Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Why I Know I'm Getting Old, Part 3

Not an Ikot jeep, I know, but you've got to love the Hello Kitty door.

Now don't get me wrong, I actually like being in my thirties, and even if the devil offered it to me, I will never ever agree to becoming a teenager again (such an angry phase). It's just sometimes I come across little things that make me go What?! as they remind me too brutally of how fast time runs.

My latest discovery: To ride the Ikot jeep that gets you around the University of the Philippines in QC, you now have to pay P6.50. You read that right, six pesos and fifty cents. In my day (student number 89-09717, now how come I remember that more than a decade after graduating?), we paid P1.25.

A pause here to point out that another way I know I'm getting old is that I've started to write sentences that begin with, "In my day."

Now that I think about it, my real question is this: Where does the driver put all those coins? A plastic Orocan I think could do the job, but how do you drive with that between your knees?

9 comments:

decorator said...

it was PhP1.25 still during my time-- 91-47838---i think, you will never forget your student number. a friend once told me that the only way to know if one is really from UP is to ask him his student number. it will not take him a minute to actually say it.

decorator said...

oh my.. its 91-47837 (now... thats typo)

Anonymous said...

I still remember mine from DLSU--9218521.

Anonymous said...

I have saved .50 cents then! Mine is 90-42206-7 :)!

A said...

Ako rin! Ako rin! 9218076!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm even older than you, Apol! My student number's 86-16667 (I might be off by one or two digits, but I'm pretty sure that's right.) and the Ikot jeep cost just P.75 then.

As for where they put all those coins: with the creation of P10 coins and the virtual disappearance of any coin smaller than the P.25, they many not need to carry as many as you think.

Arashi-KIshu said...

Hi! I'm a regular reader! UST 96030233 (hehe) In UP hindi ka na magbabayad sa driver, unless sumakay ka within UP itself. May table sa likod ng Citimall na nangongolekta ng pamasahe. Tapos pag puno na saka na nila babayaran yun driver.

ecstatic spastic said...

wow. 93-06603. ikot was 1.25 din during my time. so when did it skyrocket up? shet.--lille

Apol said...

Wow, this is a great technique for figuring out how old everybody is! GWYN, we overlapped pala. I graduated '92, baka we were hanging out together and we didn't know it! Did you hang out at Sam's Diner and this other place I don't remember the name of but there was Sweet Lapus with his never-ending monologues?