Senator Noynoy Aquino (photo by SANDEE S. MASIGAN)

“How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth
and breadth and height
My soul can reach,
when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being
and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need,
by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely,
as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely,
as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs,
and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love
I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,
--- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!
--- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”

--Elizabeth Browning

I know Valentine's Day is still next Sunday, but I couldn’t resist sharing (again) my favorite love poem which my Beloved also enjoyed. Maybe, just maybe, some romantic out there can use this passionate, pure and yes, old fashioned poem for his or her Big Love instead of simply texting!

My son AJ sent me Elizabeth’s love poem and it was really a thrill getting it via electronic mail. A marriage of the classics and progress! Sonny would have loved it! When I sit in my garden in Bella Vista next weekend, I will recite it aloud to the sky and the stars. I am sure Sonny will hear me and send me kisses in the wind.

In the meantime, my “Valentine” from Vancouver, little Ramon III, his grandpa’s namesake, had a piano recital and played three pieces, including, one by Vivaldi, “Spring!” Serendipity!  Check out those expressive hands as he pounds the piano! My “balaes” Lino and Cora Barte are as proud as I am with our Monchu’s gift of music!

Now, in this country, we celebrate Valentine’s Day like no other place on this planet, surely setting world records on the number of text messages we shall be sending to each other! Where are the flowery Hallmark cards we used to send each other, the telegrams, the love-grams? Gone with the blooming of IT! 

Did you know that St. Valentine was known for his commitment to his principles because he married off couples secretly in defiance of the emperor’s orders? You see the emperors needed male soldiers for war, and he didn’t want them distracted by getting married!  Anyway, the weekend will be jackpot for retailers, hotels, motels, restaurants, chocolatiers, flower shops, Dangwa, than other Valentine’s Day in the past because it’s also Chinese New Year! Out with the disaster-filled lunar year, in with the new and may it be more peaceful and prosperous! May the automation promise be fulfilled with as little glitches as possible. (How we all wish!)

“Be My Valentine Metal Tiger!” Wonder which presidentiable will be super-lucky this lunar year?

Zenaida Seva, who is an expert on Western astrology, did not want to forecast anything about the political players and their future when she guested in Bulong Pulungan with inspirational blind singer, 12-year-old Fatima Soriano. But she did let on that it was interesting to note that Cory Aquino became president in the Year of the Tiger, in 1986, and this election, where her son Senator Noynoy is running for president, is in the Year of the Tiger!

Also, another trivia - both Cory’s and Noynoy’s astrological sign is Aquarius (Noynoy turns a “golden Boy” tomorrow, his 50th birthday! He will be at the UP campus for a presidential forum and later, at a feeding project of his volunteers.)

The Mandarin’s Master Joseph Chau talks about an I-Ching Oracle, symbol of Union and Cooperation, which if followed by politicians seeking office and businessmen will bring them “peace, safety, prosperity and propitiousness.”

Chau explained that it is lucky for these people to “seek contact with others so that everything will go well and smoothly.” It is lucky also if people this year, especially politicians and businessmen, “will enter into cooperation with others in their endeavors so that they can get the support of the public for development and progress.” Chau also cautions businessmen and politicians that it is important not to get greedy.

Good prospects are in car sales, banking, jewelry, medicines, mining, construction, real estate, electronics, computers, restaurants and gas. Not so in health foods and garments. The better prospects too are in tourism, hotels, trading, transportation, logistics and entertainment sectors.

Joseph will be at the Mandarin to give “family blessings” to those who wish to receive them and will also give individual forecasts. The hotel’s outlets, in the meantime are all geared up for the Valentine’s Day weekend and Chinese New Year. What better way to win the Loved One or the family but through romantic wine and roses dinners or lunches at the Mandarin’s Tin Hau, or Paseo Uno or Tivoli.

At the Manila Diamond Hotel, we are told by Melanie Pallorina that they will be all out to make lovers enjoy their weekend stay there or soak up the romantic “Celebration of Love” music and food at their different outlets.

There’s the 27th floor La Bellevue, the Palm Court Café, the famed Japanese resto, Kaizeti and the outdoor barbecue area. For those who want to spend the weekend in Manila Bay area, check out the Valentine and Chinese New Year offerings from Diamond Hotel and the Manila Hotel with its new spa, and the Frenchy, elegant, Sofitel Phil. Plaza.

Now, if you yearn to go somewhere near but  be in an entirely different space, motor to Tagaytay City where the view is fabulous, the climate is cool and lovely , and there are different boutique restos and hotel and the grand Taal Vista Hotel reigns like a Queen.

NOTES… Birthday boy today is charismatic healing priest Fr. Fernando Suarez, founder of Mary Mother of the Poor Foundation. He was serenaded with a “mañanita” (songs and prayers at dawn) by his volunteers, donors, scholars, and beneficiaries of his various outreach ministries in his hometown in Botong, Taal. The newly-renovated St. Peter’s church there is now a pilgrimage spot and Fr. Suarez says mass there too aside from Monte Maria in Batangas City every weekend. Last Wednesday, he offered a mass for all foundation supporters before the musical play of Nestor Torre and Bing Pimentel, “Nasaan si Hesus”  at the Meralco theatre.