NO WALLS, NO CEILINGS, NO FLOORS
I've never celebrated the anniversary of my blog, even the very first. Why? I don't know, it just didn't seem like something I would do. But I'd like to take a look back now to everything that blogging has brought into my life since then.
It was fafa Jay who introduced me to blogging and if I base it on my archives, it seems the very first entry here was published in April of 2002.
Since the start, I've been more of a sporadic blogger rather than a consistently regular one. I've always believed in quality over quantity and so I blogged mostly when I felt like it and mostly when I felt I had something important to say. The problem is, in this puny life I live, not much happens and sharing becomes a stiff exercise when all you are faced with day in and day out are the four walls of your room. There was so much of the world out there, of course, and I know that then, I have only sniffed at the promise of what it was like.
And then fafa Jay and I stumbled upon Ate Sienna's site and a the whole wide world unraveled for me.
At first we were silent, albeit avid, readers to her then pansitan.com. Until fafa Jay took the big leap and sent her an email, telling her how much we enjoyed reading everything she wrote. She responded and the feeling I got when she did is, I guess the nearest I would ever have to receiving an autographed picture of an idol. After a while, we were exchanging emails, which went on for a whole year, I think, before we even thought of giving each other our phone numbers and ventured into live phone conversations. It was also through Ate Sienna's site that I've met other bloggers who are now dear, dear friends who, whenever we make trips back home, we will never miss meeting up with.
This meet-ups started in 2003, here in Singapore, when fafa Jay and I met up with our first, Filipino couple blogger friends, Leah and her hubby Eder. Through Leah, we met other Filipino friends, two of whom were bloggers too, Cherrie and Reggie. Since that first meeting, we've consistently been together in so many gimmicks to celebrate whatever occasion there might be, sometimes there doesn't even have to be an occasion, we could just celebrate being together.
That December, our usual Christmas visit to the Philippines was peppered with several EBs. I met with Belle, Jobert, Neil, Aya, Yvette and her husband Teddy, Val (who, on a conference in Malaysia made a side trip to Singapore and met up with us again the following year), and Ayeza. It was also in one of the EBs I went to that year where I met Mec and her soon to be hubby, Jojo, and Tanya and Nick. I had such a great time meeting up with so many people and it was just so great to finally be able to put faces to the names, and say to myself, these are my friends. It was priceless.
It was in early 2004 when fafa Jay and I went on a holiday to California and finally met up with Ate Sienna. It was an inexplicable feeling I had when I was able to hug her at last. Our friendship has gone through so much sharing and revealing of ourselves that it would have been a big, big joke of such bad, bad taste, if we never had the chance to meet in this lifetime. It was also during this trip when I met up with a couple of my neighbors in Pansitan, Mama Cel and Fafa Roger.
Back here in Singapore, we had another visitor from the Philippines, come over for a conference... Mari. It was also this year that we met another Singapore-based Filipino couple, Christine and hubby Ronald. Together with Leah and Eder, the 6 of us, with several other friends, have shared so many, many fun moments I would definitely go back remembering again and again.
Prior to Papa's hospitalization, which thankfully took place in the Philippines, we had the wonderful opportunity to meet Ate Sienna's sister and a pansitan member herself, Gretch. And after Papa's surgery, another kindly blogger took the time to visit us, Tito Rolly, with his equally kindly wife, Tita Nitz, in tow. Come November, we had the superbly fantastic trip to New Zealand and was able to meet up with another longtime blogging friend, Kiwipinay.
We were home again that December, and for Papa's small birthday party, we had Belle, Tito Rolly and The Sassy Lawyer over at our house for a quiet afternoon of food, drinks and stories... endless stories. It was so much fun that we really looked forward to the grand EB of Pinoyblog. Here we met so many more bloggers... Ajay, Watson, Apol, BongK, Karla, Doc Emer and his soulmate, Jane, Joyce, Melissa and Yuga. We met a couple of old friends (yes, they were old friends by now) there too... Mec (with Jojo of course) and Mari. And was the EB enough? Oh no, we did it one more time, shortly before we left for Singapore. This time we met Toni and her hubby whom I will likewise refer to as H, and Dindin.
That seems quite a lot, doesn't it? But it hasn't stopped. Back in Singapore, shortly before we went back to California, we met with Bea and Jenn, who, without batting an eyelash, received us into her home... just a couple of complete strangers she came across over the internet.
We entered California via San Fransisco and this is where Cathy gave us such a wonderful surprise by showing up at the airport to meet us, unannounced. We spent the whole morning chatting in a Vietnamese restaurant before we drove off to Monterey. From Monterey, we paid Ate Sienna another visit, of course, and stayed with her for three days. During our stay with her, we again met with two other bloggers, g and Tatang Rome.
Fafa Jay and I have met a lot of bloggers, haven't we? And if still given the chance, there are a whole lot more I would like to meet up with... there's Clare whom I've been wanting to meet up with since 2003 and haven't to this day, there's Karen whom I would have met last December if not for a very bad cold, there's Junnie whom we missed in the Philippines by a month I think, there's cbs, Christene, Yasmin and there's all the people I converse with daily in blogkadahan... JMom, Tintin, Jardine Davies, Jop, MisisPi, Ruth, Sachiko, Ting, Svelte Rogue, Polo... and so many, many more.
Will you look at that list?
And I thought that all I was doing here was sharing my stories.
For me, blogging has been a means to bring down my walls and meet the best of the lot.
I've never celebrated the anniversary of my blog, even the very first. Why? I don't know, it just didn't seem like something I would do. But I'd like to take a look back now to everything that blogging has brought into my life since then.
It was fafa Jay who introduced me to blogging and if I base it on my archives, it seems the very first entry here was published in April of 2002.
Since the start, I've been more of a sporadic blogger rather than a consistently regular one. I've always believed in quality over quantity and so I blogged mostly when I felt like it and mostly when I felt I had something important to say. The problem is, in this puny life I live, not much happens and sharing becomes a stiff exercise when all you are faced with day in and day out are the four walls of your room. There was so much of the world out there, of course, and I know that then, I have only sniffed at the promise of what it was like.
And then fafa Jay and I stumbled upon Ate Sienna's site and a the whole wide world unraveled for me.
At first we were silent, albeit avid, readers to her then pansitan.com. Until fafa Jay took the big leap and sent her an email, telling her how much we enjoyed reading everything she wrote. She responded and the feeling I got when she did is, I guess the nearest I would ever have to receiving an autographed picture of an idol. After a while, we were exchanging emails, which went on for a whole year, I think, before we even thought of giving each other our phone numbers and ventured into live phone conversations. It was also through Ate Sienna's site that I've met other bloggers who are now dear, dear friends who, whenever we make trips back home, we will never miss meeting up with.
This meet-ups started in 2003, here in Singapore, when fafa Jay and I met up with our first, Filipino couple blogger friends, Leah and her hubby Eder. Through Leah, we met other Filipino friends, two of whom were bloggers too, Cherrie and Reggie. Since that first meeting, we've consistently been together in so many gimmicks to celebrate whatever occasion there might be, sometimes there doesn't even have to be an occasion, we could just celebrate being together.
That December, our usual Christmas visit to the Philippines was peppered with several EBs. I met with Belle, Jobert, Neil, Aya, Yvette and her husband Teddy, Val (who, on a conference in Malaysia made a side trip to Singapore and met up with us again the following year), and Ayeza. It was also in one of the EBs I went to that year where I met Mec and her soon to be hubby, Jojo, and Tanya and Nick. I had such a great time meeting up with so many people and it was just so great to finally be able to put faces to the names, and say to myself, these are my friends. It was priceless.
It was in early 2004 when fafa Jay and I went on a holiday to California and finally met up with Ate Sienna. It was an inexplicable feeling I had when I was able to hug her at last. Our friendship has gone through so much sharing and revealing of ourselves that it would have been a big, big joke of such bad, bad taste, if we never had the chance to meet in this lifetime. It was also during this trip when I met up with a couple of my neighbors in Pansitan, Mama Cel and Fafa Roger.
Back here in Singapore, we had another visitor from the Philippines, come over for a conference... Mari. It was also this year that we met another Singapore-based Filipino couple, Christine and hubby Ronald. Together with Leah and Eder, the 6 of us, with several other friends, have shared so many, many fun moments I would definitely go back remembering again and again.
Prior to Papa's hospitalization, which thankfully took place in the Philippines, we had the wonderful opportunity to meet Ate Sienna's sister and a pansitan member herself, Gretch. And after Papa's surgery, another kindly blogger took the time to visit us, Tito Rolly, with his equally kindly wife, Tita Nitz, in tow. Come November, we had the superbly fantastic trip to New Zealand and was able to meet up with another longtime blogging friend, Kiwipinay.
We were home again that December, and for Papa's small birthday party, we had Belle, Tito Rolly and The Sassy Lawyer over at our house for a quiet afternoon of food, drinks and stories... endless stories. It was so much fun that we really looked forward to the grand EB of Pinoyblog. Here we met so many more bloggers... Ajay, Watson, Apol, BongK, Karla, Doc Emer and his soulmate, Jane, Joyce, Melissa and Yuga. We met a couple of old friends (yes, they were old friends by now) there too... Mec (with Jojo of course) and Mari. And was the EB enough? Oh no, we did it one more time, shortly before we left for Singapore. This time we met Toni and her hubby whom I will likewise refer to as H, and Dindin.
That seems quite a lot, doesn't it? But it hasn't stopped. Back in Singapore, shortly before we went back to California, we met with Bea and Jenn, who, without batting an eyelash, received us into her home... just a couple of complete strangers she came across over the internet.
We entered California via San Fransisco and this is where Cathy gave us such a wonderful surprise by showing up at the airport to meet us, unannounced. We spent the whole morning chatting in a Vietnamese restaurant before we drove off to Monterey. From Monterey, we paid Ate Sienna another visit, of course, and stayed with her for three days. During our stay with her, we again met with two other bloggers, g and Tatang Rome.
Fafa Jay and I have met a lot of bloggers, haven't we? And if still given the chance, there are a whole lot more I would like to meet up with... there's Clare whom I've been wanting to meet up with since 2003 and haven't to this day, there's Karen whom I would have met last December if not for a very bad cold, there's Junnie whom we missed in the Philippines by a month I think, there's cbs, Christene, Yasmin and there's all the people I converse with daily in blogkadahan... JMom, Tintin, Jardine Davies, Jop, MisisPi, Ruth, Sachiko, Ting, Svelte Rogue, Polo... and so many, many more.
Will you look at that list?
And I thought that all I was doing here was sharing my stories.
For me, blogging has been a means to bring down my walls and meet the best of the lot.
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