Who is GAVIN HOEY?

I love the name GAVIN HOEY ever since my ever loving husband told me about his passion in photography and his inspiration coming from a very creative photographer from West Sussex, UK — Gavin Hoey.

the Gavin Hoey of West Sussex

In March 2010, I got pregnant and my hubby really wanted to have a boy for his first born. We called the tiny life in my belly, BUGOY, while we were still deciding for his real name. Hubby insisted of naming our first born Ryu Echizen, main character in a cartoon series Prince of Tennis. It sounded awful! hehe…I wanted Gavin Hoey better! And so three weeks ago, after the OB Sonologist confirmed that we will be having a baby boy, we officially named him GAVIN HOEY T. QUINONES!

our precious Gavin Hoey

He’s 5 months and 2 weeks now…Hubby sometimes calls him Mr. High Kick coz he kicks a lot at night, especially every time hubby would whisper his prayer near my belly. We hope our Gavin would be as creative as the real Gavin Hoey is…or better!

Hubby’s wishing to have a girl after Gavin. We both agreed to name her SOPHIE DEVEREAUX…a cunning grifter from the series leverage! hahaha…

K9 Wonder

We bought him from a pet shop in SM North Edsa sometime in September 2009. My hubby thought it would be a great experience for us, as newlywed couple, to take care of a pet together. Well, he was right. Feeding, cleaning the cage, bathing the mouse, and all other related chores were so much fun.

Come December 2009, my sister brought home k9′s female counterpart. My sister named her Amathea. But what supposed to be a happy day for our little K9 turned out to be a riot. He was not used to having company in his crib.

k9

As months progressed, we thought k9 was gay! They were together in the cage for more than 7 months but no babies yet. But then today, my hubby saw Thea gave birth to not one but 6 mice! I thought Thea was simply fat because I feed them regularly…I’m so excited to go home and see their tiny babies!

Wonder of life!

We Gave Agave A Try

My hubby and I visited Agave Mexican Cantina for dinner on Saturday. Almost all restaurants at SM North Edsa were jam-packed maybe because it was a week end and a night before Valentine’s Day…As a pre-Valentine treat, the waiter at Agave approached and requested to take our pix, to which we obliged. He said he would upload it on their Facebook account…hehehe…to my delight, i saw it there!

Anyway, their food is great (as always!)  especially the nacho grande and taco salad. Plus, the food is affordable.

What’s in a name?

Tags

Filipino, name

Earlier today I was updating the Facebook account of my women’s group. Since I don’t have all of our members’ email addresses (b/w some of them don’t actually exist in the digital world), I was cutting and pasting their names individually from MS word to Search icon. It was really a tedious job considering the number of times I had to cut-and-paste, only to find out most of their names were too common.

I remember Rex Navarette, a stand up comedian,  saying Filipinos are unique. Their physical appearance — curly haired, button nosed, fair-skinned, chinky-eyed — don’t match with their Spanish names and surnames.  Exactly the dilemma I had when I was searching for people I don’t personally know. I tried searching for a Margarita Lopez and five different Spanish-looking women appeared on the search page!

Frustrated,  I checked on my name and I was surprised,  more than a hundred women have the same first and last name like mine.

My discovery caused me to fret a bit. Cases of mistaken identity are somewhat typical these days. Say for instance the story of a newly hired OFW in Qatar, Jason Aguilar, who was mistaken as the prime suspect in the murder of Renato Ebarle, Jr. While the original suspect, Jason Aguilar Ivler was in hiding, the other Jason was being deported and detained. I believe it was a scary experience.

I would rather have a funny-sounding, yet unique first and last name than  a very common one. In fact, I appreciate having indigenous Filipino surnames like Catacutan, Catangcatang, Dayukdok, Dimaculangan, etc. than the Spanish-sounding ones. For public records’ purposes, having a unique name will surely make one accountable for what he does and no other person with a similar name will gain/lose in any given circumstances.

Names symbolize individual identities.  Our names should be as unique as our finger prints.  As such, parents should study their choices carefully before naming their children.

God’s GRACE

Coming from my DENR meeting this afternoon I was informed that Ms. Grace Agoncillo, one of our HR trainers passed away.

I had the privilege to know Ms. Grace when I  assisted her in several communication workshops.  She was weak then but her will to live was really strong. She had gone through kidney transplant last year, yet she felt no better due to high dosage of medicines she was taking including steroids.

Despite the physical limitations, Ms. Grace continued her usual tasks —she attended meetings, coordinated with the project officers, and managed to keep her trainings as lively and interesting as possible. On Saturdays she was a professor at Miriam College and on week days she was a trainer and consultant. Even at the brink of death, she was working. From a 3-day workshop in Subic that ended on Friday,  she came to her class and meet her students on Saturday. Some say she had cardiac arrest due to stress, some say it was the effect of too much medicine intake.

In a short span of time, she had showered me with her kindness and thoughtfulness. Although her demise was so sudden, it is still a consoling thought to say God has taken away from us what truly belongs to Him. She is indeed God’s precious Grace.  She will be missed.