The Anthem Philatelist

   Once upon a time... an old donkey was ill- treated by his master. Tired of such unkindness, he decided to run away, and when he heard that Bremen was looking for singers with the town band, he decided that someone with a fine braying voice like his might be accepted. As he went along the road, the donkey met a skinny dog , covered with sores. “Come with me. If you have a good bark, you’ll find a job with the band too. Just wait and see!”   A little later, a stray cat , no longer able to catch mice, joined them and the trio trotted hopefully on towards the town. As they passed a farmyard, they stopped to admire an elderly rooster who, with outstretched wings, was crowing to the skies. The donkey, the dog, the cat and the rooster “You sing well,” they told him. “What are you so happy about?”   “Happy?” muttered the rooster with tears in his eyes. “They want to put me in the pot and make broth of me. I’m singing as hard as I can today...

Tick encephalitis , Lyme disease , Hepatitis A , etc.- these are some of the diseases one might acquire when traveling to Siberia , As a doctor I was apprehensive about travelling to this side of the Earth.  The Lonely Planet guidebook which I read thoroughly gave these warnings.  Should I really go? I think I shouldn't.  But, this is a once in a lifetime experience.   Good that this book also mentioned a contact person- Petr Ishkin , a well-traveled Russian teacher who is proficient in English.  So I tried to email him, expecting he would never answer. He must receive hundreds of these requests, why would we bother to respond to mine?    I was requesting him to accompany and guide me through this Siberian rendezvous which brought me from island of Cebu , Philippines to Seoul , Korea , to Ulaanbaatar , Mongolia then to Ulan-ude , Siberia .  I was quite surprised  when he answered back the next day. After this, we were regula...

I've been road running for the past 3 years. A few days ago however, I ventured into a different running adventure-  trail running.  Earlier on, I always wanted to run in varied off-road terrain, but friends warned me that injuries are higher in these types of run .    A colleague of mine, dislocated his knee and another had bruises in his shins and foot courtesy of the rocky terrain. My witty, humorous, fitness loving travelmate  Dr. Clifford "Ipyok" Aranas almost collapsed due to anaphylaxis after being bitten by a bee. Some even got lost (due to absence of signs) and became severely dehydrated (due to lack of water stations).  So, I told myself: "I'll have to prepare for this event"- the first ROX (Recreational Outdoor Xchange) Trail run in Liloan , Cebu sponsored by Salomon .    After much reading from various books and frequent site visits to Runner's World , I came up with these strategies, which I call the ABCDE strategy, for a successf...