revenge of the killer tomatoes 13

nowadays it’s not enough to be smart. 

you have to be fascinating and exuberant.  you need a dash of color, theatre and drama, on top of a hefty sense of humor. 

on the job, you have to be on the ball, spot on, switched on, revved up, always hitting the ground running.  you need to know your job and everything else remotely connected to it. 

offline, you must know how to order a decent bottle of wine, have stock anecdotes to regale your audience with while properly uncorking the champagne, and given moderate levels of inebriation, dance a mean tango.  you can’t just carry a tune, you have to be rocking awesome on the videoke.

you can’t just have a general appreciation for art.  you need a well-nurtured eye for impressionists and cubists and neo-impressionists and neo-cubists, distinguish the Seurats from the Monets, Chagall’s whimsy from Kandinski’s quirks.  you just have to know something about modern design beyond the Eameses, to actually see Gehry’s amazing silver-gray structures (the one at Bard in upstate NY looks like an armadillo to me) or Frank Lloyd Wright’s starkly geometric window panes.  the urbane Pinoy can spot a Kenneth Cobonpue chair, a Budji Layug table or a Cacnio brass sculpture as quickly as you can say “Mies Van de Rohe”.

and shame on you if you missed Matisse’s painting of voluptuous women dancing in the cobalt blue sky at a stairway landing in the MOMA or worse, haven’t visited Juan Luna’s enormous 19th-century masterpiece, the Spoliarium (hmm, not counting the bucolic Amorsolos, how many great Filipino art works have you seen?). 

Above: the Alphabet of Design Classics; Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal, who was a polymath and polyglot. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Rizal 

beyond the fundamentals of physics, calculus, chemistry and the natural sciences, you have to be a deft Wii warrior and know that “Second Life” does not refer to the afterlife.  you compete with digital natives and argue with open-source advocates just for the heck of it.  you must have looked Sue the tyrannosaurus rex in the eye and known that he/she was named after a swashbuckling female archeologist.

when you travel to other countries, every tourist you meet is a global citizen.  in Prague, i met a young twenty-ish Pinoy who was born in Manila, raised in Philadelphia, was studying Greek art in London and vacationing in the Czech Republic.  in Berlin, i had the most interesting conversation with a Democrat from Washington DC who said that Barack Obama is brilliant but might not win the Asian and Latino votes needed to be president.

the new world order 

the Googles, Yahoos, Wikipedias, blogspots, CNNs of the world have spawned new rules and standards for over-achievers and new dimensions of stress.  just look at the infant and toddler formula milk ads on TV - most of them promise to bring out your child’s greatest potential, i.e., become Boy Wonder/Girl Genius.  “intelligent” is for everyone else, your child just has to be a prodigy!

so does this leave the intelligence quotient as nothing more than an antiquated benchmark for abstract reasoning skills?  i personally prefer upping my “FF” (Fascinating Factor) or another version of “IQ” (Interesting Quotient). 

Cracow, Poland.  25 to 26 May 2008 -  I was thrilled to see the famous Old Town Square almost as soon as I arrived in Cracow. 

So excited was I that I spent less than 30 minutes unpacking and settling into my cozy hotel room.  I stayed at Hotel Wawel on Poselska Street, across a church that marked the hours with a soothing pealing of ancient bells.

I dashed to the Old Town Square, bursting with tourists, lively street performers, hungry pigeons, dolled-up horses and peddlers of food, stuffed dragons, amber jewelry and countless other crafts.

Regardless of your faith (or agnosticism or atheism), you will be amazed by St. Mary’s Cathedral - the altar made by Veit Stoss is breathtaking!  It was a spiritual experience for me. I visited that cathedral thrice while in Cracow.

At Kazimierz, there were grim reminders of the Holocaust but also of the resilient culture of the Jewish community in Cracow. 

Charming marionettes on a display window outside the Alef restaurant.  Old Jewish cafes.   

A scene in Schindler’s List was shot in this al fresco cafe.  Schindler was able to save hundreds of Cracovian Jews.

And all these add to Cracow’s charms…

Horse-drawn carriages and the modern tram circling the town -

 Hand-hewn and earth-grown wonders -

Poland has so many famous scientists. This statue is in honor of Copernicus.

Sitting inconspicuously around the bend of one of the streets surrounding the Old Town square is the Czartoryski Museum.  There is only one reason to visit it… 

…Leonardo da Vinci’s “Lady with an Ermine” - one of only three portraits of women by da Vinci  and said to be the most beautiful of all those paintings.  It is also touted as the world’s first modern-age portrait.  Out of reverence for The Master, I refused to take a photo (I think it was allowed) and just stared at it as long as I could manage.

Steps leading to the top of the tower with Wenceslas’ bell, and the panoramic view of Cracow as reward for the trouble of climbing up.

Legend has it that a dragon once lurked inside Wawel Castle and terrorized the townspeople.  A huge bone hangs outside the entrance to the Cathedral of Wawel Castle, said to have belonged to the dragon that was slain by the King’s sons.  The bone looks like it actually belonged to a dinosaur. 

While visiting Wawel Castle I heard Chopin’s piano music wafting from a stone wall.  There was a music store inside the castle, selling only classical music.  They were out of Chopin CDs, unfortunately. 

Here’s my favorite view of the Wawel castle -

On my second and last night in Cracow, I savored my dinner at an al fresco Greek cafe.  I waited for the lights to dim, the music to die down at the square, while I shivered in the May breeze.  But that moment never came.  I walked back to my hotel then woke up to the sound of church bells the following morning. 

A startling article on CNN today reported that a top engineer at Toyota, who led the development of the hybrid Camry, died from overwork.  He clocked in more than 80 hours of overtime a month.

Death from overwork is so prevalent in Japan, the condition actually has a name: karoshi.  The Health Ministry is said to have recognized the phenomenon in 1987 and cases have steadily increased since then.

A terribly sad way to go.  The real tragedy isn’t in their death - it’s how they lived their lives outside work. 

Perhaps the 45-year-old Toyota engineer could have been the genius to break worldwide dependency on oil - if he allowed himself the “indulgence” of spending more time at home or on a BlackBerry-free vacation.

Years ago I lived in a one-room flat with a sofa-bed, an overloaded bookshelf, and a dining table that only saw hurriedly cooked, meatless spaghetti from a can, and pizza from a place that knew my dinner order by heart.  The condo unit was within 15 to 20 minutes from the office, convenient for those times when I could only drag my feet home from work. 

I would regularly spend 10 or 15 hours, sometimes more, at the office.  And every minute was stressful as hell.  A client once walked into our reception lobby and just stood there, watching lawyers pacing back and forth or frowning at computer screens, legal assistants running around like headless chickens, and messengers shuffling around boxes of documents.  He nearly had a heart attack just by looking at us.  I told him that he pays us to worry on his behalf.

I left that world. 

Every time I feel tempted to return to it, I remind myself of the simple thrills I now enjoy.  Skipping over to a 5-level bookstore a few minutes away.  Having a decent lunch with colleagues who talk about their families (whom they actually spend time with) and hobbies (which they actually engage in, not just purchase).  Dinner with long-time friends to review food, wine, films and art, rant about politics and crack up over old jokes and tales.  Browsing rows of fresh cut flowers at a nearby market.  Reading 2 books and a magazine simultaneously, none of which are related to work.  Calling Mom and Pop almost every night to regale them with my latest driving misadventures.  Plopping up on the couch at home for a DVD marathon with Hubby while our two dogs race to sit on my lap. 

I’m still a workaholic.  Still competitive.  But a different person. 

a month after i left my old job, a whole new world!

There are few things more empowering than traveling to other countries on your own, especially if you’re an Asian woman.  But a husband or significant other can be quite handy during a trip.  Here’s why.

1.   It’s tougher to coax strangers to take your picture.  - I usually try to spot a family traveling together or someone pushing a baby stroller.  I think it’s less likely that they’ll flee with your precious digital camera.  Of course there’s no hard and fast rule and any con artist worth his salt would look like the most innocent tourist.  That’s why I had few pictures in Prague and NY with myself in them.   

hubby can’t refuse to take crazy pictures of me. (yokohama, 2008)

i shot this from a window at our NY office (2006) when no one was looking. believe me, i tried to pose for the pic with the cityscape behind me.  i failed. 

2.  If you’re struggling with your suitcase, your S.O. has no choice but to help. -  I confess to playing the weak card on this.  Combine huffing and puffing with “miserable puppy” eyes for maximum effect.  If you’re strong and athletic and have no need for an extra hand, fine, congratulations.  But if you’re a wimp - physically, like me - it’s not a great setback to women’s empowerment. 

3.  If you get lost, you’re not alone.  -  Hubby and I initially set out for Ayutthaya, Thailand with the intention of renting bicycles when we get to the island.  We spotted several bike rental shops after the ferry ride, but put off renting bikes in the hope of finding a better deal.  Eventually we ran out of bike shops.  No problem, we thought.  Until we got lost on foot.  It was a gruelling 2 hours of wandering aimlessly under the scorching sun.   But thank goodness for Hubby who kept my spirits up when our bottled water was running low.  And hallelujah for elephants!  That cost us an arm and a leg but we actually enjoyed the quirky, bumpy ride.

photos from our second trip to thailand (2006), our favorite shopping destination.

4.   You have an excuse for eating second helpings and more.  -  Hubby and I are passionate about Japanese food.  At Asakusa in Tokyo, I ate five or six plates of sushi and sashimi, not counting Hubby’s plates which I helped clean out.

more photos from our first time in tokyo together (2008), courtesy of abie co. 

5.  Someone can veto your foolish purchases.  -  Having a shopping companion who knows you well can be good or bad, depending on what he/she thinks is an unwise acquisition.  In our case, a Voltes V toy robot was definitely one of the best buys of our life (we were both fans of the Voltes V anime that was, after several episodes, banned from Philippine television by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos).  Clothes are a different matter.  Hubby might have vetoed the trench coat I got in Poland.  

Two thoughts after my Eastern European adventure - which I’ve yet to finish writing about on this blog: (1) Every Filipina should travel to Europe alone at least once in her life; (2) One’s fascination is multiplied infinitely when traveling with a wonderful companion.