fitness first

My husband likes to invest in gym equipment ever since we got married. Just after we got married he bought a home gym that took up a huge amount of space in our living room and later on in the bedroom. When we moved to our own home he then bought a stationary bike, which, unfortunately, is also gathering a lot of dust particles in our room. We don't have a gym room so the stuff is parked in our bedroom, with the bed being in between the bike and the gym. Uncanny. I'm more inclined to think that I want us to have a much, much smaller fitness essentials, such as a Kettlebell, which won't take up so much space in our home. Of course, it not like I want or need it now, but for those thinking about getting them a home gym, consider getting something small and light.

looking handsome

One of the things I don't find in my husband's wardrobe is a tuxedo shirt, and a coat. I would love to see him in one, unfortunately there are not much opportunities to get to wear them since he is not working for a company that requires it. And besides, working in a tuxedo and shirt in a tropical country like ours would be horrible, I can just imagine that one would be perspiring the whole day wearing that one. Might as well ask the ladies to come in fashionable trench coats. But seriously, had there been an occasion that would call for it, I would surely pursuade hubby to get one for himself, though he won't wear it often, its a good investment to keep for occasions that would require him to be majorly handsome! :-p

Missing Coffee

One of the things I miss about working for a consumer company that has coffee as its main brand is definitely the free coffee high I can get anytime I want. I hardly ever went to a coffee shop simply because all I had to do was to go to the pantry and push a few buttons to get my favorite cup of coffee. Of course it does not discount the fact that I also want to be pampered sometimes with a really good cup of coffee, one that came out of a Capresso machine. Brewed coffee is much too different from the usual instant coffee, the taste is much more bitter, giving you a much more intense coffee high. Now, when I get my own office this is one thing I am sure to get for myself. Nothing like a good cup of coffee for that extra energy boost.

online selling

Now that i am finally a free (ergo: jobless) lancer, I have to find ways to earn online without having to burn my brains out. One way is to do paid posting, another way is to do free online auctions, by selling some unused but good enough stuff. I just need to plot some of the stuff I can still sell, so that means cleaning up the closets again. Sometimes the free online auctions are also a venue to just be able to put up your own online store. of course, that's if it doesn't require huge costs just to be able to post. I'm going to try my hand on this online auction thing really soon, for now I'd have to search my deepest closets for the stuff I can get money out of.

My newfound friends

Last Friday, June 26, was my last day at Selecta. My officemates gave me a goodbye dinner at Eastwood (the first time I went back there since my Baby shower, which, if you can imagine, was in April 2007!). It was a really nice dinner, the first time I really went out since I quit Nestle, and I could really say I had fun chatting with them (despite the fact that most of them were fresh-grad-young, if you know what I mean. After dinner, they gave me a farewell gift, which was a scrapbook signed by them and several of the people I had interacted with over the past 3 months. Awwww....
It was really touching hearing what they had to say, how they had thought I looked tough the first day, but over time they thought I was a cool boss and really nice to be with. ahhheeem. lol. Seriously, it makes me feel good that at least in the short time that I led them (sort of...) they felt I did well. Even my ex-boss felt I was bright... :-p
On one side, I really felt sad for having to leave such nice colleagues behind. The people I've worked with (Production, RND, QA) have all been pleasant and gentle, seeing that I was not entirely from the Operations point of view, but they understood. The PPIC pics have all been supportive and loving, and I will keep a lot of happy memories of my stay there. Its sad I couldn't prolong the stay because I also have my own plans. But they will forever play a big part of my life.
I'm thankful for having been a part of this team.

Thanks Guys! I'll cherish the happy times we had, however short it was. :-) Good luck to all of you in your careers! See you soon, I hope!

PS. Pic background shows a replica of Optimus Price. So cool! I hope they can do a cute (and cheap) model toy of the transformers, even the car version of Optimus would be ok for me.

Realizations

sometimes it takes not so good experiences for us to realize the things we want in life. In my case the past 4 months have been humbling, and it made me realize, finally, what I actually want to do with my life. Even if its scary and is not a simple feat, I believe that I will actually feel better doing this that trying forever to fit into a corporate setting.

Yesterday I was chatting with a former supplier in my previous work, and entrepreneur who happened to make it big by starting young. I know that he was capable and hardworking and for sure he really made it there by sheer hard work. So we were chatting about what I wanted to do and he related to me his story of how he started out by sending 20 proposals a day coming from the yellow pages, to be able to network his own PR company. Which got me to thinking about what I really want to do, and how lucky I am over others that I also have a network working for me, and I believe that I am wise and smart enough to do this business.

After all, I fell in love with events management the day I started handling it. I always told me friends that this is something I wanted to do, and something I had passion for. The fact that I will be doing this full time just excites me. I'm planning to start small of course, small events first and learn the business. Get contacts. After I've gained enough experience I plan to venture into the more professional side of it, hopefully get into some good companies with upcoming events. Who knows maybe soon I can have clients that are the calibre of Nestle. We can never tell of course, but its where I want to be in the future.

Isn't that fun?

Jessica's 2nd Birthday: Supplier Ratings

Ok, this is more than a month overdue (its 1 month and a day overdue, to be exact), and I know I owe myself to have to make this review for the sake of the readers, friends, and most of all, myself!

So, here it goes.

The idea for a birthday party for Jess' 2nd birthday came to mind because I wanted to celebrate the two years that was virtually hassle free for our family. Jessica never got really sick, never got hospitalized, never gave me reason to feel sorry for myself, and constantly made us proud becuase she is smart, cute and really really sweet. With that, I felt I wanted to reward her for the two years of love she gave to our lives. But of course, I was on a budget and wasn't ready to spend as much as I had the first year. That would be too much. I also decided it was a small celebration only at our house, so it need not be grand. But of course, I wanted to make it special and presentable.

Theme: Winnie the Pooh party.

Food: I didn't get a caterer. I inquired but felt it was too much to spend. So instead I planned to cook it all myself, which I didn't end up doing of course, because I might drop dead tired had I tried. So it was a mixture of bought and cooked stuff.
Spaghetti - I cooked (Rating: 5+++ (highest of course))
Pancit Bihon - Bought at Crisgard (new discovery). It was a really good one. A lot of people tried it and the serving was quite big, I had one whole bilao unserved after the party because there was too much food already (pasta + pancit = lot of food). Rating: 5
Barbeque - Bought from my party balloons supplier. It tasted good, as expected of course. No regrets and no bad experience. Nothing extraordinary about it though. Rating: 4
Chicken Lollipops - Prepared by me, cooked by Mom and Sisters. This one I wasn't able to do anymore. Everything was at a rush already and I am so very glad they took this in for me. WheW! Rating: 5+++
Crispy pata - I cooked. I could not afford lechon, so I figured this would work. I'm always happy about cooking this because I feel its one of my best dishes. hehe. Rating: 5+++
Dessert: Pichy-pichy by Arni-Dadings. Love it and its hassle free: Rating: 4
Dessert: Ice Cream sticks and Pinipig Sticks from Selecta: Love it also, and again, hassle free. Rating: 5.
Dessert: Gulaman Jelly from tabios Side - another addition to the menu I didn't expect, but definitely thankful for. Rating: 5
Drinks: Softdrinks and Nestea Iced Tea. No need to rate. :-)
Overall, I think the food I prepared was sufficient. And I got to use my Chafing dishes as well, so its an added point for presentation.

Decors and Tables and Chairs: I found their number on a tree just around the corner from our house, so I called them up and good thing there were no issues with them. I initially wanted to get it from a N@wie friend but it just didn't fit the budget so I decided on a cheaper alternative for now. I ordered 50 chairs and 4 round tables, and 5 square tables. Hassle free. And I also ordered the balloons from them and as a last minute order, I got their pabitin (nothing hanging yet) and barbeque. I would definitely get them again if there was another affair! Rating: 5++

Emcee/Host/Clown/Magician: The life of the party came at a really reasonable price. Which makes me happy. Got them from the Party favors supplier and I really am happy with the results. They were a typical party host. Nothing to grand or special, but at least they made the audience laugh and the kids happy. And Jess was more than willing to pose with them after the show. Rating: 5

Cake: c/o Goldilocks. Because they had a Winnie the Pooh theme. Need I say more? Rating: 4 (Met expectations)

Costume: c/o Disney costumes. Found a terribly cure Winnie the Pooh costume in SM Marikina and I just couldn't resist not buying it. So there. The happiness of seeing Jessica sooo happy wearing it was priceless though. Rating: 5++++

Giveaways: Divi Mall. DIY. Need I say more. Rating: 5+++

Overall I'd say the party was a huge success. And I thank those who helped me though it. I know Jess might not remember it too well, but seeing how happy she is reward enough for any mom.

got my netbook back

Whew! I'm so happy I finally have my netbook up and running. It has been a frustrating month what with having to recover and recover all over my files because it just keeps crashing. Apparently something was wrong with the harddrive and it was causing all the blue screen terrors. We brought it several times to where the store that sold it (Octagon). First we brought it to Megamall branch. They used the recovery disk and I lost all my files the first time. Then it crashed. I built my own removable cd rom to recover it. same thing. I used someone else's external drive (the offices' equipment). Still crashed. Took it to the Sta. Lucia branch. It still crashed after a week. Upon checking there were a lot of bad sectors in the HD, must be the one causing those crashes. We went back to the Sta Lucia branch and they advised us to go directly to the distibutor for faster service, since if we course it through them it will take around 3 weeks. And so I did. Brought it last Saturday to the distributor, I called up in the morning and they informed me that its ready for pick-up, and they replaced the hard disk. Yey! So happy about that. I went there during lunch and I have it back now. Whew. It was a struggle, but I'm happy its fixed. I hope. I'll be placing it on trial mode for a couple more days but hopefully all will be fine now. In as much as I don't spend too much time on the PC at home anymore, its been a hassle using the bigger laptop. hehe... I still love this one because its just too easy to carry around. And when we go to Singapore next month, I'll definitely be glad I'll be carrying this one around instead of a really bulky thing.

Going on vacations

Got the news that my SIL will be going to Turkey this June. They live in London right now, and being newly married and still in their honeymoon stage, its a good thing for them to be travelling all around, while there's no baby yet. They might even go to the US next year. For us, vacations have now become a luxury what with the baby and having to pay for the house and such. Been looking at online reservations in Westgate and it really is enticing. But one has to consider the sheer expense of vacations. So I guess that is something on hold for a while till we're more liquid financially.

welcome me back

hey there!!!!! welcome me back! I'm so sorry for the really long months that I was not able to blog (ok fine, that was more than 3 months!). life has been busy and there have been so many changes all around. moved to a new job, new adjustments, jessica had her birthday, and now new stuff are keeping me quite busy.
so what's new? I have a whole LOT of catching up to do, as I'm sure you would know. pretty much everything in my life is turned upside down at the moment, but there's a lot of things that I am happy and grateful for. and that will never change. Making lots of plans, and hopefully these will materialize soon and reap its benefits for the hard work.
i'll write a more intense blog entry about the things going on in my life, just need to do some cleaning up of thoughts. :-) I do miss blogging. I wish I had more time and energy to do this and release my thoughts.