THE UNEMPLOYED 8: The Train to Oudomxay

There was my way of leaving unwanted shirts and old underwear at airports and hotels...

...and there is The ASEAN Way, an anthem about the beer tap of a samanera and the rain TG 574 dumped over the new office and a virtual meeting in Vientiane, the ballad of zombies from Yuxi who boarded the train in Luang Prabang during a 375-kilometer trip to Muang Xai where a tribute of 5 goat dishes was offered for the ceaseless pouring of Beer Lao. 

There was Olivia Newton-John's Xanadu and there is the train to Oudomxay, the Northern City in a sea of clouds and the hill tribes who modeled new unwashed polo barongs that survived a waterfall of pee near an empty Khmu village where the shifting gears of a borrowed bike crooned like John Devenver after being proposed with a contract.

There was a group photo between incessant rains and two mornings of validation.

I had my second love shot despite a cancelled hike to a waterfall and a butterfly park.

We pledged our continuing support and had a sandwich dinner on the train from Oudomxay.

Almost 24 hours, a communique, two airports, two bus stations, and a short nap later, I took my oath of office in Bongabon for my continuing service to the Craft, evaded a fellowship for a proper sleep, and celebrated Tadej Pgacar's dominance of the Giro d'Italia at a birthday party of sweet brandy, tinumis, lechon and bopis...

THE UNEMPLOYED 7: Bangkok's Spicy Pork Bone Soup and the Treasures of Angono

Like the sisig, leng saeb or spicy pork bones soup was perhaps a poor someone's attempt at making food out of slaughterhouse discards that caught fire and is now a must-try dish in Bangkok, certainly a welcome change for me after two nights of salt crusted pla pao, smoky kor moo yang, and toasted khai jiao from the streets of Huai Khwang, the piece de resistance of a post-workshop dinner and a fitting marker to my first encounter with the DanNeramit Night Market.

The pink beer though tasted like cough syrup that stirred up snatches of a bad trip from the confusion of Sessions 4 and 6 while being exhilirating at the same time which is on the same high as signing a 13-day consultancy contract for $1,755 and booking a flight for a sudden trip to a mysterious place called Oudomxay.

Oudomxay is 2,145 kilometers from the 4,000 years old Angono-Binangonan Petroglyphs that, if deciphered accurately, is actually the recipe for the original pares in Retiro with 127 drawings on how to properly butcher a cow which inspired the murals of Botong Francisco.

To him is attributed the discovery of the petroglyphs in 1965 but it was Nemi Miranda who bravely etched the correct words for gender in the toilet of his Arthouse that could have offended Lucio San Pedro whose Memorial Monument and Historical Marker is only 9 meters away from Angono's Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Saint Clement, and just 250 meters through the murals of Dona Aurora Street to Botong's Heritage Site.  

Angono, the petroglyphs and Botong Francisco were finally ticked off our bucket list and that we celebrated with Italian wine and Gino's Brick Oven Pizza at Shangrila.

And there was Oudomxay and the bikers at Quiapo Church who told us to wait for Bulan at the Sta. Cruz Church where the priest implored the gates of heaven to finally bless us with Jolli Dada's pansit palabok, a selection of dimsum from Waiying Restaurant, and two sizes of siopao --- a small Shanghai Fried Siopao and jumbo take-away from Wan Kee Bakery). 

From there, we walked to Liwasang Bonifacio, took the train for a lunch of ramen at The Podium, and went our different ways: Nanay and Balong to Bakal 2, Bulan to Pioneer Woodlands, and me to Oudomxay. 

THE UNEMPLOYED 6: Two Interviews and a Weekend in Antipolo+

The Black Madonna from Acapulco might be the guardian of the Tipolo tree but it was the divine boatman of the Visayas who annotated the agenda and a guidance note for a Bangkok workshop to nudge Vientiane in hosting a September forum as the Jakarta cooperation was finally forged in ink. 

But will there also be a good voyage to a validation in Oudumxay?

This however was not discussed during the first interview because apparently, the loud church bell of the Lady of Peace was thrown into a perfumed waterfall by angry villagers more than 500 years before the age of credit card payments and foreign exchanges, perhaps on the same day of the fiesta in Maligaya that is being curated by the Pinto Art Museum as an Italian-inspired lunch at Cafe Rizal.

Will there be space for migrants too and those who grow in Asia? 

This was not mentioned in the second interview where a 13-day consultancy arrangement emerged to usher a possible extended contract through the doors of 7 galleries into the arid bike trails and river crossings of Nueva Ecija.     

Honestly, I'm having second thoughts about the first interview because it is likely to not fit into what I want my next 6 years to be, like finally locating San Pedro Bautista's sanctuary beneath the church complex in San Francisco Del Monte after showering our Mother's Day celebrant with eternal love and blessings.

The second interview is most likely to happen which is my preference and if this will be the case, I can be among those who are eligible to board the spaceship at Ateneo's Church of the Gesu or guard the sun dial somewhere near the haunted halls of Col. Alejandro Melchor and Sen. Rafael Palma in UP-Diliman that will lase invading aliens.

Antipolo, Ateneo and UP-Diliman are unfinish businesses.

So we finally came, we saw, and we conquered carnivore breakfasts at Goodah and the SIDCOR Sunday Market, a dinner of milk bicho and barbecued fake meat in Binondo, and a big fat Greek lunch at Cyma.  

THE UNEMPLOYED 5: Waiting for Godot

Godot was supposed to arrive on May Day. 

Saleha had her farewell party, Bulan got bored and went back to Manila, a flight to Bangkok was booked at WalterMart but Didi remained waiting for Godot. 

So a third application on fighting inequality in the agenda of a regional workshop in Bangkok was impulsively submitted.

The grilled milkfish was released back to the pond, the roasted chicken returned to the coop, and the aircon swiped and installed but Gogo is still waiting for Godot. 

So a possible consultancy arrangement was codified in a notice about a short list and an interview that will be coming soon at Vivamax.

Godot will come but the ice in the whiskey is melting and the beer is getting warm....