June 24 Saint John the Baptist. Araw ng Maynila and pista sa San Juan. Pista ng San Juan is "basaan". Young and old people alike lined up the streets and throw water to passersby.I do not know if this is still practised back home and if it is, do they throw the bottled water too. (corn, mainit pa). We, ladies do not want to get caught in "wet look" fashion so we always brought with us some extra clothes. Since this is a holiday in Manila, we accepted invitation (accepted daw oh, he was usually arm- twisted to make handa and invite us) from our classmate who unfortunately lived in that domain of the deposed President Estrada. A forever girl scout in heart, we went to the battle prepared; I with an umbrella, my friend in her funny-looking raincoat and the other friend with a soap.(she said just in case she needed to take a shower). hehehe The Saint was a baptist and throwing water symbolizes his works of cleansing the people of the original sin in preparation for the Coming and Acceptance of the Mesiah. Methinks that if water symbolizes cleansing, it will take the whole Pacific Ocean to make the corrupt politicians sparklingly clean and very dead. Dear Diary, One thing that they should remember is, children can baptize their dolls but never a Cat. mweheehehe The CAT