Angle Angle

I hurriedly popped at a barber shop In Mandaue something like 3 hours ago, just as the barbers were getting ready to call it a day. But they of course obliged to do my not so long hair anyway – that after I begged and honestly explained to them I had no more time as I would be flying off to Tacloban tomorrow immediately connecting with a 2-hour land trip to Catbalogan, prepare materials and venue to get me going for another weekend of training sessions. Hah, it worked! Charm and honest to goodness honesty really does it!

So there I was, almost snoozing off to the hypnotic whirrr whirrr of that thing they use to trim hair and the good old snip snip snip of the usual scissors barbers use. But the dozing off was cut short as I bowed a bit and my eyes caught the attention of what I thought was a big soduko puzzle. Yep, that thing in the picture. Believe me, I really did summon the little arithmetic knowledge inside the little brain of my big head hehe. But nothing seemed to be summing up correctly…

So I asked my barber as he shaved the edges of my “barber’s cut” what on earth was this numerical table amidst his usual cornucopia of barbershop implements. And he said “ah, angle-angle sir” (pronounced ‘ang-gol-ang-gol’ in Cebu) and he quickly picked it up attempting to hide it in the drawer. I pleaded for him to put it back where it was and tell me what it is used for. So he started to tell me…

He told me the numerical table is a “clue-finder” or something to that effect, using the latest winning numbers of the ‘swertres lotto’ for one to find the next best possible number combination to bet on. Hmm, not being too familiar with other lottery games other than 6/55, 6/45. 6/49 or 6/42, I asked him to instead tell me first what swertres is, and he did! But as he was explaining swertres, his one remaining fellow barber butted-in with “pero sa masyao na sir, dili sa PCSO”. Aw!

But both barbers told me it can also be used for the swertres! And so I then asked how the numbers are used. They started telling me, which I really thought was more of rocket science than anything barbers like them would readily know. Uh uhm… I now actually forgot how its done, but I remember them telling me something like… you pick the winning latest winning digits and look for them in an angled arrangement in the table. Then… from the last digit you count also in an angular way to reach your “probable” next winning number to bet on…

Awrrrrh! I can’t seem to get it hehe. Count how many and in what direction? Uh umm, I remembered the barber told me something like the moves of the ‘horse’ in a chess board. Ah eh… this is giving me a headache now hehe. I will ask again on my next haircut.

Haaay Pilipinas! Ang saya-saya! Ever! hehehe