Pope JP II twice

"Not once, but twice!" says Susan Roces' famous line. Pope John Paul II was beatified last May 1, 2011. He visited the Ph twice in 1981 and 1995.

Early Eighties.
I was in elementary then and our family including Uncles and Aunties went to Baguio City to catch a glimpse of the Pope in his first visit to the Ph. There was a motorcade infront of Burnham Park and Papa (not the Pope) was carrying me on his shoulders. I was probably 15 to 20 feet from JP2 and being carried by JL2.

Mid Nineties.
My second sighting of the Pope JP II was during the World Youth day. It was a chance encounter as I was abt 30 feet above the street riding an LRT on my way home to Tarlac when I saw him inside the Cardinal's Residence along Taft Avenue, Manila. Albeit far, it was technically consider my second "encounter" of Pope John Paul II.

Surprise by MC

Our little girl continues to surprise us. Aside frm being the class president in her first foray in a election and a consistent quarterly academic award, recently she surprised me in a basketball and car topic.

Kobe Bryant.
Last week when we were window shopping in Powerplant, she said "Hey Dads, Let's buy this Lakers KB jersey for kuya." Then I replied "Kuya already has a Lakers KB jersey." She said "You're right. Besides, it's an old jersey." The jersey's # is 8. KB is now using #24 since '06.

BMW Z3.
Also last week, on the way back to the car from Rustan's supermarket, I told her "Daughter, this is what a BMW 3 series looks like" pointing to a black BMW E90 body. Then I said "This is what a BMW X3 looks like." pointing to a silver BMW E83 body. Then she surprised me with this retort "So Dads, what does a BMW Z1 look like?"

How many graders ask that type of question or give that input?

ToF (Tour of the Fireflies) Experience

What is the Tour of the Fireflies?
Reference: www.fireflybrigade.org/

The 13th ToF route covered the Cities in Metro Manila: Pasig - San Juan - Quezon City - Manila - Pasay – Mandaluyong.

My cyclometer read almost 35 kilometer. We joined the peleton from Tiendesitas to CCP however choose a different route from CCP back to Tiendesitas. It was reported that 15,000 joined this year’s run. It’s a big 87.5% increase from last year’s participants.

Despite being an almost 2 decade old biker, it was my first time to join the 13th Tour of the Fireflies in Metro Manila. I’d like to share some of my observations during the 5 hour affair last April 17, 2011.

1- Biker Family
Father & son, father & daughter, husband & wife, husband & other wife... It's a family affair. Even the star rangers were there. You know the star rangers, right? (Link Star Rangers)

2- Quiapo, Quiapo!
So Quezon Blvd street in front of Quiapo church (officially known as Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene) experiences traffic every day. It’s one of the busiest areas in the metropolis and April 17 was no different. Bike traffic was turning from bad to worse and the culprit was…that everybody wanted to take a picture of the “mass” of bikers.

3- Water share
We were in Ortigas Avenue approaching Edsa when I spotted a sweet biker couple. The biker guy shared his hydration pack with his lovey dovey. It actually sounds unsanitary but my focus is more on the act of sharing.

4- Bike gamut
Mountain bikes, road bikes, recumbent bikes, folding bikes, cruisers, low rider, tall bike, low end bikes, high end, name it and they all had it. Well, almost as I didn’t see any triathlon bikes. There were a number of bike clubs as well like Smart, Globe, Unilever, location based bike clubs or just a group of friends.

5- Manny insight
One of my bike club co-members Manny P. (not Pangilinan) provided a very valuable insight. He said that the reason why he always joins the ToF is because it is the only time he gets to bike around Metro Manila major thoroughfares free from dangers (read: motorized vehicles). During that ride, bike is the king of the road.

The almost 5 hour Sunday ride actually achieved 3 personal objectives: support in lessening the carbon footprint, burned some calories and bonded with my fellow SCC members.

Happy Birdie!

I am not talking about golf, nor the male anatomy or the 2 legged winged mammal. This entry is about stats gathered during my birthday. How many friends or acquaintances do I know? Actually, I don't keep a tab however what I'd like to share is how many persons in my database greeted me. Here goes:

(1) FB friends = 441 greeted / 1717 friends. 25.68% hit rate.
(2) SMS = 99 greeted / 1670 friends. 5.96% hit rate.
(3) Email = 8 greeted.
(4) Verbal greeting = 8 greeted.
(5) twitter friends = 8 greeted / 205 friends. 3.90% hit rate.
(6) MS Office Communicator = 6
(7) FS friends = 0 greeted / 336 friends. 0% hit rate.
(8) letter or birthday card = zero.

Conclusions:
1- FB is hot! Until when, that's the next BIG question.
2- FS is not. Who's still in FS? Hello, anybody in here?
3- Email will not die. It has its purpose just like the Piranha. Ang layo ata nun?!?!
4- Sending a Birthday Card is a "dying tradition." I must chip in to keep it alive.
5- The fact that my "greeting rate" is a lowly 15.26% means 1 of 2 things: 1- they don't know my birthday or 2- they refuse to greet me. LOL.