Working it

I WOKE UP this morning with this view from my hotel room––a huge one, and all to myself. I was picked as one of the participants to the 8th National Writing Workshop and 1st Writeshop for Young Researchers at Sofitel, Manila.

I was with the contingent from PGH. We ate together at the Breakfast Buffet.

Alex Dy from Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.



Rhain de Roxas from Neurology and Joti Tabula from Internal Medicine.



I spent the entire day in the workshop facilitated by editors of peer-reviewed journals in the Asia-Pacific Region. I love how simple and practical the lectures were.

Our group facilitators were Dr. Tyler Coupal from the University of British Columbia



and Dr. Rajeev Kumar,  editor of the Indian Journal of Urology.




Over dinner, I spoke with Dr Wilfred Peh, past editor and advisor of the Singapore Medical Journal. I told him, as we were getting our drinks at the Banzai Buffet at the Mall of Asia, that I had just been to Singapore. "Oh, was it your first time?"

"Yes, I liked it. There wasn't heavy traffic."

"Yes, unlike here," he said.

I also got to meet Dr. Mae Catedral, a medical oncologist and a long lost relative. We traced our roots back to Iloilo. Her father is from Panay. I said mine is, too. She offered to host me when I visit Batangas, where she is practicing. "Just text me," she said.