Halloween.

We came as a Pirate in our group's last Halloween Party. The shirt was a sturdy, long-sleeved cotton branded Papillon and the pair of pants was a striped, brown semi-loose. Then, we found a package of pirate headress, eye patch and an earing at the Metro in the BGC area.

Whoa.

Pirate of the Carribean.

In the Business District of Makati, there was a Zombie Fun Run.

In Canada at same time of the year, kids and adults would have donned their Halloween best costume and went door to door for the traditional TRICK OR TREAT.

Halloween is a big street or neighbourhood party in North America. In malls and groceries, candies are packed in bundles and people grab them to give out as treats. Day after Oct. 30th, these same bags sell for much, much less.

Manila has just picked up on this Irish North American tradition. And hopefully there'd be no criminal activities such as spiking candies with blades or bad elements making the bizarre and weird for real.

Two days after Halloween is the traditional Philippine remembrance of the dead. All Saints Day and All Souls Day are celebrated nationally by offering flowers and candles at graveyards of dead relatives.

Nowadays, this unique Philippine tradition of honouring the departed ones has calmed down from the heydays of "karaoke singing," drinking and partying at the graveyard to a more sombre tone of prayers and family reunions.

While upscale families opt to buy and live in condominium buildings, only those with less resources choose to inter their departed ones in the so-called "apartment-style" gravesites, pictured below.

Apartment-style graveyard are the cheaper alternatives to individual and gated graves.

Dwarfed news.

The other day we were on the way to Dapitan to buy Christmas decors and Greenhills at La Salle was like a ghost town so we reached Araneta Avenue in no time and that's where the traffic nightmare began.

It took us 45 minutes from the corner of SM in Araneta to reach V. Mapa intersection. There were no warning signs and no word from traffic enforcers as to what was happening. Only the innermost left lane was moving, so we followed the cars and buses turning left.

That's how we found out that no car could go straight onto Sta. Mesa because jeepneys and other vehicles were  parked along R.M. Magsaysay, and they even faced the oncoming traffic.

Turning left was not an option, too. So we decided to make a U (the only option) and headed back home.

The reason for the humongous mess: a local religious sect had an evangelization/fellowship being celebrated in Manila. Holy Canoly!

We ended up at the Greenhills Shopping Complex.

Yesterday we resumed our trip to Dapitan. Being a Holiday, streets were almost empty but finding a parking spot became the problem of the day.

Dapitan Arcade had all sorts of Christmas fantasy bits: trees, lights, nativity scenes, religious icons and statues, vases, pots, plates, chairs painted into antique-looking pieces, all types of Santa Claus, wickers and baskets and more stuff which are all bargain priced compared to big department store prices. There were huge Citronella plants for sale, too.

But the thing I wanted to buy was nowhere to be found: real antique capiz windows, and pint-sized garden dwarf figurines. I saw a complete set of Snow White and her seven dwarfs which fetched for 5,000+ pesos but they don't seem to belong in the garden as they seemed too polished.

The news of the earthquake in Bohol and Cebu got to me only in the evening.

Walk in the Park.

When I was working at St. Claire in mid-town Toronto, we spent after- lunch hours either sipping coffee at Seattle's Best with our friend Alborz, taking a walk with a group of guys from the office who, like me, wanted to burn out sugar and calories, doing the grocery, browsing at the shelves of  Dollar Store for bargain tools and paint brushes and cables, etc, or browsing the shelves of  a rental video.

Summertime Salsa Dancing in St. Claire

In one of our walks, someone discovered a beautiful trail, which we soon frequented. The trail was full of lovely, Canadian houses with picture-perfect gardens. One will be fooled of its location; it was a rich man's private enclave within an old city neighbourhood.

Hidden gem in busy St. Claire neighbourhood

There were afternoons when we took a walk to a Portuguese bakery and had our coffee there and a purchase of a Lotto ticket.

There were other parks within walking distance from our office and sometimes, for no reason at all, we'd take our packed lunch and consume it at a park.

One of the many parks in the City of Toronto

Loblaw's at the corner of St. Claire and Bathurst is one of our favorite groceries. Then,  there's a Timothy's Coffee nearby and a few Filipino grocers and dine-in, take-out fast foods along St. Claire.

Our favorite Italian Restaurant in the area was Ferro's, and on Tuesdays, we'd cross to Kentucky Fried Chicken for their Toonie Tuesday offers.

Coffee was always overflowing in any meeting or function in Toronto; doughnuts and cookies were always present, too.

And during cocktails or parties, there was the ever present cheese - lots of it in different varieties. 

A moon-filled night.

Driving from Intramuros back home, I took Pedro Gil instead of travelling via Buendia. Pedro Gil, I still prefer to call it Herran, was a mess at five in the afternoon.  Public jeepneys, "de padyaks", and an assortment of cabs and private vehicles were fighting for what was left of the street, as other cars turning left blocked those going straight, and as commuters waited for their rides almost in the middle of the street.

As we passed St. Paul's University and U.P. Faura, I almost didn't recognize the two institutions as they looked shabby amidst the narrowed streets occupied by stores, hotels, sidewalk vendors, and slow and parked public utility vehicles.

Then on to Dart, Paco, I almost cried upon seeing the even narrower street leading to my Alma mater. To my left, I was pleased to see the facade of what used to be Bellevue Theatre, with its pillar and decor intact still.

Robert Downey, Jr as Sherlock Holmes with Noomi Rapace who played Sim, the gypsy, in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

At the railroad crossing in Osmena Highway,  I heard the railroad bell and stopped right before the track. Other vehicles took their chance and raced to the other side. Then the train didn't make a move, and the rail guard didn't close down, so together with other cars, I drove quickly and passed the crossing.

Many moons ago in Weirton, West Virginia, there was a railroad crossing wherein cars waited ten minutes or so for industrial trains to pass through. This was before the new highway was built and I had to pass through old Weirton and onto University Avenue in Steubenville before reaching Sunset Boulevard where we lived.

Which led me to think more of  trains. Couple of days ago, I watched a re-run of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows where Holmes, Dr. Watson and a gypsy girl  travelled to Germany by horse and Holmes was captured by Moriarty inside his armory.

When Dr. Watson finally freed Holmes and as they fled, Moriarty's weaponry pounded them and killed most of  Holmes' company. The quad of Holmes, Watson, the gypsy girl and her aide escaped via a passing cargo train.

Which led me to think, how many movies have I seen where a passing cargo train from nowhere facilitated the escape and saved the life of the main character? Many.

A passing shadow stole the ride amidst the moon filled night. 

The Perils of Phones.

I had Vibber uploaded into my Iphone recently so my relatives in  the U.S.A can phone me and I can call them for free. I have also "facetime" and Skype. And I have "facebook" and internet connection via Iphone.

Then of course, the old reliable email adds to the connectivity to the outside world.

But the other day, one associate informed me that she was texting an important meeting which we didn't receive. The text was sent to a Nokia which we suspect had been acting strangely, meaning some texts are not being processed and received.

The sender was thinking we didn't care about the event, and we were thinking, she didn't call for a meeting.

In today's highly wired world, the technology which is expected to improve mass communication sometimes becomes the source of mis-communication.Why? Because we rely too much on it.

We think that if we email someone, s/he'd see it right away and respond. But we never think that sometimes emails go directly into a receiver's spam folder because of the filtering or privacy settings that s/he had inadvertently done to her/his program.

Or when we send an SMS to someone, we immediately think it's been sent successfully and received successfully. We do not see lag-issues, provider issues, and sometimes, "low-bat" or "no-load" issues. Some phones or providers do not process text messages when the receiver's phone has no pre-paid load, and the message is kept hanging somewhere.

Ourselves, we try to email and text at the same time for important issues and concerns we want known and taken up if we are expected to be the initiator of something.

And of course, a "live call," is always the best, because no load or with load, we can always reach someone.

I remember an old, 1984 phone commercial of AT & T, " Reach out and touch someone." Play it here.

A Street called Church.

In Toronto, there's a street called Church. It intersects Dundas and that's where you find the St. Michael's Cathedral. Nearby is George Brown College, Golden Thai, a favorite of mine, some thrift shops, and further down at Front Street is the  O'Keefe Theatre, now known as Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. In the vicinity of Front is the famous St. Lawrence Market, framed now by countless condominiums.

St. Michael's Cathedral

Church Street is roughly bounded by Gerrard Street to the south, Yonge Street to the west, Charles Street to the north, and Jarvis Street  to the east, with the core commercial strip located along Church Street from Wellesley south to Alexander.

Way, way up is the CN Tower, the tallest structure in Canada and if you follow John St., you'd find an array of exotic restaurants in the theatre district of Toronto where tourists and locals get to watch shows such as Les Miserables, Mama Mia, etc at the Royal Alexander, the Princess of Wales, and the other theatres.

CN Tower in Toronto.

Church Street also boasts of bums lying over exhaust openings from the subway system below. Other times, these creatures ply the traffic and offer motorists a quick window wash. One Toronto Mayor banned these "impromptu car wash boys."

Also within walking distance is Toronto's Wall Street, the Bay Street. And of course there's Yonge Street, a tourist attraction show casing restaurants, specialty shops and shows, bargain souvenir stores, tatoo boutiques, and sidewalk cafes.

St. Lawrence Market, partly a farmer's market with lots of fresh veggies and fruits on Saturday and Sunday and a flea market, too

Queen's Street is another busy street in the Church street-area. That's where Old City Hall is located.

Aside from the iconic St. Mike's Cathedral, Church Street is home to the gay community in Toronto and stones' throw away from Gerrard, where St. Anne's Church stands amidst the little Chinatown and Indian town.

The crab.

It's much easier to stay silent, and sit by yourself in the imagined cubicle you erected - walls impenetrable by people who don't like to be dealt with.

When we were young, and unsure of ourselves, we preferred to remain quiet during recess at school and on class hours, we acted prim and proper and listened to our elementary school teachers with ears and eyes wide opened. We never bullied anyone, even if "slum boys" pestered our girl school mates.

But as we grew older and saw  the real world for what it was, we couldn't help but stand up noisily for that was what was required to be heard and seen.

Especially for small or short people, being heard is a hard task. With big and tall people, being heard is even harder if the meat of the message is a dung.

Politicians in the Philippines, a lot of times, don't need height nor weight to be heard, seen or get elected. They simply need to have the right network of manipulators and vote buyers. Sad but true.

In ordinary people's lives, there are manipulators, instigators, and provocateurs working behind the scenes. They are the destroyers of dreams, visions, projects and lives.

They act vile because they want to get the credit for your work, they have been paid to do the dirty job, envy you and your family, or they are just simply mean and evil ( like rude drivers who drive you crazy, thieves, hold uppers, car jackers, rapists, those with crab mentality,  and pork barrel scammers).

But in simple, community environs where proper decorum and etiquette are still required, there are still scums who ignore "hellos and hi's" and smiles and small talk as if wealth is the only yard stick for returning the greeting and the warmth.

Pets, especially dogs are man's best friend, indeed. They may have the brain of a pea, but they respond warmly to man's simple gestures of care.