Cebu, Cebu

Am writing this in an internet cafe in scenic Cebu City. Or at least I'm told it's scenic; I have yet to see a part of Cebu that doesn't look like some part of Manila (not counting aerial views). The place we're staying at is, as GT texted me, "the only hotel called Waterfront that doesn't have water in front! Hahahahaha!" She's a card. Still, it's exciting being here; if there are indeed invisible lines that connect us to the places we call home, my lines haven't been stretched this far in quite a while. Before this morning, I hadn't even been on a plane in like five years or more, though not for lack of trying, as the people who see me all the time at airports hiking up my pants leg and sticking out my hitchhiking thumb can attest.

"Holy crap -- we're going BACKWARDS," was the first thought I had as Cebu Pacific flight 5J563 suddenly went into motion, at around 10am. If we were in a car, I thought, I would be worried. Luckily we were in a multi-ton flying device designed to transport human beings through the very air seemingly in defiance of a shitload of natural laws or any rational assumptions. I mean, think about it. But anyway, after about a quarter of an hour or more of waiting, we were just happy the plane was moving at all. The delay was apparently due to the fact that the crew was "waiting for some flight documents," without which we couldn't take off. Documents? Not a tardy crew member or vital mechanical part? I thought: the only type of documents whose absence would delay a take-off must be a manual of some sort. I imagined the pilot thumbing frantically through a copy of Flying for Dummies, asking hinself what would Han Solo do?, as the craft around him turned into screaming fiery bits of twisted metal plummeting earthward.

Anyway, takeoff was exciting. I really can't understand the people who are reading newspapers during the takeoff. I don't care if their souls are shriveled sacks of anti-wonder that can't appreciate the miracle of man-engineered flight -- what I can't understand is their lack of any sense of self-preservation. Don't they know that I am going to kill them for blocking my window view with their broadsheets?

Notes on the pre-departure area, btw: there are signs posted there that warn people that even joking about bombs will get you into unimaginable amounts of trouble. Of course, reading those signs, I experienced an almost-uncontrollable urge to start cracking, you guessed it, lots of jokes about bombs. Also, a magazine rack is always nice to see, but there's no way I'm paying over five hundred freakin' pesos for the new SPIN, even if it is the Ultimate Lists issue.

Oh, as to why I'm here -- am the scriptwriter for the big MTV HITS CEBU event. Great lineup: "Rivermaya, Parokya ni Edgar, Sugarfree, Kitchie Nadal, and Kjwan, with Cebu’s very own Junior Kilat, and Urbandub." Which reminds me, time to get back to revising my script to appease the sponsors. Am running on half an hour of sleep and I need to finish this before I can even think of seeing my hotel room. *yawns*