Gypsy Musings on a Minstrel Triptych

October 14, 2005
4:23pm
From him to her
(In reference to the supposed ghosts from her very distant past)

Habi,

When do you dismiss such an outpouring of emotion?
When do you ignore a precious love forsaken?
When do you think no more of time and talent given?
Never, Esmeralda: for potent is the potion.

Three summers and a day I walked on paths of silver,
Wand'ring amber fields and forests ocean-vast
Come eve, I receive your ghosts of summers past
I pay no heed: still they haunt me hither.

For your gypsy soul, I'd sell my blood and breath.
If I have to drink from the gold absinthe cup,
If I have to scream from sundown til sun-up,
Let the ghouls come to me to fight 'til death.

Habi

October 14, 2005
5:02 pm
From her to him

Habi,

You never cease to amaze me. Really.

If you must know, I have dismissed, ignored, and thought no more of the ghosts of my summers past. They will remain ghosts and they will remain in the past. No amount of rhyme (may it be threefold) can give me a change of heart.
I am happy where I am with the man I love. And I will be happy wherever the crazy gypsy in his soul takes me for the rest of the summers of my life.

And Habi, I am no Esmeralda (although I'm wearing my Esmeralda earrings right now). I am Quasimodo the hunchback.

Love,
Habi

October 14, 2005
5:37 pm
From him to her

Habi,

Hahaha, you see details that I don't and see humor in them. Here, YOU never cease to amaze me.

Won't take the train anymore; I'll be riding bus 65 instead (the first bus I ever rode in Singapore) from Ubi Ave 2 to Jalan Besar. Then, I'll take a walk to Little India station and meet my beloved hunchback there.

Love,
Habi

The Yang To My Yin

March 17, 2006
1:40 pm
From her to him
(original subject: it runs in the family)

Habi,

Everyday God reminds me how blessed I am to have you in my life. You open my senses to things that I refuse to see, hear, and feel because I am too lazy to really think (like in reading maps) and I tend to choose the more convenient options, or because I am too busy with the little unimportant things that I forget to think outside my paradigm, or maybe I am just too proud to admit that there are certain things that I can't do by myself. In any case, you seem to always know the right things to say or do, which always seem to make sense and make me wonder why I never thought of them myself.
I've come to respect (and depend on) your view on everything. You don't just complete me, you complement me. You're my paradigm shifter, the unison to my octave, the yang to my yin. In your compulsion to symmetry, I found my own harmony.
If I am able to do for you half of what you do for me, I'd die a happy woman.

Love,
Habi

Mi Triste Corazon

August 2, 2005
10:42 am
From him to her

My love,

Work becomes a restless vocation, waiting for word from you. Cannot proceed with making a living without making a journey to the post office every so often. The heart does grow fonder with every minute it is separated from the soul.

Buenos dias, mi alma.

Love,

Habi

Little Things

August 19, 2005
1:53 pm
From him to her
(original subject: good morning!)

Habi,

Hindi ka ba naiingit at natuwa si Eunice nang husto sa pagbati ng bahista ng MYMP sa kanya sa entablado? Hindi ko siguro magagawa yun para sa iyo dahil wala akong kilalang kahit sinong musiko.Ang magagawa ko lang ay kumanta tuwing naliligo at naghuhugas ng plato dahil ako'y maligaya sa piling mo. Sana ang kaligayahan ko'y kaligayahan mo rin.

Love,
Habi

August 19, 2005
2:57 pm
From her to him

Habi,

Ang mga bagay na ginagawa mo para sa akin araw araw ay walang katumbas. Ang makapiling ka lamang ay higit pa sa kahit ano. Wala na kong hahanapin pang iba.

You make me feel special in so many ways -- the roti prata, the Nescafe mistral, the blueberry iced tea, the way you make sure I keep my balance whenever we ride the mrt, the way you bustle ever so quietly every morning so as not to wake me up, the way your tired face lights up upon seeing me whenever you come home from work, the way you listen to every word I say even when you're too sleepy, the way your face wrinkles with worry whenever I complain from backache, the way you hold out your hand for me in a crowded place, the way you immediately thought of me just by reading Eunice's email and the way you replied. All the little wonderful things you do for me every single day never go unappreciated.
I don't just feel like a princess because when I'm with you, I am one.


Love,
أميرة

August 19, 2005
3:13pm
From him to her

Tears welled up and eventually fell. Thank you so much, princess. I love you very much.

My Life Is So Much Better With You In It

September 8, 2003
3:20 pm
From him to her

Loved the e-card; so very descriptive of the situation yesterday. Pussy packing her bags, watching a movie (well, yeah, had other people been more watchful of the time and not clearing the supermarket of every imaginable merchandise!), and sleeping with a smile.

Thank-yous are indeed in order:

Thank you for standing up for me with your parents, at the cost of earning their resentment, of losing the familiar life you used to lead, and of missing the company of your little brother whom you love so dearly. My prayers are for you. But no crying, now.

Thank you for being so sweet and caring. You treat me like a king. Every second with you is time well spent, each one swinging from comfortable to adventurous in a moment's notice. Loving you is easy ('cause you're beautiful, and making love with you is all I wanna do. Ü) I could not ask for more.

Thank you for opening your doors to a new 'exception'. It was rough sailing, but it looks like visions of more wonderful journeys are mine to keep.

Ana Behibek, habbibi.

Rotterdam Routine

May 31, 2002
Parmentierplein 1
Rotterdam, 3088 GN
Netherlands
10:20 pm
From her to him

Hi, drei! Here's my 'detailed' letter. Finally.
Well, to tell you honestly, I've been putting off writing to you because I know it will just make me miss you more. And that I really don't have much to say, except that I miss you. (If I keep on talking now, I'd only start repeating myself.. and all I can say is I miss you, I miss you,...) Haaaay. I was hoping, actually I was expecting, to have an MSN messenger installed here but no such luck. We're using 'dump' terminals, and so it's not possible because of some firewall. What that means, I have no idea.

Tigger is doing OK. If you call being shabby OK. If he had any eyes, they would have dropped out already and if he had any hair, most of them would have been loved off. I'm sure that would have been your case, too, had you come with me. Well, I wouldn't have exactly 'loved' off your ensaymada hair, but you get the picture.

We're doing pretty OK here (save for the fact, of course, that I'm dying of homesickness and that my feet are all sore because of wearing shoes everyday. Real, closed-toe shoes, mind you! And with socks, too. Makes me yearn for my personal foot masseur). Like I said in my Keep-Frank-Updated emails, we're adjusting well with the weather and the very late sunset. When we first got here, I took a nap in the afternoon and I woke up at around 930pm and the sun was still shining! I woke the guys up, hysterically informing them that there was some kind of an eclipse. Nobody warned us of this ‘phenomenon’ so we didn't believe it until it happened again the next day.

It's becoming a routine, too, for me. Wake up at 6am. Get up at 630. Try to have a decent shower (temp. at 10° - the house does have a heater but we can't use it much. The downstairs neighbor complained during our first few nights because of the noise of the broiler. We never understood what he was trying to say but two things were clear - noise and heater. So we just turned off our heaters in fear of him calling the authorities to report annoying Filipinos). Dress up at around 7. If you call putting on layers and layers of clothes dressing up. Breakfast at 715. Breakfast usually consists of Botterhamworst sandwich (botterhamworst -cold cuts variety as thin as you can imagine) with lettuce and smelly cheese, and kuya Philip's special coffee (he's always the first to get up so he makes coffee for us). Morning chitchat while having breakfast. TV tuned in to Hallmark or Discovery channel (two of the very few English networks available. Imagine Nickelodeon in Dutch!) Stephan (some cute Dutch guy from the office) picks us up at around 830am. Either that or we get up a little earlier and take the bus-train-bus route to the office. I believe I told you about the incident the other day when I lost them (or they lost me, whichever). After our bus ride#1, I boarded the train, expecting them to be right behind me (you know how fast I walk). When I discovered that they weren't in there with me, the train (similar to our MRT) was already moving. Then panic set in. Where do I get off? Where is the connecting train located? And when I did find the connecting train, I also had no idea where to get off again and which bus to take after. I don't know how I did it but I got to the office all right. Kuya Dar and Kuya Flip called from somewhere frantic with worry, thinking that I was kidnapped by some pedophile (talk about real worrywarts). I gave them a good scare. hehe. Serves them right. They've been ignoring me since we got here because of all the blondes and redheads around. Anyway, on to my routine..
Work until 1230 and then lunch (lunch for me usually consisting of rock-hard bread, tomato soup (brings back galera memories), more cold cuts and smelly cheese, orange juice and kiwi fruit) Very healthy stuff. (Which reminds me, please tell kuya Jerry to start saving up for my Saisaki eat-all-you-can. He promised to treat me there if I lose at least 10lbs. Tell him I'm losing pounds by the gallon here.) Work till 5pm and then go home. Sometimes we go to the City Central to look around and do our groceries. Establishments here close at 6pm, some even at 5! So we pretty much don't have anything to do but to go home early everyday. Dinner at around 7-8pm. Much the same as our morning rituals. TV tuned in to Hallmark or Discovery channel. (But we got lucky the other day and found Ally McBeal speaking straight English!) The 'white nights' give us the illusion that it's still early so we sleep rather late everyday. Then I cuddle up with Tigger (pretending that I'm hugging my favorite guy. Not much of a difference, really; same smell and nothing much to hug. hehe) while reading Sheldon or Mr. Oxford to make me sleepy.
Well, that pretty much sums up my usual day here in Rotterdam. Almost 7 days down. 22 days to go. Sigh.
Tomorrow we are meeting Guido in Antwerp and then he'll be driving us to Paris. I never dreamed I'd be going to Paris. Well, maybe I dreamed about it once or twice but I never really imagined that I'd actually be going there. We'll just have a look around, take some pictures, have a cup of coffee or two, maybe buy some souvenirs and then drive back home. On Sunday, we'll go to mass (we found this charming old church just around the block) even if we won't understand a word of it, then maybe shop some more in the very few shops open on Sundays.

After work today, Stephan is bringing us to the old windmills site. The windmills there, he says, are the original windmills of the 16th century and are really powered by the wind.

This is it for now. Ang haba na pala. Sabi ko I don't have much to say a. You really have a way of getting me to talk. Tsk tsk.

I hope you enjoy your Subic and EK weekends. Tell me all about it in your good morning emails, ok?
Give my love to my gels and momi.

Gen

Ghent Blues

May 14, 2003
3:24 am
From him to her

Hay, Antwerp again at last. Weird ng weather, ngayon naman, maaraw, sarap ulit lumabas. Ghent was no better than Bruges--parang once you've seen Bruges, you've seen most of Belgium. I don't know if it was the uncooperative weather, or the fact that I was walking with hand-in-pocket. Your warm hand and sweet kisses could have made it more worthwhile.
Off to Luxembourg with Luc very early tomorrow. Again, it'll be no better, para lang masabing I've travelled far and wide in a short span of time. Just have to satisfy this "crazy gypsy in my soul." But always remember, wherever we're together, that's my home. Tu es chez moi, you're my home. I love you.

Isang Mumunting Handog

October 23, 2001
2:48 pm
From him to her
(The email that started it all and our very first picture together as lovebirds - as Jamie succinctly put it)

Binibining Genoveva,

Hayaan po ninyong alayan ko kayo ng isang mumunting handog sa piling araw ng inyong pagsilang. Isang mapagpalang karawan inyo, binibini.

Ginoong Andres
P.S. Enjoy!

Thoughts on Marriage

June 16, 2006
12:33 pm
From her to him
(Three and a half years after it all started...)

Habi,

I read in one of the many 'marrying the right person' articles that every relationship has a cycle. In the beginning, you fall madly in love, you anticipate their call, you crave for their touch, and you love every bit of their idiosyncracies. But after a few years of marriage, the euphoria of love fades. The article says that it's the natural cycle of every relationship. Phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts.

Reading that article scared the hell out of me. At first I refused to believe (same way I refused to believe Joanne's lola that you can never go back to 'just holding hands') that it happens to EVERY relationship. I wanted to think that ours will be different. But looking at married couples around me and recalling what I learned in Economics about the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility, I began to accept the fact that some things really change through time and familiarity. But then again, if every relationship is indeed a cycle, then it should come full circle, shouldn't it? Among all the different definitions of love, what I truly believe in is that for it to be real, it should last. The euphoria of love may fade but the love itself will not. If anything, it will blossom into something more -if I may use a term I don't fully understand- profound and pure, devoid of any embellishments that come with young love, love that consists of comfortable silences, simple gestures, and loving looks that say it all [snipped]. Now more than ever, I'm looking forward to our married life together. Bring it on! :o)

Ang gusto ko lang naman talaga sabihin ay hindi magmamaliw ang pagmamahal ko para sayo hanggang sa ating pagtanda. Happy birthday, Habi!

Love,
Habi

June 16, 2006
3:36 pm
From him to her

Habi,

What joy in reading such a well thought-of and thought-provoking piece. You never fail to surprise me.

What joy in walking home, and looking up to see the light on from the bedroom window, and knowing that in there lies the One, your One, waiting to shower you with warm embraces and sweet kisses. Kahit ilang milya pa ang lakbayin, kung may ngiti naman sa labi pagdating, pagod ay di na alintana kapag nakita na'ng ilaw sa bintana. ;o)

What joy in looking forward to a life full of promise. God has been good, and life will get even better. So do not trouble yourself with needless things, my love. Tanggalin ang ano mang agam-agam. Slow and easy does it. Sabi nga ni Humot, "The wedding is just a dress reheasal of your life together. Just relax."

Je t'aimerai jusqu'à la fin du temps. Bon anniversaire, ma cherie.

Je t'embrasse,

Habi