Darn Dengue

I went to Makati Med after spending the day at the Fire Station. I had to visit two friends stricken with Dengue- one is Ligaya's 11 year-old nephew Gelo and her boyfriend Q.

Too bad for Q. This is his first vacation in the Philippines and in less than a month he gets Dengue. There goes the island hopping plans. I can't blame him though MMC has just eaten through their vacay budget.  

He looks really pale now that his platelet count is really low plus the rashes that comes with Dengue is unbearably itchy. I also discovered doctors don't allow Dengue patients to eat dark colored foods, in case some part of their GI tract starts to hemorrhage and bleed, they can easily detect the blood in the wastes.

Now he's going back to NYC much sooner than expected minus Ligaya who wants to spend more time with moi. Q confesses he can't stay longer in Manila past Christmas. It must be the humid weather and yeah, our killer mosquitoes.

On Queue: Last Day Registration for 2010 Elections

We pinoys are definitely Vogons. Bureaucracy comes naturally to us, we like sending paperwork back and forth, we like signing things in triplicate plus making xerox.

I'm a first time voter (well by 2016 I will still be one) I have failed to register for a number of years now. And I have failed miserably today.

I have always been lazy at the idea of going back home to the province just to register. This is the only time I actually felt the election would matter.  So I got my residence certificate and passport and headed to the nearest voter's registry. Perhaps all this effort came in way too late. Well, so much for 2010.

Some people have been here since 5am at the Makati Fire Station. They were told to come back in the afternoon after all their papers have been processed. They came back around 1pm - no dice. The lines were still long and the paperwork still undone. More people even showed up, maybe half the population of Rembo Makati.

The second floor is packed tight like an MRT tram on rush hour and by 4pm, the staff stopped giving out voter forms. They told those who came in past 4pm to come back as early as 4am the next morning to get in line again. Though the official registry wouldn't start around 8am. It kinda felt like lining up for Wowowee.

Well, I'm not coming back to go through hell again. All I ever get at queuing at government offices are these horrendous varicose veins.

Sing When You're Winning

Today, I think about all the friends I made in Singapore and most of them are from Manila. Yay!

We are all bloggers. And we are a cult. Well to some people, it might seem like that.

I guess during the trip I realized, I kept boxing in every nook and cranny of my life into several specific blogs of interests. I don't really have one that's quite normal, where I could relax a bit and not really think so much. In writing on my other blogs, there's always this pause, this conscious effort to make every post cohesive with the overall topic. Never veering or straying away.

It's about time i let loose a bit and just blog for pleasure. If there is such a thing.

MadManila is the perfect spot now to add everyone I know online, regardless what they are blogging about. 

So guys please send me your blog URLs :)

Your Manila, My Maynila

Manila can be an absolutely beautiful city. This is how I see the capital whenever I close my eyes. I imagine it to be better. Better for everyone that is.

I wish for a better transit system, one that leads to & fro of the outer rim of both North & South. This is the only way we can decongest Manila and create a viable urban sprawl.

Less malls, more parks & iconic landmarks

A recycling center for bottles, paper, plastics, electronics and organic waste.

A flood control system per municipality.

Less paper trails and bureaucracy in Government offices. I like the NSO system, its efficient and saves you days of getting in line. Wish they could do the same for other services.

Higher wages for teachers and better facilities in our public schools (1 student = 1 desk chair) Don't you think its about time all our kids get to sit down with the rest of the class?

I could go on with this wish list. Hope 2010 brings some semblance of a miracle.