When we were very young

While I was in between jobs this year, I had time to look over old albums and retake photos of the contents in hopes that I could preserve them through my Facebook albums and this blog. I managed to upload a number in FB, and they got a wide range of comments from page visitors, comments like how happy the children looked or how come we didn't buy the kids nice clothes (from disgruntled fashion-conscious daughter and niece).

Hermie Beltran put it so well when he commented: "As always, old photos, like old songs, touch our deepest chords."

Here I am getting all sentimental and "emo" with the holidays and a new year approaching. So before the photos, the old-fashioned kind, not the ones from the digicam, are feasted on by silverfish and termites, I'm posting them during this lull between deadlines.

I wonder how we will all look like 10 years down the road?

At my cousins' house on McKinley road, Forbes Park.

With my grand-aunt Lucy Yatco Nelle who worked for the longest time at Coca-Cola Corp. (I was already in college and she was still working for Coke. This somehow made me partial to that soda.)

Dad holds me up at the old Server pool in Forbes Park, still in the halcyon '50s. Daddy was a sportsman in his own way: he could swim, ride a horse, bowl, fish, jog, play golf.

That's cousin Shorty Server carrying me on my second birthday in our house in Santa Mesa, Manila.

Fast forward to the '80s. That's my partner of 27 years Rolly Fernandez enjoying his day off with his young wife (that should be me) at Puerto Azul, Cavite, in February 1985, a few months before our first child was born.

Here I am, pregnant with Kimi, at the first home Rolly and I made in Antipolo, Rizal, 1985. Rolly had a bar built to divide the kitchen-dining areas from the receiving area. (I must ask my techie daughter how to turn my photo right side up. Sorry about that.)

And here are my girls, the older one ill with asthma at the time this picture was taken, the younger one, Ida, showing the makings of a fattie. But Ida grew to be tall and slim. Kimi was strong enough to attend this birthday party at my friend Lulu Camello Pasamba's house sometime in the '80s.

The circle of life nearly completes itself.Soundtrack from the movie "Lion King" can be heard in the background. Kimi is now a mother herself. Her daughter Kai (infamously nicknamed Butones by this grandma) has brought so much happiness in our lives that I can't help but close my visual narrative with her as clincher.

Mad about books and the babe, too

We're a family that loves and lives for books. I confess I can be writing more (my vocation and avocation) if not for being tempted away by a good read.

As a young mother in the '80s and '90s, I tried mightily to see to it that my two daughters absorb and assimilate this passion. Last month, when my youngest Ida accompanied my partner and me to the Manila Book Fair at SM Mall of Asia SMX, her wry question before we boarded the cab was, if her tatay would break his all-time high of P10,000-plus worth of purchases last year. Well, about a third of that were my selections so I was restrained this time around--I exercised the strictest self-control. I said I'd just keep to my duty of signing books that UST Publishing House's Jack Wrigley asked me to do.Ida was also restrained, even selecting kiddie titles on emotions (happiness, sadness, anger) not for her but for her niece Kai.

A week ago, after "Pedring" and "Quiel" exited the country, Kimi and I pronounced it a good day to go on a book foray in downtown Baguio. There is just one authentic book shop that respects its visitors, young and old, and turns their customers into frequent shoppers: Mt. Cloud Bookshop.

On this latest visit, I found my book reservations intact. Unlike in other stores that just give you a few days to cough up the money for your reservation, this one is aware how writers and artists struggle for their fees so it allows you some leeway to earn.

The shelves are full to the brim, and the "Death by cuteness" items (notebooks, post-its and other stationery) had to be moved to a table while colorful origami birds hung from the windows and other corners.

Proud to say, Kai is at home here--she was my youngest guest at my book launch in July. She has attended a story-telling session there. This time her mother and I wanted to pose her by the new black and white mural showing a Cordillera girl reading and imagining. Kimi had long waited for this chance.

I came away with these purchases: a collection of garden poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Series), Cathy Birch's The Creative Writer's Workbook (with exercises on building up a story character suitable for my high school students who want to go into fiction writing) and an Icon picture book on The Swan herself, Grace Kelly. For Kai, a cardboard Abakada book published by Adarna.

Our book appetites satisfied, Kai suckled on her mother's breasts and quickly nodded off. I met my girlfriends for two hours worth of catching up at nearby Hill Station which now offers apple pie on its dessert list. Merci Dulawan and I had a wedge each. The slice is thick and generous, but I had no problem polishing that off with the coffee.

When it was time to leave, we made a brief stopover at Kai's grumpa's office, then got cracking on our purchases once settled at home base.