Metro Manila without the Metro Manilans
Our holidays were so pleasant and restful that on Monday the thought that they were about to end made us sad. Not weeping-and-sobbing sad, just melancholy.
In the afternoon we took a long walk around the Ayala area, thankful that this summer isn’t as hot as last year’s. (We may have spoken too soon. Yesterday the cabbie informed us that according to the weather bureau next week will be hotter. To misquote the Starks, Summer is coming.)
We like Metro Manila best when the Metro Manilans are away. The quiet, the cleaner air, no stress rising from several million people crammed into concrete boxes. It’s like 28 Days Later minus the zombies. (Although more people have caught on that staying in the empty metropolis is more relaxing than taking a long drive on a crowded highway to an even more packed beach full of everyone you’re trying to avoid back in the city.)
Our long weekend was spent watching movies (Finally saw A Separation, which finds the tension and intensity in the most mundane domestic matters), cataloguing our libraries, putting our files and schedules in order, getting plenty of sleep and hanging out with friends.
We had the last dinner of our vacation at Greenbelt, where we were joined by a friendly ginger cat.
Cats don’t usually mingle with the diners, but they can spot a sucker when they see one. They know that if we’re within range of food they will get something. Also, we must reek of cat. Good thing our friends had ordered fish.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
April 11th, 2012 at 12:27
We knew the secret would be out someday: Manila is the best place to be during Holy Week. Though not as prevalent as wanting to show the hot bods that certain, uhm, personalities have starved themselves for. Given the new “landscape” feature in Facebook’s Timeline, they’ll even be less forgiving of their so-called physical imperfections to be viewed over social media. (It’s a catch 22: if they don’t show these “awesome body” pics, they’ll be thought of as fat. But if they show it and it has imperfections, people will have a basis to call them fat. I son’t understand the complicated world of wannabe modeling.)