My Labsters

By Rianne C. Tecson

“Fermina, I have waited for this opportunity for 51 years, nine months and four days… that is how long I have loved you, from the first moment I cast eyes on you…until now.”—Florentino Ariza to Fermina Urbino, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Love, they say, knows no boundaries, not even age.

If one wants proof all that is no illusion, one needs to look at the eyes of Eduardo and Martina “Beling” Go Ching Hai.
After 55 years of marriage, their eyes still speak of love for each other and their gestures, when in each other’s company, show the kind of affection that has not waned through the years.

Their actions make you want to believe in love. Their union, after all, is built on a foundation strong enough to withstand whatever challenges that came their way.

But neither of the two would have had predicted their life together.

Go Ching Hai, as Eduardo is popularly known, was a fresh engineering graduate of the Mapua Institute of Technology when he first came to Cebu in 1950 to remodel a flour mill.

When he arrived at the Compania Maritima, he had no idea where to go and only had P25 left.

He later decided to stay with a relative when he found work. And work was all he did the whole time, spending at least 12 hours in the office or going home at midnight.

With the hours he was keeping, one would wonder how he managed to meet Beling. When asked how, says with a naughty smile, “Secret.”

Beling offers to go on with the story, smiling and touching her husband’s hand.

One day, a friend of Go Ching Hai’s mother wanted to see Beling’s mother so he asked the young engineer to drive them to Beling’s place.

Their first meeting was neither unpleasant nor promising—no sparks flew and Go Ching Hai thought it was very hard to court a woman like Beling.

“Suplada kaayo. Her (family) was not the hindrance, siya mismo,” said Go Ching Hai, making Beling laugh out loud.

After all, Go Ching Hai says, Beling seemed to him as a “very wise woman…(That trait) challenged me.”

“When I decided to court her, my friends told me ‘There are other pretty girls in Cebu. Don’t court that girl.’ I also thought it (courtship) was very, very hard,” he said.

Given this impression of Beling, Go Ching Hai admitted he did everything—even asking help to seek permission from her brothers to court her—to win her heart, “probably including praying.”

“God helped me catch her,” he said, beaming. Beling, seated beside him, lovingly looks at her husband, smiling.
The couple, however, didn’t get to see each other that much as Go Ching Hai was traveling most of the time.
“Rare kaayo siya mosuwat og letters. Tapulan,” Beling said.

During his visits to Beling, Go Ching Hai also didn’t get to stay long as he had to be up early for work the following day.
“When I visit, we don’t talk much. We’d play sungka (a traditional Filipino game). When she’s not paying attention, I touch her hand and I would be very happy already,” he said, grinning.

For a reserved man like her husband, Beling said the gesture was already something.

“He was never demonstrative. He only held my hand when we crossed the street,” Beling said.

Beling, on the other hand, said the visits, though seldom, made her feel the same way.

“I was happy that someone came to visit me,” she said.

After three years, Go Ching Hai popped the question, but the proposition seemed vague to Beling.

“He asked what I would do if there are two cars and only one is in running condition. I told him to use a rope, have the car that runs tow the one that doesn’t work. He didn’t say a thing then. Later, he told me that his mother will come to ask for my hand in marriage,” Beling said, adding that at this, he told Go Ching Hai to seek her brothers’ and mother’s permission.

On Christmas Day of 1962, Go Ching Hai formalized the proposal. The two then got married on April 12, 1953. The couple is blessed with three children and eight grandchildren.

Beling said making the marriage work is no easy task, but credits the success of her union to what her late mother-in-law taught her.

“Be patient…and always try not to get into a fight, much less arguments,” she shared.

This, she said, is the same lesson she has imparted on her children. (Sun.Star Cebu)

By Ober Khok

This craze called Valentine’s Day is getting my nieces Joy and Krystal more excited than lighted Christmas trees and New Year’s Eve firecrackers and sparklers.

It’s a one-day season, or shall I call it madness? For one day, everybody wants a piece of this emotion called love. And to top it all, this romantic day has been transformed into a big money-making machine.

I’m riding the bandwagon, of course. I looked up “love potion No. 9,” after my Uncle Gustav told me there’s a doo-wop song with the same title. “And it’s a Sandra Bullock’s movie, too.”

The wikipedia says: “Love Potion No. 8 enables a person to make people of the opposite sex become completely infatuated with them by simply talking. The potion also makes people of the same sex loathe and sometimes physically attack, the one who is using the potion.

“Love Potion No. 9 prevents love from fading, and overrides the effects of Love Potion No. 8.”

So it’s Love Potion No. 8 that I really want. My mad scramble searching for a formula turned up with nothing or maybe I was just conserving my energies for something more important today.

My friend Illustracio told me that his grandfather made love potions out of lizard tail, basil juice and burnt hair from the person’s (i.e. the one asking for the love potion) private parts (I want to be polite, you know).

“You should let your intended target drink it. It’s very effective, but I haven’t tried it. I’m handsome enough to attract women. After all, I’m married to a pretty girl,” Illustracio boated.

I turned my attention to Soup No. 5, a common enough potion also known as Viagra Soup. A man or woman can imbibe this soup anytime of the year as a quick fix for romantic blues.

The main ingredients are beef genitalia—this is one time I don’t want to call a spade a spade. I got the recipe from the wikipedia, which is just like the one given to me by Manang Sida, a woman who runs a sidewalk refreshment stand.

Here it is: “The bull parts are washed and cleaned, then scalded in boiling water. The genitalia are then cut into pieces and set aside. You can add pork or chicken, ginger, and vegetables.

“Combine in a stock pot with the beef articles of propagation (I’m trying to be funny), covered with enough water and simmered until tender. It is then seasoned with chili, salt or pepper and served hot.”

It tastes like balbakoa—beef skin, snout and tail boiled till jelly-like in tenderness—a dish whose sticky soup tickles the ribs.

Partaking of animal parts to gain its power is an ancient belief. If you want bull-like prowess in bed, then eat the poor beast’s testicles and all.

You can get the same high from drinking Love Potion No. 9 martini, and consuming strawberries and three bars of dark chocolate—all at once—but they don’t have the same mystery as sipping an exotic soup to raise your testosterone level.

Whether love potions work or not is not for me to prove or disprove. I am but a poor sojourner in the world of love.

I’m even thinking that you can get the same sexual high from eating chicken soup with ginger (an aphrodisiac).

Feeling good makes you ready for any action, but don’t stuff yourself too much. You could become sleepy, which could endanger your chances at being a conqueror in courtship and in bed. (Sun.Star Cebu)

By Ivan K.

Ms. Quijano begins the article “Malady of Love,” published in Sun.Star Weekend Magazine’s February 7, 2009 issue, by declaring Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose “quite meaningless.”

A friend of mine, a postgraduate student of philosophy, told me that he found this dismissal of a great work of literature quite insulting. In the first place, he said, “Eco did not intend his novels for light reading.”

The Name of the Rose is complicated because it attempts to present the concept of “intertexuality” wherein the meaning of a text is in turn shaped by other texts. Hence, we read Eco say in the novel, “books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.”

“Recall for example,” he said, “the last line of the book, when the library was burning and the text enigmatically mentioned of throwing away the ladder. It was he believed, “alluding to Wittgenstein’s phrase, ‘throwing away the ladder,’ which refers to things that goes beyond analytic and linguistic understanding.”

“The book’s complexity,” he adds, “is interesting because it tries to blur historical facts from fiction. The inquisitor Gui was a real person so was the Franciscan Superior, Michael of Cesena. But where does history end and fiction begin? Were all the books mentioned in the novel real? Was there really a second book of Poetics?”

The way we see it, the problem is not at all the lack of meaning as such but rather the overabundance of meaning.

But let us leave it at that. Since it is the season of love, perhaps it is appropriate to shift our focus on the more interesting half of Ms. Quijano’s article. The comments dismissive of Eco’s novel, after all, can be seen as a device meant to introduce Ms. Quijano’s real concern: a lengthy passage from the book answering the question, “What is love and how do you conquer it?”

We will not anymore question the privileging of this quotation over the rest of The Name of the Rose’s six hundred pages which Ms. Quijano dismissed as a “waste of time.” Instead, following her example, we will conclude this brief missive by lifting the following passage from the opening scene of the documentary Žižek!

The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek basically agrees with the diagnosis pointed out by Ms. Quijano:

“What would be my spontaneous attitude toward the universe? It’s a very dark one. The first thesis would have been a kind of total vanity: there is nothing, basically. I mean it quite literally, like… ultimately… there are just some fragments, some vanishing things. If you look at the universe, it’s one big void. But then: how do things emerge? Here I feel a kind of spontaneous affinity with quantum physics, where… the idea… is that the universe is a void, but a kind of positively charged void, and then particular things appear when the balance of the void is disturbed.

“I like this idea of spontaneity very much, the fact that it’s not just nothing. Things are out there – it means something went terribly wrong, that what we call creation is a kind of cosmic imbalance, cosmic catastrophe: things exist by mistake. And I’m even ready to go to the end and to claim that the only way to counteract this is to assume the mistake and go to the end. And we have a name for this: it’s called love.

“Isn’t love precisely this kind of a cosmic imbalance? I was always disgusted with this notion of ‘I love the world,’ ‘universal love’ – I don’t like the world. Basically, I’m somewhere in between ‘I hate the world’ or ‘I’m indifferent towards it.’ But the whole of reality, it’s just it: it’s stupid. It is out there. I don’t care about it. Love, for me, is an extremely violent act. Love is not ‘I love you all’ Love means I pick out something…. Even if this something is just a small detail, a fragile individual person, I say ‘I love you more than anything else.’ In this quite formal sense, love is evil.” (Sun.Star Cebu)

Find out what foods rev up your loved one’s engine! The list was culled from www.foodpaper.com, and www.rd.com, and www.searchwarp.com

ASPARAGUS. In 19th-century France, bridegrooms were served three courses of asparagus at their prenuptial dinner. Asparagus is rich in potassium, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin and folic acid.

ALMONDS. The aroma of almonds supposedly arouses passion in females. Almonds provide high doses of vitamin E, and magnesium.

AVOCADO. The fruit is especially good for pregnant women due to its high content of folic acid, as well as vitamin B6 and potassium.

BANANAS. This shapely fruit is loaded with potassium, magnesium, B vitamins, chelating minerals and the bromelain enzyme, said to enhance the male libido.

BASIL. Basil has a warming effect on the body and promotes circulation. In some parts of Italy, basil is a love token.

CHOCOLATE. Why does eating chocolate make us so happy? The “food of the gods” contains theobromine, a stimulating alkaloid similar to caffeine. Chocolate also helps the brain produce feel-good serotonin.

EGGS. The egg is one of the most ancient fertility symbols. Eggs are high in B6 and B5, which help you balance hormone levels and fight stress.

FIGS. To the ancient Greeks, figs were “more precious than gold” and many cultures associated figs with fertility. Figs are rich in vitamin B6, potassium and calcium.

HONEY. Honey is a good source of boron, a trace mineral that helps the body use estrogen. In addition, honey contains B vitamins needed for testosterone as well as other nutrients, enzymes and phytochemicals.

OYSTERS. Raw oysters are very high in zinc, which raises testosterone production, thus increasing libido.

(from Sun.Star Cebu)

By Jenara Regis Newman

Centuries ago, people found true love in the community they lived in, except for the adventurous who ventured out of home grounds and met the love of their lives elsewhere. These days, the whole world beckons and love may just be found in places far from home, making it harder to find the one true love from the millions of possibilities out there.

A LOVE LETTER

For Roy Abraham from Kerala, India, and Carol Danque from Makati, Philippines, it was while working for the Amman Marriott Hotel in Jordan that they met — he as the hotel’s assistant restaurant manager and she as restaurant supervisor.

A love letter from him tugged at her heartstrings and after two years of friendship, she knew he was the person she would share her life with. But first, she would have to like spicy Indian food and win over her tradition-bound mother-in-law who wanted an Indian bride for her only son to make their marriage work.

Soon enough, she learned to like Roy’s chicken curry and Biryani dishes. Eventually, she won over her mother-in-law who taught her how to cook Roy’s favorite dishes. Indian fare has really spiced up their table and bound their lives for over 20 years. Now that Roy is general manager of Cebu City Marriott Hotel, he has learned to love kare-kare with bagoong alamang.

The Abrahams have three lovely children.

PRIDE OF CULTURE

Raymond Bragg, general manager of Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa, met his wife Susan (her Chinese name is Ching Lay Kheng) while they were working in China. They got married in 1991 when they moved to England, and they have been together since. The important thing about inter racial marriages, Raymond asserts, is: “You should be very proud of your partner’s race and nationality. When I introduce myself to my staff as a New Zealander, I always mention that my wife is Singaporean Chinese.”

While the two had no problems adjusting to each other’s culture, it was their families who needed convincing that their marriage would work, and does work. Since they respect each other’s culture, they celebrate religious holidays, like Christmas and festivities such as Chinese New Year. And they are making sure their only daughter, Kylie, would know both English and Mandarin. Raymond says his teenaged daughter has grown up as a UN kind of girl, what with all the places they have been to. Their home base is Singapore, but work has never taken them there, nor has it taken them to New Zealand, but they try to visit both places every year.

Susan cooks western food, but it is usually Chinese cuisine that the Braggs enjoy at home.

COSMOPOLITAN TWIST

Hotelier Hans Hauri from Switzerland met service management consultant Bo Young Chang in her home place, Korea. Now married 17 years, they have lived in various places: Switzerland, China, Malaysia, and now the Philippines, where Hans is general manager of Marco Polo Plaza Hotel Cebu.

Being both cosmopolitan, it was easy for them to appreciate each other’s culture, and to adjust to their different backgrounds. Bo loves cheese and Hans loves particularly the Korean food setting with the various kimchi dishes set along with the main course. He particularly likes bulgogi.

Bo cooks Korean and Western/Eurpopean cuisine. Their lifestyle makes them appreciate different cuisines provided they are genuine, authentic to the country: if they have Thai food, they would like it to be authentic and preferably, they would like to have that in Thailand.

The happy couple has two sons who are now learning Tagalog.

There are thousands of other interracial marriages in today’s world when travel is easy and jobs can be had in places that may be oceans away from one’s birthplace. These three are a happy example that these unions do work. After all, though one’s country and one’s color may be different from the other, the world has really only one race: the human race. (Sun.Star Cebu)

By Jose Jello S. Cubello

For her, it was an answered prayer. For him, it was the proverbial love at first sight.

It was a painful relationship that brought Angelique Selma-Llaban to altar’s foot at the Carmelites monastery in Mabolo.

“It was so funny, I just came from a traumatic relationship and I really prayed a novena to find a good man. Weeks after, I found him at a restaurant and I said to myself that this must be it,” she shared.

“She was very far among so many people. She was like at the tip of the restaurant and I was entering the restaurant. But she stood-out right away,” recalled John Francis Llaban.

“It was so long ago but I can still remember what she was wearing. You were wearing a white polo shirt right?” he asked, while soliciting a look of approval from Angel who was being prepped-up for the pictorial.

“And you were wearing green, uhm no, orange,” she responded.

“I asked from God a man who can really take care of me when I grow old, someone I can be comfortable with, and someone who is responsible. But God gave me more! There was a bonus, he gave me someone handsome!”

After that, Francis knew that he needed to find out who the pristine face in the sea of strangers is. Eventually, connections and common friends linked the two.

Incidentally both families are closely connected but despite existing in a common world, the fates only allowed their meeting on that day.

Francis, swept by Angel’s charm, was also enchanted by the closeness of her family. The Sunday reunions were appealing to him and her family was very eager to welcome him into their own.

A year and six months of dating and seven months of engagement, Francis and Angel tied the knot on Feb. 18, 2005.

“The relationship was giving me signs and I was willing to commit,” he said.

Their time was perfect as each of them were already stable. Francis couldn’t care less about forgoing a party-defined bachelor life.

For most part, the marriage changed their relationship. “The priorities are different now. Especially when you have children,” he said. “Before we were all about diving and traveling,” she concurred.

Now, their lives gravitate around their three children. “We cook together, we go to the beach and we go to the mall,” she said. “We go to Shangri-La. We do fish feeding. The kids love the Adventure Zone,” he said.

In every relationship monotony can be a real enemy. “We always try to shift the monotony,” she said. “We still get excited but not that much when we were still single. We still need to create it. We set the mood of the room,” he said with a knowing smile.

Francis and Angel make it to a point that no fight gets in their way. “I could never remember us fighting. I think it’s because of my nature and her nature. We really don’t clash. Of course we have little arguments every now and then,” he said.

When asked what gifts they are fond of giving each other: “Were really not so into things,” she said. “We’re more about memories,” he added.

Divine intervention paved way for them to meet and now that they are together, for Francis and Angel life couldn’t get any better.  (Sun.Star Cebu)

By Celeste Faith Dela Cruz

It’s this particular time of the year when flowers are unbelievably in abundance. And it is when flowers are exchanged to represent love in its eternal form.

Valentines day it is! And what better way to express love than with flowers. As flowers tell a thousand words without speaking it surely has become the most romantic way of conveying love. And to many, flowers are considered the perfect gift for Valentines.

“People will always love flowers. A flower comes from a bud, then it grows. There’s life…there’s emotion associated with it. That’s why for me, Valentines is never complete without flowers,” says Miriam Real, owner of D’ Flower Passion Gallery.

Roses, for example, being a symbol of fragrance and loveliness are distinctly sought-after during Valentines day. Red roses in particular have long been associated with love and romance.

This year, D’ Flower Passion Gallery, though a little bit conservative in their preparations for the Valentines, aims to provide the best flowers at affordable prices.

“What we are preparing is really special because all our flowers are imported especially for Valentines and yet they are very affordable,” adds Real.

Flower Passion’s saleable Valentine bouquet packages of imported Columbian roses range from P500– P 1,500.

Meanwhile, their assorted imported flower packages which include gerberas, carnation, tulips and lilies range from P550– P 1,800. However, for those who are a little bit tight on budget, Flower Passion’s single long-stemmed rose with ribbon at P100 is way too impressive to help you express your sincerest emotions. Flower Passion’s two-toned roses at P 150 per stem are also viable during Valentines.

Despite these packages though, Flower Passion is flexible in accommodating their clients when it comes to their pricing. “We can provide you with the flowers that you want according to your budget, we are flexible. We stand by our tagline, “Your Desire…Your Budget,” says Real.

Since its operation in 2003, Flower Passion seeks to introduce and provide flowers that suit the varying demands of its clients and the people at large. Thus, it imports from countries like Holland, Vietnam and largely from China. These imported flowers are basically those that are rarely grown in the Philippines like brassica or the cabbage rose, gerbera, cymbidium, tulips and iris. Flower Passion’s fillers like gypsophila, statis and casbia are also imported.

“The aim of Flower Passion is really to be able to sell or provide the public with beautiful flowers…those that we just normally see in the magazines or in the movies. And we are quite satisfied that we were able to introduce something new to the people,” shares Real.

With all these in mind, there’s no reason for us not to indulge in the beauty and charm flowers bring. And, with the Valentines season in the air, may these Valentine flowers take you and your loved ones into the magical and wonderful world of joy and love as they help you express your deepest emotions.  (Sun.Star Cebu)

It’s the experience of cooking your own food, fresh and right at the dining table, coupled with superb taste of Chinese cooking tradition than makes shabu-shabu a hit to many food enthusiasts.

Eric Ang, executive chef of Chinese Royale, a shabu-shabu restaurant at Crossroads, Banilad, shared that the unique Chinese food tradition now enjoyed by Filipinos has legendary roots. “Genghis Khan, the great Mongol conqueror, devised a way to efficiently and quickly feed his army.”

Now, shabu-shabu becomes a relaxing food experience where diners come together in a table while boiling fresh vegetables, thinly sliced pork, beef, lamp, chicken and fish meat as well as meat, mushroom, and shrimp balls in a pan of stock, said Ang.

Generous servings

In Chinese Royale, there is a of four different stocks: Satay beef, pork with sweet-corn, chicken soup and congee. On the menu is a wide list of set platters with generous servings. The Royal Ace (P1,500 recommended for four to five persons) for example already comes with three fish, lobster, scallop balls, three fish tofu, four fish rolls, pork, beef slices, chicken and fish fillet, two shrimps, crab, squid, one bowl of sotanghon and noodles.

There’s a meat platter for the carnivores and a vegetable platter for plant eaters. But whatever the choice is, surely, it’s a healthy culinary experience. Ang assured they don’t put any MSG in their food.

Children as well as adults love the interactive dining experience, he said.

“You know that what you are getting is fresh because you can really see it. We can’t serve poor quality meat because the color will really show,” he said.  (JSC/Sun.Star Cebu)

By Jill Beltran

Thousands of couples had done the famous lip-locked again for the celebration of the annual Lovapalooza on the Day of Hearts.

Dubbed as “Red Hot Valentines,” this year’s Lovapalooza held at SM Mall of Asia Saturday night (February 14) was rocked by overwhelming performances of four of the most-hottest bands today – Bamboo, Pupil, Spongecola, and Rico Blanco.

Their music was backed by 50-piece orchestra of SM Mall of Asia called the Metro Philharmonic Orchestra.

View photos of Lovapalooza 2009

Jad Dereza, Press Communication Assistant of MTV Philippines, said that although there were no records to be beaten this year, about 45,000 to 50,000 couples flooded the event.

At exactly 9 p.m. all couples smooched for about 10 seconds while colorful fireworks brightened the entire place. Spongecola made the moment more intimate as they sang Close-up’s promotional theme song “Closer You and I.”

From a promotional venue for CloseUp Toothpaste, Lovapalooza became an annual Valentine event for lovers in the country.

The first Lovapalooza was held in 2004 at Baywalk Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

The Philippines through CloseUp had grabbed the Guinness Book of Record from Chile for having the most-number of couples kissing simultaneously with about 5,347 pairs kissing on the eve of Valentine’s Day.

In 2005, Lovapalooza was simultaneously held in four major cities in the country including Manila, Angeles, Cebu, and Davao. However, the record was taken by Hungary producing 5,875 kissing couples.

In 2006, the simultaneous kiss-fest dubbed “Lovapalooza 3” tried to reclaim the title from Hungary but fell short. That was when popular bands in the country and celebrities have been tapped to grace and add zing to the event.

In 2007, about 6,124 couples successfully reclaimed the record as they simultaneously kissed in the north open lot of SM Mall of Asia in Pasay.

Last year, in “Lovapalooza Frost Fest,” CloseUp chilled out from record-breaking and gave away diamond-studded Crystal Frost necklaces to 100 winning couples who participated in the kiss-fest.

Till next Lovapalooza…Happy Heart’s Day!