But there's always that silence that follows; deafening in its suddenness, and me in a daze and great awe upon realizing that I survived the chaos and the hell that broke loose the night before. Nothing evokes an overwhelming sense of nostalgia in me other than the Christmas holidays and re-runs of old TV shows. I wake up the afternoon of January 1st and it feels like the world has suddenly screeched into a grinding halt, like a speeding car crashing into a wall. I get up dizzy from the spirits I consumed the night before, because mine is not enough to keep it going. You wonder where the people have gone, where the noise and energy of the hustle and bustle the weeks before went. It's both refreshing and sad at the same time, knowing that you lived for another year and you will have to get through another one.
***
And yes the world is a changed world when midnight struck. Jack TV was pulled off cable TV, and so is etc and 2nd avenue. This means no more Conan O' Brien, no more Beauty and the Geeks, no more Beat the Geek, and no more E!. There is some consolation, as the replacement Maxxx airs shows from G4TV (formerly TechTV) which happens to be as geeky as one can imagine (catch Attack of the Show) while AXN Beyond will drive Buffy fans crazy through the nightly re-runs (beginning Season 1!).
But it's a different matter altogether when Sky also pulled out DW-TV and TV Monde Asie. In a cable service where almost half of airtime are dedicated to mindless wrestlers and blonde bimbos and their "duh"-hunks, those two channels are geniuses. Sky really made it personal with that move.
***
The first thing about holidays, most especially I guess among Filipinos, is the food. My family for instance, are not concerned as much with house decoration or the gifts as with our menu for the noche buena and the buena noche. Unlike other households where the entrance of the -ber months mean dusting off the christmas tree and putting up the lights, September for my family means scrambling for ingredients of our holiday menu. Gifts are bought a week before Christmas and the decorations are put up a day or so prior. We didn't put up any this year, but we did fine. As long as we get to eat what we wanted come Christmas Eve and New Year.
My diet is a shame, considering how gifted my family is in cooking. Pao can cook almost anything, a talent which he got from my mother. My dad is good with dishes that doesn't require the stove (salads, grilled/roasted what-have-yous, kilawin). But despite my issues with vegetables and meat, I think I do fairly well in the kitchen. While my white sauce pasta went unnoticed in the family dining table (they aren't big on pasta), it was a hit among our neighbors.
***
During holidays, the most important book in our house is the cookbook. We have several, but who we (more specifically my mother) consider the goddess of the chopping board is not Nora Daza but Aling Charing. She lived in the 50's I guess, if she ever did exist. My mom's copy is so old it should disintegrate on our next caldereta, but she holds on to it like an imported corned beef. Our copy is as old as my parent's marriage, and can qualify an important historical document of the better days that have come to pass. It's evidence of a time in the distant past when the centavo was actually worth something,
a reminder of an era where the word "minindal" was still in use,
and a time when your orange Quezon can buy a book, and you'll still have change.
Another thing, the telephone numbers of the publisher and distributor only have six digits.
The map of a national treasure could be hidden in its pages somewhere.
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