Lancelot
Full time employment: Posting here.
Not Aachen, not Augsburg…
…but Angeles City, the Republic of the Philippines.
Kantine 101 is only a stone’s throw from my hotel and one of my favorite haunts here in Angeles. The food is great -even the Germans praise it- the beer is cheap, the waitresses are friendly and have that endearing Filipino trait of bursting out in song at any opportunity.
I usually meander over around 10 am for coffee and breakfast, this morning I had “Bratkartoffen mit 2 spiegle” (two fried eggs over fried potatos.) It is pretty deserted in the mornings so the waitresses give me some tagalog language lessons. I think it will only be another 27 years until I am fluent.
Around 5 pm the Kantine starts to fill up and a group of regulars move a table outside, swill alcohol and solve the world’s problems. A bottle of locally distilled vodka can be had for $1.50 USD ($1USD = 46 Philippine pesos) so sometimes the discussions get a bit lively. I haven’t witnessed any brawls yet but as the contents of the bottles decrease, so does the capacity for real injury. Having said that, probably the greatest risks are: A) falling off one’s plastic chair, or B) walking into the path of an oncoming -and equally drunken- trike or motorcycle.
The Kantine 101 Debating Society usually consists of two Australians, two Brits, and one Kiwi. Yours truly is permitted to join in; however, I am not a full fledged member of the group. Probably because I ordered the invasion and occupation of Iraq and, according to one of the Brits, “Americans don’t speak properly.”
The Kantine proprietors are Grace and Alan, a 30 something Filipino couple with a lovely, but naughty, 6 year old daughter. The daughter has several obese albino rabbits that she drags in and out of the Kantine. She also has a mongrel puppy that she puts on top of a stack of rice bags so he can’t run off. “Killer” sits on his perch and yaps away, competing with the TV and drunks. Yep, that’s the Kantine everybody talking and nobody listening.
On an earlier visit, I met a 90 year old father and his 60 year old son. Lolo (grandfather in tagalog) was a hoot-he had been visiting the Philippines for over 30 years and still loved to hit the bars. The Filipinos are a rare society that continue to respect age and elders. Many times I have seen Lolo out walking and trike (motorcycle with side car) drivers stop and offer to take him home for free. And that is saying something because, in general, the trike drivers are a rough bunch. But I honestly believe that if anyone were to disrespect or harm Lolo in any way, a dozen trike drivers would swarm in and beat the living crap out of the miscreant.
I would continue this informative missive but I see the Kantine Debating Society is beginning to assemble, so I need to join in and receive another language lesson (so I’ll be able to speak English properly…)
Lance
