Parkour vs Vampire

Huggybear's Stories

June 7-13 Edition

April 16, 2014

Wednesday

Dream Journal

I gazed up. I was standing under a complex geometrical structure that looked like a Lego train set. The sky above it was gray and it was getting dark. The hive-like thing was being built by my foster father who had died in my waking life almost five years ago. It's supposed to be a series of living quarters like condominium units connected by roller coaster walkways.

I warned him it's dangerous because a strong earthquake is about to hit. I also pointed out to him that the exposed floors of these hanging rooms were made of thin wood. I sensed that the workers doesn't care about the stability. I knew it was doomed to collapse. I even acknowledged, in that dream state, how solid and reliable my intuition is.  Even more significant, I wasn't afraid of the coming earthquake because I even declared what I've always known in my waking life: that no harm would ever come to me.

Suddenly there was a commotion.

I began to sense people coming out of the gathering darkness. They were in a panic. A bat-like creature was at one of the steel beams overhead. I chased the vampire without hesitation. I remember I was glad because I could practice my parkour skills which is my newest sport. I leaped up using the railings. The people were shouting that the vampire was about to fly away. As I felt I was about to teleport to a different scene, the ground started to shake.

April 13, 2014

Sunday

This is my text to my friend CB

I thank you, my esteemed friend, for the book you gave last Friday night. I like historical mysteries, having lived for untold centuries through perhaps of thousands of lives. I have to admit though, for honor compels honesty, that my interest in romantic fiction needs polishing like a sword buried in a ruined cathedral.

I was therefore surprised and gratified that one of the principle protagonists, apart from Alaïs, the sister of King Philippe of France and at one time the betrothed of the legendary Richard The Lion Heart, is Sir Owain of Caedwyd. "Tom," as Anaïs fondly calls him, is one of the leaders of the Knights Templar. Here is a man I deeply identify with, for reasons I share not with others, but which resonates to the innermost depths of my being.

"Tom was a perfect king's man," writes Judith Koll Healey. "Neither obsequious nor lacking in respect, he simply stood, tall as a lance and just as quiet..."

I'm now in my present lodgings after a good day. I was in the gym in the morning. I bought some needed items from Gaisano Main in Colon District in the afternoon, grateful that the live telecast of the championship fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley kept the usual downtown crowd away. I passed a lot of people congregated around TV sets in the streets and cheering their hearts out. It's part of this country's culture to idealize the masses, with their simple wants and innocent pleasures. Then you see that what is politically correct is but a hypocritical lip service once you get to actually live in their midst.

I'm settling down for a quiet night of reading and traveling back in time, hoping that a noisy and inconsiderate neighbor will stay away. If there's one good thing about the Middle Ages, it's that people know their place. Today the low-breeds have taken over with their big speakers, transforming quiet neighborhoods into slum areas. One may find it tempting to think that people in the past are less barbaric. That, to frame it with elegance, is wishful thinking.

Judith Koll Healey's "The Canterbury Papers"

(Finished Reading April 15, 2014)

Sir Owain of Caedwyd: Huggybear

Princess Alaïs Capet of France: Gemma Arterton

Sir William of Caen: James McAvoy

Sir Roland: Daniel Radcliffe

Sir Francois: Skandar Keynes

Earl Graham of Chester: Robert Pattinson

Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine: Judy Dench

Earl William Marshal: Anthony Hopkins

Abbess Charlotte of Fontrevault: Meryl Streep

King Philippe of France: Joseph Gordon Levitt

King John of England: Jim Sturgess 

Queen Isabelle of England: Anne Hathaway

Duke Roberts of Orleans: Jeremy Irons

Brother Dermott of Canterbury: David Strathairn

Sir Étienne: Ron Pearlman

Sir Robert of Warwick: Gerald Butler

Sir Richard Glanville: Paul Bettany

Sir Jacques Destriers: Julian Sands

Lady Petronella of Montjoie: Imelda Staunton

Master Averroës of Córdoba: Ben Kingsley

Father Alcuin of Canterbury: Patrick Stewart

Signeur Carlo of Lyons: Jim Broadbent

King Henry of Anjou: Ralph Fiennes

Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had married Henry of Anjou after leaving Louis VII, has blackmailed Alaïs to go on a dangerous quest to myth-laden Canterbury Abbey. Events have been set in motion. There are unknown forces that will stop at nothing to prevent the discovery of those mysterious documents, hidden where Thomas à Becket has been murdered, that will destroy the Royal House of England. Once again I travel back in time, in the Year of Our Lord 1200...

April 14, 2014

Monday

Spotlights beamed up the ground like airport runway markers. A brilliant grand staircase appeared out of the darkness.

The Pirate Captain waltzed up like a broadway musical star. At the top is his the most sought-after Pirate of The Year Award, a trophy of a dagger across a skull.

The Captain was dancing with Cutlass, the female pirate presenting the shining trophy like a game show master. In a flash, they were struggling with the award. The Captain realized it was a dream. He woke up with a start, and saw that a thief was running off with Polly, his pet bird and the last remaining dodo in the world. The Captain chased him up the fireplace chute. He struck his head through the roof, the chimney on his head like a large hat.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

The roof gave in. He fell in a bathtub. Under it, the floor splintered. The tub fell in the stairs. It began to slide down, going faster. The tub toppled one of the giant stone monuments from Easter Island in the landing. The large ro The large rock face rolled down behind it, catching up fast.Charles Darwin was downstairs. He was shocked to see the strange sight zooming towards him.

April 17, 2014

Thursday

I learned a very important lesson about money today. The bank used by the company where I presently work is the unbelievably bureaucratic HSBC Cebu. It's actually worse than BDO. I saw last night how a couple of my coworkers got dismayed when they learned that HSBC will be offline in the Lenten season, just when people need money the most because that's a long legal holiday. That's Maundy Thursday today and Good Friday tomorrow and the weekend. It means four days without available funds. They tried to withdraw from the ATMs of other banks but they couldn't. It's a good thing they have families.

I believe that our minds pull in everything that happens to us. That's the Law of Attraction. Ironically, of all people, it affected me too. I was supposed to withdraw yesterday because my cash on hand was running low, but I put it off. What I couldn't fathom is why I manifested this situation in my life. My thoughts must have filtered through filtered through some deep-seated trauma that still lurks in the dark corners of my psyche.

I was in one of my deepest periods of contemplation during the last few hours of my shift earlier this morning. What could have brought this on, I wondered. I realized that I've been too dependent on my ATM. This stops right now. It wouldn't be my first time to be broke alone in a big city. I'm happy that the possibility of going without money didn't faze me. I still have enough loose change and groceries to tide me over. I don't even actually need money because all the office canteens would be closed anyway. If it comes to a critical point, then God will send angels in the form of people and coincidences. He always does. I'm a stranger in a strange land. But I'm never alone.