Up and Down

I am very happy to be part of the KABLOGS JOURNAL; thanks to KaBlogs’ core team who have given their trust and confidence on me to stand as the captain of the Filipino bloggers around the Pacific Region. Using the World Wide Web, it really sounds exciting for me - a poultry farmer based in South Australia, to be regularly sailing across the Pacific, hopping from one beautiful island to another virgin island of Oceania, down to the freezing continent of Antarctica to compile some interesting updates about our kablogs and kababayans so I could present it to you monthly via this publication.

As the soil starts cracking up the northern hemisphere to give way to the bulbs emerging at the onset of spring, most of the overseas Filipino bloggers seem to be feeling the heat of the Philippine summer as we - the KaBlogs, break the ground to welcome the birth of our online magazine.

Surprisingly though, Filipino bloggers around the Pacific remains in hibernation, except for Mr. Jim Paredes (New South Wales) who never fails to publish an article or two in Writing on Air every week, and Jimbo (Western Australia) who still managed to update his Blogbastic a day after a wild storm in Perth. Amidst my uncontrollably increasing workload in the farm, I have shared some simple stories in The Chook-minder’s Quill nine days ago. However, the most active KaBlog- Lord CM of the Dungeon has been on a blog hiatus for ten days now; he’s having a holiday in the Philippines at the moment. Pinoy Bro of the French Polynesia, who had submitted an entry for the 2009 Pinoy Expats/OFW Blog Awards, is mysteriously missing in the blogosphere nowadays. While Ka Uro, who’s been writing about and sharing useful tips on how to migrate to New Zealand seemed to have been drained of ideas and opinions lately as reflected on his Kuru-kuro ni Ka Uro who has lost words for more than five months now.

Global Filipino bloggers in or close to the North Pole might have been thinking that these currently inactive Filipino bloggers in the Oceania may have forgotten that winter is over and that they have indeliberately extended their respite for a month after springtime has officially begun. Well, of course this isn’t the case because the islands of Palau and French Polynesia are naturally enjoying the tropical climate all year round while the Australian continent and her little sister New Zealand down the southern hemisphere have been savouring the pleasant autumnal temperature for thirty one days now.

So that’s how we go Down Under. When it’s summer up north, it’s wintertime down south! Advertisements in The Filipino Channel have always been disregarding us; they always associate the Christmas season with snow while we are on a great ordeal because of the scorching climate during the holidays. I was actually thinking to submit a proposal to the association of costume designers in Australia if they could create a summer wear for Santa because I pity this big, generous man wearing his winter clothes, profusely sweating while giving Christmas gifts to the deserving children down here.

Now back to autumn... I was actually quite disappointed during my first autumn in Australia. Three years ago, I discovered that most of the trees in the Australian continent are evergreens—their leaves’ colour doesn’t turn from green to yellow or orange nor lose these during autumn. Eucalyptus leaves (the most common tree in Australia) are thick and can cope with the freezing temperatures, and are green all year round. This means I cannot share a colourful photo with this article to highlight our autumn down here, and unlike Europe and North America, I think we cannot even call it the season of ‘fall’'. Lucky are the kababayans who live in the southern Australian cities because deciduous trees such as elm, oak and maple seeds have been imported and planted, they can experience the colour and beauty of their landscape every autumn.

Some things in this Land Down Under are mostly the opposite of what we usually have in the Philippines, or in the most areas of the world. Aside from driving on the left-hand side of the road, which is quite difficult for a foreigner like me, the position of the toggle light switch should be ‘downwards’ when I want the lights ‘ON’.

There we go... the green light is 'ON' for the KABLOGS JOURNAL!

Meanwhile, The Pacific Breeze faces the red light! Well, I guess I’ve already gone too far for this month’s issue; it’s time for the ‘breeze’ to temporarily stop puffing for now.

RJ was born and spent his early years in Mlang, Cotabato. He is a veterinarian by profession but an artist at heart; a swine practitioner in the Philippines yet a poultry farmer in Australia. He currently works and lives in S.A., but has left his heart in the sunny Queensland. RJ feels that he can’t live without alamang and bagoong; and can’t sleep without rubbing some liniments on. He has been desperately searching for a wife. For applicants (or not), email him at pagotoruelp@yahoo.com.