Passenger Talesstories about my experiences as a traveler and passenger

Whenever we hear the word steroids we immediately call to mind the bulging muscles of weight lifters or body building enthusiasts. Or we recall scandals that brought down great athletes who were found to have used steroids during competitions. This is because in popular language the word steroid refers to anabolic steroids, which is a class of steroids that can increase muscle and bone synthesis. Anabolic steroids are popular with athletes and body builders because they enhance strength and physique. However, because of serious health risks involved in long-term or excessive use of anabolic steroids, these are considered controlled substances in many countries.

The use of steroids in a non-medical way is controversial because of their adverse effects and users can gain potential advantage in competitive sports. These are the reasons why their use is banned by all major sporting bodies. In countries where steroids are considered controlled substances, non-medical use of steroids is considered illegal. However, there are also countries like Mexico and Thailand where steroids can be bought over-the-counter.

There are some steroids that are considered legal steroids or legal steroid alternatives, which are used as supplements. These are available online with a lot of websites dedicated to selling steroids. However, one must still educate themselves before using such supplements because side-effects vary from person to person. Moreover, what may be considered legal steroids in one country may be considered illegal in others.

Watching container vans lumbering beside your tiny car in highways is kind of intimidating. Those monstrous trucks sharing space with you while traveling 80-100km/h is a scary experience. Container vans are so hard to maneuver because they are so heavy and long. It is really an exercise in patience whenever you encounter one getting out of their company’s gate because it takes the driver some minutes just to maneuver his truck out of the gate. Of course you just have to encounter them while you are running late for an important appointment.

Driving vehicles like container vans and trucks require special driving skills. In the US, drivers who want to pursue a career driving such vehicles need to get commercial driver’s license or CDL. A law was passed in order to ensure safety in the highways by removing unsafe and unqualified drivers from the highways. In order to get a CDL, drivers have to pass a written and driving test to become qualified to drive Commercial Motor Vehicles.

However, to prove to potential employers, the trucking companies, that you have what it takes to be a safe, well-prepared truck driver requires more than a CDL. It requires attending state-approved truck driving school. Some of the things you will learn from CDL training classes are proper logging routines, trip planning & map reading, HazMat regulations, accident prevention, and safety and mechanical issues. Once you have learned and mastered these lessons then you will be ready start your new career as a truck driver.

The yellow metered airport taxis in NAIA were a pleasant surprise. When I arrived from Korea it was late Thursday night so no one was able to fetch me. I was worrying how I was going to get home since I knew airport taxis cost the earth and it’s very difficult to get out of NAIA on foot with very heavy luggage in order to get a cheaper taxi ride out of the airport. Without any more options, Ate Rita and I decided to inquire how much the rate of the yellow airport taxis were. I was used to flate rates by areas from airport taxis in the Domestic and Centennial Airports so I was surprised when the dispatcher told me that the taxis were metered and cost about twice as much as the regular taxis. I asked him to approximate how much from the airport to our place. When he mentioned not more than five hundred pesos I decided to try it out. The computation was P70 flag down rate for the first 500 meters then P4 for every succeeding 300 meters.

If I remember correctly, my total was less than P350 considering that the taxi stopped to refuel and by my count he should have deducted P12 from my bill. Hehehe…It was even cheaper than the flat rate of Basic taxi from our place to the airport which is P400. What was also nice about the airport taxi was that it issued an official receipt in case you need one for reimbursement purposes.

So for my friends abroad who are contemplating of coming home and they have nobody to fetch them, take the yellow metered airport taxis in NAIA. It’s much safer because there is somebody who keeps track of the taxis and the destination of the passengers and it’s cheaper than the airport taxis with flat rates for specific areas.

On our way to and from Korea last July we flew via the Korean Airlines. One thing I appreciated about the Airline was that it was not very strict with luggage weight. It was my first time to fly in a foreign airline. During our departure to Korea, while we were waiting for the man behind the counter to finish checking our tickets, Ate Rita and I discussed the heaviness of our luggage. I turned to the man and asked how heavy my luggage was and to my surprise he told me that he had no way of knowing because they their booth was not equipped to weigh our luggage. We were at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport then so I thought maybe NAIA was not so high tech. This I can believe because its Rest Rooms in the departure area was so Jurassic. It was not something you would expect from an international airport.

Anyway, this was not the case with Incheong Airport. This airport is so big and modern. When we checked in our luggage we could see how many kilos we were racking up. As is in most cases of Filipinos traveling, we had heavier luggage coming home because of the various knickknacks to be distributed to friends and families. We checked in by pair and between the two of us, Ate Rita and I racked up 45 kilos, an excess of five kilos. We were holding our breath on how much it would cost us considering that nothing is cheap in Korea, particularly Seoul. Boy were we thankful when the Airline did not charge us anything. We were able to breathe easier once we checked in because now we could spend our very limited remaining won with an easier mind.

Last Thursday I was commuting to work because as I mentioned earlier, Kuya Alvin was absent. The jeepney was full to overflowing with two men hanging out the jeepney. One of them was in his sixties. He struck a conversation with the younger man. The older man was talking about a commuting experience. He mentioned that he’s been an on and off taxi driver from 1969 to the early part of the 1990’s. I was not really listening (not very obvious..hehehe) until he said that not many people knew it but there was no Project 5 (not sure how true this is) but there are Projects 1-4 and 6-8 in Quezon City but no Project 5. He even shared a joke about how he was in Cubao and he told one dispatcher that there is a Project 5. Just add Project 2 and 3 to come up with 5. Hehe. As I’ve said a hundred times, you learn something new everyday.

The secret to writing retail resumes is to identify the key skills the employers are looking for and emphasize your experiences that match the prospective employers needs. Resumes should not be one size fits all. A resume should be customized to the job you are applying. There are two styles that you can use. One is functional resume where you focus on what you do rather than on the positions you have held. The other is chronological resume, which is a summary of your work experience by year. What is important is that you can demonstrate through your resume what you can contribute to the company’s success. Using action verbs is a great way to do this but more than those use Problem-Action-Result statements. These will improve your chances of capturing the interest of prospective employers.

Ever since we transferred to our new office some office mates and I ride with an office mate who has an FX. We have a designated meeting time and place in the morning and in the afternoon we have different points where he drops us before proceeding to Mega Mall to fetch his wife. One time I decided that I will go to Mega Mall but changed my mind when I realized that it was San Miguel Beer’s Octoberfest opening. I did not relish getting stuck in traffic. Then the week after I thought of going to Mega Mall again but my co-passengers discouraged me because it was a Friday and there was going to be another San Miguel happening. Just imagine the horrendous traffic it would bring. So I changed my mind again. It turned out that there was no San Miguel event that Friday but traffic was still very heavy according to Kuya Alvin, our driver and owner of the vehicle. Then last Monday I was very definite in my desire to go to Mega Mall. I was going to visit SMART and have my SMART Bro cut because PLDT just connected MyDSL the Saturday before. It was a perfect timing because my monthly payment for SMART Bro was due that day. However, when I asked Kuya Alvin if he was going to Mega Mall he informed me that his wife was on leave for a week because they were remodeling their house so he won’t be going to Mega Mall the whole week. Waaaahhhhh!!! So instead of going to Mega Mall I went to Robinson’s because it was nearer and easier to commute and there is a SMART office in Robinson’s Galeria.

My bad timing did not end there. Earlier today, an office mate cooked rice for us in the office. There was a lot of left over rice so I volunteered to bring home the rice and cook fried rice the next day. I was thinking that with the service it would not be so cumbersome to lug the fried rice. So there I was bringing the heavy Tupperware container full of left over rice (and it was very heavy indeed) when I heard Kuya Alvin say that he was on leave the next day because an inspector would be dropping by their house and Kuya Alvin wanted to talk to him. Haaayyyy….So I’ll be waking up earlier than usual tomorrow to cook fried rice then I’ll be lugging around what weighs like two kilos of rice while getting on and off two or three jeepneys and a bus. It’s really true what they say about good intentions…..

LCD monitors are so great. They are small and lightweight. It is easier to transport them to venues outside our office whenever we have symposium, conferences or orientations. Of course we are very careful in transporting them because these monitors are more sensitive than the previous ones. Sometimes I even jokingly call the attention of my office mates when they touch the screen a little to enthusiastically.

I can just imagine if we have an LCD TV at home then I would be constantly yelling at my nephew because he has this habit of pounding his toys at the TV screen. I guess I will just have to wait until he outgrows this habit before thinking of shifting to LCD TV.

No, it is not a word gibberish word. According to Wikepedia, it is a painful inflammatory condition related to the foot that is caused by too much wear and tear to the tissue that supports the arch. You know you have it when the underside of your heel feels painful especially when taking your first steps of the day. It can be caused by long periods of weight bearing or sudden changes in weight bearing. Funnily enough, this condition used to be known as “a dog’s heel” in UK and “flip-flop disease” in the US. Hmmm…I wonder if it is related to wearing flip-flops all the time since flip-flops have no arch support and wearing shoes with little or no arch support is associated with the condition. Obesity or gaining weight can also cause Plantar Fasciitis. I guess this is another reason lose weight.

Last Friday was the opening of SM Marikina. Traffic was so heavy along Marcos Avenue and you could see a lot of people within the vicinity of SM Marikina. Usually between 4:30pm to 5:00pm traffic is not heavy from Katipunan to Sta. Lucia but because of the opening we got caught in traffic. Weeks before the opening all of us riding in the service were kidding around that we’d all troop to SM City Marikina during the opening. Good thing we did not do so because just from the highway you can already see how crowded the mall was. Even the overpass to SM was very crowded and it spilled on to the streets. I have never been to an opening of a mall or department store so I did not know that it could get like that. My office mates told me that there are a lot of freebies and discounts during openings hence the presence of the multitude of people.

During our conversations about mall openings, particularly SM malls, I realized that there are people who make a habit of going to mall openings. I was playing around with the idea that there might be a group of die hard SM malls fans who always get together and attend SM mall openings. Maybe they have an organization and and a blog forum where they schedule their EBs and get togethers to coincide with a mall opening or something. Hehe.

Talking about mall openings, I remember that I read an article that when IKEA, the big Scandinavian store, opens a branch there are long lines of people waiting outside. Some even wait in line as early as three days before the store opening. Talk about excited.