THE LONG HAUL TO BONN

-I-

They will take me to the airport and along the way passed by the office and do some last minute shopping at the MOA and at the same time celebrate Balong's upcoming birthday that I will be missing.

That was the plan until a passenger jeep lost its brakes and softly dented our car along Espana.

We did make it to MOA, buy me long socks, lunched at Sbarro as Balong's birthday treat, and made it to the airport.

Just the same, the stress from the accident sweated my shirt that was supposed to be on me for two days of travelling.

And we were not able to find a 46-52 mm lens converter for Bulan's camera.

-II-

It was supposed to be a comfortable 13-hour flight to Amsterdam until I found out that the seat I paid an extra $37 does not recline and with a malfunctioning entertainment system too which does not align with my natural viewing posture.

And we had a stop at Taipei which is not reflected in the electronic ticket.

That means plus 4 hours on top of the 13.

I did made it to Schipol after a marathon viewing of "Argo", "Broken City", and "Gangster Squad" with patterns of sleep in between.

And finally cold and balmy Bonn.

-III-

The next day, paisano Lando Velasco of the UNFCCC invited us to dinner in his place.

That took the cold out momentarily, and soothed away the weariness of travel with heaps of grilled pork, chicken wings, fish, zuchinni, and eggplant; cauldrons of paksiw and sinigang na isda, carnivore kare-kare, bicol express, paradosdos/bilo-bilo/tambotambong; and a liberal flow of Riesling with green grapes, Dutch cheese, and chips on the side.

PHOTO CREDIT: Last two photos taken by Usec. Fred Serrano.