20 March 2006
bringing home hongkong to north susana
"hug the pole," ler said.i hugged the friggin pole.
we were in kimberley road just a few meters down from our hotel. he just bought the 50mm f/1.4D nikkor lens and he was trying it out. so he attached it to his nikon d70. fancy gadgets, fancy location, and an even fancier subject. perfect. it was past midnight. before that, he asked me to sit on the road. as in on the friggin road right behind a parked cab, where a yellow handicap sign was painted. these are the images of hong kong i was going to bring home. me lying down on the road, me squatting by an iluminated heineken sign. on the other side of the road were local kids watching these two pinoys play with a camera. i wonder what baduy in cantonese is.
* * *
NORTH SUSANA (sung to the tune of "california")
earlier today, i took my mom outside because she had to buy a sack of rice. i live in a village within another village along commonwealth avenue. before i continue with my story, i have to stop and deconstruct that.
the village i live in is called "north susana." or "north susana executive village" to be precise. it is the most wonderful. lyrical-sounding and elegant name for a gated community and i am so glad the developers of this one was able to beat everyone else to it. (i hope they had patented it.) there are two things i want to know: where "south susana" is and who the hell this susana is.
anyway, we are along commonwealth avenue. commonwealth avenue is a fourteen-lane highway. cars and busses and trucks here are very fast so the pdestrians run extra faster when they cross it, just right under the designated pedestrian overpasses. the highway looks fine. the up diliman campus is right along it and on the other side is the big "castle" of the iglesia ni cristo. however, a good length of commonwealth is flanked by squatter colonies on both sides, just before you get to the entrance of the village right in front of mine. sorry, in front of north susana.
anyway, i took my mom there to buy rice. these ...er... poor people are also enterprising so they have like a market there and they sell vegetables, other raw stuff, and apparently rice.
i waited in the car. it was a very busy place and since the sidewalk was already occupied by stalls, people decided to walk on the highway itself. and these folks did not seem to mind that there were things along their path. things like passing cars, giant trucks and trikes.
anyway, so i smoked while waiting. when my mom suddenly appeared in the rearview mirror, i dropped the cigarette. (i know, it's like so high school but i just don't want her to see me smoking.) and the most shocking thing happened. i dropped the ciggie there on the dirty dirty pavement. the man who was passing by the side of my car bent down. next i saw, he had the ciggie i threw and he was smoking it.
i cannot inject any judgements in retelling the occurrence. i am still in shock.
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