My teacher, my hero...



A simple card. A red card. Just simply a Valentine's card. Almost 40 years old. It survived and intact (with little brittleness in the paper). Kept by one of my grade school teachers. She was my Grade 3 teacher. She retired few weeks ago after serving for so many years in one of the government primary schools in Sibuyan, Romblon.

I can't remember that I gave this little card to her. But for sure that this cut-out card was given to her in February 1973. How I did manage to have it now? Well, her daughter-in-law is my sister. My sister was helping rampaging her things while cleaning up her room at school. Of course, my teacher was excited to give it to me - reminded her/me of my thoughtfulness. I was one of the top pupils in the class and of course the best folk dancer. I did the "Sayaw sa Bangko" (Chair Dance) with her (my teacher) as the choreographer.

Thank you for giving it back to me.
Thank you for being part of what I have achieved now.
Indeed, you were my teacher... my hero!



Quote me if you like...

Trese: Best Philippine Graphic Literature National Book Awardee

Watch out...13 stories will be featured here.
From the brilliant minds of two Filipinos, Budjette Tan and Ka-Jo Baldisimo, our love for komiks (comics) is coming back to life again!
Click the image to find out more...
Four volumes of beautiful artwork featuring our local scary underworld characters...

Jennifer Hillier @ MIBF2012

This was my second visit (and last day) to the book fair just to catch up with one of the featured writers by National Bookstore's book signing event. Jennifer Hillier is a Filipino-Canadian novelist who released two books, Creep and Freak. Prior to the book fair, there were already press releases regarding Jennifer's visit in Manila. It was also revealed that she plans to visit her father living in one of the islands in the Visayas and not seeing him for almost 16 years.

Without a second thought, I decided to buy the first book (Php315 less 20% discount) during my first visit to the fair. As soon as grabbed the pocket book, I started reading it... until now while writing this journal, I am on the middle part of the book - enjoying Ethan's revenge against Dr. Sheila Tao.

While Jennifer was writing her dedication in my book, I quickly asked her motivation to build-up the personality of Ethan, considering that she is a female writer. Jennifer responded quickly to my query and without hesitation, she says: "Ethan is my favorite character...I have to read and read to get additional information in developing Ethan's character."

As parting kind words, I told her that I compared her writing style with Mary Higgins Clark. Clark is my first female writer who really inspired me to read more suspense-thriller stories. She smiled while thanking me of my remarks!