Love Before Sunrise

     I started following this local drama series on GMA 7 from when it started because, aside from  it stars favorite actors of mine, Bea Alonzo and Dennis Trillo, I was curious as to the story line. Because the title reminds me of the rom-com movies, a yrilogy of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delphy, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight. Initially I thought it's something different, creative but as episodes go along, it seems the writer got the lot idea from those movies. There's nothing new in the plot, but of course they localize the story. I'm curious how they will end this series because in the movies, they didn't end up together.

GMA 7 latest soap opera

     Why they titled it this way, only the writer would know. They should not have given it this title so people would not think of the movies. Well, the soap opera is for the masses which I believe don't know of the movies.

Netflix' Lee Kwan Yew

     Over the weekend, a Lee Kwan Yew special was started on Netflix to commemorate his birthday. Lee Kwan Yew(LKY) was the first Prime Minister of Singapore and believed to make Singapore what it is today, a first world country.

Documentary on Netflix

     In this documentary, it showed how LKY envisioned Singapore to be after their separation from Malaysia. His brilliant mind built modern Singapore that recognized the talent and dreams of the people.

Coconut Embryo

    This is a coconut embryo, or coconut haustorium, that if it grows, it becomes a tall coconut tree.

Young coconut to be

     Growing up in the rural village pre-Yolanda(devastating typhoon Haiyan in 2013) days, I learned all the manual tasks preparing the coconuts to become copra, dried coconut meat. When not in school, I would help my poor farming family in preparing the coconuts to become copra. When we broke the coconuts for copra-making, we would find the embryo which we would collect and eat after completing our coconut splitting chores. It was a simple natural food but delicious. 

     That's the value people in the rural areas must learn, simple but delicious. Not all in the urban cities are palatable. In today's society, the poor rural folks all look up to the urban people, they become their role models which is wrong. They follow their values, they become materialistic. What is even worse the materialistic urbanites control the TV and its shows and the poor rural folks look up to them like Gods.

Roti Canai

     I saw this ranking of breads in the world and was surprised and at the same time glad to know that this year's top of the list is roti Canai. It's a popular bread in Malaysia which can be eaten anytime of the day. With ten years stay in Malaysia I have learned to love it. It is easy to make but needs skill to make. I miss eating it.

Malaysia's roti Canai tops the list 2023

US Open To Remember

     It's a historic US Open 2023, it's going to be remembered in years to come. Novak Djokovic won his 24th Grand Slam trophy putting him a couple of wins above Nadal and three above Federer. This probably cemented his certainty to be the GOAT - greatest of all time. I love both players, Djokovic and Medvedev, their humility and their respect for each other is genuine.

Djokovic vs Medvedev

 

     Yesterday, the women's category also ended with a record. Coco Gauff won her first Grand Slam at 19, the youngest since 1999. I didn't expect Gauff to prevail as I was all for Sabalenka but she was playing like no one else's business. All the balls were returning to Sabalenka, the first time I've seen in a tennis match.

Gauff vs Sabalenka 

Unexpected

     This is unexpected! I never thought Medevedev could lead 2 games to none to Alcaraz in the US Open Semi-finals. I thought it's going to be all Alcaraz. I never thought Medevedev would be this ready. Whatever the outcome in the finals, this  semi-final match will always be remembered.

Mervedev -Alcaraz semifinals at the US Open

     I don't have any liking for Alcaraz even though there is hype to his young age and how well he plays. Maybe it's because of his Spanish background because I don't seem to fancy anything Spanish due to their colonization of the Philippines years ago and oppression of the poor Filipinos.

US Open 2023

     The final four, both for the men and women in the US Open, have been decided. In three and four more days the winners respectively for this year will be known.

     For the men, I place my bet on Djokovic and Medvedev in the final. Personally I don't like Alcaraz although everyone is saying how talented he is at this young age. I guess for a Djokovic victory to make it 24 Grand Slam wins for him.

The men's top four

     I am predicting a Sabalenka win in the women's final, as I believe it's going to be a Sabalenka-Gauff battle. If she wins, it's going to highlight her potential to win more Grand Slams, this will be her second, if ever.

The women's top four

My Unforgettable Paint Chemist Job

     I have a total working experience of almost thirty years, three years in the Philippines, eighteen years in Malaysia and nine years in Singapore. It gave me a lot of exposure and learnings that had I not become a professional, I would be a poor farmer in my native land, like many of the people here. Maybe I was ambitious and lucky in some way that opportunities came to me and gave me chance to uplift my family's economic condition.

     I was lucky to finish a college course through scholarship, a scholarship that only an intellectually elite few could qualify, from the Department of Science and Technology, about 200 all over the country. After graduation from college, I was able to find job as a paint chemist in Dutch Boy Philippines. I only worked in this company for almost three years, my only working experience in the Philippines, until I got offered a job in Malaysia as wood coatings chemist, which I grabbed because it was an economic solution to my family's woes. I worked in three companies in Malaysia before landing a chemist job in Jotun Malaysia, a Norwegian paint company, which would become my longest working experience in a company, about ten years. I was connected with the regional lab responsible for the R&D needs of Asia, based in Kuala Lumpur.

     After working with many nationalities, the Norwegians are the best employers. I love their simplicity and sincerity, their way of making you feel they are not your superiors at work. There's one experience that would always be etched in my memory when we had a global R&D meeting in Norway, and in the free time, we went to the ski resort. The Asians of course had no skiing experience. The Norwegian R&D Global Director, helped us don our ski boots, he himself took hold of our feet, one by one fitted the boots until he had his fingers accidentally wounded. A director of any other company wouldn't do that. I can't forget that humility.

Shot with some colleagues in one family day

     

BSKE 2023

     The country is hyped for the barangay (village) elections end of October 2023, the filing of candidacy was just completed last week. It's another exercise of unproductivity as people will be preoccupied with politics. I have lived for half of my life in British influenced countries where in their parliamentary form of government, local governments are governed by civil employees, insulated from the political tenure. With such, continuity is there and development in the local government will not be hampered by changes in the politics. In the Philippines, the smallest political unit, the barangay, will hold its elections after having been postponed two times during the time of President Duterte. 

Too much politics in the country

     This political exercises are all unproductive, even the smallest village is affected. In our poor village, the barangay captain is my niece, but she is no longer qualified to run for the chief post as she has reached the three-term limit. She decided to run for councilorship, six of them to assist the chief during the tenure. Her husband is the one running for the chief's post. I find it totally against my principal beliefs, I dare not tell them my opposition. I just wish them luck and hope they focus on truly uplifting and making a difference in the lives of the villagers.