Philippine Space Station

skylab

n. a motorbike fitted with a horizontal board at back that can seat several passengers across.

Etymological Note: Named after Skylab, the international space station that sported jutting solar panels. Filipinos are said to have been fixated on Skylab when it fell to Earth in July 1979.

If you thought tricycles and pedicabs are uniquely Pinoy, thank the Skylab, which is a motorcyle fitted with wood plans on both sides where passengers sit. This is common in many rural areas, especially travelling through mountainous terrain. It is the Extreme Public Transportation. Instead of studying for my MIS101 Midterms tomorrow, I just watched the episode of The Correspondents about the Skylab. They interviewed a teacher who has been riding the Skylab ever since she started teaching. "It is fun to ride the Skylab, of course, a taxi is preferable but with no roads, taxis will not survive here. Also, it is more exciting, especially when the Skylab falls and we all stumble," she replied giddily. EXCITING. The only (exciting) ride (aside from those found in theme parks) I have experienced was the less notorious semi-habal-habal in Iloilo, wherein we are 4-5 in a motorcycle. They call it "single" there, since there are 4-5 people including the driver in a single 2-wheeled (duh) motorcycle.

I want to see Skylabs along Katipunan. Yay!


MORAL: Filipinos are just sooo creative. Who knows next time there would be air-conditioners installed in tricycles. Next transportation: Engine-powered skateboards. Nice.

*Note: I forgot to publish this and I just realized I saved it as Draft. Oh well.

Sweetey Nodd

The Lady, did she succumb?

Last night, after eating in Kamay Kainan in Greenhills (Annie Sexy's treat) we went to the cinema and checked the last full show schedule for Sweeney Todd. I wanted to watch National Treasure 2 because I think Sweeney Todd is fine to watch in pirated DVD (thanks to Riverbanks for our pirated copies). Anyway, Kara, Henry and Kirk wanted Sweeney Todd. I lost the democratic votation. The movie is R-18 here. Well, Kara and I are not yet 18 so she was reluctant. Then I had a flashback.

Let's flash back to the Jumanji days. I'll never forget that. I guess we still didn't know then that as long as you have an adult with you, a PG-(insert number here) rated movie allows kids inside. Anyway, my sister and I were with yaya Susan and we wanted to watch Jumanji. I was still below the required age. Then they just told me to tell the ticket person that I'm of proper age already. However, when the girl asked me, "Are you thirteen years old?" I was shaking and well, I didn't lie then. To cut the story short, we didn't get to watch the movie and both of my companions were mad at me. I survived the "evil stare" of my sister. Thank God.

Back to Sweeney Todd, it is an R-18 movie, so, when we bought tickets, the girl asked me, "Ikaw, miss, 18 ka na ba?" I lied. Then she asked for my ID. I gave her my school ID which doesn't include one's birthdate. She then asked again after checking my ID, "Kailan birthday mo?" I lied again. Haha. She gave us our tickets.Then Kirk asked, "Ako, miss, hindi mo ba ako tatanungin?" Oh well. We just thought all of them looked old enough to be allowed in R-18 movies. And I wasn't. (This age thing has happened to me numerous times already. Like when I had henna tattoo before, the guy thought I was a freshman.... in high school.)

Sweeney Todd was full of... thick, red fake blood and probably would scare a lot of the clients of barber shops. Turning the dead clients into meat pies was like the best scene I could imagine with me saying, "I told you to not eat meat! Go vegan!" The plot sucks, like it was written for those with no imagination. You could guess and predict what would happen. Even with how the characters looked like, it's like they are all part of the band My Chemical Romance. Nice songs though. And Borat (the actor) was there! We vowed never to eat in restaurants that are near barber shops as long as we can remember the scenes in the movie.

On our way home, we overheard some of the people saying they never knew that was the ending. Oh well. They might even have a different interpretation of the movie. So I was the first one to be dropped off, since I was the one nearest to Greenhills, but then on our way along Ortigas, we noticed Bruno's Barber and it became the subject of mockery. After tormenting and backstabbing the barber shop (by so much it seemed to be included in the 10 Worst Places in the World imaginary list), we saw the restaurant beside it.... Kamay Kainan, where we ate earlier. (My friends thought about the kaldereta they ate and wished they haven't said such evil words about Bruno's Barber.)


MORAL: Don't go to barber shops and have your beards shaved with an open blade... if you're a girl. And yeah, check the restaurant if it's near a barber shop. (But hey, who would ever think that they use human meat, that's just sooooooooo Resident Evil.) Damn shooting near our house, always filming the action scenes in the middle of the night! May Sweeney Todd offer them a shave.

Robin Padilla and the Fire Trucks

It's not a rip-off of Alvin and the Chipmunks or something, but Robin's Chrysler looks really macho-like (or machoesque if you like), with the big car body and beautiful, wide, shiny mags (when will the street dogs pee on it, I wonder). It's past midnight and when you are new to our place, you'll think you are in a warzone. Sounds of gunshots and explosions, break the silence of the (very) early morning. I really don't know why but they usually prefer to shoot the action scenes of a movie or an episode (of a soap) during the wee hours. The production staff must be very sensitive, concerned people. When we moved here before, my mom woke us up before, saying, "Anak, may nagbabarilan sa tapat natin. Wag kayo bababa." and she was semi-hysterical, (if only I knew then how to use the sphygmomanometer, I'm sure the results aren't ideal.) only to discover local actors she can recognize, walking along the streets with all the PAs (personal alalays, rather, assistants) they have. Hmmm, I really like the car, with its XXX (then insert the numbers here) customized plate number. Then I remembered, they don't blow up pretty cars in local movies. Boxed, second hand ones are very handy (I'm sure you noticed them), and they add to the pollution. Scream about global warming. (Try watching a film, when you see an old car, there's a 95-97% chance it'll be blown up, or it'll crash somewhere.)

Around 5pm, there were fire trucks rushing from Aurora Blvd. (5 trucks from Aurora, plus trucks from other fire stations is equal to n, wherein n is still unidentified) towards the direction I usually pass when I go home. Not good, we were fire victims (back in 1995 with super typhoon Rosing) before, so I get a little andrenalin when I hear sirens. I was stuck in traffic with my friend and I realized we were getting nowhere, so we decided to walk. Yeah. I love walking, especially on days when the weather is fine (usually 5pm onwards). Thick black smoke and a funky smell of burning stuff were the prevailing features of the day. I even thought it's part of the shooting, or like "Did Robin Padilla burn himself again?!" Not that I care. But with traffic, I really care. See, I am always concerned. Therefore, I am a caring person. Then there are Care Bears, and this is getting absurd.

I miss my neighbor's cat's lover, and his beautiful voice. Crying "meow" for three days. Oh, I forgot to post about that. Next time I will, I saved it somewhere else. I prefer him over Robin Padilla, though.

The Australian Open (Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific!) is on! Hoorah! Let's go, Marat, let's go!


MORAL: The war hasn't reached Manila, yet. Thank God. Politics is a war by itself, but do I look like I care? I care, when Marat Safin practices without his shirt on. Good thing tennis season started already. Bring the heat! Just not to the point that there'll be fire. Ohhkaay, this is a post that is... worthy of the Delete button. (But this is my blog, so bear with it. Thanks.)

Cocaine in Swiss Miss

Let's talk about cats and Martina Hingis' doping incident.

I still don't believe Martina Hingis (she's the Swiss Miss I am talking about, not the yummy chocolate drink you've always enjoyed, with tiny marshmallows) took drugs - cocaine in her case. I agree with what Venus Williams said, that drugs won't help you much in tennis. It is a mental and physical game, and taking drugs would disrupt the other side of tennis. It won't make the ball go faster, won't make your shots better. In other sports, it would make a whole world of difference. Venus is now becoming a spokesperson for women's tennis. Not bad, after being involved in the campaign for equal pay in Grand Slam events.

Ok, to quote Venus: "In tennis it doesn't matter what you might take, it doesn't keep the ball in, it doesn't calm your nerves. It doesn't do any of that," she added. "I can see in track and field and other sports, but tennis is definitely a lot of mental and skill. There is no magic pill for that," she said.

It just saddens me that her amazing career would end with a stain.

I'm such a Martina Hingis fan. She's the superhuman tennis player for me. Started playing tennis when she was 2 (play tennis at this age?! The only thing I did when I was 2 years old was throw my toys to my yaya), then won her first tournament at the age of 4 (what?!). She was even named after another tennis great, Martina Navratilova (just search her name, and you will be amazed). Martina Hingis can be found in record books, when you read something like, "the youngest player to..." her name would most probably be there. She introduced the drop shots to the now power-dominated game of tennis. Players then even thought it was illegal. Haha. And they said, her style is like playing chess on the court. (Does that explain what they usually say that, "Tennis IS a mental game"?) I can say a lot of things about Martina Hingis but would stop right now because it is 3:50am. I told you, I am a fan.

About the cats, well, I'll just post another one about that next time. I don't think it is appropriate to write about cats and talk about tennis. To tell you the truth, I'm still not yet done documenting the Cat Files, so, next time would be better.


MORAL: Don't do drugs, or they'll do you. Whatever. Just don't take them. Just. Don't. Keep out the Nike slogan just this once.