It comes down to feet

Shoes die by themselves. I've found this out time and again when I'd wear a pair that had languished for the longest time inside the shoe cabinet. I'd be reminded of this only at the office when I'd cross my legs, only to see the shoe all cracked up and disintegrating . Once, the gel-like substance from a long-forgotten rubber shoe followed me all over the place before a colleague gently pointed it out.

But I've also used up shoes before their time. My work has taken me places and through situations I'd never imagined and my shoes along with it. I'd covered a mangrove planting activity in Cordova, Mactan with my rubber shoes on. And an ecotour in Banacon Island in Bohol. Both times, we'd reached the sites later than planned and the tide had come in to claim not only my rubber shoes but also my maong pants.

A Day with Tony Blair

It isn’t everyday that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair comes to town. So the preparations were pretty impressive – from the virtual isolation of the Henry Lee Irwin Theater at the Ateneo de Manila University where he spoke in the morning, to the pre-registration done also at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza where the second Leadership Conference series was held in the afternoon.

An ending (written Nov. 20, 2006)

The minute my younger sister got into the car, she started sobbing.

I felt rotten. It was awkward driving and trying to console her while wondering why I was not as grief-stricken as she was.

Our father had died. She’d flown in from the US to pay her last respects and I was driving her to the funeral home where she would see his remains.

First celebrity fatality of swine flu

I am always amazed by the Filipino's ability to laugh in the face of extreme hardship or to make fun of the most serious of developments, including the possibility of a pandemic.

This picture of a 'dead' Kermit the Frog recently made the round of inboxes at the office. Most of us who grew up with Sesame St. and The Muppet Show immediately got the joke - he obviously got the swine flu from Miss Piggy.

Another world

I met a six-year-old girl at the Marcela Marcelo Elementary School in Pasay City last Saturday.

She caught my attention because she was half the size of my five-year-old daughter and she couldn't read. My daughter has been reading since...I don't remember anymore.

I was at the public school to write about what our employees were doing -- which was conducting a summer reading program for kids who couldn't read or had difficulty reading.