I Wanted To Live In A Houseboat

Things About Me You Didn't Know

Heaven is a little closer in a home by the water. - Anonymous

Have you ever fancied living in a houseboat?

I have. Soon after I watched the 1958 romantic comedy, Houseboat.

It stars Cary Grant (Tom), a widower struggling to raise three children on his own after his wife's death. After meeting the charming and beautiful Cinzia (Sophia Loren) at a concert, he hires her as a live-in nanny in a rented houseboat.

Unbeknownst to Tom, Cinzia is actually a European socialite on the run from her domineering father and has absolutely no experience with cooking, cleaning or raising children.

She does, however, have an interest in Tom.

So there's the plot. Delightfully romantic, I will concede.

What does it have to do with this blog's premise? 

Nothing.

Except that I thought how fun it would be to literally live in a home that floats. 

To wake up to a waterfront view every day.

Wind in your hair. Sun on your face. 

Dark nights, bright stars.

Couldn't life be simpler? 

Just add water.

 

I Wanted To Be A Radio Announcer

Things You Didn't Know About Me 

Don't give up on your dreams. Keep sleeping. - Anonymous

In my pre-teen years, I had dreamed of being a radio announcer.

Just like Leila Benitez, a Filipino-born American radio host, presenter, journalist and broadcaster. 

She was my idol.

At noontime when she came on the legendary Student Canteen program, I'd tune in and be all ears.

Mark Twain once said that the secret of making progress is to get started.

Thus inspired, at fourteen years, I put in the effort to make my dream a reality. I dared to audition at the local Chronicle Broadcasting Network, the CBN in what would be the behemoth ABS-CBN.

So, what happened? I didn't make it. (Sigh)

But I remembered the adage, Follow your dream, so I went back to bed.

I Wanted To Go To Sarawak, Borneo

Things You Didn't Know About Me 

What one loves in childhood stays in the heart forever. - Mary Jo Putney

I wanted to go.

I knew it the minute Lil' Boy started posting photos of Sarawak, Borneo on the church bulletin board. They had been sent by a missionary who was going to be guest preacher the following Sunday.

At twelve years or so, I wasn't into sermons. Even if I was, I didn't understand much of what was said, but I've just now Googled some facts about the place.

Known as the Land of Hornbills, Sarawak is the largest state in Malaysia. The rhinoceros hornbill, easily recognizable by the large yellow casque on top of its beak, as well as feathers of black and white, is an icon and state emblem.  

50% of the total population is Christian. However, like most other ethnic groups, the Sarawakians still observe many of their traditional rituals and beliefs. And, yes, they speak English there.

What remain in my memory to this day, though, are images.

Of the mission team in a banca, paddling past a rainforest.

Internet pic only. Photos referred to in blog were vintage B/W.

And jungle trekking to join people in a longhouse, a stilted structure with a large number of rooms housing a whole community of families.

Of head trophies suspended and displayed to mark tribal victories.

I wanted to walk among men wearing bird clothes with beads and dragon motifs. I was eager to be in the company of women and children in hand-loomed cloths and tree bark fabrics adorned with feathers.

I dreamt of meeting with them where the sky touched the sea.

For them to wait for me where the world began.

 

BE MINE

Valentine's Month

What are Valentine heart candies called?

Sweethearts.

I didn't know that.

I'd always thought, conversation hearts.

Here are more facts for you to ponder on.

Did you know that the original, disk-shaped lozenges were decorated with much longer and more formal phrases like HOW LONG SHALL I HAVE TO WAIT? PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE and WHY IS A STYLISH GIRL LIKE YOU A THRIFTY HOUSEKEEPER? (The answer, on the other side: BECAUSE SHE MAKES A BIG BUSTLE ABOUT A LITTLE WAIST.)

These small sugar candies sold around Valentine's Day have also become popular at weddings as a novelty way of offering relationship advice such as, Married in White, you have chosen right or Married in Pink, he’ll take to drink.

Interesting, huh?

Traditionally, each heart is printed with a message such as Kiss Me, Call Me, Let's Get Busy, or Miss You. 

But could you have guessed that these small hearts have evolved from being bigger, larger lozenges shaped like horseshoes, baseballs and shells?

I can't even imagine what the inscription would have said on them.

In 2010, when the company asked the public to suggest new sayings, more than 10,000 submissions were received. TWEET ME, TEXT ME and LOVE BUG ranked as the top three.

Another source of inspiration? Hollywood. Sweethearts once collaborated with an unlikely partner, the Twilight movie franchise, to print candies with themed sayings like BITE ME and LIVE 4 EVER.

At my age, an affair of the heart is a bypass. But at least, I can celebrate the best thing about conversation hearts, not its taste, but its playful nostalgia.

Of a moment that takes you back to a simpler time.

Of true friends of your childhood who were willing to fight monsters with you.

Of a cherished time that can wrap you in the warm hug of someone saying, Be mine.  

Wooden Heart

Valentine's Month

The shattering of a heart when being broken is the loudest quiet ever. - 

Carroll Bryant

In early high school, you were either Camp Elvis or Camp Pat Boone.

I belonged to the latter group, but when the other camp idol came up with a pop song in 1961, I quickly reverted my allegiance temporarily.

Wooden Heart was lilting and sounded folksy, not rock-and-rolly. That was probably why I loved it. Interspersed in the English lyrics was this phrasing, Muss i denn, muss i denn zum Städtele hinaus?

Only now, looking it up, did I know that the composition was based on a German folk song. The foreign words translate into, Must I then, must I then, leave this little city, little city, and you, my darling, stay here?

I did empathize with the romantic plea.

Can't you see I love you?

Please, don't break my heart in two

Oh, woe, should that happen.

Then I know that I would cry

Maybe I would die

'Cause I don't have a wooden heart

But come to think of it, it may be sad but sometimes moving on with the rest of your life starts with, Goodbye.

Maybe it's a blessing. A way for you to realize that you were saved from the wrong one.

Or it might just be good for your career.

 

An Affair To Remember

Valentine's Month

True love has a habit of coming back. - Anonymous

Have you seen this movie?

If No, and you have nothing better to do and want to immerse yourself in a sense-assaulting love story, rent it now or search for it in Netflix. It's the 1957 movie An Affair To Remember starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.

If Yes, and you remember the sappy plot but want to skip it, scroll to the end. However, if mushy is okay with you, let me continue.

Nickie, a well-known playboy, and Terry have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months.

On the day of their rendezvous, Terry is struck down by a car while crossing a street and is gravely injured. Nickie, waiting after many hours and unaware of the accident, leaves, believing that she has rejected him.

The story is relentless as it progresses into a celebration of how not even tragedy could tear asunder the love of the two soulmates.

What hardened soul could not be moved by the final scene where many years after, Nickie pays Terry a surprise visit on Christmas Eve?

Although he tries to coax her to explain her actions, Terry dodges the subject, never leaving the couch on which she lies.

As he is leaving, Nickie mentions a painting on which he had been working when they first met, and that it was just given away to a woman who liked it but had no money.

He is about to say that the woman was in a wheelchair when he pauses, suddenly suspecting why Terry has been lying still on the couch. He walks into her bedroom and sees the painting hanging on the wall, realizing that she was the woman in the wheelchair. 

Cue the gorgeous music score. Get the tissue box out.

What a turn of events! It tosses and turns the emotions. 

Tugging the heart to go for the cheap weep.

The film ends with the two in a tight embrace as Terry says, If you can paint, I can walk. Anything can happen, don't you think?

Aww, did anybody say true love is usually the most inconvenient one? 

  

Loves Me, Loves Me Not

Valentine's Month 

Without Valentine's Day, February would be... well, January. - Jim Gaffigan

Yeah!

Ignore those who say, I'm just waiting for discounted chocolate on February 15th. My plan is to take you on a month-long blog series celebrating Valentine's Month.

Let's do it, shall we?

***

Remember that tingly little feeling you get when you like someone? When you want to be the reason someone looks down at his phone, smiles, and then walks into a post?

And to find out if that person loves you back, you pluck a flower to play the game called, He loves me, he loves me not?

You'd place your finger on one petal, gently pinching its base, pulling down toward the stem. Keeping the object of your affection in mind, you slowly and gently say a phrase.

You move on to the next petal and say the next phrase, and alternately continue the recitation as each petal is taken off.

In the end, as luck would have it, you'd either just picked a human and you're like, Yes! This is the one I'm allowing to ruin my life forever.

Or alas and alack! You feel like your heart had been played, stabbed, burned, broken.

Young love is so ridiculous and it's also hilarious. For when have you ever felt so vulnerable and wonderful and terrible at the same time?