biker boy and writer girl

This is Spanky competing at the 3rd Ros Downhill Challenge at Taytay, Rizal last week.  He has joined several competitions since he rekindled this childhood passion some three years ago.  And he chose to concentrate on the extreme sport of downhilling because...well, I don't know.  He would have to answer that on a separate post.

It's only the 2nd time I've seen him compete--the first time, I saw him break his collarbone into 3 pieces. Yeowch.

But this time, he crossed the finish line, unscathed.  Thank God.

My mom and sis-in-law always corner me into convincing Spanky to change his sport. But they don't know how stubborn he is; besides, this is what he loves doing.  His eyes shine when he's browsing bike stuff, when he's with biker friends from 43 bikes, and when he's just finished his run.

If Spanky is to biking, then I am to writing.

This is me signing my name on my children's book 2 months ago.  And beside me is Liwliwa (in fuchsia and yellow), a fellow writer and dear friend.

I've been writing since I was kid.  Before college, I thought I could be a writer, but in the University where I studied, there were so many better writers who were better-versed in English. So I just shrugged off my dream and thought I could be a photographer instead.

But the first job I got was being a copywriter for websites, giving me renewed confidence.  Pretty soon, I joined KUTING (Kuwentista ng mga Tsikiting), and this opened doors for me to publish my work.

Spanky's pretty good in writing too; he actually won 1st place in the Free Press Essay Category in 1998. 

I, on the other hand, am not good in biking.  In fact, I've never learned how to bike.  The last time I tried was months ago (with Nessa, who took the photos below), and all I had to show for it were...

freewheeling for about 3.5 seconds...

and making faces at the camera while sweating like a pig.

I really should get back on the bike 'cause I want to learn the skill (legend has it, biking can actually be fun!), and I want to understand this thing that has got Spanky (and a lot of my friends) under its spell.

*downhill photos by Armie
*book launch photos by Zarah