When to vacay?

My weekends (referring to my days off work) have been moved to Sundays-Mondays. My boss actually thought I’d be happy with the change but I’m not so enthused about it. One – Alfred and I won’t have the same off anymore. Two – I’ve come to appreciate how the movie houses and malls are practically empty on Tuesday nights 🙂 Three – the days seem to go faster for some reason.

Apart from having my off moved (which already started this week), my shift is being shifted too. Instead of logging in at 10PM, it’ll be 11PM or 12MN starting Sunday. Aw. That will widen the gap between Alfred’s shift and mine. 🙁

Anyway… I took an in lieu leave from work on Tuesday, just because. Originally, I filed for leave for the 19th because that’s our anniversary. Since it was my off already, I figured I’d just take the next day off too. It did me good to spend an extra day off work. Though we had to run an errand on that day, it was still okay for me all in all. Got me to think about taking a longer vacation soon. We have no plans yet for an out of town vacation (because we really don’t have the money to spend on one) but we have been talking about going for a swim either at Ace Water Spa or at Club Manila East. But I’m thinking that I need to de-stress and a day trip wouldn’t be enough to fully reload my guns.

The cold spell also seem to have left Manila already – it is so darn hot! Now would be a very good time to head to Baguio or even Sagada while it’s still cold up there. Or… go somewhere where it’s okay to be hot – the beach! I remember reading about their holiday vacation home from a digital scrapbook designer (Bonnie) and how I was so envious! It was a lovely place and I just know that if my family (the extended one) were given the chance to rent a vacation home and spend even just three days there – we would have the time of our lives! The closest to a vacation home we have ever rented are those private pools in Laguna – and they are NOWHERE near the grandiose and ambiance that vacation homes like those in the Outer Banks in the US have. Ohhh, the place that the XB peeps rented last year for the management team building in Caliraya, that seems real nice too but still not sure if it’s something we can afford. Ugh.

Oh well. 

 

A sad time for Microsoft.

It’s all over the news – Microsoft announces that 1500 of it’s valued employees are losing their jobs, and 3500 will soon follow. For a company who values employee loyalty just as much customer loyalty, this has got to be very tough for them. I have never been fired, nor retrenched, but I was transferred out because we lost an account. I still had a job waiting for me though, so it isn’t an experience that I can even begin to compare to those people who have been hit hard by this economic crisis.

I know there are a lot more companies who have had to make bigger sacrifices – like the Intel shop that gave jobs to 5000 Filipinos who is completely closing down – but learning about this happening to Microsoft just hit a little closer to home. We deal closely with Microsoft at my line of work, you see. Hay.