breathing space: dailylife

Showing posts with label dailylife. Show all posts

Thursday, October 11

Du som metter liten fugl

Du som metter liten fugl velsign var mat o Gud

My mother had dug up am old tea cup from my childhood (waaay back from Fiji!) recently and gave it to me to keep. I hadn't seen it in the last 30+ years but as soon as my mom handed it to me I remembered very clearly the words on the cup which read: du som metter liten fugl velsign var mat o gud.

I'm quite sure I had a bowl to go with the cup, which probably did not survive the years. It had those same words around the edge.

When I was small I would read that phrase everyday at breakfast and wonder what it meant and how the drawings on the cup connected to the strange words.

Du som metter liten fugl velsign var mat o Gud

I loved that cup and bowl... it had flowers which looked like tulips and dahlias and even grains of wheat. It had a squirrel, a cat drinking from a bowl and birds. All drawn in simple lines. With a bit of research I found out that it was designed by Anne Lofthus, a Norwegian ceramic artist, for Stavangerflint AS, an earthenware factory in Norway which was in operation from 1949 to 1979.

And to add to that bit of info, the wonders of the internet have finally revealed to me what those lines mean!

Du som metter liten fugl velsign var mat o Gud.

It's a Norwegian prayer before meals. What does it translate to?

O Thou who feeds the little bird, bless our food, O Lord.

What a sweet prayer for a birder, don't you think?

side note: see my cup and the matching plate and bowl, and more of Anne Lofthus' designs for Stavangerflint here: http://stavangerflint.gratisnettside.no/?mid=421&article=345

Thursday, June 23

mariposa in the city

how i started this rainy day..

Thursday, June 9

metro manila: the big picture

it's been a VERY, very busy summer for me!

my summer teaching load was quite heavy, with more than a hundred students from 2 classes, so this summer has barely provided me with breathing space. i did go to pinatubo at last, and had a short trip to subic (more on that in later posts... hopefully!).

after summer classes ended, it was right on to the second quarter of my biosafety course. it was a full 10 days for our class, working right through sunday and travelling all around manila for various lab visits. luckily, we were housed at the very scenic and relaxing eugenio lopez center in antipolo. everyday we were treated to a wonderful view of the entire metro manila... from laguna bay across to manila bay!

on good days we would see the changing weather across the metro, observing that it was raining in quezon city but sunny and bright in alabang! on some days it would be rainy in antipolo and our visibility was reduced to zero!

seeing metro manila daily from a distance reminded me that i live almost everyday under a grey cloud of smog which envelopes the metro like a heavy, sticky shroud. early in the morning, the highrises of ortigas, makati and alabang would hardly be visible under the smog, becoming clearer as the day progressed and the smog lifted and swept away. i say ALMOST everyday, because last sunday we were greeted at lunch time with a wonderful view of a smog free metro manila: its buildings bright and clear against a blue sky.

the difference? i guess sunday means less vehicular traffic meaning less pollution! it was a beautiful, beautiful sight!

i suppose we must count ourselves lucky that our landscape is relatively flat and winds can easily blow away the smoky and dusty air. it gives me hope also, that, with change (& this applies to me too!), we can live in a clean city!

as dusk falls, the twinkling lights of the city turn on and the pollution is hidden in the darkness of the night.

stepping back and looking at the "big picture" can definitely provide views and insight which one cannot see when one is right smack in the middle of everything.

Friday, March 18

breathing space

it's that time of the schoolyear when i suddenly realise how much paperwork i've put off and think of things i should have done better. i've been spending the last couple of weeks catching up, feeling tired, stressed and overwhelmed. last week's tragedy in japan and the horrific images from recent news reminded me not to forget the little things i enjoy in life, be grateful and not to take these things for granted.

to walk in silence in the company of friends, sunshine on my skin, wind on my face and feel the freedom of the outdoors.

how wonderful then to have friends who enjoy the same things and who are willing to drop everything and pursue a passion... even if it's in the middle of a work week.

Monday, February 7

a train story

an annoying thing happened on the train monday morning...

most of my friends know that i have avoided any form of employment south of aurora blvd. so when i learned i had to attend a 2-week workshop in manila, i cringed inwardly.

so, for the past several days, i've been attending a workshop which is held at pedro gil in ermita. normally, i hate the idea of having to commute to up manila everyday, but the lrt line 1 has been extended all the way to congressional corner edsa (roosevelt station) and it has made my commute so much more convenient. congressional ave. to pedro gil in 30 minutes! it was unbelievable. for me to drive at 730am to manila would mean a 2 hour drive (possibly more), to take the bus or an fx would take almost as much time. taking the mrt line 2 from katipunan then changing trains at d. jose to lrt 1 would be shorter than an hour, but would have me changing transport 4 times (2 jeeps, 2 trains), not to mention longer walks between jeepney stops/train stations.

i've actually been enjoying my commute... enjoying the scenery from quezon city to manila froma different point of view, above street level. the balintawak cloverleaf, the monumento, the chinese temple, the chinese, north and la loma cemeteries, avenida rizal, the pasig river, rizal park, the national museum, the department of justice, the philippine general hospital... these are sights i don't see very often, since i do live and work (and entertain myself) in quezon city. i find myself mesmerized by the urban sprawl of downtown manila.

after a week of commuting, i fell into routine, leaving my house a few minutes later, knowing that i would still make it in around an hour. but last monday was a different story. as the train pulled up to the monumento station and the doors opened, a throng of people forced themselves to fit in the cars. Pushing and shoving was accompanied by angry shouts. I was thankful that adri and i gotten seats, the standing commuters were packed like sardines. The doors closed and as the train started to pull away, it suddenly ground to halt after less than a meter!

"pakiusap lang po, wag hawakan ang mga emergency button, hindi tayo makakaalis dito!" the driver announced. aaargh. somebody had turned the emergency button located above the doors! the security guards and technicians ran back and forth outside the trains frantically looking for the culprit. everyone in the packed train groaned. after around fifteen minutes they announced that the passengers had to be unloaded and the train brought back to the reversing area to be serviced.

"paano kami lalabas eh puno ng tao! saan kami dadaan?" the people inside the train complained angrily. outside, the crowd stood unmoving on the platform. the impasse lasted for almost 20 minutes when people on the platform finally began leaving. the train on the opposite direction was at a standstill as well, probably, all the trains in all the stations stopped. eventually, there were just a few of us left in the car. the crowd outside had thinned slightly, but was still formidable. adri kept telling me "wag tayong bababa, gagawan nila ng paraan yan!". the other passengers, mostly those who had caught the train in the earlier stations, roosevelt and balintawak refused to leave as well. (it was definitely a case of patigasan ng ulo, myself wone of the matitigas ang ulo!) eventually, the doors closed and it was announced over the sound system that the train was reversing, and we would be assisted on to another train. so the doors opened, we jumped down to the tracks, walked back towards the direction of the station, and went back into one of the forward cars on our train. because the monumento station was previously the last station, there was a reversing section where there were three sets of tracks. we waited for another train to come in from balintawak, stopping beside our train. They were planning for us to "jump" trains, but it took three trains before they finally got the doors between the 2 aligned, and we could cross over to the new train!

getting down the train onto the tracks, getting into the next car & jumping to the next train

all in all, i was about 45 minutes late for my class, not so bad, i'm glad we didn't get down at monumento to take the bus all the way to taft which would have probably taken hours at that time. when i got to class, i found out that one of my workshop-mates, who got on the train at tayuman, was late as well, and that they had announced that they had a problem at the monumento station. yes, i told her. it was MY train! imagine how much trouble that guy who had (hopefully accidentaly, at least) pulled the emergency button had caused! How many people he had hassled, on a monday morning at that! while it was an interesting experience (what are the chances i'd experience it in the space of a week of riding the train!), i'm glad its not something i might experience often. of course i feel that it completes my train experience, and i'm thankful that's the worst i've experienced.

i'm on the last few days of my workshop, and my daily commute to manila. soon i'll be back to my 15 minute drive to work!

perhaps i'll be using the train again soon, maybe to explore more of manila on foot.

Friday, September 26

unimaginable

why oh why would i want edsa to be my office?!?

(& if there are people who actually want edsa as their office, i'm glad i'm not one of them)