chuvaness

Woke up early today (7:30 am) to go to a bloggers' meet with Senator and "presidentiable" Manny Villar.
The journey from my bed to Bo's Coffee at the Fort took two hours, because I had to blowdry my hair and pick up my friend Gerome from Salcedo.
The rainy weather was freezing. I regret having left my fleece hoodie at home.
When we got there, Sen. Villar was already speaking to the bloggers. To my right was Ganns Deen who was receiving questions by chat, and to the left of the Senator was Noemi Dado who recorded the interview on her Mac. For once I felt so low-tech next to them.



You can see how cold it was, look at the frosted windows. All the while I was wishing I had worn Fall/Winter collection.


I kind of know Sen. Villar's background, having seen his interview with Boy Abunda.
I admire his rags to riches story. He came from the shanties of Tondo and has become one of the country's wealthiest men—all from hard work, persistence and a great entrepreneurial spirit he wants to imbibe in all Filipinos.

Here's the 15-minute interview shown in five parts. The first two reels I thought were cheesy but the last three made me cry.











I've met his wife and children who especially left the impression of being grounded, idealistic and above all, normal.
Senator Villar covered a range of topics from environmental concerns to the RH bill, the C5 issue, to a love for Brothers Burger and, as a young boy, reading komiks from the neighborhood sari-sari store. Here's a guy who can talk about anything under the sun and can relate to the richest guy as well as the underdog, having been there, been that.



The reason for meeting up with bloggers is his interest in hooking up with the people who communicate with hundreds or thousands of readers daily just by typing on a keyboard. Funny enough, I was told he had to ask his staff what "chuvaness" means.
I said, it means "whatever", and I quote Gilda Cordero Fernando in her article:

Soon it was in Cecile Zamora’s blog. “Better than Inquirer,” someone said. “Everybody reads it.” Since I am a computer illit, it was left to my husband to access the site. So there he is, my old man with a cloud of white hair, hunched over the keyboard, eyebrows knit, trying to figure out where in heavensname “Chuvaness,” this very hip blog, can ever be found.
I told him “chuvaness” meant “Whatever.” But I wasn’t sure so I asked Manny Chaves. Manny said all he knew was what he had overheard at a party.
“Ano ba talaga ang chuva?”
“Pareho ng chever”
“E ano ang chever?”
“Same as chowa.” (Gee, thanks)

(Geez, I just realized I miss Gilda. Must visit her soon.)

To know more about today's discussion, read Ganns Deen and Noemi Dado.