Lotto loco finito

From the Php 107M pot money (when I first wrote about lotto) it has reached to Php 340M after 3 weeks or so. Two lucky people won it and I guess they are now enjoying their winnings. They surely are blessed to have so much money with so little investment. Some people toil for years and die having no money in the bank and even with debts. Yet these two winners just spent a few minutes in a lotto line, thought of one to six -6 number combinations, dished out maybe a few bucks and in a matter of days became millionaires and not just a million or two but a hundred and seventy times more!

But then who am I to judge these people who won? For all I know they have worked their butts off too and had their own share of misfortunes since they existed. Per the meaning of word lotto in Italy, it must be their "destiny", who knows?

As for me, my dream of buying a new house (if I bagged the prize) remains to be a dream. I have to stop thinking of ways of how shall I claim the money without being harassed by people for "balato". Or where will I invest it to secure the amount and make it grow further. Too bad I cannot take up foreign language lessons yet and my trip across Europe will have to be postponed for now. Aaahh... those things will just have to wait.

Moth in the Garden

I received a flickr link from Richard (my nephew) the other day showing his pics of an Oleander Hawk Moth resting on the Santan flower in my mom's small garden. It is so different from moths that I normally see and thus I cannot help but wonder about said creature.

As you can see from the pic the moth's wings sports a very interesting design. Color is grayish green with blotches of white and has a pinkish band across the middle section. On the base of the fore wings is a circular pattern and mimic eyes that seem to stare at you. I guess it is the insect's defense mechanism to make itself more intimidating to larger animals.

It has relatively large eyes, large head and its hind wings have a very unusual shape as if it has been carefully cut or curved. It kinda reminds me of Batman's boomerang or more aptly called "bat-arang".

Based on the website of the Australian Museum, Hawk Moths comprise of around 850 known species wherein the most diverse varieties are present in tropical countries. And that, most Australian species also occur in Southeast Asia. For all we know, this moth in our garden might been an Aussie! Hi mate! He he.

What fascinates me most about this oleander hawk moth however is the way it flies. Actually it hovers more than it glides. And unlike most moths, it is not active during the day. It is nocturnal and thus feeds only at night. When my mom and nephew saw it at the garden it was still morning and when I arrived home it was still there. However, the morning after, we can no longer find it. Awww too bad! I wanted to see more of how it behaves and putting it in a bottle or cage crossed my mind. However, I scratched the thought as captivity might just lead to its death.

I remember the time when my kuya used to collect cocoons of mariposa from the santol tree at the back of our house in Pateros. He would keep it for weeks in a bottle with cotton balls as its bedding. We would observe the progress of the pupa on a daily basis and get excited when we sense any movement. Sometimes we set it against the light so that we can see through the cocoon. Being kids though we would get impatient and cut the end of the casing in order to help the moth to emerge. However, the more that we help the more that the moth fails to get out. It would wither and die with crumpled wings.

Nowadays, it is very seldom that we see moths and butterflies even dragonflies. There were three varieties of them that I remember; 1) the "tutubing karayom" which has a body as thin as a needle (obvious ba?), they are easy to catch but not exciting to look at. 2) the usual "tutubi" wherein the body is larger than the karayom one, has a helicopter like head and comes in blue, green and yellow colors. I would try to catch them testing my patience, swiftness and steadiness of my hands and 3) the "tutubing kalabaw" which is the largest of the three and is usually brown or dark red in color. But no, it not as big as a carabao (pilosopo naman kayo!). It is just relatively big compared to the other two and during those days any big creature is associated with a carabao. (ewan kung bakit).

Back then they were plenty in our school grounds and in gardens. Catching them was a sort of ritual during recess and after classes. It was a kind of meditation for me. Everything else seems to freeze when I put my focus into getting one by the wings between my thumb and index finger. And the satisfaction of letting it fly again is incomparable. It is a pity that kids no longer see some or even just one up close. Swerte na pag may naligaw!

I just hope that we can preserve more of these creatures as they do help plants propagate and continue the greening of the planet. Who wants a dry and lifeless world? I don't!

Lotto loco

The long queue in lotto outlets got me curious on how much is for the taking. And as expected it is a huge sum -Php 107M!!! (roughly US$ 2M) And at around 8:30 the pot money for the megalotto draw reached Php 120M++. Since nobody won the last draw, my wild guess is that it will again increase by another Php 20M or so. Nice!

Winning the lottery has always been a dream for almost everybody. Well at least most people I know. I have not encountered a person who wouldn't want to win in it as it is the fastest and easiest way to hit big time.

Based on my short reading from the interlotto.com website regarding Lotto History, the term lotto is an Italian word meaning destiny or fate. And it is also written there that the game dates as far back as the time of Moses, wherein the system was used in order to determine who will be given pieces of land west of the River Jordan.

In the Philippines, when I was a kid the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office used to print Sweepstakes coupons and you get to choose from the pre-printed set of numbers. It was cumbersome in terms of choosing the coupon and a lot of cost for PCSO in printing it. An old man would come regularly in our neighborhood carrying booklets of the coupons and he would let the adults in the "hood" take their pick of their favorite number combinations. He would entice them by calling out "supistik!(his slang for sweepstake), taya na kayo sa supistik!" And he would tell success stories of people he knew who won the last "bola" (lottery). Which does generate a lot of interest and actual sale (and justifies the term bola! he he. Bolahan lang ito).

Nowadays, people still go gaga over lotteries. Dreams and the elements of dreams are associated with numbers that one should pick as their winning lotto entry. Birthdates, anniversaries, addresses are constantly put in betting stations but some do get tired of placing the same combinations and just take the electronically suggested ones called "lucky pick".

Hopes are built around would be lotto winnings and it has been a staple question even in beauty pageants. Usually the query is - "What will you do if you win a 100 million pesos in a lottery?" And the standard answers would be, buy a house, buy a car and the classic - "give some to charity or to their favorite parish church". Half wishing that their chance of winning the lottery and/or the pageant will greatly increase because of the charity part.

Whatever it is that one desires though whether for oneself or for the world entire a windfall from a lotto winning is a great high. Call it fate, destiny, luck -I call it a gift. And thus as with gifts, what you do with it makes it more special and everlasting.

Teka, maka-taya na nga.

(not so good) Palawan trip

My first trip to Puerto Princesa, Palawan a week ago was not such a good experience -no thanks to Air Philippines! Although the reason I went there was really not for pleasure but because it was part of my job handling Logistics Operations still I was expecting that it will be a nice one.

My companions and I were booked in Air Philippines going in and going out of said island. Our ETD from the NAIA Terminal 3 was at 9:20am and therefore I decided to be there early at around 7am to avoid the 8am rush hour. However, when I checked in, they said that the flight will be delayed to 1pm (anak ng weteng!) and they said that the option is for me to transfer to a PAL flight leaving at 8:00am. When I asked the reason for the delay they said it was a scheduled thing and that our travel agent should have advised us ahead of time. Heck!!! Obviously, our travel agency did not do their part.

Anyway, I agreed to the transfer but had to make quick calls to my two colleagues who are in the flight with me to hurry up because it is either we leave in less than an hour or take the 1pm flight. Good thing they were both in the area already and thus they hurriedly had their tickets processed to effect the airline transfer.

Eto pa! The PAL plane was in NAIA Terminal 2 pala which is totally a different airport. They gave us money to get a cab for the trip to said terminal and off we went. Barely 20 minutes to spare and short of breath we had our bags checked, and went straight to the supervisor for the PAL chek-in. Fortunately, with remaining 10 minutes before the plane is scheduled to leave we got ourselves seated and enjoyed the only nice part in this "Amazing Race-like" situation which is -they got us booked in the business class! The seats were a lot nicer, more leg room and there was choice of breakfast and drinks. Naks! And so we landed at Palawan with full stomachs and rested legs.

At the island, the air was fresh but quite humid. We took a tricycle (there are no cabs) from the airport going to our warehouse and got down to business right away. After the meeting we checked in at Skylight Hotel which had modest facilities and thank God with clear and wide hallways. (I hate hotels that have dark and dingy rooms). We just left our things and headed out for chow.

Lunch was at Mang Inato's which served local cuisine. Their specialty is barbecued chicken with matching one foot length bamboo sticks as skewer. The chicken was tough to bite and a little salty so I concentrated on eating the kilawing tangigue instead. After lunch it was back to work again until 6pm then we went back to our hotel. Took a bath using the hotel's soap but it was so rough that after my shower I had rashes in my arms. Ugh.

At around 7pm we had dinner with the prospective ditributor at Kinabuch's. The place has both outdoor and indoor dining areas and they have a big big screen that projected the sports channel. What is their top selling menu? Guess what- barbecued chicken skewered in 1 foot long bamboo sticks! Yeah again! But this time, the meat was tender and not salty. (buti na lang). Their squid with sauce was also delicious as well as their tuna sashimi. We had a long dinner as we were joined by their other principals (pharma indutry). We were able to exchange notes regarding logistics and distribution across diverse industries and it was pretty interesting.

The next day was still work and more work. We really had no time to do any sight seeing. Per the locals, in order to appreciate Palawan you need a minimum of one week so that you can check out the nice beach within the main island. To get to the smaller islands though you will need more than a week. If only I had the time and money to spend away I would! But back to reality...

Flight out from Puerto Princesa was originally scheduled lunch time but (as you have guessed by now) it is again delayed (apo ng weteng!na naman!). So we had to wait for 2 hours. This time lady luck was not on our side as the other airlines were already fully booked. Mosquitos hovered around at the lounge and I had to contend with doing some of my e-mails and presentation materials while waiting. The plane arrived the airport as per the "delayed scheduled" and we boarded. The whole trip back was uneventful. Salamat naman!

Lessons learned from this trip:
1. Never fly Air Philippines going to Palawan.

2. It is wise to bring laptop with weroam, PSP, iPod and pocket book so that you will not go crazy while waiting for your delayed flight.

3. Better to bring your own bath soap. It will keep the rashes away.

4. Bring insect repellent always.