both our kids were off to the beach – one to montemar, the other to boracay – for the new year with their significant others, so cholo and i, after decades of hewing to supposedly good-luck traditions that never really guaranteed good luck, decided we were old enough to break out and do something different, something previously unthinkable, which was to hole up in a small makati av. hotel to escape the nerve-wracking noise and awful soot of firecrackers, feast on room service, usher in the new year quietly, for a change.
just in case cable tv got boring, cholo brought his portable dvd player and laptop. i brought a bottle of chardonnay and two books i was in the middle of, carlos fuentes’ terra nostra (what a story about spain’s phillip ii ), and rainer maria rilke’s in praise of mortality. not that i even got to open either book.
the unexpected treat was a 15th floor view of city lights. almost a 180-degree area around the makati bridge – no, not facing ayala or luneta, which would have been fantabulous, but what we got was wonderful enough, facing mandaluyong and san juan and ortigas all the way to quezon city. what a sight. as midnight approached, the fireworks grew more and more frenzied and spectacular. we wondered if we were missing something by missing the noise, should we go down and drown ourselves in the pandemonium outside kahit sandali? we stayed, deciding to be kind to our aging eardrums, okay lang the muffled sound effects, besides we’d miss the climax of the show, which was splendid, magical, fireworks of all colors and shapes shooting up from the dark to a kaleidoscope sky. what a treat.
siyempre i remembered a friend who used to work with government who now lives in a penthouse in an ayala av. condomnium with a breathtaking 360-degree view of the metropolis. i bet she was having a party. i would, in her place. share the view from above.
Happy New Year, Angela.
We spent New Year’s eve at Ayala Heights, Old Balara. The 180 degree view was likewise spectacular though nothing can beat a 360-degree panorama of fireworks.
Happy New Year.
Its dangerous nowadays to call oneself an economist, especially if one is of the same specie as the current malacanang tenant. Such types, which unfortunately are too numerous, have presided over the deterioration of our economy these past three decades. Because of the bad reputation which these monetarists/free market ideologues have given economists, and to emphasize that not all who are concerned with economics are mere interest rate manipulators and usurers, its best to more accurately describe us as “physical economists.” As members of the International Larouche Movement, we advocate the principles of “general welfare,” for the achievement of the common good…the basis for a great document signed by 45 heads of state in 1945, known as the Bretton Woods Agreement.