Friday, September 12, 2008 Covington: A twist in the tale By Gary Covington Looking In
REMEMBER I told you that the Equitable bank had issued my late wife a spanking new credit card despite letters of notification by the handful and, at last, a final statement from the Equitable declaring the account settled and paid up? And remember how - silly me - I said that undoubtably a new set of invoices would fill my letterbox?
I'd written that in a jesting sort of way - what bank would be idiot enough to declare an account paid up and then issue a new card and start invoicing for "service fees." Well, the Equitable would but wait - there's a twist in the tale.
The account - there's the number, exactly the same - has mysteriously, all by itself, transferred from the Equitable to the bank's new partner the BDO. Cunning isn't it? A differently sized invoice, different colors, different logos, at first glance a different account but no - it's the same account moved to another bank without a word or by your leave. Scary or no?
A twist in the tail of quite another sort happened Thursday down at the Philhealth offices. I was there paying my quarterly subs (don't we oldies get around!) and, as usual, the place was heaving. The queue at the cashier (singular, only one cashier) snaked longer and longer and then, a tad impatient, dissolved from a queue into a mob.
Along comes a security guard - all whistles and night sticks for just such an emergency, folks daring to fall out of line - who pushed and prodded and waved his arms and we shuffled and turned about and faced this way and that and eventually fell into a twisty conga line. I was tempted to grab the waist of the body in front of me, stick my left leg out, shake it all about and maybe even do the Hokey Cokey but no - I'd probably be arrested for lavisciousness or some equally dastardly crime.
Saturday there was a revealing bit of news telling us how Japan has laid up its tuna fishing fleet. Due to the rising cost of fuel they said, conveniently forgetting to mention that tuna are getting rarer than hen's teeth.We're passing on the tuna fishing baton, said they, to some other mug, but who?
Step forward General Santos where the tuna fishing and canning industry is, if you ask, "booming", the folks down there unable to comprehend that the Pacific tuna is heading for oblivion. Just like the Grand Banks cod and the South American anchovy. Fished to extinction.
Lastly, lastly and I feel I must apologize to the driver of an enormous luxury RUV who didn't sort out his gears quick enough allowing me to zip in and steal his parking space. A rotten trick I know and I'm sorry. Neat though.
