WET WEEKEND WITH ONDOY AND MOISTURIZING MY HAIR

Crazy weekend indeed!! Looks like some of the Atlanta weather found me. On Friday, we were in Quezon City, which is about 20k from Manila working out of the client’s office. Quezon City is underwater at the moment. I had a look at the forecast, and on Friday, Manila had 17 inches of rain. Saturday’s reading was “n/a” and the city was completely shut down. Although the business district was fine, there were a number of people who I work with that were directly impacted. The city was completely dead on Saturday, with areas very close by devastated. 95 were reported dead by Monday morning, with about 250,000 more affected by floods. It’s amazing how rivers can quickly turn deadly.

The saddest part is that the areas that are affected cut across socio economic demographics, and some poor people who had nothing probably lost the little they had. If we didn’t have a huge deliverable, we would for sure be helping out.

I also got a taste of my firm’s Global Asset Protection outfit. I got a number of e-mails this weekend, and the firm even called the place where we were staying to make sure we were accounted for. Feels good to know the eye in the sky is watching out for us. They even offered to air lift us out of here if we were in an affected area. We continue to get health advisory e-mails about what to do after a flood.

Aside from the Typhoon, the other brilliant experience this weekend was going to a barber (not sure if that’s the right term though) shop to get a haircut. I walked out of there with a facial, some moisturizing steam treatment for my hair (which, by the way feels RIDICULOUSLY soft), a massage, and a haircut. It was awesome! Now, before you go name-calling, I should point out that this is the Asian male way of life, everyone in there was getting pedicures and manicures. The best part? It was incredibly cheap. A Swedish massage will set you back 300PHP (that’s $6) for an HOUR! This may very well become a Sunday ritual.