Pinoy Anger Management 101

Are Filipinos predisposed to anger? Okay, maybe not anger. Irritation, perhaps. Or annoyance. Do we have the tendency to assume that every other thing around us is a potential pain in the ass?

An incident that happened this morning got me thinking about this. I was waiting for the boarding call of my 9:30 am flight from Cebu to Manila. Ten minutes after my flight should have been boarding, the first announcement explaining the boarding procedures came onto the PA system. Shortly after, they started boarding those who require special assistance – those in wheelchairs, with infants and small children. A short queue started to form by the entrance doors of the gate, with me perhaps second or third in line.

Now you must note that I usually let all other passengers board first (which is usually why I request for an aisle seat, to save the hassle of butt-on-knees incidents when your seatmates simply won’t budge, if you know what I mean). However upon check in, the counter guy said that I would be sitting on the second to the last row, on a window seat. Which is why I was such in a rush to board.

So going back to my story. The staff by the door told us that we were not yet boarding. Fine, I thought. I can wait. And then this PAL supervisor comes in and says, “Will you sit down? We’re not boarding yet.” In no way was it a courteous or polite request, rather, an order coupled with a smirk and an air of self-importance that you can’t miss.

And so, I said loudly, “What’s wrong with forming a line?” It’s just too early in the morning for someone to bitch around like that, and I didn’t want to have any of it.

Well eventually the PAL staff repeatedly told us to sit down, and I gave in after a few minutes when clearly they weren’t going to stop bothering us about it.

Why is it so difficult for many of us to just smile and let things slide? You know, chill a little.

Chill a little. Yeah. I should take my own advice, hence end this entry, lest I build more irritation.

Good morning, Teng!

Neil Gaiman on Love

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it oepns up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."

Neil Gaiman

Waiting for PR853

I’m here at the airport. Flying back to Cebu today. I’m so freakin’ sleepy. I thought my flight was at 7:30am so I woke up at 5:30am this morning, only to check my ticket and find out that I was on the 9:30 flight. My dad was bringing me to the airport and I was too ashamed to admit that I had gotten my flight wrong so I told him it was 8:30am instead. So I’ve been here since 7:00am. Stupid me. Note to self: For all future flights, check your ticket the night before.

I’ve got this really bad case of cough. I rarely get sick that’s why I hate this painful, scratchy throat. Plus, it’s so inconvenient. I hope I get rid of it. Soon.

Last June 3rd, I graduated from my 2-year MISE Program. Many people, myself included, have now shifted to a new rhetorical question: What now?

Technically, I should be expatriated sometime between August 2006 and early 2007. Available jobs for my MISE batch will only be available starting the 1st of August, therefore I would not know where I’m going or what my position is going to be before this date.

Sometimes it saddens me when I think about how, in the past two years, I’ve rarely stayed put in one place, due to the nature of my employment. My life has become so mobile that I feel like I am always on the run, always on the way to somewhere else, and it tires me at times. But when I complain about it, people always say that’s the price I pay for everything that I’m enjoying now.

Favorite line that comes to mind: They never said it would be easy; they only said it will be worth it.

Changi Airport

Blogging from the free internet service here at the Changi Airport in Singapore. Fyi friends I will be on my fourth module from 20-May till 4-June.

See you all when I get back! :)

P.S. I'm graduating from the program this June 2nd. Finally!!!

Manila Manila... I'm HOME.

Manila, I keep coming back to Manila
Simply no place like Manila
Manila I'm coming home...

Take me back in your arms Manila
and promise me you'll never let go
Promise me you'll never let go...

This seems to be my banner song for 2006. Seriously, since I was transferred to Cebu last January 8, I have only spent one weekend there -- I distinctly remember, February 11 and 12. All the other weekends, I have spent somewhere else, most of them in -- yup, you guessed it -- Manila.

I don't know why until now, I still feel like a stranger to Cebu. Yes, I go to Maersk's Cebu office everyday and sleep in my rented place every night, but I still feel... displaced.

I came back to Manila from that heck of a vessel tour on a Sunday. Was not feeling well that Monday. Worked overtime on Tuesday and Wednesday. Came home early on Thursday to run some errands, but ended up with some personal issues that forced me to cry my eyes out for the rest of the night and neglect my planned errands.

Then Friday came. On a whim my dad told me to book a flight that night and come home. HOME. Lately that word has meant so much to me.

So this weekend I flew to Manila on personal expense to spend some time with my family. A number of titos and titas were coming over for the occassional family-salo-salo-slash-pseudo-reunion. This was the reason my dad gave me to convince my mom that the airfare was worth it. Eventually, what happened was a 50-50 deal. So I'm out 3,000 pesos now, thank you very much.

But if you ask me? It's damn worth it! I miss Manila... my car... my sister... my parents... my brother, heck, even his girlfriend! I miss my Tita Bing and Miggy and Luis and Mommy... I miss the Lolas... I miss my Ortigas friends and I miss Ortigas itself, the home of so many happy memories... I miss Megamall, I miss the chipipay Value Point at our village entrance... I miss home-cooked food... I miss my room, my sanctuary... I miss HOME.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but once I was throwing some haphazard thoughts to my friend Josette over a cup of Rhumba Frap at Starbucks Ayala Center Cebu. I told her, I still cannot call Cebu "home." She, having stayed in Cebu for almost a year now and not an original Manilena (I believe she's from Bicol), candidly asked, "But home is where the heart is, diba?"

I nodded, paused for a moment, and replied with a straight face:

"Yeah, and my heart is in Manila."