Meditate on This!

To reduce water and electricity costs, the Columns has modified the water features at the entrance to each of the three towers.

That was what the memo told us.

Here is our above-mentioned water feature:As you can see, it is surrounded by potted plants. Large potted plants. And connecting those pots is a long blue tape.

Water and electricity savings aren't the only reasons for the modification. The tape fencing off the shallow pool of water has been there for many, many months now. The plants have been there even longer.

Apparently there have been some people who have fallen in the shallow water features. Several times. Repeatedly, I'm told, people have mistaken the water for tile flooring.

Does your tile flooring bubble and ripple like the water does in this picture?

Does it light up at night in colors that change from blue to green to purple to yellow?

If your tile flooring does this, it may be an indication you have a poltergeist...or, more likely, a water feature in your home!

The rows of large potted plants didn't help. People still walked right in the water.

While Darwinism was clearly working to root out the least fit humans, electricity prices have been rising due to the sky-high cost of oil. Apparently economic concerns win out over comic entertainment for the guards as they watch the hapless plunge into the waters of our tranquil water features, and something equally tranquil is to replace our lovely, simple, elegant water feature (Also known as water bowl for local kitties who, by the way, have never accidentally fallen in; once again proving the superiority of cats over humans).

Our water features, as well as the children's sandbox in the 7th floor play area, have all been transformed into spaces of zen meditation:For the entrances, this is just as nice as the water feature I must admit. Although at night it isn't anywhere near as impressive.

But how is a child going to find zen meditation as intriguing as a sandbox?! Especially when the vast majority of Filipinos are Catholic, not Buddhist? Zen Buddhist at that!

I'll not be holding my breath waiting to hear a child cry Mommy! Mommy! I want to go meditate by the slide! Can I, please?

Oh! I Almost Forgot...How Idiots Enhanced My Quality of Life!

Our condominium complex was in the news!

A few days before Christmas there was a Christmas party held in our building in the events hall on the seventh floor, which sees many receptions, parties, etc.

Well, late in the evening (ie: like around 1 a.m.) in a big rush to leave, sixteen people crammed themselves into one of the elevators like sardines and headed down.

They didn't get far.

The elevator fits about nine average-size people. That's it. Any more, and you're getting to know your neighbor in a whole new way. Squeezing seven more in there, must have been no easy task, and certainly one they wish they hadn't undertaken when the elevator got stuck a few floors later!

Depending on what version of the story I've heard, they were jammed in there for anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour and a half. One of the guards told me the television news reported it as three hours! I didn't even know Rupert Murdock owned a Philippine television outlet! In all accounts, the news implied the condominium complex was at fault for not having personnel there to tell the idiots who jammed themselves into the elevator that they shouldn't.

This is beginning to sound SO American!

So that elevator was shut down for several days while workers repaired it and got it to function properly again.

Since the event, guards now do double-duty as elevator operators to ensure more groups, gaggles, schools, prides, packs, or flocks of idiots...er, guests...don't jam themselves into them in their "rush" out of the building! Do note that their "rush" turned a twenty second elevator ride into a thirty-to-ninety minute ordeal!

By now the guards know which floor all the tenants live on and we don't need to tell them which floor we are headed for when we enter the building. I was getting so tired of all the effort it takes to push that button!

Holiday Lights

If you've made it this far, you've already seen the nice lights strung up on the trees around our swimming pool.

Most days lately the water has been awfully chilly, but it is just about perfect at night for us to be able to relax after dinner on those new teak chaise lounges or at one of the tables. It beats spending time indoors on a nice night until the urge to watch another three or four episodes of Desperate Housewives kicks in and we rush back up to our unit on the 14th floor.

This is about as Christmas-y as it gets for us around here. Oh, there is the Christmas tree in the lobby downstairs, but we don't spend a lot of time in our lobby for it to really influence our feeling of Christmas. It's just a traditional tree. It doesn't spew the fake snow (styrofoam pellets) out the top like the trees at SM department store did.

Yes, "did".

They sold out!

SM sold out of those awful, tacky things!

There's just no underestimating the tastes of a consumer society.

I'll stick with the joyous tranquility of the scene around our pool.

Merry Christmas, all!