My Cab Ride Last Night

I try not to drive whenever I can. The liberties that the motorists in this city take will never cease to boggle my mind. Not to mention all important self important, self absorbed , all knowing politicians with their 8 to 12 vehicle motorcade. I think an Inquirer columnist ( you know who I mean ) once said, because they are not stealing and spending YOUR money fast enough.

With Dough here, I was taking the taxi more than usual. In fact he enjoyed the reckless ones we rode in a perverse kind of way. Last night Jacque wanted me to meet her in the new neighborhood and I agreed. I actually bought fare to the MRT one way to Cubao then when I saw the huge snaking line up just to get in the turnstile I descended from the station and hopped a bus without aircon. It was one of our cooler nights so it was OK. Plus I enjoyed sitting by myself listening to my talk shows. Which is a totally different fate than what would await me at the MRT. For those of you who do not know, the MRT is cheaper than the bus for whatever stupid reason. We are running such a deficit and we do that. Private bus lines suffer less riders. The sardines on the MRT suffer, too many of them. The country's coffers already looted by politicians suffer.

Feels weird having a meal without taking shots of the food and the surroundings. Anyway when it was time for us to go home, Jacque, Maricar and I looked for a cab that would drop them off in their place and me back where car is parked in Makati.

We found one, this old guy who drove like someone five decades younger and had his music cranked. Too bad Dough left earlier, he would have loved this guy. Weaving through other reckless drivers, other guys getting too close. Buses shoe horning in. But he was a nice guy and I got to the parking OK.

While I was in that cab contemplating my own G force, I reflected on the rides with Dough when he was there. More often than not the cabbie's radio station of choice had the tag line "Hey Bangga!!". In a moment of sheer honesty and candidness, I can tell you, the thought did occur to me.

Ed

bangga, mabangga, ibangga: Word: bangga
Active Verb: mabangga
Passive Verb: ibangga
English Definition: 1) to hit something, to collide with something -- BUMANGGA (verb) 2) to hit, to collide against accidentally, to bump into -- MABANGGA (verb) 3) to ram an object against something, to collide against something -- MAGBANGGA, IBANGGA, BANGGAIN (verb) 4
Examples: 1) Bumangga ang kotse sa pader. (The car ran into a stone wall.) 2) Baka mabangga ang kotse sa pader. (The car might run against the stone wall.) 3) Huwag mong ibangga ang kotse sa pader. (Don't run the car against the stone wall.) 4) Huwag kang
Source: http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/