Life in Manila

hooray for wooden toys!

Green Art Sustainable Living,

\"wooden

Don’t you think it’s so hard to find a meaningful toy to give kids these days?

It’s always been a problem for me–I don’t buy into plastic toys and the PS2 generation–and come kiddie birthdays or baptisms, I always get torn between giving something I’d rather not give or just giving nothing.

Was so glad, then, to have met Tes Sobeng, a Waldorf mom who makes wooden toys for children (and children-at-heart!). She had access to wood craftsmen in Paete, Laguna and took it upon herself to make toys that resonated with love and encouraged imagination.

\"waldorf
Do you notice the mini palayok (clay pot) on the shelf? I have so many fond memories playing with clay pots as a child!

Tes has an assortment of toys, but mostly for kids of school age. Most adhere to the Waldorf ideals of age-appropriateness and imaginative play.
\"waldorf

Here’s one toy I took home for myself, inspired by a tansan (bottlecap) spinning wheel usually played in the provinces:
\"wooden

Hayyyy, what joy in being a child!

* * *
You can look at Tes’s toy catalog on her website, toys and stuff, or contact her through
0908-492-3953 / 912-4056 or tesmsobeng@yahoo.com

\"Share\"/

a market-to-plate cooking day using organic food!

Life in Nuvali Philippines,

My friend Jhoey Hernandez of PinoyOrganics.com is holding a unique culinary tour in Alabang on Saturday, May 22, for sustainable cooking! Hope you and your green-minded friends can support her project:

\"\"

Are you a cooking mama, a foodie, an urban gardener wannabe or simply love learning new things? Dust off your basket and join us as Pinoy Organics launch its Market-to-Plate Tours in the South!

Pinoy Organics in partnership with Feed 5000

present

Market-to-Plate Tour Launch

MAY 22, 2010, SATURDAY

8AM – 2PM


  • Know your local producers in nearby weekend markets
    • Help us purchase our ingredients for our cooking demo
    • Meet the only certified organic local produce seller in the South
    • Meet a 70 year old woman who sells local produce from Batangas on weekends only
    • Know where to buy organic brown rice at market price in the South
    • Enjoy a local drink with more electrolytes than commercial sports drink
    • Visit Mom-Turn-Farmer who sells her sustainable foods from Cavite
    • and more!

  • Learn “How To Grow Your Own Herbs”
    • Kitchen Herbs 101
    • Growing Herbs
    • Propagation
    • And more practical tips about herbs!
  • Watch and learn from Chef Len Santos of Feed 5000 as she shows us how to use herbs via Cooking Demo, “Cooking with Herbs”. Bonus treat: we get to taste everything she’ll cook!
  1. Watermelon, Mint and Kesong Puti Salad
  2. Penne Vongole (with Flat Parsley and Dill)
  3. Grilled Chicken and Mushroom Bruschetta
  4. Pineapple Basil Shake
  5. Lavender Flan
FEE: P 1,000/person only (inclusive of all materials and light lunch)

SCHEDULE

8:00 – 10:00   Market Tour
10:00 – 1:00   “Cooking with Herbs”, a cooking demo cum lunch by Chef Len of Feed 5000
1:00 – 2:00   “How to Grow Your Own Herbs”, an urban gardening workshop
The cooking demo and gardening workshop will be held at Feed 5000 Studio, 186 Luzon Drive, Ayala Alabang Village
To book your reservations, call +632 347 3975, text +63922 895 3975

or email us at pinoyorganics@gmail.com.

\"Share\"/

biking in the city

Sustainable Living,

\"\"
Picture from Hello Kitty Hell

Yesterday a friend told me he just bought a bike. As in a bicycle.

My immediate reaction was, “Wow, joining the bandwagon.” But thinking about it now, it does make sense, and is actually very laudable– committing to a bicycle (he said he’ll use it when he goes on quick errands, plays tennis, visits friends nearby).

Last year, biking became the new “in” thing among a group of boys I know, and I sat in amazement at their dedication to it. What started off as weekend trails in the mountains has now grown into weekday love affairs with pavement, pollution, and those stick horses on wheels (think 6-hour “expeditions” from Ortigas to the Antipolo mountains from 5pm-11pm on a workday!).

First heard about biking as an actual sport (fitness-social lifestyle) in late 2006 when I met extreme sports fanatics (note: I find wall climbing “extreme”, i.e. non-traditional, and in some real sense, dangerous) who biked in the Bicol mountains for fun. Asked if it was safe, they plainly answered, “You can die if you fall off a cliff.” Hmmmm…

In Madrid, I had a French classmate who biked almost everyday. I asked him if Madrid was a bicycle-friendly city, and if I remember right, he said it was not, at least not as much as Paris was (or was it the other way around?). In my third-world eyes, it was waaaaaaaaaaaay friendlier than Manila could ever be.

Can biking be integrated into daily life in Manila?

Back in 2004, I made plans to meet up with another good friend, Noelle, for after-dinner coffee. Her main requirement was for the venue to have something she could chain her bike to (she’s an athlete by lifestyle and was one of the three Pinays who climbed Everest). I found that endearing then, quite an unusual request, but it never occurred to me to even entertain having the “everyday biker” mindset as my own.

The last time I vividly remember riding a bike outdoors (i.e. not in the gym) was when I was 14 and eager to canvas the boys in my neighborhood. Fifteen hit and along with it that magical “student permit” to drive, so naturally, byebye bike.

I’d trust Urbano dela Cruz to come up with a real answer to the biking feasibility question. I have yet to read his take on this properly, I’m pretty sure he’s already gotten comprehensive about biking in Manila. In any case, did a quick search on his blog for “bicycle” just now. You can read his bike-related posts here.

My thoughts: We all can do our share in having “greener” lifestyles… biking is a possibility, and as my friends have shown, it’s already a possibility NOW. Personally, I can see myself biking in the greater area around my community, as long as I don’t have to cross major streets (Ortigas Ave., C-5, Katipunan). Without designated bike lanes, I’d probably just stare at cars passing by, fearing for my life on the sidewalk.

Interesting links I found on google:
– Recreational Bike route in the Philippines from bikely.com
– Manila Times editorial by Ernesto Herrera, “The not-so-lowly bicycle” (Jan. 16, 2008): with little info on Marikina’s successful bike campaign
– Philippine bicycle hunt written by a Canadian writer and art history major as instructions on how to buy a used bike in Manila (July 2007)
– Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities’ ADB Forum on Improving Pedestrian Facilities and Bikeways in Metro Manila (Sept. 2005), with issues raised/discussed and PDF files of lectures/position papers
– 11 Most bike-friendly cities in the world found through trinainmanila, who says Japanese cities should’ve made the list.

\"Share\"/

$5B for energy efficient buildings

Green Design and Architecture Sustainable Living,

Buildings in 15 cities around the world are poised for an energy efficiency makeover under Clinton’s Climate Initiative Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program.

Raised from loans from five global banks — Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche Bank , ABN AMRO and JPMorgan Chase, the $5 billion budget for the project will be used to fund the overhauls of the buildings at no net cost, which “more than doubles the amount for energy-saving building retrofits”.

Also on board are energy service companies Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Siemens and Trane, owned by American Standard, which will boost capacity by permitting “large numbers of building make-overs” and will “financially guarantee energy savings from the projects”.

Participating cities are: New York, London, Tokyo, Bangkok, Johannesburg, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Karachi, Melbourne, Mexico City, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Toronto. Governments have committed to “provide incentives for private building owners to become more energy efficient.”

Of the list of cities, I think Manila compares to Mexico City, Karachi, Sao Paulo in terms of necessity for such an overhaul.

\"Share\"/

metro pollution

Sustainable Living

When I was a kid, I’d pass by the Meralco plant in Sucat on my way to school, and the ugly fumes from its big chimneys would greet me everyday. This bothered me considerably, and with my then dream of becoming a scientist, I thought of inventing a chimney cover that would convert bad air into good air before it was let loose in the atmosphere. Come Environmental Class in college, I discovered that my cover had in fact been invented, and was already being used worldwide.

On a more recent note, this article on cleaning big cities in National Geographic made me a little more hopeful in the restoration of Manila air. Excerpts below:

Cleaning Big Cities’ Air “Not Rocket Science,” Expert Says
John Roach
for National Geographic News
October 27, 2005

Large metropolises have some of the dirtiest air in the world. But experts say technologies that have existed for decades could help solve the problem—if utility companies are willing to use them.

The high altitude and ample sunlight of Mexico City create an ideal environment for pollutants to accumulate and linger, Molina said.

One major culprit, ground-level ozone, forms due to a sunlight-fueled chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. Commonly called smog, ground-level ozone causes a host of respiratory ailments, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Particulate matter is the term applied to the tiny bits of dust, soot, dirt, smoke, and liquid droplets that accumulate in the air and give smog its color.

Breathing particulate matter also causes respiratory ailments. In addition, it adversely affects the environment by changing the acidity of lakes, streams, and forests.

According to Walke, existing pollution-control technologies include:
• So-called scrubbers, which typically use chemicals or water to remove sulfur from gases produced in coal-fired power plants.

• A process known as selective catalytic reduction, which relies on the use of chemicals like ammonia to start a reaction that removes nitrogen oxides from tailpipes and smokestacks.

• Baghouses—cloth bags used to filter gas streams, which can remove particulate emissions from smokestacks.

• High-temperature incinerators that can destroy toxic pollutants.

“Merely requiring uncontrolled [coal-fired power] plants to adopt technologies that have been around for 10 to 20 years would solve air-pollution problems in this country, at least as far as smog and soot are concerned,” he said.

\"Share\"/

dapdap trees are dying!

Sustainable Living

\"\"
Greenmeadows Ave., QC


Also along C-5, Pasig

One of the many (about 40?) full grown trees in Julia Vargas and Greenmeadows Ave., Quezon City that have fallen ill. A friend told me that it is a phenomena not limited to the Philippines, also happening in Hawaii..suspected culprit is a wasp that migrated from Africa, and they’re hoping its natural predator will come to the rescue. Soon please.

More on the Erythina Gall Wasp (thanks to mads for the link)

\"Share\"/

birdwatching in the city

Sustainable Living


American Cemetery and Memorial
3:00-5:30pm, June 19, Sunday.
Free Entrance.

First time to go birdwatching (also birding) today. Was a quiet afternoon, good slow way to start paying attention to detail–one of the essentials of a meaningful life!

Birding is “the activity of observing wild birds in their habitat,” and it’s a nice alternative to spending your weekends, even in the city.
Time to allocate: 2-3 hours.

* * *
Email invitation from the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines:

Do you know what are Golden-bellied Flyeaters,Yellow-vented Bulbuls and Pied Fantails?

These are some of the most common birds found in Metro Manila.

Join the members of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines on a guided bird watching trip at one of Metro Manila’s best kept parks this Sunday, June 19 and discover the wonderful world of birds.

Assemble at the visitor’s parking lot of the American War Memorial in Fort Bonifacio at 3:00 pm. We will start with an orientation for first-timers and walk past the green lawns to look for Zebra Doves (Bato-bato)and Barred Rails (Tikling). Walk under the shade of the acacias to look for Collared Kingfishers (Kasaykasay), Lowland White-eyes (Matang Dulong) and perhaps a Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker (Karpintero).

Participants are advised to wear rubber or walking shoes. Please bring water, snacks, sunblock, umbrella (in case it rains) and/or insect repellant.

The guided trip for first-timers is free, however the club rents out binoculars at P50.00/pair. If you bring your own pair of binoculars, no other charges apply. Slots are limited and interested parties need to sign up and indicate the number of slots to be reserved, binoculars needed and contact numbers for confirmation. Please get in touch with Mike Lu via email at myckle@thenet.ph or text 0917-3350325.

\"Share\"/