A day before their WBO junior flyweight title bout, Velasquez Jr. was over himself and rattling Donaire, even flipping back Donaire's cap. Donaire countered by jostling the Perto Rican boxer's hat. Even their spouses had some things to yell at each other.
This incident made Donaire's split decision win over Velasquez doubly sweet; now the Puerto Rican must be hurting twice badly. First he ate his words that he'd beat the crap out of the Filipino Flash, and secondly, he was floored twice by Donaire. Enough of this bully.
The fight that followed was that of Carpio vs. Chavez Jr. which Chavez won amid the punches and counter punches that left both boxers bloodied.
Before the fight, I was shopping at Rustan's at Shangrila Mandaluyong. I remember the last time I was at Shang - to watch an Italian movie festival.
I felt like a tourist at this mall, not being familiar with its stores the way I am familiar with Megamall's.
In Toronto, I frequent mostly the Fairview Mall at Sheppard, and the Yorkdale Mall. I know their shops and restaurants. In between big shopping days, I'd go to the nearby East York shopping centre for a quick bank transaction or to do my grocery, or at the Don Mills Centre, at Lawrence and Don Mills, which had been transformed from an average mall to an upscale, boutiqued mall.
I miss shopping at Don Mill's Bailey's, where I used to buy affordable stuff, mostly hardware items. Now, Bailey's moved outside the mall proper and became smaller.
When I was new in Canada, I remember shopping at a store called Woolco, which had been purchased by Walmart (the area is now occupied by Zeller's at the East York shopping centre). There was also a KMart store which I loved going to in North York, but which closed shop in Canada. KMart stores are still open in the U.S.A.
The food selection in Rustan's was quite varied. I was able to buy Canadian bacon, and before that, we ate in the in-house diner and I was quite happy with my lunch of mini-morcon and white rice and guinatan halo-halo.
Even before this, we sauntered into a hardware store called Value and I was quite happy with my purchase of mostly items for the dog, Yabi.
Yabi will be wham-med later on. She'd be leashed at the back because of late, she'd been destroying plants and potters. She's on a heat.
RIGHT, Sam and Suzie, the new parakeets of the house.
I abandoned regular blogging months ago. I got basically lazy. I had Manila weather to blame it on. Why?
With the warm Manila weather, everything else could wait.
First order of a day would be either getting up so early or so late. I prefer the former. I am usually up at five in the morning, and having coffee and toast bread.
If ever I go to the 6 am mass, I'd be in front of the computer at around 7:30 and having a formal and bigger breakfast at 9 am. Then the lazing around bit continues after lunch. If I have any appointments, or chores to do outside the house, it'll be done in the mid-afternoon.
With the sun streaking through the house, the laid back existence is easy to do all day - going through the papers, doing crossword puzzle, surfing the Net, reading , doing social networking and calling people, and blogging takes a back seat.
But if ever I wake up early (which is more the norm), I make it a point to do the yard before I hit the laptop. My dog Shadee, and now the parakeets, get my early attention and care.
If I were in Toronto these days ,with the winter in full blast, I'd be camped at home and blogging more. It seems that with a cold weather, I need to internalize my energy and let it out by writing.
Not with a warm weather; the energy is spent sweating out by doing even the minutest and easiest of things. So blogging becomes laborious to do. Even leisure activities take so much energy.
Relatives can be a boon or a bust. It's like the economy; there are the lean and then there are the fat years.
In Filipino families, the extension goes into second and third degree relations. You start with your own parents, their siblings and your grand parents and your grand uncles and grand aunts, and their cousins. Then you have your own siblings, and your cousins. Then there are your children, your nephews and nieces, your in-laws, and your grandchildren, and your grandchildren's children.
The fertility of members of the families no longer determine the size of extended families; today, the size of families are dictated by economics.
Two or three children per couple is more the norm today. That way, the quality of life is better. There will be more food on the table, there'd be more money for education.
In my generation, the average family numbers to about ten. You have the parents and then 7 - 8 children.
In the mid sixties and during the Martial Law years of the Marcos presidency, the migration of Filipinos as overseas workers started, and the Filipino families started to shrink in numbers.
But the population still grew, not because there were more births, but more because Pinoys started to live longer. There was better medical intervention.
My own mother died at the ripe old age of almost 91. My father died when he was 79. Three surviving aunts are in their late and early nineties.
Serafin Cuevas, the lead defense attorney of CJ Corona and presiding officer Senator J. Ponce-Enrile in the Corona impeachment trial, are in their 80's, but both are still sharp physically and mentally. Which is to say that despite the mass availability of unhealthy food products of the present generation (Starbucks, McDonalds, etc), people are still sensible enough to stay the course of healthy living.
While in the Philippines, I tend to consume more carbs and sugar, thanks to Filipino delicacies such as kalamay, puto, turon and pan de sal. I also consume more red meat and fat-rich food, such as liempo, itlog na pula, matamis na bao, bagoong, and utak ng baka and lechon.
My extra ordinary feat is limiting my rice intake to one serving a day.
