adventures in neverland

“human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but ... life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”   ―  g abriel garcí­a márquez on a good day, you can catch a faint scent of the sea as it is meant to be: sultry, seductive, sweet. not the stomach-turning sewer stench that we have associated with the tragic, unlamented pasig river: a victim of everything that's wrong about us. if you are lucky, you will hear the sea wind sing its sad ode to what manila bay was once - clean, clear, carefree. if you are luckier, even the coconut palms will join in the singing, but they will be belting out a happy tune, contradicting the breeze. no, i am not hallucinating. or smoking grass. i am speaking metaphorically, of course, if you get my drift. recently, i find myself walking often along roxas boulevard, or at least that tiny patch that stretches from the philippine navy headquarters right next to the ccp complex dow...

after a series of very serious postings -- carried away as i was by the devastation wreaked by super typhoon yolanda on my beloved tacloban city and some parts of samar, leyte, cebu and iloilo -- i am doing something light that can hopefully bring a smile or two on our wrinkled faces and restore some luster on our greying hairs caused by the government's ineptness in dealing with the storm. if you are tired of staying inside the airconditioned shopping malls that tempt you to buy, buy and buy things that you don't actually need, then may i suggest walking around roxas boulevard (if you don't mind the occasional stench coming from the filthy manila bay, street kids in tattered clothes begging for money, and the homeless staring at you with hunger in their eyes) and the cultural center of the philippines all the way to the philippine international convention center. it's best to do this in the afternoon so you can catch manila's famous sunset along roxas boule...