THE REPORTS OF THE JEDIS

the day I received the first draft report is the night our group topped the 2017 Christmas Games and I won the Grand Raffle Prize

it was also the night I Grabbed to a familiar haunt with old friends, and that darkness before "discovering" the Food Truck in Kamuning and tomorrow's breakfast of Filipino pandesal from the Kamuning Bakery  

the day I wrestled in thickening a thin report is the night I watched a free movie at the Yard Street Food Cinema while tempting myself with pasta from the Mafia

it was also the night I walked to the Tuna King Asian Restaurant for a sisig, and the darkness before tomorrow's pandesal from the Pantoja Bakery

the day I practically rewrote the report is our 20th wedding year, the morning Bulan and me hit the trails after a long while, the afternoon that Balong came home with a tug-of-war silver medal, and the night we dined on green leaves and drank urine-gold Chardonnay  

the day the report was almost done is when Riza came in for the case study and the night before tomorrow's Convention where DenCun the Jedi took the floor, which is also the day for tomorrow's District party where we feasted on Jedi food and whiskey as I let the reports simmer in a consultancy requisition from the Galactic Empire while reciting spells from the Book of Luke that will charm the next Jedis into delivering less traumatic reports

na-BALI

Agung in Ilocano means "nose" 

and that volcanic snout, all snores in more than 50 years, got stuffed with hay fever magma and finally sneezed out loud as I was about to enplane for a Bali workshop with several kilometers saved in advance to counter a much anticipated Bali Hai spree   

Ugong in Filipino means "sound"

and the eruption resounded in both the Denpasar and Manila airports, so deafening it cancelled PR 537 and a 2-night booking at the Swiss-Belhotel Segara Resort and Spa, so I sought comfort with an insanely priced coffee at Starbucks and an array of Filipino kebab at IBP 

Nabali in English means "broken"

as in my first trip to Bali disrupted, my wanderlust interrupted, kaput, fly another day which is maybe next year, which could be more Jakarta than Bali, perhaps Lombok, although the good side is I was able to attend one important meeting and got my Christmas gift too

And Sundays are for bike rides

this one to atone for a missed college fraternity reunion, for  two more stickers after paying for an insanely priced coffee and cake, and a liter of Johnny Walker Black during an extension tournament of the 2017 Bowling Games

EATING ALONE AND HOW GEETA WON A MEDAL

There is a price to pay for the liberty of taking out my bike [almost] every morning through my preferred trails.

That is eating alone after the kid and the wife has left for school, usually leftovers from yesterday's dinner, which was happily punctuated by a Persian dinner of Kebab and vegetarian samosa while watching Mr. Phogat transform her daughters Geeta and Babita into world class wrestlers in the Bollywood hit "Dangal", but not after going against the resistance of deeply-rooted traditions and beliefs, quelling a rebellion from Geeta and getting locked in a storeroom up by her coach during the final match of the Commonwealth Games.

In other words, Geeta who have been mostly trailing in the final round managed to defeat a superior but snobbish Australian opponent by a point to win the gold medal, and I got to take out my small city bike the next morning for hohum buffet breakfast at Finio's along Tomas Morato Avenue.

But there is a prize for the price, which is helping the wife cook our early morning breakfasts which made her very happy, and being able to watch La Vuelta Espana updates on cable TV every night which made me very happy too.

It was also the last Sunday of the 2017 Bowling Games which is a relief but also a prelude for a gruelling next 4 weeks of travelling.

A NIGHT OF DISQUITE

It is becoming routine: a dull week in between hell weeks. 

And this is a dull week that started with a business-as-usual Monday, Egad in Manila conversing to Bobbie in Yangon through a Spider via Skype as the sole entertainment.   

That's how dull as it gets until night fell in Quezon City when the change pushers came out of their holes to a plot session at the Baluarte JTG in honor of one former police character [he spent jail time], revolutionary songs and clenched fists punctuating speech after speech, giving away their uncured addiction to a way of life the refuses to fade away.

They were A1 intelligence targets before, they are former high government officials now.  

So were those who continue to get a high on the "Four-fold Approach" and "Triadic Paradigm", except for one whose ageing heart sputtered for a while, alive but rattled, the second from our ranks to give in to the physical effects of wear-and-tear. 

The week turned out not so dull after all: crispy pata at Livestock, prawns and mantis shrimps at the Penthouse, cold soba and buffet served ala carte at Domo, and good old home cooking in La Paz. 

That could have easily succumbed to three morning sessions of my acute addiction to biking but a bad shoulder got in the way.

But still, Sunday is not a day if we don't hit the trails, hangover not withstanding...

THE OMEN (not the movie)

It just don't add up as it used to be.

The biking is becoming more frequent and the forays into gated enclaves more daring, like the days in the saddle when I need to ponder the best way to seize the day, possible scenarios unfolding in my mind, calculating the risks, weighing the options, discerning the implications...

But the gentle slopes of Heroes Hill and PHILAM Village is not enough for that, although sufficient to admit that it is more for the pay rather than the job, with Bulan in college, the things that we do and spend for, saving for the future when we can no longer work, and many other reasons that took me walking all the way to the Fisher's Mall for the first time.  

Is it worth it?

I mean the time spent away from home, the creative juices that deserted the long nights in my forlorn rented room, the rigidity of rules that is killing the anarchist in me, the intrusions into my creative space, the corporate silos, and the rat race and routine it is turning out to be. 

"The leader of the band is tired..." so crooned and danced the real band as the whiskey bottles intimated that "this will be the day that I'll die...".

It is not a perfect world, UP is not the perfect campaign, and where I am is not a perfect place.

This is the price to pay for chaining myself to the great iron ball of security, so forget all about flying high and free like the Scottish twin eagles who like noodles and learn to exist without the liberating assurance of being able to think and act on your instinct, because it must be done, like enduring the prescriptions of innate ToCs and catatonic sign-off procedures, and yes, going for my first ever pigar-pigar dish. 

But perhaps it is just the ageing activist in me.

Or I just miss my biking Sundays with Balong...

KAPAG PUNO NA ANG SALOP

At umapaw nga ang mga naipong tulo ng mga dapat gawin sa isang araw katulad sa pagsiksik ng mga sasakyan sa EDSA sa pagitan ng alas-7 at alas-nuwebe ng umaga kaya walang ibang nagawa ang Uber kundi umasa sa turo ni "Ways" upang makarating sa ADB sa tamang oras, mapakinggan ang mga mahistrado, at dahil alas-2 na ng hapon ay walang kunsumisyon na bumagtas ng EDSA patungong UP-Diliman para sa iba pang pagpupulong.

Kinabukasan ay ganun ulit ang kuwento, lumigwak ang utak na natunaw ng mga diskurso sa interpretasyon ng batas ng tao sa batas ng kalikasan hanggang sa makatatlong baso ako ng calamansi juice with honey concentrate, nananghalian sa masaganang hapag ng mga husgado at nakipag-selfie sa mga magigiting na abogado, at nagpasiyang bumalik na lamang sa opisina para maiparada ang ebidensiya na nagsusuot nga ako ng barong tagalog bukod sa pang-araw-araw na maong at t-shirt kung kinakailangan.

Sa mga pagkakataong ganito na puno na ang salop ay lumalabas kami ni Bunso para maglibot at magpalamig sa Trinoma at SM-North.

At kapag punong-puno na talaga ay humihiling ako ng TOIL para mabawi ang mga Sabado at Linggong iginugol sa trabaho, at makapiling si AGT sa paggagalugad sa mga daang kariton ng Nueva Ecija sabay magpugay na din kay San Geronimo dahil nagkataong pista ng Baloc.

At kapag punong-punong-puno na talaga, ganito ang pinakamabisang pansalo sa mga ligwak at tulo:

LET THEM EAT CRAP!

And so we invented fastfood.

I'm not a fastfood lover [except carinderia fare which to me is real food] and will never be.

But as a probinsiyano expatriated to Manila, I find affordable real food in the city to be mostly meat-based while fish and vegetables are not much and often more expensive.   

There is of course the pansit as an option.

But I can not leave by pansit every meal and everyday, so I was forced to finally enter the sleazy world of fastfoods and the crap they sell for food, at least for breakfast.  

May God forgive us for eating animals twice murdered [the burgers, slayed and then grounded] and grown under abnormal conditions [the growth-hormone pumped chicken, and even GMO-ed fries].

May my ancestors forgive me for eating crap even when I'm in the province for which I deserved to be EJK-ied [death by Bunda!].

And may our offsprings forgive us for all the emissions we have have made the world to suffer. 

Amen! 

PANAY NIGHTS

Maalinsangan, naglalagablab, mainit, nakakapaso

parang 'nung gabing pumasok si Daniel Fernando sa loob ng kulambo ni Anna Marie Gutierrez

nag-aalimpuyo, tumatagaktak ng pawis

maingay, maliwanag, malamok, makati

nakakapuyat, nakakaantok, nakakagutom

nakakabulabog ng bato, nakakamaga ng apdo

nakakapanghina, nakakahika

nakakahadlang sa pagbibisikleta namin ni Rommel Padilla.

Kaya bibili na ako ng aircon sa susunod na linggo

pramis.

WALKING TOLL

The Uber driver, apparently new, can't remember if he pressed the "Start Ride" button, turned off the Ways App, turned a corner too early, and ended up at Mirriam College, so I got off, instead of doing another U-turn in heavily congested Katipunan Avenue, and walked the last 1.2 kilometers to the Manila Observatory, for a fried chicken lunch and brown bag session with Christian Aid on COP 21 outcomes.

I guess that was the omen of a walking orgy that lasted  for the next 6 days, the Monday that kicked off a 3.2-KM morning walk for a meat-free breakfast [fried galungong and monggo] through Mother Ignacia on Tuesday, a futile 2.8-KM search for a corner carinderia frequented by cab drivers along Scout Borromeo on Wednesday that ended with a spaghetti-lumpiang shanghai meal at a corner Jollibee, a failed 3.2-KM search on Thursday for a Land Bank branch supposedly along a stretch of Quezon Avenue between Scout Albano and Roces that somewhat led to a Starbucks breakfast of a Chestnut White Chocolate Truffle, and a Friday tapsilog at Rodic's in UP topped by a morning blueberry cheesecake snack at The Chocolate Kiss Cafe before a 1.3-kilometer walk to a Land Bank branch at the UP Faculty Center. 

That's a cool 11.6 kilometer overall that has taken its toll mostly on my Manila-based Beachwalk slippers --- and my toll or penance too for not riding AGT since New Year's day --- plus the 48.9 biking kilometers earned over Saturday and Sunday, and Kuya Darwin's painful toll or penalty of finishing his Saturday ride in a kolongkolong due to a busted front wheel hub or he walk the remaining Bagong Sikat-Bantug part of it.  

Birthday week is approaching and I need all the walking [and biking] miles I can earn to lessen the toll of an upcoming surge in calorie intake, and my advance toll for the incoming more-than-usual alcohol dose.  

SOLO MEALS

Isa na akong expat.

Na-obligang manirahan mula Lunes ng umaga hanggang Biyernes ng hapon sa Kamaynilaan.

Napilitang maghanap ng matutulugan sa gabi.

At nagkasya sa mga mapanglaw na hapunan sa kung saan-saan.

Aroskaldo sa may Timog n'ung Lunes at sisig na pusit sa Crossings n'ung Martes.

Daing na bangus naman sa may Mother Ignacia n'ung Miyerkules at KFC Twister sa may EDSA n'ung Huwebes.

Ang almusal ay kung saan abutan sa paglalakad, katulad ng sa Pan de Manila n'ung Martes.

Ang pananghalian ay madalas sa opisina na lamang at depende sa dalang paninda ni Manang.

Iba't-ibang lugar, ibat'-ibang lamesa, iba't-ibang plato.

Parang masaya, nakakatuwa, nakakagulat, katulad ng pagkakatuklas namin ni Kairos ng lechon ice cream sa Davao.

Pero ang totoo, mahirap kumain nang mag-isa, nang malayo sa pugad, kahit gaano kasarap at kakaiba ang nakahain.

Sa dulo, ang pinakamasarap na hapunan ay ang ulo ng tilapiya na sumobra sa pagkakaprito, ang ginisang repelyo na nakalimutang lagyan ng patis, at ang nagtutong na bagong sinaing. 

'Yan ang parati kong pinakaaabangan pag-uwi ko sa Nueva Ecija tuwing Biyernes ng hapon...