A Stress Free Week for a Change

As I was walking from the parking lot catch my train to work this morning, the public address system blurted out an announcement twice ; “ To all passengers – the 7:53 westbound train will be late by approximately 5 minutes”. It was about 7:43am and I told myself – it’s Friday and I am on a training course anyways so no big deal. I could afford to be late. A few minutes later, the station bells started ringing, signaling the approach of a train. Could it be my train? Yes it was and it came right on time. Then came another announcement; “To all passengers. The 7:53 westbound train will be late by 5 minutes and is now arriving at track no 1”. LOL.. I boarded the train with a grin in my face and so did everybody. The station manager was quite creative in masking out his booboo!

I was on a training course this week which gave me a break from the stress of office life. The rule of the house was we were to turn off our cell phones and blackberries which made me incommunicado for the most part of the working day. I had a reason not to return phones or emails because I was not to be disturbed. The course ended at 430pm everyday which also gave me a bit more time to pick up my daughter from the day care. The training centre was located at a building close to the Eaton Centre , downtown Toronto’s largest mall. I would hang around the mall area during lunch break browsing the stores and fulfilling my craving for beef sharwama replete with the salad trimmings and pickled peppers. The mall is flanked by Yonge Street , known to be the longest street in the world in the Guinness Book of Records. Yonge St starts at the Lake Ontario, a few blocks down south of Eaton Centre stretching 1,986 kms all the way to an isolated feeder road at Rainy River, Ontario close to the Minnesota border. It would take some 20 hours to drive Yonge St from point A to point Z, the same time it would take to drive from San Diego, Calif to Seattle, Washington. It sure is one heck of a stretch and considering that you’d end up in the same province speaks of the size of Ontario.

I always thought of Pinoys as people of “raffle” mentality, that everytime we attempt to promote a product or host an event we engage in a raffle or lottery to add fun and excitement to the experience. That probability of winning something lures people to participate. I remember many years ago, in a Cebu Pacific flight from Manila to Bacolod the flight crew held a raffle in the plane for fun. The prices weren’t that ostentatious. There were T-shirts and hats and all sorts of giveaways and the highlight was the draw for a couple of plane tickets. With all the safety and security concerns, hosting a raffle in a passenger plane here in North America is almost inconceivable.

Last Thursday, our instructor did something totally unexpected – a surprise raffle in class. The price was absolutely incredible; free technical training course for the student along with his boss and two other colleagues in the company. The choice of the course is entirely up to the individual, to be taken in 2007. Considering that the training company is an internationally renowned institution and the cost averaging 2.5 grand per course, the total package was worth about 10 grand, never shabby by any stretch of the imagination. I put my boss’ name and two of my closest colleagues in the list. Win or lose I would be back next year for another course but an extra week of training would be really nice. Unfortunately and as I have the habit of expecting, I didn’t win. I never ever won any raffle, big or small in my entire life. If I won in gambling, it had to do with me getting involved in making some kind of decision. Perhaps I’m due for a real big one, like the 24 million Lotto tomorrow. LOL.. The raffle odds were pretty good – 1 in 19 chances. The dude that won was all smiles. He would be back next year; his boss will give him a good review and his buddies will be buying him beer the whole year round!

Bottom line, my week was stress free and quite enjoyable. I should get plenty of these !