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.
