Perspectives

There I was playing "Angry Birds" while lying in bed when the earth shook. It was around 1:15 this Tuesday morning and at first I thought that a strong gust of wind from the stormy weather outside was rattling the windows.

Then my bed and the light fixtures started to sway for me to realize that it was an earthquake. It lasted for a few seconds but I kept praying for it to stop. Not really a good thing to experience an earthquake while I'm in my 12th floor condo unit of all places.

After it stopped swaying, there was an eerie calmness that enveloped me. Well actually I was numb. I didn't know whether I should wake up my parents or if I should call my husband who was soundly asleep in Quezon City or just pretend like nothing happened and continue playing on the iPhone.

After a few minutes of panicked uncertainty, I got out of my bed to check if anything had fallen from the shelves. Gladly, things were in their proper places, my parents were still sound asleep and my text message to the hubby didn't get an instant reply so I assumed he slept right through the whole earth shattering event.

I decided to switch off the lights and go back to bed. Yet for the life of me I couldn't sleep, at all. It got me thinking of all sort of things. Paranoia and morbid thoughts kept creeping into my mind. The past weeks have been pretty unnerving for me and I believe those few seconds of realizing one's mortality merely added to my already badly battered psyche.

Thoughts of what really matters most to me kept me up all night. I was nodding in and out of sleep. Then I would wake up with a sudden jerk and allow my consciousness to be filled with apprehensions about my uncertain future.

But as the new day slowly dawned and I got a text message from my hubby that he didn't feel anything, I got out of bed and just felt so thankful for the numerous blessings that continue to be showered upon me and my family.

Surprisingly I felt quite safe and a massive amount of reassured feelings that life with all its exhaustive struggles and minor inconveniences does goes on. Whether we are ready for it or not so we better simply just buckle up and try our darnest to enjoy the long ride.

One Fine Day

The second part of our general cleaning (the lower floor of the condo) was accomplished in a span of the first 4 days of the month of June.

While I did mention in this post that D is a meticulous 'cleaner', I on the other hand tend to rest like every 10 minutes. I need to wipe away the beads of sweat that flows down my forehead into my eyes as well as my back which was like a raging waterfall of sweat.

As I made my way to the bathroom upstairs, I happen to glance at the window and saw a fluffy cloud formation that merited a snapshot. I quickly grabbed my digicam to capture the moment but ended up taking around 80 pictures all in all! Hehehe

I only stopped when D called out for me as he needed help re-assembling some piece of furniture. Thankfully so if not I would have totally forgotten about cleaning and just snap away by the window.

Look closely at the first pix there is a plane flying off to its destination.

Subic Sunset (May 22, 2011)

For me, the ultimate highlight of our Subic weekend getaway last May was the 'photo shoot' of the sunset. After a long day at the Zoobic Safari, we managed to get a front row view of the amazing sun setting over Subic Bay. We parked near the Marina Lighthouse Hotel and simply snapped away. My point and shoot digicam has a sunset setting among its many features but I didn't need to use it since the sunset itself was picture perfect.

Taxing

There is no doubt that filing your taxes annually is a very taxing procedure. I remember when my sister availed of the tax amnesty period and was given a deadline to accumulate all the necessary documents needed for the proper payment of taxes from several sources of income.

On hindsight, I believe it would have been much cheaper for her to hire a professional to do all the dirty work for her. I'm sure a tax accountant would be highly familiar with terms like federal extension that is frequently used in the internal revenue industry. S/he would also know what a tax extension form 2010 would look like and how to answer the numerous questions on all the forms.

It would have saved us from the horrific bureaucracy which we had to deal with on almost a daily basis for 2 weeks. Next time, we know better!

The neighborhood

Apparently while I was away in Singapore during the months of April and May, our neighbors in the 2nd and 4th apartment vacated.

I knew that the 'megaphone' as I called her because she was such a loud mouth you could hear her voice miles away was due to leave in October 2011. But it seems, she left end of April.

There had been some troubles with neighbor number 2. You see sometime mid March, D & I came home from church and there was a shouting match going on in the 2nd apartment. M, the sister of I (the husband who works in Saudi) was accusing J, the wife of having a boyfriend while her poor husband slaves away in the Middle East. Accusations were hurled, denials were screamed but it all eventually died down by mid evening. Apparently, then it seems that the husband suddenly decides to cancel his contract to come home and hie off the entire brood (wife and 2 young kids) to the province (Mindoro) to live (hopefully) in rustic tranquility.

So now apartment # 4 is occupied by a boisterous group of single ladies with kids who like to gossip all day outside in the 'porch' area. I'm not sure if they are related or they work together.

While apartment # 2 is being rented by a family with 3 kids aged 11, 5 and a newly born baby. Ergo, newly born bunso cries all the time. That is perfectly fine with me, after all that's what babies do, right? They cry and cry and cry and cry.

I haven't formally met any of them because I'm an anti-social being who doesn't know how to make small talk. I stay cooped up in the house all day, keeping myself busy with cooking, laundry and online activities.

In fact, I think they barely knew I existed because one of them burst out to D "Oh may asawa pala kayo" in such a tone that they might have been (a) disappointed that D was married and/or (b) they thought that D lived alone. :D

Either way, I don't really give a heck. As long as they don't expect me to go out of my comfort zone and chit chat with them, I'm good.