And so it is...

Many folks at my workplace have reasons to be happy today. Their monthly paycheque including a month's ex-gratia payment was banked-in.

But yet, some are not so happy with what they've got and are whining. As for me, well, its gonna take another year before my gratuity payment matures.

Considering the fact that 2009 is just a couple of months away, it will be worth the wait. Not to mention the part of the Internal Revenue Board where a big chunk of my salary is going to.

I likened this to the ancient Chinese torture called 'Ling Chi' or 'Death with a thousand cuts' which is a painful way to die.

This method, outlawed in 1905, is where a condemened man is paraded in public, stripped naked and humiliated with his body cut open like a stuck pig.

There are some morbid images of this style of execution which you can get over the internet, but I won't go into the details.

Anyways, I am just glad that I survived one month with the big slash on my pocket. I hope that the situation will improve and at the mean time, would have to hunker down and face the harsh and cold winter...