An Orgy of Laziness

Just like Mr. Single Guy, the last days of the departing year when you have to go to work makes me feel like it is SO difficult to move and do the usual religious performance of work.

These are days you feel more like indulging into an orgy of laziness, staring blankly at the surroundings, doing nothing, thinking idly or talk nonstop (with somebody, of course) about events, and people.

The pile of work stares back at you but you feel pigheaded and still choose to stare back, too, and do nothing. The outcome of the year, be it good or bad, does not count as reason to me. I just feel ecstatically lazy during this holiday season. After all, the air still makes my bones feel that it is though Christmas day is over.

I guess the cramming days aren’t over.

Some Like It Hot

Most of my friends like to take a COLD bath in the morning, even if the weather is chilly. I don’t. I like it HOT.

I cannot take a cold bath. Aside from the goose bumps I get just dipping a finger tip into a pail of cold water, I will later have colds. My resistance to colds or to viral infections of the nose, throat and the bronchial tubes is not working to full capacity. In short, I am weak when it comes to colds.

Actually, my bath does not really have to be hot but lukewarm just enough to get rid of that unbearable degree of chill. Just enough to make me enjoy the relaxation one gets when taking a bath.

Some say cold baths are better than warm or hot baths. I prefer the latter. I remember a pretty PE teacher told me that hot baths open the pores of the skin so for the finale, one has to finish it with a splash or two of cold water. When the pores of the skin are open, the body becomes more susceptible to colds, she added. So to close the pores, finish the bath with cold water. I don’t remember doing that anymore.

I read from Encarta that therapeutic baths, which include hot, cold, medicated and mineral, serve as either stimulating or sedative or medicinal media. I think I’d go with stimulating though it is not advised for long duration. That is what I need… for now.

An Orgy of Laziness

Just like Mr. Single Guy, the last days of the departing year when you have to go to work makes me feel like it is SO difficult to move and do the usual religious performance of work.

These are days you feel more like indulging into an orgy of laziness, staring blankly at the surroundings, doing nothing, thinking idly or talk nonstop (with somebody, of course) about events, and people.

The pile of work stares back at you but you feel pigheaded and still choose to stare back, too, and do nothing. The outcome of the year, be it good or bad, does not count as reason to me. I just feel ecstatically lazy during this holiday season. After all, the air still makes my bones feel that it is though Christmas day is over.

I guess the cramming days aren’t over.

An Orgy of Laziness

Just like Mr. Single Guy, the last days of the departing year when you have to go to work makes me feel like it is SO difficult to move and do the usual religious performance of work.

These are days you feel more like indulging into an orgy of laziness, staring blankly at the surroundings, doing nothing, thinking idly or talk nonstop (with somebody, of course) about events, and people.

The pile of work stares back at you but you feel pigheaded and still choose to stare back, too, and do nothing. The outcome of the year, be it good or bad, does not count as reason to me. I just feel ecstatically lazy during this holiday season. After all, the air still makes my bones feel that it is though Christmas day is over.

I guess the cramming days aren’t over.

Some Like It Hot

Most of my friends like to take a COLD bath in the morning, even if the weather is chilly. I don’t. I like it HOT.

I cannot take a cold bath. Aside from the goose bumps I get just dipping a finger tip into a pail of cold water, I will later have colds. My resistance to colds or to viral infections of the nose, throat and the bronchial tubes is not working to full capacity. In short, I am weak when it comes to colds.

Actually, my bath does not really have to be hot but lukewarm just enough to get rid of that unbearable degree of chill. Just enough to make me enjoy the relaxation one gets when taking a bath.

Some say cold baths are better than warm or hot baths. I prefer the latter. I remember a pretty PE teacher told me that hot baths open the pores of the skin so for the finale, one has to finish it with a splash or two of cold water. When the pores of the skin are open, the body becomes more susceptible to colds, she added. So to close the pores, finish the bath with cold water. I don’t remember doing that anymore.

I read from Encarta that therapeutic baths, which include hot, cold, medicated and mineral, serve as either stimulating or sedative or medicinal media. I think I’d go with stimulating though it is not advised for long duration. That is what I need… for now.

Some Like It Hot

Most of my friends like to take a COLD bath in the morning, even if the weather is chilly. I don’t. I like it HOT.I cannot take a cold bath. Aside from the goose bumps I get just dipping a finger tip into a pail of cold water, I will later have colds. My resistance to colds or to viral infections of the nose, throat and the bronchial tubes is not working to full capacity. In short, I am weak when it comes to colds.

Actually, my bath does not really have to be hot but lukewarm just enough to get rid of that unbearable degree of chill. Just enough to make me enjoy the relaxation one gets when taking a bath.

Some say cold baths are better than warm or hot baths. I prefer the latter. I remember a pretty PE teacher told me that hot baths open the pores of the skin so for the finale, one has to finish it with a splash or two of cold water. When the pores of the skin are open, the body becomes more susceptible to colds, she added. So to close the pores, finish the bath with cold water. I don’t remember doing that anymore.

I read from Encarta that therapeutic baths, which include hot, cold, medicated and mineral, serve as either stimulating or sedative or medicinal media. I think I’d go with stimulating though it is not advised for long duration. That is what I need… for now.

The Art of Gift-Giving

Do you have to expect a gift when you give one? Gifts are things bestowed to give pleasure or to show gratitude. One cannot expect that the ‘donee’ feels the same toward the ‘donor’.

I give gifts because a person holds an important place in my heart. In whatever form, gifts to me are symbols of friendship, fondness, and in some instances necessities to an occasion. I give gifts to tell someone that “I love you”, “I like you”, “I remember you” or “You are important to me” albeit indirectly. I do not expect anything in return.

Gifts are bonds, links or bridges. They should not be belittled nor taken for granted. It is not important if they cost little, or if they are not something I expect. It is the thought that counts. But it is an obvious fact that there are gifts I like very much – those that respond to a need at the moment, or those that resolve want of something. For example, a book given to me in a particular occasion answers my voracious need of something that is worth reading.

An officemate gave me a gift which she left on my table while I was not in my room. I sent a text message of thanks not mentioning that I will reciprocate her deed by giving a gift. I don’t really plan to give her anyway for some reasons. She did not reply but I saw her when I went down to the office where she is and thank her simply for the gift. The reply was a trite, “Haaa?” (Can you guess now why I don’t like to give her a gift?) But being pressured with that remark and a preceding text message from her that goes “Lord, bless this person, bait po ‘yan at feel ko siya ang unang-unang magreregalo sa akin ngayong Pasko”, I gave her a gift.

It is so easy to get a gift for a friend but for me, I don’t want a gift because I asked someone to give me a gift. It is not something given because someone was pressured or was forced. It must be coming from the heart, given with free will.

Then I gave her the gift with the wishy-washy, “O, Merry Christmas!” Not a ‘Thank you” followed. I was not expecting the ‘thank you’ but I was expecting that she would deny me that because of disappointment. Her gift was pricey than what I gave her.

The Art of Gift-Giving

Do you have to expect a gift when you give one? Gifts are things bestowed to give pleasure or to show gratitude. One cannot expect that the ‘donee’ feels the same toward the ‘donor’.

I give gifts because a person holds an important place in my heart. In whatever form, gifts to me are symbols of friendship, fondness, and in some instances necessities to an occasion. I give gifts to tell someone that “I love you”, “I like you”, “I remember you” or “You are important to me” albeit indirectly. I do not expect anything in return.

Gifts are bonds, links or bridges. They should not be belittled nor taken for granted. It is not important if they cost little, or if they are not something I expect. It is the thought that counts. But it is an obvious fact that there are gifts I like very much – those that respond to a need at the moment, or those that resolve want of something. For example, a book given to me in a particular occasion answers my voracious need of something that is worth reading.

An officemate gave me a gift which she left on my table while I was not in my room. I sent a text message of thanks not mentioning that I will reciprocate her deed by giving a gift. I don’t really plan to give her anyway for some reasons. She did not reply but I saw her when I went down to the office where she is and thank her simply for the gift. The reply was a trite, “Haaa?” (Can you guess now why I don’t like to give her a gift?) But being pressured with that remark and a preceding text message from her that goes “Lord, bless this person, bait po ‘yan at feel ko siya ang unang-unang magreregalo sa akin ngayong Pasko”, I gave her a gift.

It is so easy to get a gift for a friend but for me, I don’t want a gift because I asked someone to give me a gift. It is not something given because someone was pressured or was forced. It must be coming from the heart, given with free will.

Then I gave her the gift with the wishy-washy, “O, Merry Christmas!” Not a ‘Thank you” followed. I was not expecting the ‘thank you’ but I was expecting that she would deny me that because of disappointment. Her gift was pricey than what I gave her.

The Art of Gift-Giving

Do you have to expect a gift when you give one? Gifts are things bestowed to give pleasure or to show gratitude. One cannot expect that the ‘donee’ feels the same toward the ‘donor’.I give gifts because a person holds an important place in my heart. In whatever form, gifts to me are symbols of friendship, fondness, and in some instances necessities to an occasion. I give gifts to tell someone that “I love you”, “I like you”, “I remember you” or “You are important to me” albeit indirectly. I do not expect anything in return.

Gifts are bonds, links or bridges. They should not be belittled nor taken for granted. It is not important if they cost little, or if they are not something I expect. It is the thought that counts. But it is an obvious fact that there are gifts I like very much – those that respond to a need at the moment, or those that resolve want of something. For example, a book given to me in a particular occasion answers my voracious need of something that is worth reading.

An officemate gave me a gift which she left on my table while I was not in my room. I sent a text message of thanks not mentioning that I will reciprocate her deed by giving a gift. I don’t really plan to give her anyway for some reasons. She did not reply but I saw her when I went down to the office where she is and thank her simply for the gift. The reply was a trite, “Haaa?” (Can you guess now why I don’t like to give her a gift?) But being pressured with that remark and a preceding text message from her that goes “Lord, bless this person, bait po ‘yan at feel ko siya ang unang-unang magreregalo sa akin ngayong Pasko”, I gave her a gift.

It is so easy to get a gift for a friend but for me, I don’t want a gift because I asked someone to give me a gift. It is not something given because someone was pressured or was forced. It must be coming from the heart, given with free will.

Then I gave her the gift with the wishy-washy, “O, Merry Christmas!” Not a ‘Thank you” followed. I was not expecting the ‘thank you’ but I was expecting that she would deny me that because of disappointment. Her gift was pricey than what I gave her.

From ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens

Lingered for a while reading Stave One – Marley’s Ghost, of A Christmas Carol.

Noted some very nice lines well intended for the season and for everybody. They were exchanges between Ebenezer Scrooge and his nephew.

“Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “You don’t mean that, I am sure?”

“I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”

“Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What, right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”

Then here’s Scrooge expletive. Can you identify some people like him?

“Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”

His nephew’s joyful thought about Christmas couldn’t be swayed though. Ponder this.

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

Here are some reflections from Jacob Marley’s ghost when he showed up one night.

“It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world—oh, woe is me!—and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!”

“…Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast mean, of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunities misused! Yet such was I!”

Truly English is a language not very easy to grasp. Very knotty and indirect and flowery but English novels always fascinate me with its plots. The morals play a very important part in an English novel, and they are very applicable.

A Christmas Carol interprets Christmas as a season with that spirit of warmth from the One who gave us salvation and from the One who gave Him to us. It enables us to be kind, forgiving and loving, too. It enables us to feel the woes of the spirits around us and in turn makes better our attitudes towards other spirits.

NEXUS: Ang Pangangaroling

From ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens

Lingered for a while reading Stave One – Marley’s Ghost, of A Christmas Carol.

Noted some very nice lines well intended for the season and for everybody. They were exchanges between Ebenezer Scrooge and his nephew.

“Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “You don’t mean that, I am sure?”

“I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”

“Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What, right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”

Then here’s Scrooge expletive. Can you identify some people like him?

“Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”

His nephew’s joyful thought about Christmas couldn’t be swayed though. Ponder this.

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

Here are some reflections from Jacob Marley’s ghost when he showed up one night.

“It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world—oh, woe is me!—and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!”

“…Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast mean, of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunities misused! Yet such was I!”

Truly English is a language not very easy to grasp. Very knotty and indirect and flowery but English novels always fascinate me with its plots. The morals play a very important part in an English novel, and they are very applicable.

A Christmas Carol interprets Christmas as a season with that spirit of warmth from the One who gave us salvation and from the One who gave Him to us. It enables us to be kind, forgiving and loving, too. It enables us to feel the woes of the spirits around us and in turn makes better our attitudes towards other spirits.

NEXUS: Ang Pangangaroling

From ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens

Lingered for a while reading Stave One – Marley’s Ghost, of A Christmas Carol.Noted some very nice lines well intended for the season and for everybody. They were exchanges between Ebenezer Scrooge and his nephew.

“Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “You don’t mean that, I am sure?”

“I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”

“Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What, right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”

Then here’s Scrooge expletive. Can you identify some people like him?

“Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”

His nephew’s joyful thought about Christmas couldn’t be swayed though. Ponder this.

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

Here are some reflections from Jacob Marley’s ghost when he showed up one night.

“It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world—oh, woe is me!—and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!”

“…Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast mean, of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunities misused! Yet such was I!”

Truly English is a language not very easy to grasp. Very knotty and indirect and flowery but English novels always fascinate me with its plots. The morals play a very important part in an English novel, and they are very applicable.

A Christmas Carol interprets Christmas as a season with that spirit of warmth from the One who gave us salvation and from the One who gave Him to us. It enables us to be kind, forgiving and loving, too. It enables us to feel the woes of the spirits around us and in turn makes better our attitudes towards other spirits.

NEXUS: Ang Pangangaroling

The Good Samaritans

No one would have remembered the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well.

Margaret Thatcher (1925 – )
British prime minister.

Tia Ata had her ‘new’ house blessed and we were invited to come over and join the celebration. We did not have time to buy a gift so we opted to go to a little supermarket along the way to their house. We bought Double Dutch ice cream (my favorite).

The food was superb and prepared without a catering service but by them. I like best the pochero and the morcon. There were many visitors and relatives. Tia Ata seemed she had enjoyed her party. I kept telling her that her house is beautiful and she replied, “Yung bahay lang, ako di maganda?” (Only the house, how about me?). Overwhelmed by the nice observations, she invited us to go upstairs to have a peek at the rooms. The rooms were painted very nice, each color blended with each other.

We went down afterwards to revel with the other relative visitors. In the middle of it all, Papsie suddenly reported that his cell phone is missing. That got everybody alarmed and looking everywhere – under the tables and chairs and in areas where he went. There was no cel phone. Sweating from the experience, Papsie tried to remain calm, and I was silently cursing the incident because it spoiled the fun and brought back the bad memory of my lost digicam and cel phone. A niece tried to call the number but to no avail, the keeper was not answering.

We went home feeling bland. I decided to at least try to communicate with the keeper by calling Papsie’s phone but it kept telling me that the phone is either out of reach or unattended. With one last try, I sent a text message. I was going back and forth checking the cel phone if there is a message though I know I would be hearing the ring tone or the message alert if there is. Thirty minutes past, and the phone beeped. There was a message.

“Kami po ang nakakuha ng cel phone sa tapat ng choice mart. Isasauli po namin ang cel phone. Mabuti po kaming tao.” (We were the ones who got the phone in front of choice mart. We are going to return it. We are good people.) I literally jumped out of joy and dashed outside the house and proceeded to where Papsie is. By that time, he was with friends, probably consoling himself with their company. From not far away where he and his barkada were, I made a gesture for him to approach. Papsie silently (and sadly) approached me and asked why. I showed him the text message and saw the beam in his face, and then he called up and asked the keeper where we would meet.

When we reach Right Choice Mart along MH del Pilar, we immediately saw a couple with a child, and a sales clerk with the guard, my doubt was obliterated. The couple approached us immediately and asked if we are the owner of the cel phone. We later learned that the good Samaritans were Mary Ann and Al. It was the (4 or 5 year-old) kid who saw the phone at the corner of the two-step stair. I invited them to the mart to buy a gallon of ice cream for the son but they refused strongly.

I felt a sense of admiration towards the young couple. Good Samaritan lineage is slowly declining and to encounter them is real inspiration to everybody.

From the looks of it, the couple did not seem to be affluent. Not that I am judgmental but they are really simple people with modest manners that one wouldn’t mistake as grand or sophisticated like the rich. Miss Thatcher might be wrong. Mary Ann and Al did not look like ‘they have money as well”. Or she maybe right, too.

To Mary Ann and Al and their son, Mabuhay!

Related link here.

The Good Samaritans

No one would have remembered the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well.

Margaret Thatcher (1925 – )
British prime minister.

Tia Ata had her ‘new’ house blessed and we were invited to come over and join the celebration. We did not have time to buy a gift so we opted to go to a little supermarket along the way to their house. We bought Double Dutch ice cream (my favorite).

The food was superb and prepared without a catering service but by them. I like best the pochero and the morcon. There were many visitors and relatives. Tia Ata seemed she had enjoyed her party. I kept telling her that her house is beautiful and she replied, “Yung bahay lang, ako di maganda?” (Only the house, how about me?). Overwhelmed by the nice observations, she invited us to go upstairs to have a peek at the rooms. The rooms were painted very nice, each color blended with each other.

We went down afterwards to revel with the other relative visitors. In the middle of it all, Papsie suddenly reported that his cell phone is missing. That got everybody alarmed and looking everywhere – under the tables and chairs and in areas where he went. There was no cel phone. Sweating from the experience, Papsie tried to remain calm, and I was silently cursing the incident because it spoiled the fun and brought back the bad memory of my lost digicam and cel phone. A niece tried to call the number but to no avail, the keeper was not answering.

We went home feeling bland. I decided to at least try to communicate with the keeper by calling Papsie’s phone but it kept telling me that the phone is either out of reach or unattended. With one last try, I sent a text message. I was going back and forth checking the cel phone if there is a message though I know I would be hearing the ring tone or the message alert if there is. Thirty minutes past, and the phone beeped. There was a message.

“Kami po ang nakakuha ng cel phone sa tapat ng choice mart. Isasauli po namin ang cel phone. Mabuti po kaming tao.” (We were the ones who got the phone in front of choice mart. We are going to return it. We are good people.) I literally jumped out of joy and dashed outside the house and proceeded to where Papsie is. By that time, he was with friends, probably consoling himself with their company. From not far away where he and his barkada were, I made a gesture for him to approach. Papsie silently (and sadly) approached me and asked why. I showed him the text message and saw the beam in his face, and then he called up and asked the keeper where we would meet.

When we reach Right Choice Mart along MH del Pilar, we immediately saw a couple with a child, and a sales clerk with the guard, my doubt was obliterated. The couple approached us immediately and asked if we are the owner of the cel phone. We later learned that the good Samaritans were Mary Ann and Al. It was the (4 or 5 year-old) kid who saw the phone at the corner of the two-step stair. I invited them to the mart to buy a gallon of ice cream for the son but they refused strongly.

I felt a sense of admiration towards the young couple. Good Samaritan lineage is slowly declining and to encounter them is real inspiration to everybody.

From the looks of it, the couple did not seem to be affluent. Not that I am judgmental but they are really simple people with modest manners that one wouldn’t mistake as grand or sophisticated like the rich. Miss Thatcher might be wrong. Mary Ann and Al did not look like ‘they have money as well”. Or she maybe right, too.

To Mary Ann and Al and their son, Mabuhay!

Related link here.

The Good Samaritans

No one would have remembered the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well.

Margaret Thatcher (1925 – )
British prime minister.

Tia Ata had her ‘new’ house blessed and we were invited to come over and join the celebration. We did not have time to buy a gift so we opted to go to a little supermarket along the way to their house. We bought Double Dutch ice cream (my favorite).

The food was superb and prepared without a catering service but by them. I like best the pochero and the morcon. There were many visitors and relatives. Tia Ata seemed she had enjoyed her party. I kept telling her that her house is beautiful and she replied, “Yung bahay lang, ako di maganda?” (Only the house, how about me?). Overwhelmed by the nice observations, she invited us to go upstairs to have a peek at the rooms. The rooms were painted very nice, each color blended with each other.

We went down afterwards to revel with the other relative visitors. In the middle of it all, Papsie suddenly reported that his cell phone is missing. That got everybody alarmed and looking everywhere – under the tables and chairs and in areas where he went. There was no cel phone. Sweating from the experience, Papsie tried to remain calm, and I was silently cursing the incident because it spoiled the fun and brought back the bad memory of my lost digicam and cel phone. A niece tried to call the number but to no avail, the keeper was not answering.

We went home feeling bland. I decided to at least try to communicate with the keeper by calling Papsie’s phone but it kept telling me that the phone is either out of reach or unattended. With one last try, I sent a text message. I was going back and forth checking the cel phone if there is a message though I know I would be hearing the ring tone or the message alert if there is. Thirty minutes past, and the phone beeped. There was a message.

“Kami po ang nakakuha ng cel phone sa tapat ng choice mart. Isasauli po namin ang cel phone. Mabuti po kaming tao.” (We were the ones who got the phone in front of choice mart. We are going to return it. We are good people.) I literally jumped out of joy and dashed outside the house and proceeded to where Papsie is. By that time, he was with friends, probably consoling himself with their company. From not far away where he and his barkada were, I made a gesture for him to approach. Papsie silently (and sadly) approached me and asked why. I showed him the text message and saw the beam in his face, and then he called up and asked the keeper where we would meet.

When we reach Right Choice Mart along MH del Pilar, we immediately saw a couple with a child, and a sales clerk with the guard, my doubt was obliterated. The couple approached us immediately and asked if we are the owner of the cel phone. We later learned that the good Samaritans were Mary Ann and Al. It was the (4 or 5 year-old) kid who saw the phone at the corner of the two-step stair. I invited them to the mart to buy a gallon of ice cream for the son but they refused strongly.

I felt a sense of admiration towards the young couple. Good Samaritan lineage is slowly declining and to encounter them is real inspiration to everybody.

From the looks of it, the couple did not seem to be affluent. Not that I am judgmental but they are really simple people with modest manners that one wouldn’t mistake as grand or sophisticated like the rich. Miss Thatcher might be wrong. Mary Ann and Al did not look like ‘they have money as well”. Or she maybe right, too.

To Mary Ann and Al and their son, Mabuhay!

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