Ana endured a 7 hour bus ride from Baguio to Manila, weaved through Manila traffic on an overpriced taxi to the airport, flew 12 hours to Qatar, changed planes, from there it was another 10 hours flight time to London, and finally a 1 hour bus ride to this English barrio.
What's more impressive is that Ana arrived just in time for her 9am tutorials. She feels guilty missing lectures. Which is kinda odd because she didn't go to Catholic school where missing/being late for class means eternal damnation. (She studied in that bastion of future corrupt officials - UP Diliman. But let's play fair and say Catholic Universities such as La Salle, UST, and the Ateneo produce their fair share of malevolent Philippine Civil Servants. So far the worst offender is Assumption.)
Aaaaaaaanywho, I feel James Brown Goooood with all the presents Ana got for me....
Ana brought bags of toxic Boy Bawang. This is da bomb! Who needs cocaine if you've got this garlic flavoured, msg-laden, tooth filling - crushing, and mouth watering knick-knack?
I also received the new Pugad Baboy book and Pepe Smith's new album. I actually have a bootleg copy of Pepe's album but since I'm all for supporting world-beating Original Pinoy Music, especially the father of Pinoy Rock, I just had to get the legit cd. Too bad Ana's schedule prevented her from having Pepe sign my copy. (Mang Pepe, iwasan mo yang sinusunog na 'incense' nina Kawayan at Kabunian dyan sa La Azotea. Masama yan sa boses.)
The bestest pasalubong however, are these...................
Hanep, nakabalot pa sa dyaryo.
Them dried fish look happy to see me! I'm happy to see them too. I missed them so much! Soon, they will be swimming in hot oil before being laid on a bed of fried rice and tomatoes. It will be beyond orgasmic once my tastebuds make love to them.
You can take The Nashman out of the tropics, but you can't take the tropics out of The Nashman.
Another type of smelly dried fish. I don't care if it stinks up my flat I'm going to let everyone get a whiff of Pinoy soul food.
You would have thought that those new bomb-sniffing, chemical weapons-detecting, drugs- intercepting million dollar gadgets they installed in the airports would stop Flipinoys from carrying such items in their luggage. Hell no.
Incidentally, it took me a mere 2 minutes to solve the Soduku puzzle in the Philippine Daily Inquirer which was used to wrap my tuyo.
The level of 'difficulty' of this puzzle is an insult to all Filipinos.