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Ninoy Aquino monument at Ayala Corner Paseo

Even Ninoy Will Be Damned
Ninoy Aquino Monument, Ayala Ave corner Paseo de Roxas, March 2004

So how did I spend my birthday?

Simple. I followed my wife and was immensely happy doing it. Here's how.

6:00 AM woke up to text office to cancell all appointments (in fact, there was none)
8:00 AM woke up (again) to thank the Lord
8:30 AM breakfast and discussed how we'd spend the free day, rather Fri-day
10:00 AM showered after reading the papers and found the gameplan

Trust my wife to think of the best plans, mixing economics and art, to come up with an exciting day. Here was the gameplan as I saw on a post it behind the door (Time provided was 3:00 PM to 12 Midnight) :

Perform all the following tasks with a budget of P 500
1 Do something we haven't done in a long time
2 Eat a uniquely Pinoy gustatory (yes, she used that term) delight
3 Capture a moment/scenery/inanimate object in a photo worthy of being published
4 Behold nature in its full splendor! (from an unusual vantage point)

11:00 AM the master of coolness didn't look unperturbed but it did make me think
12:00 NN Lunch, and I was still thinking, and she was just smiling it off
1:00 PM game plan, and here's how it looked like in my mind:

1 Go biking at CCP grounds possible cost P 50-P60 or hear mass at Manila Cathedral where our last mass was 8 years ago during our wedding (free)
2 Fishballs or dirty ice cream at the PICC grounds P 30- P 50 or at Fort Santiago
3 Sillohouette shot with the bike at sunset (free) or kalesa shot (P 200 kalesa rental)
4 Nature in full splendor would be - the sunset (free)

There were a lot of iterations: butterfly garden or the Manila Museum, halo halo at Lush garden resto, GSIS Museum or Manila Zoo. andaming plano

One thing I missed out was : Manila's heat (36 degrees) and traffic (terrible was an understatement), the 2 usual suspects acting up again as deal breakers!

So here's how God wanted and how He planned it for us, yes, nakisali po siya, kaya gumanda

1 Stopping for dogfood for our 2 pups, I heard the familiar bell of Kabayan dirty ice cream, got 2 sweet cones and wala, a gustatory 100% Pinoy delight (P 5 each x 2= P 10)
2 Arrived at CCP grounds at 5:40 PM to find out that it was closed for a major outdoor concert for that night. So we decided to hear my birthday mass at the reclamation church of Jesus the Way the Truth and the Light. Heard mass, received communion with the view of the Manila Sunset as round as the Holy Eucharist and golden as the altar. Wow, nature in its full splendor talaga. (could've taken a picture, but no)
3 After mass, which was celebrated by our favorite priest, Monsignor Bobby Canlas, who celebrated our wedding, we were pulled in by the Holy Spirit to join the Way of the Cross. ok, that's something we haven't done in years!
4 Before the 5th station, and after seeing 3 other people taking pictures of the great sunset, I asked permission from God, and from my wife, to take a picture of the afterglow. Done. The only thing left is have it published.

So there, 1, 2, 3, 4 for P 10. Ugh!

My prize: Aristocrat meal, just like when I was a kid, and a walk along Roxas Boulevard, HHWW. How can you top that????!!!!