Grease

The school embarked on its nth school play. This year, they decided to do the stage play Grease. I watched the gala performance last night with my friends and it turned out that it was also alumni night where most of the main characters were previous stars of the plays we have done in the past. Seeing them perform last night brought back a lot of memories! I used to do the stage before.

My first assignment was way back in 1985 when we did the King and I. I designed the stage and the school contracted someone else to execute it. It was directed by Mr. Tony Espejo and it was the first time that I have worked with a professional director. If I remember correctly, the following year, we sought the help of the Repertory Philippines and staged South Pacific. This time it was the other way around. Someone designed the stage and I executed it! We also did Carousel, Annie and the Sound of music.

The stage is not really new to me as I used to be in school plays when I was in the elementary grades at La Consolacion School in Caloocan City several eons ago. I used to perform. However, it stopped when I got to high school. My priorities changed.

The stage is a wonderful place to work in. The fun part is in the rehearsals. We would stay at the theatre until the wee hours of the morning rehearsing. We would tremble and sink our heads everytime the director was not pleased and cursed! I remember how the kids would turn yellow when Tony Espejo, the late Bibot Amador or Baby Barredo shouted unmentionables. But that was part of the discipline. This was the time when I was no longer onstage and just watching, waiting for them to finish so that I could continue my work, adding on or taking out from the design as needed. It always had to be perfect as on stage, each performance will practically be the last! No more repetitions. Once you've committed a mistake, that's it! You cannot say sorry to the audience and ask them to forget about it as you go back to where you have left off. Discipline and perfection! That's what you aim for.

Last night's performance may not have been that perfect as the singers sometimes would turn flat on a few bars but the dancing and the overall mood was almost perfect! I am particularly proud of my co-teachers who joined the production. They did well. Kudos to the performers and looking forward to next year's production!

Moving On

Every year, the wife and I embark on a new project. When we got married, the first project, other than making babies, of course, was to purchase our own house. Well, we're almost there. A few more years and we would have paid off the mortgage of our first project. Then, every year, we built it up slowly, adding and subtracting to our own tastes. A few more years after, the car, etc...

We are embarking on a big one this year. We are getting the house renovated. That means we have to move to another house in the meantime so that neither we nor the workers get in each others way. That also means we have to haul most of our things to the new place we are renting and you can just imagine what twenty years or so of accumulated things, mostly trash, can be. We keep discovering things we've saved meant to be used in the future but forgotten about them. Time grows on us and it does not wait. It just goes on and on like a clock that does not run out of batteries. Hopefully, we will only have to withstand two months of discomfort and we will be moving again to a newer house we've always called home.

Fair is fair!

There are three sides of the truth: your truth, my truth and the truth. I have blogged about the golf incident but that was based on one side of the story. The Valley Golf club had already come out with its investigation and has given penalties to what it thinks were at fault. The verdict can be read here. Since the parties are both unknown to me and that I have nothing to gain from taking sides, as I am not wont to take sides on any story anyway, I am reproducing the other side of the story for your perusal. You can read it here

11 0 4

My former student, Miki, in her response to this post, wondered how my son's band, 11 0 4, sounded during their first stint at the Podium. In my response, I promised her I'd post somethng as soon as I can get hold of something. My daughters took some videos and although the quality may not be that great, maybe these can do for now. View it here, here and hereHope you like it.

Me and my appetite

The only thing I don't like about the holiday season is that the food triggers my tastebuds like crazy. I had to indulge with a lot of wonderful food which is actually very bad for a diabetic like me. Much more that my micro albumin is getting high. I think that means my kidneys are extracting protein. Since most of the food being served are party food, i.e. lots of red meat which I had been forbidden by the doctor to partake, I can't help myself but give it a try. The small bite became a big one and more. That made me think I will stop eating meat the following day. How wrong could I have been? Dismally wrong!

This afternoon, I went to see my doctor and lo and behold, my weight is up again to 190 pounds! To think it was down to 170. As usual, I have to pay the lab a visit and see how my blood is doing this Saturday. Hopefully, my micro-albumin has not soared otherwise, it will be not be a good sign.

The problem with diabetes is that it is an illness that makes you hungry all the time. What's more is that sometimes, your blood sugar drops and you feel like as if you're melting like a candle. You begin to shiver and become very very weak. If only my body can have a tune-up the same way the mechanic gave my car.