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Bicycle MIA For 2 Years (J-Christmas Special)

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I now have every reason why I should hate myself every December 27. It was the day I lost my bike which I only had for a year. Nakakapanghinayang but its true, everything I own disappears.

I hate myself because I let it happen.

         December 25, 2005 was the day when I have what I touted to be the greatest gift I ever have, next to the miracle that it is my I-Pod Nano (but I got that the next year). A bicycle was given to me as a gift from my ninong and my ninang (siblings of my mom). It’s been a while since I last had one that’s why I  was grateful that I get to have this one-of-a-kind gift.

           The next year, I celebrated me and my bike’s first and only anniversary together :0. The next day, i took a whole afternoon ride with my bike, cruising around the picturesque fishing village of Coloong in Valenzuela. The place is so quiet and peaceful, nothing but the chirps of the birds and the horns of traveling non-motorized sidecars (de padyak).

The following day, December 27, 2006, I took advatange of a newly paved provincial road in Obando, Bulacan right across the border from my house so I decided to cruise there as well after I went somewhere else using my bike.

              I don’t know what I was thinking but I was darn surprised to see my dad (who supposedly was away for buying groceries) at home cleaning the car. I panicked, at first I thought my dad might scold me for taking my bike to just somwhere. I never knew the limits of how far I could go with the bike but the limit my dad gave me was strictly within our subdivision (which is no longer a biker’s paradise than it was 10 years ago). I decided to park my bike just beside our garagedoor OUTSIDE the house and watched it over from our roof deck. While figuring out how I could bring my bike inside the house, I was there guarding it all the way up there.

      But I let my guard down when I had to eat dinner with my family. Thoughts of my bike filled my head.

But it was too late.

   The moment I finished my meal, I checked outside and my bike is GONE! I don’t what to do, I don’t know how I could explain it to my parents. It was a foolish thing that I parked it there outside! Grrr…

I asked our neighbors if the saw a bike that was parking outside our garagedoor and one of them said that she saw one of the servants from next door took it inside. We went f=there and asked the owner if they, in any chance, had his servants take my bike. He denied the allegations.

But the neighbor insisted that she saw  the old man next door ordered his servant to take the bike. But we can’t forcibly make him admit that “stole” the bike, without good evidence other than just witness accounts. (The old man is still alive BTW).

My kuya was the first from my family to noticed that my bike was missing, 2 days after it disappeared. I can’t explain to him but the only thing that I said is that I let it happen. Eventually, my parents found out and my dad was furious. Cut the long story short, he scolded me and called me insulting and verbally-abusing (that’s how my guidance counselor see it as such) names, yada yada.

The following days, hopeful that I could still locate my beloved bicycle had since then keep a solid eye on every bicycle I see on the streets, fearing that it may have been mine that they were using.

    The same time, I was having thoughts of what I should have done if I was at the same scene again otehr than just parked the bike outside the house. I should have had the bike kept by one of my most trusting neighbors so that at least I know that my bike is safe with them.  Or, had I did park it outside, I should have excused myself from dinner and secretly bring the bicycle inside the garage via the garage door but in a very quiet way.

And tomorrow, i’m going to celebrate the second anniversary of my bike being on M.I.A. status. Waghhh!

Ang laki kong tanga!!

[Dapat last year ko na ito sinulatsa Multiply pero busy ako noon kaya nakalimutan ko]

What I Got For Christmas

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Other than my usual aguinaldos, I also have:

  1. A new Phillips earphones replacing my recently destroyed Skullcandy headphones.
  2. A New handkerchief
  3. A Filipino novel titled: “Kangkong 1896” by Ceres C. Alabado (Kuya got Daluyong)
  4. A picture frame
  5. A beaded bracelet
  6. Another wallet
  7. A lifestyle book titled “Digital Photo Doctor” from the makers of Reader’s Digest

And lots of familial love!

Merry Christmas!

James’ Series of Unfortunate Events

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Nge….Mukhanag malas ko ata ngayong Pasko. Sunday pa lang, nagiging masama na ang mga araw. Hindi ako sigurado kung baubuhay pa ako hanggang sa susunod na linggo.

  1. Sunday: May dumapo sa’king tae ng ibon sa buhok ko pagkapasok ko sa simbahan sa Malabon.
  2. Monday: Sinira ng bunso ko iyung Skullcandy headphones ko nung hiniram niya nung Sunday. Naghahalaga siya nang Php2k! Nung Monday ko lang nalaman
  3. Tuesday: Grace period, buti na lang!
  4. Wednesday: Bisperas ng Pasko, aksidente kong binasag isang lababo sa banyo ng ninang ng mommy ko sa Maysilo, Malabon. Isasara ko sana iyung pinto bago ako magbanyo kaso hindi ko napansin na may nakakabit pala itong hook na kailangan tanggalin bago isara ang pinto. Pagpilit ko pa lang na isara ang pinto, di sinasadyang nahatak ko ang nakasabit nitong lababo kaya nahulog ito at nabasag! Diyos ko!
  5. Thursday: Hay, Christmas na Christmas, nangyari na naman. TWICE! Kakain sana ako ng tanghalian nung family reunion namin kanina sa Malabon. Umupo ako sa isang plastic na upuan at nilagay ko pagkain ko sa isang maliit na plastic na mesa kasabay ng ate ko’t pinsan. I-addjust ko na lang sana sarili ko sa upuan nang nabangga ng mga binti ko ang mesa’t napahulog ang isang nakabukas na bote ng softdrinks (soda ko!). Natapon, kumalat sa mesa. Nangyari uli nnung pilit ko uli galawin sarili ko.

Jeco, mahal ba ako ni God?  Minamalas ‘ata ako ngayon!

Reality and Dreams: Sleeptalking to DS

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    It happened again.

     This occured around 2 or 3:30 in the morning after I went back sleep from closing the gates of our house after Ate left to join her choir for the traditional 9-Mornings Christmas Mass held in Malanday, Valenzuela.

   So I was in this building which I assume to be a school. I remember doing something which made my body move uncontrollably while I’m deep in my sleep. Suddenly, an old high school friend, Nikko DS, appeared and he was asking me a question. Can’t really remember what he asked me nor what I answered about (I get amnesiac a few minutes after I finally woke up). But how I answered him was what made me really fall of my bed!

     My mouth was moving, I was saying words, I mean intelligible words, speaking as if I’m actualy answering his question in real time. By that time I was doing that, I became aware that I was talking in my sleep! Don’t know how that happened but I felt very aware that this part of my body is moving upon orders coming from my brain.

    I woke up with a fright. Thinking, “Ano lang ba ang nasabi ko?”.

It’s been going on around me for quite sometime now, since my Prep days when I first discovered that I could sleeptalk as well as I could have strange premonitions when I’m sleeping.

Speaking of premonitions, I haven’t had any for the past few months or so but when an occurance happens in front of my face, it triggers something that somehow made me remember that I may have had a vision about it. But so far, there was none. My premonitions somehow makes me some kind of a psychic, can’t really foretell events but in a way knows that those premonitions may happen sooner than later. Record to date would be my “Oh my God I was in a place with 3rd Year High School students sitting on the floor and my Chemistry teacher is walking past them” vision last year which only took a day before it became a reality.

Until then, I will now put myself to SLEEP.

Goodnight!

The Rolling of the Chairs

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      Ironic, I’m already 18 years old but I’m still fond of rolling myself on wheel-powered chairs like a 4-year old boy, you know the ones you see on offices?

    Yesterday was no exception, we were at my mom’s temporary office inside the ECDP Building and the first I did was sit on a rolling chair. But it’s not just me, but a dozen other kids who were there for the annual Christmas party. Too bad, the party proper was held on Jollibee Harrison Plaza but nevertheless, it didn’t stop me from rolling like crazy.

    It’s really unfortunate that my old playground (my mom’s true office in the DOF building) is still under rehab until later next year. It has a large enough space for kids to play around with chairs.

HISTORY: (Loading history-buff mode)
 Blame me because I’m guessing it was me and the first generation of DOF kids who first introduced the idea of using wheeled chairs as play things. The new-found tradition was then passed by succeeding generation and is still pretty much alive today!

The Complex

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        Every year, me and my siblings would accompany my mom to the annual Children’s Christmas Party held inside the Department of Finance building. But for this year, the party was to be held, inside the ECDP building within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, for the DOF building is undergoing renovation after a massive airconditioning breakdown took place earlier this year, forcing the DOF to move its offices to the nearby ECDP complex.

    Fortunately, I get to see the wonderful exteriors of the complex itself. It’s BSP’s exterior which fascinates me more than its rather blant and unsafe looking interiors of its buildings. The exterior found within BSP is creatively planned and landscaped in good taste. There’s pretty much a lot of greenery found inside the complex which, added to that the wide space provided by the wide distance of the buildings between each other inside, gives people a sense of ease and sanctity with matching wind effect.

       A little piece of history I found unearthed is the ruins of what was remained of an old colonial fort called Fort Abad. Little do I know about this piece of old structure but other than the similar colonial arhcitecture it shares with the well-known Fort Santiago, it somehow gave Manilenyos an idea of what Manila was back then, as the whole stretch of Roxas Boulevard used to be one stretch of a beach extending all the way to Pasay and Cavite.
 
           The buildings are well designed on the outside, very reminiscent of the Marcos-era architecture propagated by Former First Lady Imelda Marcos. One design that caught my fancy was the almost shoe-box like layout of each of the buildings, similar to the design followed by SM North EDSA and SM Megamall. The DOF building and one of the BSP complex building are connected via a bridge which also serves as a facade for people preferring to walk outside of the buildings.

    Also an ergonomic plus are the availabiltiy of facilities/walkways for the physically-disabled like those who ride on wheelchairs.

     But that leads me to the worst part about the complex, its interiors. The ECDP building is probably the best case to highlight a design gone wrong. If it looks good on the outside, it’s not much of an eyesore (because unlike the DFA Building, it has a lot of green space), the inside is.

1. It smells like someone from 30 years ago smoked like crazy just before airconditioning units became the ideal alternative for electric fans.

2. The already-dim lighst are in dire need to repairs

3. Ventilation is rather mediocre or just below it.

4. The elevators looks like one of those deadly quadrelateral  killing machines seen on the movie “Hyper Cube” for it looks, feels, and functions in a very unsafe way.

5. The corridors/hallways is a blah. If you were able to watch old 1980’s movies starring Dawn Zulueta and Sharon Cuneta where they were working in as office girls, you may have ntoice that their working area is made out of wood. It’s the same here, except that the wooden walls are in dire need of varnishing to make them at least look shiny.

6. There are few offices inside the ECDP building’s 8th floor that looks so decent, but looking at my mom’s temporary office (Fiscal Policy and Planning Office) there, it kind resembles my mom’s previous office way before she moved to her proper office found at the more-tolerable DOF building. The only redeeming factors would be the sleek looking Fuji PC’s and the cool-looking office tables.

7. Don’t even start me up on the bathrooms, the male restroom is poorly maintained, smelly and lacks basic restroom necessities like soaps and tissue-filled containers. The sinks are supposed to be used for washing hands not washing dishes for crying out loud! And one of the sink doesn’t work because the leftovers brought by the washed dishes had all bt cloged it up.

8. Back to the hallways, the dim lighting and the wooden walls remind me of a psycho-horror thriller where the victim is being chased  by a killer while running on an endless hallway with nowhere to go.

Unfortunately, I didn’t brought my camera with me that time but I do have pics of the exterior from last Friday. Enjoy!^

Coming up next: The Rolling of the Chairs

Jaime and the REAL EDSA Adventure

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This is the aftermath of “Alyssa’s Place @ Merville Subdivision, 90210”.

     From the side road near SLEX/South Superhighway/Skyway; Me, Sheena, Pax, and Angie took a cab and drove all the way to South EDSA where I was dropped off. I had my dSLR and my laptop left behind in Alyssa’s since it was late and I might get mugged by criminal elements.

        Anyway, from the south side of EDSA, I crossed the avenida by way of the overpass which is kinda difficult. I have this sort of fear of heights except that I’m afraid of wide open spaces whenever I’m in the middle of a bridge, fearing that I might fall. I could even feel my legs trembling! Hahaha!

    After successfully crossing the overpass, I waited patiently near a gas station to hitch a ride on an aircon bus en route to Caloocan. It was already late past 11 and i getting a bit cold. Fortunately, I was able to ride one and seated at the front row near the aisle.

      The bubs’s radio is set on 90.7 Love Radio where it was airing this not so-heart-to-heart program called “TLC: True Love Confessions”. Supposedly, the programs premise is for listener’s to share their love problems to the DJ and the DJ would give them love advice. Problem is, instead of giving listeners an advice about love, the DJ merely laughs AT the listener and his problems with matching laugh stingers in between!

 And I thought advice programs on radio aren’t supposed to be comedic in any way. Grrr….

         In order for me to at least drown my ears from further hearing the halakhak that was coming from the irritating DJ’s mouth, I had my headphones placed on my….head and turned on my I-Pod.

    As I listen to the first 14 songs from my playlist, the bus is moving along the 23.8 kilometer stretch of Epifanio delos Santos Avenue. I passed by Rockwell, Shaw, Robinson’s The Forum, Paragon Plaza, Reliance, Shangri-La, SM Megamall, Farmer’s Market, Gateway, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon Avenue, Trinoma, SM North EDSA, the ongoing construction of the LRT-MRT Loop, and finally MCU where I dropped myself off and walk across McArthur Highway. I bought some mineral water from Ministop Monumento since I was really thirsty. The supposedly “water” contained on a glass untouched during the party was in fact, Sprite.

       From there, I finally took a jeepney ride home, arriving at 12:30 in the am.

BTW, tumawag sina Pax para kamustahin ako habang nasa bus pa ako, at tinext nila ako nung nakauwi na ako’t matutulog na. Salamat at may mga kaibigan akong maasahan talaga! 😀