Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Alabang-Zapote Road is a long stretch of oftentimes congested roadway that links Zapote, Las Piñas to Alabang, Muntinglupa. One is inclined to think that traversing Zapote-Alabang Road is safe enough since it’s quite a busy road with policemen, traffic aids and barangay tanod peppering the route.  On the contrary.

I was busy preparing dinner when D2 called at around 4:33 P.M yesterday.  She said that she was victimized on the jeep en route to Zapote. She was fine et al  but lost her pouch of chargers, USBs and other laptop/iPhone paraphernalia. That she was currently on board a police mobile car with the suspect in tow. Huh? Rewind please.

D2 got off from work at 4:00 P.M. Wanting to beat the afternoon rush hour; she opted to ride an empty jeepney near West Gate, Alabang going to Zapote, Las Piñas.  Near Alabang Hills, a group of passengers flagged down the jeepney and boarded.

D2 was sitting by the jeepney’s rear entry point.  Seated directly in front of her was a fat guy and beside that fat guy was a man wearing black shirt. Let’s tag the black-shirted man as Guy 1. On D2’s right side was Guy 2 then Guy 3.  The moment Guy 3 seated himself, he started belching and heaving, ready to vomit. After a hundred meters or so, Guy 3 decided to alight since he was about to vomit (allegedly). He made a big show of gagging on his own vomit in front of D2 then got off at Toyota Alabang. The fat guy alighted too so Guy 1 was now sitting directly in front of D2. 

Guy 1 quipped: “Miss, may suka po kayo”. To which D2 replied “anong suka?” as she thought there was no way Guy 3 could have vomited on her. To D2’s horror, she realized that her shoulders, hair and bag had saliva (vomit?!) all over!  Guy 1 was very solicitous in trying to wipe off the “vomit” from D2’s bag. D2, on the other hand, kept on telling Guy 1 to stop helping her as she was starting to have this nagging feeling that something was amiss.  Guy 2, the one sitting beside D2, was seemingly fidgeting and fiddling as D2's bag was being purposely and forcefully pushed towards Guy 2.  Guy 1 was trying to flip over D2’s bag and kept on saying that there was still spit on the bag’s back. 

Guy 1 then got off near Pilar Village, less than 200 meters from Toyota Alabang where Guy 3 and fat guy got off.  Guy 2 got off right after SM Southmall. Little did D2 know that the whole scenario was being scrutinized by two high school students. At the Moonwalk Junction, D2 noticed that her bag suddenly became lighter. She took a look inside and exclaimed that she lost her pouch! The two high-schoolers exclaimed: “sabi na nga ba e! Dura-Dura gang ang mga yon!” (dura is spit)

The high school students pointed out to D2 a mobile car parked along the road. D2 got off near Lozada and ran to the mobile car to tell her story. The very efficient policemen quickly asked D2 to get on the police car hoping to spot any of the cohorts along the road. A few meters away, D2 spotted Guy 2 riding another jeepney. She quickly told one of the policemen and they raced to cut-off the jeepney. 

This  is  Guy 2
Guy 2 is Arnold
 To cut  short Guy 2 was apprehended. He called his cohorts and told them to give back D2’s pouch. The accomplices left D2’s pouch in the restroom of Jollibee Casimiro so D2 was able to recover it.

By the time my son and I reached the sub-station, I was quite decided to tell D2 not file a formal complaint against the culprit. I even talked to the suspect and was quietly “sermonizing” him on the demerits of what he has done. The commanding officer of the sub-station encouraged us to lodge a complaint  against the suspect since the so called Dura-Dura gang has been terrorizing commuters in and around Las Piñas for some time now. 
  
After 5 hours, we were finally able to go home - tired but wiser about double-word-entry MOs: budol-budol; dugo-dugo and dura-dura.


  


Posted by desperateblogger On 7/02/2013 09:20:00 AM 2 comments READ FULL POST

Monday, July 1, 2013

Escape! Come on over to Royal Crown Cola… 
And so goes a TV commercial way back in the 70s. Now, for a very impressionable youth, who was a Coke devotee, taking a sip of this “new” cola drink was unthinkable. “What the heck is RC Cola?”, I asked my gang of cola drinkers. “Oh, it’s a poor man’s cola drink.” said my wise and venerable gang of cola drinkers.
At 15 centavos per an 8 oz. fix, RC Cola was 15 centavos cheaper than the two popular cola drinks in the Philippines back then! So, my gang of cola drinkers and I tried RC Cola. To my surprise, the cola drink was less sweet and did not cause "brain freeze"  when quickly chugging an ice cold RC Cola. Cheers to RC Cola then. With 30 centavos, I had 2 bottles of cola drink  instead of one. 

So whatever happened to RC Cola? The Martial law years and weak product marketing probably curtailed the growing popularity of the soda pop in the 70s and 80s. However, I think there were still pockets of establishments that were selling RC Cola back then.

RC Cola was invented by Claud A. Hatcher, a pharmacist in Columbus, Georgia, in 1905. Chero Cola was introduced to the U.S. cola-drinking public together with a handful of refreshing drinks such as Royal Crown Root beer, Royal Crown Ginger Ale and Royal Crown Strawberry. Sometime in 1934, Chero Cola was reformulated and changed name to just Royal Crown Cola, or RC Cola.

In the battle of cola drinks, RC Cola may be deemed “losing” in terms of popularity and marketing ploy. However, when it comes to the actual taste, many cola aficionados conclude RC Cola is more “memorable”. After decades of drinking the most favored cola brand, I was presented with a chance to taste RC Cola once again and here is my verdict.

The flavor of Royal Crown Cola is quite distinctive. In truth, it tends of leave you craving for more. The cola taste is more concentrated but not overpowering. The initial sip has a tang of bitterness but the aftertaste is sweet and pleasing to the palate. I expected a searing sensation down my esophagus on the swallow but experienced none. This could be attributed to the fact the RC Cola is frothier and therefore “lighter”. The thing is, the bubbly carbonation goes out flat quite quickly OR maybe that is just my opinion since I got use to the seemingly unending wave of “carbon” down my esophagus at each initial gulp of the more popular cola drink.  The original RC Cola formerly used cane sugar as sweetener but current formulation now uses high-fructose corn syrup. However, compared with other cola drinks, the fructose content is less which makes for a smoother ingestion of RC Cola drink.  Ok, fine… RC could have been more creative with their logo design but hey! We are not buying the drink for the packaging. 

RC Cola is now available in 330ml can and 240ml, 800ml and 1.5ml bottles. It is now heavily being marketed in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, you can now buy in supermarkets, groceries and even in your friendly neighborhood convenience store.

As Nancy Sinatra crooned in her TV Ad more than four decades ago:  

for it's a MAD, MAD taste of Cola...RC! the one with the BIG, BIG taste!


The taste is truly :liberating!
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/01/2013 11:02:00 AM No comments READ FULL POST
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