Intermission: The Gardener's Daughter

Yesternight, the gardener's daughter telenovela, la hija del jardinero, resumed with episode 91, after crossing the half mark last Tuesday, in its 180 episode serial. This Mexican soap opera is getting more popular with TV and home entertainment fans. There has been a fresh influx of new fans to our telenovela blog here in the last three weeks, reflecting this fact.

To aid many of these new, and even some old fans, I would be pointing attention daily, via linkage to the corresponding SNIPPET. For example, if you watch episode 91 yesterday, I would link you with the SNIPPET 91 today. I have already completed snippets la hija del jardinero up to the Grand Finale Episode 180, so, this is the best navigational aid I could provide. We have too many novela stories on our hands, waiting to be posted than to go back to start posting TGD Episode summaries afresh.

For those wanting to read the The Gardener's Daughter on this blog from the beginning to the end, what I always advice is read the The Episode Summaries from 1 to 68 and continue therein from SNIPPET 69 to Grand Finale SNIPPET 180 By these, you can follow the thread without being broken.

Back From the Starcomms Dungeon

Pretend as if you stumble, and observe to see if anyone would show concern. This is an apt Yoruba proverb, that portrayed my circumstances in the last 8 days when the ineptitude of my ISP (Internet Service Provider) Starcomms(dot)com ambushed my promises at the gate of this new year 2007.

The last time I had problem with their services was August to October 2005, some 17 months ago! I had no problem with their services throughout last year, 2006. I was advised on phone (Dialled *121) by their customer's service department (Which I now call Customer's deception department), on phone to pay through GTB bank for renewal of my monthly subscription, which I promptly did.

They went into deep slumber immediately afterwards. All my travails and efforts to get Starcomms to reconnect me proved abortive. I lost count of the official and contradictory lies given me by the many staff at the customer's (deception) desk.

I almost lost my account with Google AdSense because Starcomms forced me, out of desperation, to access both my Blogger and Adsense accounts at a public cybercafe. Google wrote me a warning letter, because of that inconsistent pattern triggered by starcomms ineptitude.

It is rare to receive a warning letter from Google, what she does is to ban any client that was suspected to be engaged in invalid clicks practice. My telenovela blog- The Gardener's Daughter (la Hija del Jardinero), is a very popular one in Nigeria. It is not impossible that some customers at the public cybercafe may be reading my snippets and episode summaries at the same time as I was accessing my accounts at the cybercafe.

Nigeria is notorious on the world wide web as the home of internet scammers and unethical web practices. That bad accolade, due to the few 'bad eggs' amongst us can cause incalculable damage to the honest web entrepreneurs among us. Starcomms did not help matters by her lack lustre services.

I was amazed about the unbelievable volume of mails and commentaries showing concern for my absence from the web for 8 days by my fans and supporters, not only from Nigeria, but also from all over the world. I appreciate your love and concern. I pray and hope we have gotten over this mental somersault by Starcomms for good. Cherish from Texas, Prof EAO, from B.U.K Kano, Nigeria, and all our numerous friends, too many to exhaust your names and individually reply your mails of concern. I thank you all.

I have started working towards changing ISP as I am already considering the offer of my dear friend and fellow 'gardener', Philip from Excite(dot)com. Multilinks(dot)com is no better because, our dear colleague Seun Osewa from Nairaland Forum did not spare them of his acidic tongue due to their poor services too.

I welcome all old and new members back on board and to the fulfilment of our 20-fold telenovela 'prophecy' for this year 2007. ...Let's begin the flight!

Grand Finale: Triumph of True Love

With the emotional surrender of Alvaro, the way was paved for Esmeralda to proceed to Casa Grande, and to straighten all crookedness that have been created by enemies of her union with Jose Armando.

On the supposed wedding day, blind Jose Armando went to sit by his favorite spot, by the waterfalls beside the cave. He went to 'mourn' the final departure, as he assumed that Esmeralda would, at that moment be signing the dotted lines to become Mrs. Alvaro.

Nobody told him that Esmeralda's wedding to Alvaro had been canceled, nor told him that Esmeralda had just arrived in the village that same day.

Suddenly, he heard a soft footstep coming towards him. As the person sat beside him, he imagined that it was his best companion, Melesio. So, he called out, as the person was putting fresh flowers into his hands, saying: "Melesio, why are you giving me flowers today?"

"Please, decorate my hair with these flowers, like you usually do to me here, when I was blind", came the response.

It was an electrifying moment for Jose Armando, as he recognized the distinct and musical voice of his heartthrob, ESMERALDA. He was astonished, he cleared his throat with unbelief, thinking, it must have been hallucination.

She held his hand and guided it to touch her face, then he knew it was for real. He asked her what she was doing in the village on the day of her wedding to Alvaro. She replied that it was impossible to live without true love. She told him that he was the only man her heart had ever opened to receive, there was no space for any other man, not even Alvaro, in her heart. She declared her unquenchable love for him. Tears streamed down the eyes of this couple as they recounted and relieved their past trials and temptations.

She led him back later in the evening to Casa Grande. Everybody were filled with joy to see them reunited. As he entered the house, he asked for his son, little Jose Rodolfo, she brought the little and handsome boy to him, the three of them began to laugh with joy, ... then, ...suddenly, his eyes popped open and he regained his vision.

Few days later, they consummated their holy matrimony in church. Esmeralda was resplendent in her emerald earrings and her white wedding gown, while Armando was decked and arrayed in a white suit, they were joined as husband and wife and the union was sealed with a holy and romantic kiss, at the altar, in the presence of all eyes as witnesses.

Their dream of several years became fulfilled.

Esmeralda 58: Goodbye, little one

The die is cast, 24 hours to the wedding of Esmeralda and Alvaro, she seems determined to go ahead with this sacrificial marriage, not for love's sake but for awesome gratitude to Alvaro. She told all the love crusaders around her that, gratitude to Alvaro must take precedence over her undying love for Jose Armando.

Alvaro too came to a painful but honorable decision to release his 'captive-lover' from the prison of gratitude and let her her go free. He realized that what Esmeralda felt for him was sheer gratitude for the three major things he did in her life, viz:

1. surgical operation that opened her eyes;
2. scholarship assistance he gave her to study nursing;
3. offering her a job at the hospital, to earn a living.

He rose up with agony of heart and went to visit Esmeralda. it was an emotion-laden meeting. He held little Jose Rodolfo tight to himself and gave him a goodbye kiss, saying goodbye little one. Esmeralda was confused and asked him what he meant by saying goodbye to her son. He looked up and said: " ... there shall be no wedding tomorrow, it is canceled ... ".

Esmeralda was shell-shocked by this statement. He explained further to her that, he found out too late that she would never love him as much as she loved and still loves Jose Armando.

After her initial recovery from shock, Esmeralda rejected his explanation and told him that he was an ideal husband for her, because he had always cared for her, and has been a honest person throughout their relationship. At that point, Alvaro confessed to her that it was not true, and that he had not been entirely honest in his dealings with her.

He told her how, out of the fear of losing her, he hid all the information of the good deeds and efforts of Jose Armando, who wanted to help her when Lucio kidnapped her son, but he (Alvaro), prevented him, and did not disclose the efforts to her, because he feared that she would go back to Armando, if she knew the man still loved her to the point of readiness to sacrificially defend her.

Esmeralda broke into fresh tears upon learning of these long-held secrets of affection towards her by Jose Armando. He reassured her that it was him that was leaving her, and not she abandoning him. He told her that he realized that nothing could quench the fiery love that rages between Armando and her. He told her that instead of feeling guilty, she should always be happy for him for helping to open her eyes, because he too would always be happy for that noble act.

He walked quietly away from her ...