Rough Groove

A dark afternoon

The skies over is just dark as hard and driving rain as well as strong winds continued to pour down and howl. Glenda (the typhoon) might already be far away but its effect, inducing the monsoon, still continued while, as I was told, down south, its just sunny. Classes have been suspended at all levels already as some low lying areas of the metropolis and surrounding provinces already are flooded.

Me? Still here in the office ready to press the button that will usher in a new phase of my life. A few hours from now, that button would finally be pressed to start the wheels of change. Quite risky. Really risky but now is the time to take a chance. To take the plunge to the unknown. To the new horizon of which I am comfortable to say that I will, at the end of the day, weather and conquer it.

I’m now ready to face a new life. I’m ready to pursue and fulfill my dreams and get my groove back.

Finally!

Birding last Saturday

Last Saturday, I joined some birding enthusiast from Philippine Bird Photography Yahoo egroup where I was invited by a Flickr contact Valkyrie,a Cebu based bird enthusiast/photographer. Actually, its my second time to go birdwatching, the first was in Olango a few years ago but that was not so eventful as birds were quite few that time.

PropJerry, the one who invited us fetched me at Philcoa in Quezon City at around 0600H and then brought me to the first stop, Philippine Nuclear Research, a patch of open space near the Iglesia ni Cristo main church. A few trees are present here and the area is covered with grass. Already, some of the enthusiasts were present and setting up their camera gear. I was just envying their 400mm L lenses or the 500mm of TJ Parpan. I tried out my 70 - 200mm f/4 L lens but really, with the size of the birds in these areas, it really fell short. Yes, I was able to take photos of the cisticolas, grass bird as well as long tailed shrike as well as the munias, but then, because of the focal lenght, these were too small to get details. Good thing that Tina Mallari, another enthusiast let me borrow her 1.4 teleconverter.

We transferred to the UP grounds and visited several areas. It was also the first time for me to see a bittern, a snipe, Philippine woodpecker (an endemic), which I didn’t realize that it is present in this country, a good view of a sleeping Philippine night jar, another endemic and several bird species that I’m familiar with, having seen and experienced them during my childhood years on vacation in Mindanao.

Left, a sleeping Philippine night jar in UP Diliman. A Philippine endemic, this bird is nocturnal and its color and plumage camouflage it well in its surroundings.

Right, another Philippine endemic, a small woodpecker alighted on a branch of a dead tree, preening and sunning itself.

Overall, the experience was great and really, I didn’t thought that rare birds inhabit this space of Metro Manila. Unfortunately, my lens gear fell short that I have to contend myself with crops and disappointments of not having to get a good picture of these beautiful birds.

At the Sta. Clara Monastery

We were planning to offer eggs to Sta. Clara at the monastery in Katipunan, QC, together with Jing and Joyce. Tradition and beliefs have it that if you want to have a sunny day on a specific date, one need to offer eggs to the saint. Well, considering that the past week saw it as very wet with a typhoon in the run, we were a bit worried that this weekend, when we will have our climb at Gulugod Baboy in Batangas, it might be wet too.

After meeting at Gateway Mall, we arrived at the monastery at a little past 1900H and lo, it was closed. I guess, we just have to pray harder so that it wouldn’t rain.

Drenched metropolis

Oh boy! Typhoon Florita (international name: Bilis) just blew across Metro Manila yesterday and really, wind and hard driving rain drenched the metropolis. As for me, lucky that I was not too wet except for my shoes that got soaked. It was really a good time also to just stay at home and sleep.

Photos taken with NOkia 6680 but when sent via MMS to my yahoo account, got resized to rather small… Anyway, I’m still in training in Mandaluyong and wasn’t able to upload this last night.

Mall of Asia

Was there last Sunday and I was hoping to watch an IMAX movie or go window shopping. But when I arrived at the newest mall of Henry Sy, purported to be the 3rd biggest mall in the world and the third biggest in Asia, I was just aghast to see the crowds who also thought it best to visit this place, an occassion for Father’s Day. After taking a snack in Read y Coffee (not really the best food around with their pizza wanting for a makeover), I went back home. But not before getting two books at 15% discount at Fully Booked: one photobook and The World is Flat.

The biggest mall in the country and in Asia, 3rd in the world. Wanting to have a good time, I was just disappointed to see the huge turn out of the crowd. People were just everywhere! Every nook and cranny. Every path leading to the various shops and foodstalls and foodcourt. People, like ants, swarming.

People, people, everywhere…

… and still everywhere. Right, in one lucky moment, I was able to capture with my Nokia 6680 phone, two lovers alone and enjoying the sea scene. In just seconds after taking the shots, people were then blocking the view.