my father's hometown, trinidad, bohol

ever since i was a kid, my father told me stories of their life in bohol. my father came from a little town in bohol known as trinidad. his stories is all about how nice is it to live in that place. he always mentioned of the river where they always went for fishing and the crocodiles living there. i know my father had a very happy childhood because whenever there is time for us to talk, he always reminisces of the good times he had with his siblings and his cousins. it is a little bit funny though, that we cannot trace our genealogy on my father's side. even older people have no idea who their forefathers are. during the last grand reunion of the Puracan clan held in our great hometown, trinidad, we can only trace up their grandfather's name. nothing more.

during my first visit to our holy ground in 1977, i was full of excitement given the chance to finally see for myself my father's birthplace. add to that the feeling of having my first ride on a boat. the trip to bohol was indeed nice but really difficult. we need to travel to butuan city from davao to catch a boat going to jagna, bohol and another 5 hours of busride on a dirt road going there. i really had a nice time there. people simply walk from one destination to another, sometimes we rode on a karomata. i met a lot of relatives, lot of them. one thing i cannot forget about trinidad is how religious our relatives are. sundays are holy. we got nothing to do but spend the day in the church and we didnt ran out of church activities. i also had experienced the way they conduct the DVCS (daily vacation church school). i really had a lot of fun there.

i took my kids there in 2003 and same with what i felt then, they loved the place. probably it is one of those places wherein people really care for each other, relationships with fellowmen is more important than anything else. as the old adage do remind us, there is no place like your father's hometown.

by the way, here's a little trivia about trinidad.

In 1820 Trinidad was yet a barrio in the northern part of Bohol inhabited by a small group of settlers under the leadership of Macag. It was once named Cabigon but the abundance of ipil trees in the area caused it to be referred to as 'Ipil' thus becoming an offcial name when it became a town.

But Ipil became a barrio when it was annexed to Talibon on October 31, 1903 by virtue of Act 968. Several attempts to reestablish Ipil as municipality failed but in 1947, through the combined efforts of the people led by Juan Gonzales and aided by Sen. Oligarion Clarin, Ipil regained its former status as a town and was renamed Trinidad in honor of the wife of Pres. Manuel A. Roxas who issued the EO No. 80 s. of 1947, restoring the community to its former status as an independent municipality.

Trinidad at a glance
Population:	25683
Number of households:	4707
Land area:	9472 ha
Number of barangays:	20
Distance from Tagbilaran:	98 km

if you are planning to visit bohol, include in your iterinary my father's hometown and you find the real meaning of the word, peace. it is really peaceful in there. everything is within your your reach. it could be you retirement haven. enjoy the place.

of moving on and looking forward

there are times in our lives when we are confronted with the dillema on whether we need to stick with it or simply move on. actions are varied and largely depends on how each person react to the situation. more often, the emotional fiber of such person plays the bigger role. we are afraid to lose the person whom we loved so much. but what if the person we loved doesnt love us anymore? is it worth dying for? situations are different. same situation may happen to different people and reactions are, in most cases, different. maybe because we are unique individuals and we act to situations differently.

But the bottomline settles down to one thing, will it be benefecial to all concerned? some say that life itself is of pains and being hurt. that it never meant to be a bed of roses. do we always let ourselves be hurt? in the end, the final question is maybe along this line, are we fair to ourselves? in the movie kungfu panda, master uguay, the turtle teacher said to panda, "yesterday is a past, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift". it doesnt meant we have to forget and deny ourselves on the joy that life brings. we simply need to enjoy God's gift. the gift of being alive everyday. we need to happy and contented with what we have. we dont need life's excessess to be happy.

while waiting for my teacher, i just found myself surfing the net for quotations all about moving and was not disappointed for i found what i'm looking for. i really take these lines by heart and feel it to fully understand its meaning.

guys, simply feel them. here they are.

Sometimes the cards we are dealt are not always fair. However you must keep smiling & moving on ~
Tom Jackson
~ Moving on, is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard. ~
Dave Mustaine
~ To be able to move on, one has to learn to forgive not only the person (or people) who have done one wrong but also oneself ~
Eugenia Tripputi
~ By forgiving and choosing to move on, one takes the power back to morph it into positive energy. ~
Eugenia Tripputi
~ Life is about making the right decisions and moving on. ~
Josh
~ Forgiveness and letting go are steps on our road back to happiness. ~
Tina Dayton
~ You are responsible for your life. You can't keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on. ~
Oprah Winfrey
~ Take a second out to think about this: in your life you search and search for the right person for you. Every time you break up with someone you get one step closer to that person. You should look at moving on as getting closer to meeting the one. ~
Ian Philpot
~ Quietly forgiving and moving on is a gift to God ~ and yourself. ~
Unknown
~ When you start to abandoning your old beliefs or values... you may be stuck at the threshold for two or three years. Before moving on, you have to clear away your cherished beliefs. ~
Dick Raymond
~ Courage is not the absence of fear, but simply moving on with dignity despite that fear. ~
Pat Riley
~ one shot at a time and then move on. Remember that golf is just ~
Nancy Lopez

~ The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on. ~
Ulysses S. Grant
~ Moving On has allowed me to know who I am and to be present in all that I do. I take this forward in my work and in my personal relationships. It is a powerful program and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to move on with their life. ~
Lou
~ If someone you love hurts you cry a river, build a bridge, and get over it. ~
Unknown
~ Letting go doesn't mean giving up... it means moving on. It is one of the hardest things a person can do. Starting at birth, we grasp on to anything we can get our hands on, and hold on as if we will cease to exist when we let go. We feel that letting go is giving up, quitting, and that as we all know is cowardly. But as we grow older we are forced to change our way of thinking. We are forced to realize that letting go means accepting things that cannot be. It means maturing and moving on, no matter how hard you have to fight yourself to do so." ~
Unknown
~ Any change, any loss, does not make us victims. Others can shake you, surprise you, disappoint you, but they can't prevent you from acting, from taking the situation you're presented with and moving on. No matter where you are in life, no matter what your situation, you can always do something. You always have a choice and the choice can be power. ~

the second gwapo

king-king, my second son, is one of the kids who really believed that they are born handsome. at 3 years old, he can read the alphabet and few common english words. we thought he was gifted child because he can understand things with ease.
for this reason, we had him enrolled in the special education school during his kindergarten and grade 1. however, we decided to transfer him to a regular school the following year out of pity that he was pushed to his limits. it seems we deprived him of his childhood because his life was all devoted to studies.

out from sped, he still shows what stuff is he made of. he is a consistent honor student. during our stay in england where he attended level 5, they were surprised to know that this kid has something in himself.

this kid loves football but is into basketball. his fave online games are crazy cart, rakion and warrock. this family believe that he has a very bright future.

by the way, he takes his only uncle on the father side, neil ( a surgeon) as his idol. like his idol, he wants to be a surgeon in the future.......

my dream fire truck

as they always say, once a firefighter, forever a firefighter.

i have been a firefighter for the last 18 years and i really love the job so much. i have been to developed countries and have seen the best the world has to offer. the best airport crash tender i've seen is in schipol airport in amsterdam and in osaka. they have been using carmelray machines.

but being firefighter responding mostly to structural fires, i cant help but simply adore with the beauty of a dennis firetruck which is standard in the united kingdom. i lived in the town of alfreton in derbyshire and watched these machines responding to fire calls. they're really great. i got the chance to sit on it during my visit to the nottingham fire station and the feeling is great. for a firefighter, just taking a sit in the state-of-the-art equipment is everything.

i do believe that in this lifetime, our government cannot purchase one of those. our leaders are super-negligent of our need to protect our own people. we are contented with those under-powered, impractical fire trucks assembled in the philippines. assemblers are simply after the profits, not its effectiveness.

all we can do now is simply pray. for we all know our capabilities are very limited. whether you like it or not, but this is a hard pill to swallow. best thing to do, take care of your own properties.

i got the rat

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2008 is a Year of the Rat (Earth), begins on February 7, 2008 and ends on January 25, 2009. A Rat Year is a time of hard work, activity, and renewal. This is a good year to begin a new job, get married, launch a product or make a fresh start. Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns, but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way for you to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly, and make the most of every opening you can find.

i was surprised and curious to note however, that the year of the rat is not good for people born in the year of the monkey on which i'm one of them. as it is written in the chinese zodiac, this is not a good year for business, health and relationships. it may sound true but i take more of a warning for me. we should watch for the issues that may not be on our favor. while we might not believe it, it may be worth giving it a chance.

by the way, i got the rat himself. taken in singapore during the valentines day, 2008. how i wish by hugging this lucky rat, bad luck will keep distance from me.