Holy Working Week

yeah... I spent holy week here in Manila for the first time! due to some reasons (hmmm?!) but primarily, it's all about my work!!! (what's new?!)... I'm on duty the whole week along with my beloved teammates... atleast, I've been in the metropolis when everyone else is on vacation, the best part of it is that NO bumper-to-bumper scenarios on the road including south expressway (expressway pero grabe nmn ang traffic?!) and ayala ave., sarap magdrive at ambilis makapunta sa pupuntahan!...

but after whole (holy) week of working and working and working, it was sooooo nice that a good soul treated me at The SPA for a massage! well-spent time and really enjoyed it! :) thanks a lot! :) ansaya-saya! :)

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grabe panata ko nung good Friday! it was the first time that I joined a procession that lasted for almost 3 hours!!! pero oks lang nmn, it's all about sacrifice to observe the lenten season :)

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on Holy Tuesday, got caught by a police at 11pm... take note! di lang huli kundi hinabol ng patrol car along ayala avenue! as usual, ang violation e NO U-TURN and DISOBEDIENCE TO A POLICE OFFICER (damn it!)... they were getting my license and should get it back after paying 2500 pesos and after attending 3-days of seminar. (whatever!)...

after some "negotiations", the policeman accepted the 500 pesos we've been offering him as a suhol (after consultation with his team leader, owwsss?!)... asus! dun din lang kakahantungan e... :)

what I can say to Maie after this incident? - "hindi ka nag-iisa!" same violation and scenario kasi kami: same U-TURN slot (infront of Makati Police Station) and didn't notice that policemen were running after us... haha!

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Gina was admitted to one of the hospitals in Dagupan last week due to gastro problems... kawawa nmn... good thing! she's feeling better now after some consultations in St. Luke this week... :)

I Got Tagged as well!

I got tagged by Alvin as well... hehe. At first, I didn’t understand what he meant that he tagged me. It took him a while explaining this thing, it turned out na chain survey lang pala sa blog! Haha. Sorry ha, bago-bago pa lang kasi e...

I told him that I'll just be doing it tomorrow kasi nga nagloloko connection ko (damn smart WIFI! I'm really annoyed and frustrated of their slow response to my complaints)... but to my big surprise, it's working kaya 'eto... sagutan ko lang 'to kesa naman work ulit! (I need a rest! haha. HP officemates - shhhhh please)

Here are my answers and I just hope Mia, Mich, Leslie and Jan will answer this survey thing and will then say "I Got Tagged" (ewan ko lang ha kundi magtatampo tlga ako!):

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Jr. Accountant (mom's assistant from highschool until college, taga-gawa ng balance sheets & Income statements)
2. Encoder (of my mom again, taga-gawa ng invitation para sa church affairs. hehe)
3. Global Application Owner ng COPA Financials (the reason why I needed to take stresstabs! haha)
4. Operations Duty Manager (FOREVER!!!)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Air Force One (sarap ulit-ulitin, parang walang katapusan!)
2. Ice Age (feeling bata! it was the last movie I've watch na wala akong ginawa kundi tumawa and i-enjoy! di ko kasi kelangan mag-isip. haha)
3. The Notebook (may original DVD at VCD ako nito! OVER!!!)
4. Kailangan Kita (baduy na kung baduy! maganda naman cinematography!)

Four places you have lived in:
1. Candon City, Ilocos Sur (born & studied until highschool)
2. Baguio City (where I took my college education)
3. Sta. Rosa, Laguna (been staying here for 3 years)
4. Sucat (living with cousins every summer break)

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Amazing Race (of course!)
2. Fear Factor (kaaliw lang)
3. Pinoy Big Brother (curious nung una at syempre kapamilya to!)
4. Myx Hit Chart (para alam kung ano i-download sa limewire)

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Boracay
2. Cebu
3. Puerto Galera (cocobeach!!!)
4. Vigan

Four websites I visit daily:
1. http://www.friendster.com/ (libangan!)
2. http://www.inq7.net/ (news)
3. http://www.atptennis.com/ and http://www.wtatour.com/ (tennis)
4. http://asiaaid/virtualboard (work! hahaha)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Sweet, Sour & Spicy Spaghetti (yung luto ko!)
2. Buko Pandan
3. French Fries sa McDO plus Sundae/McFlurry
4. Buffalo Wings

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. New York
2. Paris
3. Disneyland!!!
4. right beside someone that I truly love and the person who makes me happy (corny ba?! wala na ko maisip e!)

Four friends who I have tagged that I think will respond (full name ba?!):
1. Michelle Gurrea
2. Mia Diola
3. Jan San Jose
4. Leslie Wong

that's all for now! :)

Quotable Quotes

Why do good things come to an end?...

"People come into our lives and quickly go, some stay for a while, touch are hearts and we will never be the same again..."

Q1's top events CONCLUDED!

this will the 3rd and last part for my blog chain of Q1 experiences...

the month started with BI/DW teambuilding in Balay Indang, Cavite last March 3-4... few kilometers from Tagaytay City! ganda ng place as in! pang retreat tlga and somehow back-to-basics style, yung tipong walang TV and of course, no internet connection! ganda kasi parang naappreciate mo ang buhay na wala yung mga techie stuffs including cellphone, pano e walang signal! HAHAHA! plus the FOOD, super sarap! delicious grabe! but I don't want to stay here for a long time, mahirap na, baka tumaba ulit at ako'y tawagin uli na baboy! :)

overall assessment sa event? masaya KUNG hnd ako DM... ngwork ako bale ng friday afternoon and saturday morning, ganyan tlga buhay! kaya nga nakipagsiksikan na lang ako sa advance party para lang mag-enjoy kahit papaano! kya ng-inuman lang (SPRITE+GIN+RED HORSE!!! lakas tama!)...

memorable events?
1. na-usog ko si Mai! sorry po... kala ko nmn hnd nangyayari ang gnun, totoo pala! sya na ata ang 3rd person na nausog ko... :(
2. hnd kami nakatulog sa room namin kasi sinarili ng isa dyan (sino kaya yun Alvin?)... check his blog for more details... hmp! --> hellgod.blogspot.com
3. natalo kami sa "amazing race", ok yun game sa lahat ng detour o stops, yun nga lang, wla ngbantay sa pitstop kya feeling ko pa din na sana nasa top 3 man lang yung team namin... naku! sasabihan na nmn ako na "joseph, you're so competitive!"... hnd totoo yun, si Mike lang ang gnun! hahaha. pati Toki Toki Boom sa YM e kinacareer! bwisit! babawi pa ko sayo!
4. the best ang fresh na dalandan juice nila! kaso mabagal ang refill kasi pano "nagpipiga" pa daw --> fresh nga!
5. couple of misses sa work kaya millions of emails throughout the weekend
6. I almost won in a poker game, naging runner-up ako to Terence on my 2nd game kaso sabi nga nila, I need to practice pa daw how to project a poker face!
7. still with poker is on Mike's early exit! once exited at 2nd deal pero nung kaharap ko sya, he exited on our 1st deal! mag-all-in ba kasi sa akin?!

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Mia's birthday @ National Sports Grill Greenbelt 3. thanks for the treat Mia kahit tira-tira na sa amin! haha

late kasi kami nina Becca and Alvin ng dating dahil sa WWMD ata ni Alvin (haha! as usual) saka busy sa paghanap ng slots sa cebu pacific promo na P10 peso fare! Imagine, round trip tickets only cost 1652 pesos! I was able to book round-trip tickets for me and my thesismates to Cebu on July... anlayo pa nun! :) and trip to bora with some of my officemates nmn sa June! sinamantala ang offer?!

HOSTEL!!! - one freakin' movie! kadiri tlga! di namin kinaya, ngwalk-out sa sinehan pero 3rd to the last ako lumabas ha (out of 9)... we needed to drop by sa Timezone para mawala sa isip yung mga "ewww" scenes sa movie! sa uulitin?!

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Last Feb, we had a reunion with my college barkada and for this month, Me and 5 of my hayskul berks set a sort of a lakad, kumain lang sa shakey's then ng-metro bar sa west ave. :)

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supposedly, I am on 1-week vacation last March 20-24, 2006 para mabawasan yung 38 CDOs ko! career-high! hahaha! :) however, need to meet up with some of the bossings face-to-face kaya cancelled ang vacation plans, trimming it to 2 days na lng...

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Dahil sa ayaw magwork para lang magka-break, I enrolled in Oral communitions training for 2.5 days! grabe! masaya sya, hnd boring and definitely oral comm is the new secret to success! naks! --> kakapressure lang kasi yung culminating activity e video taped, need to pick a question from a "becca" bowl (fish) then discuss the answer in 3 minutes; the question I picked was "If you will be given a chance to observe 1 event in the past, what would it be?" pang beauty-contest?! I answered EDSA 1986 revolution... comments sa akin, personality transplant daw, tipong super seryoso ako pag nsa harap at nwawala yung pagiging masayahin at makulit! the rest of feedbacks, so far so good...

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attended the launch of Caltex with Techron at NBC Tent last March 22nd courtesy of Gina of course! :) swerte nung nanalo sa raffle, trip for 2 to Amanpulo! saka oks na rin sana kahit consolation prizes na 1 year supply of gas! oks na din yun, kahit na petron brand ko kung libre naman!

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before I went to caltex affair pala, we (Becca, Jan, Mia and Alvin) went to Seattle's Best Paseo for a Java Coola (or Koola?!) Brownie drink at para magkwentuhan and bigla akong napakwento sa new laptop ko (or not-so-new laptop at all!)... ooopppsss! it's a sensitive topic, next topic please... :)

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Went home to ilocos for a 24-hour visit! arrived there at 9pm Thursday night then left at 9pm Friday night! (kelangan bumalik kasi yun lang time na binigay ni kuya! hahaha). Needed to go back for another lakad on Saturday early morning :)

What have been accomplished on that that 24-hour stay?

• inom at videoke courtesy of a balikbayan childhood friend (welcome back Matess!);
• tulog ng 11 hours!;
• took my nephews and favorite niece to a carnival (o kaya PERYA. fiesta po kasi namin);
• majong of course (pero di ko pera, kasi nalate ako ng gising! swerte pa man din ako ng araw na yun!);
• magpamerienda ng BBQ sa mga kapitbahay (lagot! friday kya yun!);
• magpa-vulcanize (pano e may 2 inch long na pako sa 1 kong gulong, sama ng may gawa nun! di ko sya mapapatawad! hmp);
• and.... magpaluto ng sinigang na sugpo (sosyal!).... pero ansarap! hmm... kakagutom nmn! :)

Sulit na din kahit 24 hours lang! but there's 1 thing I envied of staying in ilocos, FREE ang 24x7 nila ng PBB! ewan ko kung bakit.... anlabo!

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on the last week, midnight shift ako kaya wala masyado aside sa hnd ko magamit ang aking not-so-new laptop kasi wlang account sa SMART WIFI, I called them pero as usual, expect million years bago maresolve! PLUS, ayaw gumana ng bluetooth nung not-so-new HP laptop ko kya balik sa dati kong Dell pero ngloko din sya kaya napapasok ako sa office once... pag minalas nga naman! :(

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last event: Ben's bday @ Dencio's Paseo! thanks ben for the treat! :)

then.. MOVIE --> much anticipated movie, ICE AGE 2, the meltdown! cool pa din yung movie but for me, mas ok yung 1 kasi mas may kirot sa puso! naks! whattaterm?!?!?!

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Finally, I'm done with all the updates! YEHEY! all other events/experience will be kept with myself na lang... basta masaya ako! :)

NOTE: March pictures to follow...

Q1's top events continued... (2nd of 3 parts)

Finally, had time to continue the Q1 top events post because the last time, just able to discuss what happened to me last Jan'06...

To continue...

almost half of the month was still spent in Warsaw, Poland for me and mich (all warsaw experiences have been noted on earlier post) since we went home last Feb. 12, 2006... just in time for valentines! naks! ooppss... it's our dm week pala saka cannot celebrate this special day din lang. syempre pa, im into long distance relationship...

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- on work? doing midnight shift every other week, in alternate with Mich. sad! :( I need a life! hahaha. hirap mag-night shift, kakapagod kasi di ka naman na makatulog kagad. kahit nasa bahay ka lang e kakatempt manuod ng tv. hehe

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- on parties? yeah! there's 1 affair all of us I think really enjoyed! Vlam held a post-birthday party last February 18, 2006... I cannot even mention if the party was supposedly a merienda, dinner or what since we stayed at their house for 17 hours! whew! that's from 5pm of Saturday until Sunday 10am! hehe. kapal ng mukha ba?! ngmerienda na, nagdinner pa, nagmidnight snack at nagbreakfast pa! plus natulog pa! 2 hours lang nmn... hehe

it was a party with an agenda or list of activities to do (formal?! parang team building ba?!) videoke, billiards, table tennis, card games including poker, movie viewing to name a few! the memorable one is that, for the first time in my whole life that I played table tennis for more than 5 hours, having more than 25 matches! btw, it was a doubles competition with James/Mich and Mike as my teammate. well well well... what can I say? we were just the champions for the first to reach 10 race! hehe :) To balance the success, worth mentioning na when we had a poker game (texas hold'em), I was the 4th one to exit (out of 7), there will always be a next time ---para makabawi ng talo! hehehe

ATTENTION Mia Diola! pa-share ng pics... hehe :)

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- on concerts? Me and Gina watched Faces of Love 2 at NBC tent a day after the birthday party mentioned above. it was a post-valentine concert for us! hehe :) I really enjoyed this concert of Gary V. and Zsa-zsa with their eldest child (Paolo and Karylle). star-studded pati ang audience, parang ASAP saka SOP in 1 venue! hehe. starstruck ba?! not really!

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- other notable events? I was able to play badminton for the first time in more than a year! we used to play badminton atleast one day in a week (w/ HP teammates) for the year 2004 however I haven't played even a single game for last year! busy-busyhan na sa work kaming lahat! hehe. it was nice to burn all those fats and calorie in-takes hehehe! medyo useless nga lang kasi kumain din lang kami sa KFC after, bucket meal pa! :) thanks to Becca, Ben, Daisie, Mike, Mich, James adn Jan for organizing this sporty lakad! sa uulitin pag nagtagpo-tagpo uli ang schedule... hehe :)

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I was able to meet Janelle for the 1st time since college graduation! nag-balikbayan kasi! naks! with that, we had an opportunity to meet up with other college barkada: Jayjay, Popong, Amiel, Ronald and Joel... the couple (Pong and Janelle) treated us for lunch (@ Dencio's Jupiter) and dinner (@ Krokodile Grill Greenbelt; belated happy birthday Pong!), thanks! :)

we went for a bowling game (or should I say a friendly competition?! --- anyways, going back to our first love! adik adik kami sa bowling nung college! feeling magaling! haha. dyan nauubos ang aking allowance dati!) after lunch and as usual, timezone! it's my first time to play in Pearl Bowling (venue for 23rd SEA GAMES for the bowling event and where our country's pride for this sport play and train! saw some of them the time we went there...); maganda yung bowling lanes and the whole venue, pangit lang tlga yung building! CREEPY as in!!! yung feeling mo pag nasa parking lot ka e sasaksakin ka na lang bigla ala Nida Blanca (may she rest in peace).

Going back to the competition, we had a deal that the top 2 players will not be shedding out a single centavo since it will be a sort of LOSERs pay! (top 2 will be determined on the accumulated score of 3 games). To cut the long story short, alangan naman ikwento point-per-point! It was me who came out to be the winner, Top player!!! whew! Popong as the 2nd placer... we played last year in Eastwood and same winners, congrats Pong! :) kaya ako nasasabihan na mayabang kasi wala na kong ginawa kundi magkwento ng mga ganitong bagay, e totoo naman kasi! (na mayabang ako?! of course not, na ako ang winner! hehehe)... another thing that made this pearl bowling experience is that I was able to record my personal best score, I obtained a whooping 208 points on our 1st game! wag na natin pag-usapan ang 2nd and 3rd game! di nako umasa pa na mauulit! if it was a pure luck during the 1st game, hindi naman siguro! believe me! :)

After the bowling event, went back to Greenbelt for dinner and a singing commitment at Red Box from 12 midnight to 3am!

oh, I almost forgot, Jayjay treated us a cup of coffee at starbucks to celebrate his latest promotion and for signing up in HP! welcome Jay to HP family! hope you will have a good time here.... :) (wala nakong sinabi, baka ma-quote pa ko dito, delikado na!)... here ends our almost 24 hours "reunion".... had a great time and sa uulitin! :)

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no other special events to add, aside from timezone gatherings (as usual!) :)

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ooopppsss! there's 1 thing more, for the 1st time in my 22 years of existence that I met someone who celebrates his birthday on February 29! Happy 5.5th Birthday to George (our DM new hire)...

next post for March top events.... pasensya, naghahabol sa blog kaya parang monthly report and labas! nyahaha!

NOTE: This post I just made is still related to my Q1 theme/topic: my FIRSTs! lots of first times throughout this month... :)