One of our air-conditioners, the one for which we had to wait for the company to order spare parts from Thailand, has finally been restored. The Chekovian irony is that the rains have come and the nights will be cooler.

It is saddening that parts for air-conditioners are not produced in the Philippines, a tropical country in which there is a demand for air-conditioners--and simply because employers here don't like having to face and deal with labor union laws.

The less we devalue our labor force, the more steps we take farther away from progress.

Watching the last DVD I have from the Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection--Murder on the Orient Express. I'm enjoying it more than the Hollywood version, which was distracting because of all of those name stars and with the screenplay writers feeling obliged to make each role an acting vehicle for them.

In the meantime a constant but gentle rain has been falling in Cubao.

Griping and complaining about a system is often futile, especially if the system itself is helpless and unable to change.

The only job worth being loyal to is one that gives you an annuity, or pension, after you retire. You would then live the rest of your life as though living on a trust fund.

There is one thing that prevents all of that from happening: overpopulation.

As a result of overpopulation, all jobs become contractual, leaving employees to fend for themselves, take on after-hours jobs, and even steal.

Now I can see in my mind how the studio, studio office, and studio lounge should look like. However, I wish to rest from renovation for a while. It will be quite major, because I envision a third staircase in the center.

Looked through some of my old, handwritten diaries and decided not to dispose of them, simply because they look so quaint.

The bird man always drops by our compound to visit me after his usual rounds. It is fascinating--our pet birds all recognize and remember him. Whenever he walks into the gate, all of them erupt in a chorus of joyous squeals.

Our tenants have begun buying pet birds too, but it is rather distressing that the little children keep them in those tiny raffia cages designed simply for temporary transport.

Others, like Ifram, purchase as many birds as he can afford and then sets them free. I try to remind him that it is like paying the ransom for kidnapped African girls: the kidnappers succeed in making their business and then go ahead and kidnap some more.

Yet others don't like having pet birds because of a "Hansel and Gretel" complex. They feel that they have Hansel and Gretel in the cages and possibly don't like the idea of their being pushed into a stove!

Our street is a route for funeral corteges on their way to Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina, in the east, and the San Juan cemetery, in the southwest. That is another reason why we have santos on our front balcony. Typical hearse music today is comprised of pop songs played out loud, presumably the deceased's or their loved ones' favorites.

Thinking of Norbert and wishing him well.

Our pet birds are becoming F-A-T.

Slept extremely well last night because the night was cool, if not chilly, due to the rain.

I miss afternoons sitting at my desk by the window with a scented candle lit in an exquisite bottle while it is raining outside, but a drizzle will do because I so detest flooding.

At any rate it was a good summer, and very soon I shall be missing the blazing sunlight that sparkles like gold through the leaves of the dragon tree, and wishing that I could spend time lolling on the roof deck again.

My granddaughter Aubrey bakes perfectly scrumptious chocolate chip cookies.

Now I want to buy her cookie cutters: gingerbread men, Christmas figures, Halloween figures.

Good morning, Cubao!

Benjie has the flu and plans to time in on Thursday. That should give me some time to do other things in the meantime.

Good night, Cubao!

Watching the Poirot series has made me want to own at least one set of those exquisite, fragile, flowered, porcelain tea sets with service--but:

1) Rafael has too much of a head start.
2) Although I recall that my parents had such a set, my granddaughters don't appreciate that style.
3) It would not be suited to the Cubao New Orleans French Quarter design, to which plain white with gold borders might be more appropriate. Or navy blue.

Watching the series has also made me realize how pathetically fake the decor and plywood veneer furniture (usually auctioned off afterwards) of the Chancery, the Forbes Park Residence, and the Baguio Residence have always been.

Finished watching Appointment With Death from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection. Set in old Syria, and the sets and props were exotic. Rococo, but I love rococo, though my family doesn't, and so, you won't find any brass and bead lamps in the house..

I must re-read the paperback sometime soon. There were many details that seemed off, and I wonder if this was the least faithful to the original. Other than those details, I loved this episode--like the rest in the series, it carried off the production with good performances, good scenery, good camera work, and very tasteful production design--no nudity, no sex, no cursing, no urban perversions.

Finished watching Three Act Tragedy from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection.

Finished watching The Clocks from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection.

Two cups of black cherry tea.

Thunder, lightning, and rain in Cubao synchronized with the thunder, lightning, and rain in Curtain.

Happy that we are all safe inside the house and that I am not elsewhere worrying about how to get home.

Lighting a scented candle at my captain's cabin bedroom window.

Returned from shopping.

Finished watching Curtain from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection without bothering to watch it last. Glad that The Mysterious Affair at Styles is still fresh in my mind.

Norbert, who was in hospital for more than a month, has passed away. They took fluid from his lungs only a week ago.

A sad turn of events. He was a devoted employee.

Finished watching Dead Man's Folly from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection.Strange. I seem to remember that the criminal was an expert in petit-point, which wasn't anywhere in the video.

B. renovated his house to show it off to others.

I renovated mine to keep it all to myself.

Sometimes I wonder why it is difficult and painful for the educational system to free itself of its imprisonment in the 1920s. Is it because it unconsciously desires to conserve everything else that goes with its "Gabaldon architecture", a style that is really not only unimpressive but is hard to maintain? Is it because it unconsciously cherishes the peace time before the Second World War?

Look at contemporary faculty dynamics--their regressions, their jealousies, their flirtations, their smug self-importance, their wanting to have the last word all the time, their fake religiosity, and their closed-mindedness to everything outside their frames of reference. Are they not fixated in the 1920s too?

It will take only one condominium tower disaster for Filipinos to decide that they are not tower persons, and all condominium towers will be abandoned thereafter.

A good and beautiful home is always the best reward.

It is quite amusing to us whenever a huge, Silver Star bus passes our front balcony. The passengers inside the bus are at the level of the balcony, and their jaws drop at the unexpected mise-en-scene.

Tony Perez's Art of War: It should always be unclear to the general public what you like and what you do not like.

Good morning, Cubao!

Resuming the screening of the front balcony.

The Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection is like a box of chocolates. You have to drag me away from it to make me stop.

If a person you do not like passes away, do not think unkindly of that person. There is a 99% probability that, in order to gain merit on the other side, that person will choose to function as your protector and spirit guide, bless you, and be responsible for your successes.

Especially if, when that person was alive, that person also did not like you.

I like taking care of my grandchildren, but, sometimes, I pause and ask myself whether it isn't really they who are taking care of me.

An intimate dinner is much more enchanting than a group reunion.

Good night, Cubao!

Not taking Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot to bed with me.

Knitting, instead.

Finished watching Elephants Can Remember from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection. I like the Poirot episodes that involve Ariadne Oliver.

Screening of front balcony only half-done. If we complete the job tomorrow, I shall begin relocating all of the hanging planters.

The young man came back with his contractor this afternoon. The first thing we need to do is apply for a separate electric meter for the front space.

Finished watching The Labours of Hercules and The Big Four from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection. The latter has Miss Lemon, who I am seeing for the first time.

Finished watching Murder on the Links from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection.

So far all of the models on the show are short and stubby, and the types of fabric of their clothes look like they were haggled for at a local market, especially prints that look more suited to bed sheets. Their idea of posing for the camera is to constantly whirl about and pretend that they are being blown by the wind.

The female broadcaster walks in late and uses the heavy traffic as her excuse. She is shabbily dressed and looks like she'd just finished cleaning her bathroom.

Yesterday evening I caught The Smiling Serial Killer on Ci, about a gay, young, Indonesian man who willfully chose to be born in the wrong country at the wrong time--yet didn't handle his karma well.

When conducting group dynamics for corporate groups, do NOT think in terms of games and gimmicks. The sad reality is that such games and gimmicks can NOT be applied to real-life situations by the average participant, whose world is comprised without plastic balls, straws, cards, balloons, and hula hoops.

In the end, your participants will only go home with no other memories than those of the short vacation they had from work--and what they really did for fun other than what you thought you offered.

Good morning, Cubao!

We are still screening the front balcony.

The young man who wants to rent our front space came to visit again. I did not accept his down payment pending clarification of a lot of details.

Take note of the setting of your dreams. The cityscape has begun to look different--the way it will look like after the next big disaster.

Good night, Cubao!

Finished watching Five Little Pigs and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection.

Didn't you ever notice that whenever an "update" offers itself and you specifically instruct it to "Make No Changes" on your computer, it tries every trick in the book to persuade you otherwise?

Especially with regard to having access to your data, among them your History and your Location.

The last talisman maker I worked with has bad anatomy, bad art, bad taste, and poor knowledge of Latin.

I am glad to have finally gotten rid of him.

Finished watching Death in the Clouds from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection.

Now watching Five Little Pigs, another in the series. The book version was a favorite--a five-testimony reenactment of a crime a la Rashomon.

I am watching it in parts, and I am still on the third testimony.

One of our air-conditioners went out of commission months ago and it took a long time before spare parts could be ordered from Thailand. Now that the parts have been bought and paid for, the service man discovered that he has to pull out the fan and bring it back on Monday.

I will never buy that brand of AC again.

The granddaughters are in their house in Cavite with relatives, Benjie and I bought a roll of screen mesh at the hardware store, the bird man came with a pair of handsome cockatiels that I didn't buy because they were too expensive, and I managed to sneak in a viewing of Hercule Poirot's Christmas from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection.

I actually caught a character in The Poirot Collection knitting in a scene and evidently knowing nothing about knitting. It was like every actor and actress playing a piano in scenes shot from behind the piano, moving their shoulders too artfully while hiding their fingers.

Too often, whenever other people try to convert you to a cause, it is really because misery loves company.

The male broadcaster is under the illusion that he looks hot to everyone, but many people think that he looks like Grover from Sesame Street.

The female broadcaster dresses like a hospital attendant. She is going through a marital crisis and does not yet have a clue that the only solution in sight is to give up her career.

We are screening the front balcony today. A possible respite from Poirot.

He flits from one magic group to another in search of himself, only to be told, again and again and in not so many words, that he is not only mediocre but undesirable as well.

He will not win, because he looks like Thompson and Thomson.

Good morning, Cubao!

A day of many good choices.

Finished watching Dumb Witness from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection. As pleasurable as knitting before bedtime. This one has the Tripp sisters, who conduct seances--though their characters reveal Agatha Christie's ignorance of seances. I loved their joss stick holder, their crystal ball, and the herb switches hanging from their ceiling.

Other things I find precious in this series: English countryside houses, topiary, Poirot's walking sticks (one has a telescope and another has a folding seat), Chinese porcelain vases, crystal inkwells, fringed silk lampshades, silver salt and pepper cellars, a fox terrier, knitted throws, amber medicine bottles, pince-nez, a portable ashtray...

Good night, Cubao!

My love affair with Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot continues.

When channel-hopping, the next worst thing to coming upon a commercial is coming upon a close-up of a melodrama performer whose face is all torn up with fake emotion.

Looking back, the month of flowers was not replete with festivities.

Sometimes religion is a mere disguise for truth.

It comes closer.

A young man came and asked whether he could rent our front space as a Pares-Pares outlet, but we are both in a quandary as to how to reconcile this with the Cubao New Orleans French Quarter design.

Finished watching The ABC Murders from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection. The series is already taking on an Art Deco turn, and Poirot's waxed moustache seems to be changing per episode.

Benjie came with a bag of dog food for Kichiro Mayuzumi. Quite tedious that the only place we can buy it from is in Bulacan!

An afternoon at The Castle of Baking and Confectionery with the granddaughters, but I didn't take photos.

Aubrey's collection of baking supplies is growing.

Finished watching The Mysterious Affair At Styles from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection upon coming back home.

Finished watching Death on The Nile from Agatha Christie: The Poirot Collection. I like both this and the Hollywood, big-screen, version, but the production design of this series is just exquisite--nothing seems to be a mere "prop".

First do up your house not with what you want to buy, but with what you already have.

Next, determine what you no longer need of the other things you already have.

Good morning, Cubao!

Finished watching Halowe'en Party last night. I loved the production design.

Watching Hallowe'en Party from the Agatha Christie: Poirot series. In parts. Stopped after the party murder.

Should watch the whole thing on October 31!

Good night, Cubao!

Caught another Bette Davis on TCM.

Finished watching The Adventures of TinTin: The Secret of The Unicorn, which wasn't The Secret of The Unicorn at all.

It is unwise to reveal the names of your students to others and to allow the public to associate them with your life work, because some of them will turn out to be failures, con artists, and criminals, and you wouldn't like that at all.

I can smell a lazy student a mile away. This is the type who will send you private messages claiming that he is psychic and would like to develop his skill, and then, after you send him a list of books to read, he stops on the first few pages of the first book and says that he has difficulty "getting into it." He anticipates that you will serve him everything on a silver platter.

When you finally run him through the regimen of backbreaking martial arts, memorizing spells, and the possibility of having amulets implanted under his skin, he runs away.

Magic is as demanding as painting, writing, and knitting. That is why it is not for everyone.

Drizzly afternoon in Cubao.

Finished watching The Shooting Star.

Started watching the Spielberg-Jackson The Adventures of TinTin: The Secret of The Unicorn but it's feature-length and I can watch it only in parts. I love this movie, which I saw on the big screen, and I appreciate the effort put into it, though I find the tiny deconstructions, liberties, cameos, protracted chases, long-drawn fight scenes, "clever" juxtapositions, transpositions, excursions, and such to be exceedingly arrogant. In the 21st century, there is nothing so annoying as a team of movie writers who think they are much better than and have the license to disrespect the original author in "cinemafying" the subject matter. Especially if they are wrong (the movie did not make money, at least not enough to speed up a sequel).

I am constantly distracted while watching this because TinTin reminds me so much of Will Cocks. Will, of course, does not agree.

Watched Bugs on RED last night. A predictable horror movie, but I enjoyed it. It was low-budget because it was an animation no-brainer. The bugs looked like sugar-coated almond candies and the main monster looked like a bargain-sale prototype from the Alien trilogy.

Tony Perez's Art of War: When other people falsely accuse you of something, use Tony Perez's Magnifying Shield Spell. They will find themselves guilty of the very thing they are accusing you of, and will suffer for it a hundred times over.

The bird man cometh.

Good day, Cubao!

D. and G. dropped by earlier unannounced, but I was still in bed.

Good night, Cubao!

Angelique paid our electric while Aubrey's braces were tightened at the dentist's today.

I had an afternoon nap and knitted some upon waking.

When it rains, it pours, and I mean expenses I need to incur for all the things my granddaughters need before school opens!

I'm not buying anything for myself for the rest of this month!

The Enchanted Aviary: A Priest And A Priestess Read The Residue Of An Incense Cone

Later that night, unable to sleep, the house-lizard-head-waiter took a stroll to the Temple of The Bird Goddess and dropped in to pray, as well, for the female Dreamer Bird. It knew that the bird visited the temple before dusk. Since lizards are natural apprentices of sorcerers, not to mention temple priests and priestesses, it sat in on the reading of the ash residue of the incense cone that the Dreamer Bird lit during her visit. The ashes formed the outline of a heart and the image of two birds within it. The temple priest and priestess and the lizard were totally pleased, except that the head of one of the bird images was partially obliterated, and the lizard wondered what that could mean.

Much later the priest and priestess took off in the dark to conduct their nocturnal aviangelization, preaching the Word of The Bird to the fruit bats in the neighborhood and ministering to the poor, the sick, and the hungry. One of their regular stops was The Eavian, a charity ward under the west rooftop of the hermitage. The space under the tin roofing accommodated as much as 200 nests for abused birds, the homeless, and orphaned sky fledglings. Many house lizards volunteered to work there and were efficient as medical assistants and as ears to the life stories the lonely patients were eager to tell them.

Tonight the priest and priestess paid special attention to two speckled shrikes, a little-girl shrike and a little-boy shrike recently rescued by the Department of Social Wingfare from their mother, who had gone mad and began maltreating her children after her husband abandoned her. The mother was placed in a birds' mental institution and the little shrikes in the custody of The Eavian. The priest and priestess were delighted to see that they were recuperating well. They had wanted the old hermit to adopt the little shrikes, although that implied augmenting the enchanted aviary with an additional cage. The Department of Wingfare negotiated with the hermit, and it was agreed that the little-boy shrike could stay in the aviary until it was old enough to fend for itself.

The little-boy shrike was but a baby bird and could hardly chirp its needs and wants. Its sister was much older and extremely devoted to him. She was willing to make the sacrifice of their being separated if it meant his having a good home, good food, a good education, and a long, happy life. She kissed her baby brother on the cheek and whispered lovingly to it, I shall visit you someday, and I hope you remember who I am when that day comes.

The little-girl shrike was due to be sent to a bird hospice after the little-boy shrike was transferred to the small loggia, where the enchanted aviary was located. The priest and priestess gave her a warm, parting hug. After six months, they promised, we shall ask the hermit to take you in as well, and we pray to The Bird Goddess that he agrees. The little-girl shrike wept profusely, but they were tears of gratitude.

Finished watching The Crab With The Golden Claws (Parts 1 and 2).

Finished watching King Ottokar's Sceptre (Parts 1 and 2).

Good morning, Cubao!

Intermittent clouds, intermittent sunshine.

Good to hear from D. again. The old plan was for him to pursue his M.A. in _________ and then come back to Manila to work, and that he would live with me.

Finished watching The Black Island (Part 2).

Good night, Cubao!

Benjie is scheduled to work here tomorrow, meaning that I have to be up at 7:30 AM to let him in.

Caught an episode of Ancient Aliens on History late this afternoon.

Finished watching The Black Island (Part 1).

Finished watching Prisoners of The Sun (Part 2).

I love the catchy, haunting, theme music of The Adventures of TinTin. If I were to sketch the melody and its reprise, they would look exactly like TinTin.

Finished watching Prisoners of The Sun (Part 1).

Overcast skies in Cubao.

Why does Bruce Jenner want to look like Diane von Furstenberg minus the wrap-around dresses?

A rebel who demands immediate, permanent change actually gets only interim change.