the water horse

Last night, my wife and I together with Ayi went to visit Jay Tan's funeral. Jay is teacher Evelyn's eldest son who got a kidney transplant last December. He got an infection and so his body was not able to cope with it. He is known as the Round Mound of Sound or DJ Bounce to Magic 89.9 listeners. But to his friends and love ones, he is also known as Budoy.
Jay would sometimes be a host or a teacher to TCW's school activities that is why he is also well known among the active parents of the school.

Along the way, Suzette tells me about the blogs that Jay made which were compiled by his friends. She was there early that morning accompanying the preschool kids of TCW and told me how she was also crying at the chapel.

Funny but some few days ago I was thinking what to blog about next. For a while I thought I don't have anything meaningful to write about. Then I read Jay's blogs. He really has a talent for writing and I admire its contents. I get to know more about him while reading it and perhaps that's one reason why I'm here blogging again.

I enjoyed the mass service that evening, with the Vietnamese priest friend of the family from Sto Domingo church and a commentator/singer whom I believe is a professional who does this for a living. He has his own PA system with a pull trolley and an ipod nano attached to it that plays his mass service songs. He sings the responsorial psalm by memory and is very good and instrumental in setting the mood of the service. I can't help but notice the way he handled his part as it was very professional indeed. It's different from my first impression when at first I thought that he was just one of those usual party hosts. My wife even asked me to look for this person should she go away before me.

After the service, we left for SM Centerpoint. Ayi is excited that we will be able to finally have that movie date with her. We have our annual Kris Kringle game that our family play and the kids get to win prizes such as coffee date, movie date, etc. Ayi won that movie date but after the service, we were conditioning Ayi that we might have to postpone it because there is maybe no GP movie available and that it was also kind of getting late. I, too was sleepy from coming home late since Tuesday from many activities in our CFC community.
You can almost see the disappointment in her face.

At first, we saw some local films and action film posters and so we told her that they are not suitable for young kids. But at the end of the movie hallway, cinema 9 was showing the Water Horse. The poster looks cute enough for children so we convinced her to try this one. The last full show was set to start also at 9:30pm and my watch indicates that is is already 20 minutes past 9.

And so we entered the movie house just in time and noticed how only a handful was there to watch it. Our daughter seems very excited now from her previous noticeably more quiet stance. The film is about the legendary lochness monster and a boy who became friends with it. Ayi was kind of scared at the start but later becomes more comfortable as the story progresses. We saw the transformation of the 'creature' from an egg, to a baby to a full grown giant.

Somehow the film reminded me of the blogs that I read from Jay. Even though we see him in many of our kids activities, I don't really know him except from some impression that I have of him perhaps. Reading his writings allow me to know some dear part of him, his likes, his wishes and his aspirations. Much like the mysterious water horse creature whom the characters in the movie learned to understand and admire.

Oh, I would like to mention as an ender that we all enjoyed the movie, most especially Ayi who bragged about it for days to her siblings.