My Pope Francis Experience (Papal Visit 2015)

It has been 20 years since our beloved country, the Philippines, was visited by a pope. It was 1995 when Pope John Paul II visited and I was still in 6th grade back then. I remember memorizing the official World Youth Day hymn which was "Tell The World of His Love" and practicing the hand movements were something that I looked forward every day. It was not hard to memorize.

Present year, our pope of almost two years, Pope Francis, visited our country for the first time and a lot of people were very excited for this big event. The first time I heard about this, it was just alright, but as the day nears, I got very excited every day.

On January 18, this was the day that we decided to go to the University of Santo Tomas and try to catch a glimpse of him.

Here is our story on that memorable day:

Walking from Welcome Rotonda to UST.
This was around 7:15am. The weather was just right and we were feeling optimistic that we would get to see him. But a lot of people have already lined up around the area so that feeling of dread that we would not be able to accomplish our mission was felt. 

The bright dog.
His owner/trainor asked this doggie if he loved Pope Francis and this adorable dog would bark twice. People approved and gave a round of applause every time he would do this.

THE FIRST ATTEMPT

We were informed that Pope Francis will pass by Lacson Street and we hoped to get a nice place there but we were so wrong. This is the nearest that we came to doing our goal. We stood in this place almost 2 hours and a half. When he finally passed by, we got hold of the word that he was not in his popemobile and that this vehicle passed by very fast. WE FAILED!

A video of the crowd waiting for the man of the hour. 

Even if the crowd was thick and we were literally rubbing some body parts with the crowd, everyone was wearing their happy caps and that emanated all throughout the place. A few misses but those were just minor. We also heard people calling for medics because some fainted. 

THE SECOND ATTEMPT

This was taken along Lacson Street, near the bus terminal. People were flocked alongside the streets so we got excited and and felt hope rising again. We still have a chance! So we waited for more than an hour. I was wet already because I did not bring an umbrella nor a raincoat, I just had with me my thin shawl that barely protected me. 

He's coming! "Ayan na. ayan na sya!"

And the moment that I dreamed about finally happened. I saw him in the flesh! Wow! The feeling was so overwhelming. I was so touched by the experience and can't help but shed a few tears before going back to see my boyfriend and friend. Before this happened, we ended up standing in different strategic positions so all three of us got different angles and videos.

The full video that we had. My priceless video. 

After that, we still wanted to do more so we decided to go to Quirino Grandstand to be one with our fellow Catholics and other people who wanted to be part of this momentous experience.

On our way there, we made a stop over at the San Sebastian Church on our way to SM Manila to have lunch. We took advantage of its clean restroom as well. 

After having lunch, it was steadily raining already and having an umbrella (we bought one at 7-11 after the second attempt)  is not enough so we tried looking for raincoats, but alas, no more! We came inside National Bookstore and there was only Barbie raincoats for kids available. But we saw some people lining up inside the store and we got curious and we saw that they were selling plastic wrapper and making them into a makeshift raincoats. Galing ng Pinoy! So we ordered.

Ta-Daaaah!
Kudos to the ladies of National Bookstore for making our coats. After all, they could have just sold us the plastic covers and left us to figure out a way to do it but they did not, they custom-made it for us. Not only did they sell, they also contributed their talent by doing something special to the people who want to see the pope. *clap clap*

So we walked going to the grandstand but unfortunately, we could not go any further because the roads were congested already. Best effort we could do was somewhere near the back of the National Museum. There was a video wall set-up so we can see and hear the mass. But it was so noisy that we were not really able to do that.

Us! 

Going back home was a challenge because of the massive number of people who took the public transpo. So we headed back to SM Manila and had coffee, hoping that the crowd had waned out but that was the exact opposite. So we just decided to be brave about it and faced the music. See!

Extra challenging but at least we all got to go home. Tired but very happy and fulfilled.

That day, I really counted my blessings even as small as they seem. I recall:
1. Not having difficulty getting a trike to take me to the van terminal at 530am.
2. The van started the trip even if it was not full yet (I remember still lacking 4 passengers)
3. I arrived on-time at our meeting place which was 6:30am
4. Getting a cab going to Welcome Rotonda was a breeze
5. The weather that morning was not hot
6. We saw Pope Francis
7. We got to use the clean restroom at the San Sebastian Church, no lining up needed (the lines at SM were such a blockbuster, haha!)
8. The National Bookstore and their salesladies provided us with "raincoats" for only Php30/pc

This was truly memorable. I was so happy to be given the chance to see Pope Francis. Who knows when a pope would next visit our country. He gave us hope and charmed us with his charisma and unli-smile, as they say. Thank you for leading your 1.2 billion Catholic members. It's not easy but we feel that you really are trying your best to do a great job. And you are.

Mercy and compassion!

Viva Il Papa! Long live Pope Francis! 

The Bracelet-Lovin' and Bracelet-Makin' Gal That I Am

Arm candy..arm party..arm swag..To me, they are all bracelets! =)

I have been fond, a few years back, of making my own simple accessories like dangling earrings, long necklaces and of course, bracelets. If I am inspired, I can go on and on without a care much for the time. But it ended as soon as it started then I had a 4-year hiatus with all my accessory-making tools and did not face them until  a few months ago. 

And now, I am back to this hobby of mine! And I am ever so glad to be doing it again! Let me share some of the pieces that I have done so far. Indulge me, pretty please.. =)

One of my match-making moments. All white and gold ensemble. 

Some of the pieces that I sell..and sold too. I love doing them so I maximize this hobby and try to make a one-woman business out of it. 

I love working with beads and more in all colors! They're so fun to look at! 

Stacking it is KEY. 

Neutrals and fun colors are my bestsellers!

Colors! Colors! 

Buddha and crystal love

My own design which I can certainly partner with almost all colors. 

So this is my 2-day old online shop http://instagram.com/thrifty_nifty_trinkets/ and I hope to share my creations to all interested out there. Follow me please. =)

So if you love doing something, go for it. Its good for the soul as well as your pocket..at times! Haha!

This is the main reason why I'm busy on weekdays. Wish me luck in this endeavor. =)

Check this out! Bakumatsu!

I just saw this online while surfing the world wide web and I SUPER LIKE it!!! So COOL!!!

PIC 1-----> From this....

To this...

PIC 2-----> From this...

To this...

PIC 3-----> From this...

To this...

Wanna try it out? Click this.. http://labs.wanokoto.jp/olds

alone in the cold dark void named a cinema house :)

These past 2 weeks, I have been watching movies alone. I got free movie tickets worth P130 each at any Ayala cinema malls courtesy of openrice.com because of the food reviewing that I have been busy with. I just resigned from my job and about to embark on a new one so before that, I have spare time to kill and thus the movie watching.

I've watched:

It gets a lil bit lonely sometimes but I'm a trooper, I survived! haha! Till my next one. :)

18th Travel Tour Expo 2011 @ SMX

To travel OR to travel? That is the question that does not need to be thought about for the answer is a sound YES! Life is short, might as well make the most out of it and experience what the rest of the world, or our country, has to offer.

When I read about this expo, I was so excited. Imagine, the whole wide expanse of SMX filled with booths that offers their own travel escapes. Since there is plenty of them, prices would be jaw-droppingly low. And I was right. Airlines, hotels, resorts, countries, cruises..name it, the expo has got it. I got so many flyers and brochures that it was a lil bit heavy to carry already. Throngs of people are still coming in despite the time being 4pm already. My friend and I came in at this time hoping that the volume of people has lessened out but we were dead wrong. But oh well, we're already there, we just braved the pack and went in our own way.

All the agencies, tourism representatives of each place has placed  a lot of effort into their booths. Below are photos of what I am talking about...

Looking for a safari package? They got it here.

Experience India...a dream within grasp

Our local Higantes..a sight to behold

Next stop..but save money first! LOL

A wonderland of information about fascinating places to visit

Sadly, I was not able to book anything because I don't want to rush but I got a huge pile of flyers that contains a lot of info that I need to book those well-needed vacays. Now, I just need to save to make it happen. That's the challenge. :)

FLASHBACK: travel-gone-bad-during-Typhoon Frank experience (2008)

JUNE 21, 2008 — My mom and I were on our way to the airport..We’re
going to Bacolod City for a short vacay. This day started out not that
bad. For starters,mom and i were arguing about simple things like
whether to call a cab company and have them send one to where we we
live or just me going to our street corner and just plainly hail one. I
opted for the latter because it was raining and it’s just 2:30am. I was
gonna get friggin’ wet and cold and that was what exactly happened to
me. ok, that was finished.

We were very early for our 5:15am flight, we arrived there at 3am (very
early according to my standards especially with the fact that i’m used
to travelling domestically). We heard some talks that typhoon Frank was
destroying bacolod province but we just kept mum about it, after all,
if it was that bad then Philippine Airlines would have cancelled our
flight.We boarded the plane on time so i guessed there was no room
for concern anymore.


During flights, that’s where i get my sleep from the lack of it during the pre-preparation time so i was soundly napping, without a care in my surroundings. The first signs of

stress on air was the turbulence. Of course it’s a natural occurrence and it gets you smack on the nerves everytime it happens. But when i glanced outside the window, my gosh! ZERO VISIBILITY. My mom and i were tensely awaiting something bad that could happen anytime, you know, like crashing! The pilot was announcing that we were experiencing some difficulties due to the bad weather at the visayas region. That’s where we got dumbstruck. I mean, why did they allow us to travel if the weather was that terrible. Then came the announcement that we’ll be landing in a few minutes at the new bacolod airport. We were all relieved to hear that piece of good news! The plane was shaking uncontrollably on our way down to the runway. Scary! I could see clearly the runway and felt the nearness of  landing to safety but to our dismay, just a few couple feet left from the blasted runway, we got airborne again. The pilot made a sudden decision of flying up abruptly and later explained to us that if they persisted on landing, we could have crashed because by the looks and feel of it, we would’ve swung
from one wing to the other and that could eventually lead to the loss of balance of the aircraft and yeah, our certain death.So we headed to
Cebu’s Mactan Airport to await news there. Flight was much better than that of bacolod. After landing, we were made to wait for 3 hours because some of the passengers were scared of flying back to manila so they were checked in by PAL to some hotel, but their fare going back to manila or bacolod was to be shouldered by them and not the airlines.they agreed. By 11am, we were back at manila again. PAL employees weren't quite sure what to do with us so we waited again at the terminal for further announcements. They reached a conclusion that we should wait for the 4:30pm flight later that day, saying that the weather would immensely be much better than the earlier one. While waiting, they gave us free crappy lunch but we were too famished to
care so off we ate till the last morsel. 5 hours of waiting needs a lot of energy so my mom and i just sat at the cold metal benches and counted the ticking minutes, not literally of course.4:30pm came and so we boarded the plane again and anxiously waited for our flight to arrive at bacolod. but yet AGAIN, this time, while still up high in the friggin’ air, the pilot announced that we CAN’T land again because of nasty weather conditions.. OMG!! Just imagine the despair we all felt at that moment, some of the passengers were close to tears because of their own heavy personal reasons. They were really serious, as in some of them were going home because their mom or dad died and the next day was supposed to be the burial day. So sad! needless to say, they delivered us once again, the second time for the day, at the cebu airport where yet again the same process earlier was repeated and waited for 3hrs again. by 11:30pm, we were at Manila AGAIN. They didn't let us come out right away because they said that our flight was not ‘legal’ or something like that so they had to fix it first with the airport control. After 20mins, they finally let us out. That day was a really traumatic one. imagine, we were there when the airport opened and we were still there when it was closed for the day already. Finally, they decided to give us all rooms at the grand boulevard hotel
to stay for the night, free of charge.. dapat lang noh! We got a 9am flight the next day. 




To summarize it all..from manila airport, we attempted to land at bacolod but failed, went to cebu and back to manila again and by 4:30pm, attempted to go to bacold again but failed again, went to cebu and back to manila as the day ends..ALL IN ONE DAY!

JUNE 22 - I woke up at 4am and was still feeling a little lazy but forced myself to get up already. I peeked at the window and was so surprised to see and hear strong winds
howling outside. THE TYPHOON WAS ALREADY IN MANILA! WTF! and the whole
area was in a blackout state. The hotel was just using their generators. I called the front desk to ask if our flight was cancelled but they haven’t recieved any advisory yet so it was still on. I took a bath, waited for my mom and got down to eat breakfast. I was so hungry, i remembered that they didn’t provide us any dinner. Just one piece of
dunkin donut and that was still at cebu. Thank God it was a breakfast buffet so i ate my heart out, after all, it is going to be a long day for us yet again, i felt it in my veins. We got on the bus and on our way to the airport, the scene was so scary.Light posts were tumbled down by the winds, flood everywhere, no one in sight. just us, a lonely
bus filled with nervous passengers carefully cruising the streets on its way to its final destination. We arrived at the airport at 6:30am, i got wet when i retrieved our bags at the luggage compartment of the bus. What a great way to start the waiting again. We checked in, and placed ourselves at a solitary corner and waited..and napped for a few
minutes. 9am came but our flight was not announced so we guessed already that we were delayed. Finally, we were announced at 1pm. We boarded the plane and we landed, thank goodness, at the new bacolod-silay airport.

That was the turn of events on those two frightful, irritating yet accomplishing days. As i was typing this, i got tired too. But thank GOD, we were still alive and kicking and
sane enough to tell this fateful story.  

FLASHBACK: My College Death Paper (2002)

We had a project for our psychology class way back 4th year college and it was entitled “ Death Paper, A Perspective To Living Life Fully” ( I think that was the title). Anyway, it made me think of the future and the project forced me to think of how I would want my life to end. It really made me cry especially the part where we had to write letters for our ‘bereaved’ love ones. Well, let me share a part of the project…this is how I would want to ‘perish’ in this world.


PART 1
My death was all so sudden. It was a plane crash. It was a trip from Europe back to the Philippines. It was a British Airline’s DC-969 jumbo jet. The pilot spoke through the intercom and brokenly admitted that they have two engine malfunctions, meaning that there was no spare engine left. 25,000 feet below us are the snowy Swiss Alps. It wasn’t snowing hard but it was still freezing out there. We were about to crash land. I was alone. My husband left a week earlier to tend to business concerns. I didn’t know anyone else on the plane except for my seatmate who I barely spoke to and who’s also years older than me. I was 50 years old. I just celebrated my birthday last month. This trip to Europe was a gift from my two children. They knew it was my dream to go on a trip to Europe. So they finally organized all the details of the trip and surprised me and my husband with two round trip tickets bound for the continent of my dreams complete with accommodations and a tourist guide. I was so touched. But I didn’t hold a grudge against them because they are the reason why I was in this situation now. They did it on a good purpose. Even now that the captain has told us that we are about to make a crash landing, I prayed first for my family for them to be able to cope with whatever is going to happen to me. And I’m also thankful that my husband is not here with me. He wasn’t supposed to leave me alone but I insisted, saying that it was okay, that I’ll stay with some relatives for a short time then I’ll go back home also. Oh! I should have come with him back home. If only I wasn’t so insistent on staying. But that was the past now, the reality is that we’re speeding faster and faster towards the side of a snowy peak. I held the hand of my seatmate. We both prayed for the forgiveness of our sins. Then there it was, we crashed at the mountain somewhere in Switzerland. I felt a quick jolt of heat burning my skin and blurring my vision. Then blackness…
PART 2
Before we flew off to Europe, my family was gathered around us. Me and my husband and my two children, Lara and James, were giving us our getaway presents. They are still young, my children, Lara was 22 years old and James was 20. They are bright and very loving children. Though I’ve spoiled them greatly, they didn’t grow up to be brats. They’re great kids. Before I went inside our van, I hugged them tight and said to them that if anything bad would happen to me, they should not hesitate to go to their titos and titas for they would treat them as if they are their own offspring. They just laughed and said that I was being so paranoid. My relatives were also there to bid us goodbye, not knowing that it would be the last they would see of me. I hugged them one by one and said to them that if anything unexpected would happen, they should take care of Lara and James and help them get on with their lives. They just hugged me back and laughingly said, of course.
PART 3
After my family heard the news of the crash, they immediately went to the airport and interrogated whoever was in charge there. Their suspicions were confirmed. There were no survivors left. All bodies were burned to a crisp. The rescue team were looking for the cockpit voice recorder now. My family couldn’t believe it. They were still in denial and shock. My husband was hysterical, Lara fainted and James was still. Many media people were there already. They taped my family’s reactions and tried to get an interview but were unsuccessful. The search went on for weeks and they found whatever earthly remains were left of me and sent it to my family. All of my kin were mourning but they have now slowly accepted the tragedy. They are still crying when they thought of my premonitions before but they have to get on with their lives. For now, I would just be a memory for them to think of everyday until they’ll slowly forget the sad event.