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postmaster

Posted on February 24, 2007 @ 11:12 am by massimo | Filed under: blog, fun, people, philippines, wordpress

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boracay travel illustration aynaku

With no internet, fax, telephone, even electricity, communications with the outer world was not that easy in Boracay in the early 90’s.
The tiny island was actually set apart fairly and that was its very charm, at least to me. Yet the small concrete-building at one end of the island, the Post office, was a great attraction among the few foreigners who happily enjoyed their exotic self-exile. They went there and checked the mail at Poste Restante at least once a week: as a matter of fact, that was the only possible linkage to friends and relatives around the world. This little office was ran by invaluable Carlito, the daring post-master who, regardless of whatever heavy rains, choppy sea, blowing typhoon, was always to be found comfortably sitting at his desk. And every time I got into the little room, the man invariably welcomed me with his cool and reckless manner, his somehow pompous conversation, his combed hair and thin moustaches, sometimes lighting a cigarette before checking the incoming mail for me, if any. This was a time consuming process mainly because the desk was overloaded by letters, postcards and parcels just arrived from some remote country such as Switzerland, Japan, England or Italy. But upon Carlito’s chaotic counter, the visitor never failed to notice a very peculiar piece of furniture: it was a kind of marbled sculpture representing a pair of horns, perhaps bull-horns, mounted on a sound block of dark-greenish marble in which the name “Carlito” was carved…I always wished to meet the brilliant sculptor who conceived that piece and pat him on the back, but never had the chance…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: communication

hovering

Posted on February 17, 2007 @ 6:33 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, diving, fun, wordpress

gravity diving aynaku illustration travel

Gravity attracts towards the centre of the earth. On the contrary, we all wish to fly and set us free from this fundamental law of nature, but just in dreams we fly! And unless we can afford an intergalactic voyage, we will never experience what really means to live with no load of gravity. As a child I remember myself watching TV and gazing curiously at those funny fellows hovering inside some very spacecraft: how happily they smiled despite their complicated equipments and the absolute lack of freedom… I guess that vision has been enough for me to make the sudden decision of diving. In fact underwater hovering is an exciting experience, something really similar to space hovering: I heard that astronauts themselves train for a long time below the sea surface before attempting their expeditions and spacewalks. And both environments are similar as well: cold, blue still and deeply silent…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: gravity

crash

Posted on February 10, 2007 @ 11:08 am by massimo | Filed under: blog, fear, philippines, wordpress

boracy aynaku travel illustration

I always like stormy weather and perhaps I am a hopeless romantic. A few days after I got the island of Boracay were I was about to spend such a long time, in a low-season windy night I went to the local disco, a place called Bazura , to have a beer or two and a little dancing. I was so excited: dancing barefoot under the stormy black sky really pulled me up! I kept on dancing, gazing at the wild swinging of the coconut trees and making friends with local beauties. Late at night the wind had increased surprisingly hard and it seemed safe to everybody to quit the place and getting home before the coming storm would make it impossible. With my empty bottle of beer in hand -a souvenir almost- and my mind full of happy nonsense, I recklessly started moving. All I had to do was to follow the palm fringed pathway at whose dark end my little bungalow was. But the hard confounding wind, blowing against my nose, and my dizzy thoughts, let me to do just a few quick steps in the dark, before crashing painfully into the trunk of an apparently invisible coconut tree. Gosh! I felt clearly the crack of my eye-glasses lens breaking, closed my eyes instinctively and so avoided some more serious trouble. What a night…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: crash

Six weird things about me

Thanks Lu and Pati for tagging me. The ones who know me say I run an uncommon life; I fear it is my DNA. Anyways here are six hints:
1. I do not orientate myself that much, both with situations or surroundings. I might get lost even in my
hometown.
2. I like very dim lights and would push back into the shadows the things that come forward too clearly.
3. I always feel embarrassed by wearing a brand new, polished pair of shoes: they are so inelegant to me…
4. I always remember plainly the dream I dreamt the night before, and every night I have a dream.
5. Please don’t ask me to drive a car unless absolutely needed! (But I’m a good driver then.)
6. I never owned a guidebook.

bean sprouts

Posted on February 3, 2007 @ 5:59 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, food, travel, wordpress

 

Bean sprouts are the tender stems sprouted from a variety of beans. Most common ones are soybean sprouts which are long succulent and crisp. Soya foods have been part of the Chinese …