The girl who touched my heart in a special way.

As I was going through my photos, this one brings me back to rethink about life...and I strongly felt that this must be shared...I started by posting this on my Facebook wall.

This is a story of a girl whose young life never ceased to haunt my innermost being. I met her at a cemetery where my beloved father was buried in Manila, while my sisters and I went to lay bouquet of flowers and lit candles a day after Dad was laid to rest.

I could not help but look at her with curiosity as she played on the tombs, jumping about as if the graveyard was her playground. Quite unusual, isn't it? I caught her attention when I aimed my camera at her and she started to blush when I asked if I could take her photo, she looked a bit afraid, as if she did not trust a stranger like me. But it only took a little while after she settled on one of the tombs and shyly posed for me. This girl told me later that her family lived in the cemetery and that she's got friends and relatives living there, too. This is the only life she knew. This photo is a tribute to her and all the other homeless children who may have shared the same fate as this girl.

Thank you for reading her story.

Snippets of my trip to Manila Part 2- Sunset at Roxas Blvd

My last day in Manila was spent at the cemetery which was a two-hour drive from where we stayed in Las Pinas....then we had a meal of chicken barbecue and fried noodles at Aristocrat Restaurant hosted by my eldest sister who chose the place so I could have the chance to watch the sunset before my flight back to Melbourne. I have always been chasing either sunrise or sunset at Manila Bay during my stay but due to continuous downpour almost everyday my chance just became much slimmer, in fact it was again raining heavily in the afternoon on that last day, but for some mysterious reasons, the rain stopped as soon as we were about to leave for the airport to catch the nine o'clock flight in the evening...so here I was walking along roxas boulevard taking some final shots...while my sisters worried not being able to check-in on time...but then we were already quite near to the airport so everything went alright.

a favourite rendezvous?

 a typical afternoon scene at roxas boulevard's manila bay

a dried squid vendor

 ready to barbecue

tricycle vendors selling snacks 

 roxas boulevard

a little boy cleaning the horse in his 'karetela' (horse carriage)

 car toys vendor

malate church behind aristocrat restaurant, and a jeepney passing by

a sculpture at malate church

Snippets of my trip to Manila Part 2- breathtaking Tagaytay

This is probably my first visit to Tagaytay, 55 kms south of Manila,  a two-hour drive depending on the traffic in Manila. I went there with my two sisters, a cousin and my sister's friend who was kind enough to drive us down in his car, after a sumptous lunch in Sta. Rosa, Laguna hosted by another lovely cousin.

At picnic grove, you can get a breathtaking view of Taal Lake and Volcano 

the place has a zip line and cable car for the adventurous

a boy with a wild cat for sale, just P2000 (pesos) or AUD45.

you can see that this couple was about to break-up in Tagaytay, i overheard them arguing while taking photos of the volcano

a tourist shop

overlooking the hanging bridge

my cousin walking nervously on the hanging bridge

a nice hat to try on

Snippets of My Trip to Manila

The call from my sister in Manila a couple of weeks ago brought me to my country of birth just after two years of having to visit it with my children, that time for a holiday. The journey this time was to see my ailing father, and to personally nurse him. My other siblings also came spending as much time with dad and making his days as happy as he can possibly be...with his loved ones around him.
This trip also brought many relatives and friends who came to visit dad, and I had the chance to meet some lovely friends/classmates from high school, whom I haven't met for more than 30 years... I was emotional the whole time...

Due to my limited time to go out of the hospital there wasn't many pictures that I could take, except on the last couple of days when my sister brought me out to a few places near the hospital itself...

and besides, it was raining everyday, mostly in the evenings...

in spite of the hard life that most Filipinos face everyday, you are bound to see happy faces everywhere

this is called fernbrook, a building used for functions like wedding, birthdays, etc. in the affluent section of Alabang, in Metro Manila

a church at nature park, in Almanza Las Pinas

and the chapel beside the church...

i saw these kittens outside the hotel where we stayed in the first couple of days

my siblings and I tried this meal at a place in Alabang called Seafood Island Restaurant where the food is spread on banana leaves, such as barbecue on skewers, grilled milkfish, shrimps, mussels, eggplant, and okra with boiled sweet potato leaves and slices of green mango, and of course rice (flavoured with garlic and butter here)