REPLACEMENT CARDS

A House of Cards shuffled 6 times was dealt through 8 seasons of the Outlander.

Thus was how the plastic replacement cards were activated --- through the conveyance of a final blueprint for the conceptualization of the future after a performance assessment and the definition of targets for the next 12 months under the patronage of San Geronimo.

Bills were settled partially and fully, bikes --- both motor and mechanical --- got fixed, accummulated  garbage disposed, the week's lotto bets placed in Baloc, but the stench of fraudulent transactions still linger at least for the next 10 or 45 banking days whatever is the case. 

Impact stories will be published in recycled notebooks and emblazoned in UV jackets.

Such will be the final procurement and disbursement of the last month, without the social protection of a confirmed budget, with the application of a couple of reactions, and the assistance of a shoe cobbler.

Leftover beer was paired with inihaw na hito, bones of adobong bibe and pinatisan piled after a visit to the dead, bingo cards were served in a nonagenarian birthday buffet on the day octogenarian music was played for the last time... 

CON AIR: THE AFTERMATH

A 10-headed monster goaded the Firedancers of Gabah to roast a primate for the solidarity dinner but the evil fire burned through fraudulent transactions instead to expose PAL's coded message that for a moment seemed like the triumph of righteousness over darkness.

Still, the acrid aftertaste of being conned lingered until it was finally drowned in a mountain of babi guling samsam, a bowl of delicate gulai kambing, 15 skewers of sate kambing, and a Tim Tam Slam.

Patterns then emerged from chaos to align themes and generate recommendations for multi-source feedbacks with red codified as an approved reallocation for Phnom Penh while olive green is a sanction for the Manila proposal --- the prerequisites for convening the Holy Trinity in Legian Beach for a a unified session on annual employee experiences. 

From the Island of Gods, a pouch of emails caught up at the Kingdom of Pee on a morning too early for the andrologist but just right for a first cut of next year's roadmap and the last remaining tiim na bibe in Bakal 2. 

On her exeligmos minus 33 days, budget constraints aligned with the beneficiaries of two impact stories from Santa Marta that were documented in a dozen Bintang cans and burning meat from an upper middle class warehouse club.   

In Alaminos, the sea breeze smelled of Japanese beer, Argentinian Malbec, and pinispisang kambing, a zephyr that pressed drunk early morning conversations into the crevice of the Old Scout Island's tiny beach where it echoed as a call to lunch for novice snorkelers who, after escaping from the suffocating throng at Pilgrimage Island, jumped from the cliffs off Marcos Island to harvest oysters that were steamed and and sold to the taklobo watchers at Governor's Island before the hurricane was unleashed from the walkway of Quezon Island. 

Then dinner in Binmaley after surviving a traffic jam at Sual, the incident aboard PR 538 obscured for the moment...

THE EXORCISM OF BALI 2023

In December 2023, a travel authority was tucked in 2 of what were supposed to be 3 luggages to fill the void created by an unexpected death in the family before Christmas, a haunting that lingered for almost three years begging to be exorcised. 

The dispossession of that sad memory finally occured in the 2nd week of May 2026 with a silent prayer to the deities of the Mehru Towers at Pura Taman Ayun requestng them to sanctify a procession through the beaches of Bali that culminated at the Gate of Heaven and the giant swings of Ubud.   

Pura Taman Ayun is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site that was first built in the 17th century "to worship the ancestral spirits of kings" of the Mengwi Kingdom. 

Being our first destination in 2023, it naturally was the first step of our own cleansing rite prior to the convening of a final preparatory meeting for the Bali Assembly. 

Our 2023 Bali holiday started with a walk to the Legian Beach, and concluded with beer, coconuts, and a setting sun at Kuta Beach before our return flight to Manila.

Thus in 2026, we revisited the chaotic maze of surf boards and a parade of g-string bikinis at Kuta and Legian that culminated in a debriefing of beer and coonuts in small tables with red plastic chairs as the sun burned off the waters of Seminyak Beach.  

The haunting of 2023 was fully exorcised at the Gate of Heaven --- the candi bentar that represents the boundary between the physical and spiritual realms.

That was the pinnacle of the ritual that reversed a 2023 exclusion and invoked the protection of the guardian of the east from its sanctuary in the Island of Gods, a catharsis that burnished grief with happy moments at the giant swings of Ubod. 

Bali is of course the land of babi guling, hot and spicy like that of Pak Malen's in Seminyak, subtle and mild like Ibu Oka's in Ubud. 

It is also about padang dinners at Sarimande Natrabu and Sanur Nusantara minus the happy hour cocktails and a firedance.  

So it was done.

The haunting of 2023 has been buried in the documentation of a stocktaking in preparation for annual reporting, the review and polishing of annual plans, and possible post-project scenarios. 

THE WEEKEND BETWEEN BALI

Then we got robbed, a surreal mid-air experience aboard PR 538 that stole the flavor of a complimentary champagne, a supernatural incident that the nubile servers and vocalist of Poblacion failed to banish. 

The palate did came through after walking through Ayala Avenue's car-free Sunday for a lonnganisa platter at the Legazpi Sunday Market that were presented in the luxurious buffet tables of the Vikings. 

As anticipated, the runaround strategy was applied by Philippine Airlines but the autogates of the I Gusta Ngurah Rai International Airport finally worked.