Happy Holidays!

I wish everyone the Happiest of Christmas and the very best of the coming year!

Cheers!

Simple life...

I saw this bike this morning parked right in front of our house. It reminded me of my first bike. It was a gift from my aunt. We bought it in a store close to the Binondo Church in Manila and it cost I think Php105.00.

Life was much simpler then. Traffic and pollution were not much of a problem. Electronic stuffs were left to the technocrats. And in the absence of these, life was less tedious and rushed.

Must be nice to have things much simpler.

Happy Birthday Tin!

We have two boys. And we are basically happy with what we have. Would have felt doubly blessed, though if we had a girl. Never the less, we go on with our lives thanking God for giving us two fine boys.

With our sons now grown up, we go through the usual "meet the girl friend" routine that most parents with sons go through. Meet Christine, my youngest son Aidz special girl. She is like a daughter we never had. Intelligent, responsible and beautiful. More importantly, she inspires our son to strive hard and excel in school.

It is her 18th birthday today. We wish her good health, happiness and a great future. Happy birthday, Tin!

When you wish upon a star ....Ask and you shall receive!

When we were little, dreams apparently came true when you simply wished on a star.

Many years after, to be exact, a day before our thesis defense, my best friend and I knelt before the Redemptorist Church (Baclaran) altar, fervently asking God to intercede and wield His infinite power to make our defense panel overlook a mistake we had in our project. The panel spotted our mistake never the less. But thanks to the Divine mercy of the Lord, we passed.

As I write this, I stare blankly and wish that getting our problems solved was as easy as just asking for a super natural intercession. I beat my brains finding ways on how to rev up and reverse the negative momentum of things. When my brain drains out, I will bend my knees again and plead for the Lord to take over.... to bless us with one Divine push.

Ask and you shall receive, knock and the doors shall be opened up to you.

Stale air at 10 days to Christmas...

Our tree is up. We have ornaments all over the house to usher the festive air of Christmas.

It must be the weariness from the nearly concluding year, however, that I feel the staleness in the air, the emptiness of spirit amidst the colorful lights and ornaments. I currently have no appetite for celebrations. My mind is glued almost permanently to the material issues at hand....not only for ourselves but for those who depend on us.

Pardon me from bursting your cheery bubble. I hope this mood changes soon.

Imus Cathedral - HDR IR

This is a historic church built in the heart of Imus Cavite. First buillt in 1795 in Toclong by the Agustinian Recollect fathers. The first parish pries was Francisco de Santiago. The location of the church was transferred to its current location in 1823. The diocese supervision was taken over by the secular fathers in 1897. It became a Cathedral and the seat of the diocese of Imus in 1961.

I went with my parents to this majestic Cathedral. I took the opportunity to take some shots of this historic edifice.

3 Exposure IR Shots using an R72 Filter. 30 sec exposure @ F/8.0, Focal length of 17mm. Processed in CS3.

Happy Birthday Adrian!

My youngest son, Adrian, celebrated his birthday today. He is now 17. He has long waited for this day as at this age he becomes eligible to get a driver's license, a long time dream of his.

I reminded him though that at this age, he needs to step up and act more maturely. Being the "baby" of the family, his needs are always taken cared of by every single member of the family. At 17, I emphasized to him the need to work out things on his own.

It would take some time for me and my wife to realize that we have a baby no more. Our young boy is now a young man. Sad but happy in a way that we have raised a very fine young man.

Happy Birthday , Aidz!

Heaven sent...

I am not writing about her.. Lol:) I am writing instead to share the power of will.

For background, we own a small company. We provide services to a few large entities in the Metro Manila Area. Unfortunately, one of these entities controlled about 80 % of our business. And most recently, this entity had faced severe challenges that affected their ability to settle their payables to suppliers such as us. The delays in the settlement had impacted seriously on our cash. And with very little sales coming in, our financial challenges had become even more pronounced.

With Christmas coming soon and the government mandating us to pay our employees an extra month, we were literally pulling our hairs to find solution to a serious problem. We needed to collect. We were relentless in contacting our client who have become very evasive in even answering our calls. We called on every possible resource we had to help us collect.

With a bleak scenario looming, we looked at various options and were geared up for the worst. We were concerned for our employees who may not be able to celebrate in the coming festivities.

This afternoon, we made a desperate call to know the status of our receivables. Even the smallest of amounts would help. To our delight, we were informed that we had a check ready for pickup. It was not the total amount, but it was significant enough to alleviate us from our woes.

My CFO and I looked at one another and just could not believe what we heard. This must be heaven sent!