Indeed, it was a long process of saying goodbye to each other. Living together in one roof for twenty seven years with my parents and siblings and seeing our relatives during fiestas and Christmas season every year, - parting was a very difficult situation to manage. We are all gathered at our gate for a longer time before we finally drove to the airport. With me were Tiyo Garding driving the car, Tatay, Nanay and Jaime.

On board an old Philippine Airlines BAC One-Eleven flight to Bandar Seri Begawan Airport in Brunei, I left Manila as an OCW (Overseas Contract Worker) on that fateful Wednesday, July 29, 1981 - and have been an OCW for eight years till 1988.



Last night, I reminisced that day while I watching the movie "The Queen". There was a flashback of Lady Diana's wedding day which reminded me of a night at Brunei Shell Guest House near Panaga Club. Being my first day at Brunei Shell, I was welcomed by Lucio Cruz and Bobby Gonzales (Filipino FIC22 officemates), Conal Higgo (FIC Head), and Hubert Bol (Fic22 Head). Our animated discussions were interrupted by the TV coverage of royal wedding.

BBC News published this wedding day of 29 July 1981:

Charles and Diana marry

Crowds of 600,000 people filled the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on their wedding day.

The couple were married at St Paul's Cathedral before an invited congregation of 3,500 and an estimated global TV audience of 750 million - making it the most popular programme ever broadcast.

Conal gave me a pot of flowering cactus plant and apologized for his dirty hands because he was busy during the day spray painting his son's bicycle.

Oh, I could still remember the smell of Brunei as we disembarked from the plane, the aircon at the Panaga Guest house and the plant Conal gave me.

A strange place .... strange people and to top it off .... a strange wedding - made my first day in Brunei.

("The Queen" from Wikipedia, "The Wedding" from BBC News)

Labels: brunei shell, Conal Higgo, Hubert Bol, life in Brunei, panaga

 
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Yesterday, I was looking for some document of the early meetings of the MaSci Foundation when I chanced upon old pictures and clippings from Salam, the official publication of Brunei Shell. Below, in one of the tournaments, I partnered with Mando and finished runner up.



Tennis games in Brunei started immediately after office at 4PM and ended at about 9PM, if it didn't rain. We usually played at Brunei Shell Recreation Club at the back of the head office in Seria. Sometimes, I also played at the Panaga Club, about 5 blocks aways from the HQ. By the way, tennis was a seven day a week sports activity!

My first tennis instructor was Jess Belamide, a Cebuano working at SES department. Oh, we played till 11PM even if was drizzling. He was so patient to teach tennis though it was not really the scientific way of hitting forehand and backhand. He sliced the ball most of the time.

As soon as I picked-up the game, we joined tournaments in both clubs. Jess was not really keen to join the tournaments, that I partnered with a very good friend , Mike Basubas (now the president of furniture manufacturers' association in Cebu) and later on with Mando Oteyza as shown in the photo.

Playing at Makati Sports Club last week, upon the invitation of Rotarians Mong, Bert and Andy reminded me of the hard court surfaces in Brunei. Tennis is the same everywhere - warm people, happy heart, lots of water, raucous laughter, missed shots, could-not-forget winners and disappointed loser.

Tennis is best for you than badminton - call me at 0918 844 7024.

Love 40!

Labels: brunei shell, BSRC, Jess Belamide, Mando Oteyza, MaSci, Mike Basubas, panaga, Rotarians, Salam

 
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Gabriel or Gabs, my eldest child was born in August 24,1984 at the United Doctors Medical Center near the Welcome Rotonda at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City.

While we were waiting for Gabs' arrival, a huge and agitated crowd has gathered around the rotonda. From the hospital window, I saw a sea of protestors with red and yellow streamers and banners. Shouting in unison, they were demanding for the ouster of the Marcos regime.

The red banners belong to the progressive groups like KMU. Not as many as the progressives, the yellow banner group on the other hand belongs to the moderate August Twenty One Movement or ATOM. As they were maneuvering to cut through the phalanx of the anti-riot law enforcers, slowly all the group of protestors with red banners were massing in front as the yellow banner holders and followers moving to the rear position.

Then, we heard the news, Gabs was born. Four hours laters, I was with the protestors marching towards Mendiola. As I was on my annual one month leave from the office, I left the Philippines after two weeks. Just before December of the same year, Gabs was with me in Brunei.
As he was growing in a Brunei Shell company house at G9/36 Panaga, I noticed that Gabriel was different. He has an intense focus to learn, a passion for only one type of toy - many kinds of fan, enjoys listening to music especially Abba, identifying the A or B side of a cassette tape,

At 3 years old, his lady pediatrician at the Panaga Hospital was astonished when she was assesing Gabs' ability to identify objects. Asked to identify an object in a picture book, without hesitation he said "uniform". At an early age he can differentiate a dress from a uniform.

As all of us were amused with Gabs' attentiveness and with an advance tip that he can read, the doctor went further to check if Gabs can recognize not just letters but words. Word after word, Gabs read the words like book,tea, cup, glass, tatay, nanay, and many nore. Finally, the pediatrician wrote on the baby book - 'A gifted boy'.

Labels: atom, Brunei, brunei shell, CEO blog, Efren Ricalde, Gabriel Leiva, gabs, gifted, gifted child, KMU, panaga

 
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