I've been grumbling about the Philippines lately like I was a balikbayan: traffic, air pollution, poor services. Not to mention the slooow internet and the poor public transport.

Today, at the tail-end of the three-day Ninoy Death Anniversary weekend, I became more annoyed. Mostly from my printer, who is yet to go digital, and we're forced to go back and forth on the native files I sent her. Not only does she not support OpenType (ugh) but she's misplaced files and misread emails.

Then the bank manager I needed to talk to extended her vacation. Our photographer screwed up, but he made amends. Emails have been bouncing back (not my fault), and this illustrator I need to work with is incognite (despite having three email addresses and two cellphone numbers).

Then, I read about Angelo Barretto, who is pinoy through and through, and races cars like these and won at Le Mans (not the Le Mans) last year. Makes me proud.

Then, back to reality: breaking news is covering an armed robbery at Citibank on Paseo de Roxas. Despite a shootout, no one was hit and the robber got away. That's two blocks from where I live, and I pass by there almost everyday.