Saturday lunch

Manila clams in tomatoes, onions, and green chillies. In home cooking terms -- ginisang halaan. It reminded me of an old Tito, Vic, and Joey movie, where they served escargot or snails stewed in coconut milk.

Chocolate cures headaches

I had a minor headache while on the way home last Tuesday. I had twenty-five pesos to spare. Instead of buying Advil, I bought a chocolate sundae and poof! headache was gone.

The next day, I was coming home with a headache again. My headache was gone after I ate two chocolate-filled, chocolate fudge-covered donuts.

I will continue with this science experiment.

(I was without headache in this picture, but I am eating chocolate ice cream nonetheless.)

Fatally Clumsy

I almost did not make it home from China last November 1. Last call for boarding at the Nanning airport, I check my pocket and my plane ticket was not there. By all accounts I was red in the face, running around the departure area. There was no use asking around, they don't speak English. I didn't see Tom Hank's "The Terminal," but I was about to live out the film first hand, until I looked down on the floor and saw my ticket. I was shaking nervous on the plane to Hong Kong. I was so relieved I didn't mind the turbulence, the styrofoam-quality biscuits and the Pepsi bottles with the Koreanovela guy on it.

I came to China expecting Peking duck, dimsum, and spring rolls. I was disappointed, the food was so fishy and bland the best meal I had during my six-day stay was a KFC takeout. When not near fastfood, I hoarded dried up mini siopao and salt-less fries on the hotel buffet. I'm not only fatally clumsy, I'm also a brat.

The Lijiang River in Guilin was postcard-perfect but the cruise took four excruciating hours. An hour longer and I would have stabbed the driver and sailed to shore myself. Inside the SM Mall in Jinjiang, it's almost like you're in Manila, except that the "We've got it all for you" jingle is in Chinese and Jet Li is on the outside billboard.

I also did not get to go to a night market. Our one night off and the tour guide brought us to a Rustan's level mall. I asked one sales clerk where the wash room was, I knew she wouldn't understand so I mimed washing my hands. She comes back two minutes later with a pail of water.

I was in China to cover the President but since this is not an official blog, I will not bore myself writing about stories I wrote. Instead, here's a picture of Her Excellency.

Beach boy

I was in Kalayaan Island in the Spratlys last June. The beach was postcard-perfect, but, pressed for time, I wasn't able to take a swim. I was a hitchhiker on a C-130 military cargo plane and it won't be making a return trip until mid-2007. So, I made do with washing my face on the beach and taking loads of pictures with my co-reporters. I also wrote a feature, not a straight news story, for a change:

(Photos by Ron Calunsod from the Daily Manila Shimbun, who knows how to minimize my girth in pictures)

Amateur photographer

I am an amateur photojournalist. I look more amateurish when my office-supplied camera phone is placed side-by-side with the huge lenses of the professionals. But on October 16, this picture I took of the Chief of Staff was the banner photo on the site.

Painkillers and parties

I woke up last Sunday with one hell of a headache. It started in my dream and ended only in the early afternoon after I had a mega dose of mefenamic acid.

Maybe it was due to two videoke, red wine, and cholesterolfest nights in a row. I turned 26, on October 10 and we had a dry-run songfest before the big night on October 11 -- my belated celebration, Aisa's throw-away, and Ron's advanced birthday bash. Both are my seatmates at the Camp Aguinaldo press office.

Joy, the Defense Press Corps diva, brought the house down with her performances (see videos on her blog http://joycantos.blogspot.com). On a chicken-and-Red Bull induced high, Joy had us laughing mad.

Writing this post, Pops Fernandez and Joey Albert's "Points of View" was playing on my computer. It was mine and Aisa's song. We just had to sing it before she left the beat. I know we'll see each other on the beat in another year or two. Our editors give us the same assignments -- Roco campaign 2004, justice, defense.

Then came Friday the 13th, and the big bosses (it was the first time I saw them all together in since Christmas Party 2004) dropped a bombshell. Big changes will happen in the site and it got the editorial staff fuming mad. The powers that be have decided and the drones must follow.

I will treat it as a challenge. My editor told me over the phone today, "Let's show them why we're number 1." Show some bravado when necessary. (Joy would pronounce it as bravadoo, as in Flintstones brava-daba-doo!!!).

Notwithstanding the Friday the 13th bombshell, me and my fellow endangered species (a.k.a. INQ7.net reporters) drowned our frustrations in a videoke session that lasted until 2 a.m. Saturday.

More headaches lie ahead but with painkillers, wine, and good company, I will rock on.

Cake, ice cream, rock and roll

Happy Birthday

I was broke on my 26th birthday but this song from the Camp Aguinaldo diva, Joy Cantos, and the chocolate mousse and double dutch ice cream from officer friends made my day. For more of her performances, visit her blog at http://joycantos.blogspot.com

Pack Me

I’ve been in eleven apartments in my nine years in Manila. I just moved into a new one and as expected, it took a toll on my back and my wallet.

Armed with six balikbayan boxes, a roll of packaging tape, and scissors, I cleared closets, cabinets, and drawers, typhoon “Milenyo” notwithstanding.

I showed no mercy. I threw away a lot of stuff. A can of Sauerkraut, which I heard about only on Food Network, had to go, as well as half-empty bottles of fish sauce and hair gel.

But I didn’t touch my Christmas tree, which has been on my ref since last year. The “ber” months are here so there’s no use putting it down.

Back in high school, everything I had would fit in a taxi – mattress, pillows, electric fan, and a suitcase full of clothes and shoes. Now, I have to rent a truck.

In the two years that I lived in Kamuning, I survived a fire five houses away, had my water meter stolen twice, and my cable connection tapped once.

I will miss the value for money restaurant strip, about five minutes by foot from my former apartment: T-bone steak for P120, a quarter chicken inasal for P73, egg caldo for P15, and tokwa for P10.

I will miss the dogs on the street, which never barked at me, but would follow me and smell plastic bags full of food that I would bring home.

On the bright side, my new apartment is within walking distance from the last few Goodah branches in the metro. I remember subsisting on all kinds of “silog” at Goodah Katipunan during my freshman year.

That branch was closed and converted to a Pizza Hut outlet. Metro Manila does not need another Pizza Hut branch.

Goodah also reminds me of an old Tito, Vic, and Joey movie which I saw on betamax when I was in pre-school. I remember a scene where Vic Sotto was singing about lumpiang hubad and the diapers of a baby he was holding fell.

Coincidence

I’ve been receiving year-old emails on my handheld, no thanks to a technical problem at Smart.

I received a copy of one story I filed in early April last year. It was about the promotion of over 20 generals. I mentioned Brigadier General Danilo Lim in the last paragraph, since he was promoted to one-star rank, I mentioned the higher-ranked ones last.

Now, Lim is on trial for allegedly leading the February coup and the other officers in the article haven’t been in the news since their promotion last year. (I am posting a picture of Lim’s alleged cohort, Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin, taken during a pre-trial hearing last August 14.)

I also received an article dated April 21, 2005. My slug read: “Arroyo claims breakthrough in MILF talks.” Seventeen months after I wrote that, the talks have bogged down and the MILF said it is ready to go to war.

Who would have thought?

Batibot

Like most 80s kids, I grew up watching Batibot -- Pong Pagong, Kiko Matsing, Kapitan Basa, Irma Daldal, Manang Bola. The Americans took them away from us. The puppets were lent to local producers by the Children's Television Workshop, the same people behind Sesame Street. Karma will catch up with them.

I will never see Pong Pagong, or anyone from Batibot for that matter. The closest I got was seeing locally-made Koko Kwik-Kwak shoot a post-Pong and Co. episode in front of the Post Office in UP Diliman during my freshman year.

I've seen Kuya Bodjie the story-teller twice at the Araneta Center. But my mental image of him was changed forever when I saw "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros," where he shot dead the lead character's father in a dark alley.

The first casette tape I bought was a collection of Batibot songs: "Alaga naming si Puti," "Tinapang Bangus" and a song by Manilyn Reynes about saying "po" and "opo."

In honor of Batibot, I am naming my blog after Pong Pagong.