I’m sitting here in Soper’s Hole on my boat wondering what to put on my blog. Ning and Nong are off shopping in Road Town so it's just me and a bottle of Pussers. All kinds of things going on in the world. Earthquakes. SNP win in Scotland. Beheadings. Global warming. Same-sex marriage. Hillary Clinton... on and on it goes. But to be perfectly frank it's all water off my back. My mind goes back to those heady days with Oscar in Manila.
Oscar was well set up by the time I got there. He’s got one bar in Ermita running nicely and he’s in the process of opening a couple more in Angeles City. It doesn’t take me long to realize where I fit in. Manager, co-owner, I don’t know what the technical term was for keeping the girls happy and counting the money. There was lots of perks. I had an office above the bar with a bedroom attached, handy for interviewing prospective dancers.
The Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos was a paradise for blokes like us. There was no AIDs to worry about and no NGOs running around taking pictures. Thanks Ferdinand.
Oscar was well set up by the time I got there. He’s got one bar in Ermita running nicely and he’s in the process of opening a couple more in Angeles City. It doesn’t take me long to realize where I fit in. Manager, co-owner, I don’t know what the technical term was for keeping the girls happy and counting the money. There was lots of perks. I had an office above the bar with a bedroom attached, handy for interviewing prospective dancers.
The Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos was a paradise for blokes like us. There was no AIDs to worry about and no NGOs running around taking pictures. Thanks Ferdinand.
The coppers were honest in them days too. None of this ‘planting shaboo in your bathroom’ nonsense or picking your girlfriend up and telling you she’s been kidnapped. All you had to do back then was slip the police chief a few thousand pesos every month and they’d leave you alone.
Accommodation? No problem. There was loads of good deals in the Ermita area. Once I decided to stay I got a nice apartment but at first I stayed at Mabini Mansions. Bloody alright it was. 300 pesos a night for TV, fridge, stove the lot. There was a charge for extra pillows though. Limit of five.
I soon got the hang of riding jeepneys. The best seat is in front with the driver. OK so you get the full blast of the diesel fumes from other jeepneys when you’re stuck in traffic but you also get the full Manila experience. Bayad. The money gets passed up to the front and the driver sits there sorting out his change. Then suddenly he’s working up through the gears and you’re off! Nothing like the thrill of charging full tilt across an open intersection with other jeepneys left and right, belching black smoke, all aiming for the same breaks in the traffic. It’s exhilarating I tell you. Goes great with a few San Miguels. I still get sentimental when I see a bottle of that stuff.
As for Ferdinand……well times change.
No comments:
Post a Comment