I wonder what she's thinking about

Christine Joan at a week old

Look what the stork brought us!

This week is a momentous one for my family, because last Tuesday our daughter was born.  It certainly is another one of life's surprises.  Three years ago I did not think I'd be living in another country, but here we are.  One year ago I never would have thought we'd be new parents again, but here we are.  I hope the next surprise will be at the Lotto!

My wife delivered our second child at the Wellington Hospital, and as a C-section patient she stayed there til today (Saturday).  I have been at the hospital during those days.  If we were permitted to sleep there, I would have done so too.  But overall the hospital personnel have done a wonderful job at looking after my wife and child.  The facilities are great too.  A big THANK YOU to the wonderful staff at Wellington Hospital!

PAG-IBIG Fund now mandatory for OFWs

I learned that Overseas Filipino Workers are now required to pay P100 monthly to their PAG-IBIG Fund.  This bit of news reminded me of the time my wife and I withdrew our PAG-IBIG Fund early this year because we have migrated to a new country.  Even as employees in the Philippines, we did not find much value as PAG-IBIG Fund members.  SSS was ok because we were able to take out a loan, but the primary service we knew of PAG-IBIG is that it can be used for a housing loan.  But with salaries just enough to get by every month, there wasn't really much left to pay for a housing loan.  So we were comforting ourselves with the fact that the company we work for sets aside money for our PAG-IBIG Fund which we can use someday.

My kind of tagging

"Tagging" is the local term in New Zealand for vandalism.  This is a prevalent problem here, and a number of measures have been taken to curb this, such as imposing an age limit to those who buy spray paint, and meting punishment to those caught in the act.

There is, however, another form of tagging that's eliciting more positive than negative responses, and it involves yarn.  They call it graffiti knitting.  Instead of defacing public property with paint spray (and getting the general ire of the public), graffiti knitting is given a lot more thought to how the knitted pattern is made and placed.  In a sense it's still defacing public property, but in a cute and fun sort of way.

How to sponsor a visitor to New Zealand

We have recently received word that my mother-in-law's Visitor Visa has been approved.  If you are also thinking of sponsoring your relative based in the Philippines for a visit here in New Zealand and you are looking for information, I hope our experience will be of some use to you.

What we did was we accomplished the papers here in Wellington, then had these papers delivered to my mother-in-law, who then affixed her ID photo and signature where applicable and then sent these off to the Manila Branch of NZ Immigration.  There is a provision in the Application Form for this where you declare that you are assisting the applicant in filling out the documents, so this is legal.

Undercover Boss' Baja Fresh Episode: inspiring

One of my favourite TV shows currently is Undercover Boss where a top management personnel (usually the CEO or General Manager) works with the ranks disguised as a trainee.  All the episodes I have seen so far have been great, but this one tops the list so far and has prompted me to blog about it.

KASAGIP Friendship Meeting, 25 June

KASAGIP Charitable Trust is inviting Filipinos in the Wellington region to attend their Friendship Meeting, the aim of which is to organise volunteer efforts towards helping fellow migrants, especially the new arrivals, to make new friends and provide assistance.  If you are new to the country, you are most welcome to join us.

This free event will be on

25 June 2011
at the Johnsonville Community Centre
at 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Learn more about KASAGIP Charitable Trust at their website.

There goes Wellywood

The proposed Wellywood sign has had its share of the limelight for the past few weeks.  Well, it had actually been in the drawing board since last year, but construction was held off (also slated for June).  And when announced that it was pushing through this year, it had received yet again a public outcry, with more people opposing than in favour of it.

Personally I have been watching the events unfold from the sidelines, neither favouring nor opposing the sign.  Hollywood isn't making it easy either.  But with the airport now holding off on the construction and is looking for alternatives, perhaps they might look at something that will be a more unique identifier for the successful Wellington-based film industry.