TONIGHT...I READ.
I think it's time for me to take a break. I have been doing the same tour/show for the last five (or is it six?) years and I have reached my limit - for now. For the past 2,190 odd days, I have been wearing the same hat, plodding through the same boustrophedon, and mouthing off the same script, rain or shine. But don't get me wrong, it's not that my job has become stressful - I still believe I have the best job in the Philippines. It's just it has gotten a little, well, repetitious lately and needs to refresh itself. The tour has become so rote that I don't even hear myself speaking anymore. I assume this is how Lea Salonga must've felt after playing the lead in Miss Saigon for what - two thousand times or something? I'm sure she reached a point where upon uttering the opening lyrics, "I'm seventeen and I'm new here today", all she wanted to do was get postal. And who can blame her? After playing Kim for all that time, she definitely wasn't seventeen, and she was definitely not new there that day.And just a couple of days ago, as I was being interviewed by the wonderful Tanya Lara about a tour I'll be doing in Fort Bonifacio on April 25, she asked if there was any interesting book or movie that I finished lately. And Good Lord. I went blank. I realized that I haven't taken the time out to read or watch films in hella long time. I haven't had fresh brain input in years! Which is why I'm rather glad to announce that I'll be taking some time off from all tours in May. I'll be off to Toronto and Vancouver to hang out with Fil-Canadian artists, to get back in touch with my visual artist roots, and to wander about a functional first world metropolis. I also indefinitely cancelled all Corregidor tours and Chinatown tours, and am cleaning out/evicting all extraneous stress/projects/people from my life. Oh, and I will also read.
Purchased from the bookstore that we know as National: Militant But Groovy: Stories of Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan; Huling Pytyk: The Art of Nonoy Marcelo (my former boss at Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas); Chaka Chronicles (a graphic novel about a fat girl who eats pizza) by Bobbi Jolbitado, and The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas Friedman.Labels: au revoir
posted by carlosceldran @ 7:14 PM
14 Comments:
this isn't a post-April Fool's day thing right?
enjoy your much-deserved break carlos!
hey Carlos,
u know i was asking myself that when i saw u so many times in Intramuros. I mean, we were there a month everyday for 5 hours a day and it got a bit tiring.
i think its a great idea that ur taking a break, to refresh and gather new inspirations =)
have fun reading and hanging in canada!
i'm hoping you don't give this job up anytime soon. don't get burnt out. i still need to see this the next time i come back.
Dude, you're flying to friggin Toronto and not coming to New York???
Ok now I'm offended. Hmph.
I want to. I know, all my New Yorker friends are pissed. It's budget and time constraints. And it's also VISA. MY US visa expired. Been trying to get my act together to get one...
Hi Carlos,
seems you have burn out syndrome. Very good that you take a break. Enjoy the time in Canada and have fun. Hope we will stay in touch.
Cheers Tom
Bon voyage ! Enjoy !
I hope you come back ! ;-)
Yeah yeah yeah, excuses excuses...
Seriously, what does Vancouver have that New York doesn't? Besides clean air and nice people and fresh seafood?
Bah.
AND..... you know I'm just busting your chops.
Have an awesome time! Get rested and eat great food and don't talk about Philippine history for 2 months so you get a real break. Canada is gorgeous.
Now all I can hear is Lea singing, "I'm seventeen and I'm new here today." Enjoy your break! I'll have to divert everyone else to new things to do in Manila.
PS, tell me what you think about the world is flat when you're done with it. And I have an audio copy of the entire book, if you want to just have it playing in the background. It's a surprisingly effective way to consume a book.
That's last on the list. I'm still wading through Chaka. It all sounded promising. Fat girl issues. Ripe for good comedy but it suddenly segues into some kind of Christian-ish feel good message. Sayang. It could have been a fun read if it was more secular.
And I'm taking break in May still. I'm still going to plod through April tours.
I can totally understand -- my job wasn't half as repetitive as yours, yet I got burned out enough to not want anything remotely to do with it for over a year! I hope you have a brain-massaging, mind-opening, eye-soothing time in Canada. I'm sure you'll come back inspired and excited about new ideas.
Will you visit Poch and fabulous Rama? :-)
pamasahe kayo, mag-sauna, at matulog po sana kayo ng maaga ngayon. niyaya ko po kasi ang tatay ko sa tour nyo bukas, 3pm.
hope you get your second wind for the final push before you go on a well-deserved break.
hoping to see a "refreshed" and good as advertised carlos celdran tomorrow.
concern lang po ako sa inyo. hehehe
"I'm still going to plod through April tours" ...
"to plod" -- to work perseveringly at a dull task.
Sounds like you ARE in need of some serious R&R. Skip Friedman's book tho'.
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