Life's little pleasures

There are several instances when my family, in spite of the hardships in life, allow ourselves some luxury. I'm talking about birthday celebrations, graduations and the little milestones we manage to hurdle in our, oherwise, simple lives. I've been sharing these lately in my posts so you can see that basically, I am happy.

Once again, I beg for your indulgence and allow me to share with you my wife's birthday and our anniversary which we decided to celebrate at the Westin Philippine Plaza. (Last year, we spent this double celebration at the Shangri-la Hotel. I wrote about it, too. This year, Nitz' sister, who is a member of the hotel, decided she'd take her family with us, too. So, yesterday, we took two rooms at the hotel and decided to stay there overnight. It sure was a welcome respite from the usual heat we are experiencing these days. The children had stayed at the pool for almost like eternity while I stayed in the room watching tv and enjoy sleeping during the duration of the stay. At around 10 pm, my brother-in-law, Nitz's actually, as he is the husband of my sister-in-law, arrived from China and we all decided to try our luck at the casino. Well, as to be expected, I lost. So goodbye, precious bucks. I knew it was a bad idea! Oh well...

It's now official. I am bound to go to Canada to visit my friend, Arlene Lawson, co-owner and editor of the Country Mouse Peotry e-zine. She's one of the most important people in my life with whom I exchange emails with, practically everyday. We had been brought together by our love for poetry. This is going to be my third trip to the Maple leaf country, which I consider to be my second home. There, I shall meet with another friend, Bob Wands, another poet extraordinaire, whose poetry I have liked from the very start. Hopefully, I will also get to meet another writer friend, Gwen Austin, who has already written two novels under her name. This is going to be another worthwhile trip I shall always remember the rest of my life.

I am now finishing several paintings which I intend to bring with me to Canada. These are commissioned works which I hope will be worthy for their intended buyers. No harm in earning some dough along the way, is there?

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Also, I am going back to teaching. My two-year stint as administrator has taught me a great deal about classroom management and teaching as well. I hope I am not that old for the classroom and manage to keep up with my students. Right now, I am working on my motivational skills and keeping abreast with new trends just so I can keep them intereseted. There is nothing more depressing than having to face a non-responsive audience. So, to my prospective students reading this blog, see you next year.