AdminApr 29Elections and the sound of my childhoodManila – A certain tune stopped me dead in my tracks one day while waiting for a jeepney ride. I figured it out from the cacophony of...
AdminMar 13Why I hate MondaysManila – One annoying Monday as I was doing online research, rather resentfully, I came upon the music video of a young Bob Geldof and...
AdminFeb 13Catching Covid-19 and thoughts of a eulogyManila—The New Year greeted me with the flu. I had chills the day after the last sound of firecrackers died down. It got worse in the...
AdminJan 9The day I quitManila—On this same month last year, I quit grad school. It was my second attempt at getting a master’s degree in a social science field....
AdminDec 12, 2021All that noiseLife Daydream By Diana G Mendoza All that noise Manila—The jarring rumble of jeepneys, the ground-shaking drill of jackhammers of...
AdminOct 10, 2021The stories I haven’t toldManila – Every time I declutter, I stumble onto old stuff that I thought I had thrown away. The most recent is a stack of reporter’s...
AdminSep 7, 2021Moving on from ‘Sex and the City’Manila – In recent weeks, photos of the stars of “Sex and the City” have been popping up all over Hollywood news while filming their...
By Diana G. MendozaAug 8, 2021When I was 35Manila — During a chat one day with an elderly neighbor as I was coming back from an errand, she vented about the mobility restrictions...
By Diana MendozaJul 11, 2021Behind the maskManila— In the summer of 2014, I walked around with an eye patch after an eye surgery to correct retinal detachment. Apart from the...
By Diana G. MendozaJun 6, 2021Happiness in a pandemicManila—I’m wearing lipstick as I’m writing this. It’s a Sunday afternoon and I just finished discussing health journalism during this...
By Diana G. MendozaMay 5, 2021When I’m sixty-fourManila—Thoughts about mortality have never been this constant as we are stuck in a pandemic caused by the most destructive virus in...
By Diana G. MendozaApr 11, 2021Thriving in a rough sequel to 2020Manila— While walking one day during my routine errands, I saw street maintenance employees of city hall trimming one of my favorite...
By Diana G. MendozaMar 6, 2021A poignant anniversaryManila – I cried on the second week of the hard lockdown in mid-March last year. It was the first time I cried in public, on a roadside,...
By Diana G. MendozaFeb 5, 2021Surviving the end of the world Manila— The year 2020 was the end of the world, or so I thought. But as I kept reading happy essays listing the best places to live in...
By Diana G. MendozaJan 5, 2021Rushing back Manila— I realized that things became different the moment I looked at the items on the table during my first coffeeshop visit six months...
By Diana G MendozaNov 30, 2020The sad Christmas treesBy Diana G. Mendoza Manila – I went out more often when Metro Manila’s lockdown restrictions were relaxed at the beginning of the year’s...
By Diana G MendozaOct 30, 2020In memoriam: our life and death clichésManila — Death happens — if not to someone we know — to us. The only problem we have with it is how we pass its test on our level of...
By Diana MendozaOct 3, 2020Our painful goodbyesManila— Every time I passed by the dimsum restaurant in my neighborhood, it was being torn down bit by bit, until a few weeks later, it’s...
By Diana MendozaSep 4, 2020How will our stories end?Manila – Truths, realities, epiphanies. This coronavirus pandemic is such an unprecedented ballgame it made many of us come to certain...
By Diana G MendozaAug 6, 2020Birthday behind locked doorsManila— I took the opportunity of the relaxed quarantine to visit the family of one of my siblings, the one who lives nearer to me, to...
By Diana G. MendozaJul 5, 2020How I spent my summer vacationManila – When a tropical storm and its nonstop rains darkened Metro Manila for days in early June, I realized that, in ordinary time,...
By Diana G. MendozaJun 2, 2020Six feet awayManila— I just came from a walk in the rain. The Philippines was experiencing its first typhoon that was devastating a number of...
By Diana MendozaMay 2, 2020Running for our livesManila— Every night at eight, the police cars sound off their sirens as they go around neighborhoods to signal the lockdown curfew. The...
By Diana G. MendozaMar 31, 2020When your soul is on lockdownManila — Two pylons and an iron chain in front of Ronald McDonald caught my attention as I walked to the supermarket. The fast food chain...
By Diana G. MendozaFeb 12, 2020Our Valentine’s Day clichésManila—I’ve had two dates on a Valentine’s Day. It may look like I’m one lucky girl for having experienced that, but no, I’m not fond of...
By Diana G. MendozaJan 5, 2020Person of the yearAnyone who grew up reading Time Magazine, when it was just one of the few printed publications and before the arrival of multimedia and...
Diana G. MendozaDec 1, 2019Our mad journeys of arrivals and departuresManila— My most recent journey would have been perfect except for a glitch. As I was preparing to leave Africa after attending an...
By Diana G. MendozaNov 4, 2019Embracing our imperfect worldI am visually disabled. My left eye didn’t make it after a surgery last year to correct retinal detachment. It can only sense faint...
By Diana G. MendozaSep 30, 2019An ode to the coffee shopManila— Ernest Hemingway was said to have spent time in coffee shops writing. I read up somewhere his story about how he went to a...
By Diana G. MendozaSep 6, 2019I don’t speak Prada and I don’t careManila— At the start of the millennium, I had the chance to work overseas in an international organization. I was chauffeured around in a...
By Diana G MendozaAug 2, 2019Dear younger selfManila— I spent my birthday with a trip to one of my favorite places in the world. I was not celebrating a milestone birthday. I was just...
By Diana G MendozaJul 7, 2019My digital, intergalactic lifeManila — A month ago Facebook reminded me, through a video, of the date when I joined the social media platform 10 years ago. Surprised...
By Diana G MendozaJun 4, 2019I need a hug, a parodia magnifica, and a pandaManila — When I do my morning walks, I watch people walk with their dogs. A few people bring their cats. I grew up with cats and dogs at...
By Diana G MendozaMay 10, 2019Losing my religionManila — I went to Catholic schools for 14 straight years of my young life, from elementary (basic or primary in other countries), high...
By Diana MendozaApr 4, 2019Traveling in the succor of rememberingManila — A few weeks ago, work required me to be on the road. There was a writing workshop I had to attend in an upland city; the other...
By Diana G MendozaMar 5, 2019'They don't read Camus'Manila — I have vague memories of when I first read a book, but what I can recall is that some time when I was in grade school, I got...
By Diana G. MendozaFeb 1, 2019The movies in my mindManila — In the movie "Sweet Home Alabama," Reese Witherspoon has marched down the aisle to marry Patrick Dempsey when her lawyer came...
By Diana G MendozaJan 2, 2019The sunrises that wake our livesManila — I'm an early riser. I always wake up at 5 am every day, even earlier. On some rare occasions, I wake up past that time when I...
By Diana G MendozaDec 6, 2018If you believe in Santa ClausManila — I don’t remember any one memorable Christmas during my childhood, but most of it was replete with dreams about Santa Claus. My...
By Diana G MendozaNov 2, 2018If I were a billionaireManila— As I write this, I just read somewhere again that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wears the same style of sweatshirt every day...
By Diana G. MendozaSep 30, 2018Cherishing the one that got awayManila — In my last column, I wrote about growing old with "the one." As I was writing it, I thought about the people who didn't make it...
By Diana G MendozaAug 2, 2018Whatever will be will beManila —What is likely to happen today? What's my future like? What happens when the planets party? What does it mean when they align?...
By Diana G. MendozaJul 31, 2018The happiness of a virtual birthday party Before I celebrated another birthday last month, I attended my seven-year-old niece’s Barbie-themed birthday party at a pizza restaurant....
By Diana G. MendozaMar 31, 2018The fault in our starsManila — I was born in the sign that is ruled by the moon, which, according to birth sign readings, makes me a sensitive and emotional...
By Diana G. MendozaFeb 28, 2018Women march — repeatManila —"Have you ever experienced sexual harassment? In what form? From whom?" A male journalist asked me this question for his article...
By Diana G. MendozaJan 31, 2018Love and other addictionsManila — Love, just like nicotine and other stuff that are inhaled, drunk, eaten or felt, can be addictive. And so scientists have said...
By Diana G. MendozaDec 31, 2017Beginnings for new endings"Every day is a new beginning and a chance to blow it." Cathy, the comic strip character, has this perfect spot-on description of the...
By Diana G. MendozaNov 30, 2017Our lives in hash tags and lolI read somewhere that some people's addiction to Facebook shows up in their brain scans, especially the types who can't stay off the...
By Diana G. MendozaOct 31, 2017Dying alone with 72 catsSo goes the funny print on a shirt that I saw in a department store that featured three checkboxes with the options "single," "taken,"...
By Diana G. MendozaSep 30, 2017Dead plants and human suffering Coming home from a one-time, month-long job posting with an international humanitarian organization that has a team deployed in a...