missing mangga, snubbing progessive lenses and saying hi to an honored NZ guest

FROM EITHER sleeping in this morning or one glass of wine too many last night, I can’t think coherently enough for one topic in this space today, so if any of you care I’m sorry.  I can think, though, of a few fleeting thoughts (about home or related to home) that occupied me. ***                **              **               **               *** Good news travels fast, and if the news is about good food, specifically good food back home, news travels even faster.  I got mine last week from an honorary Pinoy, SuperBisor and his kabayan girlfriend, who happened to pass by the fruit & veggie store. You better pass by Jina’s if you don’t want to miss out, they’re probably almost gone today was the cryptic comment I got from SuperBisor that morning, confirming a photo post I saw on the FB page of esposa hermosa’s friend.  Golden mangoes (from Guimaras,  Zamboanga or Pangasinan, I don’t know) were being sold here, and they were going fast. A minimum six boxes containing 2 dozen mangoes each box were brought out by the store, according to the apologetic grocer, and they were all gone before the end of the day, according to esposa.  It didn’t take a Mensa candidate to figure out who the mysterious hoarders were, either countrymen who were lucky enough to pick up the scent or Kiwis, Maoris or (Polynesian) Islanders in the know.  Me myself, I hadn’t had a taste of the orgasmic fruit of my childhood since my last Manila vacay earlier in the year, and the sweet-sour tangy flesh that Pinoys could never get enough of, I could only savor in my dreams. [ Afterthought : and if you thought stocking up was a penny-smart alternative to paying for more later, the mangoes cost NZ$4.99 each, definitely not the poor man’s fruit in these parts, but just the same they sold like (White King) hotcakes. 🙂 ] Hoping for a new shipment a week later, esposa and I dared not hope too much and passed by the same shop again today.  Would you believe it?  Another six boxes gone in less than 24 hours, and only a pale shadow counterpart, Australian mangoes, sat in mute testimony to their absence.  The only upside to our sad mango-less situation :  The mango trade was so brisk that the owner was bound to get more in the near, near future. For many of us here in Wellington, near future couldn’t be soon enough. ***               **               **               **               *** I went to two suki optometrists back home five months ago, buying a pair of eyeglasses from each to make sure I’d always have a visual aid for my stubborn myopia, my surest sign that middle-age hood was well on its way.  Each of the eye doctors there told me the same thing :  that my myopia-cum-astigmatism hadn’t deteriorated too much, but I might want to consider purchasing progressive lenses to avoid the inconvenience of removing and replacing the spectacles. Without even pausing to ask what they were, I politely declined, not realizing that they would be a huge help to me since the myopia that bothers me when I try to focus on things from a distance doesn’t bother me up close, specifically when I’m reading.  In short, the glasses I use for distance are actually a nuisance when I try to read. Unless, you guessed it, I use progressive lenses. Which I totally neglected to try in the Philippines, on the ground that I thought they might be more expensive, which was nonsense because not only was the additional cost practically negligible long term, the hassle it would’ve saved me, as I’m agonizing over now, would’ve been tremendous.  Because of the foolhardy savings of a few pesos, I’m suffering a hundredfold in terms of frustration these days. 🙁 ***               **               **               **               *** President Noynoy Aquino is coming, in fact is probably already here in New Zealand up there in Auckland, but because so many kabayan want to see him, and because each town in New Zealand is sending so many of its unofficial delegates, it’s almost not worth the bother trying.  He will be attending a few Filipino-New Zealand themed events and this is quite good for the Pinoy community, and will needless to say raise his stock with Pinoys, family and friends lucky enough to see him in person. When an event of this magnitude reaches migrant shores, there will always be those who will have something negative to say about it, and the bottom line about it is you can’t please everybody.  There will always be people who will be told that there’s no more room inside, there will be people who no matter how far they’ve come will be disappointed, and there will be kabayan who will miss him by just a few minutes. It’s probably safe to say that the man is trying his best to reach out to as many countrymen as he can, trying to do as much as he can in the short time he’s in charge, and if he can inspire as many of us as he can into supporting economic growth back home, I don’t mind if I can’t see him in person, as long as everything goes well during his visit. Mabuhay President Noynoy, have a safe trip back home and please take care of our Inang Bayan while we are away!

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