www.Betsy and Terry.fun

Oh dear, what a day! Today, February 24, 2006 was a very strange day! Today is the 20th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution by the People's Power which overthrew Ferdinand Marcos and drove him out of power into seclusion in Hawaii. On this anniversary, tensions were high in Manila as 3 of the current president's generals were arrested and stripped of power because they were part of a coup trying to get her out of office. The coup was foiled and the president announced a state of emergency. Some political rallies were held, but all were peaceful and at worse caused traffic jams.

I chose to ignore the state of emergency and went to Freaky Friday Lunch with my friends before heading downtown to meet Terry and a few Info Techies for supper. No problems driving anywhere I wanted to go today!

Freaky Friday lunch at Y Tu Mama Tambien, B, Michelle, Kim, Cindy, Diane, Betsy, Celia


All of this is sort of surreal and going on around us, but not really affecting us much. We have bigger worries. The biggest being the health of our beloved driver Fred's daughter, Grace, who is suffering from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. She is 18 and has been in the hospital for 3 weeks. She was released today, so we were telling Fred as he dropped us off this evening that she was welcome to use our spare room and bath until all of her wounds were healed. What we didn't know was that as we were talking to him, Imelda Marcos who lives in our building, and two of her attendants were right behind us. They passed us and then we caught up and got into the same elevator with her. I had been quite preoccupied, but then noticed Imelda walking in front of me and the next thing I know I am standing right next to her in an elevator! Her attendant was carrying an armful of beautiful flowers, so Terry commented on how great they smelled and I said something inane about it being a special occasion-UNBELIEVABLE-I can't believe I said that! Anyway as we got out of the elevator, she handed me a dozen red roses and said "God Bless You!" All I could say was "Oh my, thank you so much!" and the elevator door closed. Man am I ever conflicted! She really is a lovely woman and is still quite an icon here, but the fact remains that she and her husband stole millions from the Philippine government in the 20 years they were in power. She was wearing really pretty red shoes!

Roses from Imelda

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Today Michelle and I went to the University of Manila hospital to visit Grace Omec, our driver Fred's daughter. She is recovering from Stephens-Johnson Syndrome. The hospital was quite stark and simple with very old furniture and equipment, but it seems very clean.


Afterwards we were invited to visit the homes and Chinese Antique store of Marlene Aguilar, a designer and publisher of Art Books. She has built two homes using all Filipino materials and craftsmen. The outside and many of the inside walls of the two homes are hand laid stone. The homes are filled with her Chinese and Tibetan antiques. Everything is very Feng Shui with water elements, wood floors, stone walls and colors depicting earth, fire, air, and water.