The Ruined Cake

 HAPPIEST BDAY to my once little brother and sister that I doted on. Imagine Mama delivering my sister in hospital while Papa and I tried to celebrate my brother's 2nd bday at home? Our helper polished the floor so well for the little party that lo and behold, Papa slipped while carrying the cake and I saw it flip in the air and land (icing first, of course) on our super shiny red floor! Hence, our photos of a ruined cake... Our ever decent and gentleman father must've uttered a four-letter word, but we didn't hear anything. Just the silence of everyone in shock. LOL... But all has been well and we're always thankful.

MLJ/26/11/2020

Audrey

So blessed to have worked with Audrey six years ago and enjoy her homepage with Ekke as they "roamed the roads" of the Earth in their motorbikes. We suddenly lost Audrey to cancer in 2020, another lovely soul taken away too soon. Such a friendly, supportive and positive individual who inspired everyone to just get going, do one's best, and hope for the next beautiful day. I wish she had more time...

https://ekke-audrey.ca/index.htm

2020 In My Mind

The world was caught by surprise
As this virus quietly arrived
In suitcases on planes and trains
In cars and on costly cruises
Like Bubonic plague clouding over
Every continent it vowed to cover.

While the usual news blasting
Black Lives Matter; police weren’t listening.
America divided and Trump infected,
Sick of being rejected, after all he’d invested.

Hurricanes, forest fires, global warming the usual thing
And close to two million deaths may be nothing
Compared to catastrophic Black Death,
But these are lives that mattered just as well
Not one deserving shrugging shoulders.
2021 ought to be better.
MLJ/27/12/2020/IntheyearofCOVID-19

Wear a mask, save a life

I can’t quite comprehend how some can look so competent and so aware or their rights and privileges but so unaware or unconcerned about their own safety and those of others, about loss of precious lives and the collapse of the health system on which their lives depend. “No one tells me what to do!” “No one tells me when or when not to visit my parents!” Is it pride then that has prevailed all this time? It doesn’t matter if they get infected or infect others, including their loved ones? Despite the deaths around them, after a birthday party, a wedding, a night out, a rally or demonstration, a sports event…, they remain unbelieving, incredulous that there is indeed a virus in our midst. FOMO? Fear of missing out? Fear of missing something more fun or something better than what is safer? Yes, who cares about the overcrowded hospitals and the fatigued health care workers anyway! The frontline workers have been begging the public to wear masks or keep their distance, but some people pay no heed and appear to be deaf and blind. Help! I can’t see any rhyme or reason for this behaviour. MLJ/27/12/2020

When Reading Is Over…

Meng Jin and Jesse Thistle,
The search is over for missing fathers.
Identities somewhat established,
Raising the dead from their graves.

Keigo Higashino, I thank you
For the old and new Japan in Tokyo,
For the characters I wish to meet
When the world is done with this pandemic.

Tim Leach, would you have me banished
In the land of fire and ice - so famished -
Only to come back like a phoenix
And put an end to clan revenge?

Martin Cruz Smith, to Siberia I fly
Survive a bear attack I try.
Now back in Kremlin
Putin remains standing.
MLJ/27/12/2020

Pole Dancing Angels

A Good Woman, a good reminder
Of the hearts of pole dancers
In Manila’s red light district in the seventies
With its neon lights and glitters
That started each day we left for home
From blocks away that was our high school.

Drivers either gawked at the ladies
Heavily made up in skimpy dresses
Enticing every elderly tourist
To get inside the club, at least catch a glimpse
Of the glass bar with gyrating flesh
And poles on which their life depended.

Or drivers shook their heads at the sight
Their tubercular selves in the same plight
Driving Jeepneys at death’s door
Coughing out black smoke that choked
Slaved Manilenians and transients
Turned into Rizal Park residents.

We teen girls were initially shocked
While the boys couldn’t help but blush.
We got used to it through the years
And looked down at our shoes instead.
Later I got to know every pole dancer
As English or Nihongo they tried to master.

In our language school they worked harder
To be the best mail-order bride or Japayuki dancer.
I learned how little they were reading or writing
How much to extended families they were sending
Where no one knew what Hospitality Girls meant
To which they laughed like they’d kept their innocence.

Marrying a foreigner or going abroad meant
Food at the table and to school somebody would be sent
A child or a sibling? It didn’t really matter.
These pole dancers were risk takers.
With their big hearts, sacrifices, selflessness…
Now in my eyes, they were pole dancing angels.
MLJ/24/12/2020

First wave: after early 2020 travels

Second wave: after Thanksgiving holiday

Third wave: after Christmas & New Year celebrations?

How can we fight this together? We're losing our frontline and essential workers fast.

We hear you loud and clear: Can't breathe! No masks! No restrictions! No vaccine! 

What's your proposal? We're listening... 

MLJ/07/12/2020

REST IN PEACE, April Boy Regino. Maraming, maraming salamat sa musika. Thank you for sharing your talent and songs with us. I've seen lots of homesick OFWs who sang your songs with a karaoke or videoke in order to cope... All men out there: Find out if you need prostate cancer screening. Peace! MLJ/06/12/2020

HAPPIEST BDAY to my once little brother and sister that I doted on. Imagine Mama delivering my sister in hospital while Papa and I tried to celebrate my brother's 2nd bday at home? Our helper polished the floor so well for the little party that lo and behold, Papa slipped while carrying the cake and I saw it flip in the air and land (icing first, of course) on our super shiny red floor! Hence, our photos of a ruined cake... Our ever decent and gentleman father must've uttered a four-letter word, but we didn't hear anything. Just the silence of everyone in shock. LOL... But all has been well and we're always thankful. -MLJ/26/22/2020-

People who have no excuse for not cooperating with health officials haven't realized the gravity of this pandemic and might find it too late for regrets and apologies when one day, they themselves can no longer be admitted in and given care by overrun hospitals. The word "freedom" needs redefinition now more than ever. Are we free to lead others to their death just because we don't value our own lives?

- MLJ/23/11/2020 -

I CARE not only because these are my relatives and friends, but also because they are human beings like you and me who are loved as grandparents, parents, children, brothers, sisters and friends. Let us protect the frontliners and essential workers by cooperating. - MLJ/23/11/2020 -

A SIXTH GRADER, about 60-inch tall, comes to class grumpy.

I’m hungry!

Didn’t you have breakfast?

I woke up late.

Well, didn’t you sleep well?

I was playing video games until 4:00 am.

Wow! Isn’t that too much?

I know…

So there was no breakfast when you woke up?

There was rice. But what do I eat rice with? Peanut butter?

Well, if that works for you, why not?

Duh!

Duh right! Aren’t you grateful you’ve got food when other people around the world are dying of hunger? I’m sure you could open all cupboards with that height of yours! - MLJ/19/11/2020 -

WHEN A CHILD tells you at the end of the day, "I’m glad you get to spend time with us today. Please come again," there's no reason you won't come back to teach her class even though she was a handful for being hyperactive. - MLJ/19/11/2020 -

THANK YOU, Teacher Barbara Henry

Fourteen years ago in North Carolina, my principal asked me if I wanted to move from the middle school to the primary school. I told her that I would go wherever I was needed, anywhere in town, anywhere in the world. And on my first day in the primary school's Exceptional Children's program (K-4), I met all these lovely children who enjoyed one another's company in the classroom and on the playground, and I would just hear this song in my head over and over again and I was really glad: 

Jesus loves the little children

All the children of the world

Red, brown, yellow

Black and white

They are precious in His sight

Jesus loves the little children

Of the world

THANK YOU, teacher Barbara Henry, for teaching them altogether until the colour of their skin didn’t matter at all. 

MLJ/14/11/2020

On My Special Day in 2020

THANK YOU, maraming salamat, cảm ơn bạn, ありがとうございました, mulțumesc, Спасибо, merci... to all friends and relatives around the world for remembering my special day. If I could make a special request for my birthday, it’s to ask you all to pray with me for everyone’s safety, healing and comfort. Let’s do what we can for one another every day of our lives. God bless you all! – Lina, Miss J., Marlyne –

THANK YOU, Alex Trebek

 THANK YOU, Alex Trebek, for everything you've done as a broadcaster, game show host and philanthropist. My late father and I enjoyed watching Jeopardy together for decades. I admired your personality then (as much as my father's vast knowledge and remarkable ability to correctly answer most, if not all, of your questions). I obviously learned so much from your show. Thank you very much. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. - MLJ/08/11/2020 -

Fear of Missing Events (FOME) by Miss J.

 

Child: I saw some people in the store not wearing masks. Why aren’t they wearing masks?

Me: Some people have valid reasons for not wearing masks. They might have health conditions that make it hard for them to breathe when wearing masks. We just have to be more understanding, emphatic and compassionate.

Child: So they all can’t breathe when wearing masks?

Me: Hmm… Maybe some or most of them. Some might not have any valid reason at all. They just don’t want to wear masks. Period. It’s all right if they stay home, avoiding or limiting contacts with others. It’s not all right, however, if they gather in large groups without protection or distancing, not caring about their health or the health of others. They probably fear missing events, maybe a fun event, and it’s their priority instead of their safety.

Child: Oh, I know! They want to have fun now and get sick later… Or die later? MLJ/30/10/2020/IntheyearofCOVID19.  

A DEAL’S A DEAL! (Based on 95.9 CHFM Radio Show Forgive and Forget)

Mother is asking her teen son, Brat, for forgiveness as the new car promised him is no longer affordable.

Mother: I’m so sorry, Brat, but we can’t afford the car we promised you. Remember the roof repair this summer? It cost us so much more than we thought.

Brat: Whaat? A deal’s a deal! You asked me to get A’s and B’s and I got them in my last report card. A deal’s a deal!

Mother: I know, honey, but we really can’t afford it now after paying the contractor.

Brat: That’s not my problem! I didn’t ask you to fix the roof! You promised me a car and I got you the A’s and B’s you asked for. Get a loan! Borrow money! I don’t care!

Radio Host 1: Brat, how about you get a part-time job and save a little while your parents try to save a little, too, in order to get the car you want?

Brat: Right. I’m working part-time and studying all night to get A’s and B’s for them. What did you think of me?

Radio Host 2: Well, it looks like you and your parents are going to have a long talk tonight. All the best!

Radio Host 1: I’m confused! Is a car more important than a roof over your head?

MLJ/30/10/2020/IntheyearofCOVID19.

WELCOME TO TEACHING!

A middle-aged man is doing his practicum in my classroom.

Me: Second career or career change?

Man: Definitely a career change. We’ve got this family business and it’s getting messier each day. We’re already fighting so I think staying out is safer.

Me: Hmm… Yup. Sometimes we save relationships that way.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy home!

MLJ/30/10/2020/IntheyearofCOVID19.

HOW MUCH PATIENCE DO YOU HAVE?

I waited for a year before finally going to Jollibee Calgary, waited for a pandemic to stop hundreds of patrons from standing in line at the parking lot, and waited for my chicken and palabok meal worth two days of home-cooked meals. Hmm… I think I don’t mind waiting another year for my next Jollibee meal. Home cooking or dining out? MLJ/29/10/2020/IntheyearofCOVID19.