The last time I was in Bangkok was three years ago [last year's overnight layover on the way to Phnom Penh don't count] so there is a growing itch of experiencing how is it under military rule [like the Marcos years maybe?] and perhaps update my "Ghost of the Marble Temple" photo [Ayutthaya and the Floating Market too!] which a "wayward" invitation to a campaign planning workshop can make possible, so I of course confirmed to which I got replied with a budget code and was on the verge of submitting a booking request until I was told that there is a designated focal point for that meeting who in turn told me she is inclined to attend not that meeting but another one so Bangkok it is for me, after three years, until the LOA signing process caught up with our schedule and the pressure to move P5 million ASAP became my team's to-die-for aspiration.
Almost Bangkok and just like that, but with no regrets, and that in fact, I felt that I wished then for a reason not go at all, because the LOAs needs to get signed first and the initial grant payments made, that going back to CLSU to keynote its annual student organizations recognition day is more appealing than reporting for a workshop group, that reminiscing my younger days as a frat man and bragging a bit of where I've been since then in front of a thousand audience is more meaningful than reshooting the Marble Temple, and being surprised by a "3rd best award" to my college fraternity when it would even barely qualify for OSA recognition during my time is more exciting than the street cuisine of Silom Road.
And of course, Friday being caught between a sanctioned event on a Thursday in Nueva Ecija and the weekend was charged to my leave credit, which means a fine day for biking through routes that a double flat tire killed last Saturday, before finally getting proper reception as a District Grand Lodge Inspector on a moment [the Saturday after the Thursday talk and the Friday bike] where I should be present as the past bids goodbye and the incumbent says hello to the Oriental Chair, and a Sunday ride with Balong that ended in a rare family breakfast [just the three of us though] in the hollowed grounds of CLSU.
Overall, it was a week spent better than Bangkok as the LOAs moved for signatures and grant payment requests get drafted, and I got another invitation to Bangkok too for a digital campaign training which I was yearning to have, and was doubly happy not to go for the first invite, until the wife told me the dates fall within Balong's elementary graduation rites, that we have to wake up at 3:40 am the next day and endure the crowd and smell of Divisoria which I hate, and missed the eat-all-you-can salmon and tuna sashimi at Dad's World Buffet as I forced myself on a greasy Chinese banquet of mostly pork slaughtered for the Chinese New Year.
It was again almost Bangkok, but at least I have The Hague to look forward to...
Almost Bangkok and just like that, but with no regrets, and that in fact, I felt that I wished then for a reason not go at all, because the LOAs needs to get signed first and the initial grant payments made, that going back to CLSU to keynote its annual student organizations recognition day is more appealing than reporting for a workshop group, that reminiscing my younger days as a frat man and bragging a bit of where I've been since then in front of a thousand audience is more meaningful than reshooting the Marble Temple, and being surprised by a "3rd best award" to my college fraternity when it would even barely qualify for OSA recognition during my time is more exciting than the street cuisine of Silom Road.
And of course, Friday being caught between a sanctioned event on a Thursday in Nueva Ecija and the weekend was charged to my leave credit, which means a fine day for biking through routes that a double flat tire killed last Saturday, before finally getting proper reception as a District Grand Lodge Inspector on a moment [the Saturday after the Thursday talk and the Friday bike] where I should be present as the past bids goodbye and the incumbent says hello to the Oriental Chair, and a Sunday ride with Balong that ended in a rare family breakfast [just the three of us though] in the hollowed grounds of CLSU.
Overall, it was a week spent better than Bangkok as the LOAs moved for signatures and grant payment requests get drafted, and I got another invitation to Bangkok too for a digital campaign training which I was yearning to have, and was doubly happy not to go for the first invite, until the wife told me the dates fall within Balong's elementary graduation rites, that we have to wake up at 3:40 am the next day and endure the crowd and smell of Divisoria which I hate, and missed the eat-all-you-can salmon and tuna sashimi at Dad's World Buffet as I forced myself on a greasy Chinese banquet of mostly pork slaughtered for the Chinese New Year.
It was again almost Bangkok, but at least I have The Hague to look forward to...
