With only the prospect of warming the couch, the holy week does not look so bright for us, even with the presence of the harsh Lenten sun. We all miss being able to go to the beach — especially the babies. That’s the downside of living in a city and sometimes, I get to think of forgoing the perks and opportunities of living in PH’s CBD. Or maybe, we need to earn more to be able to charter a yacht, rent a chopper to fly to Baguio, a Lear or… since I am daydreaming here, I might as well add, RETIRE tomorrow and LIVE on a private island somewhere in Fiji.

That’s my greatest fantasy — raising my kids in the safety of a fantasy land. I will teach them to read and write on the kitchen table while I work on the stove. They will run barefoot on a pristine beach in the afternoons. We will discuss Plato and Sophocles in the evenings. Imagine life without TV and Internet — just books, the wide sky, the million stars and our imagination. That would be heaven on earth.

But for now, I have to settle with eating bananas and mangoes on our old couch while images of people on Radical Sabbatical are being aired on Lifestyle Network.

We are watching a National Geographic Special — how 6 degrees can change the world. I say they are all a bunch of loony alarmists and tried to persuade Jude to switch channels but he would not relent. I got up took a shower, ate half a pineapple and 15 minutes of working on my PC, I felt sweat trickle down my back and sides.

“It’s getting hot in here,” and I motioned him to open the main door. He gave me that crazy look and said: “It seems global warming is here for real.” So I moved my attention to the TV.

Icebergs that are millions of years old are melting somewhere in the Arctic. Paris losing thousands of its populace to heat waves. Bush fires eating hundreds of acres of forest in Australia. Amazon going brittle dry. All these were highlighted but the one thing that hit home is the image of a polar bear cub stranded in a little floating ice.

We bought the kids a little green turtle yesterday. They named him Tuck after the Wonder Pets character. If it were up to Una, she’ll call him Birdy since Santino refused to be called by that name since a few months back.

So they take turns welcoming Tuck into the family, which obviously distresses the little fellow. Santino offered him a sip of his apple juice while Una offered to draw pictures of him. They are also teaching Tuck to speak the human language by talking to him incessantly.

I hope to see both turtle and the fish bowl intact when I get home tonight. May god protect Tuck from the two little imps.

Sometimes people say that I miss out on life because of my tendency to observe myself living rather than experiencing life directly.

I wish I were 2 again and allowed to label the world and the objects in it as I see fit. Santino does that and here are the few gems from his vocabulary:

flutterby — noun, meaning butterfly; Used in exclamatory sentences with lots of !!!
example: Flutterby! flutterby!

liontor — noun, meaning dinosaur; characterised by Jake Long of the American Dragon. Yes, liontors can be used alternatively to mean dragons and also the characters of The Land Before Time — Little Foot, Pitre and Cera.
example: Liontor ko, aaarrrk! Pitre ko!

dognight — a bulol’s version of ‘goodnight.’ Usually accompanied with Ayabyu!