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Dear auntie janey,

It’s me,
Okra

Pang-asar lang.

Dear Okra,

Truly Yours,
Auntie Janey

Problema ba yon?

Would you like Auntie Janey to meddle in your life? Email agoniesforauntiejaney@gmail.com.

Good thing we’re not translating from this manuscript. Manuscript pages of Great Expectations from Cambridge University Press/The Townsend Collection, Wisbech & Fenland Museum.

Our Tagalog translation of Great Expectations seems to be going well so let’s continue. We want to recruit more volunteers for the Dickens Translation Group so in this round we’re going to keep the assignments to a manageable two pages each. Your translation is due on Saturday, 28 January 2012. After this round we can assign whole chapters to our fearless volunteers.

If you’d like to participate in our Dickens bicentennial project, drop us a line in Comments. Do not worry about your Tagalog writing skills; when the material is ready we will consult a proper editor.

First we need to fill in the gaps left by the volunteers who disappeared.

giancarlo: Chapter 2, from “She concluded by throwing me” to “…his manner always was at squally times.”

lastdodobird: Chapter 2, from “He turned it about in his mouth” to “…it’s a mercy you ain’t Bolted dead.”

cdlaclos: Chapter 2, from “I tried it with the load upon my leg” to “From the Hulks.”

* * * * *

Now the continuation of Great Expectations (Marangyang Inaasahan?) by Charles Dickens.

Chapter 3

1. Akyat-Bahay Gangster: “I thought he would be more glad”…”as to the politeness of making the remark.”

2. oberstein: “There’s no more time to be got where that came from”…(Chapter 4) “Not a doubt of that, I thought.”

3. kotsengkuba: “Perhaps if I warn’t a blacksmith’s wife”…”without bringing with it any relief to my feelings, and the company came.”

4. goneflyingakite: “Mr. Wopsle, united to a Roman nose and a large shining bald forehead”…”and he always did so at dinner-time by giving me gravy, if there were any.”

5. greeneggsnham: “There being plenty of gravy today”…”‘Have a little brandy, uncle,” said my sister.”

6. chigaune: “O Heavens, it had come at last!”…”Here you are, look sharp, come on!”

Chapter 5

7. PinoySpag: “The apparition of a file of soldiers”…”‘Good stuff, eh, sergeant?’ said Mr. Pumblechook.”

8. marcku: “‘I’ll tell you something,’ returned the sergeant”…”Mr. Wopsle not to tumble on his Roman nose, and to keep up with us.”

9. turmukoy: “The soldiers were in front of us”…”He’s a gentleman, if you please, this villain.”

10. jaime: “Now, the Hulks has got its gentleman again”…”that two or three times we had to halt while they rested.”

11. girlfriday0104: “After an hour or so of this travelling”…”and went out, as if it were all over with him.”

* * * * *

We welcome our latest volunteers dibee, samutsari, Chus and jules. Your homework:

12. dibee: Chapter 6 (It’s only 2 pages)

Chapter 7

13. samutsari: “At the time when I stood in the churchyard”…”and Joe received it as a miracle of erudition.”

14. Chus: “‘I say, Pip, old chap!”…”that I asked him if he had made it himself?”

15. jules: “‘I made it,’ said Joe”…”as if it began with at least twelve capital Bs.”

Sunset seen from Plazuela

In Iloilo we stayed at Business Hotel (not in photo)—small, efficient, unassuming lodgings surrounded by restaurants and bars that stay open till late. If you require quiet for sleeping, don’t stay in the corner rooms with numbers ending in 02. It’s like curling up inside an amplifier: people singing Bryan Adams and U2 with varying degrees of ability. Fortunately noise lulls us to sleep; it’s silence that creeps us out. (We start imagining we can hear the neighbors cutting out letters from newspapers to make ransom notes. Do criminals still do that, or do they just use different fonts and font sizes in the same letter?)

Tuesday morning we checked out of Business Hotel, Tuesday afternoon we checked into at the Radisson Blu in Cebu. Its lobby is so vast you could play football in it. Two or three games at once.

The SM City next door is humongous.

Of course most SM malls are huge, but this one has epic scale. You know how you could be walking in a huge mall in Metro Manila and still feel cramped? The ceilings are too low, the hallways too narrow, as if the builders ran out of space? You won’t get that feeling here.

This morning we’re checking out of the Radisson, this afternoon we’re going home to our feline masters. (Holy crap, Shakespeare and Ralph Fiennes’s Coriolanus has opened in Manila!!)

via Flavorwire

Furious and Guga our traveling cat substitute

The cats sit at windows for hours watching birds and plotting to capture them, so we got them this papier-mache bird, a souvenir from the dinner centerpiece (Sorry, Chef). We’re calling him Furious. There’s a good chance our cats will ignore him so we’re putting him in a large box. They can’t resist boxes.

Whenever we stay in hotels we are fascinated by the TV (We don’t watch TV at home) and keep it on all the time. While watching the replay of the Golden Globe Awards we noticed that in his acceptance speech George Clooney devoted an inordinate length of time (with pantomime) on Michael Fassbender’s instrument. All we can say is: Get away from him, you bitch!

You can’t do a culinary heritage tour of Iloilo without stopping at Panaderia de Molo, the bakery that’s been around since colonial times. Noting the Jose Rizal sesquicentennial banner in front of the store, we asked the owners Kristine Gaona Treñas and Georgina Gaona if the national hero had set foot in the bakery. They said they weren’t sure if Rizal had come to the bakery himself, but he definitely visited friends in town.

If he had merienda at his friends’ houses, there’s a good chance that he ate Panaderia de Molo’s famous hojaldres, rosquetes, bañadas, kinihad or galletas.

These Ilonggo delicacies have been made at Panaderia de Molo for 130 years. We visited the bakery while the staff were preparing the dough for kinamonsil, the tamarind-shaped cookies.

This machine has been beating eggs since the 1940s. They don’t make them that big any more.

The giant basket is a strainer for the kinamonsil.

During the Spanish era mass quantities of egg whites were used for cement in building churches. To keep the egg yolks from going to waste, bakers produced barquillos, rosquillos, biscocho and other snacks.

This brick oven has been in continuous operation for over a century. The only time it takes a break is during Lent, when it is thoroughly cleaned. It takes a couple of days for the oven to cool down.

Mrs Teresita Sanson Larraga at the counter of their main bakery on Avanceña Street. Panaderia de Molo products are available at Market Market at Bonifacio Global City.