Total strangers coming up to you and asking for "pamasko" is nothing new. We get it from our garbage collectors, the village guards, the newspaper boy, even the street children at every intersection on the way to work. Some make an effort to even sing a few lines of a Christmas carol, some do a Wowowee inspired dance, still others just stick their hands out, as if we owe them. None of this is new. We're all used to it. But what totally caught me by surprise this past Christmas season was this note on the change platter given to me by a waiter in Luk Yuen.
What brazenness! And so instead of giving my customary 15% tip, I took every single centavo of the change. Maybe the waiter should just have been a little more attentive, shown a little more of a spirit of service for his customers to reward him with a bigger tip. Brandishing notes like this will not get him any merry wishes.
