Strengthener

These days, I am wearing my red touque with orange letters in Tagalog, "MGA AWSTRALYA ANG MGA ESTRELYA," alluding to space colonization and the cold and hot deserts of other worlds. These days, I talk with Greg, my religious Filipino friend, at Starbucks café. We talk about travelling, anthropology, international food, and religion. This morning, I played in the midst of dense fog in a neighbourhood grassy field. At Starbucks café, in the foggy morning, I was drinking my reddish Passion Tango iced tea, which contained hibiscus, lemongrass, cinnamon, passion fruit, pineapple, and so forth. Greg gifted me a chocolate croissant. At Starbucks café, in the grey-sky afternoon, I was drinking the seasonal Oat Nog Latte. (Incidentally, Nog is a dwarf-like Ferengi alien character in the Star Trek franchise.) Kristina, part-Inuit part-Norwegian, was my barista. She has a handsome face, and her mannerisms and style reflect some things about her Inuit ancestors. "Viktor, it's like you're part-Inuit," she told me. She knows that I am from the Philippines. At my table, I exercised with my hand grip strengthener, which I carried in my army jacket pocket. At the café, I greeted Don the alluring white man and Květa the solitary Czech lady, as I exited. It is the 4th of December of 2024.

In the cloudy, yet sunny, afternoon was my third walk of the day, here on Lulu Island. I was at Yummy Slice pizzeria to drink a grey-can Diet Coke. I exercised with my hand grip strengthener at my table. Sachet the Gujarati and Navjot the Punjabi were the vendors. There were throngs of parents with their Eurasian kids, eating or ordering pizza. I visited Kin's Farm Market. The radio was playing Xmas songs. Leo, the Cantonese vendor who speaks also Mandarin, exclaimed, "Viktor, bā bái!" The fragrance of baked Japanese sweet potato, "yaki-imo" in Japanese, "rostita batato" in Esperanto, was tempting. There was a metallic rectangular oven with heated stones inside. The colourful fruits enthralled me. The durian was still so dear! Today is the 9th of December of 2024.

I walked at night, here on Lulu Island. As I entered Starbucks café, sitting at a table with two Doritos bags of chips, one purple and one red, were Peter the redheaded Anglo and Hans the Netherlander on a motorized wheelchair, who offered to me. I took a few chips from both bags. Then, I was drinking reddish Passion Tango iced tea, then Oat Nog Latte. I was munching on crème brûlée almonds. I was exercising with my hand grip strengthener at my table. There were a regular couple with seemingly American spoken accents. The man was a handsome white-haired bear, always wearing a sports outfit. At Hans' request after he exited, Peter gave the purple Doritos bag to me and the red one to Chris the Japanese-English hybrid, who was a barista. The other barista was Jessica the petite Vietnamese. There were Filipino customers. Jessica asked me if I knew what was "lomi" (a Filipino noodle dish). I said that it was "rāmen." Homebound, walking, I accidentally tripped on a wooden board in a dark alleyway. My eyeglasses fell off. Luckily, I was not hurt. A Cantonese labourer helped me. Today is the 14th of December of 2024.

Happy Zamenhof Day! Today is the birthday of Dr. L.L. Zamenhof, the Jew who invented Esperanto in 1887 in Russian-occupied Poland. I am an Esperantist. It is a sunny blue-sky morning. I walked to Yummy Slice pizzeria. Rose the Filipina vendor was there. I was drinking a red-can Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. (I ought to mention that I ate a slice of green pesto pizza. And I was exercising with my hand grip strengthener at my table.) A Japanese likens my situation to a vast deserted café in Chiangmai, Thailand. But here on Lulu Island, homebound, I stopped by Kin's Farm fruteria. Leo, the Cantonese vendor who speaks also Mandarin, exclaimed, "Dà míng!" There were longans, kumquats, and jujubes in plastic bags at the front. Today is the 15th of December of 2024.

After two in the morning, I was awake, trying to read an Interlingua book, Le torno del mundo in octanta dies, by Jules Vernes. But the lamp in the living room was too dim. I ate a few pieces of Italian round waffle-like cookies, pizzelle. I went back to sleep on the couch. Later, it was a drizzling morning, cold and clammy, this Boxing Day of 2024. I walked twice to the neighbourhood's Tim Hortons. Firstly, I ate two hash browns, whilst drinking an iced coffee with oat milk. Secondly, I ate a crispy chicken wrap with a glass of blackberry yuzu sparkling quencher. At both occasions, there were Eurasian children, and there were Filipinos that looked handsomely Japanesque. I was exercising with a hand grip strengthener at my table, as I counted to twenty in Esperanto, in each set: "unu, du, tri, kvar,..." In the afternoon, this Boxing Day of 2024, the sun came out of the clouds, the drizzle stopping for the while. An odd cabinet mirror stood by the sidewalk, so I could see my bare legs and mauve garden shoes in the reflection. I walked to Tim Hortons, there to drink an iced coffee with oat milk. The café was crowded. At night, I went back there to eat a roast beef and cheddar sandwich with an oat milk iced coffee. A brown family popped in to break the empty silence. A pensive white man said that I liked the word "blossom": Maybe, he was waiting for spring?

Garlick is of great Virtue in all Cholicks , a great Strengthener of the Stomach upon Decays of Appetite , or Indigestion