Estremera: Stories to tell
MY BUDDY whom has a description for it -- a learning curve that's flat. Errr, yes, that's what friends are for, to tell it as it is. This is all about my attachment to mountains despite not being a physical fitness freak. I'm not even close to fit, much less a fitness freak.
But others...
Children's TV an uphill battle
TELEVISION that is not just child-friendly but regularly carry children's programs remains an uphill battle and it's a battle against ratings and profitability.
In last Thursday's Consultative Forum on Republic Act 8370?s Implementing Rules and Regulation at the "National Educators...
Sulit!
FINALLY, after almost a year, my feet brought me to Juna Subdivision where a buffet restaurant is and was highly recommended by long-ago food tripping buddy Jojie A. sometime around July or August 2011.
Blame it on our schedules and routes, going inside Juna Subdivision for dinner just...
Eagle killer gets P100,000 fine
MALAYBALAY, Bukidnon -- A local court here sentenced a lumad farmer to pay a fine of P100,000 or a still undetermined years in jail for the killing a Philippine eagle four years ago.
The case against Bryan Bala-on is the first ever criminal case filed for the killing of a Philippine eagle...
Estremera: Story-telling
I WAS listening with half an ear to the television as I played a game in my cellphone. Sleep was still not coming and so I was spending my downtime the way I usually do, turning on the television but not really watching. My decade-old 14-inch television is treated more like a radio. I just like...
Worth a try
THE new cluster of hangouts along Palma Gil Street in Barrio Obrero between the Wheels ‘n More cluster of bars and Sobrecarey Street has one more restaurant within its vicinity. Nope, this time it’s not part of the cluster. Rather, it’s across the street where a buffet restaurant used to be....
One Midsummer Night on May 16
IT’S the end of the summer break and Locsin’s Ballet Studio is very busy in its recital preparations. With so many dancers from tiny pre-schoolers skipping around as elves, to adult dancers with the sleek professional grace of a balletomane, it’s going to be one long recital that will be worth a...
Seafood and stuff
LAST week’s visit to The Bagnetian Kitchen in the new food and beverage complex along Palma Gil Street in Barrio Obrero showed there was yet another restaurant to try (and around three more bars). We chose the restaurant because we only wanted to eat.
With just Imee and Miggy and Miggy...
Estremera: In touch
I HAD the rare opportunity to listen to Vice Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte and ask him all the questions I wanted. But, no I didn’t venture into the oft-repeated The Punisher, Davao Death Squad, iron-fisted style of leadership that he has been known for. Just about every Dabawenyo knows that in the...
Estremera: Scenes to make your blood boil
I BET all of you have gawked at the woman in pink spaghetti blouse and white shorts lunge on a fallen older man wearing beige vest amid flying punches and star-struck guards.
Some may have also resumed watching the impeachment trial and felt insulted about the claims that the Chief...
Finally, a real life skill
Matigsalugs find link between farm technology, biodiversity, and survival
BEFORE I was even born, our ancestors were just clearing areas to plant some crops in without care for how clearing the land destroys the soil. The forests were already logged over and they did not know any...
A taste of Bali
ONE must never leave Bali without learning about their dances and their tales. Having tourism to a craft of sorts, it’s not that hard, really. For one, you can just ride on to Jalan Earibang Kesiman in Denpasar and watch the Barong and Kris Dance for roughly P500 a person (100,000 Indonesian...
Bless our hearts
IAN G. gets all the blame. It was he who posted a photo of deep-fried pork with crackling skin on Facebook just when friends were thinking of gathering for that chitchat after work after a long time of not seeing each other.
Of course, my other friends wouldn’t have seen it since they’re...
Estremera: Mindfulness and respect
“FOR those who are ready and willing, we can teach you vermiculture,” Ma’am Betty of Kinaiyahan Foundation said to a group of Matigsalugs in sitio Guilon, one Thursday afternoon.
Four hands came up, to which Ma’am Betty asked once more in Visayan, “Have you asked permission from your...
Estremera: Collective amnesia
READING up on the Mayan 2012 doomsday prophecy led me to a book by Gerald Benedict, which contends that what the Mayan may have seemed to refer to as the end of the world is really but the dawn enlightenment.
I’m not through yet, but a passage in the book jumped out the most… and lingered...
Art everyday
THE island of Bali oozes culture and arts, thus it is not surprising to see craftsmen doing their crafts just along the road.
I bumped into the first group while in the market to shop for souvenirs. They were just there, right on the street, using the curb as their worktable of sorts,...
The joy is in the details
IT IS our free day after the World Association of Newspapers and Newspaper Publishers (Wan-Ifra) convention in Bali, Indonesia, and we get to tour the less intimidating districts of this island province.
Again, for all of us who thought Bali, Indonesia is but an island that we can walk...
Aquino decries more space for bad reports, rumors
PRESIDENT Benigno C. Aquino III appealed Monday to community newspapers to give equal focus on the good things happening instead of just hounding what is bad, even to the extent of reporting as fact what has not yet been verified as true.
This much was what happened when he was reported...
Estremera: Overwhelmed with details
THERE he was, quietly chiseling soft rock, like a carpenter would chisel a wood that he’s boring a doorknob hole in. Except that this man wasn’t making something as boring as boring a hole for a doorknob. He was chipping at a block of stone to turn it into an intricate Balinese figurine. Around...
They have Ulam in Bali
IT’S hard to stretch your budget if you are in Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia. As Wikipedia notes: “Nusa Dua is known as an enclave of large international 5-star resorts in south-eastern Bali. It is located 40 kilometres from Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali, and administered under Kuta...
The future of print
NAYSAYERS are saying the print media is on its way out, but those who are keenly observing how the print media industry is growing are saying, not yet.
There is something going on that goes beyond just technological advancements and the drop in interest to read among the young, such that...
Summer dive
DIVING in Davao still has to make a splash in the international scene, although it’s mentioned every once in a while in dive magazines, but we’re not complaining because we know what we have and are enjoying it to the max: critters that may come aplenty in many dive spots but may not be in huge...
Estremera: Rain came late, and other musings on a Good Friday
WHAT’S good about Good Friday? I’d rather not dwell into that as I read the thread of comments on a photo posted by activist cum photojournalist Karlos Manlupig on a shirtless taong-grasa being poked and shoved with a rattan stick by a uniformed security guard inside San Pedro Cathedral.
...Preserving heritage, respecting the past
IF THERE is any place outside Manila that has deserved to have its own walking tour on heritage sites, it is Cebu with its history and relics going back to the Spanish period.
Nurturing a fascination for old houses since I can’t remember when, there was always that feeling of anticipation...
No longer tiny
IT WAS Maundy Thursday and many establishments were closed. It was thus a relief to learn that one place where you are assured of really good food is open… but no longer in its tiny space at the corner of Mabini and F. Torres Streets because Tiny Kitchen has already moved to a bigger place....
