Pinay New Yorker

Every morning when the morning chill hits me, I cannot help but remember those crisp and sweet smelling mornings of Baguio many summers ago.  It’s been getting colder and colder of late. Tonight it’s a particularly chilly evening.  I think I’m going to take out my fall wardrobe and stash away the summer outfits like the camisoles and sleeveless shirts.

We had Filipino food tonight.  Some kare-kare and broiled steak from IHAWAN.  I stopped by the Filipino store across the street and picked up half a gallon of Magnolia Nestle’s MELON Ice cream which was just yummy, reminds me of the delicious melon milk I really loved.  Rare treats that make me think of home.

Sometimes we take so many of the simple things forgranted, like the fish and squid balls from the sidewalks, the fresh buko that the vendor would skin and scoop up for you while keeping the meat whole so you can sip the buko juice inside.  Or the simple pleasure of having pan de sal with butter and hot coffee on a chilly morning.

We turned the electric fan off and have the windows shut.  At 57 degrees, it’s jacket weather outside.  Autumn is definitely here — time to get ready for the colder nights and cooler days.

I was going to post a picture I took just a few minutes ago of the Manhattan skyline from my part of the world… because I’ve uploaded my 50 picture quota already, it’s not allowing me to post a picture even if it’s housed on another server.  Drats!  Will just share that with you through my blog on Motherhood, PinayMom on Motherhood, Etc. or you can click HERE to see it pop up in a separate window.

It was chilly this morning but not cold enough for a jacket or raincoat just yet, so I grabbed my pink shawl.. it’s like having Paris within reach again.  (This is one of the bargain shawls I bought on a sidewalk sale — as in tiangge, Paris style!)  3 shawls for 5 Euros is a steal, even by American standards!  (So my currency converter froze and did not bother me for a change.)  And it was not until after I got back from there that I found out the French are so into scarves as an accessory whether it is the colder part of the year or not.  To them, it’s part of their whole get up.

Back to Manhattan — I can just stare out into this concrete landscape for hours.. but work awaits!  (Such a distraction..)

So my main blog is out of commission again because I have exceeded the bandwidth limitation 5 days before the month was up.  That’s the reason why I’m maintaining a presence here — just to give myself space to vent during times like this.

There’s a blanket of grey over the Manhattan skyline today.  The weatherman says it’s going to rain later — but it’ll probably all be over by midnight.  My boys are home and Alan just called to share with me a new trick Angel’s been up to — he’s "SSSSHHHHHH"ing with his finger on his lips — probably something he picked up from Sesame Street.  The wonders of parenthood!

The clouds are overcast here in New York this Friday.  This is but a glimpse of the wrath of nature now heading towards the South, 3,000 miles away.

People are desperately trying to get out of parts of Texas reputed to be in the path of Hurricane Rita.  This time people are listening to federal calls for evacuation, but the sense of panic after Hurricane Katrina has paralyzed the efforts of many to obey.  What is even more tragic is that there are some people who are now fleeing Hurricane Rita who had sought refuge in Texas from the ravages of Katrina.  Others who had so generously taken in refugees are now fleeing themselves.

While we are just inconvenienced by bad weather here on the East Coast, we can’t help but wonder how we would fare if the howlers went our way.  I heard from old timers here in New York that the stronger ones that hit New York had come in the 80s.  It has been a while but that is a reminder that we are not always safe.  We do have our snow storms — Mom even had one or two last year.  (Her first time to see snow, and a real snow storm at that!)

All we can do is hope and pray.  You think that you”ll only see people stuck on the highways fleeing something from their domicile in the movies — it’s playing live on national television right now.

We have nasty typhoons in Manila as well but somehow, the winds are stronger here.  Forget about slowly increasing rainfall — here you get a drop and then it pours in full force.  Leave your signature umbrellas at home — chances are they will be blown inverted and a spine or two will be broken and useless.  It’s the kind of downpour that would see you drenched even if you carry a golf umbrella.  I hope it hits my part of the world when I’m safely home.

I’ve been trying to figure out the font size as published on the blog itself.  It publishes so small!  Please bear with my cross posting as it would be chaotic posting different topics here and different topics on my Pinay New Yorker Blog — I would end up spending the whole day just writing my rants and raves.  Let’s see how this looks online.

I had resisted the urge to upload my own header images for a while because I was told that it contributed to the increased bandwidth usage which caused my website to "disappear" towards the end of the month.

Today I couldn’t resist as I went through some of the older snapshots I’ve kept — particularly this one which is a view from an upper floor of the American Museum of Natural History facing Central Park.  Truly New York!

Just thought I’d start a blog here on Friendster to link to my real blogs:

Pinay New Yorker

Pinay Francophile

PinayMom