Are you left-handed or right-handed? Neither? Only recently I learned that there is a term for my handedness: mixed-handed. I write and brush my teeth left-handed and use scissors and play golf right-handed. But I think that using my right is more of an adaptation to right-handed tools. I looked it up and I read...
Category: Life
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What we discovered on a walking tour and a Pasig River Ferry ride
When my husband and I signed up for a heritage tour by Renacimiento Manila in September, we expected the usual daylong visits to old buildings and houses, with some historical trivia and eating stops on the side. But we got much more than that in this tour. We also found ourselves wondering why the government...
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Hitting our stride together
To celebrate World Animal Day on Wednesday, Oct. 4, the nongovernment organization Animal Kingdom Foundation (AKF) sponsored “Run Fur Life” last Sunday at Bridgetowne Estate in Pasig City. The event, now on its eighth year, had over 1,000 runners registered—a record achievement for AKF. My running buddy was a two-year-old red Golden Retriever named Angus....
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Family and Fossils: Million-year-old gifts from my wife and sisters
(Third of three parts) Family and fossils: My cousin Isko and my first precious find, Family and fossils: My grandchild Meg and a treasure trove I have in my hand a fossil—the remains of an ancient creature called a trilobite. This animal-looking rock resulted when the trilobite was buried and minerals replaced its body parts....
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Family and fossils: My grandchild Meg and a treasure trove
(Second of two parts) First of two parts : Family and fossils: My cousin Isko and my first precious find I found my second fossil—and a third, a fourth, in fact several shoe boxes full—practically at my doorstep. It was in the summer of 2003 when I was vacationing in Mandaue, the same summer my...
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Family and fossils: My cousin Isko and my first precious find
(First of two parts) I found my first fossil on a rocky shore in Catmon, a town an hour’s drive from Cebu City. My family and I were on a drive through the countryside north of the city: Liloan, Danao, Carmen, Catmon, Sogod … On the way back we stopped at the only decent public...
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What’s a guy in his 70s doing trying to ride a bike?
Sometime last April, I had nerve pain in my right leg. In previous bouts with such pain in my leg or bum, I simply waited a few days and the pain went away. This time a week went by but the pain stayed. I checked medical websites for a clue. I found that in the...
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There’s hope for stray animals in surge in pet ownership
“If you get a pet, it should be a lifetime commitment” was the message that Sharon Bengzon Yap harped on throughout the interview. She expounded at length on her message: Raising a pet is somewhat like raising a child. There are boxes to be ticked, from decent shelter to regular checkups at the vet. Fur...
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Being Filipino as the most natural thing to do
Isabel Padua Grant’s home in Nottingham, like many other English homes, has a traditional English garden. But the living room of that home, at the time when her British-Filipino children were growing up, had marks of the tropics, like native baskets, tribal figures, wood carvings. It was definitely not a traditional English home. From her...
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The Mechanic (a real one)
Al Evasco has been working as an automotive mechanic for 23 years. He has always wanted to be one, he says, as he likes “magbutingting,” or taking things apart and fixing them. He excelled as a Tesda trainee, and was awarded as outstanding student when he took its automotive mechanic course after graduating high school....