Less One Day

Monday! Work was okay save for one annoying incident when the accounting firm erroneously deposited the funds to another corporate account. They were not even aware of it until I tried tracing where the funds went. Ugh! Anyway...

That didn't stop me from having a generally good day. In fact, I've been "wearing" this silly smile on my face. Here's why...

Mothers' (Day) Weekend

This was how my Mothers (Day) Weekend was spent...



Friday evening - An hour of foot pampering at my favorite (cheap) spa
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Saturday - outing with family and friends from work
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Sunday - 6pm mass at Sacred Heart Church (yay for aircon'ed places of worship), Kenny Rogers feast of slabs of ribs, roasted chicken, muffins, several sidings and roast chicken sandwich (this last item was my dinner) and... couch potato-ing for most of the day watching the Desperate Housewives marathon!

It was a simple celeb but a great one at that. On the whole, I had a lovely Mothers' Day weekend!



Kyle, Jake and Jerry... not in pic is Matt, who is presently in Xiamen, China until 3rd week of May

Alegre Beach Resort

"Alegre" literally means happy, glad, merry, joyful, gay, cheerful, blithe, lively, jolly, cheery, hilarious, mirthful, gleeful in Spanish. Exactly the same feelings everyone in the team had when we spent 4 days and 3 nights in that resort in Sogod town, 1.5 hours north of Cebu City.... Preparations for this event caused the (in)frequency of my posts too. :D

*Most of the shots are mine but photo credits go to ...Lani Sara, Cris Factolerin, Chico Barretto, and Bronson Espinosa...

TGIF

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image, originally uploaded by gratitude.

This has been one long week for me with some days stretching to 14 hours of work time... It's that time of the year when auditors are poring into the company's records to check / vouch that everything is in order prior to tax season.

To make things more challenging, we are beating other deadlines too. And the US counterparts are arriving before month-end.

Exciting times indeed.

I'm packing my things now. I'm calling it a day. Time to re-charge and head off to the spa for a good massage.

Tomorrow and the coming week will be another story.

3.5 Year Old Adult

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Jake at Podium, originally uploaded by gratitude.

The common scenario when we leave for the office in the morning:

"See you later Jake. Be ready for school by 10am", Jerry or I would tell him. And Jake would see us to the door after giving us our kiss.

This morning, I bade him goodbye as I hurriedly tried to carry all of my bags down to the car. Jake just finished taking his shower with Nanny's help. He quickly ran up to me and said: "Wait Ma, let me kiss your face first..." and proceeded to plant a big wet kiss on my cheek.

How sweet... I drove to work with a smile on my face.

@-->--

On a typical free day, I would be a couch potato watching E-news or some other local gossip program, Jerry would be reading emails on his Blackberry, Matt would be out with his friends, Kyle would be playing the Playstation2 and Jake would be running around playing with different toys one at a time in intervals of 5 minutes.

One day, we were all busy and left to our own devices when Jake ran up the stairs.

"Jake, where are you going?", Jerry and I chorused.

"I'm going up.... to check my emails", Jake replied.

No, he's not going up to watch tv, not to take his turn with the PS2, not to play with his kiddie toys... He was going to check his emails!

Just where did that come from???

Jerry with his Blackberry and Jake with his Gameboy..., originally uploaded by gratitude.

Jake at Costabella..., originally uploaded by gratitude.

Aw'right!

I couldn't wait for a decent pic so I typed this post sans any image. There are two things that made (and continuously make) me smile today (and the coming days presumably)...

* pay raise with retro adjustment (again? ehehe)
* a new Coach bag from Papa Rhante & Mama Nita (Paparazzi kidded me it's actually a Caoch bag. Jerry disagreed and said it's Couch bag. Whatever! Ah... men...)

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Fiery Friday

fire truck at the IT Park, our office building in the background
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It took a total of 45 minutes. When the fire alarm blared inside the building, we all ran in a single file to the stairwell, ran down the ramp to exit to the parking area and proceeded to the evacuation spot. Looking around, I saw road barricades on both sides to try to keep motorists from blocking the escape route. People in jeepneys and cars that were blocked entry ogled at the hundreds of employees coming out of our office building. Firemen were assisting a few seemingly injured people into the open area. It was midday but we didn't mind the sweltering heat as we rushed out.





smiling faces under the sun
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This could be real-life and seriously more life-threatening. Good thing this was just a fire drill and everyone else knew what to do.

On Being Appreciated...

One of my first jobs when I got to Cebu 15 years ago was as Accounting Officer of then new SM (Cebu) department store. There were about 10 members under me who handled voluminous transactions on a daily basis. I had to review all their work on a daily basis too. Work was tedious owing to the nature of retail. Plus the work environment was pretty rigid. Nevertheless, the group bonded well and even up to now some are still in touch with each other.

Genny was one of the girls who followed me even up to the next job I had. In this next job, she became an even more trusted colleague and friend who was loyal to the point of putting her job on the line just to show her support. Of course I was talking about an incident that happened about 3 years ago that caused me to move on out of delicadeza after fighting for what I believed in (in futility). Since then, Genny and the team had a new manager on top of them.

Two Fridays ago, Genny and Hazel, another former Accounting "angel", paid me a visit. Genny will be flying to Singapore in a few week's time as she has already passed the EPEC. She intends to invite Hazel as well, as the latter tries to find her luck there too. For hardworking people like them in this dog-eat-dog work environment, I wish them both success in their pursuits.

While in my office, we talked animatedly about the past. It was an afternoon full of reminiscing about the times spent together. I was truly touched when they said they missed the good old days when I was there to lead them, to mentor them, to defend them, to cover for them, and to make the work load bearable even while meeting hectic deadlines. Imagine hearing that and how it made my heart swell with elation. I guess it's an accomplishment for me to be able to have that effect on them, to be acknowledged for something, even when I thought I was just doing my job...



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Hazel, moi, Genny
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Letting Off Steam

shot at Max Brenner, Makati
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When you hardly have time to spare after driving the kids to school (at 2 different schedules), picking them up (again at different times), going home for lunch, setting up a new company, taking charge of the household, etc... the last thing you need is a nagging person who constantly makes you feel like you're not doing enough... And that person (God bless her) is not even related to me.

What would you do if you were in my moccasins? :P

Haay TGIF!

10:45???

Today...

6:00 - Jerry drove the boys to the bus stop.
7:00 - We got ready for bath / breakfast.
7:30 - Jake woke up.
8:00 - I played and spent time with Jake while Jerry did some paperwork.
8:30 - Jake took a bath while Jerry & I went to pick up a check from Sta. Lucia then proceeded to work.
9:00 - Both Jerry and I were in the office...

Everything's pretty normal...We managed emails, answered phone calls, had short meetings, set appointments, updated status reports, coordinated with team/counterparts via IRC, YM and Google talk....

10:45 - Jerry barged into my office in a state of surprise....

I looked at him in bewilderment as he spoke, his voice in attempted whisper but sounded more like a scream : "Nor... WE FORGOT JAKE!!!"

(Jake's class starts at 10 and ends at 12).

Morph Launch

This post was antedated...

Jerry was in Manila for his regular weekly trip. I joined him for my new company's launch. Junnie was still in town (Manila). And Pa and Ma were free for the weekend...

Perfect timing for yet another chance to meet up. Business mixed with personal stuff sure did us good.

A Fresh Start

Cowrie Cove @ Mactan Shangri-la
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A month short of two years with the company I work for, the owner invited me to join him in building yet another exciting IT company. It didn't take me long to come up with a decision. All considerations are favorable. Jerry stays as head of my previous company while I handle operations of the new one with both companies practically under the same ownership. Pretty exciting if you ask me.

And so today, I officially start with M.

Yay me!



The pioneering team of M
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Cheers!

pic taken @ Tinder Box
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Last July 15, I had folks from Manila, Bicol, Bohol, and US flying over to Cebu for the week-long company (new one, will relay in another post) kick-off meeting. What's a better way to cap a day of introductions and planning than to have wine and cheese at Tinder Box?

Yup...and consumed several bottles of white, blush, red and shiraz wine, we did.



Cheers to an exciting new company!
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Busy Week Concluded

What a busy week that was...

We had activities going on simultaneously: press briefing, testing/interviewing of and job offer to software engineers, screening for the new batch of code camp participants, participation in the Information & Communication Technology Conference (ICT), graduation and awarding of ECC winning code campers, etc... There were about 5 counterparts from Manila who flew in to assist in all these.

Here are pictures as proof:


(Left: Abuhan lunch; Right: Guiseppe dinner)


Big Mao dinner


Hehehe.... Okay... The pictures didn't show the actual activities I was talking about. But that is not to say I was bluffing about being busy...

In fact, I so look forward to the weekend... I need to unwind, slow down a bit and enjoy some quality time with my boys.

When I wake up tomorrow, I will be seeing this:


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Or this:




Hmmm.... Just the thought of it does wonders now to my frazzled brain cells... Hope you all have a relaxing weekend!

Major Accomplishment

taken at the i2 roofdeck after a successful event
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Because of collective efforts from the Cebu, Manila and US teams, this is probably our biggest accomplishment for the first half of 2007 - the expansion of the IT office we all work in. And May 24th was a red-letter day when we had our office blessed, conducted press briefings, and introduced our new IT visions and programs to the academe.

Though the real hard work brought on by expansion is looming right in front of us, thank God we're finally over this one. The preparations leading to this day were just daunting but we happily culminated the event by spending time with counterparts for a night cap.

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For the first half of 2007, is there something you have done (in school, at work or at home) that your are extremely proud of? I bet you have. ;)

Summer 2007-Trip #4 (Bohol Twice Around)

Whadaya know? 5 weeks after our company outing last April in Bohol, Jerry and I said yes to our boss' invitation to join him and his animators group in the same island. The invitation was made last Thursday and now we're back after spending a short but adventure- and food-filled 24-hours in Bohol.

Instead of the usual sightseeing around Tagbilaran and neighboring towns, we all went island-hopping and snorkeling at Balicasag Island.

Here are some pics...

Ahh... with the boys' classes starting on June 27 yet, we still have a full month of summer vacation up ahead... Where to next? Who knows? Hehehe...

Seafood Buffet

Do you know of a place where you could have your seafood buffet lunch for P199 ($4) or dinner for P299 ($6) (inclusive of halo-halo bar)? When I say seafood, this is not just fish or squid or small shellfish but includes oysters, mussels, shrimps, crabs as well.

And don't be misled with the term "seafood buffet", this resto also offers meat and vegetable recipes alongside the seafoods.

In Cebu, you could have that at Port Restaurant at Waterfront Hotel, Lahug.

Ang mura no? That's an ongoing promo which I hope stays forever! :D



Inside Port Restaurant. You have to be there by 1130 am or the place will be packed in a few minutes.



In my excitement to have my mango-pandan dessert, natapon! And yes, those native "kakanin" are mine too!




Diana, Mafe, Jevica, moi and Rox. Judging from the looks on our faces, we obviously enjoyed the food. Burp! :P

Summer 2007-Trip #3 (Bohol)

This should have been trip #2 as it happened before Jerry and I went to S'pore. However, the recent spate of rush activities at work and at home prevented me from updating my posts promptly. Anyway...

When the Manila office went to La Luz in San Juan, Batangas for their company outing, Cebu decided to go to quiet Bohol for an overnight trip. Except for a few, all of us hauled ourselves to the pier early Saturday morning of April 14 for a Supercat trip that would take us to Tagbilaran.

Since the boat fare was only about P600 for a Cebu-Bohol-Cebu trip, Jerry and I decided to take the kids along. The three boys were all excited. 3yo Jake couldn't stay seated and kept mingling with the office employees while on board the boat. Two hours later, we arrived and docked on the pier which was pretty small but looked newly renovated.

First stop was the food shop where we had a sumptuous seafood lunch that set the mood for this entire trip. By 1pm we were inside the coaster that took us around the sights of Bohol. Sagbayan Peak was slightly over an hour away and fortunately for us, Jake slept throughout the drive. By the time we got there, he was up and about until after we got back to the hotel after dinner.

If I completely narrate the beauty that we saw in Sagbayan, Carmen, Loboc, Baclayon, and Panglao, this entry is going to be reeealllyyy long. Let me just embed this slideshow just to give a glimpse of what Bohol could offer its visitors, but believe me the pictures don't do justice to these faces sights!

Just For The Sake Of...

Everyday I stuff my laptop bag with folders containing invoices for payment processing, receipts for reimbursements, printed pages from the internet like maps and tips for our upcoming trip, bank statement for reconciliation, unread newspaper for the day, etc....

A lot of times, these papers don't even get the chance to be taken out of my bag and looked at which I regret not doing, when I wake up the following morning. I get sidetracked by listening to my boys' stories about their activities for the day, by watching Jake's antics the moment he sees me walk in the door, by watching Sanjaya on American Idol or Grey's Anatomy, by going online, by dinner, and (gasp!) by the junk food...

Why do I keep doing this? Hehehe...It's a lost cause, isn't it?

Have you (ever) tried bringing home some paperwork hoping to be able to get something done? How did you fare?

Random Stuff

InVISIBILITY

Ok I may have prematurely raved about Globe's Visibility . Now my Visibility connection is crawling...ever...so...slowly.
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Withdrawal Symptoms

After the Jobstreet Career Expo last weekend, my officemate inadvertently brought my laptop bag to her hotel, thinking it was hers. We all had the same red colored laptop bag issued by the company.

I have never been away from my Mac. I bring it along wherever I go. Imagine my surprise when I learned the following morning that it wasn't in the house nor in the car! Just when I was all excited to spend a few minutes of blog time...

That same day, I had fever.
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Clean Bill of Health?

My resistance must have been lowered by the hectic schedules we had the past couple of weeks, hence my bout with cold and headache a few days back. But after my basic panel / laboratory tests this morning, I'm glad to find out I'm A-ok.

Even my right leg x-ray didn't indicate anything to be worried about. Now I'm scared about the nagging bruise I have just above my ankle, right below my shin. Hmmm... Rebuke! I'll just pay the doctor a visit this coming Tuesday. Like my tests, I hope everything's normal.
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Have a blessed Holy Week, everyone!