what so I am really fortunate to have found a real true friend who can forgive me for whatever I have done. Sorry na dude. Ganon talaga pag wangbu friend mo.

30 minutes before I get off from work, I was already finished with all my work. So while waiting for the clock to hit 4:30, I decided to blog hop. But boy, oh boy, the internet connection of our stand alone PC was so bad that it always timed out every time I access a site.

Destiny connection really sucks. Their connection is really worse and they always have down time. There was even a time that we have no connection for one week and every time we call their customer service, we are always put on hold for a couple of hours (yah, couple of hours) and then after hours and hours of waiting, we still won't be able to talk to somebody. Every time there is a problem, we have to go personally go to their office to report the problem. Otherwise, nothing will happen since their phone support doesn't seem to work.

And why do you ask do we stick with Destiny and not get another provider for our cable Internet? Well, they seem to monopolize the building since they are the only cable provider allowed in this building. Isn’t it great? Maybe that's the reason they have no drive to improve their service. We have no choice anyways but to get them.

My good friend Tiffany sent me a picture of her dream bag.



Who wouldn’t love this bag? It's so fab. The first question that I asked her after seeing it is “How much?”

And she only said, "Well it’s Prada. What do you expect?"

So for sure, no matter how much I love the bag, I still can’t afford it. Poor me. LOL. So maybe, I will just imitate Tiffany and just use this picture as my desktop wallpaper so it will serve as my inspiration to work harder so I can afford this bag.

I didn’t really think that I will have a fetish for designer bags. But when I met Louis Vuitton, I got really addicted. Thankfully, I have a wonderful husband who understands and supports my needs as a woman. LOL. But I am a good girl. I see to it that I will only buy my dream bag if and only if I have the extra budget for it and will just drool if I have no moolah. LOL.

H earned a little extra last Sunday from his photo shoot so he treated me for dinner at our favorite Korean Resto, Café Monaco. Of course, we had our favorite, Bibimbop and Mix fruit Crepe. I was again so full after finishing my big bowl of Bibimbop and Crepe.

I was so happy that we we’re able to find a little time for each other. We rarely do this dinner out or movie dates since both us always wanted to tag B along. So all our dates have to be child friendly.

I was a little stress out this week and have been worrying about so many things and so I was really glad that I was able to spend some alone time with H even just for a couple of hours. I was able to talk to him about a lot of my worries and ranting. And it was a major stress releaser. I really feel much better now.

Thanks again for dinner dad.