JAPA-NICE Unagi Lately, the heat has been unbearable. Anytime I get a chance to do a chore that requires driving from 11 a.m. to about 5 p.m., I jump into my car and happily drive around. Traffic is not as bad and as long as I have my sounds and my air conditioning, I’m good. Whenever this...
Medium Rare Jullie Y. Daza Vaccination hesitancy. Choosy vaccinees. Will the supply be enough? Will the vaccines expire before they can be put to use? Will herd immunity take years? Questions. Problems. With trepidation, lest my message be laughed out of his phone, I asked Edson Guido,...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Time to build your own bubble, whether you live in NCR-plus or not. Your bubble will keep you safe with your mask and face shield on. Imagine yourself at home or out of the house moving about, sheltered in a transparent dome, through which you see the world but which the...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza “This,” said Tikya, “is your first line of defense.” She was referring to two accessories that would snugly fit in my pouch, not that there’s anywhere I can go with the pouch. Tikya’s present, a nasal spray and a mouth freshener, also in spray form, both made...
Your mother is the strongest person you will ever know. And you won’t figure that out until you’re a mother or parent yourself. THE ORIGINAL GRAMMAR NAZI The author (right) with her mother When I was growing up, I got asked all the time, “How are you related to Jullie Daza?” It...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza You had a good run, Ricky Lo! Your life’s work put you in the shadow of celebrities and movie stars, trailing them, chatting with them eyeball to eyeball, trying to catch them on a slip-up, drinking and dining with them, angling to pry a secret out of them. In the...
An intimate portrait of one of the most complicated of human interactions—the mother and daughter relationship Cover design by Jules Vivas In time, daughters become their mothers, although many of them swear never ever to be when they are young. It’s a complex relationship, often constructive...
And why I need an excuse to go driving around until 11:30 every morning Fish and Chips Any chance I get to drive around, I grab. On weekends, my kids go to visit their mother and many times sleep over, which means I’m alone at home eager to find something to deliver or drive to. Being a Grab...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza First thing I did when my son said he would need surgery was to ask my best friend, the prayerful one, for prayers. Her answer shocked me. “Two thousand Hail Marys,” she promised. The 2,000 Hail Marys devotion goes back to 1933. It was started by a Salesian seminarian...
It’s a series of gardens on a multi-hectare property that might as well be a park Photos by JYD ODE TO WATER Fish caught in stone, perpetually, as if to remind the visitor that Bali, the inspiration for this secret garden, is an island Like a piece of paradise restored after last year’s...
Medium Rare Jullie Y. Daza For those of us with some semblance of a job or other, Labor Day merely highlighted the despair and emptiness of life without a job, without a purpose. After all, most of us, through no fault of our own, do not have the luxury to “live to work,” we are forced to...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Ana Patricia Non’s Maginhawa community pantry was a roaring success because it was spontaneous, simple, and exuberant. For triggering a tsunami of goodwill, a flood of charitable deeds, an earthquake of giving and sharing that morphed into a nationwide movement, she...
