Of Biblical Proportions

The tsunamis that ravaged south asia seemed like an act of an angered god pulled straight from the pages of the old testament, obliterating humanity in a fit of rage.

December 26 2004, a mighty earthquake rocks the seabed off the coast of indonesia creating tsunamis that smashed the coastlines of thailand, india, sri lanka, the maldives and all of the islands near and in between, and even as far as east africa. The waves of water surged a couple of kilometers inland, ravaging everything in their path. Death toll is at the hundreds of thousands.

"As consecrated ground there was not in extent sufficient to provide tombs for the vast multitude of corpses which day and night, and almost every hour, were brought in eager haste to the churches for interment, least of all, if ancient custom were to be observed and a separate resting-place assigned to each, they dug, for each graveyard, as soon as it was full, a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up as merchandise is stowed in the hold of a ship, tier upon tier, each covered with a little earth, until the trench would hold no more."

The Decameron, 1353

A quarter of a century

Today is my birthday! Unfortunately I am still alive and have endured a score and half a decade of this wretched and sick life.

Micoy came and visited our coastal city 2 days ago. Micoy is an old classmate and he was the most annoying person way back in class, but then it was fun to have a dose of his annoyance everyday, he was once the stool pigeon of junk e-mails and spam, giving us the extra chore of forwarding his emails to the trash everyday, else missing some of the more important emails coming into our overcrowded inboxes. Micoy is also one of those rare person who is inclined to nature and the great outdoors, and his inclination extends to this point where he wants to experience nature with all the dangers and with the least amenities from civilization, but still it doesn’t explain his junk e-mails.

Daytime I was hell busy, so I met up with Micoy Tuesday night at Chinos. Chinos is a small restaurant by the river, and the only tables facing the river were already taken so we didn’t get any better view. Chinos doesn’t serve any of our local beers (micoy doesn’t drink anyway) and the only beer on the menu is tsing-tao beer, the beer which my high school friend is stuck with in mainland china. At 70 pesos it was quite cheap for an imported liquor, it became cheaper when I found out the beer came in bottles worth half a liter. It had a distinctive sweet taste though the alcohol kicks twice as slow as most of our local beers. Might as well enjoy it, I could be stuck with the same beer if my grandparents did not migrate from china. We went to another open-air bar where I could catch some more beers, but soon the weather caught me freezing without my jacket so I decided to call it a night.

Wednesday I left micoy with a map of our city for him to explore by himself while the sun was up and while I worked. That night we went out again to this bar Tijuana where they had a live band on stage. The band was singing to the song Better Days when we came, and oh hell the fantastic jazz music made me exceed the five beers I ought to limit myself that night. Soon the girls in the tables north and south from us were lost in laughter after sinking their senses in alcohol, which made me realize I had to hold on to mine since I have to be up early for work the next day.

It worried me the morning after if micoy did enjoy the night, all he drank was coffee. Heck he must have.