So far, so…

Netnet Camomot

IN an ideal world, you arrive from a vacation and go straight back to work.

In the not so ideal world, however, you arrive from a vacation, only to realize you need another vacation after the vacation to rest your weary bones.

So, yesterday morning, there I was trying to write this column as I answered phone calls and reminders on business deadlines which as usual require money. The New Year means taxes from January to April, with the Happy of the New Year felt only by the city treasurer’s office and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) may have made some Pinoys happy since it will exempt those with an annual income of P250,000 or less from income tax, without realizing that the Train has provisions increasing taxes on items which will be among their future purchases. In other words, the net effect will be a break even or—que horror!—a loss.

Try not buying anything unnecessary starting this year since I think most of the taxate increases will be on items which you don’t need to survive such as cars and sugar-sweetened beverages.

Life will manage to move forward despite Train and whatever the government will decide to tax. There will be price increases of course, and there’s the resilient Pinoy adjusting and budgeting to be able to survive.

So, I’ll continue my neverending spring cleaning which will include the unread books and magazines plus the unwanted fats that always make a humongous comeback whenever I’m on vacation. I guess I have to bring a portable weighing scale to these travels as a constant reminder to avoid breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets.

I gained only one pound in this recent vacation. Yay! I don’t know how that became possible but I’m happy and grateful for not gaining 10 pounds.

I may not have a New Year’s resolution but at least this I know: Less Facebook. Estoryahe!

And more Homescapes and Gardenscapes. Haha!

Spring cleaning is still ongoing, as I wrote earlier. I now tend to open a drawer to see what items I can throw away. There should be no hesitance in that department.

I’m now looking out the window again from the room with a view. Green trees, cloudy skies. The mud house that a bug built on the window ledge is now gone—and don’t ask me how that happened.

No matter how nice a vacation is, you’ll still look for the comforts of your own bed. A friend, though, quoted Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam” for his definition of a home: “Where I lay my head is home.”

There’s this hotel room with therapeutic ergonomic neck pillows that indeed can convince you where you lay your head is home. Most of the time, though, travelling with senior moments can be so tiring, you’ll need two days to recover once you’re home. Two days of not thinking about anything, two days of doing absolutely nothing.

There are some flight schedules with two choices for each day: early morning or late afternoon. Which do you prefer? You don’t like waking up at dawn but flying in the afternoon means arriving at your destination most probably early evening when traffic is at its worst. So, you crawl out of bed at dawn, and are still half asleep by the time you’re waiting for the plane. It adds more stress to an already stressful travel, but what can you do, force the airline to have a mid-day flight? Do you own the airline?

Early-morning passengers at the airport have at least two sets of luggage: their suitcases and eye bags. And they walk around like zombies looking for breakfast.

At least women can hide their eye luggage with concealer and foundation. Or wear shades and make people wonder if you’re a celebrity—Ellen Adarna in disguise. If you’re fat, you can still be Ellen—she’s reportedly pregnant, with much thanks to John Lloyd Cruz.

Being in Cebu now makes us alert for Lloydie-and-Ellen sightings since the latter is a Cebuana. But so far, so bad—not much luck there, even at Cebu’s beach resorts, one of which could be their wedding venue according to Lolit Solis.

Lloydie, in an apparent attempt to deny Solis’ news, then posted a photo of a wedding venue and captioned it with, “Take it, take it,” the words spoken by former Miss Mauritius Viveka Babajee who was entangled in the 1994 Metro Manila Film Festival scandal attributed to Solis.

Well, it’s back to reality now that the holidays and the post-New-Year vacation are both over.

And 2018 has been so far, so…