Wanderings, Too

With most of my morning work done, I stood up from my station, and as per habit, I headed rode the elevator down fifteen floors, before strolling down the RCBC Plaza lobby and heading out the Buendia entrance for another of my lunchtime meanderings.  Where did my wanderings take me this time?  Well, my soles did the thinking once more, and I found myself crossing Buendia Avenue, continuing onwards until I found the intersection to Jupiter Street (I think), just before hitting South Cemetery. 

At the Toyota dealership I turned right, and followed the winding path, past the rear entrances of Mapua IT Institute and the Intellectual Property Commission of the Philippines, and the various restaurants and bistros that just conveniently happen to be located just across the street from them.  I followed Jupiter Street until I hit what looked like Makati Avenue, so I swung left this time.  Despite its reputation as a night spot, there were more than a few foreigners wandering there (along with their escorts), possibly visiting some of the food places.  Interwoven among the expats were street hawkers, plying their business, trying to entice people to buy the sunglasses and, in some cases, flutes and whistles that emulated the trill of birds. 

Less numerous than the peddlers, but no less noticeable, were the beggars asking for alms, walking with children in their arms, hoping for people to pity them enough to fork over some extra change.  Often though they are ignored by the tourists, and the office workers out and about during their lunch breaks, making them seem invisible despite being openly seen.  Objects of pity, at the sime derision and disgust.

Onward I went, passing the intersection of JP Rizal, across the way from the Blue Cross Insurance building, and continuing on the sloping path to a bridge that spans the murky and brown surface of the Pasig River.  The bridge crossing wasn’t exciting in itself, though the severe lack of sidewalk surface to walk on made it interesting, especially since Filipino drivers seem to just love hugging the corners of what little there was.

I tottered onwards, going down the stairs on the other side of the bridge, and walked the length of the businesses and homes that faced Pasig River’s stinky expanse.  I finally stopped, on what I think was the Mandaluyong side of the river, facing the edifice that was the Makati City Hall, tall and imposing even when viewed from that point.

I had walked more than half an hour at that point.  It was time to turn back, as my work day was yet unfinished.  And so I did, backtracking my way through Makati Avenue, past the A. Venue mall, past Korean Barbeque places and what seemed to me like the second Great Bowl of China restaurant, to the intersection of Jupiter Street and Makati Avenue.  Instead of turning right, however, continued onward to cross Buendia Avenue. 

At the Pacific Star building, I stopped, then followed Buendia back to RCBC plaza.  Not bad for an hour’s walk, methinks.

Authorial Impasse

For something supposedly so simple, the assignment Dr. (Isagani) Cruz foisted upon the class is turning out to be needlessly complicated.  Writing to an author shouldn’t be too hard, right?  Well, finding the names of certain Filipino authors isn’t hard. 

What is?  Finding their contact details, specificially their emails.  Of the known Filipino authors I can remember from memory, I only found Ambeth Ocampo’s email addy.   However, it’s going to be rather awkward trying to email him, as I’ve only read his articles, and none of his books.  Also, Dr. Cruz isn’t really expecting a casual email.

*groans*  You know, sometimes I wish that my father wasn’t such a stubborn old codger, and had his poems published locally instead of pursuing this lofty (and inevitably, untenable) dream of having his work published internationally.  That way, I’d only have to write to him for the assignment instead.

Kind of funny how prolific a poet he is, yet no one outside of the family knows about it.  Written over the span of more than twenty years, I think we have some 3 softbound ‘volumes’ so far, each around 30 to 50 pages thick.  Kind of a waste to have them remain merely as a future family heirloom, don’t you think?

Indeed, our little chat over Yahoo Messenger centered around the topic of his poetry.  I’d want to believe that I won a little, since I got him to submit two of his poems to the EIGHTH ANNUAL (BELATED) HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST (referenced at http://www.meritagepress.com/babaylan), plus he did agree to have some of his poems published here.  It did seem to me that he only agreed to my badgering grudgingly, to get me to shut up about the issue.   Typical.

It was amusing to have him think about what poem he was going to submit.  By his tally, he’s churned out around 100 or more poems since his time in Taiwan to his current tenure in Singapore.

The question is though, is there even a publishing house here in the greater Metro Manila area that takes commission-type printing?  I mean, my plan isn’t really for greater distribution, at least at first; maybe 40 or so books, to be disseminated through our relatives.