Stressed-out at work? Pressured by projects after projects? Tired of hectic schedules and deadlines. Need a break? Jopa in his controversial summer pose 'I have nothing to wear" Well, these are almost every office worker’s questions these days which I think the answer of which all boils down into a big “YES”. In the workaholic worlds of professionals or should we say disruptive office life of the digital millennials and techy baby boomers, who doesn’t need a break? Everybody does. Righty. You know what I mean. In this beautiful country “The Philippines”, summer vacation is really a perfect escape from office nightmares and daydreams. I’m pretty sure you can closely relate on that. That routinely 9-5 thing, 1-hour lunch break, Monday meetings, urgent reports to submit to a demanding boss (apologies if you are), and who would not forget about that “bulls#@$%!” traffic in EDSA the whole week round, oh c’mon, forget about them for a few days. What’s the best remedy?

Simple life? In the beach or mountain side? Lobo is the place to be. This Holy Week 2018, me, my wife, two of our friends, and their parents, visited Lobo in the province of Batangas. There are three passages going here. One is thru the main town of Taysan, Batangas via barangay Dagatan. The other one is via Gov. Antonio Carpio Road, stretching from Batangas City to barangay Mapulo also in the town of Taysan. Both passages will merge into barangay Bacao in Taysan. The road from here are zigzag that the local people have called it “bitukang manok” (chicken intestine – like). Green mountains and narrow roads will make your travel more exciting in going here. The third one is thru Batangas City entering barangay Libjo. This path is quite longer than the first two. Also a bit zigzag but as you are traversing roads mostly on the beachside, the driving experience would be full of wonders. Aside from the ocean view, there are landmarks here that will make you say to the driv

Several months ago, when I was about to enter the public market near my place, I saw this old woman more or less in her early 60’s checking something on the garbage cans. That was really my first impression. I tried to observe what she’s doing for a few seconds more and I then realized she was after these empty and used plastic bottles. At first, I thought she was just looking for something she might have lost or maybe she’s looking for scrapped foods. But she’s not. The old lady looks clean and not like a scavenger. She’s just a typical person we’re seeing around. After a few moments, I approached the lady and told her, “Nay, heto po ang konti (pera), pandagdag sa kita ninyo”. (Auntie, here’s something (small amount), you can add to your income.) And the old lady replied with a smile, “Naku, salamat anak.” (Oh, thank you son.) Then, I proceeded with my market activity that day. From that time on, whenever I go to the market, I always hope that I will still see her,