stories from the middle earth press room

7. utilize your caterer to the max. since beterano na yung caterer ko sa ganyan and ilang beses na nila nagamit yung social garden for receptions, alam na nila pano idecorate yun and makipagdeal with the admistrator ng venue. i convinced other half to have the reception there. walking distance from the church. plus my mother is a university employee we only had the place for P250 per hour x 5 hours = P1,250. san ka makakakuha ng garden na ganun ang presyo? good thing katatapos lang ng garden show that time so buhay na buhay pa ang mga halaman. i let my caterer handle the logistics of setting up the place and talk to the adminstrator of the garden.

8. maraming kilala ang caterer. she was the one who recommended the one who will make the cake. i had a tall cake for P5,000. all cake hanggang base, unlike sa hotels na styro ang baba, yung cake lang yung hahatiin ng groom and bride. masarap yung cake and dahil ang laki nya isang buwan kami kumakain ng cake ko. grabe.


my caterer also contacted the sound system provider. P3,500 for everything. i just provided them with CDs of the spanish guitars, brazillian music and some instrumental love songs. tapos.

she was the one who contacted the florist. since madali akong kausap, sinabi ko sa caterer ko na wala akong motif, basta white ok na ko. P5,000 ata lang binayaran ko sa bulaklak sa simbahan. yung bouquet ko simple lang. all in na yun kasama yung flowers sa altar, sa aisle, corsages, etc. simple demands = savings. maganda naman simbahan daw, sabi ng tita ng husband ko.


all in, mga P78,000 ata binayaran ko dun. lahat ng yun yung caterer ko ang naghandle nun.

9. i had QP for wedding invitations. they used to have a stall in gloriatta 2 under the escalator but alam nyo naman ang nangyari. sad nga ako sana walang nangyari masama sa shop assistant and supervisor dun. meron sila sa megamall. i chose the simplest but elegant design. no frills, no frou frou. i had 100 pieces made with envelopes, sticker and had our names embossed on the flap(?) or on the invitation card mismo (?) can't remember na. basta i had these made for under P35 each, all in. other people spend P100,000 on invitations alone. grabe yun. ako P3,500, professionally done pa. i was mulling over the idea of making my own (may ready made sa national bookstore and maganda naman and ipiprint mo na lang) but mas mahal siya according to my computations. plus hassle pa.

10. nagaway kami ni other half sa souvenirs. he wants the tacky figurine souvenirs like the ones his mom collects whereas i want the practical one. what i did was i talked to my mother-in-law and sold the idea to her that we should opt for the abaniko souvenir made of sandalwood. i was able to convince her so wala nang masabi asawa ko. i bought those in divisoria for P18 and just painstakingly sewed on our names and the wedding date on the tassle with my mom's help. i had about 100 pcs made so souvenirs for less then 2 grand.

you can also opt for the little papier mache boxes made in paete and stuff it with chocnut or m&ms and just slap your names and date on the box. the boxes just cost P10 in paete. kaso ayaw ng asawa ko nun, he was adamant about that.

11. i hired a photographer and video for P15,000++ with album (like the ones they exhibit during wedding fairs), signature frame, a gigantic wedding framed photo and DVD of the wedding (di pa tapos) and over 200 digital photos. nagbayad ako ng extra kasi andami ng isinama kong photos sa album. sa manila the cheapest i could get was P35,000. di nga lang kasing dramatic nung katulad ng mga may pangalan na photographers yung photos namin pero sabi ng ate ni other half, maganda naman yung album nung makita nya.

12. i bought my shoes from florsheim on sale. i am now using it at least once a week. i'm a practical person so pumili ako ng shoes na magagamit ko talaga.

13. other gastos: make up, hotel rooms, gifts for the ninong and ninang and other unforseen items.

i did away with the program like bouquet throwing, garter dance, singing etc. i was supposed to make an AVP to show the guests kaso i ran out of time. atsaka madami ding nagmamadaling bumalik ng manila kasi may pinsan asawa ko na kinasal din that day pero gabi naman. so lipat naman sila dun.

BOOBOOS

since walang program, nakalimutan agahan yung cake cutting so hindi nadistribute yung cake. thus we ended up with a lot of cake to consume.

napakainit ng Mayo. i forgot to secure industrial fans to keep our guests cool. kahit nga open air, mainit. sabi ng ate ko buti na lang daw pamaypay yung souvenir ko.

andami pang booboos pero eto yung glaring na nakakahiya na nangyari that i have overlooked sa sobra kong kapraningan. imagine, two days before my wedding i was still submitting stories to my boss!

dahil malaki ang natipid namin, we were able to have our honeymoon in Hong Kong na may kasama pang shopping. ahem ahem.

ALMOST A YEAR AGO...

...i was also near breaking point. i was all over metro manila last year covering this and that WHILE AT THE SAME TIME i was arranging stuff for our wedding. didn't have a wedding coordinator (i have a limited budget) so i have to do everything on my own.

and for those who are asking me how in the earth i pulled off a pretty respectable wedding under P150,000 for more than a hundred people *wink wink* this is what i can tell you...

The KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid!

i was able to save a lot by keeping things simple, much to my husband's chagrin (he is more flamboyant that i am). i had to put my foot down on everything lest i lose control and let somebody else's idea of a wedding would reign. Other Half said i was a monster bride. who wouldn't be in my position at that time?

1. first, have a definite budget. i initially targeted P100,000 for everything so i canvassed around metro manila for venues and cost of feeding the guests -- and realized that it can't be done. so i told Other Half that we should do it in elbi since it's cheaper, it's where we went to school and where we met. later on i added P50,000 for incidentals. the key here is you should set a limit on how much you're willing to pay for things like a) food b)dress c) cake d) photos and video etc. etc.

then i sourced everything in elbi. it's a lot cheaper i tell you. it's a trifle inconvenient for the guests to go here (i am now in our house in elbi) but in the long run it's worth it. other people get married in calaruega and other ends of the earth pa nga eh.

1. i saved a lot of money by buying everything in divisoria. i had my embroidered wedding dress made there with the "princess" train, ultra long veil, pillows for rings and coins whatchamacallit (aras?) -- the works! whole package na siya for the same price as my husband's pina-barong from lumban, laguna. really. my mother-in-law told me that "sinong magaakala na ganito lang ang presyo nito?". i think my sister-in-law liked my dress. i can give you the name and number of my dressmaker. she's good and she was recommended to me by two of highschool classmates so subok na talaga.


why spend 30,000 or more on a dress i'll wear once and just leave it for the moths to eat? kahit na pa sabihin nila na ipapamana ko daw sa anak ko, my goodness by that time na ikasal anak ko baka ang mga damit na nun space suit. atsaka di sya kakasya. right now my dress is under my bed gathering dust.

2. i did away with the long entourage. just the essentials like the groom (of course!) cord and veil, candles, ring bearer and coin bearer, ninong-ninang, parents then me. yun lang. wala na yung achuchuchu na bridesmaids and groomsmen na dadamitan mo pa...

3. i told the abay to buy their own dresses. same thing with our parents and ninangs. just wear what you have so you can recycle. tipid pa. that's why i didn't have any definite motif and inaway pa ako ng photographer ko bat daw wala akong motif. sabi ko puti na lang para may freedom mga taong mamili ng damit nila.

in the case of my sisters -- kasi sila lang ang kaya kong diktahan eh -- bahala silang mamili ng isusuot nila na magagamit nila uli. gastos nila. i saved them the hassle of going to the dressmaker to have their measurements taken. it was only two or three days before the wedding that my sisters were able to buy their dresses from cinderella. nagkataon may parehong kulay na magkaibang sizes. when they bought the dresses, my ate called me up and said "o ayan may motif ka na. lime green". two days before the wedding. (kaya dear sister-in-law, pasensya na kasi wala talagang kabalak-balak na ganun ang kulay kasi biglaan na lang ) una nga balak ko anything goes na lang and bahala na si batman kung anong mangyari.

it seems unconventional but i am an unconventional person in the first place. my gosh, you have to practical these days. why force people to go to a dressmaker to have their measurements taken for something they will only wear once eh busy busy ng schedules ng lahat ng tao? atsaka if they choose their own style, mas magagamit pa uli nila.

and i saved ourselves a few grand.

4. since sa probinsya ang simbahan namin, which is just a spitting distance (literally) from our house, mas mura siya compared sa lahat ng simbahan sa maynila. reservation pa lang sa mga manila cathedral-type churches P10,000 na ata eh. plus 1 year waiting. sa amin P5,000 lang ang lahat kasama na kuryente.

5. i splurged on the choir. paid P9,000 for the local choir since nakatipid naman ako sa church. a wedding will become more beautiful with choral music. sumintunado sila pero i didn't care na at that time. ihing-ihi na ako nun eh. i was past caring na. at least they sang the songs i wanted to hear on a wedding. plus sila yung kumanta ng songs during the mass.

i just had the choir play the cd i bought for the entourage music. can't remember what that was basta di siya katulad ng gasgas na gasgas na canon na pinapatugtog sa kasal. shucks, can't remember na talaga yung classical piece na yun. one choir member sang carol banawa's panunumpa for my wedding march with my mother.

6. i spent a lot of time looking for a caterer. what a wonderful caterer i found!

one february day, other half and i chanced upon the university social garden being decorated for the prom of my old highschool. the decoration was nice and it was kinda hip. i saw the possibility of having the reception there. i talked to the caterer and she happened to be just my age! we set schedule for the food tasting and menu inspection and voila! the food tasted good (sabi ng ate ko) we hired them. P430 per plate, with the flowers, decorations, tables, cutlery -- in short lahat. i initially estimated 100 people but i told my caterer that may increase so i told her i may have the final number two weeks before the big day. true enough dumagdag when we finalized the invitations. 150 people x 430 = P64,500.


not bad.

the cheapest i could get in metro manila is silahis hotel in QC parang P100,000 for 100 people.

(to be continued)

just had coffee with my bestfriend that i haven't seen for a while.

it's funny that we are now talking about work-related stuff that seemed complicated now and whining about it unlike before we were so stuck up and too self-involved to talk about such things. we used to focus much on love life and so and so is like this and like that. now we talk about the rice "crisis", inefficient subordinates, balancing work and family...

tumatanda na.

and coffee. grabe, we used to talk about things like these over bottles (several bottles actually) of beer. but now we just have coffee. can't take alcohol right now since i have to work tonight.

grabe, is this me talking writing? weekends for me used to mean getting drunk and waking up with a bad hangover. di na kaya ng katawan ko ata yun. my highschool friends and i used to come home in elbi on weekends to get drunk and dance inside rented videoke rooms. maaga pa sa amin ang 1 am na uwi. usually mga 3 or 4 am na uwi namin.

can't do that anymore.

this week to get my alcohol fix (i'm nearing the breaking point na nga), i went out with my older sister and had two bottles of san mig light somewhere in edsa shang and had two more in her condo. by 11 pm, i was on my way home with Other Half after his martial arts practice. 

yun na yun.

i wonder what's happening to our other friend right now who is now into triathlon...she took up triathlon to keep herself from being bored.

was again attracted to a small (kei in japanese) car. would've liked to test drive a suzuki alto but of course you can't crash it through the glass walls of gateway mall, can you? i was reading tsikot.com last night and learned that people are only shelling out P500 for gas a week. one said his/her regular route in a week is driving from caloocan to manila to pasig while the other one i caloocan to laguna.


freaking P500?! that would only cover my FX/tricycle/taxi fare for three days! imagine, i have to shell out P50 so that i can get out of the subdivision without cramming myself with 6 other people (including the driver) inside a tricycyle in the mornings. di ito yung jeepney-style tricycle...ordinary tricycle with a cab with a somewhat elongated front but still an ordinary-looking tricycle. i'll take a photo of it one day to show you the indignities of riding one when you're rushing off to work. apat kayong pinagsisiksikan sa loob ng cab tapos dalawa sa likod minus driver. aaaaagggh!

then i have to ride an FX to get out of pasig to wherever i have to go. if i haveto be in ortigas, i will pay P18 to get ther. if i would go to makati, then i'll pay P35 but i have to queue for like an hour because it takes a while for the FX to come back from makati because of the horrendous traffic along C5 every morning.

then within the day syempre as a field whatever i go around pa metro manila di ba so wala akong choice kungdi magtaxi sa kung saan man ako magcocover dahil nagmamadali ako. sabihin nating another P100 na naman yun. eh minsan 3 kinocover ko sa isang araw.

in the evenings, i have to pay again P35 or P18 to the mamang FX driver (depending on where i came from) and P40 to the tricycle driver to reach this f*cking subdivision (not really my choice, do i have any these days?). forgive me, that's the childish me talking...as much as i want to cut back on my commuting expenses, i realized i dont have the energy to cram myself inside a hazardous take the tricycle with 6 other people at the end of the day. i mean, i can't be cruel to myself. i've worked my ass off the whole day trailing after these people, writing stories on the fly and dealing with colleagues who are also competitors and stuff and as a reward, i'll ride that sardine can of a tricycle?

so buying an 800-cc cheap car is sooooo attractive to me right now. i don't care about the resale value or what (since when is a car an investment anyway?) but i could save a lot of energy and money by getting myself that alto. my weekly allowance is just for commuting. buti na lang may nagpapakain sa amin so nakakatipid ako sa food minsan. nagbabaon ako paminsan pero since i'm always mobile, minsan parang hassle magdala ng lunch box sa kung saan man ako pupunta. if i have a car, mas madaling magbaon.

imagine me lugging a lunch box that i can't shove inside my bag because the food may spill on to my laptop. then i would have to cling to whatever i can hold on to when i ride at the back of the tricycyle, stuffed with live, breathing people. there are mornings that i don't have any choice but to ride those sardine cans because tricycle drivers who are willing to go "special" in the mornings are hard to come by.

mas masama pag umuulan. you get the picture.

the only problem to this solution i've found is the money. where in the world will i get P420,000 (base is P398,000 plus 3-year registration and insurance) when other Half and i put our money in the stock market that is falling, falling, falling falling *sigh* (i didn't see the bottom) and in a mutual fund that we promised we will not touch for 10 years?

hay...dream on.

kelangan tumaya sa lotto.

a former journalist told me yesterday that at the end of the day it's not worth it, running yourself to the ground. for what? dahil masipag ka sa yo lahat itatambak ang utos. oo nga gagaling ka nga pero at what price? and you're serving the agenda of your bosses, which is beyond your control and all you can do is bow, being a slave that you are.

at dahil masipag ka lahat ng trabaho sa yo ipapasa tapos yung iba pakuyakuyakoy lang. at dahil alam nila may magtatrabaho na iba, mas lalong masarap ang pagkukuyakoy nila.

that's the wisdom imparted to me by a former practitioner who is now quite happy and i think who is now growing rich in his new field.

an older colleague yesterday also commented that it's still monday and i am already scowling and deep in my reveries. too serious. taking things too seriously as if what i'm churning out everyday have to qualify for the pulitzer prize.

maybe i let myself be pushed around by my bosses and the whole industry.

i need a break. i hope i get sick. i'm so f*cking tired.

i was reading again the Vogue December 2006 article on La Fallaci (Oriana Fallaci) and the similarities in her and the article author's (janine di giovanni) lives. they both were feisty female journalists who eschewed personal life for journalistic excellence. la fallaci died without a child nor a husband (her lover died tragically in some car accident) but di giovanni opted to take the opposite direction -- she left baghdad and decided leave her life as a war correspondent to have a life. after years covering conflicts, she realized that her work has eaten up her entire life and she didn't have any life to speak of.

i am far from being a celebrated journalist but i can relate to the part there that my work is eating into my life. i don't see my friends anymore because i am too tired to do so. the rare moments i get to hang out socially is when i am with my sisters and cousin. Other Half and i couldn't take our annual vacation because of my tight schedule.

i don't know if i am being exploited already. i do a lot of special reports left and right on top of my daily spot reporting without extra pay. problema kasi there is no way you can say no to a boss. i don't know how my other colleagues manage to go out and have fun but it seems like they can. maybe because their employers are not as demanding as mine. sometimes i envy them.

but then again i don't want to be mediocre.

i guess that fuels me to be a workaholic, as crystal told me many times. i am a workaholic. i don't want to be just a run of the mill whatever.

but then again, i am trading quality of life for a name.

i am already tired and freaking out.

but who says being a practitioner is a walk in the park? i need help.

yes, it's so funny. my desire to exact revenge on sisa died when i learned she is now gay.

as in she likes girls.

in fact she is chasing girls. i don't know why but now it seems like i don't have any reason to be angry with her anymore. she may still be a bitch but my anger may have mellowed down because of the fact assumption that she is not a threat anymore. is she?

that's kinda sad for me (yeah i know it's sick) since i love to hate her. i often fantasized how i would let her eat my dirt. i have played the situations in my head how i would humiliate her or put her down. now that desire has gone kaput.

yeah i know it's kinda crazy of me since it has been years ago but i still harbored this hatred, this anger towards her. i don't let go of petty things like that, things that shook me hard. it's the scorpio in me.

i remember i used to love to hate this girl in college...

let's call her christine.

i never hid the fact that i hated her and she knew it. now don't ask me why (it was all in the past). the thing here is, all my excess energy was spent on hating christine. she was like a this doll that was thrown at me to show that i was not her. christine became an embodiment of all my insecurities -- like i was not "girlie girl" like her (for crying out loud, i was a football varsity player!!!), i didn't dress like her, i didn't grow her hair like she did, she was not uncouth like me, like i was not as pretty as christine, etc. etc.

i never felt uglier in my life. and the f*cking part is i felt like that for YEARS.

i hated her for that. what hurt so bad at that time was that there was this someone who asked indirectly why can't i be like christine. (looking back i can't believe i let myself fall into that trap!)

thus this inexplicable hatred.

i wanted to hurt christine by telling people how i felt about her. my bestfriend was friends with christine and her circle of girlie girl friends but i didn't prevent my bestfriend from going out with her/them. i may be crazy but i'm not that harsh. i had another highschool friend who was also friendly with christine (since both of them were pursuing pre-med degrees) and i didn't hide my dislike for christine from my friend because i want my friend to let christine know that.

it was so illogical, this intense negative feelings toward christine but i relished it. so weird of me.

i knew my only "edge" over this girl was that i knew i was more intellectually gifted than her. i took up a zoology course (which was like planets away from my bachelor's degree) to prove that point. she was also taking up zoology at that time but with a different course number. there was this one time i topped an exam, my professor (god bless her soul she just passed away last week) posted the names of the topnotchers on the zoology department board or door (can't remember which). i knew christine saw it. i wanted to throw that fact to her face. and it has been like that ever since. my name was plastered again on the bulletin board of the chemistry department for being one of the topnotchers. i fervently wanted her to see that.

that is one sick motivation for studying and topping exams at that time.

it was like that for almost all of my college life. it seemed like there was this imaginary rivalry between us. the sad part was it was just on my part. i was creating my own demon.

i knew she was unhappy with the way things were going between us. christine was a nice girl kasi. she didn't like agonized over the fact that someone like me hated her, a common friend told me. she wanted us to be friends and she even arranged a heart-to-heart talk with me inside the campus church. i obliged and we did talk. but that didn't ease the pain, my anger didn't subside. i still hated her. i told her i wouldn't be able to put on an elastic smile when we meet on the street. i just told her i'll live my life as if she didn't exist. i was that rude to her.

it was only when i got out of that deceitful whatever that i realized my folly, my irrationality. yeah, i was demented.

i committed a grave error. towards christine.

it was too late to realize that christine was just used to make me feel bad about myself because someone couldn't handle the truth that i was too good for that someone. that's why that someone planted the seed of insecurity in me. and that seed's name was christine. it was a deliberate effort to put me down, to make me feel worthless, unpretty. it was a horrible feeling, i tell you.

but the damage has been done.

it was a long time before i woke up to the truth that i didn't have any reason to hate her. and it was idiotic of me for believing that, all the lies to make me feel like a public toilet during a dysentery epidemic. it was a long time before i believed that i was pretty, that i was charming and all that crap. that guys like me. i was too blind to see that. and i just drove them away to the sidelines. SAYANG! i was just too wrapped up in my own f*cking little world filled with filthy anger and hatred.

it took me a while to learn that if i only believed in myself and stopped trying to measure up to christine, i would've been a happier soul. i should've spent my energies elsewhere, to something more productive like...trying to be a better football player? i sucked at that.

too many tears wasted. too much putrid angst locked up inside. i wanted to tell christine i was sorry but there was no point.

but i was able to say my apologies to her at one point. i don't know if she recognized it as my way of saying sorry but...

about four years ago, i heard that christine was being a slave to this on-off boyfriend of hers from college. she was agonizing whether she should go back to him or not, christine's sister (who is the gf of a friend, let's call him M) said. christine could not move on.

one day, i caught her ex-not-so-ex boyfriend cavorting with another girl inside a van parked *somewhere*. that somwhere is notorious for all the unholy things done there. anyway, he saw that i saw him so he shut the van's door, hoping i didn't see him.

i told my friend M about it, who in turn told his gf (christine's sister). i think that settled it for christine. her sister (who also knew of my past with christine) thanked me for telling the truth about christine's shmarmy bf. i guess christine is happier now with that.

i ran into her in megamall in january. i said hi. she said hi.

but i saw in her face that she was having a hard time recongnizing me. and i knew that when we both turned around she remembered ME. who i was.

and i didn't feel bad that she wasn't able to recognize me because i've become fat.

i wasn't insecure of her anymore.

and now back to sisa. what i felt towards sisa was somewhat similar to what i had with christine...the betrayal, the lies, the insecurities...

and now, do i still feel the same? i guess her being a lesbian changed all that.

my boss gave his nod to my so-called study leave this july to september to finish mg friggin' thesis. plus i'll be attending classes again as penalty for not finishing my studies on time. sheesh. if only i could get out of the rut i am in similar to that comic strip above...

and the comic strip below is so true. i'm actually applying it to my thesis, which is in the same stage as that of the comic trip above.

aside from the lack of comfortable working areas, we practitioners/road warriors are often targets of these effing thieves.

tapos pinapatay kami.

kawawa naman si tatang ted. kabibigay (salary deduction) pa man din sa kanila ng office yun sa kanya,

2 journalists lose laptops to robbers

The Philippine Star

Two journalists lost their laptop computers to robbers Wednesday.

Ted Torres, editor of The STAR’s banking and finance section, lost his Apple Ibook laptop at the UCC café in Makati City Wednesday morning.

He said he was in a meeting at the café, and when his companion left the table to pay their bill, a man allegedly walked by and told him that his money was on the floor.

Torres said he took the money. When he looked toward their table, he saw that his laptop bag was already gone. He said he did not report the incident to the police since the chances of retrieving his computer are very slim.

Makati City police chief Superintendent Gilbert Cruz said he will order an investigation into the incident.

Manila Standard Today reporter Joel Egco, 35, said he parked his van in front of the City State Tower building in Pasig City past midnight Wednesday to attend to his radio program on dwIZ.

However, when he returned home in Bago Bantay, Quezon City, he discovered that his P29,000 laptop and two Nokia cables worth P3,000 were missing.

Egco believes that a suspicious-looking person who used a nearby automated teller machine had something to do with the robbery. He hopes the footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera will help police solve the case.

He said there have been many robberies in the area.   – Michael Punongbayan, Non Alquitran

 

--

whatever happened to newsbreak? sorry, i'm so out of the loop, i don't know if they've already closed shop or what. kasi ilan sa kanila nasa ABS-CBN interactive na eh. kaya nga nagkaroon ata sa kanila ng reshuffle. on the other side of the fence, GMA.tv has new bosses also kaya nagreshuffle din sila. the past few days parang wala sila masyadong coporate stories. hmmm...

--

aside from the systemic problem with the agriculltural sector (naku nangunguna dito DA, anlalabo ng programa, isa syang malaking sore thumb. GMA rice and GMA corn my ass! i should know, i've worked there for almost 3 years!), accelerating population growth ang isa sa mga problema natin. di na natin kayang pakainin ang sambayanan.

the catholic church's dogmatic teaching re population control is a throwback to the middle ages. so stupid, really. and this government is more stupid for following the catholic church's edicts.

sa tingin mo ba sa taas ng bilihin ngayon (6.2 percent inflation rate!) sa tingin mo ba kayang pakainin ng isang trabahador sa ang 10 nyang anak na nagsisiksikan sa barung-barong on P325 a day?

--

where is my deutsche welle channel?! sky cable, where is my german channel? where is my tv mundo? where is my NHK and KBS? SHAME ON YOU!!! we're sky cable silver subscribers for YEARS! di makatarungan ito. eto na nga lang pinapanood ko eh.

oy benpres, sumagot ka!

buti pa cable namin sa probinsya. may history channel na, may discovery travel and living pa. hmpph!

...is the kind of person you are.

i was so disturbed this afternoon when i found out how an acquaintance treated their househelp.

i rode my japanese bike (with the basket and all -- the kind that you see in japanese movies and tv series) this afternoon and went to Other Half's *whatever*'s (let's just call them acquiantance since i don't know them that much) house also in the same phase in our subdivision to give our much belated wedding gift.

i rang the doorbell and the househelp went out of the townhouse's door but couldn't open the gate. it was locked. she was locked in. she was helpless. she didn't have a key and her employers were out. there was no way -- no opening or anything big enough -- where i could shove the big box into the other side of the gate. you see the gate ran from the top of the garage ceiling (it's a townhouse, you get the picture) sagad hanggang sahig.

i was aghast. i asked her why she didn't have a key. she couldn't answer me straight. she said her employers are out and may come back much later.

i mean what the f*ck are these people thinking?!

they lock up their househelp from the outside while they're are gone. she was prisoner there! i wanted to ask her why she was locked up but that was already too nosy of me. but probably she could sense my indignation when i asked her why she didn't have a key.

what kind of people are they? did they lock her to prevent her from enjoying a quiet sunday out of the house? doesn't she have any day-off at all?! what if the house was on fire? the househelp would've burned to death!

because of that, the couple -- Other Half's whatever went down several hundred of notches lower in my list of people whom i would be friendly with.

i texted my husband about it (he was on his way to the North for a trip) and of course maanghang na naman ang mga pinagsasabi ko. he said "do not judge a book by its cover". tanginang cover yan.

sorry, but i hate people who do not treat their househelp well.

the househelp for me is part of the family.

i was raised by a yaya who had been with us since i was a month old and left us when i was already 14 (but she was not under our employ by then but she lived with us still after she got in as a clerk in our univeristy). she and her sister, who also took care of us, were flown in by my mother when i got married to witness how i've grown up. without my yaya (but we never called our yayas yaya but ate), i don't know how my parents would've managed since they were both busy with work, graduate school, and their sidelines.

my mother's current househelp has been with us for at least 10 years. she cried with us when my father died. we've been through a lot with her there. she's also family. we share with our househelp what we have. whenever my mother goes abroad, she also gives her househelp pasalubong.

i'm not saying that you should treat your househelp like how we treat ours but at least you could give them more dignity by not locking them up inside the house when you're not there. you could be at least generous with food. and do not scold them by saying harsh words that make them feel undignified. if they committed an error, focus on the error and do not degrade their character like "Ang tanga-tanga mo naman! Sa uli-uli ipasok mo sa kukote mong maliit na ganito ang pagpunas ng mesa!"

how would you feel if your boss said something like that?

please do not take advantage of their desperate situation. i call it desperate because they wouldn't want to be employed as househelp if they had a choice.

there is this old biddy that i love to hate dislike (the former was such a strong word) because of a lot of things but one of which is she is overbearing. she also treats her maids like trash. her maids have separate food (of course the food is much inferior compared to the food the rest of the household has) and i don't remember if i heard that they should buy their own provisions i.e. food.

that is so cruel. i could only imagine their anguish while cooking the sumptuous dinner of their amo that they could not eat.

Other Half said masama daw ugali ko pero i can't stomach it, being "friendly" to this woman. di ako plastic. i'm not forcing people to like somebody so i don't want people to force me to like somebody, too.

anway, i hope i don't sound so righteous here but can't help myself. i am so angry until now because of what i've seen this afternoon. and i thought they were a decent couple...