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Tuesday, February 17, 2004

A lot of things happened this weekend. Saturday, we celebrated Wat’s birthday in their condo unit. What’s more memorable was after dinner, Edgar and I were at the pool side, smoking cigarettes. There was this Indian guy who approached Edgar. He seemed to have asked Edgar a question to which he politely replied. Soon, we were already discussing. During the discussion, it happened that the Indian guy mentioned that he taught in La Salle University. At that instant, I told him that I do teach in La Salle, too. Then, he said he did teach in Zobel for sometime when Mr. Cadlum was the principal. Surprised, I asked him, “Don’t tell me your name is Khuzupilly (pronounced as Ku-ru-pili). He was astounded. More so when I told him that his first name is Sebastian. He couldn’t remember me but he said that was correct. No wonder, he looked familiar. After that brief encounter and small talk of reminiscing of old times, I told Edgar it was time for us to return to the party. However, Ollie and Joven arrived so we stayed there for a while.

When we decided to come back to the party, Joven, in true Filipino fashion, asked him if he wanted to join. And he did! We introduced him to Wat and Ompong and when he was offered food, he went directly to the buffet table and practically got everything to be had without batting an eyelash. He didn’t need to be entertained. He felt at home and too close for comfort. He first had an eye at Jenny as I saw him giving her a glance a couple of times. Besides, he told me that Jenny was very beautiful. I ignored this. When he realized he couldn’t get me or anybody from our table interested, he stood up and talked with Tetay and her friend who were seated in another table.

At this point, I, and the guys from our table, had gone outside the hall to smoke anew. Soon after, Tetay followed and told us that she’s peeved at Sebastian as he was very straightforward. Tetay said that Sebastian even told her that he wanted to sire her children. We joked Tetay by saying. “why didn’t you tell him you’re gay?”

To make a long story short, we couldn’t find a way to drive him away. When Kathy came to tell us to get Sebastian as he was pestering Kgan, I decided to get him. Maybe he took the cue as he told me that he was about to go home. So I said, okay.

Sebastian had never been popular in Zobel during his small stint. He has several ways that would annoy any Filipino. As a matter of fact, he had been the butt of jokes by students and teachers alike. It turns out that he hasn’t changed to this day. Even if he claims that he has a condo unit being rented by a Sudanese, he seemed like a beggar who was looking for a free dinner. He had been staying in the country for twenty years and it seems like he never learned the culture. He was lucky the guys took his passes at Tetay as a joke. He couldn’t have gotten out of the building alive had any of the boys taken him seriously. Of course, having been an acquaintance of mine helped.

The second incident was about my car. I was about to visit my mom yesterday when I decided to have my car serviced at my usual Shell service shop. My car has not had a tune up and change of oil since July. What happened was a nightmare. The change oil procedure went smoothly. During the tune-up, the mechanic was having a hard time replacing the contact point. Since it was way past lunchtime, he left the car and another mechanic took charge. When he thought everything was fine, he ran the engine to crank it up. I suddenly heard a loud bang from the engine. By this time, my original mechanic was back from his lunch. It turned out that during the course of replacing the contact point, one screw was misplaced and got stuck at the distributor damaging the gears of the distributor and the crankshaft.

The extent of the damage was great that I couldn't take the car home and was only able to get it tonight. The poor mechanic had to bear the cost and will probably be suspended according to the owner. I told the owner that I wasn't asking that he be suspended. All I wanted was for the car to be put back in order and that's it. He said that the guy has to learn his lesson.

Actually, the car was put to even better condition after this incident as the engine was given a complete top overhaul. The gaskets have been replaced and I now have one brand new distributor. My heart bleeds for the poor mechanic but i can't do anything about it.




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