Paid in Sand

My good friend Jayjay and his girlfriend Rae are in town for the weekend. They arrived from Cebu friday morning. It's been more than a year when I last saw Jayjay. We always keep in touch through Jabber, Multiply, and SMS, but it's different when I personally hear him go on monologue about the latest books he's read or his latest interest like camera tossing or whatever.

Late friday night until 3 am of Saturday morning, I found myself in the company of Jayjay and Gary. We've spent hours talking about nothing and everything. About men and women, gender roles, hammers and screwdrivers, and black swans, and culture, and history, and photography. Even the art of picking up girls.

Conversations turn to almost chauvinistic, but always interesting. I came in a few minutes late for my training. But the newbies were doing their final exercise, so that was ok. In the afternoon, I met up with Jayjay and Rae in Cubao where we browsed through the stalls of Cubao X.

I've discovered Cubao X through Luz. And the first two times I've been there was with her. We lose time going through old books, antiques, curios, and all those 'lived-in' items seemingly covered with not just dust, but almost tangible residual memories of their previous owners. We once remarked to the guy who worked at Heritage how cool his job was - just reading and having access to all these interesting old books and magazines and art. He replied that it is a great job and he will still love it even he gets paid in sand. His exact words.

There are quirky galleries featuring collages and cutouts. Of modern oil paintings. There's also a place where they sell interesting chairs and chandeliers. Jayjay recognized one of the chairs as a world-famous design. I forgot the name, I'll text him to ask. And we were told that it was worth P40,000. Yeah that one previously-owned chair, where you rest your behind. And it's not even ergonomically comfortable. Form over functionality, I've been told. Sheesh.

While browsing through the shelves, Jayjay came upon this book - Time Life Book: The Art of Photography - which featured The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson, the famous photojournalist. He was raving about the photograph featured in the page. I bought the book for him and told him that he should consider it my early Christmas gift. It was well worth it.

And oh, yeah, to end this entry with a funny anecdote. We entered a dimly-lit and tiny cafe. There were sketches of Robert Alejandro for sale at P500 each and other knickknacks. A somewhat elderly guy came down from the second floor stairs, somehow startling Jayjay who excused himself by saying, "Ay, good evening po." I thought Jayjay recognized the guy already, so I just kept grinning back at him. Apparently, he didn't because when we exited he asked why I was so amused. That was Kuya Bodjie of Batibot, I laughingly told him. And both he and Rae chorused, "Oh, so that's why he looked so familiar!" They resolved to have their picture taken with Kuya Bodjie. So we went back in, Jayjay made small talk and asked if it was alright if he'd pose with them. He was nice about it. If Jayjay posts the pic, you guys now know who took it. :)

Mga bata, yan ang kwento ng pagbisita namin sa Cubao X. Hanggang sa susunod... Paalam!