the eye

where are we goin?

duck 2: to see this beautiful girl...
duck 3: mate, cant see any beautiful girl here


duck 4: look she's the one holding the camera
duck 5: where? cant see one!

Photo: ducks playing in the pond inside Rizal Park's Chinese Garden.

chinese garden

The main pagoda inside the Chinese Garden, Luneta.

of life

“What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, 'This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!' Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, 'Never have I heard anything more divine'?” -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Photo: fallen leaves on a bench inside the Japanese Garden

rizal park chess plaza

This Rizal Park Chess Plaza is right behind the Planetarium and across the Japanese Garden. I think most people who visit the park doesnt know that this place exist but it is quite popular to chess aficionados, and you can always see players here at any time of the day competing. Tables are set up with pre-designed chessboard and you can rent chess pieces and a timer if you want to play a game. This chess plaza was inaugurated on 18 October 1979, a year after the 1978 World Chess Championship was held in the Philippines (title match between Karpov and Korchnoi).

barenaked

Look! Oh Look! They are renovating the big fountain at the center of Luneta! I was so giddy with excitement when i saw men working on this area because i really missed seeing the playful water (i'm really fond of fountains). Seeing all these pipes, I didn't realized how complicated the fixtures that composed a fountain, now you see it here barenaked! By the way, click on the image to enlarge, further at the back you'll see Jose Rizal's monument which i featured here, and the dome like stage your seeing is the Quirino Grandstand... and the equipment behind (dunno what you call those instruments in construction) is where the Ocean Park is being built.

Seeing the rusts in the pipes, you prolly figured out that this fountain is already old! Well it is. I'm being nostalgic about this place so i'm posting photos of me and my siblings in this area way way back in January 1980.


this is me, just turned 2 when this photo was taken :)


my siblings, noticed how me and my sister wear the same dress? we're not twins but our mother loved dressing us up as if we're twins which was fun.

Do you have fond memories of this place too?

planetarium

The Planetarium is located on P. Burgos St. Manila, still within the Rizal Park (Luneta) compound.

Eight thousand five hundred spectacular array of stars (including the tiniest ones at 6.5th magnitude) are projected onto a 16 meter inner dome by the Time and Space Machine located at the center of the planetarium chamber. The projector is capable of projecting the night sky as it was or as it will appear at any time whether thousands of years in the past or similarly into the future.

I was able to watch the show of projection/simulation of stars and constellations here when i was in grade school and i can still remember how awestruck i was and painfully remember how stiff my neck was after gazing up for 30 minutes. (yeah it was included in our field trip - this is a "must" place or always in the list of places to visit in any field trip of any school i think).

This structure is old already but is still worthy of a visit, especially for kids. I think the Mall of Asia is planning to open a new Planetarium, last time i went there it's still under construction.

berso sa metro

Photo taken inside the LRT using my camera phone. Read about Berso sa Metro a week ago and actually saw the posters last Tuesday inside the new trains. It was actually good to read verses of beautiful poem in Spanish and Tagalog versions... the corresponding images are beautiful as well.

Berso sa Metro (Verse in the metro) is a campaign from the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) management, Instituto Cervantes Manila, and the Filipino-Spanish Friendship Day committee. It aims to encourage reading for the thousands of daily passengers of the LRT.

Here's a sample of a verse from Pablo Neruda (though its not the one in the photo)

Spanish version

cuando mis pasos van
cuando vuelven mis pasos
niegame el pan, el aire,
la luz, la primavera,
pero tu risa nunca
porque me morira

Tagalog version

kapag ako ay umalis
kapag ako ay bumalik
ipagkait mo na sa akin ang tinapay,
ang hangin, ang liwanag at ang tagsibol
huwag lamang ang iyong ngiti
dahil ito'y aking ikasasawi

so cheesy eh? =) if you're one of LRT's regular commuter, try to look up and read these verses... enjoy the ride!

feed the future 2

feed the future

This is one of the mural paintings in the walls of Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center... volunteer artists supported the Department of Health (DOH) campaign in promoting breastfeeding. And as what they say... breastfeeding is best for your baby, the most healthy and cheapest food that you can give to your child. =)