Words on the Go

Random Thoughts

2020-03-18T15:31:00.000+11:00

Alexa woke me up this morning at 7:15 and started playing some smooth jazz music. Somehow it irritated me. I asked Alexa to stop. I reached for my phone and found some messages sent overnight. By 8:30 I got out of bed and started debating with myself whether to go to the gym or go for a walk. The debate continued over a light breakfast and while I was looking out at the harbour view outside my window, other concerns started to run through my head. It was too much so I decided to finally go out for a walk.

On a normal day at 10:15 AM, I would usually see students walking around in our neighbourhood, workers taking a break under the shade of trees, and just regular people going about their usual routines. This time as I was walking towards the harbour I only met a handful of people along the way, and the harbour was very quiet it felt gloomy despite the sunny weather.

I decided to sit down by the water for a few minutes, take a deep breath, and take in the scenery

before me: Sydney's harbour with the bridge, the Opera House, CBD skyline, Luna Park, bright blue sky, and even the moon (yes, I can still see the moon).

I like peace and quiet, but not this kind of peace and quiet. It felt different. It felt sad. This virus has really affected everything in this world.

I don't really watch, listen or read the news because I don't like hearing all the negative stuff they usually talk about. So the first time I heard of this virus is through a friend, can't remember who it was though. I have friends who are in the medical field and some in the public office so I find them reliable enough to get and pass on facts, I prefer them over the media.

Back in early February, one friend came back from a long holiday in Hong Kong. I messaged her and asked how she was doing. She told me she was not feeling well at that time and that she was surprised at how lax Sydney airport was, "crew and staff not wearing mask and no sanitizer too". She said she was coughing really bad and yet airport staff did not seem to care. She quarantined herself at her home and her boss and the HR at work kept asking her to go to the office to work. When she went to see a doctor she was diagnosed with the regular flu. On the last day of her self-quarantine she told me she's recovering, and since it's been over a month now it's safe to say the diagnosis was correct. We still haven't seen each other since she got back, "social distancing"?, but we keep in touch via WhatsApp.

As more news of people getting infected comes out, more and more people have finally taken notice to take precautions. Others have gone to the extreme of panic buying stuff like toilet paper. Until now, no matter how hard I try, I still don't understand the need to hoard toilet paper. Just last night I received several email notifications from different shops informing us of changed store hours, purchase limits, and change in return policies. Apparently, those who have hoarded packs of toilet paper have realised they actually don't need that many and want to return them to the stores. 🙄 Some cities have been locked down, countries have closed their borders, and whether we like it or not we are to stay at home and avoid going out to prevent possible spread if you are a carrier or prevent possible infection if you are not.

Now this here is one of my concerns. Because despite all this news of a fatal virus, we are getting kicked out of our current unit. Apparently the owner has sold our building and has given us until 12 April to vacate the place. This means we have to actually go out and look/inspect apartments we can move into. In fact, we spent the last two Saturdays doing just that. So you see, even if we wanted to isolate ourselves we can't because we have to look for apartments.

Just as I was walking earlier today, I had calls from property agents regarding the apartments we inspected last Saturday. So I had to think over the options as I was walking, too. So many things to consider: space, location, transport, price. I gave myself a time limit to make the decision, and by the time I got back home from my walk we finalised our choice and immediately had to pay the holding deposit. Next step is to start packing and plan the move. It has been and will continue to be a stressful week for us.

It's already mid afternoon. I know I have to start packing, but at the same time I don't know where to start exactly: my clothes, beddings, books, art supplies... the list goes on.

That's why I'm writing this blog. I'm not even sure if the flow of this content is right. I just know that I needed to dump all these thoughts running through my head and get it out. Maybe I'll take a nap after this and decide what to do next when I wake up. And change Alexa's wake up music.

During the Hiatus

2015-05-11T20:07:00.000+10:00

"Things just started happening..." I said that last week to "explain" my long hiatus from blogging. To elaborate, it means I got so busy with work that it sort of got in the way. I also had some personal stuff, like a few out-of-the-country trips.

The main reason I was able to move to Singapore was the work opportunity that was presented to me back in 2008. I was lucky enough that the company shouldered all expenses of my move, even the overnight trip in Singapore for that nerve-wracking interview. The first few years were very good for me. I had a boss who did not like working overtime and our workload was reasonable enough. But then some good things never really last. There were changes made and though I welcomed the challenge there just came a point when I thought it was already too much. So I decided a change is needed.

What that change would be came to me on one of my trips. During those hectic years I was able to squeeze in a few trips in between. It was the only way I could completely unwind and forget the worries from work for longer than a weekend. And truly, I needed those breaks. Of course I also made a point of going back home to Cebu every year. Nothing beats being with the family. And it's always good to see old friends you haven't seen for about a year.

But overseas trips were not my only means of unwinding. And obviously it's too expensive to be doing so regularly. I can only wish I can afford to do just that, but I can't. So every now and then I try to find some do-it-yourself (DIY) kits that I could do while just staying in for the whole weekend. Other times I would just read books that I borrow from the library or ebooks that I download on my iPhone. And whenever there's a musical theater show in town that I would like to see, I go and watch it even if I'm all by myself.

Just last Thursday I got to watch Les Misérables at the Capitol Theater in Sydney with a couple of friends. It was awesome! Here's a little something that I did after watching it. I would understand if you don't recognise her. After all, I'm still a beginner at this sketching thing.

Return... Revive... Remake

2015-05-04T00:45:00.001+10:00

Yes, I'm back.

Obviously, I've been away from blogging for a long time. Four years to be exact. That's a very long hiatus. I don't have any excuse. Things just started happening, I lost interest and I simply stopped writing. I even stopped reading other people's blogs. But I'm back now. And I will try to do this thing again consistently.

For someone who likes to have things in an organised and orderly manner, reviving this blog instead of making a new one is really a challenge. There's this niggling feeling that I should start over and create a new blog. But I also want to get this thing rolling again before any form of "resistance" creeps in and I lose what momentum I have gained this weekend.

I may have to change the look of this blog in the coming days or weeks. I haven't gone that far yet. At the time of writing this entry, my mind is still going back and forth on what I should do with this blog. You see, the entries in this blog started as nothing more than just short (hopefully creative) ramblings that I write and post using my mobile phone. That was my intention, the original purpose that I have set for this blog to be. But reading back on my previous entries I realised that, though I tried to keep things light and positive, they have become more of a narrative on what has been happening and what I have been up to. I think the texts I have on the sidebar are no longer applicable. I still have some serious "re-imagining" to do on what I want this blog to be.

Well, whatever I may decide for the future of this blog I will let you know. For now, I need to book my flights. See ya!

Going to the Land Down Under

2011-04-01T17:08:00.001+11:00

January 29 - February 6, 2011

We finally made it to Australia! *cartwheel*

My friend and I took separate flights going from Singapore to Australia: me via Perth, she via Sydney. We met up in Melbourne and followed our itinerary from there.

Day 1: Day tour to Phillip Island which includes a visit to some wild life sanctuaries, a chocolate factory, a beautiful beach, meeting the Koalas, feeding the Wallabee, and watching the Penguins come back to shore.

Day 2: This was our free day in Phillip Island. This was the most relaxing day of the entire trip. The day before I saw this fish & chip resto by the beach. My friend and I went there by bike and had a picnic nearby. Until now, I can say this is the best food I have eaten in all my trips.

Day 3: We're back in Melbourne's business district. We spent the morning touring the area on the free tram. After lunch we headed to the airport for our flight to Sydney. It just an hour flight so we still had time to claim our tour pass and transportation card. We also had our first dinner in one of the restaurants along Darling Harbour before we headed for West Ryde for our accommodation.

Day 4: The first activity we did was the Oz JetBoating experience. It was one of the highlights of this trip and totally unexpectedly fun. We were still somewhat wet when we joined the city tour. The last stop of the tour was Manly beach. We did not bring any swim suit so we just visited the Manly Aquarium. Then we took a ferry ride back to Circular Quay and on to Darling Harbour where we found a $10 steak available. Perfect! Since Sydney Aquarium was just nearby we decided to visit it before calling it a day.

Day 5: We had to start the day really early to be able to make the most of the Blue Mountains experience. It was a lovely day to spend with mother nature, trekking along the marked paths. I finally got to meet the Three Sisters and see the beauty that surrounded them. I bought a winter jacket for a souvenir before we went back to the city where we went up to the Sydney Tower.

Day 6: The last day we can use our city tour pass. We started off with another city tour which brought us to the Mrs. Macquarie's Chair that has a good view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and the city's skyline. We also stopped by Bondi beach for 30 minutes before we headed back to the main city passing by suburbs with houses with iron terraces. The last stop of the tour was the Opera House. We also joined the informative tour of the Opera House. Interesting history. It was quite a hot and warm day, we finally decided to watch a movie (Black Swan) at Dendy Cinema -- this was included in our city pass. And on a last minute decision we visited the Aquatic Center and the ANZ Stadium.

Day 7: We met up with Ethel, a childhood friend of mine who now lives in Australia, for lunch and she showed us where we can shop for souvenirs. It was basically a shopping day.

Day 8: It's our last day in Australia. We attended mass in the morning, had our lunch with our host, then went to the airport for our flight back to Singapore.

Rough Start

2011-04-01T15:26:00.005+11:00

January 28, 2011

SG - PER via Qantas Airlines.

MISSED FLIGHT!!!

It was all my fault. I got out of the office late and there was a traffic jam on the express way.

We decided to spend the night in the airport and try our luck on getting the next best flight to Perth or Melbourne we could get.

In fairness, Changi airport wasn't a bad place to spend the night.

Sent from my iPhone

What a start..

2011-03-20T17:06:00.004+11:00

This is my desk calendar that I bought at Daiso, the $2-store. ^_^

As you can see, I had quite a lot going on even at the start of the year. I went home to Cebu for the New Year and stayed on for almost two weeks. I had a great time being back home. As usual I spent most of my time staying at home with my family and only went out to see some close friends.

When I got back to Singapore, however, I got sick. And some tasks sort of piled up when I got back to work. There was also my coming trip to Australia which I have not prepared at all except for the air ticket. I had a lot to think about and I couldn't focus well. It took quite a lot of effort to focus on one thing and work on it. Sometimes even at sleep I can't help but think of any one of the things that need to be done. I haven't been in this kind of situation for a long time. I was actually beginning to think that 2011 is just not my year. And honestly, it took a long time for things to settle and allow me some peace of mind.

Holland Noche Buena

2011-03-15T20:13:00.005+11:00

Dec 24-25, 2010

This was my second time to spend Christmas eve in Singapore. Last year I spent it packing my luggage as I was flying out and going home for Christmas. This time I spent it with my flatmates.

One Filipino Christmas tradition is having what we call a Noche Buena on Chrismas eve. If I'm not mistaken it is Spanish for "Good Night". So each and everyone of us in the flat prepared a dish for our feast. I prepared the spaghetti. -_^

Orchard Christmas

2011-03-15T20:11:00.001+11:00

Dec 18, 2010

I think I may have told you this before: one of the things that I miss in the Philippines is how we celebrate Christmas.

As soon as the "-ber" months starts one would certainly feel that everyone is getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Christmas songs and decors can be found almost everywhere. And as soon as Holloween ends... Well, it's definitely Christmas everywhere: in residential areas, shopping malls, business districts, everywhere.

Unfortunately here in Singapore, it's only at a few certain places that one would see Christmas lights and decors hanging, and mostly it is in shopping centers or malls. In this case it's along Orchard Road where one could see that the street is livened up with Christmas lights and decors. And there were a lot of people too. It was my first time to "join" with the crowd.

Actually it started with some of my friends meeting up somewhere for some Christmas shopping, and then I met up with them at Funan. I was planning to buy some gifts but did not find any in that mall so I did my shopping when we got to Orchard.

After treading the length of Orchard Road and battling our way through the crowd at the malls, alas we were exhausted. And the best way to gain back our strength was to eat. \o/ Our table looked like we were having a feast. ^_^

Office food trip

2011-03-15T20:07:00.001+11:00

Dec 15-17, 2010

We had a couple of celebrations around the middle of December.

First was the successful delivery of one of our projects at work. Our project leader brought this beautiful and delicious cake to share with everyone in the team. At first I thought it was just another ordinary meeting, until she took out the cake from the refrigerator in the room.

The second celebration was for our intern. He finally finished his 6-month internship with us. And to celebrate his moving forward the team decided to order some pizza.

It was also a great excuse to stop working. Hey, it was Friday and everybody was ready for the weekend. I'm sure you understand. -_^

Girls' day out

2011-03-15T20:05:00.007+11:00

Dec 11, 2010

This was probably our last "girl's day out" for 2010.

Vera and I met up at Vivo City intending to watch a movie. We changed our minds and so we headed out for Plaza Singapura. I did a little Christmas shopping for my mother and some window shopping on the side. All the while we were catching up on what's been going on with our lives -- sounds heavy but it wasn't really. After some time Vera got hungry so we went to StarBucks for some snacks. It was raining by the time we started having our Starbucks break and it did not stop until we finished so we went back inside the mall for another round of window shopping.

Vera was looking for a set of jewelries she can wear for her coming wedding. We couldn't find anything that suits her from there so we moved on to another mall, Tangs Plaza. She had fun trying on a number of set and I had fun assisting and taking pictures of her wearing the jewelries.

In the end, she did not buy anything. -_^

Weekends

2010-11-16T12:08:00.001+11:00

The first half of November has given me two busy weekends. The enjoyable kind of busy.

First, there was the long weekend which I spent most of the time in the malls with the intention of shopping. Yes. Shopping. After months of denying myself the pleasure of retail therapy, it's finally time to give in to temptations. That Friday we went grocery shopping. On Saturday I followed my friends to the mall where they were buying for winter clothes. Then I bought some toys for my sisters and nephew, and a winter coat for myself. We also went into the Sony shop to check out new cameras. I'm planning to change my old one. It took me some time to decide which I want to buy. In the end, it was my companions who bought the camera. I have decided to wait for the next IT fair to buy that same camera hoping to get a freebie in the form of an extra battery. The following day I went to the library to return some books and borrow new ones. Then I followed my two friends again to another mall. I did some more shopping while waiting for their reply to my text message asking them where they are. Then we had a little adventure of trying to find our way to the Marina bay. They want to practice using the camera and I want to see how the camera performs.

The second weekend was just as enjoyable. Last Friday some of our officemates/friends came over to our apartment and cooked dinner. It seems that two of them are celebrating their anniversary in the company. The food were delicious, and the karaoke after dinner was fun. The festivities lasted until the wee hours of the morning.

By Saturday we finally decided to go shopping again. I call it Christmas shopping. It was actually shopping for Christmas tree and decors. Afterwards we had dinner at The Asian Kitchen. I love their dumplings!

When we got home, we immediately set up the Christmas tree. Ever since I moved here in Singapore I've always missed setting up a Christmas tree or putting up Christmas decors. I have a friend here who had a Christmas tree since last year. I'm no longer envious of their tree 'coz we now have our own. It's beginning to feel more like Christmas!

A Quiet Holloween

2010-11-01T14:51:00.003+11:00

"Trick or treat!", said my friend the mini witch.

Yes, it's Holloween and probably a lot of places and people all over the world is having a celebration of some sort. But not from where I am right now. Bummer...

I like Holloween! The time for creepy crawlers, ghosts, and other monsters to come out. Mwahahahah..!

But that's not what I'm seeing rigt now. All I see are quiet, zombie workers. So lifeless! These people should learn how to live! Oh right, zombies. Boring zombies. Maybe I should ask my mini witch friend here to cast a spell on these poor fellows and make them dance. I miss Holloween parties!

October Best

2010-10-31T02:16:00.004+11:00

October is coming to an end. And what better way to end it than having 3 reasons to smile all day at work - for me, at least.

Friday morning, as I was preparing myself to start with my tasks, somebody came over to my desk and asked for a little help. It seems that he asked help from his friend first, and his friend, whom I worked with in my previous assignment, told him that I'm the one he should ask for help from because "she's the expert in" that area. (Take note of the quote.) I won't elaborate on my supposed expertise because I honestly don't think of myself as an expert of that. Though I have to admit knowing some people actually believed in my knowledge and skills about something to make them think I'm an expert of it is a really good thing. It was a good way to start the day.

Friday noon, I went with my "bowling team" for a celebratory lunch at a dimsum restaurant. A few weeks back our company had a bowling tournament and fortunately our score ranked us 9 out 24 teams that we actually received a S$50 voucher price. So we used our price to pay part of our lunch at this restaurant. The food was good, but the company was even better. It was a very enjoyable 2hour lunch break. ;)

Friday afternoon, back in the office, I was still happy with the events earlier that morning and at lunch when somebody came again to my desk. Let's just say that there was some discussion and that I was able to win that round. And that win made me feel so good I was actually able to do more than I set out to do that afternoon.

It doesn't stop there. I still have some reasons to smile outside of work.

Friday night, after work, my friend and I walked home from the office. It was a good exercise. I stopped by our apartment for a few minutes then went to the community center for the culminating activity of our Korean class. As I mentioned in one of my previous post, this time we are learning how to cook a couple of Korean dishes. They were actually easy to prepare. And they were delicious. Though the first dish was quite spicy for me, still it tasted good. Maybe I'll try to cook it myself next time. We'll see. ;)

Saturday midnight, my housemates and I went to Coffee Bean. They had hot choco while I had hot vanilla. We also ordered 2 cheese cakes and a crème brûlée muffin. It's been quite some time since we last did this. It's one of our ways to unwind, relax, and have time to gossip.

Today, I spent the afternoon with my friend. We went to a couple of places to window shop. We also had dinner together. She also gave me a drawing book and a small cork board. As always our time was spent mostly talking and laughing. I really had a good time.

And now, just before I started writing this post, I called (via Skype) home and talked to my parents, sisters, and nephew. It's good to see them and hear their stories. I can hardly wait to go home for the holidays again. Just 2 more months to go!

Sweet September

2010-10-22T17:08:00.002+11:00

I started September with a dinner with my college friends. This is the 1st time since a long time that we three are together again. I can't even remember the last time we were together.

Anyway, Hanna - the lady at the right - came for a short vacation. She specifically wanted us to meetup, even just for dinner. And considering her tight schedule, dinner on the night she has to fly back to Manila is the only time we had.

I contacted Rachel - the lady in the middle - and told her about the dinner plans. Good thing she had the time to spare from her busy work schedule.

There was a lot of cathching up, and a lot of food. And it was all good. One thing I noticed, though. This time they have long hair when they used to usually wear it short. Now I'm the one sporting the short do.

Speaking of long hair. I noticed that all of my friends who are getting married are wearing their hair long. The better to style their hair during the wedding, they say.

Now this leads me to a wedding I attended in Cebu. Nope, not my wedding - remember, I'm wearing my hair short right now.

Last September 22, my friend/housemate/officemate got married in Cebu. For a week our house was devoid of human presence. We all went back to Cebu for the wedding. It was my 2nd time this year to go home - more than I usually do. I didn't do much this visit. I simply went home to attend the wedding, spend time with my family, and eat lots of Filipino food.

Writing this post is making me miss a couple of things: my long hair and Filipino food. There's really nothing I can do about it now though, but wait.

August Rush

2010-10-22T13:38:00.010+11:00

Hello! It's nice to see you again. It's been a while since I last talked to you - 2 months worth of 'while'.

I feel like I should have a lot of stuff to tell you, and yet it doesn't seem like there's actually that many to tell. Sound confusing? Well, my mind is also somewhat confused now. Let me gather my facts and thoughts...

The month of August went by so fast. There wasn't much to tell about. But here's a quick run through to the few events that happened.

@ work: I was finally assigned back to my original project team. No more overtime. Yey! \o/

Unfortunately, somebody else left. We (the team) had a farewell lunch with him and talked about stuff. It now reminds me of the time when we all went for dinner and a movie. That was a good night with the team.

@ work: We had a celebratory dinner for the successful release of a project - the one I just left. Breek's Restaurant at Harour Front served us good food, and gigantic deserts. I was so full by the time we finished.

@ home: I signed up for the 2nd term of the basic Korean class at our community center. The class is again held every Friday night for 1.5 hours. On our first night, just before we ended the class, we were taught how to play one of their traditional games and one card game. On our second night we started the class with one of their famous pop songs. The teacher asked us to catch as many Korean words (that we recognize) as we can from the lyrics. We are nearing the end of this term. I'm looking forward to our last night where instead of dining out, we'll be cooking Korean food. And eating them, of course.

So there you have it. My August at a quick glance. I'll have my September in another post. See ya!

Lightning Up

2010-08-25T22:06:00.002+10:00

Work has been taking up most of my time for the past months. The only break I was able to take was my six-day vacation in Cebu. The moment I got back in Singapore it was busy business as usual.

After a really long time, it's good to be home early. Unfortunately I'm home alone tonight. It seems all my housemates are working overtime tonight.

Anyway, I'm cooking my own dinner tonight. While waiting for the rice to cook, I was thinking of what I can share with you here. That's when I saw lightning forming from afar.

It was SO cool! I like watching nature do its thing, like lightning. I did not hear any thunder so maybe it won't rain. Would you believe if I tell you that watching those lightnings forming in the sky somehow relaxed me? It did. -_^

Here are some of the photos I took trying to catch the lightning.

Surprise!

2010-07-21T10:49:00.005+10:00

I was supposed to sleep early last night. I've done my evening ritual and was ready for bed. I was checking for a message from my sister when I heard someone knocking on my bedroom door. I called for whoever it was that the door is unlocked while checking for the time. When I saw it was a few minutes past midnight I realized what they were up to, but it was too late.

There they were standing by my door with Cyt holding the cake up while dancing! Too bad I wasn't fast enough to catch it on video. But we did took a lot of photos with the cake. -_^

It was already very late when we finished eating, drinking, talking, laughing, and all the while picture taking. And as a result, we all woke up late this morning and were late for work! lol...

Anyway, it was sweet and thoughtful of my housemates and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. And thank you to those who have sent their greetings. :)

'Team' Building

2010-07-21T05:00:00.003+10:00

July 16, 2010

We had our annual R&D team building day last Friday at Labrador Park. This time I'm not in the committee so I was able to really participate in the games and activities. I was also in the light green team with 11 other people from different project teams all, except for two, of whom I've never met before.

The day started with a very fine weather, then the clouds started to grow dark as we were heading to the venue. And just as we were about to begin, the rain started pouring. Everybody ran to the nearest gazebo for shelter. It was kind of fun squeezing in a small place and still trying to pose for photos. We were actually there for quite some time before we transferred to another area in the park with a bigger shelter. Once we got settled.. well.. The fun and games began. Even though we did not place in the top 4 (there were 14 teams), we still had fun.

I was so tired that when I got home I went directly to bed for a nap. It was already dinner time when I woke up, so I guess it wasn't just a nap afterall. We, housemates, initially planned to dine out. But I suggested to just order for delivery as I was feeling too lazy to go out for dinner. We called for 2 pizzas, some chicken wings and cinnamon sticks. Dinner arrived just in time. This was our 'team' building activity in the apartment. We love good food. Happy eating, housemates!

Korean Dinner

2010-07-13T12:39:00.001+10:00

Have I told you that I was taking a Korean class at our community center? Well, if not then I have been remiss.

The course took 13 sessions of 1.5 hours per session. The class was only once a week, every Friday night. A very good reason to leave the office early on a Friday. -_^

We were taught how to read and write in Korean. That's the easy part. The diffucult part is the speaking, and memorizing their vocabulary and expressions. But it was fun!

We closed our 1st term with a dinner at an authentic Korean restaurant near our place. I like Korean food, except for the spicy ones. It was the first time that I got to eat a full course Korean meal. Yumm!

Go Green

2010-07-09T01:12:00.002+10:00

I had an interesting night tonight. I met up with my friends Rochie and Vera at the Marriott Hotel's restaurant for a buffet dinner.

Vera introduced us to her fiancé who arrived here in Singapore yesterday. Rochie and I got a very nice surprise. Vera gave us a gift along with a "save the date" invite for their wedding this coming December. And her wedding motif is green.

Thought bubble: Another green. I also need a light green shirt for next week's team building activity.

No Caffein

2010-07-03T20:35:00.001+10:00

I'm sick. Since yesterday. And yes, to my roommate's delight, I finally got to use one of my sick leaves.

Here's what happened: Wednesday night I went to bed around 11PM after calling home and since I had a very busy day I expected to fall asleep right away as I was very tired. But I had trouble falling into sleep. I also felt my heart beating fast. At around 1:30AM I got up to drink a glass of water and concentrated on relaxing my heart. It worked and my heartbeat returned to normal. Still, it wasn't until past 3AM that I got to sleep and I woke up at 8AM so that means I was only able to get around 5 hours of sleep tops. Thursday night I tried to sleep early, too. I was already on bed before 10PM. It wasn't until around 2AM that I finally got to sleep.

The following morning I woke up with a headache. I thought it would just go away. I didn't think of taking the day off since I find it troublesome to go to the doctor and ask for a medical certificate. Unlike in the Philippines, or at least in my previous companies there, where you can just call your boss or HR personnel to tell them that you're sick and taking the day off. Here you need to have a MC to be able to get the day off.

Anyway, as the morning progressed so did my headache. After having lunch I finally gave in and went to see the doctor. I told him what I just related here. He gave me some medicines and a MC so I could take the rest of the day off. He also forbade me from eating chocolates, drinking coffee, Coke, and iced tea.

I'm not really a coffee drinker, nor am I a chocolate person. I do drink Coke, but not as much as iced tea. So now it looks like I'll have to do with juices and water. No caffein for me.

Wet Wednesday

2010-06-16T13:44:00.002+10:00

It has been raining for the past two mornings, but today the rain did not stop in the time that I expected it to. Yesterday the rain stopped just as we were leaving our flat to go to the office. But today, the rain seems to have no plans of stopping.

This is the view I got from our living room window. I was waiting for my roommate to finish her shower and thought of watching mother Earth taking a shower of her own. Then right after I took this photo I saw lightning from a distance, and the thunder followed. I guess now that that was a sign that the rain isn't stopping anytime soon. It is still raining as I am writing this post.

I really hope it stops by lunch time. I need to go somewhere important.

Thank You Token

2010-06-02T21:35:00.003+10:00

I told you yesterday that I just came back from a 6-day vacation in Cebu. We have delicious fresh mangoes there. And summer is the best time for mangoes.

More than a month ago, my officemate asked me to bring her some mangoes from Cebu. She said she was able to eat some before and would like to have some again.

So when my friend came for a business trip here last month I asked him to bring some mangoes (he brought four) for me and I gave one to my officemate. This time I was also able to bring four mangoes (I could fit only four in the box and I was travelling very light). I gave her one mango and gave another one to our pregnant teammate.

I'm guessing she liked the mango very much. This afternoon she gave a thank you token: cheese cake from Starbucks. Yum! ^_^

Short Summer in Cebu

2010-06-02T01:56:00.005+10:00

Summer just ended. Good thing I was able to avail of it even for only a few days.

In case you did not notice, I've been away from here for almost 2 months now. I've been really busy at work I couldn't find the energy to write a post. I was even afraid my boss would tell me at the last minute that I couldn't go on vacation as planned. Good thing I was still allowed to go on vacation despite our tight schedule.

Everytime I go back to Cebu for a break I would always make time to meet my friends, and of course spend most of my time with my family. The 6-day vacation I just had was no different. Well, except for the fact that I was able to do and eat more this time than my previous 2-3-week visits.

And the second best thing for this visit is that I was able to go swimming in the clear blue sea of Cebu. \o/

Good Friday @ 25-413

2010-04-02T22:08:00.001+11:00

It's an unusual Good Friday for me this year.

Back in the Philippines, we usually spend this day either staying at home with no heavy activity, or go to my mother's hometown for a vacation.

Today, we spent the day cleaning the entire flat. Everybody did their share of cleaning. And after spending about five hours on it, we all got hungry and ordered online for food.

Don't get me wrong. We know what this day is all about. And we all practice our faith.