Friday, March 09, 2007

Performance Anxiety

I knew that this blog was going to be featured as some kind of must-read in Mabuhay magazine, but the writer is someone I know and love, so when she told me, I was thinking quite foolishly that it was going to be just a little piece passed between girl friends, no biggie at all. And then I read Katrina's comment in the last post, and I looked up the blog where she found out about the writeup, and because I am admittedly tsismosa, I went to the comments box of that blog and found people I do not know at all talking about "the provenciana." I was a magazine writer for a decade, so I was surprised to find myself going inside my head, "Oh my god!" But there it was. I was nervous and, I have to admit, a little bit afraid. These readers may well find my accounts of gendarme visits and fighting with ignorant barmen banal and self-absorbed. Nyarks! went I. Must I now start talking about Sarkozy's immigration policy and the traitorous nature of a dual citizenship? All that important stuff, you know.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm one of the readers who found you in Mabuhay. i must say, i enjoyed reading you just as you are. :)

Anonymous said...

Apol you really are a laugh! You know we love your blog *because of* your ignorant barmen & chauvinistic maitre d' rants! ;-)

Besides, I think personal blogs (as opposed to the topical ones that focus on food/politics/fashion, etc.) are meant to be self-absorbed. That's what they're all about, after all -- the personal life and thoughts of the blogger. It gives the rest of us tsimosas and usyuseras a chance to be voyeurs. ;-)

The Disparate Housewife said...

Hi Mother, yes it's Ianne :-) Anyway, I agree with Katrina. We wanna read about what's important to *you*. If people wanna read about Sarkozy, there's always the BBC. But write about him if you like, meet him.

Apol said...

ANONYMOUS, KATRINA, IANNE, thanks for the encouragement :) Pinoy middle-class guilt (that which pushes one to be RELEVANT) is hard to shake off!

A said...

Miz Apol, sikat ka na talaga. And on a completely unrelated train of thought, I am hankering for a jar of your very delish fig jam. Rawr.

Apol said...

ABI, I have just one more jar left :) Pero this summer, I promise to send you some more. We'll make din siguro apple compote, melon jelly, and salted almonds. Yum! We'll find a way to get them to you.

Anonymous said...

so you've become the apol of the eyes of the mabuhay readers ,eh?

keep it up coming...

Anonymous said...

Hi Apol,
I like your provenciana style, very Pinoy, at the same time, very personal. Had a laugh reading some of your posts. I'm a swedified Pinay and enjoy the best of both my adopted home (Stockholm) and the cool, crazy, Christmasy Manila.

I visited Nice for the first time last summer together with a Chinese girlfriend and we had such a lot of fun (don't girls out on a trip, always do?) even if we could not speak French. Between us, we spoke Swedish instead of English and it was a such a baffling experience for the company we were with to see two Asian girls conversing in a strange language.

I loved the provencal garlic and brought back as pasalubong to my hubby, kilos of it. He loves garlic.

Almost felt nostalgic reading about your UP visit, and the Ikot ride. Would like to visit UP diliman on my next trip to Manila and do the Ikot for 6,50php? C'est la vie!

Apol said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Apol said...

Hi, MITSURU! Thanks!

ROWI, Brrrrr.... Cold where you are! I am sure you also have hilarious stories of living there. E-mail me whenever you're coming over again, and let's have coffee.