65TH POST!

August 13, 2008
@Home

Hey, this is this blog's 65th POST! (& not 64TH)
Like buildings without 13th floor, this blog has no post #64 - to side-step/avoid FISCHER Syndrome
(RJF died at age 64) Someone might retort - But I am not a CHESS GENIUS so no need to fear No. 64!
And today's date is 13 to boot!!!

Anyway... something new to read:
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Only just about 1 WEEK in BATANGAS & I already have some new experiences worth relating:

THE BAT
Sunday around 2:00 P.M. I was on the 2nd floor of the house in Alitagtag in the "Kwartong Ibaba" (southernmost room) looking around. Just as I was on the door portal, a dark flying thing suddenly swooped down from the ceiling almost hitting me & swept past to my left. Since it "glided" without flapping its wings, I knew then & there that it was a KABAG or small bat that had for some reason taken off too early in the day in the wrong direction. I'm now wondering if that was some kind of an omen... Omen ni Omeng... (A bat is usually identified as a MALEVOLENT creature - DRACULA in the movies turns ito a bat) I immediately went to the sala & waited for the bat to reappear. But it did not. I even imagined it would transform into DRACULA HAR! I intended to swat it using a walis-tingting. I thought: If DRACULA can SUCK my blood then my SECRET WEAPON against him would be one of my SWARD cousins or acquaintances -they will suck DRACULA DRY HAR! (Sotang BASTOS! - Dirty/filthy thoughts to counter a terrifying situation...) I went down & gave up the exploration of the 2nd floor. Later in the afternoon or early evening, my aunt went up. She then told me there was a KABAG on the loose & warned me that should I hear unusual noises in the house that night then that would be the explanation.

I no longer sleep in the Kwartong Ilaya because it is hot/stuffy in there. Besides there is the possibility that one night I might awaken & find myself entangled in passionate embrace (or lips-to-lips) with either a BUTIKI, a BIRD, a KABAG or worse, a TUKO! I just killed two big ANLALAWAs (spiders) in two places in the house...

Late in the evening/At night, the "sounds of silence" are still the same as those in my childhood or as far back as I can remember... The dead silence (+ distant kuligligs) is once in a long while broken only by the sound of a fast moving vehicle along the national road- a motorcycle or bus/truck or jeep on its lonely journey either to LEMERY/TAAL or to LIPA/MANILA. Deep into the night, the place is so peaceful & QUIET that one can hear the snore or teeth-gnashing of one of the neighbors! Sometimes the silence is broken by a crying baby (-having a nightmare?) or the creaking of one wooden beam/floor board of the house (Adjusting to the cooling environment...) Should it occur, I can identify the sound of walking/footsteps of my dead LOLAs & aunt! But I never had this potentially extremely terrifying experience... Indeed the roosters crow at around 3:30 - 4:00 A.M. My aunt told me in the past one of their natural timers was the flower of the PATOLA which she claimed opened at around 4:00 in the afternoon. I wonder if this is true...

The only unusual noise at night is a TUKO (GECKO) "TOKING" from one of the trees in our LOOBAN.
(a cow MOOS, a cat MEOWS & a TUKO TOKS! HAR! It usually TOKS 6-7 TIMES...

THE BIRD
Monday morning I forgot what time it was... In the 1st floor sala... I was musing to myself, walking to & fro a few steps reminiscing about events in the past in that part of the house. I vividly refreshed my memory of the time when a bird lost its way inside the house on the first floor & kept flying around seeking an escape. We were able to catch it in the sala. (More than thrice a bird had lost its way & got trapped in the house. We just open the doors & windows to let it escape.) Just AT THAT VERY MOMENT when I was imagining that scene when an uncle got hold of a lost bird, I heard a flapping wing... I thought it sounded like a bird & that it was there inside that very moment when I was imagining about the bird in the past... I dismissed the idea. After about 15 to 30 minutes I proceeded to the back part of the house to the kitchen. To my great surprise there was a medium-sized MAYA perched on a glass louver - inside! Indeed there was a bird in my thought & in reality! I thought to myself: I should be careful about what I imagine for it becomes/might become real! Compared to the BAT, this bird seems to be a BENEVOLENT being... Maghrib/Supper-time it had not yet reappeared. My aunt said it hid behind the cabinets... When I left Tuesday morning it was still somewhere in the house. I wonder where it went... It would die inside the house if it did niot escape..
Could it have been a benevolent JINN? (BUT I DOUBT if JINNS do appear as BIRDS...) The mere appearance of the BAT can be explained off as superstition... But the appearance of the BIRD (given the BAT) makes OCCULT studies interesting! Nevertheless/Still one can scientifically account for such occurences to the numerous bird-nests & scores of bats in that old dilapidated house - So, nothing really surprising... But what is the TRUTH?... SUPER/ULTRA CONSTHEO would not discount conspiring bats & birds!

Had nothing much to do (read books & make halungkat) so just INTERVIEWed my aunt about the past...
I estimate now that she is 75% RELIABLE about her stories... Failing memory... But I do not doubt her "floating hands" ghost story... [A TV ad features hands like those in BRUNEI flag... CHANCE???] When talking to her, one must know the proper timing/when to ASK or else she might just SNAP at you ("Walang katuturang tanong"...) She can suddenky FREEZE/remain uncommunicative as a stone & goodbye to the whole conversation/to your questions! I was able to elicit some additional stories that shall serve as bases for my comments on the new PHOTOS I will post on my "http://aku-si-jamaal.blogspot.com"
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