I asked a Chinese lady at the line at a fast-food stall in 168 Shopping Mall in Divisoria which Chinese restaurant she would recommend and she pointed at Wai Ying Restaurant. She told me to order beef mami. Judging from the criterion that the quality of the food of a restaurant is directly related to the number of customers who queue for it, I surmised that Wai Ying passed the test. The restaurant had ran out of beef mami when it was finally my turn to order and I had to settle for wanton mami noodles. I could not finish it, however. Perhaps I have acquired the taste of California Chinese food which I have been used to for over a decade? So I went back to Wai Ying and asked the server to box the mami for me thinking that I would give it to a beggar down the road walking back to the Philippine National Railway Tutuban Station.
Would you believe there were no beggars in Manila’s Divisoria, anymore? I was desperate to share my excess food and sure of the good taste of the highly recommended mami and so I offered my boxed mami to two seemingly poor vendors but none of them accepted it. A school boy who looked hungry wandering during school hours did not accept my offer too. But no, I said to myself, there are still poor people who will accept my mami in Makati. I see them almost every day near the Barangay Sports Complex being constructed a block away from the Cash and Carry Mall.
I walked up to the PNR Tutuban station and I was lucky enough to be the last person to board the 3:30 p.m. train traveling south back to Makati. I boarded the carriage for senior citizens and persons with disabilities thinking that it would be more convenient for an old bloke like me. When I got in, I found out that car’s air-conditioner was not working. Moreover, its windows facing west had to remain closed to protect passengers from shrapnels of stones thrown at the train by hoodlums living near the railroad tracks. Oh life! There were just three passengers plus the train marshal (every PNR car has one, by the way) when I boarded but when we got to the third station, our car was full and I had to give my seat to a lady who was more senior than me. (I am not that old yet, ey!)
When we reached the Santa Mesa Station, the train stopped. Permanently. For how long’ I did not bother to find out. Because a few minutes after new passengers have boarded, the Train Marshal told us that the train’s brakes were not working and the repair crew coming from the Tutuban Station have been called. I said goodbye to my twelve peso train ticket ride and booked a Grab car for a peso-fare of 212.
By about 5:00 p.m. I got to Makati at last and the lady sitting on a wheelchair near the “under construction” Barangay Sports Complex accepted my excess mami.
