EYES WIDE OPEN/ PETER LA. JULIAN/WELCOME 2014

 
     The church bell tolls several minutes after six in the afternoon. There is a night mass at the Oscariz Roman Catholic Church. But I forego the ritual and let the time pass.
     The blogger and 8-year old grandson Henry are in the front sala, he playing a game on my I-Pad. 
     Customers make a beeline at Raul's Lechon Manok stand that sells roast chicken, roast pork liempo and sisig

and grilled bangus wrapped in tin foil. The stand, in front of the house, opened early this morning anticipating customers buying food for their last evening meal in 2013. Mama is the cashier this time. She is inside an enclosure, actually the front of the gym for women which is closed for the holiday.
     The blogger is sleepy, his eyes painful. Could be the ill-fitting eyeglasses and I must have it fixed in January 2014.
     The night is getting cold--it's 8:30 PM on my Fossil watch bought three years ago in California-- and I put on a bonnet. Suddenly, I want to drink hard liquor, perhaps to warm my old body and not entertaining the idea of going to bed. My eldest son Jonathan and brother-in-law Chito are taking shots of Emperador brandy near the lechon manok stand. I go to the place and pour wine in the tea cup, sip, the liquid going down my throat and I feel a little hot.
     Customers arrive in trickles now, on motorcycles or motor bikes until past 10:30PM. The store closes shop at past 10:30PM. The kid and I go inside the house to watch TV with the  networks having their own programs focusing on celebrations on the great wait for 2014. There are concerts at Eastwood city and at Resorts World, all in the Metro Manila area. A special coverage is made on Tondo people waiting for 2014. It seems there will be fireworks in these places when the countdown stops and 2014 comes in like a conquering hero.
     The year comes with a little fanfare in the neighborhood--firecrackers are banned in the entire country-- but a few escape the ban and explode the crackers  a few minutes before the onset of the year and some luces went up the sky in our neighborhood. A few souls riding in tandem on their motorcycles roar past us--Henry, Jonathan and I-- on the roadside while watching the night sky lights up with fireworks.
      And so ends 2013. Let the 2013 pains and heartaches inflicted by supposed writer-friends be buried forever and the sweetness and joy of life in the same period remembered with fondness.
      I thank the Almighty God for giving me a bonus, another life to live fully and useful to others in need of comfort and material things,  this the blogger swears. I say, thank you, Lord, for all the blessings you have bestowed on the blogger for many years and for many years yet to come.