"Way of the Heart" journey: Randomness of the universe

I'm 62 and I close this chapter of my life with sorrow, with sadness and tears because on December 8, 2013 (Sunday) 3days before my 62nd birthday at 5pm, I lost my love, my best friend, my partner of 17 years to a massive heart attack.

It was so sudden I couldn't believe that in less than 24 hours, he was all ashes in a white square box waiting when I will lay him in our land in Siquijor and at sea where he wanted to be.

 It took me 4 months to have the courage to go on the "Way of the Heart" journey.

I spent the whole month of April & 1st week of May in a vacation described as "way of the heart" journey.

It actually means you take a journey back to where you come from with your heart guiding your way. You wouldn't believe how things fall into place; time, schedules, people/friends/relatives you want to meet are in synch.

I traveled to Siquijor Island on April 14 & stayed there for the Holy Week celebration. I went there to scatter the ashes of my husband on our land there and into the ocean. 

John, my hubby wanted his ashes to be scattered there and because he was with the UK Royal Navy & a sailor, the ocean was his favorite place.

Having kept that promised, I stayed in the island for 3 days to heal myself.  

My bosom friend Rizalie and Belinda's family kept me company; hugged and embraced my grief as theirs too. They were there all the way to keep me in check! 

I am forever grateful to them from my heart...

The 2nd promise I have to keep was to take one of my very loyal ward, Gina to Dumaguete City for a job.

Gina has been our house help since she was 8 years old. We sent her to school until she finished college with a degree in teaching major in Special Education last year. 

I have a friend in Dumaguete City that owned a school. I recommended/ applied for her and she was admitted without question.

She's now there doing her OJT & she will be hired effective June 2014.

"Way of the heart" journey also include reconnecting with friends, friends that you've not seen for decades and relatives, siblings, nieces & nephews and those close to your heart. What surprised me though was how random the schedules were. They weren't planned but they were all there at contact & at the right time!

I spent a week at my friend's farm in Sta. Catalina town in Negros Oriental. Erla & I were classmates in college at Silliman university in Dumaguete City, and we lost track of our whereabouts since 1984! We got reconnected through Facebook in May 2013. 

While I was in Dumaguete, I called her up & she was at home with her kids who are also on vacation. She invited me to spend a week with them. 

 It was such a wonderful heartfelt experience in her home. Catching up conversation, tears, eating, be yourself, and lots of laughter and bonding with the rest of her family! It was exhilarating. 

The goodbyes were happy & hopeful for the next homing experience.

Another random meeting with an artist friend, Kitty. I was about to leave back to Cebu in the evening of April 22. The last time we met was in 1997. 

Thru Facebook again we reconnected about 2 months ago. Randomly, I just called on her home & she was there.

 She was on her way out to go to the bank, the same bank I also wanted to go! 

So we rode in her car, chatting and proceeded to a restaurant for lunch. 

We took photos of ourselves, we ate the kind of meal we used to eat...that was indeed fated! 

We did have a quality time for almost 3 hours, the only time we got for that day & we sealed out goodbyes with hugs & kisses!

Then, I met with my PIA-NegOr office mates, laughed, ate & conversed with them for the rest of the day because that evening I had to go back to Cebu for the next random trip.

The next stop for the "way of the heart" journey was going back to my roots. To my childhood/high school days. Meet with relatives, cousins, siblings and the "Babaylan clan".

My family name is Babaylan. My father belongs to the "Higaonon tribe" an Indigenous Peoples (IP) tribe in the Gingoog-Butuan areas. 

We had a reunion of the Babaylan Clan at Dinah's beach resort where we met our great grand elders, cousins, uncles & most of the clan. 

What was very interesting to me was that I am now a member of the IP "Higaonon Tribe" and I'm called "Bae Manunulat" or a female writer. I have an IP identity card to show. 

I also experienced a  "Higaonon Tribal Wedding ritual" of one of my nieces in the clan. That was really a feel-good/wonderful/ back-to-roots experience and they were all random!

The next 2 weeks were spent on the beach with siblings & reconnecting/spending time with high school batch '68, reminiscing what we did then.

Eat, laugh, live... and love was the overall most profound feeling present in the journey. 

I went back home to Cebu on May 4 full of wonderful memories. I thought that was enough...

My "way of the heart" journey was extended to another week of sun, sea, sand & workshop stint in Panglao Island, Bohol.

My agency scheduled the Climate Change Advocacy workshop for the PIA-DENR communicators from central office & the Visayas & Mindanao regions. It was held at Alona Kew White Beach Resort in Panglao, the little Boracay in Bohol, they say.

The whole stretch of ALona beach was just fantastic! The oceans are blue and calm & in the evening, the beach is a hive of activities.

I donned a bikini, walked barefoot, basked in the sunrise, took a swim in the beach and dipped in the pool. It was purely honest!

After the workshops were done, the tour of Bohol Island began. The team saw the Tarsiers' habitat, had great time taking photos with the nocturnal creature. 

From the Tarsiers off to the geological wonder of the Chocolate Hills at Sagbayan Peak & in Carmen to the Loboc River Cruise, a famous Bohol tourism attraction down to dinner at the Bee Farm where food serve are all organic and from their own garden & all products/meals are honey-based.

My last day of my journey was very random. Called on some friends in Bohol-- Merly, Ardissa & Gaya if they can adopt me for a night. Viola! They took me to dinner, had great conversations, laughed out loud, slept over, and had breakfast at Merly's. 

I went home with a deep tan, packed wonderful memories and some random lessons learned along the way:

1. You must go on a "Way of the Heart" journey in your lifetime.

2. Reconnect with your friends and spend time with them in your most authentic "self"

3. Inhale everything in the universe and exhale gratitude that all these are yours to enjoy

4. Laugh, live, love more because these will make you healthy

5. "Way of the Heart" journey is random & randomness is NOW. 

6. Love is the only constant in the universe

7. Nature is always kind & more generous than you can imagine

8. Nudity is honesty

9. Respect & love your "self" because that is your "soul"

10. I am God's work in progress

Thoughts before I sleep, October 20, 2013

Today's thoughts before I sleep: 

Let me thank my PIA7 staff especially those from Bohol--Rey, Elvie, Yboy and Junjun for continuously sending SMS which I turned into tweets that are being followed, retweeted, mentioned, and favorited by the global/virtual community whose numbers I may never know.

May I commend Elvie for standing by at the Tagbilaran City operation center where she gets and sourced out information, situation and updates from all over the towns in Bohol.

Rey, for making tweets/info that lead, guide many teams to access roads, routes and footbridges so that help, relief and rescue are dispatched at least with his first hand experience.

Rey's training as a professional tour guide are reflected on his tweets and, SMS or information on where to pass, detour or what kind of transport best suited for a particular track.

He tweets new routes, dangers of roadslips and landslides, unsafe roads and bridges, as well as the relief needs of people affected by the quake and the indomitable spirit of responders and volunteers.

As I composed these information into official leads/tweets, I imagined myself in those routes, roads, bridges, dangers, death.

It was like a movie I played in my mind...a landscape of vast, massive destruction with children, women, and people against the backdrop of dust, mud, shambles, rubbles and heroism.

I could almost feel the eerie silence of a place that Rey described in his tweets and I could see him in a huddle with his wife and children one rainy night inside their tent perched outside his house that the quake destroyed in half.

This is the image I want to leave you tonight from one of Rey's tweets:

"Rains come tonight, forcing scattered sleeping mats to huddle under one tent as quake fail to break our oneness."

iPhone experience 2: All's Well that Ends Well

My close encounters with iPhone & SMART Communications really tried my patience.

Just as my iPhone 4S got busted, my office, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) issued me an iPhone 5 that I received on May 10.

Excited to use it, I immediately put the retention SIM in.

Called PIA-regional operations & Admin to request our PLDT/SMART corporate account coordinator to facilitate the activation of my retention SIM.  

I was told to wait for 3 days. The 3 days ran up to 11 days before I could use it because SMART had to change the SIM.

iPhone 5 is wonderful, very much better than iPhone 4S. Apple must have fixed all the kinks in iPhone 4S to come up with this wonderful experience of iPhone 5.

Now, let's go back to my busted iPhone 4S which SIM is still under the P2000/mo plan until May 2014. 

Called Ms. Hazel Amoyan of SMART again, asked her advise on what I should do with this busted iPhone unit, and whether SMART can change it so I can continue with the plan.

Ms. Hazel tried everything and then..a replacement unit was possible! It was a Samsung Galaxy Mega dual core.

"Ah, Android technology," I thought. I heard so much good reviews about the Samsung Galaxy. I was actually excited to try it. 

It's been 3 months now that I'm using the unit. I like its size, just exact for a palm grasp and great for reading ebooks, news, documents, Facebook and everything else. 

This is Ms Hazel and her protégé of SMART-Visayas.  We had coffee after I got the Samsung Galaxy Mega to show my heartfelt appreciation of what she did to take care of my needs.

Ok, now my review of the Samsung Galaxy Mega compared to iPhone 5.  

All apps in the iPhone 5 are very user-friendly. One click for every use and you are on your way.  Steve Jobs must have figured this out. 

For example, at the iPhone 5 I can easily switch from one twitter account to the other as admin to 5 accounts without so much fuss. 

I can't do this in the Samsung Galaxy Mega. It asks too many questions before you can manage your tweets, retweets or quotes! 

This is the same with the other applications in the Samsung Galaxy Mega, even with FB or with blogger or with wordpress.

I'm comfortable using both iOS and android but I mostly prefer the iOS because the keyboard of Samsung Galaxy Mega is too light your words or letters literally jump out and more often get the wrong letter and mis-spelling your words. 

Choices differ from person to person. For busy executives, the iPhone is really handy & fast.

I wish Apple makes the next iPhone unit a little wider than its size now-- even as wide as the Samsung Galaxy Mega, that is perfect for me!

I have actually best of both worlds in terms of smart phones and computer.

The iPhone and MacBook Air are swank, they really are a seamless pair that editors, writers and directors must have!

The Samsung Galaxy Mega serves as a spare when your iPhone runs out of battery.

My iPhone experience

I got an iPhone 4S on May 4, 2012 thru a SMART P2000/mo plan locked in for 2years with a cash out of P4500.

On May 10, 2013 my iPhone 4S started to have intermittent smart signal and displayed a "NO SIGNAL" sign and difficult to pick up WiFi signal even while I'm in my office.

May 13, Election Day my iPhone worsened! No more signal anywhere else.

I frantically called up our office's Smart corporate contact in Cebu Ms. Hazel Amoyan.

She told me to go to the nearest Smart service center. I went to Ayala Smart service center ASAP.

A guy attended to me and checked my iPhone 4S. After several off and on attempts, he told me to just switch it off and or drained the battery for the phone to be refreshed.

Went home and did exactly what I was told. Somehow, there was signal but it lasted only for a few minutes then signal was gone for good.

Called again Ms Hazel & reported the updates of my phone. She advised me to go to the istore service center either Ayala or SM. Off I went to istore Ayala.

Waited for hours until the technicians surrendered & told me it's a hardware problem.

Called Ms Hazel again. She brought the unit to Smart & was returned to me and I was told to go to a phone repair center called "Airtouch" at SM CyberZone.

That was May 28, 2013. The verdict? Cannot detect SIM, base band chip, defective!

I asked Airtouch whether it can repair my iPhone. It told me, it will open my unit & that I have to execute a waiver that it is not liable for any damage to my phone after the technician opens it up? 

I found that ridiculous. I told them I can't sign a waiver because the unit is SMART PLAN LOCKED!

Then went back to SMART service center in SM to tell them about my problem.

Finally, the girl that attended to me said i can still continue to use the SIM coz that carries the P2000/mo. plan, not the iPhone!

You mean, I'll buy another iPhone to use my SIM? 

Yes, is the answer or SMART will change the SIM to fit other cellphone.

That defeats the purpose, right? I got a P2000/mo plan so I can have an iPhone 4S & now that it is broken, I will continue to use that P2000/mo plan?

Or go back to Airtouch service center, sign the waiver so it can can open up my iPhone & will try to repair it. 

I took a risk. Did the last option but Airtouch's verdict was: cannot repair the unit! 

So now I'm stuck with a defective iPhone 4S with a SIM plan of P2000/mo until May 2014! 

Surely, there must be an alternative!

Why is there no service center for apple products (iPhone,iPod,iPad, etc) in Cebu?

Wondering Harpist...

IPleasantly awaken w/ the sound of a harp music downstairs on a lazy Sunday morning! 

Nong Bonie, is a wondering harpist. He  produces his own 'Alpa' (harp) & wonders from community to barangays around Cebu City to try his new harp.  

He hails from Naga City but lives in Inayawan, Pardo in Cebu City.  Bonie also sells his harp from P5-7T each & he will teach you a song on the harp!