when i was a kid, Jesus being dead every fridays and saturdays during the annual holy week celebrations scared me so. i blame it on a morbid adult who told me that during these two days with Jesus dead and all, evil comes to life — and we’re talking about ghosts and ghouls and spirits and just about everyone dead and half-dead whose sole preoccupation is to give people goosebumps when they fail to make them scream. i grew up believing that, i swear to god. back then, halloween for me was a bi-annual event.

and then there was that sculpture of the bloodied Jesus lain on the altar in church. everyone lined up to kiss his physical image. i was the only kid crying and screaming because i just couldn’t (and wouldn’t) do it.

which is why i’m so glad i know better now. or do i? haha. maybe not but at least i’m not stupid enough to continue believing that Jesus is really dead on those two days. yeah, i was a dorky kid. but i’m all grown up now. what you are seeing is the brand-new dorky me — new and improved! lol.

so anyway, since it was a black saturday and all, we decided to do something religious for a change. we decided to do visita iglesia, which is a roman catholic tradition of visiting fourteen churches while meditating on the passion of Christ. it’s an alternative to the regular stations of the cross, i guess. so, yeah, that’s what we decided.

but that’s not exactly what we did. because first things first, it was almost lunch time and we had to have lunch. so we dropped by co jordan in consolacion, which is this restaurant sitting on a huge pond where they sell grilled fish and oyster (what aphrodisiac?!) and pork and chicken. you can also fish there too, if you can bear the heat. for 50 pesos you can rent a bamboo fishing pole and fish till you drop, which i hope you wouldn’t because the mossy-greenish water doesn’t look too inviting. it’s a good place. a little overpriced, but it’s okay.

it was really crowded, though. that’s the big turn-off. but i guess it was expected with saturday being a weekend. a black saturday at that, so people flocked where they could flock. and there we were adding to the population.

another turn-off? the videoke machine. we’re terrible videoke fans (and singers), sure, but at least we do it where the only people we punish is each other — and we have learned to live with each other’s cacophony — but to subject innocent guests who happen to be within the proximity of a public videoke machine is just unforgiving. but i guess as filipinos, it’s something we have to learn to forgive. videoke is here to stay.