Commute Bloopers

I had a new blooper last week.

There's an option to take a company bus going to office every
morning, around 8:20am. Sad to say, I still miss it at times, too early for me :) With the frequent rainshowers during the mornings, the envt is just too 'conducive for sleeping'. :)

Last Tuesday I fortunately didnt miss the bus, I hopped in and do my
usual small naps when commuting alone. (Yeah commuting doesnt hinder my desire to sleep, whether in long or short trips) The bus ride takes around 30min. Normally I wake up by myself when the bus stops, some sort of a natural instinct. That day I was so sleepy that I didnt automatically wake up when the bus jerked at its final stop. A guy (probably mid-30's, fatherly figure) from the bus nodged my shoulder to wake me up and told me to go down. It was so embarassing. I get reminded of the incident whenever I see him, and we're in the same client company. These past few days, i try to exert a deliberate conscious effort to be alert, awake. :)

I still have other commute bloopers that I can think of back in Manila.

1) This was similar to the earlier one. I was in good mood one afternoon in December (2004) that I decided to go to SM Makati to buy some stuff to cook, it's near my offce anyway. (I seldom cook back then) Because of my experimenting and 'mataas ang pangarap' culinary habits, I bought some packed crabmeat and scallops from SM grocery. (see, they arent the usual dishes to try for a beginner) I took a bus home that day, from SM Makati I took the LRT bus that stops at Gil Puyat LRT. That day was so hot, and traffic jam all over that I again fell into a short nap. When I woke up, the bus was still moving as-slow-as-a-turtle, I saw this big building labelled 'Cuneta Astrodome'. Sh*T! I dont know this place.. the conductor told me that I can just get off at the final stop Baclaran) which is a few minutes away, then walk to the Baclaran LRT. I asked for another 2nd opinion, the same was told, 'oo lakarin mo, malapit lng ang LRT'. It took me like 10min to find the LRT, it wasnt near at all! I had to pass by a long stretch of
tiangge similar to Divisoria. Imagine walking with the wet seafood stuff in your hand starting to defrost and drip. Yikes. Never again.

2) My officemate and I took a bus after office hours, we were going towards the same direction that time. Because I dont want to have him pay for my fare (we just met for less than a month), I made a hand gesture to the conductor to get my fare. The conductor was walking slowly. My impression of a conductor is a guy who wears a polo..usually a blue one. I waved my hand again subtly, with some paper bills, signalling for him to get it. However this conductor seemed to ignore me on purpose and continued to walk slowly. He seem to have an irritated look on his face. Then he walked passed me and took a seat at the back of the bus. The reality is, he is not the conductor. Goodness, I mistaken him for one :), he is just an ordinary passenger. My officemate kept on giggling when we alighted.. 'loko ka.. mapapaaway tayo ng di oras
sa ginawa mo'.:)

3) There is a queue for FX to Ayala, somewhere near the Gil Puyat LRT. It's actually a common queuing area for buses/fx going to Ayala. The vehicles 'queue' and people just hop in. (It's not the people queuing waiting for vehicles to arrive. These public transport 'FX'es can take any forms, sometimes shabby ones, sometimes slightly newer ones. One afternoon I saw a slightly new van parked in the queuing area, the door was not locked so I just hopped in the passenger seat at the front (the one near the driver seat). After like 15seconds, the driver arrived, he was wearing a polo tucked in to his slacks. He got seated and was very surprised to see me. He was silent for like 15 seconds with a puzzled look staring at me. I was actually feeling impatient because he still didnt want to start the engine. Then he said to me 'sorry miss, this is not a public vehicle'. My golly!!!##%@. I looked back and realized, indeed there were no other passengers. But hey, it's not my fault. Why did he park in the queuing area?! and why did he leave his car unlocked?! I said sorry and hurried down, I can feel my face turning all red. It was so embarassing. But I guess the owner of that car was humiliated as well.. because I mistaken his van for a pamasadang FX and him for a driver hehe :p.
I guess that for the past few seconds he wanted to scream at me, thinking that I might have some bad intentions with his van or with him, but probably he saw that I looked decent and proper thus he held back.

I dont know which one is the standout episode. I do hope there won't be a sequel for any of this.