Passenger Tales

I spoke to my aunt last night on the phone. I was asking after my nephew, who was spending a few days with her. She told me that he was asleep already after hours of running around. After talking about stuff, she told me to buy her two automatic umbrellas as my birthday gift to her. I promised I would bring them when I go there next month. Suddenly, she told me that I should also lose weight before I go there. My goodness, I have to do some quick weight loss activities in a little more than a month’s time. It would require discipline, something I still have to acquire.

Every start of the year, our office always runs out of office supplies. The reason is because in government offices, funds are released late every beginning of a new year. Approval for acquisition of supplies is not considered urgent. The priority is of course the salaries of the employees. Even though we try to stack up on supplies before the year ends, come the new year, supplies still ran out before we can purchase new ones. If you have friends from other offices, you can borrow from them the stuff that you need, that is if they have extra. I think the overall government system needs to be changed to address these problems. However, considering that there are countless of greater problems besetting the government system in our country, this does not merit any attention from the higher ups.

Last Monday, I hitched a ride on a taxi with some officemates. We did not have our usual service because our “driver” was on sick leave. The taxi driver told us that he almost did not want to take us to our destination, which is Pasig, because he had a bad experience there one afternoon, around 4:00pm. His passenger pointed a knife as long as his elbow at him and took all his hard-earned money. This happened along Mercedes Avenue. When the passenger got off, the driver saw a police car cruise by but he did not report it even if the hold-upper could have been caught because he was afraid that the criminal would take note of his taxi and seek revenge once he gets out of prison. The driver was very pragmatic saying that driving a taxi was his means of living so it would be easy for the hold-upper to track him down in the future if the driver will have him arrested. The driver also said that nowadays, you cannot easily spot a criminal. He told us that the guy who held him up was nicely dressed. Sometimes, these guys could have women allies who will ride the taxi and asked to be dropped off at a certain point wherein the one to do the crime is waiting. There was even one incident wherein a man, a pregnant woman and little boy got into a taxi and then proceeded to rob the driver. Can you believe it? If you were the driver, you wouldn’t suspect that robbing a taxi would be a family enterprise. I guess if there are criminal taxi drivers preying on the passengers, then there are also criminal passengers preying on the drivers. It is really sad that these things are happening in our country. I guess extreme poverty is driving our people to desperate ends.

Last week, a former officemate visited. He is in the country for a vacation. He works for an industrial supplies firm in the Middle-East that manufactures an ingredient for making plastic. We asked him if he brought “papaitan”, since he did not bring us any souvenirs or chocolates, which is his specialty dish. It turned out that he made one earlier and brought it to our previous division and he told them to inform us, those who have transferred, about it. I guess once you transfer to another office, you’re no longer priority. It’s the case of “out of sight, out of mind.” So we made him promise to cook just for us next time. He said he will bring on the 15th. I hope he won’t forget.

Last week we’ve been rearranging our workstations to find that perfect arrangement. It took us about four different tries before everybody was satisfied. With the new arrangement, the visitors’ sofas are situated inside the office are so that it is not the first thing that can be seen coming from the door. The new place is conducive for sleeping. My officemate tried it out and said that it was very comfortable but it’s like sleeping on heated mattress pads. Her back was perspiring heavily. She went back to sleeping on her chair during lunch breaks.

We are saving to buy a car. My mom’s office is offering their officers a certain amount of money for loan so that they can buy a car and they only need to pay half of the amount of the loan. Unfortunately, the loan is not that big so you still need to shell out some money. But aside from the additional money you also have to allot for car insurance, driving lessons, and other miscellaneous expenses. It looks like it will take a long while to save for it.

I guess one of the most common greeting of Filipinos to each other after not having seen each other for sometime is either “You’ve gained weight” or “Have you lost weight?” I’m also guilty of using these words often but recently having been the recipient of the “You’ve gained weight” chorus time and again, I realized how wearying it is to hear. Especially if it is true and you’re already very much aware of the fact that you badly need top fat burners to make you lose weight. Usually when people tell me I’ve gained weight or even I’m getting fatter, I just smile and agree. However, maybe it got too much for a former high school classmate because she posted in her Facebook shout out a fictional conversation (I think) that goes something like this: (although it loses something in translation)
Person: You’ve grown fat Girl.
Girl: Yes and you’re still ugly.

Problems with the bowel movement, either by constipation or diarrhea may lead to hemorrhoids. I can remember one of my friends, who suffered from haemorrhoids, use to eat cooked rolled oats for breakfast every day. She said that for her it was the best hemorrhoid treatment. Fiber greatly aids digestion that is why it is recommended to eat fibrous foods for good digestion. People who suffer from hemmorrhoids should limit their intake of spicy food because it can aggravate the situation.

Nowadays, daily eating habits leave a lot to be desired. Because people are always on the go, the quickest way to cook the food is to fry it. Moreover, it has become a habit to buy from fast food restaurants with their fatty and greasy food or buy microwavable food that is full of preservatives. These kinds of food leave a lot of toxins in the body. It gives rise to diseases like cancer and heart attack. It would be good to do a colon and body cleanse regularly to eliminate those harmful toxins. Making an effort to change to a healthy diet would lead to a longer more productive life.

Cold weather can really dry the skin. Coming from a tropical country, we did not realize how dry our skins could become. Our lotions, creams and moisturisers that were enough in warm weather were no match for the cold of winter. Good thing there was a previous year student who introduced us to the best day cream to use on the face to combat the dryness brought on by the cold. It really worked for me and some of my friends.