Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum

Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum are the twin characters in Alice in Wonderland. They're usually portrayed as identical pairs wearing yellow gold tops, just as these two guys wearing yellow gold t-shirts.

And their names are (Twiddle) David and (Twiddle) Dave. ;-)

Where to Find Firecrackers in Bacolod City

After a crackdown of illegally sold firecrackers by the local police, there's only one place to find firecrackers in Bacolod City -- at the Reclamation Area.

No wonder I couldn't find them a few days ago as I was scrounging downtown Bacolod's sidewalks for New Year trumpets and other noisy gadgets for the revelry.


And so I found this bustling alley of all sorts of pyrotechnics vigilantly guarded by armed policemen in uniforms to enforce a no smoking policy on the premises.


There you can find a wide assortment of fireworks, firecrackers and sparklers that suit your fancy. I ignored the big scary ones and settled for the small ones for the kids. PhP200 for a bagful of sparklers, pap pop, piccolo, mini missiles, rainbow lucis... not bad.

White Carabao Just Gave Birth!

White carabao -- albino water buffalo -- is not considered sacred like the white elephant. Back in the ricefields of Ma-ao, Bago City, this beast of burden, normally black in color still gets to work like everybody else.

It was a particularly lucky day when we arrived in Ma-ao and chanced upon this white carabao that just gave birth to a white carabao calf. Too bad we came just moments late from the actual giving birth.


As can be seen in the picture, the mother white carabao's birth canal is still oozing with fresh blood and placenta.


The interesting about the baby carabao is that, like baby horses and other babies of the same family, they can already stand on their wobbly feet to reach out to their mother's breasts.


Out in the fields, the carabao has a symbiotic partner, the tulabong (tu-LAH-bong) or egret, some hovering about, and some actually riding atop the carabao's back. It's an you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-your-back arrangement. The tulabong "scratches" the carabao's back by feeding on the flies pestering the carabao to its relief.

Carabaos have "birth certificates" called credentials, sort of like land titles showing the name of the owner. Instead of thumb marks distinguishing one person from the other, carabaos are identified by their unique nose prints.

History of the Parol

Parol (pa-ROL) is the Filipino pronunciation of the Spanish farol or lantern. Its design is derived from the piñata which itself originated in Italy then was brought to Spain, to Mexico, then finally to the Philippines.

In the Spanish period when the Misas de Aguinaldo (Gift Masses) and the Misa de Gallo (Mass of the Rooster) were held during the wee hours of the morning or before midnight, lanterns lit the way to and from church.

As the parol evolved throughout the ages from candlelit or kerosene-fueled lanterns to the electric-bulb glowing stars, the ever creative Filipino finally incorporated the now classic design after the Star of Bethlehem that guided the shepherds and the wise men to a stable where the Baby Jesus was laid out on a manger.

Today, these lanterns adorn homes as well as public places, heralding the joyous Christmas season, highlighted not only by a gloriously decorated tree, but also by the brightly lit parol.

Haring Damang or King Spider

A spider has eight legs so it is an arachnid, not an insect which has only six legs.

This is the strangest creature I have ever seen, and although the legs are not clearly seen, I'm quite sure it's a spider.

Since spiders (especially the more exotic ones such as this) are not my thing, I consulted a few people over at Yahoo! Ask, and almost everyone agreed that it's a spider and not an insect.

My classmate, Ruel an experienced spider derby enthusiast when he was a kid, had an Ilonng name for this one. It slipped my mind, but it's something like Haring Damang or King Spider.

Jovi Prado-Linga, a high school classmate of mine, had been looking at me from a distance, wondering what on earth was I doing along these corridors of our office building.

As she was still busy talking on her phone, Jovi Prado-Linga couldn't come near me to poke me from my deep immersion over my cell phone.

When she finally came off her phone, she approached me and asked me what had I been up to snickering all by myself over my phone. I told her that I was updating with our other high school classmates on Facebook, and currently, Ruel (Makati), Joe (Houston), Remia (L.A.), Winnie (Kuwait), and Antoinette (Laguna) were exchanging comments about the Ilonggo/Filipino food I have posted yesterday, and everybody agreed that they miss this home cooking so much.

Then suddenly I had an idea: since Jovi Prado-Linga is familiar with everybody else, I asked that we have our picture taken so that I could upload it, blog about it, and post it on Facebook, for all our other classmates to see.

Apparently she likes the idea so much that she kept on giggling as we were having our little impromptu pictorial, both of us admittedly not having combed our hair, powdered, and were perspiring from the afternoon heat!

But I think these minor discomforts did not show as our smiles beamed through.

Imagine a tough bank manager doing credit investigation in the hallowed hall of justice taking a break and being like it was high school days again.

Filipino Food: A White Lunch at Tito Paeng's

Filipino food at its finest: what I call a white lunch at Tito Paeng's.

It just so happened that everything served on the all white Paderna studio-cum-gallery during an impromptu lunch get-together were all white Filipino food.

Tita Sony, Tita Dolly and I met at my office earlier this morning and thought of calling another fellow artist, Rafael Paderna. He invited us over for coffee, but since it was nearing lunch time, he invited us to lunch -- Filipino food in mind -- at his newly built studio-cum-gallery. We then called Tito Rodney to join us as well.

He asked Tita Sony to bring a vegetable dish, laswa, but when we went to 18th Pala-pala, the all-green clear broth Ilonggo veggie dish was out, so we opted for a relative Filipino food, another Ilonggo veggie dish: tambo^ or bamboo shoots in coconut milk.

When we arrived at the charming white-washed bungalow, Tita Fe and Tito Paeng graciously welcomed us at the door. We were then greeted with artworks all around, in oil, pen and ink, charcoal, chalk pastel, brass, etc. But the center of attraction that day is Tita Fe's culinary art, Filipino food that just happened to be all white!

For our entree, we were served with kinilaw nga rabanos, and lumpia with fragrant vinegar dip.







Our main dish were all white Filipino food! KBL (kadyos, baboy, langka), ginat-an nga tambo, and of course, rice.







For dessert, we had galletas in white wrapping and buco juice. To liven up the conversation, we then had brewed coffee with creamer, just to make it white.







Now that's what I call a white lunch of all Filipino food.