"maalikabok sa pilipinas!"

That is what my Mum always says whenever I complain about things whenever I clean my condo. "Maalikabok sa Pilipinas! Di ka na nasanay." I always complain because I keep the windows closed yet dust still settles in. Kakapunas ko pa lang ng mga surfaces, mamaya andyan na naman ang alikabok. Asar. At least the bedroom is now somewhat dust-free ever since we have been using the aircon we had installed to combat the summer heat. But the rainbow reading room is another story.


That's my writing nook or as my transpinay friend said, rename ko daw na "writing fort" o fortress ba? Something like that. This is inside my other room sa condo, the one I labeled rainbow reading room because it's my library and writing nook/fort and there's a huge, huge rainbow flag up there as decor.

Since I came back from my two-month vacation in the U.S., it's only now that I was able to fix this up, one month after I came back, actually. Since it's hot in here during the summer, I can't do any writing here. But now that the weather is somewhat cooling down due to the occasional rain showers in the metro, it's starting to be comfy again.

I can't decide what to put in the white areas, though. I'm thinking of a collage of sorts from brochures, souvenirs and flyers I collected from my travels but the rest of my U.S. loot still has to be shipped here via mail by my sister. I left a lot of things, including pasalubongs, for fear of being charged extra for overweight baggage. For now, this will do. At least I was able to bring with me some of the brochures of shows we saw in New York, like that planetarium space show at the American Museum of Natural History and some cards from Birdland. My NY-based superfriend K mailed me her Polaroid prints of our Venice Beach lamyerda during our LA Easter vacay, so I used select shots and put them there. I also have two cool ref magnets I bought in Hollywood which I just put on the white board temporarily until I decide who to give it to as pasalubong. Then there's one of the rainbow hologram posters I bought at the MoMA store. I actually have two of that, one of which I'm giving to a friend when we see each other soon.

In school, I also redecorated my faculty room when I went there yesterday, and the front wall of my desk now looks like this:


East meets west in this arrangement, as east pertains to those six cute illustrations I got from my friends in India while that huge crazy one there is from the MoMA stuff which publicizes Tim Burton's awesome, awesome exhibit there. There's also that small rainbow flag I bought at a shop in Christopher Street at Greenwich Village and that Liberty clock I bought in NY's Chinatown. There's also that cool Newton's balance display which demonstrates the "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" law which my sister bought for me at the Griffith Observatory near LA. Plus of course that old strip of 16mm test film from the unused footage of my undergraduate film thesis.

Coping, cleaning, cleansing. That's the drama of this day. We're just finishing our cleaning errands then it's off to our latest neighborhood cafe/resto favorite for early dinner. Then maybe catch Sex and the City 2 at the nearby cinema. Let's see.

Ah, this is a good Friday. have a happy weekend everyone! I know I will. :)