Where we went wrong
I doubt if stainless steel tiles would have made any difference to a house along the Marikina River late in September. People live where they are told to live, and people live where they can when there is no other practical alternative. The place where we live in, this delta between Terminals 1 and 2, used to be a small subdivision with houses that could be seen from the main road. Now the short kilometer distance between MIA Road and our house is peppered with informal settlers, a population that owes its existence to the construction of the edifices now surrounding us, the airports.
Population expands to fill up available real estate area. It does so whether it is environmentally safe or not. This age old centralization of jobs and the attitude that living in the city is the key to getting more money whether from a job or from engaging in commerce is what feeds the city.
It is also what consumes it.
Never say die(t)
I don’t think I’ll ever find the best weight loss pill, one that will not make me cranky the whole day, one that will glide down my throat and sit in my stomach nicely doing stuff that it should and hopefully make me fit again into the jeans I bought two years ago.
I’ve started on oatmeal again. And moving. Yes, moving. That was something I stopped doing in mid-2006, when I got transfered back into Web Services. When I was in Tech I would go out on client calls at least 3, maybe 5 times in a week, and that took care of my aerobic exercise, not just the walking but all the talking I did with the clients.
This long holiday has not been good to me. Heck, this long holiday I had not been good to me. I think my rice intake tripled during that period. So did the flab around my waistline. Or what used to be my waistline.
Gotta getit out. Wish me luck.
Unaccommodating accommodations
Maui and I went up to Baguio Friday last week for his medical exam at UP, and to look at the possible places where he could board during his freshman year there. For some reason I had expected to find old American style houses with spare rooms that a student could rent, with enough space for a study table and perhaps even a tiny kitchen. Perhaps it was because these were the houses that I remembered we visited, when I was a child and my aunt would take me along with her barkada, for summer. When her mother, my grandmother, would follow suit I would even get a free hotel stay for a night when we kept her company where she was checked in.
What we found last weekend was definitely the opposite of this image. What we looked at were closets with double decker beds stuffed into them, with monthly rates as high as P3,500. But my niece Wanda, who lives and works in Baguio, said this was to be expected within city limits. We could probably find more accommodating accommodations in areas a jeepney ride away from the city. In fact she said she herself had to make to with a bed stuck in a room no larger than two meters in length, in the first few months of her stay in the city.
Needless to say we have not yet decided on where Maui should be billeted for the first semester, but we do have a fallback place in New Lucban in case the offerings at Engineers Hill prove to be too unappealing. We have a couple more months time to do this.
A different kind of weaning
The photo you see above are Maia’s stuff since I don’t know when. OK, since we moved back to Manila, which is almost 4 years ago. The thing is I have not been able to throw anything out, not even the broken ones, because she will not allow it. There’s stuff in there that were gifts from previous birthdays and Christmases, Happy Meal toys from McDonalds, even some of her Kuya Maui’s hand me downs. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found toy Ferrari parts while digging into that hill.
I would like to really get rid of some of them, if only to clear out a little space in the room. But I am met with such enormous resistance from Maia I really don’t know if I can make any progress in this direction. All you mom’s out there who have faced the same problem, please … I need your advice!
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