My Moonlighting! by Vinz G.

Just Like Old Times, Again!

     After a decision to ease the Level in the Metro - from "MECQ" to "Level 1", we noticed that it's like going back to the pre-Covid period when almost all people are in the streets! Transport like MRTs and LRTs are jammed and overflowing with commuters! I do most of my travel in the early morning in Manila where the LRT is my best and fastest way for me to get to my place of work. 

     Just like any nurse who works in the city, I rushed and move faster than the usual commuter, since I don't want to waste time and I always want to be in time for my early "endorsement" at the hospital. Those countless trips to the hospital, observing people when they are piling up towards the entrance of the train station has a great effect on me. Understandably, this means that everybody seem to feel that every thing seem to be back to normal again. Oh, that's the thing, we should not feel that way since we already know that the covid virus is really here to stay no matter what! Isn't it obvious that we need to get vaccinated to get that extra protection since nobody, yes nobody is immune to the disease. I can attest to that the I was one of those who personally experienced the dreadful virus and survived due to the completeness of the vaccines I already got before I contacted the disease. Hopefully, it will not affect my future health in the long run since there are also news that the studies are not yet complete to rule out the safety of using the vaccines. Anyway, personally, I don't care if there are side effects as long as I can get most of the beneficial advantages and protection of having these vaccines. And as long as you know the side effects, you will know how to handle them. So far, so good. I've gone from healthy to healthier, being more efficient in my work, physically and mentally and of course, emotionally!

     This way of thinking that nothing is impossible because you have a new lease on life and that you have a meaningful purpose is how we want to start this new chapter in our blogging and maybe vlogging adventure! We will talk about so many things like light stuff, movies, people, places, ideas and well, maybe, just maybe how I see life itself - how it becomes ordinary and interesting at the same time;)

     Our First Story of the day revolves around some personalities that got to work with me during my "other" jobs. Yes, just like any other working woman or man in the Metro, I also have a "sideline", among others that I still have if I can accommodate them ;) 

     Okay, this is about Doctor Pim in his mid-50s, divorced and with two grown up children living with him. Still in the middle income bracket even after the pandemic, but juggles work like no other. He has five (5) jobs that he reports to everyday as a doctor. So, in that case, he beats me in that moonlighting category! Haha! 

     Anyway, yesterday afternoon during our usual clinic hours, as I was preparing for the day's clinic consultations, as he comes inside the clinic, he tells me that he is talking or rather texting somebody who got his kid's cell phone. According to him, that it was an iPhone that his kid left in the Comfort Room and was found by this guy from Bulacan. Well, it seems possible that this guy really stole the phone as I further listen to our good doctor. 

     This guy said that he has the phone and wants Doctor Pim to pay him P3,500.00 (three thousand five hundred pesos) if Doc Pim wants the phone back because he - this guy from Bulacan had no money. This guy is nuts! It's like "kidnapping" an iPhone and he wanted to collect a ransom money for the kidnapped phone! He also demanded that Doctor Pim pays for the courier service, so that this thief can deliver the iPhone to our clinic. As we started the consultation, Doctor Pim arranges for a courier service and chose Grab. Later on, Doctor Pim tells me that the Grab driver tells him that his car's tire burst and needs to be fixed. Doctor Pim tells the Grab driver that 'okay', he'll shoulder the "vulcanizing" expense just to expedite the phone pickup and delivery. As we talked about the incident, I cannot help but get frustrated how people these days try to juice from other people. How pathetic is this guy! I tell Doc Pim. And he says, yeah, there are people like these who milk money from other people like in this situation. 

     As we finished the consultations, Doc Pim tells me that it's quite a while and he never heard from the Grab driver again. Doc Pim left the clinic waiting for the driver to text back and give Doc Pim an update. Oh, I'd like to stop Doc Pim from leaving the clinic yet!  Tomorrow, we'll see what happened to Doc Pim's iPhone. You see, Doc Pim and I have another clinic consultation tonight. We'll find out if the Grab driver went to pickup the phone in Bulacan and made it back to our clinic. We'll also know if this thief from Bulacan returned the iPhone to Doc Pim after receiving the P3,500.00 ransom money. So, patiently we await the next half of this story.  

Four days later...

     After a while I thought I'll be having another schedule with Dr. Pim, but I was wrong! I was given another shift to take during the week, and I found a little information from the other nurses that have worked with him. I cannot help but asked them if they found something unusual with Dr. Pim. Nobody seemed to noticed anything until I told them about what happened. One nurse told me that Dr. Pim seemed a bit quiet and always to himself. Now, she understands why. She agrees with me that the phone can never be recovered again, the way Dr. Pim is handling the situation. She said that Dr. Pim is really gullible at this stage. How can he negotiate with a thief?! This is plain and simple extortion! I told her that Dr. Pim wants to play along. Eventually, she told me that the doctor hasn't retrieved the stolen phone yet. It will be a miracle if the thief will ever return the phone after four days! She's pretty sure that the thief has already sold and disposed of the phone. And then came another teleconsultation schedule with Dr. Pim...

As it turned out, Dr. Pim never recovered his daughter's phone nor his money, the payment for the courier to get and deliver his daughter's phone. Moral of the story- one, just don't forget to lock your lockers even in your office, especially if you have valuables inside your bag. Second, don't negotiate with crooks! You will have more sense if you just admit that it was a big mistake for being so careless about your stuff and other people who might be just waiting for opportunities to con other people.  

As the days passed, Dr. Pim no longer mentions any of the "incident". We assume that he cannot admit to himself how he underestimated the situation he was in and the thief that took advantage of his daughter. We just hope that this will never happen again to his daughter and to anybody in particular, for nobody wants to be taken advantage of and lose very important stuff like a phone.