We’ve finally recovered yesterday from the region-wide blackout from super-typhoon Milenyo. I was only able to blog about it now since I was out almost the whole time – probably one of the rare occasions that I’ve been out almost everyday.
THURSDAY – The Storm Strikes
The cancellation of classes were announced the day before, and a lot of people were surprised, because there were no indications of a storm coming whatsoever. I heard PAG-ASA (that’s the country’s weather authority) acquired some new equipment – which apparently just paid for itself on its debut.
I was actually out driving when the storm was at its strongest. I went to Galleria to get some blank DVDs, the car was literally rocking whenever I was idling on the road. I really thought the wind would just flip me over. When leaving the mall, exiting through the ramp was like headed for your doom, as it looked like there was a sandstorm out there – only with wind and water.
The sick thing about the whole thing was that I was literally giddy the whole time, I was actually enjoying myself when on the road, dodging flying yeros (corrugated iron roof material) on ortigas avenue like a video game. Amusing myself with the damage the storm was causing. I really regretted not bringing my camera along during that time as you could literally see the winds because of the rain – it was awesome!
I decided to ride it out in our country club during lunch time, where everyone apparently had the same idea. The storm proved to last longer than I expected so I decided to drive home again. I finally got the camera and took shots of Landamark Villa’s parking area.
After being bored out of my wits, I decided to leave again that night. I picked up Cris and her family, who wanted to go… anywhere with electricity. Before that I just took a shot of what was supposed to be the path to our parking space:
Megamall seemed to be one of the few malls operational at that time (although without air-conditioning), so we treated ourselves to some Razon’s halo-halo and ate beside the [melting] ice-skating ring.
Here’s are some other shots later that night on my way back home.
FRIDAY – Anywhere but home.
Friday was the worst day, because there was the blackout, plus the storm was done. This meant that everyone was headed for the mall. Suffice to say, I ended up going back home and waiting for Mom and the driver to come so we can both have ourselves driven to the mall. It was a short visit though, I just got industrial-grade measuring tape (8 meters) and measured the dimensions of my room (don’t ask me why) to kill time.
Luckily, Cris’ sister’s “boyfriend” was having his birthday party at some bar in Makati (I forget the name). While I was never a bar person, this seemed like a very appealing idea compared to staying home.
SATURDAY – Out the whole day
The blackout was still in effect. Which pissed me off, because the subdivision right beside us (Valle Verde 1) already had electricity since 4pm on THURSDAY – yes, they had electricity right after the storm.
Good thing we had a recording session for BP’s new album, and Tata had her surprise birthday party that same night – right after the recording. I got home about 3am, and we already had electricity by that time (since 1pm from what I’ve heard)
Thus ends my Milenyo post. I wish I had something witty to say to wrap up, other than this abrupt termination of the said topic. There’s really nothing more to say – other than I wish all of your families are safe.
And a shout-out to Leslie, sorry I wasn’t able to visit you – we had recording that night as well (though I was supposed to go with sina Jem if ever wala). Nice to know you recovered. I was pretty scared when I heard your platelet count was down to 30k (from what I read in the internet, they said anything below 50k is fatal, but I guess that was assuming it wasn’t treated at all)
You must be bummed out though after hearing about the good effects of the storm. The dengue problem has been drastically reduced because of how the storm “cleansed” the stale water out of everything hehehehe.