Lucky Break

I hate Mondays. Today was no different. As I was about to get off the bus, a throng of people was already occupying almost half of the sidewalk leading to the MRT entrance. It's like a blockbuster movie all over again. I decided against taking the MRT since I would just be spending the next 15 minutes or so jostling with the rest of humanity. I would be lucky if I reached the platform fresh and in one piece.

Taking the Pamana bus (yes, that is one of my favorite bus lines, the other one being Cher) means having to endure a longer, albeit a little more comfortable, trip to Makati. Luckily, the bus skillfully weaved its way through traffic so I was at the Buendia MRT after 45 minutes. I took a very short ride from the Buendia station to Ayala, where my next ride (the Fort bus especially commissioned for HSBC employees) awaited. After 15 minutes or so, I was at the office, all fresh and awake. :) All in all, the trip from Bulacan to the Fort took me approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes. Whew! What I'd give for comfort and a few more minutes of sleep!

The rest of the day kept me busy: 200++ transactions waiting to be manually posted or written off, cardholders inquiring about the status of their disputes, inquiries from Customer Service regarding the posting of credit for the double uploaded transactions, the cleanup in preparation for the auditor's (supposedly) surprise arrival tomorrow, etc. etc! Help came in the form of Suzette, who helped me with the floating transactions.

Things began to really turn after work ended at 7pm. An officemate offered a ride till the Ayala MRT. Macy, Franz and I had lots of fun discussing National Treasure 2. Soon, the talk shifted to the state of Philippine cinema and how Resiklo was just an imitation of Transformers. Franz was spot on when he said that the biggest irony was this: Bong Revilla was chasing after movie pirates when the concept of his own movie is, in a way, also "pirated". At the risk of sounding judgemental (none of us watched the movie), I still think he has a point. We all wondered why Filipinos cannot come up with original concepts. Well, that is a different story altogether, but something worth thinking about. Even more entertaining was how Franz delivered his commentary with so much gusto that you would think one of his veins was about to pop out.Ü

As if saving my bus fare was not enough, another lucky break presented itself via the FX driver. He happened to live in the same village (but in a different phase) so I was able to save a large chunk of my tricycle fare (I take two tricycles by the way). Lucky me!Ü

Again, today wasn't so bad. Tomorrow may just be a different story. Good luck to me!Ü