Camera shy

I've been flying for work a lot the past couple of years. Usually I don't mind sitting wherever, it's usually just a one hour flight anyway, I'm getting off the plane before my seat even begins to warm up. But there was this one incident where the guy sitting by the window kept getting up and going to the restroom or procuring something from his bag in the overhead bin that made me hate any seat but by the window. So now, I usually make the effort to check in early to assure myself of the prized exit-row, window seat.

Sitting by the window while on a day flight has its advantages, I'll say. My country being an archipelago, I get to see plenty of beaches along the way. It's become some sort of hobby of mine to try and memorize some distinct feature down below of some peculiar coastline and then go look it up on Google Earth when I touch down. I'd make some sort of promise to myself that I'd make my way over there someday and check out the view from on the ground.

I remember one particular stretch of road by a lake. It's a circumferential road hugging the lakeside on Manila's eastern side. I remembered looking down the window and wondering when I'd be able to drive through that deserted yet conspicuous road. I've looked it up online and basically I have an idea of how to get there, but haven't had the opportunity to try it out. Just last week, I got to do just that.

As I was coming from a client, I knew I was near enough to that road and that it would take me in the general direction of where I was to go to next. So I buckled down and explored a bit. From an industrial zone, I had to weave through a small community of informal settlers, then a short dirt road through some rice paddies, then a steep and winding on-ramp made of mud and gravel. I know, why go through all that effort, right? A number of times, I've almost thought of turning around and abandoning the quest. But when at long last I got on the highway, I was giddy as a school girl at a Justin Bieber concert.

Well, the lakeside view I imagined wasn't there. There was a tall dike separating the highway from the lake in case the water level rose, so you had to get down from your car and walk up the dike to see the brown lake. (Which I did) I would have liked to post some pictures, but I didn't own a camera. (Which reminds me that I should get one someday) The drive was great however, as there were only about a couple of vehicles I saw throughout the whole stretch. I was kinda sad when it ended, a 15-minute drive on a really long and gentle left-hand curve.

*****

Okay, reading back, I couldn't figure out how to end it. Plus, it wasn't an interesting read at all, in dire need of pictures, a screen shot of a Google Map and a view from the plane's window. If you ever get to read this, do know that it was a hard decision to press the "Publish Post" button and that more than once, thoughts on a prolonged tap at the "Delete" button were brought up.

I've thought of posting more pictures and visuals to make my blog a tad more interesting, but I've been consciously resisting. One reason is the lack of a digital camera. Second is that for as long as I could remember, I've been too lazy to bring a camera and actually take photographs. Then there's the laziness in uploading pictures to my computer to think about, and sorting through them to pick out the best ones. Still another reason (excuse?) is that some of my best reads don't involve pictures at all. Novels, books in general, newspaper opinion articles, essays, short stories and other such examples don't have any pictures to guide the reader through the text, and because I'd like to one day be writing such stuff myself, I'm trying to veer away from posting photos. If only I possessed some talent to be able to do away with pictures entirely!

Oh well, at any rate the fact that I need to get myself a camera is still out there. I'm getting old, and my recollection of some things are being compromised. (Though most of my memory problems have a lot more to do with alcohol than anything else) I promise that when I do get a camera, I'm gonna post more pictures with the text. At least that would probably give a lot of people (myself included) some sort of idea what the heck I was talking about.

Until then, well, you're just gonna have to do with more of my sucky texts.