Gulp—that’s my first reaction when I opened our door to leave for the office.  Had I known all the troubles I’d encounter I may have never left home!

Typhoon Pedring (Nesat) is the windiest typhoon I experienced firsthand.  Before I even got to the bus stop, Pedring had busted my umbrella in every way imaginable—first, it broke my umbrella’s frame with its strong winds, then it suddenly blew from the other side turning my umbrella inside out breaking it totally.  It’s a good thing that the rain then wasn’t that strong at the time.

I usually take the MRT to the office to save time, but yesterday it was quite different—MRT was running at about half its normal speed.  Just as when I was just two stations away from Ayala, a first (for me) happened—we were all asked to alight the train as there was not enough power to run the trains.  Guadalupe station (where we stopped) isn’t exactly the easiest place to get a bus, and if you suddenly have a trainful of passengers, it’s nasty!  Good thing there were some cover for us to shelter from the downpour, and there were enough buses not to keep us waiting.

Makati was business as usual, although it’s quite noticeable that some stores were closed, and some opened later than the usual.  The most striking effect that Pedring had from my perspective was when it was able to break a traffic light post!  I’m not sure what type of metal the post was made, but Pedring made it look like torn aluminum foil.  Surprisingly, the traffic light still worked even as it lay on the ground.

Work at our office was suspended as I found out when I arrived.  Even a media event I was set to cover was also rescheduled.  Attempts to do my other out-of-office errands failed because either the stores involved were closed or their systems were offline.  Looked like nothing was to be accomplished but thankfully there was power on my gym’s building so the day wasn’t totally wasted.  And nothing beats a good gym day with a good Moussaka platter!

Going home was miserable as the MRT had not resumed operations, rain poured, public transportation was overwhelmed, and there was no power when I got home.  Thank goodness we’re in the 21st century—I can remember when I was a kid during outages whenever there’s a storm an AM radio was our lone source of news.  That night I placed my gadgets to good use—my trusty netbook with my HSDPA modem equals live TV streaming!  Good thing that 3G worked despite the power outage in our area, although it was quite slow, just enough for a low quality stream to work.

Before my netbook ran out of juice, power was restored, the good old “big screen” was back to service, and my netbook is free to surf!

Looking at the devastation and even fatalities some of us unluckily faced, I’m so grateful that I only had to incur being wet, losing an umbrella, tolerating public transport issues, and moving in the dark.  I hope that things get back to normal soon, and I hope that we could extend our help to those in need.  It’s better for us to be on the giving rather than on the receiving side in this case.

Here are some ways we could help:

• If you have spare singlets, you may donate it to Team Boring’s Donate Your Unused Singlet Project.  The first leg will be on Sunday, October 02, 2011, after the Livestrong Day Race in Bonifacio Global City.
• You may also drop your food or clothing donations to Angel Brigade at ISDANCO Foundation 120 Jupiter St., Bel Air Village, Makati City.
• If you have a cellphone, you may donate to Red Cross Rescue and Relief Operations via SMS by texting Red <AMOUNT> to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart).  The <AMOUNT> can be 10, 25, 50 or 100.