First of February. Another new beginning. Such is life -it begins, it ends. I’ve had my share of new beginnings, some harrowing, some exciting. Like the first time I have ever set foot in Manila -nearly 45 years ago. I was already 16 and growing a semblance of a mustache on my face when I first saw Manila. My parents didn’t allow me to go earlier because I had motion sickness. If I traveled more than 30mins in a bus or a jeepney, I’d vomit. We didn’t have a car then. Tatang had a carabao but Manila is 100kms away. No intentions to rewrite Exodus.

So bus ride it was -Victory Liner, no less. Just the sight of it made me dizzy already. No kidding. Like I was being hypnotized every time I get near one. Anyway, as expected, breakfast and Ovaltine came out faster than they entered my mouth that day. At the end of the ride, I got off that bus so paper-white pale, very hungry and extremely dizzy. I saw a city spinning wildly. I’ve never seen so much people crossing the street. We were at Avenida Rizal corner Carriedo where three-fourths of the population of Manila then converged. My first ever meal was at Panciteria Moderna across Sta. Cruz Church in Manila. We had pancit (modern pancit) and Sarsaparilla. In my first taxi ride, my fingers were caught when the %*#@ driver closed the trunk lid abruptly. I screamed so loud that the noon mass in the church was disrupted. Mea culpa!

It was a baptism of firsts for me that fateful first day in the city. If I had been told then all these were indications of what kind of life waiting for me in Manila, I’d probably had gone back home that day to plant rice and feed the carabaos. Thankfully, no one did tell. That day I came for my college entrance exams and stayed until I graduated. What became of me after all these years is for another cup of coffee.

I raise my cup to new beginnings. Cheers!

#MyCafeNotes