MALICO AND NIGHTS OF THE CHESTNUT HORSE

The Secretariat is a Big Red equine head chilled in the ancient icebox of a street corner store in Bakal 2 where the Clark Gable of Horses sell tall frosty bottles of liquid gold that Pugad Baboy recovered from an impulsive weekend  raid of Malico.  

A chatter about the Nepal Payment Transaction, the Myanmar Question, the Australian Inquiries, and the Jakarta Booking choked Microsoft Teams with chewy fried pork, pressure cooked sinampalukang manok, a pack of complex  Australian cheese, the sights and sound of passing early evening traffic, and a day-old boiled egg that were all branded with the severed head of a chestnut horse.

The volume of communications through Whatsapp that was intercepted at Salacsac Pass revealed that the Villaverde Trail was actually traced by Fray Manuel del Rio in 1739 from Maliongliong in Pangasinan through the Caraballos to the Ituy Valley, a goat path nicknamed Little Burma Road in 1945 that the 32nd Red Arrow Infantry Division, the Buenavista Guerillas, and the retreating guardians of the Yamashita Ridge paved with the bones of 6,575 dead fighters and transcripts of the catch ups with RAN and the ASEAN Secretariat between heaven (Sta. Fe) and earth (San Nicolas) in Malico.

But the American did not show up when the agenda for the 7th AWG Meeting was drafted with sections on taxonomy, consumer empowerment, and coal retirement that got lost with the Riders Den in Imugan amidst a sea of clouds from Bangwah, a job application update, a PMU meeting, and a barrage of short message services about a presumptive congressman and an anniversary.

In the aftermatch of three conseccutive typhoons, the Phanthom Biker barged through the gates of Hogwarts, his newly minted Barong Tagalog embroidered with splashes of the kalderetang kambing in Tulat, the stains of wine and cantaloupe from Calabalabaan, and blots of whiskey, inihaw na hito, and pee that splattered in Calisitan.

The junk is a Sherman Tank according to Balong and we intend to suck the marrow out of life to fill our Cup of Stories that now include a layer of Malico on a day when traffic was diverted to allow the religious throng in San Nicolas to celebrate Christ the King.

Thus was how a red horse ushered the freezing winds of Malico to reheat leftover proteins from the Eagle's Nest...

3 TYPHOONS AND A WEDDING

Toraji is "a beautiful Korean flower that blooms unnoticed" along the by-pass road to the sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians, a variance from the Asia-wide caucus about an influencing strategy that extended a contract until New year's Eve in Jakarta where the roasted chicken from Bakal 2 will roost like a recorded webinar on safeguarding the bike trails of Calabalabaan.

Nika is a goddess and a very good grandfather.

Usagi is the Japanese "rabbit" described in an email thread between an early morning security induction in Vientiane to a late night narrative of grilled pork belly form Bantug in lieu of an advocacy training on Day 2 of the University Games that featured a race between a milky stew of gastropods and a school of marinated tuna. 

Ofel is a nickname. 

Man-Yi is a "satisfied" Chinese, the centerpiece of an azure wedding near Sta. Arcadia where pizza is not sliced and chicken wings are rendered in a universe of red wine and adobong kambing.

My father's name is Pepito, and Ms. Aya Long's instigated submission is a fallback in case my preference is blown away by the November typhoons...

TWO BIRTHDAYS AND A FUNERAL (HAI[na]KU 68-73)

Menes morphed as Ra

"Good Morning to All" he said

premium safeguarded 

Buttons and gallons 

bland beer boiling in Guimba

red eggs at Old Town

MA in Laos?

Trump is an expired account

JET but not a plane

Last night's buxom band

a cavalcade of mourners

bills RAN, peer reviewed

Old bike, a chopper

Jollibee, Tonton, the bank

a college top up

TCF again?

highway beers and a breakfast

past, present, future

THE HAUNTING (not the movie)

The first half was reviewed but the saints were furious because those in purgatory were omitted in the plan for the next 6 months. 

That took two days of talking to a computer but instead of honoring saints and praying for souls, tombs were scrubbed after a year of neglect.

Candles, flowers, coffee and tupig, and a CALP survey were offered to ghosts as some sort of remembrance.  

Unseen spirits were placated with tiny flames, long enough to have a billing invoice inserted into the first acquittal.

More than a top up,  A$130,00 rehabilitated a mediocre case study but possessed and befuddled a Thursday morning meeting.  

Thus was how old friends pulled an atang of igado from a puddle in Calisitan, the prologue to an assembly of loyal friends and lasagna in Sarrat, and the epilogue for a dinakdakan seasoned with good friends in Bical.

There are serpents in Baloc clad in white, black as the declined birthday tinumis in Bakal 2, turncoats like a roadside tapa that that actually is daing na bangus.

A death in the ICU hurried delayed wellness checks that were stamped with the ressurection of the Iron Man who paid for the monthly bills but not for a round trip to Manila.

Traces of booze burned, the market and a drugstore were raided, a puppy was almost crushed for a Mexican legacy --- the annual haunting of burning candles, wilting flowers, and GCash for the dead...