Lubitel Love Part 1

"I want to give her a camera for her birthday, but, I don't know which one. There's a couple of vintage ones that I've pegged, could you check them out?"

"Go! Send me the links," I typed.

So, yeah, from what started out as a simple favor of being a messenger for my love-sick ex-classmate, I'm being consulted for the perfect gift. Ok, it's a "going-away" gift, it had to be really special.

The target: our ex-classmate who's now his ex because he was such a douche for letting her go. Two failed relationships and four years later, he's still madly in-love with her. And since I'm such a sucker for love or at least wanted to make up for my own love problem, I felt that I had to help him get her back. Or at least try.

Holga. Nope.

Diana. Nope.

LCA+. Nope.

"Dude, how bout this?"

Kinoflex. Looks promising.

Lubitel. My gut: "Yes yes yes!"

"Dude, get the Lubitel, she'd love that."

"Yeah, I'd want it, too. I'm trying to contact the seller. It's P5,000 and I'm going to bleed. Poverty-levels, man. But it's my going-away present for her so it's worth it."

Fast-forward to Tuesday. It was a hella long day for me. Woke up at past 4am. Went to work at 5am. Got off at past 2pm. Was called back to the office at 5pm for a marathon meeting with the superboss' husband. Got grilled. More work. Translating off-hours. Couldn't do anything except do the bitch's bidding lest she reports me again for petty stuff to finally kick me out. Le sigh. When I'm done she gives me a fake "Thank you." I leave, tears of frustration streaming down my cheeks. Sleep-deprived I still had to meet my ex-classmate at 8.30pm to get the package...

Time space warp.

Past 10pm. McDo. "Dude I owe you," he says. He pays for my dinner. He couldn't eat well as he was thinking about how he's going to wrap the gift. To be honest, I was pretty impressed that he pulled out all the stops. He had to cross the street a couple of times to buy scissors and some polisher/cleaner for the camera. Since he went out, a beggar boy eyed his fries and asked for it. Resigned, he gave it. 

"Dude, this is it! When you give it to her...argh! Allons-y! I just hope she'd like it at least."

"She'll like it for sure. I'm more worried about the fact that she might kill me for this," I said.

"Basta, dude, I owe you. Just tell her "Happy birthday!" You don't have to tell her it's from me."