It’s Ok Lah!

Free!

Finally. 

I’ve been holding my breath for so long, I forgot that I, too, need air.  

My sincerest apologies to my legions of readers (there are two of them right now and still growing every blue moon) for not attending to this blog and failing to provide you with my brain-stunting, stupidity-inducing brand of blogging.  I have been, for lack of a better phrase, swamped with work.  I know you’re imagining flailing limbs, bodies on top of each other, writhing, moaning, sweating, erm.. excuse me.  But you get the idea.  

I was also out of the country, which seriously hampered my ability to space-out in front of the computer and just blog.  I was in la-lah-land, that finely-tuned efficiency junkie of a country (and insanely rich too).  It’s been two years since I’ve been there and nothing much has changed except that their opulence was much more pronounced, as shown by the Mercedes Benz taxis roaming around the city.  I’m not sure though if you can actually tell that a country is doing well with the kind of taxis they have, but it sure looks like we Pinoys are placing a lot of emphasis on things (like the chedeng for example) that they only take for granted; so there.

While I was in that city state, I had to spend a number of hours in the regional office and do some stuff.  And I must say that I’ve never been more homesick than during those hours.  The floor I was in has almost a hundred folks and yet they don’t talk to each other.  The only sound I hear are the computer keys being punched.  They don’t even go to lunch together and to think they work in the same department, and for the same company.  There was none of the warmth of a typical Filipino office.  

I sent an instant message to another Pinoy colleague in the same office (albeit on a different floor) if things are the same where he’s at.  He said the silence was driving him nuts.  He’s been there for months and still it’s a daily struggle for him to stay sane.  “But at least”, he said, “I’m compensated handsomely.”  Although my friend will always playfully respond with an “It’s ok, lah!” when asked if everything is fine, his eyes betray him everytime. 

Money may be an effective balm for homesickness; though its effectiveness still depends on how much balm you slather on yourself (preferably around the eye area to stem tears).  It cannot make up for the warm fuzzy feeling of belongingness brought about by the laughter and the happy banter that is normally present when surrounded by Filipino colleagues.