January 9, 2018 at 11:49 pm (Food and Drink, Links, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: Bacolod, Cee Neuner, Filipino food, indulgences, Manila, nostalgia, The Philippines
Another great Fun Foto Challenge from Cee Neuner: Needs to have the letters O and U in the word.
Self’s word is SOUP. Specifically, a delicious Philippine soup that originates in the central Philippine islands of the Visayas:
BATCHOY: Super Special Bowl of Heaven
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
September 30, 2016 at 11:17 pm (Dearest Mum, Family, Places, postaday, Relatives)
Tags: Bacolod, Fridays, memories, nostalgia, postaday, postaweek, The Philippines, Wordpress
This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is NOSTALGIA:
The Philippines, specifically Bacolod City, where her father grew up, is the locus of all of self’s nostalgia. And of course, Dearest Mum, who met self’s Dear Departed Dad when she was a young pianist in New York City, and Dear Departed Dad was in Georgetown Law School.
The Daku Balay, Burgos Street, Negros Occidental: The Philippines. Self’s grandfather built this house, at the time the tallest structure in Bacolod City. Self’s father was born in this house.
Dearest Mum, in Her Early 30s
Bacolod City, Negros Occidental: June 2012
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
September 17, 2016 at 6:32 pm (Family, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Recommended, Relatives, Traveling)
Tags: Bacolod, England, memories, postaday, postaweek, Saturdays, The Philippines, websites, Wordpress
Edge of Family’s Fields: Negros Occidental, the Philippines
Path cleared for a tractor.
And one more:
Hinoba-an, Negros Occidental
Check out a few more WordPress bloggers who posted on EDGE:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
September 12, 2016 at 6:31 pm (Links, Places, postaday)
Tags: Bacolod, Golden Gate Park, memories, museum, postaday, postaweek, San Francisco, The Philippines, Wordpress
Give me a wide-open landscape, and I feel unmoored (and my iPhone camera, inadequate). Throw in some demarcating line between me and what I see, and things start to fall into place.
— Ben Huberman, The Daily Post
Front Courtyard, de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Returning to Bacolod on the Ferry From Iloilo, in the central Philippines
Night descends on a Philippine Sea.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
August 23, 2016 at 5:34 am (Books, Family, Places, Women Writers)
Tags: Bacolod, memories, Mondays, San Francisco, summer, The Philippines
Maybe because self is reading Swimming Studies, she starts looking up information on Land’s End and the Sutro Baths.
The magnate who developed Sutro Baths was named Sutro (Duh, but of course!).
Sutro Baths was the centerpiece of a resort bordering the Pacific. San Franciscans could get there by paying 5 cents for a trolley ride.
In a way, self understands what Sutro was aiming for, because her very own grandfather built a resort, right in the middle of sugar cane fields in Barangay Granada in Negros Occidental in the Philippines.
Self’s grandfather, like Sutro, was a populist. The most loyal patrons of Santa Fe Resort are workers. The entrance fee is still ridiculously low because self’s family understands the demographic: the patrons come from the surrounding fields, workers wanting a break. It was called Santa Fe because her grandfather loved American westerns. In addition, he had a huge crush on the American swimmer/film star Esther Williams, so there’s a statue of her in Santa Fe, in Barangay Granada.
Self’s grandfather built an Olympic-size pool which remains a major draw to this day: It was the first, and possibly still the only, Olympic-size pool in the Philippines.
Who does that? Who has such a crush on Esther Williams that he builds an Olympic-size pool in the middle of an island. Not only in the middle of an island, in the middle of sugar cane fields.
When journalists come to write about self’s island, they never mention Santa Fe Resort. It’s such an eccentric thing, the location. The fact is, it’s nowhere near a beach. Consequently, there is no tourist traffic. There are no Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, American or Europeans. In Santa Fe Resort, you will encounter Filipinos. Just Filipinos.
It is a resort built by a man who only got a high school education. A resort for the people who live within a few kilometers, who are from that place.
Self spent every summer of her childhood there.
Sometimes she wonders if those summers were the reason she is a writer now. Because, her grandfather showed her: you can do anything, if you use your imagination.
It is a terrible thing is to have no imagination, to have your dreams stay small.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
July 14, 2016 at 4:27 pm (destinations, Family, Food and Drink, Places, postaday, Recommended, Relatives, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: art, Bacolod, Calgary, Canada, Filipino food, memories, postaday, postaweek, restaurants, Wordpress
Really love The Daily Post Photo Challenge this week: LOOK UP.
It’s all about “taking a moment to check out what’s above you.”
Last night, self’s cousins took her to a restaurant called Nando’s, in NE Calgary. It’s famous for its chicken inasal (barbecue). And she has to say: this is the best chicken inasal she’s ever tasted outside of Bacolod City in Negros Occidental, Dear Departed Dad’s hometown.
The owner is, interestingly enough, not Filipino. She thinks her cousins said the owner is from Australia.
One wall is entirely covered with little squares, each one telling a kind of story. She wouldn’t have bothered focusing on the squares if she hadn’t been thinking of LOOK UP:
Nando’s, in Northeast Calgary: Barbecue Chicken Almost as Good as Bacolod’s Inasal.
Those tiles do tell a fascinating story. Wouldn’t you agree, dear blog readers?
Stay tuned.
May 13, 2016 at 6:06 pm (postaday, Traveling)
Tags: Bacolod, Dublin, England, Fridays, Ireland, memories, Philippines, postaday, postaweek, The Philippines, Wordpress
FACE is the theme of this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge.
Gave self an excuse to go back over her thousands and thousands of archived photos and indulge in a nostalgia trip.
Abigail !!! Oxford, England, July 2015
Londis, Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, Dublin, 2014, across the Street from the Church of the Oblates. When this woman learned self was a writer, she paid $2 on-line to read self’s novella, the one that became a finalist for the 2014 Saboteur Awards.
Receptionist, L’Fisher Chalet, Bacolod City, Philippines: Self’s Dear Departed Dad was born and raised in Bacolod City. She hasn’t been back since 2013, and L’Fisher Chalet has been remodeled. Who knows when self can visit again.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
December 10, 2015 at 3:57 am (Places, postaday)
Tags: Bacolod, festivals, memories, postaday, postaweek, The Philippines, Wordpress
Every October, Dearest Dad’s hometown of Bacolod becomes the scene of wild bacchanalia.
Just kidding!
Seriously, the theme of the month is wine, women and song.
Just kidding!
The culmination of the annual festivities is a procession of masked dancers. Quite a sight!
Self heard that the festivities have been toned down and aren’t as flamboyant as they used to be. Oh, that is just too bad.
In the meantime, she thought the giant masks, with their flirty eyes, would fit in very well with the week’s Photo Challenge: EYE SPY.
One of the staff at self’s favorite Bacolod rest place: L’Fisher Chalet on Lacson Street: They hang the giant masks as part of the annual Masskara Festival, in October.
August 15, 2015 at 12:28 pm (Books, Links, postaday)
Tags: Bacolod, discoveries, Dublin, festivals, horror, Ireland, Irish writers, memories, postaday, postaweek, Saturdays, supernatural, The Philippines, Wordpress
WordPress Photo Challenge this week: CREEPY
Here’s more creepiness:
DRACULA by Bram Stoker, Illustrated by Edward Gorey. Did you know that author Bram Stoker studied at Trinity College in Dublin? Self only knows this because she went on a tour of Trinity College.
Dancer, Masskara Festival, Bacolod 2013
Ballyvolane House, Cork: A pair of servants ran murdered their masters and made off with their master’s jewels. They were apprehended and put to death. The male was hanged, the woman burned at the stake, somewhere in the vicinity. Hence the appellation “The Hag’s Cross.”
Self is so glad she never heard about The Hag’s Cross until the last day she was at Ballyvolane House because she hates ghosts and such.
The Tyrone Guthrie Centre has its own ghost story, which was told her by a fellow resident. Apparently the ghost is named Miss Worby’s Ghost and she tweets.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
July 10, 2015 at 9:35 am (Places, postaday, Recommended)
Tags: Bacolod, Fridays, museums, postaday, postaweek, San Francisco, The Philippines, Wordpress
This week’s Photo Challenge is proving quite tricky, for some reason. Self has to search a long time before she finds pictures of DOORS.
Well, here’s the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers Main Entrance:
Front Entrance, San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park
Redwood City, California:
The Humble Abode, Redwood City, California
Front Entrance of the museum of Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines
Negros Museum, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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