Pfft goes our Christmas gifts

Lahad ng anak sa doodles11006@yahoo.com:

WE joke about the oil tanker that got hijacked off Somalia. That tanker was Aramco's and it came from my area, ha-ha-ha. There goes our safety awards for December-- there are millions worth of oil in that tanker. Safety awards are keepsakes for employees from both Aramco and job contractors as reward for year-long observance of safety rules. I got a cutlery set last year. Looks like a cellphone will be this year’s giveaway. But I'm rooting for an external memory hard drive or a made-in-Germany hardware tool set.

Much talk was spent among us on why the supertanker Sirius Star was not armed. The route it took was dangerous and the tanker was the biggest Aramco has. This business of hijacking and kidnapping is nearly everywhere, ha-ha-ha. Nakaka-bad trip ang Senate investigation kay Joc-joc Bolante.

How is my niece doing? Is she ok now? Aaron also informed me that she was hospitalized, I thought she was with you guys most of the time.

I called in sick today-- my tonsils had been acting up and I better not push myself. Mahirap magkasakit dito lalo na 'pag taglamig na.

Luhod ng ama mula noqualmasabomb@yahoo.com:

THAT route passing through the Suez Canal is less costly in terms of time and fuel—that man-made canal provides such efficiencies, trenchant pirates provide multi-billion payment woes for Lloyds of London. Reports say it’s S.O.P for pirates in that part of the globe to take any vessel they wish to, why, they’re still holding 16 ships and more than 250 sailors, practically making a laughingstock out of George Wimp Bush’s global war against terror, pwe-he-he-he!

Yeah, no reprisals, no punitive or preventive measures, no surgical strikes on pirate lairs… pirates can enjoy their spoils and strike with impunity, unperturbed by NATO, the U.S. war fleets, and all sophisticated surveillance satellites hovering over those parts.

Ah, captive vessels like Sirius Star (that’s “dog star,” brightest orb in the celestial sphere) and furtive vassals like Joc-joc Bolante… Disco Volante (literally “spinning disk”), a vessel of villainy in the James Bond movie, “Thunderball” was blown to smithereens. Joc-joc is no whirling dervish but one who spins laughs for sick entertainment… sasambulat at magkakalasug-lasog din kaya siya? I’m not one to suggest a shift in inquiry tack, say, debriefing, outright tactical interrogation or pumping him up with sodium amythal prior to Senate hearings, mwa-ha-ha-haw!

La Mesa Heights, a village of some 50 homes right inside the La Mesa Dam forest reservation—that’s where Musa and her mom and dad will be residing for a few years or so. I’ve been telling her that we’ll catch fighting spiders and pit ‘em in combat, watch blazes of fireflies in the night, snare a stray chameleon or two, and put up patches of cherry tomatoes, holy basil, and herbs for cookery… Once a week, itinerant peddlers from Angat Dam which feeds the La Mesa water reservoir bring exotica like freshwater eels (kasili), silver perches (ayungin), native catfish, and salted boar and venison meat cuts… am I drooling? I’ve got some genteel friends living in that same village.

Over beers, I was told by one fair damsel of a friend there: “Our parents raised us to appreciate things that matter. A posh house to live in can’t rub off its posh into you. Expensive clothes, cars, gadgets, all that can’t infect you with a measure of self-worth. Fine eating on your table don’t provide you with a taste for the finest things… Our parents valued education, iba ang may pinag-aralan.”

Tag-init ng ulo dito, nagsisimulang sumakit ang mga bulsa, malapit na kasi ang Pasko-ho-ho-ho!