Lessons from C

1. In the months when I was getting treatment for cancer, I was always the youngest one in the waiting rooms.   There were days when I almost felt ashamed. Maybe it was my fault I had cancer.  How come I am the only one here below 50?   But  a few months ago, on a visit to my oncologist,  about a year and a half after my cancer diagnosis and  after getting a clear scan (Yipee!),  I  walked out of the oncology hall just as  young lady in her twenties was walking with her companion. It was obvious from her frail frame, and the cropped hair that she just finished a chemo session.  I wanted to hug her, tell her, hey it's going to be okay!   Living with cancer,and getting treatments really pushes one to rely on once's inner strength.  The pain from the treatments are sometimes too much that  you question yourself  if it is better to just let the disease run its course.  But then you think  about the things that matter - family, the longing to be with them longer, the adventures still waiting for you, your dreams. And you go back again the next day for the next session, and grit your teeth through it. You do it, day after day, despite fears, frustrations and sometimes, despair. You see, every cancer patient is a warrior.

2. I am mighty proud of how I drove myself to my radiotherapy sessions. Most days, my husband drove me, but in the last weeks of my radiotherapy, when he was inundated with work and meetings, I drove myself to the hospital.  It did feel weird, waiting there on my own for my session, surrounded by patients and their carer. I was the only one without a companion. But it also felt liberating.  Having cancer, you basically have to depend on a lot of people -- doctors, nurses, therapists, family. Cancer treatment becomes this big blanket that cloaks all else. Those  90  minutes of driving time gave back a sense of self,  that, I am still me somehow. How I could still be independent, and braver.

3.  I went back to work six weeks after my surgery and worked 50% of my normal  hours. So when I was having radiotherapy,I worked in the morning, and drove myself in the afternoon to  the hospital.   Four months after my surgery, I was back fulltime at work.  Looking back, I wondered if I should have taken it slow. But I also knew this. Work was the one thing that made my post-operative routine feel normal. Even though I was still suffering from brain fog and fatigue due to the post-surgery treatments, knowing that I had to do tasks everyday, with deadlines looming allowed me to not be overwhelmed with morbid thoughts about cancer.  I just had to focus and do what was needed to be done. Work was the perfect distraction.

[Visit Ph] Three Days Out of Manila, Part 1 of 3

Hello there! I´m back from my two weeks vacation in the Philippines!  It was a short break, and although I was tempted to cram those two weeks with trips around the islands, in the end, I decided I wanted it to be a very laidback experience, one that would allow me to enjoy the everyday moments with the family.

Of course, being travel-crazy Pinoys who wouldn´t stay put,  my family and I decided that  a short weekender  in Calabarzon would not be too much of a hassle, so that´s what we did!   Calabarzon, if you do not know, is the region just south of Manila made up of 4 provinces - Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon.


Our Base: Ricarte´s Hill , Batangas via AirBnB
I rented a small vacation house in Airbnb in Nasugbu, Batangas.  It was the perfect location, since it was just 10 minutes away from Tagaytay city center, but it was far enough to be really peaceful and provincial.  The two bedroom resthouse with a wading pool and a kiddie pool was inside the owner´s mango farm, so the location was very rustic and full of trees.

    itsy bitsy spider in the garden

                             
The house was just big enough for the six of us, with two rooms, one with a queen sized bed and another with 2 double beds.  There were foldaway mattresses and extra pillows available.

The house itself was spic and span, the pools were cleaned daily and there are helpers who can assist you.   The cooking area itself is separated from the house by a few yards, but that´s okay.  We didn´t cook at all haha!  We did avail of their cooking services and had one breakfast and one dinner catered.  For breakfast we had garlic fried rice, tocino, tapa, longanisa and ham plus putok pandesal. For one dinner we had kare-kare, laing, inihaw na liempo, rice, leche flan and buko pandan.  The food while not stellar is full of that homecooked goodnes, like something an auntie would cook for you. For our three day stay inclusive of the two catered meals,  I paid only  250€.  Truly value for money!

Because our rented flat was right smack in the middle ofNasugbu and Tagaytay, we could, if we wanted, enjoy the beaches of Nasugbu and the cool highlands of Tagaytay.

We decided to forego the beaches and instead went on a trip to a hacienda in Quezon, visited a bee farm in Cavite and went around Tagaytay for some fun and food trips.  Details on my next posts!

Ricarte´s Hill Garden Resort
Book through AirBnB 
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Beauty Haul: Foreo Luna Mini, Elizabeth Arden Intervene, Chanel Vitalumiere Compact

I spent a little over 250€ last Friday for this beauty haul.  It is certainly  extravagant and somewhat excessive for my ordinarily thrifty lifestyle, but my skin´s been pretty bad lately, so bad that even my ever-reliable Guerlain Lingerie de Péau foundation could not cover the red splotches around my mouth and the tired pallor of my face.

And then there is the fact that the sale season in Europe has began, with 30% to 50% markdowns on goodies.  And so I got a little crazy and bought goodies which will hopefully help me in my beauty battle against stress and ageing.

The Haul: Foreo Luna Mini, Chanel Vitalumiere Compact Powder, Elizabeth Arden Intervene Products (Anti-Fatigue Eye Cream, Time FightingRadiance Serum, Skin Tone Perfecting Capsules), and my freebie of Smashbox Makeup Pouch 

A Spring of Tulips in Holland

Ah, spring!  The season of beginnings. The earth resplendent in a robe of colors, and for those of us who lived through the darkest of winters, spring means a sigh of relief, a promise of light.  Spring holds with its arrival the promise of rebirth, of beautiful blooms,  of nature being at its flirtiest.

It was my first spring in Holland.  And like most first-timers, I marked it with a rite of passage.  In Japan and Korea, spring is a time for hanami, the annual flower viewing custom to enjoy the pristine and ethereal cherry blossoms.  In Holland,  the gray landscape is cracked open by a carpet of unfurled bulbs.

    Tulips: From bulbs to blooms

Cochem, Germany: A Castle, A River, and A Fairytale Town

Warning:  THIS POST IS PREGNANT WITH PHOTOS!



Cochem, Germany is an insider´s secret.  Most people who come to  visit Germany target the bigger cities --Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden.  And that is understandable,  with limited time, we choose the cities with the biggest media mileage. What, in the age of social media, is deemed as  brag-worthy.  But Europe, being a traveller´s  dream,  offers so  many landscapes.  Just as there are different sorts of tourists  --backpackers, those in search of romance, those who want to hit all the iconic cities, those who want to forget--- Europe has  as many cities and towns to cater to every traveller´s preferences.    Last year, I embarked on a solo trip to Dusseldorf, Cologne, and Hamburg, and early this year I visited Berlin.  And how I enjoyed Germany!  Next to Spain, where I lived, it is Germany that made me feel so comfortable and safe -- the germans are unmatched when it comes to friendliness and  even in the big cities, it always felt safe to roam around alone.

And yet even though I enjoyed my past trips to Germany,  it was only when I went to the little town of Cochem that I was dazzled, so dazzled that I uttered with hope and longing,  ¨ I wish I could live here!"  

Mussels and Waffles and Laughter in Ghent

I am truly getting older.  My equally-single friends and I are now talking about mid-life crises, about (not) coming to terms with living alone, about past loves, hopes and frustrations.  The Polish friend and co-engineer, older by close to five years and prone to drama, sighs why the Lord has not blessed her, and enumerates her ¨misfortunes¨. By that she refers to her still being single, a few months shy of forty.  She then points to her perfectly okay figure and complains of weight gain, and points to her clear face and her little laughlines in despair.  We tell her, come on, B! You are so blessed! You´re still pretty and you have a good job, yes? And then of course, she talks about the enemies she´s made at the work site.  I think she really wants to anchor her life now with something, she wants to get rooted to a life and stop the traveling.   She is ready to buy a house, but she doesn´t know where. She just wants to not be alone anymore.

Ah, the travails of being a thirty-something woman,  living  on her own in a foreign land.  I, for one don´t share her desperation yet. I still don´t feel old.   And, having come from a long talk  not too long ago with two Christian elders who fundamentally counselled me about my life direction, I am not worried at all about my life path.  But, B surely needed some cheering up so yesterday,  we went on a road trip to Ghent for a day of waffles and mussels and laughter.

Ghent is a city in the Flemish region of  Belgium, about  a two-hour drive away from my place in Rotterdam.  M, my college best friend and also former workmate of B, was our designated driver.

                                         Ghent is full of canals and ornate buildings
     

   A shop along the canal.  See the windows under ground zero.

My List of Things To Do in Madrid

    Lavapies: one of Madrid´s older, working class areas

For those who don´t know,  I lived in Madrid for two years until late 2014 when I got a seemingly better work offer in Holland.  I figured,  it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work in an environment where I can learn  aspects of my industry that I can never hope to get exposed to in my (then) current job.  So when 2015 came, I jumped ship and am now living in The Netherlands.