Our daughter based in London now, worked in Singapore more than two years during which time we would visit the country somtimes 3 times a year. Recently, my husband and I met up with her in Singapore.

I was particularly horrified when our taxi stopped on a street meters away from the hotel. To make matters worse it was showering. men at work were all over the place. Our daughter booked the hotel from London not knowing that the construction for the MRT isolated the hotel from the rest of civilized Singapore!

I knew the hotel didn’t offer breakfast. I recalled from our previous visits that Kopitiam was nearby. So I didn’t mind. But the no breakfast arrangement should have been an omen – reminiscent of our miserable Hongkong hotel years back.

To save what our daughter paid for, we endured two days in the inelegant hotel. On the 3rd day realizing our daughter would fly back to London in the evening and leave us behind, I adamantly insisted we forfeit one day and book ourselves at our favorite hotel.

I am still processing my world view. At 71 I still try to keep up with what is happening in the world. I maintain a website where I rite essays on family, social conditioning, and health. I have long conceded that I have much more to learn from our daughter than she can learn from me. Definitely, I can’t pass on to her generational secrets about cooking and household tips because I haven’t been good at housekeeping.

How could our daughter based in London who has travelled practically all over the world except the Holy Land ( this is my edge over my husband and daughter) be fooled by an Internet write-up about a hotel in Singapore? False claims and malicious omissions.

In spite of my many criticisms about religion, I still believe God can bring about good from  dismal situation. My husband gathered our family in prayer and asked that we search our hearts for deeper issues that may have attracted the hotel disaster.

I admitted my deep issue of unworthiness of God’s bounty. This is significant for me because for a number of years I have been professing abundance and prosperity.

As I type this essay,I thank God for healing me of my muscular pains especially on my right arm and shoulder. A Shaman’s belief about muscular pains and anger may explain the above phenomenon.

   Two weeks ago our daughter was in New York. Since she is based in London, She brought with her a phone registered in London.

At around 5pm I texted a message to our customary laundry shop. Just before 9pm our daughter sent an amused message informing me I texted her about my laundry to be picked up and delivered. And to think I was trying earnestly to cut down on my telephone bill for the month.

I now recall I was distracted by food delivery. Soon after I returned to my seat, I sent the message to our laundry shop. Little did I know that I hadn’t typed the name of the shop. Inasmuch as our daughter’s name is the first name on my telephone book, the message must have been sent to her. From Manila to London to New York! What an expensive “laundry” message. Certainly the joke wasn’t funny for me.

One year after my mild stroke in May 2012, I returned to San Juan De Dios College to give thanks.I was privileged to join the GE faculty from 2003 to 2009. It was at the height of the popularity of nursing. San Juan De Dios then had 10 sections of freshmen BSN with at least 43 students per section.

When I was confined at the ICU and eventually in a private room I was given non-intrusive care by the nurses several of whom were my former students. I appreciated the reserved but friendly attitude of the nurses reminiscent of the respectful atmosphere in all my classes at San Juan De Dios.

I never completely left San Juan De Dios. What with the social media. Even my website linked me to former students, faculty and staff. I did not realize how powerful the Internet could be in my personal life till Marc Co, my website creator, presented the benefits of technology during a seminar given by my husband and Marc Co at San Juan De Dios last July 12.

   Until and unless one has a healthy ego one will not only be unable to lead or guide others, but one will also find oneself unable to make up one’s mind and thus become easy prey for others who have strong opinions and even stronger convictions.

The above words from Rabbi Belfour Brickner could very well explain why Emil and I remain friends after 35 years of marriage. The daily breakfast exchange can be bloody if either one of us feels inferior.

Each is armed with a doctorate, albeit Emil always jokes about the superiority of his conferring university to mine.  In the mornings usually the agreement or disagreement will hinge on something spiritual because we start the day with individual prayers.

Emil is mainstream; he uses a standard meditation book. I use a favorite-of-the-month book which inspires me. Usually Emil allows me to recite my litany of complaints against the Church. Once in a while when Emil makes negative comments about the Church I sort of panic and defend her! This is a reflection of where my heart truly is. This often surprises me! Recently, just before Emil left our condo he corrected me.

We were talking casually about his past. He told me that he was in a relationship with somebody other than a woman I know. He even offered to show me the picture of that woman with my mother-in-law. As though he could locate his old albums among his piles of books and papers!! I was amused. Thank God for a healthy ego. I reminded Emil that it was to our daughter that he narrated all his past; I have never been interested.