MABINI

BACK GROUND INFO of the Man & Author Known as "Alan the book"

Alan Anthony Brennan was born in Australia 12-06-1939 into a very poor family of Irish Convict decent. He worked as a meat carter and laborer from a tender age of 14. By his early 20’s he was a proficient bricklayer running teams of brickies in Sydney Australia. Alan was also a pioneer of the early techniques of skydiving. (Freefalling from 30k feet then pulling a make shift ripcord)
A big drinker and colorful character with some casual associations with Sydney’s underworld. In his early 30’s He was sternly warned by many doctors that his drinking & smoking would kill him in 5 years if he did not stop. And he did not stop.
In his mid 30’s a car accident into a stone wall at 70mph only left him concussed but his wife spent the next 3 years in and out of hospital having her legs reconstructed. The drinking increased over this time until a failed marriage was followed by a move to the Philippines around 1982 where he purchased a Go Go Bar in Manila the Billabong Club.

The book is set around this time up to late 80’s and the fall of Marcos regime. During the late 80’s he returned to Australia and worked as bricklayer amongst other things, he married his Filipina wife and had a child. His wedding was unusual in that a large number of the Filipina women present were once Bar whores in his club in the Philippines, it was quite obvious they dearly respected and loved him for the opportunities he indirectly created for them with their marriages and new life in Australia.

In the early 90’s his second marriage crumbled under the madness of his alcoholism and he separated from his Filipina wife. During an accident on a building site, he damaged his hip and had it replaced with a new one. He complained of some discomfort and upon x-ray they discovered what was believed to be lung cancer. He went under the knife and had ¾ of his right lung removed, only to be later told, our mistake it was TB and were sorry. So about 1993 he settled out of caught for a measly 10,000 AUD for the fiasco of a misdiagnosis with lung removal and returned to the Philippines where he resided ever since, with an occasional sponsored quick trip to see his brothers in the US, Hong Kong and his family in Australia and NZ. His life in the Philippines from that time is riddled with adventure, misfortune and mystery.

He has been kidnapped 2 times, stabbed 3 times, shot at once & even jailed in Manila for 8 weeks.
He has even caught Malaria and been carried off a mountain in a traditional bamboo tube hammock and run over by a horse and cart. He never stopped smoking or drinking as part of his daily routine & the mere fact he had been living this lifestyle with one lung and a bad hip since 1993 is testament to his strength and will of character.
He began vomiting blood with an advanced stage 4 Squamus cell cancer Mid Sept 2008, a host of family members including his daughter, 2nd son, sister, a niece, a nephew and his two remaining brothers all made the trip to CEBU in the PI to visit him in his last days. However I was stuck in Cuba doing my thing and informed him I would be there Nov. Things got progressively worse but he held on to what little life he had. He let go of that 5 hours after I arrived 22nd of Oct. The following is a brief of his book, a mere glimpse of his life in the PI for almost 30 yrs.