The New Year is the birthday of hope – it’s when we stock up on fresh dreams and ideas. It is the one time in the year when we believe everything is possible. My wish for you this year is the ability to bring this feeling of optimism and enthusiasm any time and every time you need it for the rest of the year and the years to come.

Our lives will always be plagued with difficulties – it may be with our jobs, our homes, our relatives, money, society, environment – but if we have hope, nothing can overwhelm us and we will survive.

This is the reason why, even as kids, we are thought to take stock of our lives in the form of New Year’s resolutions. As innocent children, we hardly knew why we need to promise to do things differently the next year, but as we mature and face life’s hardships, we realize the value of a clean slate, a new start. We may not be dotting our 1-2-3s before our promises anymore, but if we mean it, our pledges will be etched in our hearts and our lives will be the better for it.

For 2007 I wish you all the blessings you deserve. And may you extend these blessings to the people around you.

Fresh hope. Fresh start.

Happy New Year!

*image from Microsoft Cliparts

Just hot air

Had an upsetting Dec. 23. The PR company called me to participate in the rescheduled Dubai Hot Air Balloon Festival flights for the press. I was on my day off but it was an exciting venture so I did not hesitate to confirm my attendance despite the short notice -- we had to be at the Global Village within one hour of the call.

When we got there (I was with Raq), I was told to contact Mr. S whom I contacted as soon as we got there. All he said was he will inform us us when things were ready. There was no briefing nor badges released to us. We followed up with him SEVERAL times on how things will proceed, his response was always the same "Please bear with us, we are trying to arrange something for everybody."

With no badges, we were not able to go near the balloons for better shots. The guards repeatedly stopped us every time we tried. On top of that, we were not informed of any changes happening. Panic set in when there were only a few balloons and we still had no idea what was happening. I called Mr. S again to ask why were being left in the dark, he said 'go to the blue balloon' which was at the faaar end of the field. He mentioned that he reserved the blue balloon for us. We ran to it only to find out that it was a small basket which was already occopied. In short, we could not be accomodated.

He then said that he looked for us earlier, that he even asked somebody to fetch the 'two short ladies'. Come again?

Then he proceeded to explain that the balloon reserved for the press was occupied by their sponsors - there was nothing they could do. When I insisted that he should have informed us, he started the explanations on how the weather is not really that good, even getting the assistance of one of the ladies who flies the balloons who said that had this been London, there would be no flights. They would not have continued had there been no audience, but there was.

At this point, it was only me, Raq, Mr. S, the lady and a few other people left on the field. All the rest have flown with the hot air balloons. What I wanted was a good explanation, maybe even an apology. But nothing of the kind was offered. Mr. S repeatedly assured us that they will have a balloon reserved for us on the next flight which is Thursday next week. At the moment, it sounded like a very empty promise. I kept insisting that he should have informed us. We've been there for more than two hours after all and we repeated followed up.

So before more hot air were released in the air, I gave up and we left.

Like in the children's game, tell me what is wrong with this picture:

1.) The event was short notice
2.) There was no proper briefing on site
3.) There were no badgets released
4.) No proper coordination nor even consideration despite follow-ups
5.) Oh - and how would you classify that bit about calling us the 'two short ladies'?
6.) Then the last, the varying explanations to cover the real reason why we were not properly informed of the developments happening right there.

This is the first Balloon Fest for Dubai and since I first heard about it around midyear this year, I've been excited about it. This is nothing but a huge let down.

Not being able to go on the ride was a huge disappointment but what was was more disappointing was HOW we were treated there. I certainly hope, the fest will not continue on this note.

And the turtle wasn't even there. *

A press release announced the participation of specially shaped balloons.

Merry Christmas to all!

This is my first time to celebrate Christmas outside of my home, Manila, and the 25th outside of Silang, Cavite, far away from relatives. =( What I'm doing now? Playing bingo and so far I've won three times! ;)

‘Happy Feet’ made me cry

Humans are evil. We’re taking all the fish from the penguins.

Don’t eat fish ever again.

I was playing nanny to the Alver kids last night so instead of going home and breaking my back over my computer I was sitting in front of a huge screen (we were late, so we were at the second row and the screen just towered above us) laughing our asses off at the cute penguin antics. Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood) is simply adorable. He’s the classic outcast but with firm beliefs and principles.

(warning: spoilers ahead)

His journey to find out what happened to their food supply tore my heart out. He saw a big fishing tank so he swam up to it and tried to hang on to the huge net it was hauling in. Somebody poked him with a steel bar and he fell. With extreme determination, he followed the ship, or rather the direction of the ship, since it sped away and he could not see it anymore. Exhausted, he was washed up on a shore where a man found him – before he almost hit him because he was driving his jeep on the shore!

Anyway, when he woke up, this slightly different penguin who looks like he’s on a high dose told him that he was in penguin heaven. “It’s wherever you want it to be. Try the water, it’s real.”

By finding the limitations of his ‘heaven’ and seeing the aliens outside the glass doors he found out that he was in some sort of zoo. Food came easily but there was limited space and ‘ugly, featherless penguins’ always looking at them. And after days in there, he turned into a zombie much like the first penguin who talked to him.

It broke my heart.

Then one day, he saw a little kid. With his voice gone (he tried for days to talk to the ‘ugly penguins’ till he lost his voice) he started dancing his little weird but uppity dance. The kid got his mom and they watched. Other people noticed until the networks and the scientists and the whole world was abuzz with the tap-dancing wonder. This attention got him released – but he got awarded with an ugly tracker at his back.

When he got back to his colony, my heart filled with fear. The elders accused him of being a traitor, of leading the aliens to their home (I feared the same). But he led the whole colony to dance, the aliens loved this, and the movie ended well. The aliens aka ‘ugly penguins’ figured out that they were trying to communicate with them and jumped to “maybe we’re interfering with their food chain” to “stop the fishing!” and everything ended positively. The fish came back and Mumble and Gloria (the love interest) became a happy couple

But you know that outside the animation studios, that doesn’t happen. Mumble will be taken in again and poked and prodded. He’s gonna be hauled in yearly so scientists can get his stats then released halfway around the world and he will need to go through the wide, dangerous sea just to see his family again. Probably Gloria will be captured too and the cool lil’ amigos. Then half of his colony will be slaughtered for study or for whatever economic use they might have.

Humans are evil.

We cause our own destruction and we do not respect boundaries. We have to inflict pain and suffering on all other creatures. And I live in a country that does not care – much. If you see how much plastic they use here, the amount of food thrown out, the waste – it’s a crime.

We should just use as much as we need and try to keep in harmony with our environment, wherever we are.

The first steps: use the THREE Rs.

REDUCE.

RECYCLE.

REUSE.

Humans can do something about it. We don’t need to be the evil aliens who cannot understand.