This gravy thing

Why do I get charged for extra gravy when I do takeout at a popular fast food chain?

I fail to see why I should pay…

• for something I would get for free had I eaten at the fast food restaurant;
• when I actually free up space for one more set of paying customers; 
• when I save their personnel the time and effort to clear my table of foodstuff and clean it;
• when I do not require additional waiting services like the provision of water and yes, extra gravy; and 
• when I save them the set of utensils my family and I would have used had we chosen to eat inside the fast food area

WHY???

Token feeding

Just recently, I was at the Malitam Elementary School to help at a feeding program that the Shell Tabangao Ladies Circle (STLC) was conducting in partnership with the school and its parents-teachers' association.

Our group arrived to find the feeding venue empty.  It was a far cry from last year’s feeding program with another school when we’d get to the venue and find parent-volunteers in the last stages of cooking the food, and already prepping up the area for the kids.

Babbling with customer service reps

I am amazed at how many sentences customer service reps can spout off in a minute when all they’re really saying is, “we can do nothing”.

Take this telco customer service rep I got on the phone when I reported non-service in our compound re Internet and land line services.  In a very well-modulated voice and with perfect diction, he tells me that due to technical issues, they are monitoring services in the area for now and that they cannot yet give an estimate as to when services will be restored. He says this in three or more sentences.

Upping the service in Oslob

He is from Pampanga, she is from Brooke’s Point, Palawan. An unlikely couple who settled even more unexpectedly, in a small town some 130 kilometers south of Cebu city.

Photo borrowed from agoda.com

Renato and Eva Malonzo are the owners of Oslob Malonzo 
Pension House, a six-bedroom affair that has been voted 2014 Travelers’ Choice in the bed and breakfast category, based on reviews and ratings by real travelers via Trip Advisor, a popular travel website.

The travelers’ seal of approval is proudly displayed on the premises and rightly so, since it is well earned.

Vietnam sights unusual to these Pinay eyes

When we were in Ho Chi Minh City, we took two tours that took us out to the countryside. I am usually unable to sleep on long rides, so I saw several things that made me wonder about the Vietnamese.

 Tombs everywhere. I would see them beside houses, in fields and in what looked like deserted lots. The tombs would all be facing in one direction. At first, I thought they were constructed to have their backs to the thoroughfares until we entered an area where all the tombs were facing the road. Luc, our tour guide, explained that the tombs are all constructed to face the East. Each body must be laid according to the position of the sun otherwise families believe that they will be subject to bad luck.