noel alanguilan

i do not think i have much time to spare. i try to spend my days being with people dear to me and on things i enjoy doing. i cannot give any more time because i do not have any to give.

if by chance our paths will cross again please be kind. i will remember and afford myself the luxury of looking at past memories for a moment but i will be silent.

grandson & grandfather
23rd december 2009
mall of asia, pasay city

its a picture of my son and my father

noel and robin (malikot)

i’ve sort of taken up photography again. no, not digital. analog–i use film. fun.

i (re)started christmas of 2008. there was a christmas party and i didn’t have a proper digital camera. my phone camera has a puny 0.3 megapixel resolution so it only counts in the desperate category. but i was deperate and used it anyway and, as expected, i was disappointed with the results. the only real camera that i have is an slr that i bought a little over 10 years ago so i can take pictures of my then baby boy. he’s not a baby anymore.

for the next christmas reunion, i decided to buy a couple of rolls of film, a pair of batteries and resurrect the camera. i haven’t used it for more than a year and i was afraid that it wouldn’t work anymore but i felt confident that it would because i stored the camera properly. as usual, everything was a little expensive since i had to have the roll developed and printed. it was by luck that i met someone in a chinese new year culinary tour of binondo who gave me tips on how to save a lot on everything related to film photography. it turns out that one (or two) of her photography arsenal during the tour was a film camera. she even gave me a roll of film. (thanks for that kat. i’ll pay it forward.)

so now, i get my film and batteries at about half the cost; i have the film developed,  scanned to cd and delivered to my doorstep at a good price. and i don’t have the film printed anymore. major downsides i can think of are:

• to save money on the cost of development, i have to wait until i have four to five rolls of film before i send it off for developing. this usually takes me three to four weeks
• i do not control of the scanning resolution. good film scanners are in the five-digit region and that is too expensive for me

the upsides:

• that i have two copies of my pictures–one on film and one on cd. if i have i digital camera, i wouldn’t have film as a backup. this saves me the worry on where to store my pictures
• i don’t have to spend for a digital slr camera. at least not now na now na now na
• i like the novelty of having a film camera. i get a kick at looking at surprised faces when they get to know that i’m using film. classic.
• i’m having fun with it and that’s what matters

look at him go. =)

it happened march 2009 in lola nita’s yard. his tito patrick was there to help him and he saw everything. using his cousin’s bicycle he learned how to balance already. unfortunately, i wasn’t around to witness it. bummer, i know. but fortunately, robin was all too happy to show off to me. so i pumped up the tires of his bike and off he goes…

i’m really happy and proud that he can bike now. it took me a while to learn but it seems that he got it faster than i did. yey!

aral (study)

the little boy got bored studying on his study table so he moved to the dining table. there was plenty of light for studying. i was just playing around with under exposing the film.

bata

i was taking a picture of the caged capiz window and this boy passes by.

his toy cars: those cars do drifting too! (taken 2005.11.25)

Portrait of Town Planner: playing with his cars and road set

robin at lola’s garden: he would water the plants almost every hour just to play with the hose. it did keep him cool though.

robin’s latest b-daman. he saved enough to get a battle b-daman but this time he assembled everything himself. (taken 2006.08.21)

i was with cherry and robin in one of the mcdonald’s near our place the other day. at one point during the meal cherry had to use the ladies room so she excused herself and proceeded to the washroom (that door behind them). about 30 seconds later, the shift manager, probably doing his rounds, was inspecting the cleanliness of the floors, wash area and toilets. he opened the doors to the men’s and women’s washrooms, and giving the rooms a quick look over from the outside before closing them. this got the attention of robin as his mother just went inside the ladies room.

the manager, apparently satisfied that the area is clean, proceeded to go back to food area. as he passed by, robin said, in a voice loud enough for him to hear,

“pervert.”

i just to laugh…

i’ve been wanting to post these photos for a while now. this was the time when tito pacing, rosie and randy came with us when we visited san pablo city. we took them to a short trek to lake pandin — one of the seven lakes in the city proper. we also had a ride on a large bamboo raft — my first in this lake. all in all, i think tito pacing and the others enjoyed themselves.

robin took a swim after the ride but with a life vest.

this post is an experiment in using a wordpress photo gallery plugin.

trek to lake pandin

it was drizzling when we started the trek to lake pandin.

we have arrived

we have arrived

yambo

lake yambo is just beyond that 'v' at the far end of the lake. pandin and yambo are often called the twin lakes.

horsie

tito pacing and randy

tito pacing and randy

tito pacing

randy

robin wants to swim

robin wants to swim and we didn't allow him to hence that face. rosie and cherry is at the back

bamboo rafts

we rode the bamboo rafts to the the far end of the lake.

fiddling with the camera

tito pacing on the raft on the lake fiddling with his camera.

other visitors

there were other visitors too

randy and the pose

nearing sunset

nearing sunset and about to take our trek back.

ducks

ducks. mates i guess

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he turned 10 today. two digits. i hate to make it sound like a cliché but time do fly. a decade ago he was born premature — seven months and 3.75 pounds. now, he weighs almost 80 pounds. hopefully, one of these days, i’ll find him taller than me.

another decade and he’ll be finished studying. and i’m sure time will also fly in the coming 10 years.

but today, he got the gift he wanted — virtue of mobile suit gundam 00 (japanese site). he also wanted exia but that sold out pretty quickly. ah well, next time.

that picture was taken last christmas in school. those other people are not real. i’m not sure if they’re made of paper maché.

the weekend has so far been very nice. it hasn’t been hot because there’s a thick blanket of clouds overheard. it has been a bit breezy, cool and dry — a perfect day to go out and take a stroll or bike or just vege out.

but its robin’s long exams this coming monday and tuesday so we’re staying in to help the guy study. it hasn’t been all fun but it has its moments.

“dad, can i lie down while i answer this?“, pointing to his math exercise.

no.

“why?”

well, do you lie down in school while you take your exams?”

“yes.”

what?! where?!?

“on the floor.”

you take your exams on the floor?!?

“just kidding.”