IT’S so hot, the chocolate ice cream morphed into hot choco; the frozen liempo magically became pork sinigang; and the halo-halo is now…to avoid debates on how binignit should be spelled, let’s call it tabirak.
How to keep cool in this weather? Air-conditioning 24/7, and prepare for an astronomic electric bill next month, unless your house and office have solar energy.
Pinas has only two seasons: dry and rainy. Which are not exactly boring since rainy can be as bad as Sendong. Talk of “when it rains it pours.”
The dry season can make people lethargic. But the same is true for the rainy season. When it’s too hot, the only thing you can do is stare at the air-conditioner. And when it’s raining cats and dogs, the only thing you can do is stare at nothing. The only difference is in the food cravings: chocolate ice cream for summer, hot choco for the rainy weather.
But I had pork sinigang on Wednesday night. A few hours before that, the weather app said, Feels like 37 degrees Celsius, so, I couldn’t say I wasn’t warned.
On Tuesday, that same weather app said there would be rain in the afternoon. I brought an umbrella, only to find no rain throughout the day. Tsk tsk. It’s hard to understand the weather nowadays. I mean, I can’t even understand some people, how much more the weather.
As if the “understanding” challenge is not enough, the hot weather has also affected my muzak preference. Electronic dance music is simply too hot for summer. I’m now back to alternative, which has the potential to worsen the lethargy to a nap while writing this column. Ho-hum. But not if the alternative is Pearl Jam’s “Spin the Black Circle.”
Looking forward to another long weekend, and the unread books are now waving: Read us already, please. But what if I’ll watch a movie instead, will the books complain? “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is now showing. Although I didn’t play that game since I was then busy playing other games—wink wink—it will be interesting to learn why it’s Super Mario and not merely Mario. And they are brothers? There are two? I gotta feeling someone will react with an emphatic, You don’t know?!
Anyway, I saw its trailer—the mushrooms are cute!
All along I thought only rainy days can make me stay home. But now, I’ve realized that the hot weather can make me stay home, too. Imagine getting dressed in this weather—ugh. Even with the A/C on, once I’ve left my room or the house, I still have to deal with the weather outside that only God and environmentalists can control. Add the face mask to all that, and it becomes too much climate change for me.
So, for this long weekend, I’ll stay home and read books. But no chocolate ice cream, no halo-halo. Electrolyte drink and decaf coffee with Stevia only. Boring, eh? Other low-carb dieters can even drink coffee without any sugar or sweetener. I’ve not reached that level yet.
