Add Spice to your Excuse Letter!

Here's an excuse letter I made for my daughter Mae during one of her absence in school one day during the month of July:

To whom it may concern:
Christian Greetings! We would like to inform you that my daughter KRIZA MAE E. LOMEDA, 4th yr. high school was absent yesterday July 30, 2009 because she suffered severe colds, headaches and dizziness. Please excuse her and we hope for your kind assistance and support for anything she missed from her yesterday's class. Thank you and God bless you all. Your diligence and excellence in all your endeavors has always been a great blessing to all of us - parents. We've always been learning so much from all your programs and activities wherein we got insights and tips which we apply to our church, to other Christian schools within our community and to my youngest daughter's school.

Very truly yours,
MR. & MRS. NESTOR M. LOMEDA

Suggestion Box : "Supot ng Pandesal"

When malling alone or with any member of the family, the last thing we used to buy before going home is to buy bread from either Goldilocks, French Baker or Max Restaurant. When family budget is tight, I buy bread from a bakery near our flea market. One late morning after buying my plastic bag of hot "pandesal" I cannot resist not to tell the "tindera": "Pwede bang mag-suggest?" Maybe upon noticing my friendly gesture, she smiled back at me saying: "Ano ho 'yun?" Then I suggested that if it will be possible for them to put their bread in a paper "supot" rather than in a plastic one because when hot food is placed inside a plastic bag, it is not good for the health. The girl's face transformed into a frown after my bold comment, then I gracefully left feeling disappointed that my brave attempt just fell on deaf ears and the saying that "a customer is always right" was ignored. After several weeks, one early Sunday morning, my son Cyr Jae bought home a bagful of hot "pandesal". I suspected that he bought it from another bakery because I am not familiar with its paper "supot" packaging, so I repeatedly inquired if he really bought it from our "suki". Upon confirming the source, I felt happy inside, knowing that my labour was not in vain! Several days had passed, when I personally bought bread for "merienda" one afternoon, I noticed an old lady in her late fifties, sitting in a very low stool, who seemed to be the owner of the store, gluing series of thin brown paper to form "supot" for "pandesal", I said to the "tindera" assisting me(not the previous one) "Uy papel na ang lalagyan ninyo ah!" to which she gently smiled and said "sabi nyo po eh, di ba?" then I noticed the former salesgirl to whom I previously suggested behind her smiling also. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 7:5, "It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to the song of fools."