I have a new route ever since last week, courtesy of my workmate J who taught me that I can save more by doing this route. Instead of me stopping at Coastal Uniwide mall everyday and catching a bus going to Washington, she told me to just stop at Buendia where the crossroad is. From there I walk about 5 minutes and then catch a jeepney going to my workplace and it saves me around 7PHP everyday. So I decided to take this route because it would amount to around 70PHP per 10 days. Not bad at all. I can use that 70 for other stuff. Anyway, as I was walking going to the jeepney stand, I had to pass thru all these empty and old buildings and in my walk an old guy stops me. He is well dressed, not that old and I think he was a foreigner but the biggest stamp that he has on my memory is that his head was actually bleeding. Super bleeding red, bleeding blood and he asked me to stop and look at him while he was wiping it to make sure that there was none left after he wiped it all off. I was backing off as I was looking at him and I was up and about and ready to run. You can’t be too sure these days about how crazy people are and I was just so scared at the fact that he had a gash that was around 4 inches high and obviously needed stitches but that he was just ignoring them and wiping the blood off. Luckily it was daytime and there were a lot of people around to help me if ever…
Filed under: Daily Travel Diary , all about the philippines, Daily Travel Diary, scared
As a daily commuter in Philippine traffic, you can’t help but notice that there are these people shouting out the route of the passenger bus or jeepney that happens to be along and ferries people to these commuter vehicles. These are the people that you call, “the barkers”. They range from men, women and children and their only job for the rest of the day is to call out the routes so that people will get aboard the commuter vehicles. Some are so violent at times when the driver or the conductor doesn’t give them anything after they have called and called out to people. Personally I think that we really don’t need them and that they are just an added expense to the drivers that make their living. I mean, commuters/passengers regardless if they are called out to or not will always ride the buses or jeepneys to get to work and to go home or just to be wherever they want to be. These barkers are sometimes abusive of the drivers. Once I was riding on this bus wherein the barker who was calling out rode inside the bus and would not go down unless the bus conductor gave him 50PHP in exchange for his services. I mean cmon. People will always ride the buses or jeeps whether these barkers call out or not. I think that they just want the easy job hence they resort to this kind of profession which is really not needed at all. People are not dumb and the drivers have their conductors to call out to passengers. So they are just really for me an added expense and sometimes they can be so violent and abusive if not given what they want.
Filed under: Daily Travel Diary, all about the philippines , all about the philippines, bus trips, Daily Travel Diary, philippines, random thoughts
It’s been over a year since I have started commuting to and fro from cavite to the makati area. In the distance and time that it takes me to commute every day I am very mindful of details especially since you can’t be too careful here in the metro. What with all the pickpockets and such. Anyway, ever since I started I always get these morning bus commuting highlights and it would normally be an old person or around late 40’s they usually introduce themselves as minimum wage earners/workers and that they have been abused by their employers and that they are on strike and they pass around with these wooden locked boxes to ask for donations to help out their cause. With so many of them I encounter on a daily basis I sometimes question if their causes are really true or is it just another of those “scams”. They have the same spiels and they go from bus to bus asking for “donations” to help them out. Are they really on strike or is it just another way to make money easy by asking from charitable individuals riding the buses. Personally, I don’t give them money because I am really wondering if they are true or just a scam. What do you guys think? I think that if their cause was true that they should appeal to a policy maker or the DOLE for solutions, after all that is what they are their for. We spend so much paying taxes and these taxes should be put to good use and not inside the pockets of dirty politicians to help out the Filipino people.
Filed under: Daily Travel Diary , all about the philippines, bus trips, Daily Travel Diary, philippines
February 24, 2009 • 1:34 pm
We all know that money is something that we cannot live without added to that is the rising costs of everyday living and you know that you have to earn really well to be able to have a lifestyle that you desire. I got this smart tip from Ruffy and Ai’s morning show yesterday while riding the bus. They had pageant title holders as their guest and the segment that I caught was the one with Miriam Quiambao as their guest. I have always admired her because I think that she is a very smart and yet a very interesting woman who goes after her dreams. She went through a trying time after her short marriage to her ex husband but she has bounced back so well and is now on her own and living her life. She shares with the hosts a bit of advice that I’m sure can actually help out a lot of people out there striving to make ends meet and hoping to be entrepreneurs one day.
She said that in order to be a millionaire someday you need to start thinking like one and millionaires actually multi manage their money in a lot of different ways. So she told Ruffa and Ai that she actually keeps jars in her bedroom labeled with different allocations for each jar. Here is what she has: LTS (Long term savings – 10% for business starting), Educ. (Education – 10%), NECC (Daily Neccesities – 50% or more depending on your need), FUN (fun savings – 10% anything that you might want to spend on yourself or a trip) and that was about it. She has got I think 1 more jar that I was not able to remember but I guess that the ones that I listed would be enough and I plan to start on my own soon. Probably this end of the month. We all go from paycheck to paycheck and this kind of thinking is actually very smart and very good advice and we all should actually do it. We might be able to minimize our debts this way and have a more fruitful life.
This kind of tip is actually just a lot of common sense that we sometimes forget to do. It should be the case that after ever salary comes in we should be able to spare at least 5-20% of the total amount and let it go to our nest egg (savings). Hopefully we can always manage our funds.
So I hope that what I shared will be able to help others out there who want to be financially free.
Photo Credit: mudflat.wordpress.com
Filed under: Daily Travel Diary , bus trips, Daily Travel Diary
February 5, 2009 • 5:15 pm
You might be wondering why I’m writing about marriage and 3rd parties when in fact, I have never been in a marriage and am not polygamous by nature. Why did this subject suddenly crop up in my thinking and why am I writing about it now? Truth of the matter is I just want to express my views on the subject matter and would like to welcome comments about it here in my blog so that I would know what people think about it.
How do we decide that we go into a marriage? Do we plan about it? Or do we just jump into it on the spur of the moment? Do we spend hours agonizing whether to say yes or no from a woman’s perspective? Or do we just go with the flow and say yes, when our hearts say yes?
Marriage is not a joke. It is a natural extension of the life of partners, it is the binding compact between two parties and how they want to spend their lives together. A serious pact, to be taken not lightly nor jokingly but with focus and sincerity and don’t forget mutual trust. It entails a life together and possibly raising kids together in the long run. Marriage is somewhat scary to me. It means that you are entrusting your life to someone and also of taking responsibility for your partner. It is a vow, a pact based on mutual understanding to be with one another thru thick or thin, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health till death do they part. And yet, most of the marriages that I know of have ended in a not so good way. Most have not ended yet but already with the taint of betrayal. Now that makes me wary to be married. In this day and age, marriage has and is being taking lightly and people relying on divorce or separation as a plan B if things don’t work out. Am not saying that divorce is also not to be considered but I’ve always believed that once you have decided on a partner, that it will be that partner till the end of time hence the reason why I am so picky. And if it comes to that then both parties should try and work things out and not just easily give up. Marriage is after all a work in progress that needs cooperation from both sides of the fence. So far, I have not yet come across a person that I would consider as a partner. That is a long way off.
It is just sad that friends that I have known for a long time, are having marriage problems because of 3rd parties. Betrayal of trust then becomes the foremost issue and also the loss of love. People should not get married just because they are forced too because of a lot of things, like parents have already agreed, wedding has been set and all preparations have been made. IT should not be like that. Marriage should happen because 2 people are finally being tied to enjoy life together and not just because society dictates it. And what of the betrayal, would you be strong enough to go through a marriage knowing in your heart of hearts that it is not something that you are totally committed to. It then becomes a painful chore. And what of marriages ending because of 3rd parties, how should we proceed? I think that the most likely action would be to treat the matter with respect and civility and not callous disregard of the other parties’ feelings. Both man and woman have shared good times together and shared a life together, marriages that do not really work out ideally should have both parties in good terms but sadly sometimes this is too much to ask for. After all we are only human and can only afford as much.
Filed under: Daily Travel Diary , Daily Travel Diary, friendships, random musings
January 29, 2009 • 11:45 am
My daily bus trip from home to the metro yielded another thinking session. Last night, I just watched “ Meet Joe Black” with my sister and was confronted with the idea that I know is looming in each of our minds, the subject of DEATH. Death is something that we can’t escape. It is the routine of our life. A cycle that we must follow through. This line from Brad Pitt during the movie about the most certain things in life like death and taxes really does amuse me. Earlier today, my close friend’s grandfather died. He was 94 years old. I told my friend not to be so sad. For sure, 94 is a good age to die. My friend’s grandfather has seen much and lived through so many things. He has lived and for me I think that it is the most important question that we should ask ourselves when nearing our deathbeds. Have I lived? Really, really lived? Have you? Or are you just going through the motions of life without stopping by to smell the roses just because you have bills to pay and mouths to feed.
Death is for me a celebration of sorts. Not of course the accidental and brutal deaths because those are bad ways to die but rather dying because of old age. At the end of that cycle in our lives, we should be celebrated. Celebrated for the life that we have lived. Celebrated for the moments that we have shared with family and most of all, memories that we have shared with all the people who passed by through our lives.
If I died, I wouldn’t want anyone to wear black. There should be a party of sorts. No crying but rather laughter and fun reminiscing. Yes, I am different. I don’t want to be mourned but rather Celebrated…
Filed under: Daily Travel Diary , bus trips, Daily Travel Diary, friendships, random thoughts
