Rediscovering Beth: From Legal to Baker’s, and Traveler’s Notes

My 52nd Blog: The Sermon That Shook My Silence   It had been a long time since I last heard Mass at Cardinal Santos Hospital. I didn’t expect much—just a quiet hour, maybe a moment of peace. But what I got was a sermon that stirred something deeper.   I wish I had caught the priest’s name, but truthfully, it wasn’t about him. It was about the message. He spoke of the rich man in the Gospel—not a tyrant, not a thief. He hadn’t wronged anyone directly. And yet, he suffered. Why? Because of the sin of omission. Because of indifference.   The word struck a chord. It wasn’t just a passing thought—it was a mirror held up to my own silence. I saw myself in that rich man, not for what I did, but for what I chose to ignore.   When the corruption scandals broke out, I didn’t speak up. I didn’t even flinch. I told myself, “What difference would it make?” The truth felt slippery, the system too tangled. I stopped caring—or so I thought.   The priest call...

  My 51st blog Competent, TESDA-Certified and Creative Cooks of MCHA   Yesterday was our long-awaited assessment day for the Cookery course—a culmination of flour-dusted mornings, sizzling pans, and whispered prayers over plating. We were handed our temporary certificates, each one declaring us “competent cooks.”   Our assessor was fair, methodical, and mostly kind. But then came a moment that threw me off balance. He looked at me and asked, “Ilan taon ka na?” I answered truthfully, of course. And then—without missing a beat—he followed up with, “Kaya mo pa bang mag-perform?” Excuse me?   I chuckled quietly, making sure he didn’t catch it. “Insulted” might be too strong a word, but let’s just say I was momentarily… bemused. I mean, I wasn’t auditioning for a dance troupe—I was plating food, not pirouetting. Sure, I was the eldest in our batch, but last time I checked, age doesn’t disqualify you from knowing the difference between a béchamel and a velo...

  🥄 50th Blog Cookery & Camaraderie in Splendido:   The Great Tagaytay Cookaway   It’s been a while since my last travel blog, and what better way to mark my 51st entry than with a weekend escape with my TESDA-accredited Cookery NCII crew from MCHA? After weeks of chopping, whisking, and gracefully recovering from oil splashes and culinary missteps, we finally swapped our aprons for overnight bags and headed to Tagaytay for a well-earned breather.   We stayed at our family condo unit in Splendido , where the view of Taal Lake and Volcano was so stunning it practically said, “Welcome back, chef.” The weather was refreshingly cool—around 22 to 24°C—which felt like nature’s way of air-conditioning our souls.   Tagaytay had changed since my last visit (which may have been last year). New cafés had sprouted, while some familiar spots had quietly disappeared. We got mildly lost inside the sprawling country club and golf course, but eventually found...