Because I refused to feel defeated

Still no power here. We’re temporarily lodged elsewhere so that we can at least charge our cell phones and not feel too cut off from the rest of the world. I haven’t checked my mail though I’m hoping to do that within the next hour.

In case you’re wondering what the conditions are in Antipolo right now, well, things aren’t pretty. Whole slabs of asphalt on the roads transported, landslides, humongous trees uprooted and relocated, houses and businesses in terrible condition… It’s depressing to drive around but the upside is that you see people already starting to get back on their feet and trying to bring on a sense of normalcy.

How bad was it over the weekend? Bad. Very bad. Antipolo was among the hardest hit by the typhoon. You’d think we shouldn’t get floods here with the elevation but that’s not the case. Creeks overflow because of shanties along its banks. Some of the owners of these shanties even erect concrete walls impeding the flow of water even more. It happened during typhoon Milenyo; it happened again. In case you missed my comment in the previous entry… Tomorrow’s column has more details about how it was here in Antipolo over the weekend. I’ve posted it here in the blog (future entry mode which will go live tomorrow). In case we still have no power by tomorrow, well, at least you’ll all know we made it through. Thanks for the good thoughts. I return them all and I hope everyone will manage to get back on their feet soon. We can all use an indomitable spirit right now.

Indomitable spirit, yeah. I could have gotten depressed over the weekend but the girls and I found a nice way to deal with the powerless and waterless situation.

Because power was out, one of the things on the weekend agenda was to make sure that we consumed food in order of perishability. How to make sure that a lot of fruits got eaten? Make chocolate fondue. Sam and Alex were peeling some apples when Alex showed me what she did to the apple skin. The artist, true and through.

Sam and I did a few things too. You’ve heard the saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul, right? Here’s a literal and graphic illustration.

Sam held Pepper so I could take photos.

But wait, there’s more. Look at this:

Can you guess what that is? No? Keep scrolling.

Got a better idea now what it is? Not yet? Scroll down some more.

Sam got hungry and decided she shouldn’t let the whipped cream go to waste. She brought up the entire can along with her banana and showed me just how photogenic they were. And she’s right. Very photogenic indeed.