May ongoing seat sale ngayon sa Philippine Airlines dubbed The Real Deal. Totoo nga kaya?
Naka-schedule talaga akong mag-lakwatsa this coming May pero dahil sa nakita ko nga sa newspaper itong promo ng PAL, nag-decide ako na June (umpisa ng travel period ng promo is June 1) na lang umalis. Sayang naman kasi, ang laki ng mura ng pamasahe compared sa regular fare. Ang catch nitong promo, simula ngayon hanggang bukas lang ang selling period. Nag-tiyaga akong maghintay ng alas dose ng madaling araw para kako mauna ako at nang makapag-pa book na kaso alas tres na ng hapon, hindi pa din ako nakakapag-pa book! Ang galing noh? 15 hours na akong pabalik-balik sa website ng PAL pero hindi pa din ako pinalad. Hmm… madami sigurong naengganyo sa promo kaya overloaded ang system nila. Akala ko kanina, okay na ang online booking ko kaso wala naman akong natanggap na transaction receipt, nag-email na ako sa PAL pero hanggang ngayon, syempre, wala pa ding sagot. Nagtanong na lang tuloy ako sa aking credit card company, wala daw na-credit na transaction yung card ko sa PAL so ibig sabihin, talagang hindi pa din ako booked.
Isa pa, yung babayaran ko, may additional na taxes pa, pwera na doon yung Philippine travel tax so hindi talaga ito all-in. Pwede na din kasi mas mura pa din talaga kesa nga sa regular fare. Ang problema, ang hirap mag-book!!!!
Sana kung gagayahin ng PAL ang Cebu Pacific, siguraduhin naman nila na kaya ng system nila yung upsurge ng online traffic. Sabi ng credit card company ko, ang dami na daw nilang calls ngayong araw na ito tungkol sa mga transactions with PAL. Although lately laging late ang mga flights ng Cebu Pacific, hindi naman parusa ang online booking kahit pa ang dami ding nagpapa-book sa kanila. Ganun talaga, kagaya din lang yan ng mga mall sales, kelangan kong mag-tiyaga.
I applied for a housing loan with the Pagibig fund early this year and I had a very unpleasant experience with them. It started when the appraiser reported that I cannot borrow the total amount of the house I wanted to buy because based on my income tax return, I wouldn’t be able to pay for it. This caught me off guard. How come another buyer who works as a messenger at a pharmaceutical company was loaned the whole amount for his house while I cannot? I was approved for only 25% of the amount I was applying for.
As physicians, our practice is considered a business, a sole proprietorship so we are allowed to declare all our overhead expenses. Although I do not actually pay rent and electricity, I have to buy my vaccine, the syringes I use, cotton balls, etc. I also attend lots of unsponsored conferences to update myself. I pay for gas to go to my clinic, to the hospital. I had to replace the earpiece of my stethoscope because it’s torn already. I have to buy new books, again to update myself. And I am allowed to declare all that as an expense of my business. There is also the depreciation of all the clinic’s assests. This is really all about accounting but what does it all boil down to? From what I understand, the net income that appears at the end of my ITR plus the depreciation is already my savings. It means that if my net income is for example Php 50,000 and the depreciation is php 190,000 then my savings is Php 240,000 for 1 year which is the amount that they should be considering for my loan application. From that, using the table that Pagibig Fund provided, I am eligible for a loan amount if Php 800,000 which is actually the amount I was trying to loan not the 25% they are loaning me.
My developer asked for an explanation fo this and asked for their guidelines in cases like mine about a month ago. Earlier today, someone from Pagibig called me to tell me that upon reevaluation of my loan application, adding the depreciation, I am now approved for the amount of Php 800,000. WHAT? Upon reconsideration??? They should have approved the same amount in the very first place, no reevaluationtion needed. I was even insulted when I told the lady I was talking to that “kasama naman kasi talaga dapat yung depreciation di ba?” and she answered me with “kung may background ka sa accounting, simple lang naman yun eh”. Huh? Wala nga naman akong background sa accounting so hindi ko sya maiintindihan. But did she answer my question? No, she only evaded it. Maybe she also does not have a background in accounting. Does this mean that my colleagues (who will also be applying for a housing loan from them) will also not be approved? The lady said that if they do not declare their income, they will not also be approved. Ibig sabihin, hindi pala ako nag-declare ng tamang income ko? Hmm… naging BIR pa sila ngayon.
Applying for a loan from the Pagibig Fund is too complicated. If I had known this, I would’ve just loaned from a private bank. I just wanted to use my HMDF contributions that is why I applied for a loan from them. It seems that Pagibig is only for employees and rich business owners not for a simple business owner like me. If that is the case then contributions to the fund should not be compulsory. Otherwise they should have definite guidelines on how to deal with borrowers like us. Or is this just an overview on the part of the evaluators? If that is the case then they should have said so and shut up to save face instead of saying a lot of things that makes them look more like id***s.
Doctors like everybody else do compete with others in our fields but no matter how competitive our world is, this is no excuse to act like this.
Someone once taught me that jokes are always half-meant. Whether Dra. Belo said this as a joke, I find it in really poor taste. Can’t we just try to do our best and help each other out instead of us living in a dog-eat-dog world?
I was going to happily post my reading list for the 12 days of Christmas vacation but a phone call this morning changed all that. It will really be a different Christmas for me and my family this year. My Papa’s oldest brother died this morning. We don’t know the exact time or cause of death but when his children went to check on him, he was already long gone. We are not really close with my cousins but I can feel their pain right now. They are all grown-ups (the youngest, a lawyer) but nobody would want to be an orphan at any age albeit inevitable in our lifetimes. I wish it happened another day, another week, another month, NOT 3 days before Christmas.
We will be having our big clan reunion in just a few months time and now, we again lost another member while the pain of losing my Tita Dinday so suddenly only last February is still fresh in our hearts.
I feel like my heart is being squeezed. I want to hold on and embrace my family so tight. Once again, I am being reminded that life is so fleeting and I cannot do anything about it.
Rest in peace Tito Dodong. I hope now you’re reunited with Tita Rosing.
The past two weeks have really been a difficult time for me. You see, my maternal grandmother has just been diagnosed with cervical cancer.
It all started about 3 months ago when she complained of a reddish-brown vaginal discharge. Both the OB-Gynecologist and urologist who saw Lola were thinking that she has a bladder abscess (because an abdominal ultrasound said so). She was first given a 2 week course of antibiotics. When I saw her briefly last July (she lives in the province which is a 6 hour drive from Manila), she was on her last few days of antibiotics and was feeling good with no more discharge. A follow-up check-up showed a slightly smaller, almost insignificant decrease in the cervical mass. They were just told that the doctors would have to observe my Lola’s condition. I wasn’t comfortable with the situation because if indeed it was an abscess in the bladder, no amount of antibiotic alone can cure that. I consulted a surgeon friend who advised a CT scan be done. Before we had a chance to do the scan, Lola once again complained of a foul-smelling, yellowish (sorry, I hope you’re not eating) vaginal discharge. She was once again brought to the urologist and prescribed another 2 week course of a different antibiotic and was referred to a urologist here in Manila.
*Image taken from Wikipedia
We brought Lola to the said urologist 2 weeks ago. After looking at the ultrasound result and examining Lola, the doctor immediately referred us to an OB-Gyne because he stronglt felt that it is a cervical malignancy. Luckily, the brother of a good friend is a Gyne-Oncologist. He also believed it is cancer. We had a CT scan done, result was a large cervical tumor. We are still waiting for the official result of the biopsy but the Gyne-onco already told me that it was indeed cervical cancer probably in its advanced stage already.
My grandmother is already 82 years old. She is still clueless as to what is really the problem but I think she knows that something is terribly wrong. She keeps telling us and her doctors that she wants to be cured. We will know tomorrow when we go back to the doctor. Definitely, an operation is out of the question so we are only left with radiotherapy as an option. I just wish Lola will respond favorably to it. I am not ready yet to give up. I CANNOT give up!
I am a doctor but at the moment, I am just an ordinary grand daughter of a cancer patient. I know what can happen and I am dreading what is yet to come. We are just at the beginning of our journey, we still have a long way to go.
I am asking for your prayers for my entire family and most especially for Lola that we may all survive this together. Please say an extra prayer for me too so that I can be strong for everyone.
I have been internet-less at home for the past week now. I have been having trouble with my internet connection eversince I upgraded it to a faster speed more than a year ago. Although when it is working, I don’t have complaints except lately, I have been having a little trouble downloading.I have called the repair center already. A technician came but since the wire from the phone box to the DSL box and modem passed through my locked room, the technician insisted that my room be opened first for them to check the connection. In short, they did not touch anything nor did they check anything. Our maid was told that they will just call me and come back. Up to now, no PLDT DSL repairman yet.
Now I am fed-up with PLDT. I want my broadband internet cut!
I called 171 (Customer care) yesterday and I was told that I have to surrender the modem, splitter and RJ11 wire to their nearest business center with a valid ID as proof that I am cutting my connection. WHAT???I HAVE TO DO THE DISCONNECTING LITERALLY???
How would I know what the heck is the splitter or the RJ11 wire? How would I know how to disconnect those things? To top it of, the phone box and wires are located high up outside our house. Shouldn’t they be the ones doing that? The person I was talking to said that it is their procedure since we want our internet connection cut. HUH??? They should have just given us the kit and instructions on how to connect the wires, splitter, etc, when we applied for internet so that we also know how to disconnect it later.
My brother was fuming when he heard this so he called Customer care again earlier and asked for a written letter from PLDT telling us to do the disconnecting ourselves. We just want to make sure that if we make a mistake cutting/removing whatever wire we needed to disconnect, we are assured that PLDT will come and repair our phone line or whatever line we damaged. The letter would also be proof for us if ever we will file a complaint later on. The person my brother talked to was not willing to do so, instead, he said he will send someone to do the disconnecting for us. Let us see…
If you are in the same situation, don’t fall for it. Insist that their qualified techinician do the disconnecting for you. We are paying for their services so it is only right that we get our money’s worth.
I watched Cinderella earlier at the CCP with three friends. The show was SUPERB! Lea Salonga is sooo magaling. Most of the cast are Caucasians and they are all terrific too. I especially loved the two stepsisters. They are so funny! If it was a movie, the genre would be romantic-comedy. The only thing I found odd was the singing voice of the Queen – throughout her whole song, her voice varied a lot. But that is only me and my friend. Overall though, they were all terrific (did I just say it again?).
The costumes where so nice. The stepsisters’ gowns were hilarious especially the younger one (forgot her name). I think though that Cinderella’s wedding gown would have been nicer if they removed the pleated inner layer. My favorite though was the King’s blue cape during the wedding scene, really majestic. Another one is the Fairy Godmother’s gown, it gives you the illusion that she was flying.
The play also had beautiful props, great lighting and amazing effects. I was so astonished at how they were able to transform the pumpkin into a beautiful carriage. Ang galing-galing, sobra! Ang galing din ng pag palit nila ng scenes, very subtle kaya hindi ka nadidistract from what’s going on sa stage. It’s also amazing how fast Lea was able to change her “maid” clothes into her ball gown. Bobby Garcia is a terrific director! Also noteworthy is the trick they did when the rats became the coachman and the footman. Oh, there was also a part where Cinderella was singing and different moving shadows (of a mermaid, a lion, a man, etc.) were appearing one after another in time with the lines of the song. The music is also nice, the conductor even had a speaking part during the ball scene.
Everybody must’ve enjoyed themselves, I didn’t hear any ringing tone or message alert tones. I know we got reminded to turn off our cellphones but not everybody does that especially in a roomful of doctors (the show we watched was sponsored by a hospital). I was really, really lucky to have been invited to watch it earlier. I wanted to watch the play so much that I was even willing to settle at seating way up from where I sat. Thank God for friends who have contacts everywhere!
I know I ended up paying much more than I originally planned to but Cinderella is worth every peso. If you add to that the company of three good friends, it is definitely one perfect night!
