Good news from Globe and a few other stuff

This morning, I got a call from Globe in Shangrila. They said my Nokia 2630 was ready for pickup. Now that's service. Hopefully, Yupangco/Yamaha will be as quick. Emailed Godin but no answer so far. I wonder if they ever will respond...

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Last night when we bought the Silent Guitar from Yamaha in Megamall, the guy attending to us had a lip ring. That was the first time ever I saw someone with one up close. So even as my son winced, I just had to ask: was it painful? His answer: No and he did it himself. I asked "Did it bleed?" Again he answered in the negative. I went on: what if you bite it while eating? He said "nabali na nga po, tinanggal ko lang (the broken piece)." I said, "sana wala kang ring sa dila." His answer, "tinanggal ko na po. Nagalit na nanay ko. Gawa lang ito ng kabataan ko." Mind you, he didn't look that young. And if I saw him in the street rather than in a store selling "matino" stuff, I'd be fearful of him. But as Melanie Marquez said, "don't judge my brother; he's not a book." I rest my case.

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I went to Big and Small in Shangrila and the cashier remarked "ang tagal niyo na hindi bumabalik dito ah". Actually she didn't at all look familiar to me. Nor did the girl beside her, who volunteered, "Ako dati sa Glorietta" and without thinking, I said I didn't go to Glorietta. (I don't like it's architecture which drives me nuts going round and round and round). She laughed and said, "takot kayo?" Only then did it occur to me that she asked if I were afraid because of the bombing months back. So I asked, "were you there?" She said she was at the bank to deposit. Luckily for the other store clerks, too, she said, they were all huddled near the cashier's and not by the doorway which crashed. So all of them were unscathed. One of the victims though had just come from their store. She had just left with her husband when the bomb exploded. I asked if Big and Small sent flowers. She said they lit a candle for her in the area designated by Glorietta management for the purpose.

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Last night, I asked my husband if he and the yamaha personnel who accompanied him to withdraw (per my request) talked. He said, "I don't have the gift of small talk." Some time ago, I told him that "small talk" comes easily if one doesn't regard it as "small talk." All one has to do is to be genuinely interested in others-- their stories, their thoughts their feelings-- if they seem inclined to share. I regret now that when I was much younger I was always hesitant to ask questions. I guess the fear stemmed from being thought dumb because asking meant not knowing the answers? And I didn't want to be thought dumb. With age came the wisdom, the brazenness, the gall to ask, throwing care to the wind that by asking, one would appear dumb. Is this newfound courage a result of humility as well? That one acknowledges one doesn't know the answer to everything, so one asks...?


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Caution: days back, the maid pointed out three blisters on my tummy. (and I didn't feel them-- a privilege of paralysis -- no feeling, no sensation, no feeling of pain.) I don't know how I got those blisters there, but methinks it may have been caused by heat radiated by the MacBook? I could be wrong. Way, way back, I also developed a blister in my tummy from the tape of my disposable diaper which stuck to my tummy rather than to the diaper. Onion-skinned, that's what I am both literally and figuratively. Years back, I also got a blister while I was cooking on the electric stove on a table beside my wheelchair. Heat must have been conducted to the metal parts of the wheelchair and transferred to the side of my knee. Want pictures? No way...