Leg godt

"As long as Lego bricks have been in existence,
the soles of fathers' feet have been in danger."

~Jonathan Bender, author of LEGO: A Love Story

Darth Vader welcomes customers to the Lego® store in Bonifacio High Street. Unfortunately, it was difficult taking his photo because everything was reflecting off his dark suit. I didn't realize he got photobombed by the lady beside me until I downloaded the photo.

And just a random thought: It must be awesome to be able to write down one's job as "Lego Master Model Builder."

Choo-choo

"People used to play with toys.
Now the toys play with them."

~Idries Shah (1924–1996), Reflections

A colorful train that doesn't need tracks and which goes round and round a small plaza keeps young children entertained while their parents eat or shop at Bonifacio High Street.

What to do at the beach

Stroll, play volleyball, build sand castles, take a bangka ride (you can choose what size bangka you want), or just stand still and enjoy the view. Of course, you are highly encouraged to take a dip in the warm, shallow waters.

Games (street) children play

What looks like a checkers-like game with the board marked on the sidewalk and bottle caps as playing pieces. It was beside a restaurant, so it is probably played by watch-your-car-boys. Unfortunately, there is a big possibility that gambling is involved. Smoking definitely is.

Lazy day game

Sungka is a Philippine mancala game. The sungkaan (the game board) is usually made of wood, shaped like a canoe, and is portable. However, as in chess and backgammon, there are also dedicated sungka tables. Ordinarily, our game pieces are small cowrie shells, which should not be surprising for a country with the fourth longest coastline in the world despite its relatively tiny land area. This beautiful set is made for children—only one hip of mine would have fit in the tiny chair.

Heave!

CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY: THE WATER'S EDGE • A toddler trying to get out of the kiddie pool of the Makati Shangri-la Hotel without using the steps. It will be some time yet before he will be able to do it with grace.

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My Manila will be on autopilot from November 1 to 5.  Be well, be good.

Pop!

The management of Landmark Department Store seems to be having a fun time coming up with promotions for their shoppers. Back in March, I posted a photo showing their indoor putting green which a shopper could try for prizes after spending a certain amount. A few months later, the theme was Pistang Pilipino (Filipino Fiesta) and the games were those you would usually find in town fairs and carnivals. My little-boy-at-heart husband was again more than willing to play and here he is trying to pop some balloons with darts.

Baby balls

If the zorbs that were temporarily available at Eastwood Mall were bigger, I would have loved to try them. Alas, they were only for children.

Roar!

The dinosaur playground at the Rizal Park. It is at the side of the park nearest Taft Avenue (named after William Howard Taft) and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) line 1.

This is where it all began

Back in November of 2009, I wrote about our office's annual Christmas outreach program called Lights for Hope. The 2010 event did not have as many children; we were a few tens shy of a thousand. Mr. Octopus the inflatable bouncer wasn't inflated on time—which is why he's still lopsided here—and soon after I took this picture, it started raining, which forced everyone to move to the alternate venue. But I have to hand it to the college kids who spent time with the public school children and the local child actors who came to spread some Christmas joy: they adjusted to their sheltered but cramped space, everyone gamely continued with the program, and I saw nothing but smiles on the young children's faces.

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I would like to apologize for disappearing without a word for two whole months. Even early in November, my schedule and work load were getting progressively worse and it was soon after this event that I had to decide to let go of something, and it just had to be my blog. I don't want to bother anyone with the details since it isn't what My Manila is for; suffice it to say that it was the first time in a decade that I had to go to work during the Christmas break and that I hardly felt the past two months go by. To everyone who worried, visited, and left messages and sent me email: thank you from the bottom of my heart. I wish I could give each one of you a real hug.

Let me say one final thing: I'm baaaaack! :)

Open wide!

Another childhood favorite in the playground at the Rizal Park is this hippo. My sister, cousins and I felt like we were on top of the world when we were sitting in his open mouth. Now, I don't think I'd even fit in the tunnel in his chest. I think he needs a (paint) bath too—he looks like he's been wallowing in the mud for too long.

Childhood memories

I was so surprised to see that the playground in the Rizal Park that we used to frequent on weekends when we were kids is still there, and with the same structures too. This playhouse was one of my favorites.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;

She gave them some broth without any bread;

Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

The last days of summer

During the past two weeks, Manila's daytime weather has still been that of summer: hot. But it has also started becoming very humid, and late in the afternoon, dark clouds would gather, the wind would become a little cooler and sometimes, rain would fall in the early evening. I saw this young man flying a kite in the brown fields of the University of the Philippines as the sun was setting behind the evening's rain clouds. Pretty soon, the grass of the fields will be bright green again.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

Tiny Legoland

I saw this small Lego city in Trinoma mall the same day I saw the elegant Santa, but it probably has been there since way before Christmas. It's meant to get kids asking for Lego sets for Christmas, after all.

There was a crooked man

Ballet Manila (see yesterday's post), aside from principal ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, may not be as technically proficient as Ballet Philippines but it has done more to make ballet accessible to the masses. They choose pieces with strong story lines, tickets cost a fraction of Ballet Philippines', and when you do buy a ticket, you also get a free all-day pass to Star City, the indoor-outdoor amusement park right beside the Aliw Theater. I confess though that I've never been inside. The most I've done is walk down that sidewalk and if it weren't for Arabesque, I would never have noticed just how funky their doorways are.

An early Christmas

Like last year, and the eight years before that, our office organized the Lights for Hope Christmas outreach party for young children in the poor communities and public schools that various organizations in the Ateneo de Manila University are involved with. This year, though, we also opened the event to the children of university employees who suffered from typhoon Ketsana (known as Ondoy locally). Last Saturday, about one thousand children spent the afternoon in a large field in the university. There was a program with games and prizes, and Jollibee himself (his fastfood chain provided the kids' afternoon snack) dancing for the kids. He is probably the most famous and best-loved animal mascot in the country and up close, it's easy to understand why—he has the cutest shy smile! He's a pretty good dancer too.



For those who didn't care for dancing or parlor games, there were two large inflatable slides. The college students who volunteered to help did a fantastic job of keeping the waiting lines orderly.



Canon Philippines provided a photo booth. Pose with the Canon snowman and get a free print, a souvenir of the afternoon. Filipinos are usually shy about asking strangers anything and people probably thought this was just a display booth, so two officemates and I got things going by being the first to get our picture taken. We posed together but we each got a copy. And, no, I'm not posting that photo here. No way.



Instead of just our regular one goody bag, all the children went home with four bags. Our blue tote bag had biscuits and other snack foods, a rubber ball and slippers. The Ateneo High School Class of 1967 provided a knapsack full of school supplies, including a Tagalog-English pocket dictionary. And ABS-CBN, one of the largest media companies in the Philippines which was also one of the largest relief operations centers during the typhoon, provided two bags of relief goods: rice and canned goods, and clothes. The Ateneo High School and Grade School basketball teams helped us distribute all the bags, help that was much appreciated because just before distribution I thought we didn't have enough hands. The high school boys even helped the smaller ones carry all their 'loot' back to their picnic area.



None of these would have been possible without the generosity and hard work of so many people, so indulge me as I thank others not mentioned above: all the alumni who gave donations to pay for the afternoon's expenses; Culinary Exchange for its free-flowing coffee to keep the volunteers going; Blue Christmas, the college group that organized all the kids and their facilitators; and, of course, the entire Office of University Development and Alumni Relations, especially Marijo and her team. Thank you, everyone, and may God bless you all.

Lazy Sunday afternoon

After a heavy, delicious meal, what better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon than playing board and card games with family and friends? Aside from taking a nap, that is. The past five years have seen a resurgence of the popularity of tabletop games in Manila, thanks to European designer games. The games are not inexpensive, however, so it didn't surprise me when I once saw a board game café somewhere. Though I'm not against computer or video games, there is much to be said for games where you face other people rather than a video screen. This particular game is Bamboleo, a balance game that can tax your dexterity. Can you guess the goal of the game?

Fountain of youth

Today all over Metro Manila, malls competed for their share of consumer pesos by hosting Easter programs and games for children. For such-and-such amount spent in the mall, children can participate in arts and crafts, get their face painted, join games and go Easter egg hunting 'for free.' We have turned into such a mall culture, it's scary. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun though, and I liked The Podium mall's centerpiece in the game area: a fountain filled with brightly colored plastic Easter eggs. We were at The Podium to have lunch with my husband's family at Banana Leaf Curry House because today also happens to be my mother-in-law's birthday.

Happy Easter, everyone!

A ring and a ball

That's pretty much all you need to shoot hoops, which probably explains the popularity of basketball in the Philippines. It can't be the chance to make it big internationally, not yet anyway—most Filipinos just don't have the genes for it. Almost every neighborhood in the country has a basketball court, even if it's just poured concrete.

Bright joy

Many of the children during the Lights for Hope Christmas outreach party live in extremely dense shanty communities. A few of them didn't bother with the games or inflatable slides—they just reveled in having enough space to run around flying their colorful kites.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.