Wednesdays are always a bummer. Wednesdays are sloooow. Especially around Baclaran on Roxas Boulevard, City of Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. This is because Wednesday is Baclaran day, when all the faithful go to the weekly novena at the Redemptorist church. It’s where all northbound, southbound, eastbound and westbound vehicles converge and traffic is expected to be at a virtual standstill.

Wednesdays are when bus drivers choose to linger at bus stops even if there is no one on the sidewalk wanting a ride. Bus dispatchers and conductors shout their destinations, apparently in the hope that if they should loudly and long enough, people would miraculously appear on the sidewalk and get on the bus. Or people who are headed for destinations other than the bus’s signboards will change their minds and follow the dispatchers voice like mice to the Pied Piper.

Wednesdays in the office are sloooow. It’s the day when clients go out of their way to be painstakingly picky. It’s the day when suppliers twiddle their thumbs while they gaze blankly at purchase orders. Wednesday is always unbearably hot. Not even Typhoon Frank made it to Wednesday. Wednesdays is when counter personnel at any fast food joint choose to take their time fulfilling your order, and that’s because there’s hardly any customers either.

Wednesday is the purgatory we have to go through after the death of weekend life.