day in day out, gone for 4 years and we're still together.

when i entered my room, all the adolescent memories and growing up years came to me, it was like a big tv screen rewinding to the past and what a past it was.

now this is a misnomer for every tourists or visiting persons in the philippines or whatever you call yourself, the de facto capital of the philippines is manila, but since a long time ago, the adjacent cities around in manila were absorbed to form that is more commonly known as metro manila. i live in las piñas, the southernmost city inside the metro, which is called "the dirty south", well its not dirty, in fact its the cleanest and greenest city in the metro.  its just what it is called.

in the room, it was a bit changed, gone were most of the books i have in the bookshelf, i dont know where mum hid them, but i found them somewhere in the small corridor between the rooms.   my collecton of pocketbooks when i was still in highschool, i took some and smelled them, beautiful smell of old paperbacks. then i opened my closet, most of the things there are from my cousins as they are now sleeping in my room, but still i found my old old old tshirt which had holes in the armpits, but i still like it, i wore it and i felt my old self again.

i was about to put music on, but my cd player in my room was gone and so was the tv. then i remembered mum told me years ago that my aunts borrowed it and then their house was robbed and my tv and cd player went with it. i was a bit angry, for the cd/stereo player was so nostalgic for me - when i was still studying in highschool and college, i always put music on while changing to get me into the groove before heading off to study - and my favorite song to play was - dont laugh - robin gibb's boys do fall in love then meet my classmates in college at the front gate and smoke before the bell rings, ah the sweet memories. now its gone. well, theres no sense moping. theyre gone.

checked the airconditioner and i had my chesire cat grin, because its bloody hot here in the philippines, thank god the airconditioner after so many years, it looked battered - was still working.

i looked at the curtains, well, its very nostalgic, since my aunt personally woven them, but well, it's so old fashioned, it has to go.

after checking all the things in my "former room" i went out to the garage and saw THREE DOGS, the last time i was there we only had two, uma and martina - which is - well WAS MY DOG, as she dont know me anymore, she growled at me.  the other one was named dexter, he was orphaned so mum adopted him.

i wandered around mum's garden, there was something missing, THERE WAS SOMETHING MISSING, it looked 95% empty though its full of plants. because the hundreds of orchid collections from all over southeast asia were gone and i know they are not cheap as my mum and her "amigas" scour every orchid shops in the metro.

so i asked my cousins what happened, apparently mum was too tired to keep and to nurture orchids, so she just let them go. i couldnt believe it. because it's my mum's passion and only hobby, she even learned how to graft orchids. i miss the waling-waling and the spider orchids, they were my favorites.

then suddenly, someone was shouting. i listened intently, then it became clear, someone was selling "taho".  yummy! its ny favorite after breakfast dessert! i bought some, for 5 pesos, its one cup. taho is made from soya with little starch balls and topped with sugar syrup! in no less than 5 minutes, it went down to my stomach

guess some things didnt changed after all.