Pasalubongs and collections

Pom recently arrived from a raket (a short, income-earning stint) in India and from a quick visit to her sister Emma and Emma’s family in Nepal.  She traveled with another sister Emily, Gabriela’s international relations officer.  In that trip she made two stopovers in Bangkok (from and going back to Manila) electing to stay overnight each time.

            Being income-less for the first time in decades, I wasn’t able to give her pocket and shopping monies.  I then expected her to save all of her modest talent fee for the expected rougher times ahead.  But my wife is all woman—someone who can’t resist a good bargain and someone who can’t take it if she does not bring home something for the (handsome) husband left behind.  So she spent nearly half of what she earned on me.

            In her first trip to Nepal about two and a half years back, she brought home for me an authentic gorkha knife, winter jacket and gloves, and dried meat.  This time around she only brought one—one big bag of goodies, that is.

            No, my wife did not bring home chocolates, de lata, and shirts.  She has more imagination and higher taste than most (her choice of husband being a very good example).  As the woman who completed my airsofting BDU, my wife buys for me my collection of toy cars and buys the pirated DVDs I am too cheap to buy myself.  Hence, more creativity is always to be expected of her.  This time around, she just substantially increased my collection of rare imported beers and my Jeffrey Archer and Kurt Vonnegut books.

        Let’s start with the last.  Vonnegut’s books are so hard to find in the Philippines.  I know of some bookstores that have them but I am so poor to be shelling hundreds of pesos for a copy—even previously-owned ones.  A second-hand Vonnegut paperback could be as expensive as 500 pesos here.  That’s just too much for someone who is growing old buying dog-eared books at less than 100 pesos.

            Anyway, we now have Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle”, “Slapstick”, “Hocus Pocus”, “God Bless You, Mr Rosewater”, “Mother Night” and “Jailbird” to add to the two other books we have of him.

            Speaking of jailbirds, Pom was able to buy two Archer books we still do not have in our collection.  (This is the trouble with collecting still-active and living authors.  Until they kick the bucket, chances are, you are still incomplete.)  We now also have “To Make a Long Story Short” and “False Impression.”

            AND! Che Guevarra’s “Motorcycle Diaries” on paperback.

            And these are just books for me.  She of course bought books for herself.

            It looks like this summer would be a reading one.

            And we are not lending.  NO!  Maraming hindi marunong magsoli! (Minsan, ako rin naman.)

            Now, to the beers.

            I have in my now growing collection the following:

1.  Tui, the East India Pale Ale, brewed in Aukland and Timanu, New Zealand;

2.  Beez Neez Hand-Crafted Honey Wheat Beer by Matilda Bay, Freemantle, Australia;

3. Kirin Tanrei of Japan;

4. Everest Lager, a special limited edition bottle and a 50^th anniversary commemoration bottle from Nepal;

5.  Lowenbrau, a 600-year old and original Oktoberfest brand—from Germany, of course;

6.  Oranjeboom Premium, a Dutch beer;

7.  Gorkha Premium, Nepali;

8.  Tuborg Gold and Tuborg Royal De Luxe;

9.  Carlsberg All Malt Premium 2008 UEFA edition and Carlsberg Chill;

10. Asahi Dry of Japan;

11. Foster’s, the famous Australian;

12. San Miguel Premium Lager (mine’s brewed in Nepal, although SMB is of course Filipino.  I am collecting SMBs brewed elsewhere.);

13. Lhasa Tibetan Beer—the most expensive of the lot, which could pay for all the others combined.  It is also quite difficult to obtain.

           I do not want to sound disloyal here but my favorite is Coor’s Light.  It is, to me, better than San Mig Light.  Plus it’s got a cool gimmick.  A white decal of the Rockies on its amber bottle turns blue when it is ideally-chilled.  I’ve consumed boxes of this brew these past months, but only because I collect its “stay-cold” glasses.

          Now, I am not turning alcoholic.  And this humble collection is nowhere near as impressive as I like it to be.  I’ve been asking our volunteers to bring me more but only a few a biting—just three so far.  But I must say I have rare bottles here.

          But, as with all collections and libations, they are only most enjoyed with the right company, people who are as passionate or, at least, people who understand this most childish of passions—like my wife, for instance.