Smells Like Teen Spirit
H and I got to be teenagers again for one night.
The “kids”—my teenage nephews and nieces—had been telling me for months that they wanted to go out. At first I said that they had to get good grades (“You’re so strict!” chided my friends. Whatever.). I never flattered myself into thinking it was because they thought of me as a cool tita—I knew it was because their chances of being allowed to go clubbing would be helped immensely with reassurances that there was an old fuddy-duddy like myself around!
Last Saturday, I finally gave in to their requests. Some of the kids were leaving the next day to go back to Bangkok, so I agreed to take them out, and H agreed to come along. We headed for The Fort, at first thinking of bringing them to the places which had no cover charge. Seriously, I wasn’t gonna let them pay for anything—but I was quite unwilling to part with the 3Gs it would take to get us all in. After about an hour, we discovered that the cover-charge-free places were a bust, and the kids were raring to get up and dance.
“We might as well pay,” said H. “Pa-minsan-minsan lang naman.” He was right. We took them to one of the more happening places, and it seems they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even texting their parents to ask for a curfew extension. It didn’t happen. (Though we missed it by about half an hour…)
Cost of that night out? It makes me wince just thinking about it (but H did shoulder part of it). Knowing the kids had a good time during their first Manila clubbing experience? Ah, you know how it goes. It was well worth it.
The next day, one of my cousins texted me to thank me and H for taking the kids out, and to say that they had fun. What my cousins didn’t know was that:
• one niece kinda got hit on by some random foreigner (who, at first, was hitting on a friend of mine. It was funny then, but when I found out he was making a play for my niece, it was just plain gross! On our way out, he was dirty dancing with some other chick);
• we nearly got caught in the middle of a fight—a couple of guys were hurling threats at each other as they headed out the door—and H and I formed a barricade around the kids and told them to stay where they were;
• I got a cigarette burn because it was so damn crowded; and
• we had to witness a super “feeling” guy in a plaid shirt who thought he was dancing up a storm—I heard that when Mims’ This Is Why I’m Hot came on, he really did think he was hot. Like, eyew.
H and I will be going to Bangkok within the year, and it’ll be the kids’ turn to take us out. No worries about missing curfew this time—heard all the bars and clubs close at 2:00 a.m.!