DETOURS TO A REMINISCENCE

"Nasaksak, nawarak, dinugo..."

The triumphs of a Year 3 financial acquittal and requests for project change pushed forward a headhunt. 

"...ang tinusok ni Lupin sa San Miguel..."

Three weekly meetings passed down twice to a KL debrief and a second round on updating a policy toolkit.

"...na naihi ng sobra sa bus..."

No response from Jakarta but Cigna settled  for the submission of the Clark requital through a fair finance report. 

"...dahil malamig ang opisina sa Bantug."

The quarterlies exposed sweet blood and a fatty liver that were paired with a near beer thrice and dealcoholized wine once.  

The price of a quarterly SSS premium was converted into a weekend karaoke session in Baloc and a despedida to London as the season of non-alcoholic spirits commenced in Bakal 2. 

"Medyo antak pa ang mga sumunod pero mas malasa na".

These are the detours of life that the Phantom Biker embraced as he reacquinated with Culiat, Fronda, Saverona and even Mapak-ol as Bulan drove to Dalton Pass and back for the first time...

THE BLUE COMPASS (Almost an Epylion)

For the guardians of the Quad DisCon presentation to be allowed to cross Canili Dam from Castaneda into Maria Aurora, the Phantom Biker must first chase the Four Cardinal Directions as it metamorphosed from dawn in Casulucan into the  rising sun in Sto. Tomas --- a biker's epic about the eternal duel between the days in Buasao and evenings in Pandalla that stretched into 4 days in the trails of the Southwest Monsoon.  

Thus was how the mystery of the missing counterpart request was fnally unravelled as a policy toolkit on how to clean inboxes and catch up on unopened emails despite the continuing enigma of a project change request.

Yet, Kuala Lumpur as usual lagged behind behind Phnom Penh, Manila and Jakarta, outclassed even by Melbourne that recently fell from the sky and Brussels too whose settlement remains uncertain.

That's what the feather-pen inscribed in a timesheet as the Quad DisCon was called to order in Baler so those men wearing aprons can line up for Chef Gerry Yan's buffet lunch while their guardians explored Ermita Hill and the rock formations in Daguisit.

Then there were the Garage Nights in Bakal 2 to celebrate an enrollment and liberation from a massive credit debt that would have covered utilities, credit card and phone bills, and insurance premium even without an HMO settlement. 

An anticipated tryst turned out to be an optical coherence tomography, perimetry, and a full abdomen and prostate sonography. 

That was before a middle-old old kalderetang kambing was infused with non-alcoholic sweet wine to season a middle-aged adobong manok and 4 bottles of near beer. 

CASINO ROYCE

Not in Montenegro but at Clark Global City.

A regional dialogue instead of a Texas Hold 'em poker tournament.

Le Chiffre, Dimitrios, and Mr. White disguised as Crising, Dante, and Emong dressed in four colors of polo barong.

For 4 days, the Premium Ballroom buzzed not of slot machines but the chimes and bells of the "Missing Middle", of distribution and food assistance spinning in roulette wheels while in a nearby bingo table, numbered capacity building and regional collaboration were announced for the benefit of the cage cashier who traded gaming tokens for a torn Euro bill that will cover breakfasts at the 21 All-Day Dining Buffet, the gym at Level 2, and a cabaret show on Day 1.   

(Day 1 featured a quickie with "I" on behalf of M.) 

By afternoon of Day 3, the "Missing Middle" was drafted by the bureau and dispensed at the relocated gateposts of old Fort Stotsenburg as Dante and Emong waltzed with crones while dumping rain upon the ghost of Manoling who was called to the Celestial Lodge 7 hours after having a photo with an American general, almost 3 months since granting a general amnesty to the collaborators of the great war, and many years before Mt. Pinatubo erupted to usher the casino invasion of Clark Air Base. 

(Day 3 was when everyone checked out except for a blue umbrella.)

Finally, Aling Lucing picked the remaining sisig morsels  from Donenoo's charcoal grill that is sweating with melted fat from various cuts of fresh beef and pork from Korea Town where the partnership amendments, a counterpart creation, a request for project change and a waiver, and two goals got caught up in the storm.

EIDC sounds like Quantum and TB might be the Obanno of a coded reheated birthday lechon that's as chewy as the last 4 sticks of pork barbecue in Bakal 2 yet soft and delicate like two pressure-cooked sinampalukang ulo ng kambing from a Saturday cocktail where the Phantom Biker, soused in 6 bottles of Pale Pilsen, disappeared into a line of drying laudry.  

His name is Bert, Shu-Bert.

And he takes his beer chilled and bottled, not poured and iced.

UNQUOTABLE QUOTES

"Sa puno ng maputing suso hinango ang laman para sa kalderetang bibe, kilaweng kambing, at sisig ni Aling Lucing."

“Immunize a dog and you’ll find an ancient motorbike inside a leaking aquarium that smelled like the PET Scan appointment of two Monday meetings".

"Love is the energy of life, gender inclusive and low carbon in Kuala Lumpur, and sometimes confused too like a consultancy requisition for the social protection of a special economic zone near Manila".  

"The budget is not just a collection of numbers but an expression of counterpart creation, understanding pass downs, partnership amendments, final report submissions, and a catch-up meeting".

"You're only as good as your last haircut and a leak-proof roof to host ASEAN 2026".

"Bridges become frames for looking at the world around us until a typhoon locked my bike wheels for two days".

"Ang mga naghapunan ng keso at pulang alak ay higit pa ang katapatan sa Banal na Rosaryo ng mga Anghel na kumupkop sa Museu ng mga nakatikas pahingang Puntod".

REDEMPTION POEM (with apologies to Bob Marley)

Internship, yes, was marked “F”

Rectified by the leadership

Two "3s" were fished out

From the “Incomplete” pit

Like the haunting of the Balete

Quezon is Baler's almighty

PRISMA delivered in our generation

Though partially

Won't you let us swim

This ocean of beer?

'Cause all I ever hoped

ADMU reclaimed  

CLSU reformed

 

OPAs emancipated(?) from delays

Social Protection will free our minds

ASEAN shall have clean energy

'Cause OPR can't stop the bike

How to Speak Up on Climate Justice

While we drink lagers and swoon?

CANSA is CANSEA in New Delhi

The Ironman fulfilled a wish

SIRI

Program Manager (rubbing his iPhone 16 like Aladdin's Lamp): Ensure that contract amendments and budget disbursements are made on time.

Siri: Do you mean fast-tracking the Umbrella OPA review and briefing implementing partners on the timely submission of their final reports with zero unspents?

Program Manager (staring and almost praying at a ThinkPad screen): And disburse the last two payments for Year 3 but not in the same effort exerted in editing PRISMA 1-4.

Siri: Do you mean as discussed in the Monday meetings and a Learning Booster on climate finance, or the conversations on social protection and a report from Brussels?

In Scandinavia, virtual assistants interpret speech and recognize tense voices from Melbourne that extol Susan Alice Bennet in words that can only be heard from Paradise where the families of Chanidae (kinilaw na bangus) and Bovidae (sinampalukang kambing) starred in a play about Karaoke Nights in Baloc.

oo0oo 

Program Manager (unchained and adjusting a bike seat): Five days of the monuments, these are what the sirens screamed for and not the the credit card payments for three servings of Gotong Batangas that the Phantom Biker sliced from a soft morning rain.

Siri: Do you mean plain strong lager or paired with mushy tokwa't baboy and infused litsong manok from the ancient tamarind tree of the Big House ? 

By end of Saturday, the Defender of the People secured a Beautiful Victory and was raised to the sublime degree of sinaing na tulingan and pinakbet, Spanish ham and cheese, and a friendship that convenes over breaking bottles of Argentinian wine and Irish whiskey... 

SLACK DAYS

In the ensuing pause, a restless Ma Loute hounded the headmistress of Cuencas Mineras with short messages to entice the Nuestra Señora de las Saleras into succumbing to her apparent fondness for human flesh although this time, she is the intended meal...  

,,,,after the impossible did took a little longer, that of Melbourne committing for a timely disbursement to effectively launched Year 4 as the scheduled conclusion of Year 3 was initiated through the submission of an updated reflection report thus shifting the mode to preparing partnership agreements, Jakarta's migration to the Way of the Dutch, and one final disbursement for Kuala Lumpur to satisfy a request for addressing unpaid care...

...that are the are signed-off goals of the previous fiscal year as inscribed in the kudo board of one more departure from a weekly meeting on how to conclude an e-learning about the project cycle through a policy toolkit update, a barrage of docusign requests, reorganizing a cluttered Box folder, and strengthening a social protection framework.   

A dusty condensed report found a way to submission amidst the distraction of an academic appeal and remedial exams disguised as a box of old shoes for the garbage truck, its symphony of house chores crescendoing into a lecture on the vigil of Entered Apprentices over a broken column of wet tinumis, rancid chicharon, and an acidic kilaweng kambing, monuments of the Phantom Biker's 3-day classic that visitors from Pozzorubio rewarded with two new pair of shoes and an iPhone upgrade at the cost of 6 warm balut pieces. 

SUBDIVIDED AND RELOCATED

13 pages were culled out of a 109-page report on sustainable finance  --- parsed, condensed, and subdivided into 3 lot parcels in Almaguer through a GPS survey instrument. 

It took 3 days but it was done despite an afternoon downpour and the army of red ants who revealed the encroachment that will require a relocation of 30-years old walls and embankments. 

Duplicates of the communique were slipped to Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta before it was dissipated by sign-offs. 

An annual development plan was edited for the last tme to initiate a year-end reporting process.

Emails were read and countered, Adobe repaired and Option 2 agreed through them, a mid-term review and docusigned too.

Somewhere between sentences, a vicenerian dropped 27 moons from Uranus on Ateneo de Manila University that got his van scratched, a gash so ugly not even the warmth of reheated pizza and the assurance of two dollar account deposits can mitigate so reinforcements of ginisang carne norte, dinner sisig, and carinderia tokwa't baboy were sought.

  

But the disappointment was intense, the frustration deep, and anger indignant they need to be exorcised in the trails leading to Labney, beyond Labney, to CLSU, beyond CLSU, to a birthday lunch of provocative pinakbet, inihaw na bangus, and an unexpected tapang usa...

ON THE WAGON IN JAKARTA

In the Tsukemen style, chilled ramen noodles are supposed to be dipped in a hot soup, like pushing back Melbourne before conceding to submit a revised annual development plan, one dish but served separately, like a stack of plates in a Nasi Padang dinner at Garuda and Sederhana Satrio, separate plates for an ayam pop (lightly fried chicken), beef rendang, gulai kepala ikan (fish head curry), gulai kikil (beef tendon curry), gulai ayam (chicken curry), and sambal cabe ijo (green chilli sambal) for one big meal.    

These festive hidang meals are like an express laundry service procured with borrowed Transjakarta service cards that somewhat moderated the enthusiasm of last week's bender as transcribed in a communique by a quintet of feather pens from the 19th floor of Jalan Marga Satwa Raya where a lame lunch of mie goreng ayam (stir-fried noodles with chicken) was cursed. 

Then it rained with acronyms --- a sober ANCP, abstinent MEAL, teetotaling PRISMA --- to catalyze two days of induction into a knowlege hub after two dry days of riding a thinking tank that got stopped by the green light for Option 2 --  freshly cooked and mildly spicy mie Aceh (Aceh noodles) that was tempered with a heated afternoon meeting and 10 skewers of sate kambing --- as printed in a boarding pass at the check-in counter of PR 536.

Temperance held for 4 days before succumbing with the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon to Friday the 13th's temptous pritong tilapia at bangus in Bakal 2 where an angelic cashier worked out in Nueva Vista warehouse gym during the mass for a Sunday of the Forefathers...

THE CONVENINGS (From Kuala Lumpur to Bakal 2 to Rizal)

There was a 2-hour sleep on PR 530 and another 2 hours on the bus to Cabanatuan.

Several drams of blended whiskey from the Lodge in Baloc induced another 2-3 hours of slumber before the blood of Christ was poured from bottled malbec into canned brytos to celebrate the convening of Almaguer in Bakal 2.  

Five days earlier, the first convening finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur to chase emails at the lobby of the Berjaya Times Square where Ah Hei concocted its Michellin Bib Gourmand-listed meat bone tea (bak kut teh) from 16 Chinese herbs to lead an ingress to an egress.

That was enough to salvage Session 1 and fuel the briefings of Session 2 despite the distracting perfume of what is said to be the best grilled chicken wings in all of Kuala Lumpur but definitely not the case for a spur-of-the-moment nasi lemak at Jalan Alor.

Indeed, the sight, sound, and smell of Jalan Alor is a proper sequel for The Clash of the Titans who hijacked the wifi signal of Manhattan V to enable the notetakers until they were smitten by a podcast and have to be revived with grilled lamb chops and the Malaysian version of Oysters Rockefeller.

That is probably why The Facilitator took control of D-Day to ensure that the ensuing work plan will publish a communique that will nudge the Lao Initiative into concluding the first convening as listed in the agenda of a PMU meeting on [1] how to properly queue for a crispy beef roti, [2] explain the dried prawns in a sauteed pork intestines, and [3] understand why Chinese fried pork ribs have a pink hue.

There were tall beeers too --- Danish Carlsberg, Singaporean Tiger, Dutch Heineken, Irish Guinness --- and high buildings --- the Petronas Twin Towers and Merdeka 118 --- to celebrate Sek Yuen's Bib Gourmand-listed roasted pipa duck and coming to terms with a golden pulp of Musang King Durian as a result of exceeding expectations and confirming three goals for FY 2025-26.

And so it was that grilled SNR steak was offered at the second convening in Bakal 2 and left-over Bicol Express for the third convening in Rizal where two $50 bills were lost, found, and married...