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Morning Notes

Saturday, June 29, 2019


I'm sharing my notes from when I attempted to go to the postal office twice this month. I purchased a bright yellow sweater online and I received a notice for me to pick it up.

June 4, 2019

I got to the Makati post office earlier than usual. I took a glance at my watch, and the hands showed 7:15AM. I asked the woman sitting by the stairs if she knew what time the post office would open. "8AM", she replied politely. I smiled in return. I sat a few inches away from her and started writing, scribbling away everything I could observe at that moment.

It was the morning rush. I wasn't in a hurry however. If I can wait 2 months for an online purchase to arrive, then I can surely wait 45 minutes more. I'm not used to receiving packages, so I was quite excited for this one. All things that take time are worth waiting for.

I can hear budots playing in the background. To wake people up probably? In front of me are people lined up , waiting for a bus to arrive. There are people going up and down the overpass. Thank God for the overpass, I think it's a genius invention and there should be one everywhere especially because the streets in Manila are chaotic. The buses, jeeps, cars, motorbikes, they are all in a frantic hurry to get to where need to be. I feel people casting me speculative glances as they see me write down on this notebook.

My walk going here from the bus stop took roughly 15 minutes. My estimate for the time going back to my office would probably take around 30. I'm not in a hurry. My mind is tired. Seeing life unfold in front of me gave me energy though. It's nice to see everything unfolding in the morning.


((After a few minutes of sitting outside the postal office though, I received a text from my team leader asking where I was. Apparently, I had a 7:30AM meeting on that day! So obviously I had to walk fast to my office... without picking up my parcel. I felt sad and stupid, but hey it's a funny morning, I laugh at myself every time I remember it. ))


June 6, 2019

Second time's the charm. I'm going to get my parcel today, I know it. I did something a bit different. Instead of having breakfast in the office, I went to Starbucks a few blocks away from the postal office. I ordered a tall americano my first time to try it pure black. It was so good :"(

I dipped plain bread in it. I remembered when I was much younger, I would sit on my mom's lap during breakfast. I would see my parents drinking coffee, which I wanted to do too, being the child I was. They claimed I was too young for it though. Being the youngest in the family, I was always too young for a lot of things I wanted to try or do. So what they did was to give me a piece of bread and I would dip it in my mom's coffee mug. That was my first memory of coffee.

I sat at the table which faced the street and observed people. During that time, there weren't much people inside this coffee shop. I observed we were all working professionals, as the people sitting around me were all clad in polo shirts, neckties, and long black slacks. Businessmen reading the newspaper while taking occasional sips of their coffee.

What I could see outside my window would be people walking to their offices, buses filled with people standing in the aisle, motorbikes zooming past idle cars, cab drivers looking bored inside their cars, all the while my eyes floated towards the Philippine flag waving along to the frantic mood everyone was in outside.

I felt like I was in a safe space, or rather I was preparing myself for the day ahead. It's fun to look on others as an outside. I'm probably like them on a regular day, feeling like it's too early to be a mindless zombie, walking to wherever I need to be. Once 8AM came, I felt all the more excited to claim my parcel. I tried to down my americano, all the while I felt like I was coming to terms with the fact that I'll have to start walking to the post office, which meant joining the morning zombie crowd. Except this time I feel more alert. I headed outside and hoped for the best; it's been a while since I last really enjoyed the morning in this way.

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How are your mornings lately? I've been waking up at 5:30AM consistently, even on weekends and on holidays. I sometimes think it's strange to wake up in between but I feel that 5AM is too early, and 6AM may be a bit too late, because I tend to stay in bed for an extra 30 minutes. 5:30AM works just right for me. I'm still thinking about whether I should make this into a series of sorts. I love mornings, so there's bound to be a lot more moments I would like to share with you soon. 

Before I end, I'm sharing with you a nice blog entry on how we can extend our perception of time as if we were back in our childhood days. Here's a nice morning song as well. May you have a great day today, dear reader!

Photo is by Nine Kopfer from Unsplash


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