Under the Table

My whole family is on vacation in China, Im left at home. its was a weekend and I asked peter if he wanted to have a couple of beers after work, til maybe 10.

Unfortunately he declined, and since I had nobody else to ask, I took a couple of shots and beers alone in my room while listening to some gregorian chants

I woke up 4am the next day to find myself sleeping right under my desk.

Simian Crook

I was robbed today in palawan

I was walking and I held a pack of cooked rice, a pack of beef stew and some donuts on my right hand when this thief jumped from behind me, tore off the plastic bag and took off with the pack of cooked rice in a flash. My meal didnt cost much but the local inn where I bought it was already kilometers away, and that was all I had for lunch.

And the bastard who stole my rice was a grey monkey about the size of a turkey.

I could have ran after the simian crook but them I was in a wildlife preserve and there were rangers on guard against people who would harm the animals there. Should he have taken something more of value I could have wished for that money to be sold in medical universities for students to disect his bowels for fun. The least I am hoping that could happen to that simian crook is for him to be donated to some rundown zoo where he would learn to beg for scraps behind bars.

My uncle's driver-friend fetched me from the place, I was still cursing the simian crook in my seat and fuming mad on how my dumber primate ancestors outsmarted me today. The driver asked me how many monkeys ganged up on me, I told him it was just one monkey. He then told me that he has seen encounters where the monkeys would rob by bands, tossing stolen items to the other like some rugby game and it made you think if these monkeys did work from a circus before.

Thievery is one innate trait that even evolution cannot change in primates.

To Puerto Princesa

I was in cebu city earlier today and I had a flight going to puerto princesa city around noon.

I sat on the emergency exit of the plane for the sake of the leg room where I would be comfortable catching up with my sleep. The plane was half empty from my seat backwards, and the only people sitting behind me was this german couple (I think they were german) and they looked even more comfortable sleeping in the empty rows when they had the rest of the plane to themselves. But anyway, I slept for about only half of the whole flying time. There was nothing good on the inflight papers either, I already read them at the lounge in cebu airport and almost everything was about the dead pope, the popes-to-be, the conclave, the faithful and the vatican chimney.

When the plane did get to the puerto princesa airspace, the beaches down from my window caught my attention because they were so clear I could see the sea bed near the beaches. But then I began to notice that I've been seeing the same shoreline over and over, which now dawned to me the plane was flying in circles around the runway, for almost 15 minutes. When it did finally land a little later, I saw a couple of choppers, soldiers and this light blue plane which was no bigger than the one I was in, and is our country's version of the airforce one. Funny its just been a month since I crossed path with our lady president again.

The hotel I stayed in had a serene location. I had this view of grassy plains and mountains from my window, and I could see the road leading to my hotel too, with some motorcycle pedicabs passing every once in a while, breaking the sound of chirping birds. It was just a view of nowhere, but a peaceful kind of nowhere, I could have drank a beer or two or three just to let that quiet afternoon pass.

The hotel's pool was just outside the lobby, I took a dip that night since the pool was empty and the nightsky in this part of the country is so hell beautiful. And if things were getting this good, something had to screw it up, a big indian guest from the hotel went over to the pool and stripped down to his trunks exposing all his hairy glory and plunged to the other side of the pool. Fortunately he too went stargazing in the pool, else he had made waves, he could have made one big curry soup out of the pool. Then soon another middle-aged local guest plunged and unwinded to another corner of the pool.

It strangely reminded me of some nursery rhyme about three men in a tub.

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

1920-2005

I was two years old when Pope John Paul II came and visited our little coastal city. My father carried me by his shoulders through the crowd to see the pope whom I wasn’t too familiar with during that age.

This picture is a scan of the original film my father had way back in 1981, he made a couple copies of this portrait in film so he could cut it and fit it in silkscreen frames. My father then used these frames to print this portrait into shirts so he could sell it as souvenir items for the pope’s visit to iloilo city. My parents did most of the printing themselves in this small apartment room we used to rent, it wasn’t a hobby for them but they did it because we had to make ends meet. We were poor then.

The pope passed away a couple of days ago. My father was asking why I had to post his old film in the net in memory of the pope when there are tons of better portraits out there. I guess it’s the sentimental value of a 24 year old film which once belonged to a poor couple and their son who made the most out of it to earn a living.