The One with the Bumpy Cab Ride

A lot of people don't know this about me but I can actually drive. I just never bothered lining up for a license and never bothered hard enough to get a car. I get by with riding cabs - hey less hassle with the parking and less issues with the bad traffic I have to deal with to get to work or to get home.

Traffic nightly from my place to Makati looks like this.Yes, even at 11PM at night! 

There are days when I'm thankful that I don't drive. When it's raining, for example and the roads are muddied, slippery and jammed with a bumper-to-bumper entourage of cars. Amazingly, just when it's raining and when it's crowded, that's when the mouth of hell opens and spews all the motorists in the world, throw into the mix the maze manipulating, passenger-hoarding jeepneys and you've got yourself a man-made disaster - the Manila traffic.

Not Manila, but close. And if this was Manila, this would be snake-like and not as orderly. 

What is confusing about the traffic is amidst all of this, a normal passenger is still able to manage his/her life throughout. Behind the long queue in train stations across the metro, the hundreds of people trying to steal your cab, the filled jeepneys and let's not forget the FX, the trikes and the other forms of transportation I have yet to ride, there are still people in their offices. Only when you're travelling during rush hour do you see how immensely and densely populated the city is. Isn't it a wonder how we all fit into this tiny city?

Crowded, crowded, crowded. 

So, here I am, soaking wet from the onslaught of monsoon rains, standing in a puddle of what appears to be water, motor oil and some other thick slushy liquid, do I chance upon this cab. I was desperate. I had to get to work because I, just like everyone else, have deadlines to meet (and miles to go before I sleep). I was lucky enough to get his attention (thanks to my ravishing red umbrella).

Everyone needs one. I am telling you! 

I struck up a conversation with the dude driving the cab. Profile: 40 yrs old or so (do you really want to know how I can figure this out?!), kids, wife, driving a cab for some time, can strike up a convo, isn't afraid to ask for more cash if the streets are flooded, safety-minded - meaning he cared whether I locked my doors or not. For some reason, we got into the fact that most passengers tend to be absent-minded and leave their valuables behind. This is where the conversation started getting testy.

Don't leave your cab without it. 

Apparently, the driver has experienced something bad when it comes to returning things. His passenger left her mobile on the cab and after a couple of hours, the phone was ringing. He picked it up. Naturally, the passenger asked for her phone back and he said he's a city away. Quezon City to be exact. The passenger was dropped off in Taguig. The passenger said to return it and she'll take care of the bill. Naturally, the cab driver assumed he'd get at least the running meter for the cab. Lo and behold, when he got to her, all she gave was a 50PhP bill. She was even mad that it took so long. From here on forward, he said, he's never going to return anything to anyone anymore.

Where the *ff are you?! 

Obviously, trying to reason with someone that has that mindset won't work. I tried questions and other means of making this guy realize that karma does exist and it bites you back tenfold and yet, I guess that harrowing experience taught him that doing good isn't always going to reward you.

Maybe all the dude wanted was a thumbs-up? 

I was honestly alarmed. It's kind of sad that people have lost all sense of goodwill towards others? It's not just the cab driver, it's the lady passenger who handed the driver a 50 and basically said "get lost". Then there's the driver who in his intentions got lost, thinking he needed a reward for the things he did. Isn't the reward of a good deed the act itself? I'm not going to launch into a litany of anachronistic phrases from the Bible, some gentleman's code from the 1800's or some old English poet, but when you think about it, doesn't it alarm you that people out there won't even give you the time of the day even if it's a good deed anyhow?

All pictures were taken from Stock Xchng, my leading provider of stock photos.

The One with the Political Angst

I never thought I'd be one to post anything political but what the heck, some of my readers asked for it, so let's give it a go...

At the start of this year, we were shocked and horrified with the civil protests in Egypt. The people took to the streets, as then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was being accused of severe corruption. The Egyptian government's financial oversight body stated that the Mubarak, including his wife Suzanne, and his sons, Alaa and Gamal, have amassed billions of dollars' worth of properties, including luxury apartments and condominiums, palaces and even valuable farm land. This doesn't merely stretch along the Alexandria and Cairo, but traverses time zones - from the Red Sea luxury resort condos, to Beverly Hills Mansions, to properties in Paris, France. Apart from the extreme properties, the Mubarak family has acquired, over the years, companies which are worth millions of dollars. 

The Mubarak Family: (L-R) Alaa, Suzanne, Hosni and Gamal.
Picture Credit: Huffington Post 

To find out more about Hosni and the family, let's take a look at their history. Hosni took over the Egyptian government in 1981 when his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated, following peace talks with Israel. Since the monarchy was overthrown, presidency was the next best thing and Hosni, in his first political address to his public in Cairo, promised "not to commit myself to what I can not implement, hide the truth from people, or be lenient with corruption and disorder...". 

(Far right) Hosni Mubarak in 1981. 

After assuming the post in 1981,supposedly, Hosni has rigged every election and has done everything in his power to push for elections every 6 years, but crushing political opponents and dissidents prior to the elections. 

Democratic rigging as demonstrated by Hosni in one of the allegedly rigged elections. 

During the 2005 Egyptian Presidential elections, no international observers were allowed in the Egyptian polls. 

Dr. Ayman Nour, a political opponent that tried to shed light on the widespread rigging of elections, was imprisoned  for forgery and was sentenced to 5 years of hard labor. 

January 25th, that fateful day, when people in Egypt bundled together to show their disgust and uprising against the corrupt and cheating Mubarak, was the day the world was introduced to a Muslim country fighting for its own rights. The massive outpouring of Egyptians in the streets of Cairo incited the world to take notice and for the world to become a spectator in a country desperate yet dedicated to reclaim its reputation and dignity as a nation. Following the uprising in Tunisia (which is a completely different story), Egypt's white and blue collar employees, students and random ordinary citizens pooled into the biggest uprising the Muslim country has ever seen. January 27th was the day that Egypt shut down the Internet - forcing people like Alyouka, the first Egyptian Twitter user to use the hash tag #Jan25 to alert others to protest. 

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook were repeatedly blocked in Egypt for some time, ensuring that no other countries will be aware of what is going on in the country.

Protesters in the streets, carrying flags, drums, anything to show their revolt. 

What does this tell us? It tells us that in extreme oppression, people revolt. When things become too unpalatable and undesirable, it becomes the tipping point. In extreme cases, people don't only revolt, they fight and civil unrest ensues. A government will face its downfall when people find their means and they will, because they won't stop until they overthrow someone whom they know is not going to be good or right for them. 

This happens rarely in everyday life. People in the Philippines are way too weak to even question corruption. We tend to shrug and say, '...meh, karma will get them'. In the face of billion-peso scams, worthless pork barrel implementations and dare I say, smear campaigns. We're very good communicators - we form opinions and share them in taxi cabs, usual inuman sa kanto sessions and friendly dinners. We even, in our families, talk about politics. 

Surely, I'm not the only one that thinks that LPG-ran vehicles isn't bad for the public's health. It's been chronicled that LPG emits hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide and the poor cab drivers that drive those heinous converted vehicles are not benefiting from paying less for gas if they're going to pay for lung surgery medications after! Thanks to the former first gentleman Mike Arroyo for that! For more, I'm not the lone proponent of the thought that politicians should worry more about the health and safety of children in the Philippines rather than get caught up in a sex video scandal featuring a well-known erstwhile plastic surgeon come singer/actor and an up and coming starlet (And yes, Senator Bong, the word is perversion - not pervertedness or something to that effect, and sir, not pointing fingers, but you dare say, in front of congress, that Hayden Kho doesn't have morality and doesn't respect other women? You, sir, have a wife and Lord knows, 11 kids?! And you have allegedly slept with all your female co-stars. Am I on glue here?!). Then there's the RH Bill - don't even get me started on that one. In a church, near my office, there's a tarp saying "Stop the RH Bill, It's not God's will". I don't think God's will is to have 100,000 bastards at the end of each month because people had to avoid contraception. Further to that, let's face it, people are having sex! They are! In fact, my bet is someone half my age is doing it right now, with some dude she met at a bar, or a drinking session or whatnot.This young lady, with a condom or the pills, will avoid conception by almost 96% (I'm a pharmacist, BTW, so these stats make sense to me...) which means she may not conceive at all! The probability of her being preggers by the end of the bump-n-grind session is almost 96% as well. Given the right ovulation period, hormonal triggers,etc - I'm not gonna bore you with that - the point is, this girl would have to stop a year of her education to give birth, then expecting her to do the right thing, we expect her to land a job, a good career so she can provide for the resulting child. How can she do that if she's not equipped to face that responsibility? I'm freakin' 30, I can't imagine having a child yet! So what more if I was 15 and I got preggers? I'm with the whole movement that children are our future and perhaps the Catholic church has a right to impose upon its people the avoidance of contraception, but even the government is weighing in on it. You can be Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, either way, it's not your life that's at stake, it's that child's. And about children - if DSWD's programs were half as good, we won't be seeing rugby-sniffers around the metro, we won't see children prostituting themselves to foreign and local customers and yes, fathers won't be abusing their daughters or their sons, for that matter. If the government was ran as successfully as it can be, how come we're poor as a nation? Why are we illiterate as a nation? Why are out people generally thought of as domestic helpers in other countries? We clean for a living and we can't even clean our own society. 

The separation of the church and state rarely happens in the Philippines because politicians are worried about the amount of support they'll get from church leaders, or lack thereof, should they oppose.

Sometimes, I envy Egypt, because they took their flag and ran with it. They were unapologetic and they understood that they can reclaim their nation - they can reclaim the morality and the dignity that is the seat of civilization. With us, ask anyone in the street about the most moving news story they heard the past few days and that would probably be a showbiz news! It sucks that we've bred a society that fosters lack of awareness, but what stings more is that we ourselves breathe the society that fosters apathy. Bet a peso that this person you ask in the streets won't even know much of the history of the Philippines, how ancestors fought for our freedom and how we should be thankful for it. How long does the culture of apathy run and will this generation's legacy be that? You and I will have to decide. 

All Egypt and Mubarak pictures were taken from the Huffington Post. 

No photographers were harmed during the making of this post. All other pictures were taken from Stock Xchng. 

The One with the Depression

So here I am, at home, very sick and wondering why on earth did I go online. Oh right, I was supposed to work on something too. I figured since I'm breaking the cardinal rule of bed rest (which is being in my chair and not in bed), I might as well tell you a little bit of what I've been feeling.

No pill made me feel better. And vitamin C - I freakin' miss you!

Day 1: Friday 
Temperature: 38.5 - 39 degrees Celsius
Appetite: So-so. I needed to eat. 
Tonsils: Not so inflamed. Kinda scratchy. 
Demeanor: Meh, I needed to sleep. 
I have been sick for almost a week now - wait, it has been a week. I was in bed when I started having chills and severe body pain. If you want to torture me, I can endure almost any kind of pain - I have had migraines since I was a kid, my ovary has 16 or so different cysts that never seem to leave me be, I have had toothaches and root canals and I've had an accident that caused me to have a lopsided nose (think Owen Wilson, only sexier...), but never ever ever give me a sick headache with body pains cos that would cause my head to go spinning around so badly. Also, a bad flu makes my lymph nodes swell so badly that I actually feel them fighting the infection. It wasn't bad that I had a fever, what was bad was what I was feeling - the fever made me feel so weak and almost dying (how dramatic).

Not as pretty when I'm sick, but you get the idea! 

This is how I know that if I ever contract HIV, I will die on the spot, cos my lymph nodes would probably burst out of my neck and will kill me in that very instant.

Day 2-3: Saturday - Sunday 
Temperature: 39-39.5 degrees Celsius
Appetite: No appetite at all...
Tonsils: Inflamed as heck. Can't talk too much. I keep gargling salt water and suckling on lozenges. I was almost 100% positive that it was strep throat.
Demeanor: Irritable as hell! Coughing didn't help. Plus my back felt tense and pained. 
It's a "kill me now" moment. I felt so damned weak. I didn't realize that the AC was on, or that the fan was on, I was cold all the time. I stayed in bed the whole 24 hours of each day and I wouldn't even want to eat. I hated any food. Nothing tasted like anything it should. I had chicken which tasted like cardboard and rice that tasted like gooey cardboard. I had beef that tasted like corrugated paper with a little soy sauce in it. My dad is an excellent cook and he puts of soul and love into each dish but man, that weekend was so bad that if you gave me super fiery Indian food, I'd probably say that their Fontina has gone bad.

Looks appetizing, right?! Didn't do anything for me. 

I hated the fact that I didn't have anyone to come to for some TLC. I have to admit that family is there all the time. My mom would check my temperature and would SMS me even when she's in the market. She got me bananas to munch on. She even got me a bottle of Gatorade cos I wouldn't eat anything. But I was really hoping for someone to kind of cuddle with me. I know it's gross and disgusting to be bundled in a comforter with someone snotty and probably has germs all around her but it would have been amazing to have a hug from someone that cared enough.

Day 4: Monday 
Temperature: Back to kinda normal - 38 degrees Celsius 
Appetite: Not much appetite, tried to eat anyhow. 
Tonsils: Gargling was a good idea. It made me feel a little better. I really thought I could come to work then. 
Demeanor: Hopeful that I was gonna be well enough to get to work. 
What the heck was happening?! I wasn't normal anymore. I felt weak but I felt so hopeful and I was wishing for nothing more than normalcy - the office, the carpeted floors, my huge screen, my modules... Alas, I was wrong. Come night time, my fever spiked up and I suddenly had no energy to go anywhere. I sent an SMS to my boss, Chase and told him I'll go to the doctor.

Got an expensive doctor, BTW. General and Cancer Surgeon - Dr. Raymond Natividad. Apparently, the dude had a "line" even though you've called in and begged for a 10.30 appointment. The dude is a genius! I think my HMO is a little crazy cos they automatically associated me with cancer. (My aunt had non-Hodgekin's Lymphoma, go figure.)

Day 5: Tuesday 
Temperature: 38.5 degrees Celsius 
Appetite: None at all. 
Tonsils: Swollen as heck. Exudative, apparently. 
Demeanor: Pissed off at the laboratory people for making me wait so long for a blood extraction. 
Dr. Natividad saw me for the first time and did all the tests - he tested for pneumonia and bronchitis and decided right then and there that I didn't have cancer. He even ordered a blood count and a urinalysis, was worried about a rash that I had in my tummy area (cos that's a side effect) and my eyes. I love this doctor, no matter how exorbitant the fees are. He made me purchase the most expensive antibiotics (and to think I'm a pharmacist!) and made me promise that I'll stay in bed for the rest of week.

I went to work that night to file for my leave and to finish some crazy last minute meetings with my SMEs before deploying a project. I know, I know, I was crazy to come to work. After that long day, I slept like a baby! I was told to expect worse high-grade fevers cos he diagnosed me with Acute Exudative Tonsillopharyngitis. I was supposedly non-contagious until I start making out with someone (again, a single girl joke - why won't people let up?!).

Men think that unless I look like this, I won't do. 

I came to work and I'm glad I saw my friends there. Ivan, Candy, Jessie - I love just being surrounded by people that I've come to respect and love, thanks to work. And also, you know, no matter how feverish I was, I didn't feel the need to complain about it, cos it's natural. I attended all my meetings and thankfully, Sonja approved my leave. I've been on bed rest since Wednesday evening til now.

Now
Temperature: 38 degrees Celsius 
Appetite: A little, I had chicken. Woohoo!
Tonsils: Better now, I feel a little more comfy swallowing and relaxing my neck. 
Demeanor: Chill. :) 
I'm sick still. On my last day of bed rest, I hope the worst is over cos I feel a little bit better. My back is still tense but I'm sweating so that's a good sign, right? I'm hoping that when I get sick again this year, it won't be this bad.

I'm not going to lie. All throughout those days when I needed bed rest, all I could think about was why was it happening to me. I'm a good person, I am a real team player, I actually work my ass off and I'm trying hard to make a difference in my world. Last year, when my life was suddenly and abruptly turned upside down by a personal tragedy, I figured God must not send out lightning to strike twice. Like I always tell people, it's bad enough when the rest of the world sees you and disappoints you. It's harder when you're the one that disappoints yourself. I guess it depresses me that while the world world may have turned its back on me, my body - my own body would actually betray me as badly.

I'm going to be the best version of me. No more slacking off. I'm not even doing this to be sexy. I'm doing this for me!

This has taught me so much about what I need to do from now on. I'm not young anymore. Back then, I won't exercise and I would feel fine. Now, I crave for vegetables (I guess it's my body's way of saying I need more nutrients than the fried tennis shoe I eat for dinner everyday!) and I crave for fruits and I actually bought an elliptical trainer (Thanks to my brother from another mother, Ivan). The firm and real realization? I need to take care of me, cos no one else will. The dreams of actually having someone cuddle with you while you're sick - not gonna happen. It's more of me now and part of enjoying me, is actually making me healthy and good.

No photographers were harmed intellectually during the making of this post. All photos were obtained legally from Stock Xchng. 
By the way, Candy's disappointed. Read a little bit about the 5 Levels of Disappointment on the Define blog. 

The One with the Pet Peeves

I can't believe I have to write something like this in the blog. I love nothing more than just praising and raving about things but for crying out loud, sometimes, when people really get into your nerves, it's time to really say something.

1. Texting while walking or driving 

Look where you're about to walk, for cripe's sake! 

This goes without saying. If you're walking around the mall and you're texting, you're prolly more focused on that SMS you're sending than where you're going. Sometimes, people in the mall are actually rushing to get their grocery shopping done, so please, for the love of God, watch where you're walking.

If you're a driver without a soul and you tend to text while driving, please check your rearview mirror for people like me that just want to overtake you but because it's a narrow street, I can't. For the love of all that's holy, please find a way to communicate with you BF/GF/Dad/Mom/Boss/Friend/Friend with Benefits that doesn't involve you being a complete turd on the road. I hope you never get into a road accident because you just have to SMS someone.

2. Loud, loud, loud and lousy music blaring off your speakers in the middle of the night, aggravated by the fact that you sing along with a mic. 

If you look and sound like this chick, I can and will forgive you but otherwise... 

If you're my neighbor, please have the decency to let me sleep in on weekends. Sometimes, I find myself waking up a neighbor's rendition of "Till My Heartaches End" in their scratchy cigarette-husky voices. And please, if you're a mom and you're celebrating your son/daughter's birthday and thought of "renting" a videoke machine to mark the occasion, find a spot in the street where it's not like someone died in your family and you're hosting a funeral! For the love of all that's holy, keep it down, woman! Keep it down! (Is it obvious that I am talking about one specific person?! Well, I am and if you're reading this, good for you! Go fashion forward this season, Madame, and please, take your friends or kids' friends to Red Box where chicken wings won't get you all oily and sweaty and where we won't hear your rendition of "Papa Don't Preach" whilst you dance thinking you're part of the Glee gang!

3. If you're a cab driver - DO NOT HIT ON ME! 

Cabbies - fast and furious, most of them creeps, some of them nice and it makes me want a car more and more. 

I understand the sad plight of cab drivers all around the Metro. I don't push for a discount, I hardly just ever pay the exact meter and I am super nice. Sometimes, when I actually have food, I share my food with them cos I know how hard it is to be working for so long that you don't have time for a little snack. Because a lot of the time, I'm on the road and a lot of my appointments are very flexible in terms of time, I even allow them to refuel, load water and yes, even make the trip to the john while I'm on the passenger seat. Heck, I even ride on the passenger seat, cos I'm not a snob. I like conversations with cabbies.

Some of the cabbies I've spoken with talk about the weather, politics, sports, showbiz (local), a few are actually amazingly elite (There was the one that would talk about his iPhone, while I only have an E71... One was a former Manila Hotel concierge that was just doing a favor for a friend... One owned the cab he was driving - come on, who uses an Altis as a cab?! There was that one guy that was rushing to go to Starbucks after he dropped me off the office cos he was going to meet a friend. Another one was a Spanish teacher in Telus that only drove cabs so he can mingle with the unwashed masses... ack!). A few are just plain creepy!

I have experienced riding with cabbies that would ask for my name, my number, my age, tell me out of nowhere that I'm beautiful, tell me off-hand that real men please their women and would even go as far as give me the "look" (the look that tells you that they're not imagining you in an apron... or maybe they are, except that you're nekkid underneath). Because I work at night and I get dropped off a call centre, there was even one that said that his former GF was from a call centre and that maybe I can be picked up later. I mean come on, guys, not because a woman rides a cab ALONE means she is alone (this is technically true for me). Saturday afternoon cabbie was extremely creepy. Old man with the goatee and the golf hat decided to chat me up in the middle of the road and told me that I was pretty, and raved on and on about how "smooth" I was and that he guesses that I'm smooth and fair all over, and went on about how he hopes that they guy that waited for the cab with me (James, my mean best friend at work) isn't my BF. I chose to ignore "Manong Driver" the whole time and played with my phone instead. He kept saying that he's old but his knees are still strong (Matanda na ako pero malakas pa tuhod ko... in the vernacular). I'm like, OMG, I have to get off this cab! Thankfully, I was a few blocks away and I decided to just get off the street next to mine, where traffic was abound and people were up and about. Mind you, this was at 5PM in the afternoon!

If you're a cabbie and you really need money, creeping lady passengers isn't the way to do it. And if you're a cabbie and you're not there for the money but for something else, please, keep your thoughts and your eyes off me! I don't appreciate it!

4. If you're a commuter and you have a soul, please bathe, brush your teeth and be clean before riding a train or jeepney and please make sure that if you're not fresh-smelling anymore, that you have the decency to at least close your mouth or not wave your pits at me or anyone else. It's nauseating. 

Are these for sale, cos sometimes, I think I badly need one. 

I'm not preggers and I'm not going to be in the next 5 years or so (ack, see how well I've planned my life out?!) but for the love of God, whenever I alight from a public commuter train, the only thing I wanna do is hurl. One, there's just way too many passengers. Apart from the immeasurable number of people and the heat and the dirt coming off the A/C unit of the beat-up carriages, the smell of people really troubles me. I tolerate sweat just fine, but come on... if you forgot your Rexona earlier in the day, have the decency to keep your arms on your sides for the benefit of those that breathe the same air as the one stagnantly staying in your area. Also, if you haven't brushed for the day, try to buy some candy. They cost 50 cents a pop, and smelling mixed saliva and red cherry candy may be better than smelling some rotting cabbage off your mouth. I smoke a lot and I am not fresh all the time but I will have the decency to keep my pits to my arms instead of waving it around, and I will also not open my mouth so close to another human being, especially if that human being is not a friend!

5. If you're ordering coffee and there's a queue, please freakin' make up your mind before you're in the freakin' queue!!! Also, if you're a mom, please don't take your son/daughter with you to the smoking area of the coffee shop and give me stares when I light up! If you're an older woman who have had your experience in the world, please don't judge me because I like nicotine with my caffeine. If you see me light up a joint, that's the time you should raise your eyebrows at me, old-timer! 

Getting coffee used to be fun until everyone else wanted in on it. 

I have almost had it with people who can't get enough of themselves, their opinions and their newest designer coffee! Starbucks used to be fun before it became the next MiniStop or 7-11. Imagine being there to start your day and you have to fall in line next to a mom on her cellphone with her 5-year old son latched on to her leg, a guy that's obviously just there to scope out the scene, a couple PDA-ing (Read: Public Display of Affection) and 10,000 other call centre employees. Then check out this other scenario I encountered last time I went to meet up with a friend - an older woman in the counter of Starbucks and using her senior citizen discount card, to the bemusement and puzzlement of the baristas cos they prolly don't know how to deduct a certain percentage off the actual price of the coffee... and I'm the next one. My friend had to circle round the place cos he can't even park his car!

What's worse is when you actually sit in the smoking area of some of the biggest Starbucks around. I experienced a mom staring so angrily at me cos she had her daughter with her in the smoking area. I mean, mom, seriously, there's a reason why it's called a smoking area. I wasn't gonna light up but then her husband alighted from their car and started lighting up too. So, is it a woman thing? Like I'm supposed to understand that the only second-hand smoke you want you daughter to inhale is your husband's? Let me tell you one thing, sister, they're all pretty much cancerous, so if I were in your shoes, I would actually take my daughter and sit inside, where it's cozy and A/C'd and I would kick my imbecile husband for exposing me and my daughter to that cancerous vice! Second of which, I won't even bring my daughter to a Starbucks cos what the heck is she gonna drink? Apple Berry Juice Freeze?! Why give her a 100 peso designer drink when I can take her someplace that has healthy options for her like an actual fruit shake with yoghurt?! Don't even get me started on the desserts there cos it just ain't the family place you think it is.

Also, people, if you smoke and you wanna take grandpoppy and grandmommy or mum and pop with you to Starbucks, seat them where they don't smell cigarette smoke, please?! I mean come on... There's this older woman that kept making unnecessary noises when she was left seated in the balcony of a Timog Starbucks once cos she kept smelling smoke. She would roll her eyes when I light up. I mean come on, Madame... It's a smoking area. If you didn't notice that off the sign, please look around and know that while I may be the only woman lighting up, I'm not the only one lighting up. It's not Victorian England. Yes, I can drive, I can earn as much as a male counterpart, I can shoot a gun with one eye closed and yes, I can smoke cigarettes when I have my coffee. If I choose to die of lung cancer, it's by choice.

No photographers were harmed during the making of this post. 
All photos were obtained legally via Stock Xchnge.