Postcards from the edge

I'm not much of a traveler. Blame it on my heavy butt and weak knee joints. During the rare times I joined family on a trip abroad (the last was to California for my daughter's wedding in November 2019), what I looked forward to was buying postcards and dropping them in the many mailboxes that still dot the streets of America. These photos, taken by my sister Gigi Lolarga in Solvang, captured me at work on a short stack of postcards in a restaurant where we stopped for breakfast en route to San Francisco. In the second picture, I'm outside the bakery that sold a lot of Danish pastries. I bought a big, fat bear's claw to tide me over during the long bus trip. I believe that we should help keep the postal offices all over the world alive. Sure, FB Messenger, a Zoom meeting or email (the last is even getting passe) may be faster and more efficient (no paper trail). There are some things that are better expressed in a letter or postcard than an FB comment. So here's to my FB friends who're also my pen pals: Arlene Esperida, Aida CF Santos, Joji Ravina-Lourence, Alma Cruz Miclat, Olive Tripon, Men Sta Ana, Isabela Varga, Precious Leano, Machiko Susi, Junic D Lolarga.

Signed, sealed, delivered I'm yours

We started ordering books online and purchasing them after the lockdown last year. Rolly's and my initial orders were from Shopee, but when the five or so books arrived, we felt dismayed when we saw they suffered from water and soil damage. I immediately wrote to the publisher to air our complaint. Promptly, they sent replacements in good condition.

Two weeks ago, I decided to up the ante by trying out the online store of Fully Booked where I found a single hardbound copy left of Anthony Bourdain's World Travel (on top of the bestseller list in Singapore, but that's Sg for you), Aimee Nezhukumatathil (give me a few weeks to learn how to pronounce and say her last name correctly) and her World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments and Patrick deWitt's French Exit. I opened an account with the store, provided my basic details, particularly shipping address. I took a long, hot shower, addressing God and asking Him to affirm my decision to put my hard-earned pension money in new books. I told friend Gou de Jesus of my bathroom conversation with the Almighty, and she laughed and said it's not as if I was buying lipstick and makeup. And even if it was, it was still my money. Anyway, after five days of anticipation, an LBC delivery man handed the package. So excited was I to rip open the plastic bag that I suffered a paper cut as I was turning the pages of a new book. Shallow lang naman. Hmm, I think I have a conflicted relationship with money. But yesterday, after a hearty comida china, I whispered to Rolly, "Aren't we going to drop by Mt Cloud Bookshop?" He had offhandedly mentioned the previous day that he wanted to look at what's up on their Filipiniana shelves. So off we went, getting our temperatures checked at the shop entrance and filling up the forms for contact tracing. The price to pay in order to browse inside a physical space.

I always like looking at the secondhand hardcovers near the entrance. I suspect most of those books come from the library of filmmaker-art buff Perez Butch like the Bruce Chatwin title I happened upon. Chatwin is one of the best, if not the best, travel writers in the world. Gou will attest to that. I was drawn to the cover of Loot and Other Stories by Nobel laureate for literature Nadine Gordimer. It was a painting by Georgia O'Keeffe. It's not that I can afford to spend all day in the book alcove of our home like a lady of leisure. I have official writing, editing and transcribing duties to do, not to mention researching historical images for a picture book. Then there's the laundry and the cooking chores that are the bane in the life of every full-time homemaker. But these books balance those other things off. They give me something pleasant to turn to when the quotidian is close to suffocating me.

A throwback

On the eve of her 91st birthday, I remember this woman who teased me at a Greenbelt shop years ago. She picked up a lamb--cordero--and said, "Babeth, why don't you buy this for me?" Greenbelt being Greenbelt, the price was beyond my budget so I did the next best thing. Capture the moment in a picture. Wherever you are, Gilda Cordero Fernando, frolicking with angels and cherubs and streaking among the stars and comets, I want you to know that you will be my forever Gemini icon of a writer, the one who communicates well in a language laced with wit and lightness, even if the subject is as serious as death. I have told you that before. I don't mind saying it again.

A gypsy in my soul

There were a lot of copious tears shed when GourmetGypsy Art Cafe's main outlet on A. Roces Ave., Quezon City closed its doors last year, a sad offshoot of the business slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The school and branch on Maginhawa street, UP Village remained open, however, becoming the hub of meals on the go for the frontliners. It was a matter of time before chef Waya Araos-Wijangco thought of something where her restaurant furniture and equipment would logically go. When she said aloud that she was planning a Gypsy branch in our adopted city of Baguio, where her husband Ernie works, I started salivating, recollecting past meals enjoyed at her Kiss the Cook, Kiss the Cook Gourmet, Gourmet Gypsy Art Cafe--salted egg pork belly, Ama's (sculptor Jerry Araos') mechado, the bowl of bibimpap that I had when I met up with Sibyl Jade Peña and Patty Yambao plus the surviving members of the groovy Samahang Demokatiko ng Kabataan one December noon, the dinner concerts Pablo Tariman, Joseph Uy and Al Andres Andres organized that promoted classical music. So yesterday my family and I decided on a food trip to mark a milestone in my daughter Kimi and grandchild Kai's lives. It was easy to spot Gypsy Baguio by Chef Waya. It was near the foot of Quezon Hill, with a steep driveway that takes you up a white house. Waya was staffing the kitchen herself, and Ernie was there to receive us in a private room with a high ceiling where we could practice safety protocols. The old staff from the Roces ave. branch were also there to welcome us and take our orders. High on our list was Ama's Mechado (the secret is in the cut of meat, the batok or neck of the cow and hours of slow simmering in fresh tomatoes). Kimi's favorite (the squid ink pasta), what later turned out as Kai's favored aglio y olio pasta with cholesterol-rich salted egg pork belly, the seafood laksa soup that Joseph swears by, etc. etc. I almost forgot to add how refreshing the strawberry lemonade was--fruits we have in abundance in the highlands. For takeout we had two loaves of chocolate babka, consumed by the ravenous family on the same day. There is a smidgen of leftover in the fridge to remind us of our gustatory adventure. My other daughter Ida, who couldn't be with us, instructed us to take lots of pictures. She commented on our family pic: how come Nanay and Tatay look so sad even behind our masks? We weren't sad. We were satiated beyond satisfaction and were aching for our afternoon siesta. Burp! All photos by my grandchild Kai Mykonos

Signage of Gypsy Baguio by Chef Waya along Pilar Hidalgo Lim Road, Quezon Hill

The white house

Chickpea hummus with pita bread

Squid ink pasta with cubes of ripe mango

Selfie by Kai

Family portrait at the entrance of Gypsy Baguio by Chef Waya

Feliz cumpleaños, Amadis

Amadis Ma. Guerrero Photo courtesy of Philippine Daily Inquirer Lifestyle He has always struck me as modest and self-effacing. This is borne out in an article that Inquirer's Eric S. Caruncho wrote about Amadis Ma. Guerrero, arts and books and travel writer. Amadis was quoted as saying, "I’m not a critic, I’m a feature writer. My approach is reportorial rather than critical." I could very well say the same thing for myself. Which is why he and I get along famously, the kind of relationship where we can even trade gentle insults. The late Prof. Nieves B. Epistola bestowed the highest compliment on him, addressing him in French as Le Cheri Guerrier. He likes to say in jest that he is the lovable warrior to Jose Ma. Sison's alter ego, Amado Guerrero. My compadre is also known for his deep loyalty to kin and friends, especially to his aunt Carmen Guerrero Nakpil. Even at the height of the anti-Marcos dictatorship movement when Mrs. Nakpil was still identified with the administration, Amadis warned my office colleagues in a tight voice to back off from her. If memory serves, his words went: "Who's saying something against my Tita Chitang? Let me just pull his hair out of his head!" I am amazed at his stamina in writing reportage and the occasional fiction. He is also in demand as a writer of art books, the latest among them Philippine Social Realists and SYM, Galicano and PASPI. He takes down notes longhand or sometimes tapes the interview. Then he does his drafts on his portable typewriter and has someone encode and email the piece for him afterwards. He's old-fashioned that way. He's the only person I know who still buys typewriter ribbons. Needless to say, he's not in social media although there are occasional sightings of him in Facebook when he's singing with Jerry Dadap's Andres Bonifacio Choir. Whenever I am sick and in despair, his message to me is unwavering and unchanging: "Keep on singing, soprano!" On his 80th birthday, I greet him: "Long may your voice ring, El Tenor!"

Sweet banana

"Writers are like those good thieves. They take something that is real…and by a trick of magic they transform it into something totally fresh." ~ Isabel Allende I live with some kind of sinusitis that gets going in the morning, especially after I've eaten breakfast. I am assured that my poor sense of smell isn't a COVID-like symptom. But I need to do something about it because this morning, as I was preparing lunch, I didn't notice that the pot where my husband Rolly Fernandez was cooking plaintain bananas in sugar syrup, minatamis na saging, was about to dry. There was steam all over the kitchen. I was so focused on dicing the carrots and slicing the cloves of garlic that were supposed to go into my own pot of chicken with pineapples. My back was turned to the stove. Plus my ears were listening to the CD album of cellist Yo-Yo Ma. I even had a fleeting thought about how peaceful these all felt--the meditative gestures of dicing and slicing. Rolly rushed down the stairs holding the walis tingting and dustpan containing Satchi's poop, shouting that the house was almost on fire. I rose abruptly from my seat and quickly turned off the knob of the gas stove. He got rid of Satchi's leavings first before returning to scold me. We opened the pot and looked inside. The sugar had caramelized to a dark brown around each of the banana slice. I'm a girl who looks at the jug as half full so I told my partner, "We have banana cue for dessert!" Still much shaking of Rolly's head.

More Mario memories

Indulge me, please, as this is the way I manage my grief over the loss of writer-patriot Mario Ignacio Miclat. I met him and his family a few years after they returned to the country following 15 years of political exile in China. I was assigned to write about him for The Sunday Times Magazine, supplement of the then Gokongwei-owned The Manila Times. I don't have a copy anymore of my article, but I do recall the magazine cover of that issue--two photographs of Chinese landscape and architecture taken by Mario himself. I vaguely remember the article's title as "Bayan-bayanan sa Beijing." What struck me upon visiting their first home, a condo unit at BLISS Pag-asa in Quezon City, was how orderly and clean it was. Fast forward to the time they moved to another condo on Quezon Ave., QC. I entered the hallway and just perfunctorily left my walking cane on a corner. Then Mario showed up and in a strict and annoyed tone wondered aloud what the cane was doing on its spot. I realized that he was like my husband Rolly Fernandez in seeing to it there's a place for everything and everything's in its place. When the Miclats make a trip to Baguio in December during Alma Cruz Miclat's birth month, instead of us treating them to a meal, they play gracious hosts to us. In the inner group are Mario's fellow UP academics Del Tolentino and Ben Tapang and their family friend Mitos Benitez. Over Japanese dinner at Hamada at the Baguio Country Club, we used to watch Raj's antics. Talk would last until the restaurant's closing time. In this photo Mario is shown with his Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas award for his lifetime's literary output and with his family and Church Cafe confreres. From left are Mario, Alma, Raj in the arms of mother Banaue Miclat-Janssen, Fe and Pastor Sunil Stephens, Roger and Fe Mangahas and myself. Happy times--so many to look back on to lessen the sting of his departure.

The dog who would be a reader

I just went through my digicam to check what's stored and found these pictures taken by my grandchild Kai. They're of Satchi and her master Rolly Fernandez lounging in the library where she loves to scoot over once released from the balcony that she has for her home. She loves Rolly's bed, rolls all over it before lying on her belly. She even likes to look at the books. When she wags her long, bushy tail, she knocks over Rolly's assorted knickknacks, including a framed bulletin of Bandilang Pula, a publication of the seven-day Diliman Commune, or our kids' snapshots. Once, and only once, did Satchi gnaw the spine of my book, Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story. What a scolding she received, but I doubt if she understood any word said. Something must have sunk in because there has been no repetition of the incident. She has maintained her respectful distance from the books. However, she still sniffs at them, her eyes glancing longingly over the titles. Somebody said Satchi must've been a reader in a former life. If she was, then she has found the right home.