As one grows older, one has to deal with creaky joints. Getting up early in morning requires more effort and walking requires more effort, much more jogging. The search for joint pain remedies commences as more vigorous activities requiring the use of limbs become more difficult. I can remember how my aunt a while back injured her knee because she thought that she can still do skipping rope as her exercise. Unfortunately, her damaged knee required surgery. She’s fully recovered now but she knows that skipping rope is not an activity for those in their 50s or 60s.
For the past two Fridays, my officemates and I tried eating only fruits for the whole day to cleanse our body of toxins. Actually, we do not have any specific reason why we do it on Fridays but for me I just got the idea from a friend who only eats fruits and vegetables on Fridays. I read that the usual cooked food that we eat, meat and processed foods leave toxins in the body. By eating raw foods like fruits and vegetables we can detoxify our body. I heard that eating fruits can also help cleanse our colon. Eliminating constipation, improving digestive function and increasing energy levels are some of the benefits of colon cleansing. I don’t know how long we can sustain our fruit diet but I hope that we can really finish a day eating only fruits and vegetables.
Today is the birthday of one of my officemates. Some of my other officemates brought food to celebrate her big day. Earlier we had pizza roll and tuna casserole for breakfast. There are still plenty left-over from breakfast but for lunch we have shrimps and chicken feet adobo. At the rate we are always eating, I don’t know how weight loss products will help me lose weight without the proper discipline to stop eating. I thought we were always eating in my previous office, but this new one tops the other one hands down.
On my way to the office one day last week I saw some ordinary scenes that somehow stood out for me that day. The first scene was in a slum area that the jeepney I rode passed by. There were two grandmothers (I assumed) seated on a bench with one grandchild each flopped down with the grandchildren on their stomachs on the grandmothers’ knees. They looked like rag dolls lying there while the grandmas gently thumped the children’s backs. I don’t why but maybe it was to strengthen the children’s backs or lungs. It was the first time I’ve seen such a scene.
The second scene was while I was waiting to cross the street to Jollibee, which was the meeting place for our private service. While I was waiting for the traffice enforcer to let me cross, a couple crossed the street while the vehicles were still on the go. I heard the traffic enforcer’s tirade regarding the couple’s diregard for the traffic rules. He was saying how undisciplined the two persons were and how if they suffered an accident they will blame the enforcer or the vehicles. People can really be undisciplined and selfish. It would not have hurt the couple to wait a few seconds for their turn. It would have been alright for them to cross and take their chances if there were no traffice enforcers directing the traffic.
The third scene I saw while I was already riding our service. On the other side of the road I saw a van stop to let a motorcycle with two men riding cross to go inside a gate that was opening when suddenly another motorcyle overtakes the van and bumped perpendiculalry into the motorcycle that was crossing the road. They formed a T. Good thing both of the motorcycles were going slowly or it would have been a serious accident. A few seconds later when I turned back to look, the motorcycle with the two men entered the opened gate. I guess both parties just let the incident pass.
These three incidents really do not have much in common, except for the last two, which were about undisciplined behavior that can lead to accidents, but they stuck to my mind.
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.
