Saturday, July 12, 2008 Lucky 8 By Ober Khok Sira-sira store
AUGUST. 8, 2008 or 08/08/08. Does that strike you as familiar?
That’s the schedule for the Olympic games in China. You should know that.
Jackie Chan has been promoting the big event on primtime televison. Or come to think of it, is it for a particular credit card?
Eight is considered auspicious for all human commerce. Its designation as the luckiest in whole numeric system comes to no surprise.
In Chinese, the word is roughly pronounced as ba. It sounds like the word for prosperity, which is pronounced fa.
“As in fafa? ” asked my niece Joy. “Actress Ruffa Mae Quinto is fond of bragging about her latest fafa edition.”
Uncle Gustav asked, “Unsa man nang fafa, inday, Joy?”
Joy replied, “A fafa is a papa or a sugar daddy or in today’s parlance, a rich lover.”
“That’s a lot of prosperity, I figure,” Uncle G said.
Another reason why eight can be considered lucky is its perfect symmetry like all the candidates in the Ms. Universe contest.
“That I can understand,” Uncle G said. “But I heard that eight is considered lucky because when you trace the number, you just keep going up and down and up again. It’s like infinite luck.”
Krystal joined our conversation. “Or infinite bad luck. The number also goes down before it goes up. It can work both ways.”
“Labara ninyo og mga ulo, oy,” Tita Blitte said. “Leave the number alone, please. Don’t blame good or bad luck on a number.”
Uncle G said, “It’s good to have someone or something to blame for our food woes, Blit. Mahal na kaayo ang bugas, ang mga pagkaon.”
We all laughed, but pig-headed me went on.
You can cut the number vertically, and still get a mirror effect.
“Yeah, like mirror effect of our woes, Uncle O,” Joy told me.
Krystal’s eyes twinkled. “Ah, we can mirror-effect our food budget. It’s just a matter of being creative. We can do it like this:
l Morning: one loaf of Francis bread sliced into so many mouths to feed, one scrambled egg mixed with one diced cherry tomato, one tiny eggplant, cubed; and for beverage, very thin milk or coffee.
l Lunch: Boiled NFA rice, if you can score it, or can stand make a beeline only to be told “wala nay NFA rice”; one fried fish (not from Romblon), flaked and mixed with sorted kamunggay leaves (three stalks), one small sliced sikwa, and a dash of black pepper; and sautéed sayote cooked with flavor mix.
l Dinner: Boiled NFA rice; one medium size fish (sliced into small pieces so everyone can have his share), boiled with sorted kamunggay leaves (three stalks), wedged cherry tomato and young kamote leaves; stir-fried mixed vegetables (one bundle string beans, one small taro root, two small eggplants and squash).
“Hey, that’s great, Krys,” Joy told her sister. “I didn’t know that a fashionista like you knows anything about food budget.”
Krystal replied, “That’s my secret talent.”
No secret is the fact that you can slice the number eight in the middle and still get perfect halves — two circles, which also represent eternal prosperity. Perfect symmetry lends itself to perfect balance. In Chinese Astrology, perfect balance is the ideal.
“Or nothing,” Joy said. “No NFA rice, no fish, no veggies. Zero.”
My aunt lamented: “Oh dear, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board is raising the minimum jeepney fare to P8 on Monday. How perfect can that be.”
Uncle Gustav said, “I guess we’ll have to have a perfect balance between having to shell out more for the ‘wage increase’ of jeepney drivers and having to feed our family.”
“My accounting subject will come in handy. You know, credit and balance? Just know how to juggle your creditors, and the balance you spend. It’s easy,” Joy said. (ober.khok@yahoo.com)
