I was in town for most of the month and I stayed at the Great Eastern Hotel on Quezon Ave. in Quezon City for a week. The hotel was located a few blocks near the west end of Timog Avenue and a crosswalk away from National Bookstore. Immediately south of the place was a comedy place called Punchline and an outdoor but sheltered and enclosed restaurant called Dampa. And just north of the building, sat a western fast-food joint, the ubiquitous McDonalds.
This was , I think, the lead-up month to the rainy season and the heat was hard to bear. The humidity coupled with the smog, noise and fumes coming from the moving sea of urban vehicles was suffocating. A mass of humanity seemed to always cover a good part of the sidewalks , if you could call it that. Mostly, it's a four-foot wide concrete broken in so many places and disrupted so often by trees and artifacts that it had surrendered it's privilege of being called a 'path'.
To provide respite from the sweltering sky, the rain sometimes mocked the forecasters, came out ahead of it's expected delivery date and poured with a vengeance, inundating most streets and rendering some the consistency of a gumbo.
Still and all, if you're like me, there is something priceless about being here, a feeling I know I will probably never feel anywhere else: being lost in a crowd.
But back to the fruit stand. Or fruit shake stand.
Most mornings I had my breakfast here: a tall glass of mango shake. Then I'd walk over to starbucks for coffee. The place was located in a newer building which housed Robinson's Supermarket in the basement. Right next to the escalator, the stand was on the first floor and directly above the market. The business area was at the west end of Timog Ave.
The first time I was there I ordered a tall glass of mango shake. She cheerfully whipped up the concoction and handed it to me. I looked around me for a place to sit and saw none. Not a single bench or chair. Across the clean floor were two restaurants replete with tables and chairs, Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, but both establishments were enclosed in glass panels and doors. Starbucks was even overseen by a uniformed security guard with a sidearm ostensibly clipped on his belt.
I turned to her with the obvious question.
May mga upuan ba dito?
Wala eh.
Saan ako pweding umupo?
Sa mga restoran, sa Dunkin Donuts o Starbucks. Sa Dunkin Donuts na lang.
Hindi ko gustong bumili ng donat, hindi ba sila magagalit?
Hindi, akong bahala. Kung magalit paghahambalusin mo.
Hindi ako marunong maghambalus eh.
Ako'ng maghahambalos.
Kaya mo ba sila?
She cocked her head to one side and threw a surreptitious glance into the donut shop. Oo, kayang-kaya ko yang mga yan, maliliit naman sila eh.
Hahahaha. Nagsalita ang malaki.
Her face broke into a wide grin that finally morphed into a fierce laugh which shook her whole body.
All 4'-10" of her.
Oh yeah, the mango shake was as good as they come.
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the audacity of mango???? what the heck ?
