Monday, July 14th, 2008

Time	Event
2:27p	The Baguio Trip Andy set up a Baguio trip for the FriiSpirit peeps after she got tired of hearing us complain how tired we all were. Expenses were minimal and the company was great. Carol couldn’t go in the last minute and she was missed but we talked about her every single day so in the end, it was like she was almost there. We had a blast on the way there…mainly because Andy brought a bottle of Jack and by the time we were half-way there, we’ve had enough Jack Cokes in our systems to shrug off the long car-ride (In case you were wondering, I did drink during this trip with the girlfriend’s permission). It was a very laid-back trip. No one was in a hurry to go anywhere and everyone was just happy being away from the heat and grime of Manila. We stayed at Andrea’s house and it felt great sitting in front of a fire and having some good conversation away from the frantic demands of our jobs. We did try to be tourists on the second day and we went to Minesview and happily parted with our change (maybe 40 pesos worth) by getting ourselves lured into paying for tourist traps such as “Have your pictures taken with our giant St. Bernard” and “Have your picture taken in an Igorot costume.” We also went to Camp John Hay to visit the Cemetery of Negativity at medyo kinareer namin ito. It was hard going back to Manila. The girlfriend and I were dreading rejoining the rat race but some things can’t be helped. The only thing we could was to promise each other that we would have more of these moments to somehow alleviate the exhaustion and the stress. Pictures are uploaded to my Multiply: http://croces.multiply.com (Comment on this)
6:04p	Fake Perfume Scam You can chalk this up to stupidity but here is my attempt to warn others who might fall victim to this kind of scam. A guy walked into our small office. He was well dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and slacks. He also spoke English well and he looked like a typical office worker. He had a box of perfume with him—Lacoste “Touch of Pink.” I ignored him at first but then he sprayed perfume on me and started going on and on about how Lacoste was doing a promotional thing and they were giving away Free perfume. My ears prickled at the word “Free” and I started paying attention. The next thing I knew, my officemates started purchasing 50ml bottles of the perfume for 200php. I did say something like, “I thought it was free?” but the man ignored me. He seemed likeable enough, laughing along with our jokes. An officemate of mine bought three bottles. Most of the men bought bottles for their girlfriends. I bought a bottle for the girlfriend too. He then asked which of us wanted Lacoste paper bags. Since most of us planned to give the bottles as a gift, we thought that was pretty cool. He then promised he’d be back in 5 minutes and he left the office. After he left, we started getting suspicious. Then the president of the company walked in and castigated us for falling for the guy’s tricks. That was when I found out that two of my officemates paid the guy without getting perfume in return. The guy told them he ran out and that he needed to go down to get some more. I asked one of my officemates (who purchased the bottle for herself) to open her box. The moment the box was opened, we recognized the perfume as a fake. To add insult to injury, it smelled bad. As expected, the guy has disappeared by now. Although this sucked to the bunch of us who got fake merchandize, it sucked even more for the people who got absolutely nothing in return. I don’t mind being stuck with fake perfume. Honestly, I was an idiot. I should have known it was too cheap. That was my fault. But this is a scam nonetheless. I wouldn’t have minded too much if the guy just sold us fake perfume, what disturbs me is that he ran off with the money of two officemates without giving them anything in return. I can live with the fake perfume and the lies that it was authentic. Outright theft is one thing. So be warned. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, can fall for shit like this. (Comment on this)

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