21/365: Nostalgia

I'm going to cheat today and post an old photograph for this day's Project 365.

I was feeling maudlin while looking at old pictures of my previous work as special assistant to one of Manila's Cabinet Secretaries...that is, during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration.

Reception Hall (aka the Hall of Presidents), Malacanang Palace, Manila.

I shot this picture while taking a picture of the Palace's guest reception area, off the Reception Hall. To the left (off-photo) is the hall where the Cabinet meetings take place and to the right (again, off photo) is the Music Room, where the four-eyes and the confidential cluster meetings happen.

Lots of memories of the good old days. Staying up all night just to monitor an attempted coup d'etat of young officers unfolding. Grassroots consultations in far flung towns. Highly hush hush Cabinet meetings at the Palace. Peace talks with the reds and the Muslim rebels. A ranking Secretary detained at the Heart Center for contempt of court, on orders of the Senate. (Yep, that was my Spymeister, heh.) And lots of papers and reports to read (information overload!).

I miss it, yet I don't. That possible? Unfortunately, in my overcrowded mind, it is. Heh.