END OF SUMMER PARTY

I hosted an END OF SUMMER PARTY  last Oct. 1, a Saturday. My parties are usually attended by my sister and my brother's family, Louena and Rick Untinen's ( parents of Caitlin ). During this party Rudy Manuel, a close friend during my high school days came over. With him was Remy, his spouse, his 2 children Jehan and Albert ( with their respective families of course ).Marivic(Albert's wife )  came with a friend Perlita from Candon, Ilocos Norte. They came earlier so we had some moments of casual chats re: common interests before the bulk of our guests arrived earlier..I treated them to some apples from our backyard ( they had to pick their own )...The weather was cooperative and everyone seemed to enjoy the affair which lasted well into the night. Estela Bruan Agawin was able to make it with her party ( her niece Joy and husband Walter plus Estela's sisterAlma  who came all the way from Australia to visit Estela in Seattle. Estela is now stationed in Seattle. She went back home from Toronto last Monday, Oct. 3 and she said shes going to visit the Philippines at the end of October with her sister Alma..

MORE JOKES!!..:)

A lady inserted an ad in the classifieds: "Husband Wanted" Next day she received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: "You can have mine."
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When a woman steals your husband, there is no better revenge than to let her keep him.
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A little boy asked his father, "Daddy, how much does it cost to get married?"
Father replied, "I don't know, son, I'm still paying."
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A young son asked, "Is it true, Dad, that in some parts of  a man doesn't know his wife until he marries her?" Dad replied, "That happens in every country, son." 

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 If you want your spouse to listen and pay strict attention to every word you say -- talk in your sleep.

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First guy says, "My wife's an angel!"
Second guy remarks, "You're lucky. Mine's still alive."
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A Woman's Prayer: Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom, to understand a man , to love and to forgive him, and for Patience, for his moods. Because, Lord, if I pray for Strength, I'll just beat him to death.
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AND NOW FOR THE FAVORITE!!!
Husband and wife are waiting at the bus stop with their nine children. A blind man joins them after a few minutes. When the bus arrives, they find it overloaded and only the wife and the nine kids are able to fit onto the bus.  So the husband and the blind man decide to walk. After a while, the husband gets irritated by the ticking of the stick of the blind man as he taps it on the sidewalk, and says to him, "Why don't you put a piece of rubber at the end of your stick? That ticking sound is driving me crazy."    The blind man replies, "If you would've put a rubber at the end of YOUR stick, we'd be riding the bus ... so shut the hell up."

Daily Joke:Little Jonny and his goldfish

Jonny's goldfish

Little Jonny was in the garden filling in a hole when his neighbor peered
over the fence.



Interested in what the rosy-cheeked youngster was up to, he politely
asked, "What are you up to there, Jonny?"



"My goldfish died," replied Jonny tearfully, without looking

up, "and I've just buried him."



The neighbor was concerned, "That's an awfully big hole for a goldfish,
isn't it?"



Jonny patted down the last heap of earth then replied, "That's because
he's inside your cat!"

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Stevie Wonder is playing his first gig in Tokyo and the place is absolutely packed to the rafters. In a bid to break the ice with his new audience he asks if anyone would like him to play a request. A little old Japanese man jumps out of his seat in the first row and shouts at the top of his voice "Play a Jazz chord ! Play a jazz chord!".

Amazed that this guy knows about the jazz influences in Stevie's varied career, the blind impresario starts to play an E minor scale and then goes into a difficult jazz melody for about 10 minutes.

When he finishes the whole place goes wild.

The little old man jumps up again and shouts "No, no, play a Jazz chord, play a Jazz chord".

A bit p*ssed off by this, Stevie, being the professional that he is, dives straight into a jazz improvisation with his band around the B flat minor chord and really tears the place apart. The crowd goes wild with this impromptu show of his technical expertise.

The little old man jumps up again. "No, no. Play a Jazz chord, play a jazz chord".

Well and truly p*ssed off that this little guy doesn't seem to appreciate his playing ability. Stevie says to him from the stage "OK smart a*se.

You

get up here and do it!"

The little old man climbs up onto the stage, takes hold of the mike and starts to sing .....

" A jazz chord to say I ruv you..."

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EMMA FORBES' BIRTHDAY PARTY

 

MORE ON DOWNTOWN TORONTO

If you walk from Dundas Square going north you will pass through some of the seamiest, tackiest joints in Toronto..It looks like Quiapo alright. At first, as you walk north, you will see first class stores like HMV ( mother company is based in England ) , then Sams the Record Man, Toronto's oldest record store ( now selling only CDs and DVDs) then Future Shop (an electronic store recently bought by the Circuit City, a US Company ). Then you come to some weird looking shops that sell posters, some assorted paraphernalia, gift items they call them.Expensive junk, I call them.. Beside it is the Zanzibar. It is a strip joint with photos of busty girls in the lobby and one can hear a bit of the music playing inside. Action starts at 11:00 am which is also the official time for taverns to start serving liquor.

Zanzibar can be an experience for newcomers from the Philippines, but pretty boring for old time Torontonians. However the shows are tame compared to what you can watch outside of Toronto boundaries..The girls are beautiful, of course. Customers could tuck in their money into what bodice the girls have while they are dancing on stage. But the stage lights are mostly strong blue or red colour especially just before they remove the last shred of clothing. Then they smile, and walk away..It would take sometimes 5 or 10 mins before the next dancer appears again. And the drinks are outrageously expensive. You must have lots of money to spend and plenty of time to kill.

The signboards advertise varieties of strip dancing..There is the lap dancing. couch dancing and more recently, face dancing.. These places remind me of the Astor, Inday, King's and Dragon Theatres in the vicinity of Ongpin and Chinatown, Manila decades ago.But there was no lap dancing then. .These places were always packed. In Manila at that time, it is a shame to enter these "places of sin.." One time, I passed by the Sta. Cruz church ( I forgot the actual name already )..A sermon on the "sins of the flesh" was being broadcasted on a loudspeaker in the lobby of the church. The homilist was attacking the "dirty books, magazines and movies " which was rampant in Manila at that time. A few blocks away are the theatres I mentioned which were showing ladies local and foreign, dancing their hearts away before an SRO crowd of noisy city folks..How diverse can a city get? And it was a fun city if you dont mind some hucksters, con artists, sidewalk vendors and cars tooting their horns all the time! Tijuana, in Mexico is a cemetry compared the noise you hear in Manila esp. during rush hours in the morning and afternoon..

Across from Zanzibar on the opposite side of Yonge street are various camera and electronic stores owned mostly by Chinese or Indian merchants. Its okay to buy from these stores if you are experienced in haggling with prices. And you are well versed with the value of the goods you are buying. If not, do not buy any expensive stuff. You will surely get stiffed one way or the other with your purchases. And it is so hard returning those goods later.

The next intersection is Gerrard and Yonge. The scenery looks better. And the shops too. There is a big Apartment building with lots of stores on its ground floor. I won't mind living in an apartment like those ones. One elevator ride and you are in the center of a busy mall: you can see Dominion Grocery for your veggies and cereals, magazine stores, Winners for your clothing and other sundries. Step out and you have a beautiful well-lit park. The building by the way, is called the College Park Apartments. There is also a food court in the concourse area with various fast food stores. A fast food store selling various Asian soups is worth checking.

(PHOTOS TO FOLLOW)

THE LEGEND OF THE FIRST PEOPLE

        Bathala decided to make more people. "This time" he said, " I  will make them smaller than the first one I made".

        He took some clay and fashioned two figures: a man and a woman.  He put these inside a Great Oven. When he took them out sometime later, he found that they were not yet baked very well. Their skins were pale. Nevertheless, he gave them the breath of life and he let them go into what is now  the Eurasian continent. They were the ancestors of the fair-skinned people. Next he made another set of clay figures. "This time I am going to let them stay inside the oven much longer," he said. Then he went away.

      Upon his return,  he took out the couple from the Great Oven. Their skins were dark. Nevertheless, he gave them the breath of life and set them out into the African continent. They are the forerunners of the  dark-skinned people.

      Bathala thought, "If at first you don't succeed..." and he went  through the same routine. "This time, I know the right amount of time needed to make a good skin color," he said to himself. True, when he took them out of the oven, the third pair were not too dark and not too light. They are the brown people, our ancestors, as the legend goes. So Bathala was pleased with  his latest creations. He thought that because of their size, they would make less trouble, even if he gave them the freedom to do whatever they wanted.

      "Is this true?" my grandaughter asked.

       "Well darling, " I answered with a smile, "It is just a legend,  handed down to me by my mother, who heard it from her mother, and so on, and so on.."

       "Can you tell me some more?" pleaded my grandchild.

       "Sure,  darling. But first we must get ready for bed." 

                                  -OOOO-

THE  CHILDREN  OF THE BROWN PEOPLE

  The children of the brown man and woman, like the children of the others, were fond of adventure. Some of them loved the sea. They built  fast ships called  BARANGAYS which could carry a number of people. These ships sailed swiftly across unknown waters, and eventually  reached what is now known as the Philippines Islands. They found the land green,
with plenty of food and space to build houses. They settled here to become the ancestors of present day Filipinos.

 During their voyages in the Barangays, the passengers developed such a strong friendship with one another. When they landed, they built their houses close to each other, to form one community. They named this community a Barangay to commemorate the ship that brought them in.

To this day, the word Barangay  still  means a unit of Filipino society. A group of Barangays make up a whole town or a city.

 Life during the early days was extremely difficult. They lived near rivers bordered by thick jungles. The rivers provided fish to eat, but it was also the home of gigantic crocodiles. The jungles provided food and wood for building their houses. But it was also the home of wild animals: wild pigs,  venomous snakes, and giant pythons. According to one story, one python was so big that it could coil itself around a
small house.

 Speaking of snakes, the name of Baltog, an early Filipino strong man comes to mind. A legend said that  Baltog was once sent by his father Handiong, to seek for new lands since their kingdom was always  frequented by destructive typhoons. In  his travels, Baltog met and killed many wild animals and strange monsters, except one called  Oriole. Oriole was a giant snake with the head of a beautiful woman.
After its capture, Baltog never had the heart to kill it. So he just set  it free. The monster went into hiding in the jungles of Mount Asug  where they say its children and grandchildren still live up until today.

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(MORE LEGENDS COMING)

Downtown Toronto's Skyline

There are lots to see in Toronto, starting at the Eaton Centre. This is the Quiapo of Toronto. For starters, there are lots of beggars many of them young and strong enough to work. ( Many look stronger than me ) They hang around in the busy areas, ( where the cops are sparse ) sometimes in the subway doors where they hold open the door with one hand and hold a coffee cup in the other. No coffee in the cup but change in dimes, nickels and what have you. Well, some say pandhandling can get you about 50$ a day! Can't beat that. But there is no pride in panhandling, I can tell you that. But city folks are naturally kind hearted. So out of towners ( runaways, drug users,  basket cases) would  comprise the bulk of the beggar brigade! Anyways, thats the dark side of Toronto and now that we have touched based on that issue, let us look at the bright side. Assuming you were not turned off by what you have earlier read.

Eatons is not as big as the Glendale Mall in California. Still it is big. There is a food court in the concourse level with the usual smorgasboard of Italian, Chinese and North American fare. Yes there is KFC and the Mc Do.  But if you are sick of these fare in your own home city, you can try the Cafeteria in the adjoining ( and competition ) store; the Hudson's Bay or simply the Bay. The Bay is a nationwide chain, like Penny's or Nordstrom. The food in the Bay is different and the eating premises is not as crowded as Eatons. They have European dishes which are really out of the ordinary, and very tasty too. Not counting the fact the prices are afordable ( even to those panhandlers).

If you want to continue walking though the alleys named PATH  you will find that there is a CITY under a CITY  under the streets of busy Toronto. Exploring this underground city is very exciting because not all  big American cities have this labyrinth of malls, shops and stores that connect several city blocks without the noise and bustle of motorists and pedestrians . But lets talk about this next time...