From dry to wet

The Philippine summer, or more appropriately the dry season, ended with the arrival of a super typhoon in the Philippine area of responsibility last week. Luzon was fortunate to have been spared by the typhoon when its trajectory brought it instead along a path that headed to Okinawa and the Japanese mainlands. Fortunately, too, the typhoon weakened into a tropical depression before it hit Japan and also spared that country from more misery from another of nature's reminders of how powerful it truly is.

For me, the signs of the transition from the dry season to the wet season was already evident in the days prior to the conception of typhoon Chedeng (international codename: Songda). It was already raining in parts of Metro Manila in the afternoons, usually stronger in the area near the La Mesa watershed including Novaliches and the Rizal towns of San Mateo and Rodriguez (Montalban). From the clouds visible from the Blue Ridge section of C5, I could also guess that there were probably rains in the eastern parts of Antipolo and probably the towns of Tanay and Teresa on the other side of the Sierra Madre mountains.

I personally experienced the rains in unceremonious terms one Sunday afternoon as I drove from my in-laws home in Novaliches to my parents' home in Cainta. It was zero visibility all throughout my drive along Commonwealth Avenue and I had to turn on all my lights including my blinkers (hazard lights) like all the other vehicles in traffic that afternoon. The downpour was so much and over a wide area that I believe I passed through at least 9 flooded sections of road including portions of Commonwealth Avenue, Katipunan Avenue Marcos Highway and Imelda Avenue. Most of these were familiar sections as they were the most likely to have floods especially the flash floods brought about by the heavy rains that afternoon. For Marcos Highway, I was a bit surprised because the waters were quite deep but I understood the situation given the unfinished road and drainage works along that highway. To be fair, the work was continuous, it was just that the rainfall was so intense. I just hope that when the project is completed, it would be able to handle such downpours.

So I guess it's farewell to summer now, at least what we in the Philippines term as summer. For now, I should look forward to when the dry season will begin again. That is probably in the period that coincides with autumn in temperate countries of the northern hemisphere. There is the prospect of traveling with the Clairvoyant to the Bay Area and perhaps explore and experience places we have been planning to see for some time now.

Missed opportunities

The Clairvoyant is returning from San Francisco today and I just got off the phone with her telling me in ecstatic tones what I missed during the US trip. She was at NAIA Terminal 2 to catch a connecting flight back to our second home in Singapore. I was eagerly looking forward to the US trip. For one, such opportunities when the wife and I get to travel together abroad are quite rare. The last time we did was Japan but I guess that can be considered an exception since I was already staying in that country as a visiting researcher. Still, we were able to plan that out and it did help that her office had their meetings in Tokyo around the time I was there. Singapore doesn't count because we have a home there and the Clairvoyant is based in that country now.

A US trip would have been wonderful and the Bay Area would have been the perfect staging point for expeditions to Napa Valley, Silicon Valley and other places of interest I was not able to check out during my brief stay in 2007. That time was my first and only US trip (The Clairvoyant frequently travels to the US as their headquarters is in Chicago.) and I still regret why I didn't extend my stay to be a tourist for a few days. Oh yes, I remember the reason, I didn't have money at the time. But now is different. Though we are not awash with cash, I certainly could afford to go around more with the Peso strengthening against the Dollar and the fact that I did prepare a budget for the trip. Problem is, work happened, and I haven't stopped saying sorry to the Clairvoyant for what could have been an opportunity of a lifetime with no work whatsoever linked to the travel.

So to sort of alleviate my feelings of regret and what might have beens these past days when I could have been in California instead of in wallowing in work in Manila, I am posting some photos of fine memories of my first US trip. I am very thankful to friends from way back in high school for hosting me for few days before I returned to Manila at the time. The brothers Mike and Ian Campos are great hosts and we had a great time exchanging stories and experiences since we last saw each other prior to my visit. I am also very thankful to Tin Togle, a friend of ours from the Clairvoyant's previous work at a Makati law firm. She took me shopping and I do not regret getting the pair of Cole Haans that to this day remain as my favorite shoes (yes, I am vain, too).

With the Campos brother Mike and Ian, who were my high school classmates

With Ian and family

With Mike in front of SF City Hall

At the wharf

Lombard Street - "the crooked path"

At Ghirardelli Square (before shopping for chocolates)

In front of the UC Berkeley Dorm Building where we stayed at during WCTR 2007

With Tin Togle at the Campos residence

At the fog shrouded Golden Gate Bridge

Waiting to take the San Jose VTA

At a BART Station platform

End of the world?

It is May 21, 2011 and it is supposed to be the end of the world. News programs have featured people in the US professing to their knowing May 21 to be the end of the world that will start with the occurrence of a powerful earthquake. But then again, this is one phenomenon that we still couldn't predict when one will exactly occur even given the best equipment that public and private funds could buy. Japan was not able to determine that a big one would happen in March 2011 and that it would be off the coast of Tohoku and that it would generate the terrible tsunami that would go on to kill thousands in a country that was supposed to be prepared for The Big One.

End of the world? Perhaps we should check again when 2012 comes around in less than 8 months time. Probably we can even get to compare it with the visuals in the movie that carried the same title. And for those who can't get it yet perhaps we should just live our lives as if it is going to be the end of the world tomorrow.

I am not suggesting that people should go out and be wild and careless and reckless. Perhaps we should be mindful of the most important people and things in our lives. These people are the ones whom we love and should be with and pay attention to. Perhaps we should be thankful that there is a brand new day each time we wake up in the morning and be appreciative of the littlest things. And perhaps we shouldn't preoccupy ourselves with doomsday pronouncements so much as we should be worried about whether we are contributing to making this world a better place for our fellowman.