When it rains, it pours

Monday, June 26
7:00AM - arrive in Manila from Baguio
9:00 - Arrive at the office. I'm late!
There's supposed to be a meeting in the morning but no confirmed time so I don't attend.

4:00PM - there's a plenary session but we did not attend because we're having problems with our event on Wednesday.
5:00 - release the news to sales about the Wednesday event changes
5:30 - get called to the Principal's Office to explain what happened.
6:30 - haul office things to pad for ingress
9:00 - sleep with slight fever.

Tuesday, June 27
4:00AM - wake up groggily
5:00 - ingress at hotel for event with Pauline
6:30 - go back to apartment to haul things to pad
8:00 - take a ride back to pad; couldn't help but take a nap at the apartment
9:00 - Pauline informs me that she's the only one at the booth; I rush to get changed
9:30 - in the hotel at last
11:45 - writing this post at the booth via 3G. Nice.

2:00PM - Return to office to prepare things for tomorrow's event.
2:00PM onwards - who knows what will happen next?

Wednesday, June 28
Morning: who knows what will happen next?
Afternoon: The much-anticipated event ingress
5:00PM - start to meet and greet guests
7:15PM - finally relax. I wish.

Thursday, June 29
8:00AM - another event until 12 Noon!
2:00PM - Pauline goes to another event.

Friday - sleep day. I WISH.

Jo-Lo's First Birthday!

Oh wow. I'm having a most hectic week in Manila. Our company is a sponsor to the Call Center Conference happening at Edsa Shangri-La. We had our ingress last Monday, from 8PM til 6AM! I only had a half hour sleep, slouched on one of the chairs in our booth. Then I had to man the booth for Tuesday and Wednesday (along with some help from colleagues who drop by, and with Pauline of course) and go back and forth the office and the trade show floor for some needed items. But of course, you also have to always show a smiling face and alertly entertain guests. Ah well ... one of the "perks" being in Marketing I guess.

Enough about that. I'm here to share with you some photos of last weekend's big event: Jo-Lo's first birthday! I'm selecting some photos for this blog, then feel free to follow the link after this post to visit other blogs for more photos!

Jo-Lo had clowns and superhero-themed cake on his birthday! The clowns performed tricks and the kids had games as well.
Friends from Manila took time out from their busy schedules to celebrate the day with us.

Some of the grown-ups participated in a relay game.
Nearing the end of the party, the kids lined up to claim their goody bags.
Ummm... okay, so the "bigger kids" got into the act as well. :-)
Guests wrote their greetings on the birthday banner before leaving. Thanks again everyone!

View more photos at baby Jo-Lo's Blog!

Happy First Birthday, Jo-Lo!

Jo-Lo's celebrating his first birthday in Baguio City this coming Sunday! Yipee!

Settling down

All my things were hauled in a truck last Saturday night enroute to Baguio City. My wife had rented a bigger place for us and was waiting to receive the furniture, appliances, and all my toys!

We arrived at 8 in the morning. Whew! I rode in the truck as well and I was so sleepy that I managed to drift in and out of consciousness while the driver sped away into the morning light. Of course it made me all the more dizzy from lack of sleep but there was work to be done.

We made our way through Kennon Road. It was my first time to ride a truck so I was treated to the nice mountainside view in the early morning.
Upon arriving we unloaded all the things into the house. I took a nap before lunchtime then started unpacking well into the night. There wasn't much space for my toys so I re-packed most of them for storage.

Baby Jo-Lo loves the new place. He loves running to and fro in his walker, stopping every now and then to stare at the TV screen.

I like the way the living room is turning out. We still need to drill holes on the wall to hang our heavy posters but things are looking great! I look forward to coming home during weekends to unwind.

Moving away

The past week til yesterday were very busy days. For I was moving away. Most of my things were being brought up to Baguio so my wife and Jo-Lo can make better use of them. I will be left with my bare necessities and move to a smaller place. Which is just ok for me. Staying in a two-floor apartment by my lonesome was too much, considering I simply stay there to sleep (and I even stay in the living room for that) or do my laundry. And I'm also out most of weekends.

I was sifting through the huge pile of papers that I have accumulated through the years when a couple of invitation cards caught my attention. It was our house blessing from September 27, 1997. Wow, talk about travel through time! I still remember that day. We had a priest come over to do the blessing. We had very little furniture then but we had a few friends over and our landlord and their two kids.

So... it's been a little over 8 years that I have stayed in that house. So many memories, some favorites captured in photos that adorn the living room, the walls, the bedroom.

It not only a horde of photo frames that I have collected over the years. There's mugs and movie-themed cups ranging from breakables to plastics. Then there's the fascination with throw pillows which I saw in bars in Boracay the first time my wife and I went there. And the toys, some of which are not yet opened. And magazines! Questor! Popular Science! The old Guide! It took me quite a while to pack all these, being careful that they do not get damaged on its way to its new home.

This is my astromech droid collection, namely the Artoo unit. One of these was a plastic model that you have to paint yourself. I did that yeaaars ago.

Then there's the robot collection. The 70s Voltes V, a couple of die-cast Mazinger Zs, Transformers, Gundams. The ones in the photo below will stay with me, along with the 80s Macross toys. Can't part with them :-).

M&Ms! A more recent collection from the late 90s. Those are going to Baguio. They're too bulky and might not fit in the smaller space I'm moving to.

This is a result of one of my compulsive buys. It's a coin bank which adorned the living room. I like this figure a lot! But it has to move too.

Loads of casette tapes from the early 90s! I couldn't part with them as well so I'm bringing some with me.

This is a teflon frying pan that's been deprived of teflon.

I tend to keep a lot of things, even when they're no longer useful. So I was amused to find these boxes hidden in different places. Seven phones in seven years! Wow. Not pictured is the old Nokia 2110 the 5110, and a Motorola V-series phone that cost only 2,000.00. Most of these phones were issued by our office. So make that 10 phones in 10 years. I was a gadget freak when I was still able to afford it, but I have realized that I really do not need two phones at one time so I have cut down a couple of years ago.

It's not all personal possessions, of course. I have so many stories from this apartment. I hope the new tenants will like the place as much as I did. And I hope my family will take good care of my accumulated things. Jo-Lo, you get to buy your own toys, ok?

For a new year's day

As far as I know, I'm the only one here in the office with a coin bank on the desk. It comes pretty handy actually, what with a load of coins in your pocket given as change from the many stores visited during the day.

I was delightfully surprised to learn that Cruise also has a coin bank on his table. And his is nice! When you reach a certain level, you get to know approximately how much is already in the "bank". I thought it was a cool blog topic and decided to post mine too. Thanks for the idea, Cruise!

Mine looks like a mailbox. You insert the coins in the slot supposedly for the letters. So in there goes my 5- and ten-peso coins.

And what to do with the coins I've saved? Nope, it's not for a rainy day. It's for New Year's Day!

We have this fun custom that at the strike of twelve, everybody would gather at the living room, waiting in excited anticipation. our Nanay would show up shortly and throw coins into the living room, and then into the rooms of the house. It's a mad scramble for the coins! Sometimes we would pick up paper bills as well. What fun! We'd ignore the 25-centavo and lower coins and go for the 5's and 10's.

I have some photos of this event. I will post it in a future article.

Until then, happy weekend everyone!

Morning musings

So there I was, inside a Kia taxi along Buendia. Traffic was at its peak. Thank goodness the airconditioning was better than most, and kept me quite comfortable at the back seat.

I have a million things to do at work but I can't think properly. Yes, I am a late night person, plus add the fact that I have just arrived a couple of hours ago from Baguio City.

How long was it since I felt the cold Baguio air? Just twenty-four hours ago, I woke up to home-cooked breakfast, played a bit with baby Jo-Lo who seems to be getting bigger and boisterious by the day. Then I dressed up and made my rounds in the city for Jo-Lo's first birthday preparations. And I still had time to browse for furnitures, meet my wife after work, stroll in the mall and watch a movie, and play with Jo-Lo some more.

And there I was, back in Manila, in the middle of traffic, and as I glanced at the time on my phone I was surprised that it was already past 9. Late again. Time flies so fast in the metropolis.

The Dennis Conspiracy

What a strange coincidence it was when we went to Davao. I call it, the Dennis Conspiracy!

Is there a higher being that makes coincidences extra strange? Or I've watched too many Twilight Zone episodes? Or is it the durian effect?

The Support Engineer who went with us to Davao was Dennis. Nothing out of the ordinary actually, until we had dinner at Em's house. We learned that her older brother's name is Dennis.

Why, my older brother's name is Dennis too. Hold on ... Chu's older brother is also a Dennis!


Had any strange name coincidences lately?
(twilight zone background music fading in the distance)
Happy weekend everyone!