Surprisingly Well !

I never realized that waiting for an airplane for more than three hours would be this emotionally draining, brain cracking and muscle aching! Not to mention, very irritating and excruciatingly boring! What have I done to deserve this…!

Well, I should have seen it coming. I think all signals last week pointed out to this happening…. It was not only the waiting for the plane, it was also waiting for financial reports ‘til the day of departure, canceling other appointments because of the plane delay and arranging for appointments from some very busy people just because your former appointment had to be cancelled… whew! Not to mention the additional expenses for all the calls of cancellation and rearrangement.

But then, there is nothing I could do anymore... so I tried to find ways to humor myself. I made use of the airport’s WiFi and connected to Multiply, but nobody was there yet, Gary just added a postscript for Mono Monday and PPF hasn't started yet... and so I decided to roam around and take pictures of every interesting nook and corner of the airport and surprisingly, I found a number of fascinating stuff...

But then again three hours is too long and I have just had enough of lamps, toasters and jars to shoot… Good thing the plane arrived a few minutes after and then we had to board… I don’t know why but through the one and a half hour flight, I can’t keep my camera inside my bag and I took pictures again of clouds, islands and other stuff while analyzing how my camera works with different setting…

I guess I used up the batteries before landing! But not before taking a picture of how densely populated Metro Manila is… the Filipino expression “hindi mahulugang karayum” (a needle can’t fall through) aptly describes the metropolis from this angle! Eeeeooww…!

Well, as the plane landed I tried to immediately disembark and get my luggage so I can atleast go to even one appointment in the University… but then, fate didn’t agree and so I found myself in the middle of the worst traffic jam… terrible!!! Another two hours of just sitting boringly in a cab!

That moment I decided to call off everything, checked in my bags in the hotel and went for a walk in the mall… all of a sudden I am free!!! For the first time in like twelve months, I don’t have to hurry to get to something and my mind is not crowded with anything,,, I started walking to Mega Mall without any plans at all and once inside I realized that it has been a long time since I really went malling… I only go to malls nowadays to meet someone, or buy some groceries… never really just looking around anymore. And so I did… I remembered that in the 5^th floor of the mall are art galleries and so I went up…

For the first time this day I felt lucky! There was an exhibit in one of the larger galleries on the floor, entitled InterARTive and most of the paintings are in mixed media like Oil on CDs (as in Compact Discs) or Oil on LP Stereo Discs and it was very very lovely… I got to meet Dems Dela Cruz too, the artists but he refused to pose for a picture but allowed me to shoot my favorites from among his works…

I went around to other galleries too like the old coins store and antique shop. At this point I already completely forgot what I thought was the worst day of my life… Then I remembered there was a Power Books Store in the mall and I so miss it for we don’t have it in Davao… Power Books is our local version of Barnes & Noble where I can search and read good books while having coffee,,, unfortunately when I went there, I found out they don’t have the coffee place anymore but there is still a place for reading… I browsed over some books and after reading one I felt hungry so I went out to look for a coffee shop…

With luck I found Kofi Rotti – a coffee shop serving my favorite coffee bun -- just outside the bookstore near the activity area… I sat there enjoying my coffee and bun when I saw people crowding in the activity area and a foreign artist was announced to be having a free concert there, the artists name sounded so familiar but I can’t place where I heard his name… then he started singing and I realized… Ohhh John Ford Coley, the other half of England Dan of the Coley & Dan Duo! I remember them, they were quite famous when I was in grade school… and I like their music too!

I stayed for a while, slowly munching my bun and drinking my coffee so I can hear two or three more songs from him… hhhmmmm… what started out as a frantic day turned out as an unplanned free day with galleries, books, munching on my favorite coffee bun and sipping a strong espresso while listening to John Ford Coley crooning “I really want to see you tonight…”

Well, who would’ve known,,, the day wasn’t so bad after all!