51 is neither my lucky number nor my age. 51 is the number of days I have been living in at my new address. Aside from the usual perks of living in a condominium, the place also offers sights and sounds that did not cross my mind when I made the decision of investing in something long-term.

Sight

From the windows of my room, I have a 180° view of the man-made structures below and of the sky above. My vantage point is unsullied by noticeable air pollutants, so everything is clear and unobstructed. Even lightning. Especially lightning. Zeus’s weapon has been lighting the sky up for the last five days. If there is a thing that I fear most in life, it is lightning. From the ground, its ephemeral presence is a deadly ghost. From my window in the 19^th floor, it looks formidable, fierce and fascinating. When I took the night photos of the sky earlier, it made its presence felt. I was not able to capture it with my phone because it was well, lightning quick. 🙂 My reflexes are no match for its velocity.

Day and night scenes taken from my window.

As I said earlier I am scared of lightning because of its unforgiving tremendous power, yet I am intrigued by its beauty and the science behind its existence. So for the past five nights, every time I hear thunder, I bolt right up and look up to the sky with a sense of trepidation and fascination. I stare at the lightning for a few seconds, and then place my pillows farther from the windows and lie down with a prayer in my heart that the beautiful accident waiting to happen will go back to Mount Olympus where it belongs.

Sound

When I open my window any time between 10am and 12pm, the sound of karaoke singers across the street immediately assaults my eardrums. It is far more audible than train engine and incessant beeping of the jeepneys that ply the main road a few meters away. At first I found it bothersome, but as I listened to those who tried their hand at singing OPM (Original Pilipino Music) and western creations, I slowly warmed up to the idea of listening to their emotional, albeit mostly out of tune renditions. Their voice tells something about them; their struggles dissolve one by one each time they let out deafening shouts at the end of each line and hard fought battles are won with every kulot they conquer. So far, the popular songs are Green Day’s “Wake me up When September Ends” among the men and Aegis songs and Yeng Constantino’s “Ikaw” among the women. I guess I have to thank the Olympians that nobody has made the fatal mistake of singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”.