where the moon shines

Teams are going off on their outing – to the beach resorts or private pool parties.  Families are also going off on vacation.  Me? I get to sleep on the couch and suffer the heat! Haha.

My dad bought ice cream yesterday and already, the container is almost empty.  Nope, I’m not the culprit, it was more than half full after I filled up this glass.  I just heard my brother comment how fast we run out of ice cream when he was helping himself to some of it.

When it comes to ice cream, I will always go for flavors that include chocolate, and Rocky Road is a favorite.  The kids downstairs?  They love mango ice cream, and I can’t complain.

It is so hot these days, that even the occasional rain showers don’t help cool down the surroundings.  We have two electric fans in our living/dining area (which measures, according to Dad, 35 sq.m.) and it is hardly enough to keep more than two people comfortable in the afternoons.

So I guess it’s perfect timing that my work schedule will be changing soon – I’d have to be in the office in the morning until early afternoon.  And I can stay there until it cools down a bit in the afternoon if I want to, and bask in the cold airconditioning.  Haha.  I remember how many times I complained last summer that I had to report to work at night, and go home with the sun up and bake in the heat while sleeping. I am so looking forward to not complaining this season. 

I may have my offs changed too, which would hopefully mean I could have a full day free with the boyfriend on weekends.  I was kind of hoping to change offs anyway, even with the evening schedule. Friday and Saturday nights off would have been perfect because the boyf and I could be together already as soon as he gets off work on Friday nights, and have the whole day Saturday and Sunday together.  But… we’ll see.

I was at the hospital this afternoon to finally have my coughs and colds be checked by a doctor.  I ended up having a chest xray done, and a skin test.  I won’t know the results until Monday though, when I see the doctor again.

While there, I realized how many photos I could have taken.  I left my phone at home and felt impaired (like leaving one arm behind)!  There were so many photos I could have taken.

The door to the X-Ray room with the red light above the doorway, that lights up only when there is an ongoing, what do you call it – session?

There was also the blue adhesive mats right outside the door to a room that was being renovated.  It was interesting because it serves like a door mat.  The men who leave the room step on the mat, leave tons of dirt behind, before they step on the floor of the hospital halls.  I guess it’s a good way to at least minimize the dirt that the renovation would have caused in their halls.

I’d have loved to take a photo of the hand sanitary liquid dispensers on the hallway too, hehe.  Those things are all around the hospital and I’ve always loved the scent – better than store bought hand sanitizers I tell you.

Anyway… I’d love to say more but I’m sleepy and I need to go to bed now…

I am cleaning up my Digital Scrapbooking Links and it is taking so long to go through the list.   I realize that I have missed out on a lot of news from blogs that I used to visit at least twice a week.  It’s nice getting re-acquainted though.  It’s also very inspiring to look at all the lovely layouts showcased in many of those blogs.  And of course, i’m happy to see all the freebies available

One particular designer blogger I was glad to have visited again is Vicki.  She now sells at a new store with some of her friends, and that is amazing.  One ad from her blog caught my attention, it was for Photobook Philippines! I checked out their website and things look promising.  Kodak stations and Digiprint offer printing for photobooks and albums but if you choose bound ones, I don’t know if the photos will line up for two-page layouts (not that I have those).  Photobook Philippines has a software that will probably help you figure that out.  I don’t intend to have a book printed anytime soon, I don’t have enough layouts for that, but it’s nice to know what my options are.

OOohhh and looking at the various digiscrapping blogs have got me to thinking that I probably should be using templates more.  Just a thought.

I still have a lot of mail to catch up on, but I’ve decided to stick it out with cleaning one particular mailbox for now.  I have two email accounts that receive shares through sharing groups and I don’t get to see to them everyday.  There are so many lovely graphics sent through them and it’s such a waste because I don’t get to see them right away.  I probably should think about delisting from either one or both of those groups…

I’ve also tried to catch up posting Project 365 photos on DigitalMe.  I’m still far from being caught up, but I know I must do this otherwise I will just forget why I took those photos or what they represented to me at the time.  I wonder if I’ll ever scrap pages for those? Hah, I don’t want to say I’ll find time, that somehow jinxes things for me.  Anyway, here are the photos I’ve added to the gallery:

You’ll see a photo of my big brother (who could be an Ely Buendia or John Lloyd look-alike depending on the angle haha), taken on January 16 at the entrance of San Benissa Garden Villas.  We visited the site of our condo units to sign our contracts for the unit improvements.  He and his girlfriend were actually back there yesterday to submit the signed contract for the property management office to take care of renting out our units to interested parties.  I hope they find renters soon.  That would definitely ease a bit of my financial woes.

There’s also the photo of my nephews and niece from my father’s side of the family (the other half of my family that hardly gets mentioned on this blog).  The only girl in the photo is the beautiful Samantha or Sam as she is fondly called.  She is so sweet, but also a handful! The whole time during the wedding ceremony, she couldn’t keep still. So endearing really.  Bench is the big boy here and he’s the same age as Sam.  He talks a lot too and together, they can be a tough pair to care for.  I have not seen these kids in a long time and it was good that they were there on my cousin Bryan’s weddin on the 15th of January.  The baby in the stroller is Bryan’s little boy. He was christened right after the wedding ceremony.  I don’t think I wrote a post about the wedding did I?  Honestly, I think I kept myself from writing about it at the time, because I didn’t want to say anything nasty.  But until now I can’t help it.  I didn’t like the bridesmaid dresses! Haha. It was in bright green satin, a material that should never be used for such a purpose.  I’m sorry, I really just don’t think it flattered anyone. The motif was green and yellow/gold.  To be honest, the green and yellow combination in the linens and decor used in the reception turned out better than the bridesmaid gowns did.   The bride was lovely though, no contest with that.  And the wedding reception was held in a nice cozy place.  Food was excellent too.  Too bad we didn’t get to chat with my cousin (who is actually US based and only came home for the wedding) and his mom since we had to drive home already.  We had to sleep soon since there was work in the evening.

The odd photo in the group is my March desktop.  Both photos used here are ones that have me and my brother together.  We’re six years apart.  If you look at us now, you wouldn’t notice that age gap.  Oh and I have to say this, I love that cute dress I had on in the bottom photo.  My Lola Maggie (grandma) did that.  She made us (me and my cousins) many lovely dresses while we were growing up, and she made some for my eldest nieces too when they were very small.  I wonder if we have pictures of those? I hope so.  They looked like dolls in vintage dresses. Seriously. Hehe

The last P365 photo is a very bad photo of my leg, to show off my ballet flats that I always wear to work.  To be honest, I forgot to snap a photo for that day, January 17th, so I took a photo of the first thing I could think of. Hehe.

Anyway, I have a magazine to read and a letter to the editor to compose (haha).  I really should go to bed instead, but it’s so darn hot!

UPDATE: I just remembered something that I tried catching up on today – Les Miserables, the book.  Oh my god, I forgot exactly when I started reading this but I know I’ve finished at least two books since. And I don’t like doing that, picking up other books while I’m in the middle of another, which is why my to-be-read pile is just growing in number.  It’s just that Les Miz is quite draining to read, with all the history and study of that time’s Paris society.  And all that talk about the gamin of Paris is a reminder of the street children of Metro Manila at present day.  And all the injustice in their prisons? Don’t those still exist today in prisons the world over?  That’s sad.  All I knew about Les Miz was a romanticized version of it I guess, and I wasn’t prepared to read all about the history of France or a study of it’s society.  But it is a wonderful piece of literature, and I will finish the rest of the book someday. Haha

On Friday morning, I received a call from a very agitated boyfriend – they have just been given the news that Dell has struck a partnership with Teleperformance.  Dell Pasay will soon cease to exist, and it will be fully controlled by TP.  The news was not meant with enthusiasm, on the contrary, many of Alfred’s batchmates are feeling uncertain.  They had just signed up with Dell, and it was the fifth day of new hire training.  Many, including Alfred, were wondering if there would be changes to the contract that they signed.  They were told that the new contracts should be ready this week, if I heard him right.

When I got home that day, I went crazy looking for online news articles or even gossip or speculation  revolving around the sale, but I didn’t find any.  The Internet was quiet about this new development.  I had asked Alfred to blog about it himself, because I wasn’t a first party in this event and felt I had no right to buzz about it. Yesterday, his worry was he wasn’t sure if Dell or TP allowed its employees to talk about their accounts.  Like at our office, we really shouldn’t be talking about our specific accounts.  Since I saw the news in today’s paper though, I guess he doesn’t have to use aliases for the companies anymore.  We were thinking about referring to Dell as Delta, and TP as ThePreatorians or something. Haha.

Alfred will most probably choose to stay there.  As long as the base pay stays, along with the allowance/benefits originally promised to them, there shouldn’t be a problem.  But he is disappointed that he won’t be an in-house tech, that he will once again be part of an outsourced project.  He was especially proud that he had been accepted to Dell.  After he got his ID, his bag and his Dell shirt, he was so eager to show them to me.  Soon, he will have to turn in his Dell badge, and I guess he won’t be able to brag that he supports Dell anymore.  Just like I couldn’t broadcast that I’ve been supporting so and so products.  He also has his doubts about staying on, stemming from co-workers who have previously been with TP.  I don’t think it helped that their trainer’s initial reaction to the news wasn’t very positive either.

Where am in this?  Well, my sole goal is to be the supportive partner – everything will turn out okay.

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Hmm…

And again, forgive me for the ranting post earlier.  Right after I published it, I went up and snuggled in bed with the boyfriend for another hour until he decided it was time for him to get up and get to work. In my opinion, he left too early.  But I can’t really blame him for not wanting to be late.  And I really can’t stay mad at him.

My off is completely wasted though.  Dang colds.

After being away from the boyfriend for the week, I was really looking forward to this weekend being a fun one. Well, it wasn’t. 

First, my nose is dripping like crazy. Sorry. But it’s true.  I still have colds, and it’s like they wanted to punish me for taking all of those Sinutab ES that the doctor prescribed last weekend. On Saturday morning, I had a really bad headache but I had to finish the ton of work I had allowed to pile up on me, and leave the pining until I could go home.  I woke Alfred up by calling him so many times on his phone, and he came over to pick me up and take me to lunch.  We ended up taking a long cab ride to Greenhills because the driver wasn’t thinking about Saturday noontime traffic at EDSA when he decided that’s the route we were going to take.  The ride didn’t do much to make me feel better.

Lunch was fantastic though – The House of Minis.  I was craving for steak, you see.

But guess what?  Just so we could go out for lunch (and because I needed something to pick me up), I had taken some work home.  BUT because of the time it took to get us to Greenhills, we wouldn’t make it back home for me to meet my 3PM deadline.  So we had to stop by an Internet place so I could make it.  And I did. 

We decided to stroll around the shops for awhile, and we got to stop at the Dollar Store, and Daiso too. I took pictures (that I wouldn’t be able to show off because Mom has the camera with her and she’s off to Hong Kong)!  I must have been looking really crappy already because Alfred was the one who insisted on heading home. It really should have been me since I did have to go to work pa that night.

Saturday night wasn’t any better. To make matters worse, calls were coming in like there was no tomorrow.  And there were these issues that we just weren’t able to track right away.  And someone got the flack for it. Though I am happy it wasn’t me, I felt bad that it had to be her too. Something’s gotta change about our processes, seriously.  But I was going through the whole shift in a daze.  One minute I’d be sitting, staring at my monitor, the next I’d just feel snot dripping off my nose down to my shirt! Really yucky stuff I tell you.  Good thing my seatmate comes in 5 hours into my shift already.  

Alfred has been craving for another meal at Mister Kebab, and Sunday morning was supposed to be the perfect time for it.  Well guess what, I couldn’t wake him up.  I had waited and waited.  By the time he responded, I was outside the office ready to go home.  I called my dad and there was lunch at home already and I didn’t want that to go to waste so I asked Dad (with Esban) to pick me up instead.  After eating, I dozed off on the couch right in front of the TV while Alfred gave Zune a bath.  We went to sleep (at least I did) because I was feeling too warm and my head was just chasing my pillows.  We intended to go out around 6pm.  I needed to pay my bills, and Alfred needs a new wallet.  Well guess what? We didn’t go anywhere.  And I have the feeling that he’s blaming me for it.  

And that’s just not fair.  I was ready to stand up, take a bath, get dressed and leave for the mall.  But he decided it was his time to sleep.  Then he wakes me up at 9PM because he’s hungry for dinner.  Then he goes and finishes his dinner so fast and stands up right behind his chair and stands there next to me with his hands on his hips. When I asked him what on earth he was doing standing there, he made a move to go up and back to our room. What the heck?  Why couldn’t he at least wait for me to finish eating? So then he goes back and sits next to me. But what’s the point already? So I told him to go on ahead, which he does, but not without saying he just didn’t get it.  Well that was a revelation! Yes, he just doesn’t get it!

Sorry for the rant. Yes this was a rant.

Because after dinner, I didn’t join him up there. I stayed downstairs and slept again on the couch until the ABS-CBN station ID woke me up, just before the Philippine Anthem video was played and the station signed off for the night.  And in a few hours, he’ll leave for work and I won’t see him again until Friday night. That sucks.  

And I’m still sick. 

What a weekend.