A DEFINITION F TERMS

HOGWARTS: A minster of memories and magic where fantastic beasts played mahjong games, laid double yolk eggs,  and curdle milk in a leather suitcase under an ancient tree that cleaved the entrance to a bazaar of pork adobo and salted red eggs.  

CONCEPT NOTE: A summary document, distilled from Bali and Phnom Penh, being prepared with the primary intention of extending HMO coverage beyond 2027.

INCEPTION REPORT: A robust evaluation blueprint that was scrutinized on how it will inform the concept note above.  

WEEKLY CATCH-UPS: Recurring Monday and Tuesday work and proof-of-life checks as required for the validation of a graduate school ID.

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: A charcuterie of how AI may help women pursue STEM careers served in the penthouse of a luxury residential skyscrapper after a lunch of Texas pork ribs that was marinated in a final urinalysis sample.  

KEY NFORMANT INTERVIEW: A session on science diplomacy with a research assistant who sounded like a masculine robot programmed to prepare mandatory reports for the first quarter.

PAYMENT REQUEST: An investment topped up to support a shoe repair, enable a a bank deposit, order 3 gallons of drinking water, and extract a tube of chicken stock.

WEBINAR: A live virtual senminar on climate inequality and the emerging Anatolya landscape while preparing a bar chow of tapang usa, lumpia, and canned mackerel.

THE PHANTOM BIKER: A wayfarer discreetly planting organic packages near the power plant disguised as an eco bag of vegetables and fish from the market. 

OF BIKES AND BEER

The python bit into a tray of pinakbet and was sashimi-ed by men with funny caps...

...to fete The Water Boy who wrapped two mandatory sessions of E-Learning in a payment request submission...

...while being chased by ducks, dogs, and humans littering a morning routine of dead ends on Pchum Ben Day...

..that smelled like a dentist's clinic and the rotting motorbike parts emailed one piece each day to a team meeting in Bangkok...

...to inform the overseer of an emerging budget redeployment for the contract renewal of a draft preliminary report...

...about AI and women and how a key informant on science diplomacy can sustian one's self as foretold in a concept note about an absent host...   

...who explained that reinforced concrete design is not a tough adobong atay but more like a flaky pinangat na tilapia and a stringy litsong manok...

...packaged as a famous longganisa that were offered to the concelebrants of the Chaplaincy...

...before a late breakfast near where the best ever skin flute was played to an audience of inihaw na tilapia and ham scraps.

BANGKOK ON A VISA

"I'll see what I can do" said The Voice, 30 minutes before the embassy closed down for the day.

She came through at 5:02 pm after a brutal day at the freezing halls of an Imeldific floating volume of concrete where support for gender equality in the energy transition was expounded.

It was a huge relief, a comforting bowl of Nagoya pork ramen with raw sea urchin gonads on the side. 

That evening, a carnal dream fidgetted with darkness so intense it induced a specialized travel pouch tucked in a hotel safe and a leather satchel entrusted at the airport lavatory to squirt the detailed outline of the game plan in Bangkok for a recipe of a heavenly Tom Yum soup with a platter of Moo Pad Prik that cheered a roadside parade of red plastic chairs and tables.

The Virtuous appeared confused and Miss Universe has not slept in the last 2 days.

Thus was how The Moderator stepped into the 7th floor of Chulalongkorn University to ease a roundtable about the equitable extraction of critical minerals before slipping out for an appraisal on strategic business develoment in a virtual longtable of Moo Grob and Sai Ua that extended down to the basement of the Siam Center. 

The inbox was mined at the breakfast buffet of the Mandarin Hotel where misplaced phones are also displayed.

Aid diversion, terrorist screening, fraud control, and forex losses were in the menu.

The Rubenesque Volunteer watched over an inception meeting as the working girls of Nana argued about phasing out fossil fuels, loud enough to disorient the trains that run on Phad Thai and Leng Saeb.

Back at Chula, qoutes were extracted from long speeches.

"An Asia that should be for everyone" echoed during the long walk back to reveal curvaceous and buxom blurs.

The sky finally cried as forecasted, and rained with Moo Sam Chan Tod Nam Pla and what is called a condensed egg.

The visa is good until January 2027 but for a single entry only. 

So complimentary drinks, noodles, and a fruit basket were packed but a slab of expensive swiss chocolate was left in the fridge for the barefoot housekeeper.

At the Suvarnabhumi Airport, I was tempted to invite the most exquisite natural beauty I've encountered to share a lunch of bananas. 

But I got distracted by The Mature-ILF so no, I don't actually need a visa to Bangkok for the next trip. 

Said so our tattooed barkeep in Bakal 2.

A VISA PARADOX

A decameron at least.

That is the required number of days in applying for a non-immigrant visa for Thailand.

It was chaos until finally, the online payment button was discerned by The Ironman while engaged in the apprehension of Ted Kaczynski amidst a slew of emailed correspondence.

But in lieu of a visa, 10 bottles of ice cold beer crushed an Entered Apprentice's frozen slices of salmon sashimi instead.

The decameron looms.

A champion emerged in the podium of Comparative Bid Analysis to qualify for a substance screening and an outline review. 

But the entry permit remains in limbo, an eerieness that spooked the weekly catch-ups, scary enough to resurrect a lost driver's license --- rabies-free and decorated with a refrigerated bunch of grapes and reheated litsong manok bathing in a cup of kinamatisang kalabaw and a saucer of menudo that were imbued with the gaminess of carinderia dinakdakan and kilaweng kambing. 

The Royal Thai Embassy acknowledged payment made, enough assurance for the The Phantom Biker to keep to his morning routine of clandestine disposals and provisioning for the evenings.  

A scandal of Korean nipples and butts packed printed travel documents in a 2-page note about the ritual of the First Degree.

For the first time, breakfast at the San Lorenzo Sunday Market tasted of uncertainty.

Yet we walked on along car-free Ayala Avenue where I lose my thoughts counting joggers with the sexiest outfit and those with the darkest armpits. 

It may be a tough call, chewy like the casing of New York-style hotdogs at Paseo de Roxas.

But when life is pelted with lemons, have a ramen feast and that's what we did before checking in my Philippine departure and Thai arrival cards...

BELTLESS IN BANGKOK

Bold courage in traditional combat is not enough for the man who left his strap, whose sphincter yielded, who tried to grow his waist with daily doses of the Holy Trinity and a retinue of kor moo yang, nam tok neua, pla tubtim tod, and kai jeow. 

And every morning, the Chef de Cuisine prepared breakfast for a fundraising strategy with the following ingredients:

• 125 grams of internal and external appraisal dried sticks
• 2 tablespoons funding pipeline analysis puree 
• 3 tablespoons of packed grant writing
• 1/2 sliced financial planning
• 2 chopped localization and southern leadership
• 3/4 cup of of firm gender and safe programming
• 2 lightly whisked compliance and organizational readiness

Anatalya though was a no-go.

In the fourth round, the Final 3 argued their case on how the program logic should inform a results framework to ensure a win within the premises of Room 7097.

A brave food delivery broke through the downpour under the protection of the spirit house. 

Misplaced tap keys were surrendered to a sales associate despite failing to stock on cord strings.

Thus was how the rains in Manila were smuggled --- in a loose denim that were emptied in the streets of Bangkok.

The Generalist detected a viral infection.

The Specialist diagnosed an ocular hypertension.

A pack of bruised lanzones was rushed to the emergency room for a retouch... 

POST-HABAGAT LIMERICKS

Fiery and dark, the god of wind and rain got extinguished
Dry and trampled, in the pavement of Ayala it lay vanquished

Sunday Markets applaud its extinction 

Whores came out for mass in Poblacion

Age is a fine wine but not Chava whose beauty time has ravished

The Phantom Biker purge daily wastes from the inbox

Slags, a trimestral conversation spiced with clever angst

A willowy seller, a lanky barber 

Chained, wheeled like clingy lovers

Visions of the age of AI conjured from a routine podcast  

Three champions emerged from the jungle of the fourth round

Victors of a fortnightly learning that weigh less than a pound

Bangkok booked for departures

Emails for the oculist in Melbourne

The Ironman counted hours and planted stubs all around

Charred marinated chicken devoured by a red horse in a hotdog

A final payment and the second disputed account is flogged
An extension card misspelled 

One application reactivated

Old pussy flicking the bean like a downstairs DJ on the phone 

CHEF'S RCOMMENDATIONS

TODAY'S SPECIAL

A starter of early emails and two meetings, an entree of smoked milkfish with blanched vegetable pear tops and sauteed tomatoes, the evolution of a Climate Action Week in Bangkok for dessert with either a flute of polite refusal from a premiere universal bank or a Burgundy glass of chasing a mediation 

SPECIALTY OF THE HOUSE

An elegantly platterred policy win from the ASEAN front with a plateful of an introduction to fundraising and safe programming, and a bowl of beef with mushroom gravy on the side

CATCH OF THE DAY

Vinegar-stewed milkfish marinated in morning emails with 5 dips from a selection of 27 applications seasoned with three quick calls about a deficient research outcome and topped with an eggplant omelet and stuffed meatloaf, garnished with a pork and liver stew, boxed, and signed 

DAILY SPECIAL

Kitchen trash riding on a bike, virtual work and siopao bridging breakfast and dinner, Ilocano-style sizzling pork for The Ironman in a setting of sprayed air coolers and pavement, a weekend housework of dried fish and duck stew 

FLAVOR OF THE DAY 

Clarinet lessons in cutlery finishing quickly for the unleavened wafers of spiritual cleansing, leftover sauteed mung beans paired with preserved meatloaf and aged anchovy, and chased with hot water wthout the tea  

(almost) SMOKELESS IN BANGKOK AND PHNOM PENH

The Holy Trinity

Knowledge and impact were compressed into 7 slides in under an hour to steer a parallel workshop in Singapore and break the ground in Phnom Penh where impact stories and 35 candidacies will be sown.

But Step 3 is one salary for several timesheets, just enough for a mountain of spicy pork bone soup and  a plate of grilled fish wrap to honor the Guardian Lion.

The seeds were prepared for cultivation despite Monday's insipid khai jiao that was almost eclipsed by Tuesday's fibrous French toast, so the task force gathered at the banks of the Chao Praya River for a cruise with grilled shrimps, baked mussels, and salmon sashimi that were herded by folk dancers for the benefit of the Weaponized Leopard.

Prayers of gratitude and continuing patronage were conveyed to the Creator God Phra Phrom and Supreme God Ganesha in comemoration of a brave heart, of our own story of hope and faith, of soft-boiled eggs and stale croissants that broke the impasse on mandate and governance to conclude the Bangkok Annual Meeting.  

The response to Melbourne's inquiries sounded like the crunch of crispy fried pork and the final sigh of a steamed seabass as a bucket of strength, honor, and good fortune was poured for The Elephant. 

The Transition 

27 of the 35 survived the first reaping, two trains trailed the scent of a cold sandwich to the airport, grilled Khmer pork was etched into pale lagers as a modern wordmark.

The A Team

Personality profiles unlocked commitments and responsibilities to deliver the A Team's modus operandi, to usher the dominant crispiness of deep fried morning glory with grilled beef that relegated a Khmer-style steak into a steady second place because its accompanying prahok was not enough to infuence a parade of roaring tigers that were led by the North Star into the sillhoutte of Angkor Wat. 

I was smokeless in Bangkok until the distinct smell of kretek led me to a conclave of feminine slim from Yangon, toasted tobacco from Dhaka, and the familiar flavor of of mild filters from Manila while in Phnom Penh, the neighborhood shop still sell Mevius for 500 riel per stick that can only be lighted at a street corner food cart.

The last of these coffin nails were smoked after PR 2622 landed at the Salcedo Saturday Market before breaking our fast with failed imitations of Vietmamese noodle, 4 hours before lunching in Baloc and another 4 hours prior to the presentation of lechong paksiw for the MILFs in Bakal 2, a day before an impromptu bar celebrated 36 years of campus activism.