Netnet Camomot
ON Wednesday, my high school classmates and I climbed a mountain.
Okay. We went to the Del Monte Clubhouse at Cawayanon, San Miguel, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon for the yummiest steak, roast beef, veggie and tropical fruit salads, thanks much to birthday celebrant Jay Yap and Del Monte executive Sybil Alburo.
This is what high school friends do nowadays—eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we eat, drink and be merry again.
Yes, drink. Five percent alcohol—haha! But still, that qualifies as a drink, right? There was a time when our younger and healthier bodies could withstand tequila and vodka, with Pale Pilsen for “washing” and cigarettes as pulutan. But, no thanks to hypertension and levels that rise along with age, we’re now happy with that five percent, with red meat—add paksiw and humba to the steak and roast beef—as pulutan. It’s like drinking punch, you know, the fruity beverage served at general-patronage occasions. Ho-hum.
Even the coffee has to be decaf. Then, I had Coke Zero at a dinner meeting later that same day, and I remained wide awake till 3 am.
I gained 0.4 pound overnight. A fraction of a pound, the accurateness made possible by a bamboo digital bathroom scale bought at… Make a wild guess where. S&R! The store that’s making me fat, and also making me aware of how fat I’ve become.
Thursday was for detox, which I’ve been doing a lot lately—feast today, detox the next day. Much like President Rody Duterte blurting out a non-politically correct statement today, and his spokespersons desperately defusing the horrendous effect of that statement the next day.
There was a time when Pinay nannies would put siling labuyo in the foul mouth of a child each time he blurted out a bad word. Apparently, those days are gone. Wait, the country’s president is no longer a child, thus, he’s disqualified from siling labuyo.
The millennials in the family would hush us, the non-millennials, each time they hear us say, S**t. They’d say, Bad word! And we’d say, Oops!
But with President Duterte now blurting out PI—not for Philippine Islands—each chance he gets, would the family’s millennials continue to hush us?
This has been the new administration’s first 100 days. If it feels like 100 months or years for you, you’re not alone. Too much happening all at the same time, with information overload via live TV coverage, Facebook Live, trolls, and memes, and the yellow team’s subtle way of celebrating each time Duterte’s team commits a mistake—whew! If only all Pinoys could work together as a team. Yeah, wishful thinking. The Pinoys’ crab mentality may manage to get in the way.
Still, the old administration should learn to support the new administration. If the former can’t support the latter, better for the former to shut up and let the latter be. The new does have the tendency to shun help from the old who’s better off walking away. Hey, old admin, your term is so over—this is the time when you stare at the trees, write columns like this, and have vacations with family and friends.
There’s this guy belonging to the country’s immediate past administration, whose FB posts have been mostly relaxing. On Sunday, he posted this: “Did post-workout lamon in Pancake House. Tip: have a Waffle and then, instead of butter and syrup, put spaghetti sauce! #ItsaWow”
For Sept. 18: “It’s a wow! Just experienced Starbucks drive thru. Kakaaliw! Can now get an espresso macchiato without having to park n get down. Haha Ayos!”
Last Aug. 9, he posted a photo of his headstand yoga pose, with these words: “The things we do to look for pokemons! Back to regular yoga. Samastitihi!”
Ti** what?!
Anyway, I’m now beginning to suspect this is a troll account. But then, it could be him, or his wife and her minions creating these posts. You know, public relations. It may not be too late for that—there’s 2022! Giving way to PNoy in 2010, losing in 2016, looking forward to 2022, that’s six more years of waiting to have another chance at the presidency. That is, if being president remains his ultimate goal.
But if he’d rather switch to travel and food blogs, he’s doing well so far. He even wrote about Oslob, Cebu and the butandings which he posted on July 7. I could relate with that. Went there, too, last February, but the injured knee prevented me from swimming with the butandings. We’re both kind of old admin. I can relate. Haha!
The old admin whose wisdom tooth, er, thoughts the new would rather ignore. Besides, these are different times, so, don’t listen to us unless we also belong to the group of people occupying seats in the new admin’s upper levels that are attuned to the present and can see the entire situation.
Each decision has a domino effect on all the other decisions in a situation. It’s like balancing a balance sheet. And, so, here’s President Duterte’s spokespersons continuing to explain his non-politically correct words. How to explain PI when it doesn’t mean Philippine Islands? That’s the question.
The constant question hovering overhead, though, is this: Will it rain today? Will it rain tomorrow? Will it rain the next day? The day after? Next week? Next month? I cancelled two dinners this week due to the rain. At least, no pounds gained in those two days. That’s what you call a blessing in disguise. Then, yesterday, I saw this FB post: “You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.”
