marikina night

sometimes i get inspired to write about something, but before i get around to finishing it, the inspiration is gone. sad, cause i would've wanted to write about these things:

* my uncle's wake and funeral
* alternate lives
* the funny incidence of keanna's waterbath and sunbath

but, since the inspiration has left me, i'm going to write about something else now.
this happened last night, so while the memory is still fresh, might as well.

osobear and i had a marikina trek. went to sm marikina for dinner and the movies. saw quarantine (surprisingly, it wasn't the B-movie horro-thriller that i had thought it would be. go watch it). and since the night was young, we went to the city's (in)famous riverbanks for a little pre-christmas come-what-may adventure.

i have always loved any kind of natural body of water, no matter how murky, so long as the DENR still classifies it as "alive"--which the marikina river is, unlike its pasig counterpart. i love natural bodies of water, especially at night--freud, have a blast reading into this--and that's one of the reasons why i thought going to the riverbanks would be fun.

there were tiangges everywhere, of course. pasko na kasi.
there was an old-style perya. osobear is a sucker for thrill rides, so kahit caterpillar, sinakyan namin. kahit nga horror ride, pinatulan namin. haha. that was a scream fest for typical-girl me (haha). he wanted to ferris wheel but i absolutely did not trust the bolts and nuts holding the damn thing together, and after a while he, too, decided that we'd better not.

so we trooped to the bumper car booth and that was fun, driving my own "car"--but not when osobear keeps bumping his car into mine (kahit na laruan lang yung kotse, hello, masakit pa rin kaya yung impact). syempre di naman ako makaangal dahil may point naman sya when he said, "kaya nga tinawag na 'bump car', dahil yun ang fun part--makipagbanggaan". hah. boys.

after the bump car i really really wanted to ride the little pedal boats that they're renting along the river. something that, i sensed, osobear didn't seem all that excited with. he's scared of the river. he doesn't trust it, just as i don't trust the bolts and nuts on the ferris wheel. and that's one of the very few things that he's scared of, and i jumped at the chance to rib him about it. ha-ha, takot!

after a brief round in the tiangges we finally made it to the pedal boat station, only to see it already closed. damn. it's osobear's fault. he had stalled us on purpose! so, instead of going pedal-boating, we decided to ride the river ferry instead.

which was one of the nicest points of our marikina trek.
i don't get to ride a banca everyday, kaya excited din ako. the ferry is supposed to take us from the riverbanks to the riverpark, the other part of the river near the marikina bridge (marami ding tiangges and bars don). the trip only cost us P10 per person, and the trip was a balm for the senses. the breeze was so cold and the lights along the riverbank were just dang gorgeous. and the trip was a full 15 minutes, too. sulit na sulit ang P10.

we arrived at the riverpark to see lines and lines of food stalls and peryahan stalls (there was even a "Frog Boy" stall for only P20 per head to ogle and marvel at. the frog boy, the karatula claims, could sing and dance for you as well). we decided to have none of any and trooped to the first establishment selling beer for a couple of san mig lites.

unluckily for us, the first establishment we chanced upon was dingy as dingy could bearably be. a videoke bar, musty, and the clientele mostly consisted of tatay-type blue-collar men (either with friends or their, um, girlfriends), pero we figured, might as well pagtiyagaan na rin. i was glad to have osobear with me dahil feeling ko maraming pwedeng mambastos sa mga ganitong lugar. at the next table there was an old dude who had passed out in drunken stupor. funny thing was, no one cared, not the waitresses (in pekpek shorts! haha) nor the other customers (na malamang habitues na sa bar na yon).

i wasn't off-ed by the whole thing, i was amused. so long as kasama ko naman si oso. we ordered four beers and a tuna sisig. when the tuna sisig was served, we quipped, "malamang century tuna lang to na ginawang sisig". but surprisingly, the sisig was very good. so good, in fact, that i had wanted to order a 2nd (but decided
against it, kasi P150 din ang isang order). galing. good food sometimes comes from the least expected places.

i remember a couple of marikina treks that i'd had, with other people. like with friends penguin, beatle, and choclit luver back in 2007. same type of dingy videoke bar, but lotsa fun. i remember my "date" with a guy friend at the pedal boats. the pedal boats were lotsa fun, even if the company wasn't spectacular (kaya naisip ko, baka mas enjoyable kung si osobear ang kasama ko).

hay. wala lang. gusto ko lang ikwento, dahil hindi araw-araw nakakapagadventure ako ng ganito. walang underlying theme ang entry na to, walang maiko-connect sa current state of life. minsan lang kasi, masarap mabuhay nang walang care, walang iniisip. pag kasama ko si osobear, iniiwan ko na lang ang lahat ng worries ko sa bahay para ma-maintain ko ang pagiging masayahin. being with oso is a respite from everything else that makes me unhappy.

pero sigurado ako, pag pumunta naman kami ng enchanted o star city, pipilitin na naman nya kong sumakay sa mga halukay-bituka rides--something that i LOATHE to the highest level. hay. yun lang ang hindi masaya don, when you're compelled to do something that SCARES you. you suddenly become the puny girl in distress. i HATE being the puny girl in distress!