Sunrise, Sunset

My niece, barely two years old then.

Got a bit misty eyed and overly sentimental when I saw a clip of my one and only niece belting out the lead parts of Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" along with her co-workers on YouTube.

Yes, she's the same little girl who used to sing along with me to Paul Westerberg's "First Glimmer" and Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" all grown up now.

Reminds me of a song from the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears...

Never cared for this song that much until now. Perhaps we all see things at a different perspective once we're older.

Oh, how time flies.

A Middle-aged Volleyball Fan

My wife and I enjoying the live volleyball game.

The moment Ateneo De Manila University Lady Eagles top gun Alyssa Valdez rammed that Season 76 championship clinching spike against the De La Salle University Lady Spikers, I was among the thousands in front of their TV sets to jump, fist pump, and shout as the Lady Eagles finally claimed their first ever women's volley title.

How come a middle aged guy with no affiliation whatsoever with the winning school was whooping it up?

Why would someone who once deemed the sport too unmanly in his younger years like it?

Let's go back and back and back...

As a teenager, I played hoops. I had a decent shooting touch, average passing and rebounding skills and a tremendous vertical leap. However, I couldn't utilize my left hand to the hilt and was way too slow to be a two guard.

My signature and much criticized fade away shot befuddled many defenders. I patterned it after seeing PBA legend Atoy Co's signature move hundreds of times but realized years later that it was more akin to that of Alvin Patrimonio's low post turnaround shot. No kidding, my younger brother can attest to that!

Basketball though wasn't allowed at school grounds. An old ten foot high backboard with no rim and net stood there by its lonesome as a silent witness to many fist fights among the students inside the campus.

Boys my age were then content to play "sipa" to while away their vacant periods. That too was eventually banned and I was even among those who were required to squat for an eternity as a punishment for defying the ban.

Not long after the start of my freshman year, a net was placed in the middle of the school grounds. It wasn't for tennis, not for badminton and definitely not for sepak takraw.

What's it for?

Well, what else but volleyball! The lone sport our school excelled in back in the days of side-outs, underhand serves and "balik-balik" brand of play. Our players were good enough to be champions in our town and reach the BULPRISA - the Bulacan Private Schools Association meet.

Curious to find out why the crowd was starting to swell, I craned my neck to get a glimpse of our bets. It was a mix of seniors, juniors, and sophomores. Among them is an aunt of mine who's quite tall and lanky. A perfect volleybelle specimen. The only caveat is she can't jump that high and neither were the others. Our team coached by my uncle topped the town tourneys up until my senior year.

Then there's those summer inter barrio leagues where our very own "kabarrios" played. Led by another aunt who is Mika Reyes' grandma, our girls played against the creme of our town's crop of volleybelles amidst chants of "daya" and "bunot" because we fielded in former Far Eastern University varsity players and  reserves who had seen better days. Be that as it may, they were still head and shoulders above this kind of competition. Their opponents simply didn't stand a chance.

Those were my earliest exposure to the sport that is now enjoying a huge following. That's how I came to love it even at this late stage of my life. Of course, there was a time I completely forgot about it much like my passion for basketball.

It eventually came back to my subconscious by the time a lovely Brazilian named Leila Barros hit Manila by storm. The interest was revived. Too bad, I wasn't able to watch her play in the flesh.

Fast forward to 2006. Studio 23 was showing a marathon replay of UAAP games. I was out of work and with nothing more worthwhile to watch, I was glued to the games and became familiar with players like my all-time favorites - Charo Soriano and Patti Taganas of Ateneo, the FEU troika of Maica Morada, Wendy Semana and Rachel Daquis, UP's Mela Lopez and UST's Venus Bernal, Mary Jean Balse, Angge Tabaquero and the gorgeous Denise Tan.

Again, I stopped following the games until the "Fab 5" of Ateneo came along. Their brand of play caught my eye and I instantly became a Lady Eagle supporter from then on. Why? Maybe because we Filipinos love to root for the underdogs.

As a sports enthusiast, it didn't take long for me to learn the intricacies of this discipline. I now fully understand what the various positions entail, the roles of each player on the court, the rotation, the formations, the rules and violations, etc.

Too old for volleyball?

Tell that to legendary UST coach August Santamaria and others like Roger Gorayeb, Nes Pamilar, Kit Santos or even Dulce Pante and to folks much older than me who love the sport and have recently rediscovered the game.

Greasy Beast

Presenting the Jawbreaker!

Out of curiosity, my wife and I one day decided to sink our teeth into the latest burger craze in town: Zark's extremely popular and humongous greasy beast known as the "Jawbreaker."

We arrived at the Archer's Nook a little past six in the evening. Before we could proceed to the dinning area, we were greeted by a long queue that we initially thought was for some job interview or something. It turned out these folks were also there for the burgers.

I never liked waiting and persuaded my better half to try Army Navy or Yellow Cab instead but she wouldn't listen. We approached the female crew member-cum-maitre d' and gave out our first names.

People were arriving but very few were leaving the now popular joint. I was getting very impatient, really. Five, ten, fifteen minutes, how long should we wait? A little over the twenty minute mark, our names were finally called. Now, we'll know what the fuzz is all about.

Zark's it turned out is never about aesthetics as the inside's almost bereft of any decorations. There's a flat screen showing an NBA game and some pictures and that was it. I couldn't care less because we didn't go there for the decors anyway.

Luckily, we found a corner table as I disliked those in the middle. A young gentleman handed us the menu. I browsed through it but we've already made up our minds. It's gonna be the "Jawbreaker" for dinner!

After ten minutes, give or take a few, it arrived. Three generous burger patties with lettuce, tomatoes, melted cheese, bacon and two slices of Spam on top. I dismantled the layer and feasted on the two burger patties first and then sliced the rest in four parts.

I've had my share of large meals in my life but this one's really something else. I was sweating profusely while eating. A combination of the taste and the not so cool surroundings. After finally slaying the beast, it felt like I won't be having another bite of burger in another month or so.

Don't get me wrong, it was good but what made the craving go away was the sudden attack of dizziness the moment we stepped out of Zark's. Was it the heat? No. I knew it but was still in a state of denial. Plain and simple, I had too much. An old man with stage one hypertension should've known better.

We had a minor detour on the way home and stopped at the nearest drug store to buy Catapres tablets. I put in underneath my tongue to dissolve and help lower my blood pressure.

This would be the first and last time for us to binge on the greasy beast a.k.a. the "Jawbreaker." A second serving specially for me might lead to hospital confinement and the result of which is gonna be one hell of a bank breaker!

Kung-Fu Kid

Bruce Lee

My dad and I used to follow Grasshopper's exploits in the western world via the immortal 70's television series Kung-Fu. It starred the late David Carradine. Yes, the same guy who'd resurface almost three decades later as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's fourth film.

Inside the dark Times theater in Quiapo, Manila, I sat still for almost five hours watching Bruce Lee's triple feature - The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon. Upon leaving the movie house, I can't help but imitate Lee's moves.

One late evening, my aunt and I watched The Prodigal Boxer starring Meng Fei on RPN 9 if my memory serves me right. It was way past my bedtime yet I was right in front of the boob tube cheering the lead character to beat the hell out of his tormentor played by Shoji Karada.

I was awed by the kicking mastery exhibited by Delon Tam in The Boxer's Adventure and from then on, I became biased to the northern leg style. Tam's student, John Liu also caught my fancy in The Invincible Armour as well as in The Dragon, The Hero.

I used to take long walks after school along Rizal and Claro M. Recto Avenue where you have this endless rows of movie houses like Cinerama, Roben, Main, Podmon, Hollywood and Avenue to check out movie stills and watch the trailers in those black and white television sets just outside the lobby.

I was that passionate with kung-fu during my elementary days.

But by the time Jackie Chan and Jet Li hit the big time, I was already a teenager and completely lost interest in this Chinese form of martial arts as music and basketball became my favorite pastime.

Through the years, I'd like to believe that my taste in cinema has profoundly improved but even up to now, whenever Jean Claude Van Damme's Bloodsport and Ralph Macchio's Karate Kid are on, I still watch them. Come on guys, wouldn't you?

Hiyaa!