It was one of those dinners of the then emerging Filipino Internet Community that I met him. Impeccably dressed he looked like one of those middle level managers of outsourced businesses in the country. Well groomed and with nearly every hair in place he was well polite with the people he was conversing with and the only slight annoyance you could detect was the raising of the eyebrow for second. This was the first time I met my friend.
And that was not the last time I witnessed that eyebrow raised. It was as sharp as Madame Guillotine who was about to seperate the head from the body of a French Noble. The raised eyebrow was of course reserved for moments rather than persons. Faux Pahs, blunders and hubris were victims whose heads would be seperated by the eyebrow.
On-line you could imagine the eyebrow being raised as my friend would comment or even engage in the usual tussle or battle royals that would happen in such world. Of course words took the place of the eyebrow and oh were they as sharp as a Toledo Salamancus blade. You could hear egos and stupidity flop and drop.
He was also brutally frank to everyone but at the sametime loyal to friends. And that is a combination hard to find.
One thing I remember about my friend was he enjoyed life. The way he ate with gusto and to the way he lived it with panache.
One of my fondest memories or rather one of my happiest memories of my friend was one time a long long time ago we were at a vidoeke place and after all the songs were played and some unsong there was one song left… It was the Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
