Remembering Basti

Basti left us two weeks ago to join and play with Baldo and Lolo in heaven. Basti was with my family for 7-8 years and so we miss him terribly.

Basti was given to us by my good friend Mox. My Lolo was the one who took him when he arrived to our house. Since that day they developed a kind of bond. I know this because I saw it. When my Lolo had a stroke in the middle of the night that eventually led to his death several days after, it was Basti who woke us all up and showed us Lolo lying beside his bed. During that time we had other dogs beside Basti, but it was him who barks and barks even when he was told to shut up until Tatay got up and followed him. And then there was the time when his friend Baldo (our other dog) died. I cannot believe the grief that I saw in Basti. I didn’t believe dogs can have feelings until then.

I miss Basti. He was not an ordinary pet. He was not an ordinary dog. And he was not an ordinary friend.

-chebong

We have a new living space!

Not really new… more like newly cleaned and decluttered room. Nevertheless, I am happy with what we have and what we did with it last weekend. Yup, it was a long weekend spent in a good way.

Buboy wasn’t actually feeling well last weekend. His tonsils were swelling and his temperatures were up to 38˚C. But he was so sweet to indulge me and help start the cleaning. He knows I wanted to rearrange the furniture for some time now. We started Friday and finished everything before it gets dark on Saturday. And by the time we finished Buboy’s temperature was down to 37.5˚C.

After we moved the bed, the cabinet, the tables and other things and after we threw away several kilos of thrash including old bags, shoes, boxes, papers, etc. we discovered a lot more space to move around the room. We have places for our collection of movies (CDs and DVDs) and books. Aside from that, we now have some sort of separate sleeping area and work area (where the PC and other electronic stuff are located) and in between is a space where we can move around without bumping to each other all the time. And with the new 19” LCD monitor that we bought last Thursday, we can watch movies together in bed without being too close to the PC. He can also play his games while I read on the bed without disturbing each other. I really cannot believe how our room looks so much bigger after the general cleaning.

Of course we had to do some adjustments with things like sleeping. With the bed moved to a different direction, our positions interchanged. I now have to sleep on Buboy’s right side whereas we were used to me sleeping on his left. But that isn’t really a problem because five years ago we were both used to sleeping alone :o)

I just hope we can maintain it that way for (at least) more than a year. Ha!

-chebong

What happened to summer?

Buboy and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and Mox her ?th birthday with the higop gang and a couple more friends (kuya Dex and Liezel) at Puerto Galera. We all thought that it wouldn’t push through after all those planning we did because of typhoon Emong. But with all our prayers combined, not to mention the dozen eggs that Mox offered to Sta. Clara, we experienced the other side of Galera. Although it was still raining, we had a grand time hiking, swimming, cooking and of course eating at the foot of Tukuran Falls. Too bad Terry weren't able to join us.

Summer also welcomes a handful of movies that we’ve been looking forward to seeing. Here’s my take on some of them that we saw over summer:

Angels and Demons. Disappointing, really. Da Vinci Code was way better if you ask me. They made a lot of changes from the book. That should have been okay but the fast pace of the story was not captured well in the movie. That and the fact that he leading lady’s acting was pathetic made me feel sorry I even watched it on its first showing day.

Star Trek. I’m not a Star Trek fanatic. I entered the theater prepared to get lost in the universe of… well, the universe through the USS Enterprise. I was surprised to find myself enjoying the movie; what’s more, I was actually able to follow it. Now that alone makes it a good movie to me.

X-men the Origin: Wolverine. After the movie, I have tons of questions to Buboy, much like after we watched all the other X-men movies. It was entertaining though of course I have very little knowledge of the world of the mutants so try not to persecute me.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Definitely a children’s movie, so yeah, I enjoyed it. This movie reminds me why I like children’s stories; it brings me to different places that I can’t reach right now.

Terminator Salvation. Aside from my irritation over how Kate Connor was portrayed and Bale’s usual character voice, the movie does not disappoint. There are a lot of interesting characters including that of a part-robot, part-human Marcus Wright.

BFF (Best Friends Forever). This is the only local movie that I watched and not with Buboy but with some of my officemates. The movie and its story weren’t so great but what the heck, it was funny and that’s what we came for anyway… to laugh really hard.

Aside from movies, Buboy and I enjoyed some late night TV series marathon and poker sessions. We finished the last season of Grey’s Anatomy and the first season of a new series called Fringed (Science). Buboy and I bought our first 300 pieces chips poker set and had a head to head game with a couple of beers the week we had the set. Hopefully we can arrange poker nights soon and play with whoever can make it.

And the season of summer is over. Too bad we weren’t able to go camping at Anawangin. Well, maybe in a couple of months. We still haven’t got a tent yet anyway.

-chebong