Get off the high

Camp Aguinaldo, unknown to an inutile like me, is actually the AFP Headquarters in Santolan. Apparently, it's not shown on the gates unlike PNP's Crame (who knew Crame is actually a person, lol). Anyway, I was led to Gate 1 where I was welcomed by tons of octogenarians for god knows what purposes. I kept on asking about the CPAD OJ1 which 3 out of 4 personnel of the camp did not know of. The official headquarters building (because the whole goddamn compound is the headquarters) was like 5 miles away and I was running on borrowed time. It's all my fault actually when they emailed me for an interview I mentioned I would be available before lunch whereas they never actually gave a specific time. So I went to the main building and was ushered to the chief admin officer who, by all means, was friendlier than the stereotype government employee. You can't deny it, most of government employees are snobbish beyond your tower of patience. But somehow, it was a pretty good day and she welcomed be with all smiles before hauling me towards the actual interviewer, a captain. Now, I was never born in a family of military personnel so seeing a room half full of uniformed men was a new and a tad formidable scene for me. Until I was presented to the captain who was pretty friendly too and a bit young for captaincy (if my ken on military ranks is softly accurate). It was not a room stacked with cubicles so asking me bluntly how much my former salary was was a bit disconcerting. Everyone's got some sense of discretion and it somehow left a sour taste in my mouth that I had to tell it. He explained that it might not stack up with my former salary which I had promptly answered with some lack of tact because who in their right minds would apply in government institution and expect the gold mine of a call center? I won't mind much of the money because it is a contractual position; I don't want to rot with the government at an early age. I was kind of expecting a test but it still surprised me that there was an actual test. There were 4 varied questions from the standard definition of success, a difference in case I get hired to the downright Ms. Universe queries of what makes a woman/man special to how to fit in an authoritarian leadership as per the institution's method of management. It sucked bigtime because as I was sitting in front of the PC, I knew my brain was still sleeping. It was not working the way I wanted so I kept shitting about pure instantaneous rubbish. Manic and chopsuey. It was full of tautologies and pompous barbs even critters would have scoffed at it. It was more pathetic since every question should be at least 250 words. My first draft of essay was like 80 words per question. It totally fucked me and I could do nothing about it. The bigger shit of it was I had to present it in a powerpoint presentation in a professional way, as the captain emphasized. And I say, what the hell. I believe I have evolved enough not to put peewee and cute cliparts to go with every slide. In the middle of making the presentation, I had an epiphany of being thankful to my Computer 101 subject back in college who, despite her wordy gaffes, really taught us tons about MS Office. As for passing the test, I might have signed my rejection already with the total crap I made.

Here are some souvenirs because obviously, I will not be back here. I actually liked inside the compound, it's clean, quiet and pretty much vehicle-free. The only problem I saw was that despite the cleanliness there was no sign of a garbage can for like a kilometer or something.

The grounds

The main headquarters

Along the main headquarters

The walkway

Anyway I had to go home in the middle of the blistering weather by past noon because my feet were killing me. Rode a jeep, assumed it will drop me off Santolan, but as it turned out, went to Cubao. Fantabulous. The temptation to buy new earphones was seducing me like no tomorrow and the hedonistic whore that I am, my feet had dragged me to SM Cubao which by the way, has been recently renovated. I went to the appliance store and out of the 3 SM Appliance Stores I had visited for the past months, this one totally owned in terms of the earphone selection. There were tons! Tons of Philips and Nike but no Sennheiser (which surprisingly was available at SM Fairview back then). I bought the same earphones which I already had thrice. It's the cheapest and it's the only thing I can afford as my financial support is already dwindling beyond comprehension.

With my new earphones, it made me a happy monkey. It actually stemmed from my latest addiction to the Rolling Stones' Forty Licks. Sorry about the X-Files OST, haha. But no, Forty Licks is brilliant! To think the online reviews proved otherwise because 40 of the best songs are not enough I suppose. But for me, the songs were lovely; provided I have yet to finish all 40 tracks (I'm down to the 11th) but from the songs I've heard they are amazing and awe-inspiring. I actually liked it more than Zoso but that's for another day of explanation or something. Back to the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger's voice is fucking sexy as hell and the first few tracks had me signed, sealed and delivered to his godly feet. Of course Bellamy's got my perennial fealty but I can always extend it by a few fingers or toes to others. My favourite track would currently go with She's A Rainbow--the melody and harmony are downright brilliant and the simple, which simply proves that Jagger and Richards are genius.

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I can imagine that the James Bond films are pretty famous around air-conditioned buses around the metro. I can't even remember how many Bond films I've seen throughout my life of commuting. On the way to AFP, it was with luck The World Is Not Enough was just starting. The opening credit (yes, with the usual dancing naked women) was lovely and totally suited Garbage's sultry interpretation of the song. The delightful and sophisticated Sophie Marceau probably thought the film was not worth her time because I thought she was just swaying along with the film's flow. Dr. Christmas Jones, played by the back then alluring and sexy Denise Richards, gave a shitty version of her Russian tongue. Pierce Brosnan gave a better accent, I suppose but that might be an unfair call out since Richards' line was longer but her last two Russian syllables totally curled with an American accent. Absolutely funny. Yes, well she was playing an American doctor so the accent must have been a requirement but I don't know, it was not convincing but her barbs were amusing. Unfortunate that I had to drop off at Timog.

Anyway, I'm all petered out and Duran Duran is not really encouraging a sleepy environment so I'm signing off.