Rumbles in the City
July - September 2007
Vol. 1.1

Rainy Day Rumbles
by the writer without a helmet

=== So… my editor gives me this assignment out of nowhere, expecting that I churn out words like spit. She needs it by tomorrow, she said. Short, sweet, creative, funny. Like spit? She didn't laugh.

=== This is the first installment of Rumbles, which Ms. Editor wants to be something like a stand-up comedy act about anything Metro, on print.

Eh? Anything Metro? Like this morning's awful traffic? 1 hour, I swear, from Guadalupe to Megamall -- after which I had to tread through ankle deep water (because it rained for 10 minutes). Keds are not meant for rain.

Laughing yet? Neither was I.

== Living in the city can be so unfunny, it's funny. Circus funny.

Where else can you find electric poles clinging onto electric wires for dear life? And that was from last year's typhoon, mind you. What acrobatic position should we expect this year?

And you can almost always rely on the disappearing act of traffic enforcers when it rains. Abrakadabra they're gone.

My friend once forgot all about coding and rode her car through Makati, of all places. When it hit us, we decided to hide in an obscure shopping center, the only one nearby.

We thought it was the worst fate when with our luck, it rained.

We ran out of there... wet, wild and free. And yes, we didn't get caught.

=== Don't get me wrong. I love this city. I love it, I love it, I love it! It reminds me of my room - and I love my room.

I often describe Manila as this endearing mess of a city. A lovable chaos - especially with one so familiar with its disorderliness that I even sometimes look forward to it.

I realized this (again.. and again) when I rode the back of our photographer's bike, while on assignment around Ortigas. It was an impromptu ride, a change of venue that meant I rode without a helmet in a town full of traffic enforcers.

Rain was about to pour so the air was sticky humid, and the skies warned, "Malapit na! Malapit na!"

Once we vrroomed on though, it felt like my white-water rafting trip all over again. (That's a good thing.)

Cool breeze on my face; my hands clenched for dear life, we whizzed through urban obstacles and I'm glad I came out of it alive.

++ That is what it's all about anyway, right? Coming out alive. Living!

Yeah, this city gives me a headache every now and then. But this is my home. This is where I earn my meager keep, and this is where I play. I wouldn't exchange it for the world.