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Writer. Wheelman. Occasional DIY mechanic. Walking collection of hang-ups. Hopeless romantic. Old-school. Analog soul in a digital world. I am all of these things and more.

Saturday, July 31, 2004

Cher was actually in Manila for three days this week; she took the flight home on Thursday. They were here for some sort of convention on audit.

This was our opportunity to catch up on each other and the things we'd missed in the past 4 months or so. We haven't exactly kept in touch as frequently as we'd have liked and while it took us a bit of fumbling around to start off, we basically talked until midnight.

Take care, fwend. *HUGS*
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Friday was the day everything seemed to click into place.

Honda's Jazz demo car arrived in school, to coincide with the "Jazz Up Your Life" jazz recital of the DLSU Pops Orchestra. Sadly no test-drives were allowed, but it's nice to see my current favorite car just inches in front of me. It was in my favorite color too (a shade they call "Vivid Blue").

Then it was the recital proper come nighttime.

Being part of the backstage crew, I was given a wireless mike and made to blurt out the sponsorship spiels. I did that pretty well, but when time came to start the recital with the Philippine national anthem, I made a bit of a booboo addressing the audience with "Good morning...er, good afternoon...er..." when it was already 6:30 pm. Heheheheh. I could hear them laughing. At least they were listening.

Pops busted out their great tunes as front act, but what really did me in was the UP Jazz Quartet, our main act of the evening. Man, they were a talented bunch. Classical guitar, bass, jazz drums and keyboards. Very very good. I especially paid attention to the drummer; it was interesting how he used different types of sticks to obtain all these effects from the usual snare drums, toms and cymbals. Most fascinating was this "stick" that was actually more of a miniature wire broom, and could be used to "caress" the snare drum's head.

Overall it was a great day...apart from my little brush and getaway from the traffic police on the way home. But that remains a secret. I'm not trying that again though.
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Watched this show "Get Real" on Channel NewsAsia, a Singaporean cable news channel, and the one I saw was about Filipino maids in Singapore.

Host Diane Ser tried to project both sides (employers and maids) of the picture and I think it's pretty good. The whole show actually reminded me of Dr. Doy del Mundo's documentary film "Maid in Singapore," which we were able to watch while enrolled in our video production class.

It's sort of sad that some maids chose to break the trust of their employers---say, by inviting their boyfriends over to their employers' domiciles without permission. When the hapless employers come home, they get to see said boyfriends in compromising positions. It's also quite sad that while "work-permit holders" may marry in Singapore, if they are caught pregnant, their permits will be revoked and a ban placed on them for life.

Still I guess that's how things work in Singapore. If we Filipinos want to earn what we can there, we have to follow the rules.

Interesting though is how some maids have effectively adopted the badly broken "Singlish" of the Singaporean Chinese...
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Speaking of Singlish, I'm having a hoot reading the Singlish dictionary at Talking Cock.

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