Countdown to Yolanda: The Paranoia Buildup

(Continuation from Countdown to Yolanda: The Week Before)

It was probably around November 4 or 5 when I first heard about this storm brewing over the Pacific in the vicinity of Guam. It didn't even have a name yet, only that initial forecasts say that it was headed for the Philippines.

By November 6, this weather disturbance was a full-blown howler with the international code name, Haiyan. Even while at sea, it was already churning with the ferocity of a Category 4 cyclone, and it was still increasing in strength and area. By this time, Haiyan has already captured the attention of weather forecasters, scientists, and storm chasers the world over, and all of these experts have pinpointed the potential path the super typhoon would take.

All eyes, fingers, and map markers were pointing at the central portion of the Philippines as the most likely area where this storm will make landfall.

Oh great, I said to myself. I just ironed out some problems in Tacloban City only several days ago. Now here's another problem to ponder on.


I remember staring at the screen of my office PC -- just staring, not really reading what was on the screen on the afternoon of November 6. I could barely let go of my tablet as I was tuning in to any news about the coming typhoon.

Soon, satellite images were cropping up on my tablet's screen.

Wow.

This beastie of a typhoon looked like it could take down an entire country in one gulp. It was just one angry, swirling mass of ugliness headed right toward the general direction of Leyte.

Then the international news agencies were beginning to crow about this howler being so far, "the strongest tropical cyclone ever, even stronger than Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy."

Now, I was terrified.

By evening when I got home, I immediately called on my family to find out if they knew exactly what they were in for. They knew.

But they weren't sure of the extent of destruction this typhoon could wreak on them.

Being the stronger one between my two girls, I concentrated on instructing my daughter what to do in preparation for the super typhoon they now called Yolanda. I told her to ready two emergency bags -- one for her, another for her Lola (grandmother), and I also texted her a list of what to place inside each bag.

I also instructed my daughter to talk to our friendly next-door neighbors (the ones who invited us to a birthday party several days before) and request if my family could evacuate to their house which is sturdier than our rented place. Their house also has a second floor, as compared to our rundown bungalow, and has a better chance of keeping everyone high and dry in the event that floods would inundate the area.

Floods.

That time, all I was worried about was how our little bungalow would be able to withstand the ferocity of Yolanda's winds, The floods would be inevitable in Housing Seaside, especially since the area is quite flood-prone, but that would be the least of my problems. Or so I thought.

My mom even reassured me that since repairs and some cleaning were made on the canal just behind our place, flood water will just run unhampered into the canal without rising to uncomfortable levels.

Not one among us knew that something even worse than flood would strike our area just as fast as a boxer's uppercut.

(To be continued)

Photo credit: Google Images

Countdown to Yolanda: The Week Before

My next blog posts will be more of throwback journals as my family and I count the days up to the time when tragedy struck on that fateful early morning of Friday, November 8, 2013.

Almost a year ago, Tacloban City, as well as other towns in Eastern Visayas, were nearly erased from the Philippine map after the strongest typhoon ever to hit land in modern time pummeled through it.

In just a matter of three to five hours, the area was dramatically transformed into a scene of death and destruction.

Funny, but everything still seems as fresh as if they just happened yesterday.

This is my family's story in the throes of Super Typhoon Haiyan -- local name, Yolanda.

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Mommy was adamant on the phone: "If you don't come home this coming long weekend, I swear I will not be taking any medicine anymore!"

Thus, even with little money in my pockets, I made plans to come home to Tacloban City to visit my family.

It's not that easy for me to just get up and go home to the province on a whim. You see, my work in a bank did not exactly put me in a comfortable financial position. Then, a round trip plane ticket from Manila to Tacloban roughly costs around PhP 5,000++ on promo-less days. Then of course, once I am there, I cannot just stay home and not spend at all. Plus, there's the daughter who probably thinks that I have loads of money to spend every time I go home for a vacay.

And of course, there's also the cats. I have a choir friend who I used to call on to take care of my cats while I was away on long trips, and I had to leave money with her plus extra food for the days that I was gone.

To make a long story short, my finances would already be diagnosed with cancer by the time I arrive in Tacloban; terminally ill by the time I return to Manila.

And yet, I had to go home.


I was in Tacloban City by October 27. The weather was quite fine with the northeast monsoon being kept at bay. When I got home, I was pleased to see that both mother and daughter were quite okay, except that my mom was a bit emaciated from not being able to eat well. (She said she lost her appetite. Great.)

Thus, for the entire week, I was dutiful daughter and mother to my two girls. Brought my mom to a hair salon for a nice trim; treated my family to dinner at Quarterhouse, the hole-in-the-wall resto selling skewered goodies along Justice Romualdez Street; met with a former student who lived in the next subdivision from us; and did some serious malling with the daughter at Robinson's Place Tacloban. Even managed to attend this birthday party at our neighbor's place in Housing Seaside with Mommy. We just had to attend -- those neighbors of ours are relatives of another former student of mine and they would go out of their way to see to Mommy, especially when my daughter is away. Besides, they just lived across our rented place so travel from Point A to Point B for Mommy was not too taxing.

I also managed to visit my mom's hometown, Tanauan, to discuss some family matters with a cousin. Before I left, I took a pedicab ride around the town to see how things have changed. Much as I wanted to head for the beach that day, dark clouds above were telling me that heavy rain was to fall at any given time. Thus, I settled for passing by our town plaza. (Sorry for the lopsided picture, by the way. It was a bit difficult to take a decent photo while the pedicab was in motion, and I didn't exactly tell the driver to slow down.)

By the time I returned to Manila on November 1, I managed to maximize my time with family and friends in Leyte. Mommy's appetite returned in the duration of my stay there, and her batch of medicines were replenished. Meanwhile, my daughter maximized my finances (haha) with several food binges at the only decent mall Tacloban City has, Robinson's Place.

Little did we all know that whatever we knew about the "old" Tacloban and Tanauan will dramatically transform in the next few days...

(To be continued)

- Photos are mine

Care for some Chocolate Mangoes?

In this little brown nugget, you will find Heaven.

I'm not joking.

This is among the best-tasting chocolate nuggets I have ever come across in a long while.

The good news is that it's locally made.

And it's not as fattening as your regular chocolates.

Introducing Chocolate Mangoes -- a new treat to love by new foodie on the block, Cocoa Monster Manila!

Before I go on about the team that created this wonderful delight, first allow me to explain why it's not as fattening as other chocolates.

Cocoa Monster Manila uses dark chocolate for their chocolate mangoes, which uses less milk and therefore, has lessened fat and cholesterol. Dark chocolate is roughly 70 to 80 percent pure cacao which is the main ingredient in chocolate, and thus gives more of the wonderful positive effects that chocolates induce in the body.

Take a bite into this nugget and you will be surprised to find a chunk of chewy dried mango in it. The chewy texture and slightly tangy taste of the dried mango, combined with the subdued sweetness of the dark chocolate, make for an exciting dessert experience.

Apart from the chocolate mangoes, Cocoa Monster Manila also has other cocoa products from polvoron to the more traditional tablea bars, but the chocolate mangoes are their flagship product.

Cocoa Monster Manila proudly states in its Facebook page that everything about their chocolates -- from the cacao beans to the bars -- are all Philippine-made. That is why prices of their products are not as exorbitant as those of their imported counterparts. This box in the picture above, for example, already contains 19 bite-sized nuggets, and is priced at PhP 250. They have another set of chocolate mangoes where the dried mango slices are dipped in dark chocolate and placed in nicer packaging. It's a tad more expensive, but if the buyer plans on giving these chocolate mangoes to an OFW relative or to someone special, this variant on the right is the best bet for increased chances of swooning.

At present, you can catch Cocoa Monster Manila's goodies in kiosks they set up during weekends in malls like Alabang Town Center, Eastwood Mall, SM Aura, or Glorietta 4. They're still "wandering nomads" in a sense since their kiosks move around quite a lot, but the sales person at Eastwood Mall where I got my chocolate mangoes said that since October, they have been a permanent fixture in the said shopping center every weekend.

However, one's best chance of finding Cocoa Monster Manila's kiosks is by following them on their Facebook page where they regularly announce their location for the coming weekend. They also posted several contact numbers there for inquiries and for possible orders.

Yup, gotta love those chocolate mangoes! Choco na, mangga pa!


- First two photos are mine. Third photo is from the Cocoa Monster Manila Facebook page.

My Kitty, Codiang: A Case of Eye Crusting in Kittens

My Siamese cat, Kooky, gave birth to six kittens last September 1. I was very confident that they'd grow as healthy and strong as Kooky's first litter. However, something went wrong -- very wrong.

The kittens started to develop crusting in their eyes.

No matter how diligent I was in wiping off the gunk from their eyes, the crusting just got worse. Soon enough, the kittens were dying one by one.

After the fifth kit passed on, I was desperate for a cure. I had to save the last one. The only problem was that I didn't have the time nor the money to bring the kit to a vet.

And thus, I went online for a fast and effective remedy.

I came upon this long thread dedicated to answering the same question I had about a low-cost cure for crusting in kittens' eyes.

The first answers were quite credible, although the very first one (apparently an answer from a veterinarian) was very insistent that whether the kitten owner likes it or not, the affected kittens should be brought to the vet because crusting could be an indication of complications, yadah, yadah, yadah...

The next answers were promising. One suggested tea cleansing (I didn't know tea had topical uses!), and apparently several of those in the thread swore by it. The procedure involves brewing a tea bag's worth of tea, then using a soft cloth to dunk into the tea and after which, to use for wiping the affected kitten's eyes.

The tea cleansing ritual seemed interesting, but I needed something more -- guaranteed.

There were also recommendations for salt cleansing, but I surmise that the pain it could cause would just be as much as rubbing salt onto a wound. Ouch, poor kitty.

And there were the more painful remedies like rubbing garlic into the kitten's eyes (Seriously?!), or using baby shampoo.

Finally, I made the ultimate choice.

Instead of experimenting with stuff to put in the kit's eyes and risk its health even more, I just went to
the nearest drugstore and purchased Terramycin Eye Ointment*.

Bought the small tube at a hefty price of P600.

Come to think of it, P600 is still cheap. If I went to a vet, the professional fee would have been pegged at around P300. Then the vet would be prescribing a barrage of medicines which, I'm sure, will amount to more than P300.

Besides, It's not just this kitten who will be benefiting from this wonder medicine. All other kittens who may develop eye crusting in the future will now have a medicine to keep the infection at bay.

That evening after purchasing the tube, I immediately used it on Codiang (our kitten).

The next morning, I woke up and the first thing I did was to look for Codiang and see if she wasn't bumping around because she couldn't see where she was going.

Miracle of miracles, Codiang's eyes were devoid of any crusting or yellow gunk!

I still proceeded to put an itsy-bitsy amount of the ointment into Codiang's eyes for several days more to make sure whatever bacteria invaded her system dies once and for all.

If before, she wasn't eating much and preferred sleeping  to playing (That's strange for a kitten of more than two months), Codiang now has a very healthy appetite and is playing with her elder siblings from Kooky's first litter. Lately, Codiang has learned to play with us humans, too. She has finally learned the bliss of belly rubs and back scratches.

Codiang's rehabilitation is still ongoing. If you notice her picture here, she's not yet at the peak of health. However, she is definitely on the road to recovery.

My only regret was that I wasn't able to get to her siblings soon enough.

Oh well, at least that's still one life saved.


*This is not meant to be a product endorsement.

New Blog Look and What to Expect in the Relaunch

I'm starting my relaunch with a new look for my blog to make it look more edgy and more appropriate for the content I'll be posting in the next few days.

For content, expect to see a lot of reviews of products, restaurants, food, places, and even some movie critiques. (Sorry, not much of a movie watcher.)

There will also be a generous serving of opinions based on the news and events of the day. Of course, these opinions are mine and mine alone, and I take full responsibility for whatever I will write. However, reactions to whatever I say will be something I will not (and cannot) control, If the reader is offended, then just don't say I didn't warn you. I already gave a caveat.

Of course, I still won't be able to resist myself from writing about and/or posting pictures of my cats, so probably that should be another caveat, teeheehee.

What I certainly can promise the reader is a lot of saucy fun. Well....a bit of -- no, a lot of -- sarcasm too, but sarcasm has so far not killed anyone, right?

Hoping for everyone's support in this!

The Laude Case: Getting too Loud?

I wrote about this on Facebook already, but to juice up this new blog, I'd like to share my own thoughts on the Jennifer Laude case.

For those not familiar with this, it''s all about a crime committed on local shores. The people involved -- an American soldier who was stationed in the Philippines as part of military exercises under the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and a Filipina "entertainer" who happens to be a transsexual.

Based on initial investigations, the American went out for a night of fun and encountered the Filipina. Both checked in a motel in Olongapo City (located northwest of Manila) but several hours later, the American checked out alone.

The Filipina transgender -- Jennifer Laude -- was eventually discovered half-naked and lifeless in the motel room's bathroom, her head leaning by the toilet bowl.

Laude was found to have died from asphyxia due to drowning. Her head was apparently forcibly dunked in the toilet bowl until she stopped struggling.

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Now for such a simple crime, so much noise has muddled this case.

First, there are the activists who have used this killing to add to their rants against the VFA.

As stated earlier, the Visiting Forces Agreement has always been a controversial issue due to the perceived lopsided components of the said agreement between the Philippines and the United States. Add to that the fact that every time there is increased American military presence in the Philippines, there also is an increase in chances of these visitors committing abuses against our locals.

It already happened before with that case involving the rape of a Filipina by another American serviceman. The case ended with the serviceman being spirited away by the US Embassy back to the native land, allegedly with the help of Philippine government.

Now, this.

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Another source of noise is the one coming from the LGBT community.

Some are speculating that what happened here was a hate crime -- that the American serviceman here, Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, allegedly killed Laude because of his discovery that the latter was not a complete woman.

And thus, the cry for justice for a fallen comrade of the LGBT community.

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And then there's the third and most annoying source of noise -- that of quasi-moral ignoramuses who choose to blame Laude for getting herself killed.

"Malandi kasi (She's slutty)," or "Me boyfriend na nga, sumama pa sa ibang lalaki (Even with a boyfriend, she still went out with another man)."

"Buti nga (Serves her right)."

To these Bible-thumping moralists, I say, let thee who hath no sin cast the first stone.

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There is actually a fourth source of noise in this case, and it comes from Laude's own stable -- her family and her German boyfriend.

It's bad enough that so many sectors are trying to derail the public from the real issue of the case, but her family just had to add to the melee.

First, they were asking for "help" from the President himself. Apparently the help they were asking for was not much the speedy resolution of the case but was more for financial remuneration.

Then came the German boyfie's arrival and press con of sorts.

Then came the dramatic "over-the-bakod (fence)" incident at Camp Aguinaldo by the Laude family and the boyfie, with the intent to confront Pemberton who was detained in the said facility.

Just from these circus acts, we could easily deduce why Laude went for a life of peddling her body and risking her life in the streets of Olongapo.

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Can we just simplify everything, go beyond all of this gunk, and get to the heart of it all?

A human being was killed. Justice must be served.

Will the murder be less of an offense because of the victim's sexual orientation and profession?

I don't think so!

Does the suspect become less guilty because he's a high and mighty American serviceman who decided to kill because he was "tricked" into thinking that his lover for the night had his same genitalia?

I don't think so!

For the meantime, this circus spawned by the Laude case will plod on. To where?

Heck, we all know where this is going.

Under the perennial rug.

*Photos c/o Google Images

Big Relaunch Soon!

I got plans for this blog.

Big plans.

I just need to purchase something before I make the big launch.

Just a week more to go before I get that something.

So excited!

* Photo from Google Images