@#"TaCsIyApO!!!"@#%

On the way home from our trip to Baguio two weeks ago, we stopped by this place called Herona in Tarlac.  We wanted to check out this restaurant called "Isdaan".  It's made of floating bamboo rafts tied to one another to create floating cottages, each with dining tables for groups of customers.  It's beautiful in there. A little jungle-like, with passageways guarded by giant statues that reminded me of some lost civilization.  But what really made it famous is the Tacsiyapo Wall.  For those who haven't heard of it, it's actually a small 4-corner nook with three concrete walls and is open at the front.  It's like your typical amusement park game where you throw rings to win a prize. Except that here, the stuff in front of you aren't prizes. And you don't throw rings.  Instead, you choose among the items there, pay for them, and yes, you get to throw them on the concrete wall.  No targets to hit.  Just a lot of anger to release! No kidding! We were so excited we forgot to ask what "Tacsiyapo" meant but eventually deduced the fact that it probably is like "Dang!" or "Sh*t" or maybe something beyond what is printable. Well, it was as good as it promised to be. We picked plates to throw simply because they were the cheapest find.  But you should have seen those broken TV sets! I mustered all my strength, thought about that one single person on earth that still upsets me to no end just by mere mention of her name (yes, I'm no saint, dahling). Then with a lot of adrenaline rush, I screamed her name followed by the word "Tacsiyapo!" and then threw my plates to the wall, frisbee-style.  With my background in Psychology, this type of activity, for it's therapeutic value, isn't new to me at all but I sure found it novel for it to sit right in the middle of a restaurant. Brilliant! So, okay, back to my plates...yes, I broke them into smithereens.  I did it for fun, but the therapeutic value of it hit me. Right in the pit of my stomach. It brought me close to tears (not that much drama really, just close to tears...well, there were tears, but not even close to the kind of sobbing that "feel good movies" are made of). But yeah, it hit me. It felt like suddenly all the pent up emotions that kept lingering in me, despite a million attempts to let them go, just ignited and burned off an adequate amount of anger content. But if you think I'm not angry anymore, no. I'm still angry. I'm just being true to myself. But it's more like a peaceful war deep down inside now. Maybe til the next wave. Or til the next snowball of thought that I hope will no longer grow with every bit of bitter recollection. Maybe I should quit thinking. Wait a minute, why am I talking about this now. I'll probably just talk about it in one of my future blogs.

Meanwhile, it's all about the Tacsiyapo Wall. Kudos to the men behind the concept. We really had a lot of fun. Now, we know where to go when we want a release. Because certainly, we would not want to do it at home.