Morning date

Night shifters everywhere can all say that "social life" isn't really in our vocabularies anymore. Well, for me at least. I don't really like going to bars to drink so going to bars after shift 'til early morning is an out for me. Leaving me only with 7-11 and Starbucks to hang out in. Besides, I'm usually too tired already to go out after shift. I'm content to having to plop down on my bed catching the late showing of Monk or CSI on Star World (thank you Lord for this). But lately it's been such a routine that it's not really fun anymore.

I'm a morning person and I'd prefer it if I had something to do before shift starts. This usually means a trip to the mall. But malling isn't fun when all your friends are at work or still sleeping.

So I was really glad when G arrived. I now have a constant morning date. Sure it's stressful having to wake up that early after a late night and I'm sure I complained about that in the last few posts. But I really like having him around or should I say dragging him around. Poor guy. I've ran out of malls to bring him to so I asked him if he wanted to go to Ateneo and UP. Pathetic, I know. But anyway, we planned to go.

By chance, we left the house before noon which meant that we needed to stop somewhere to eat. Yay Eastwood. I haven't been there since I arrived and the place has changed a lot! All I remember was Fazolis and Country Waffle (which I didn't see anymore).

Anyhoo to make the long story short, we ended up wasting the afternoon going around Eastwood then going to Tiendesitas for a quick look. Then it was straight to work for me...and to another mall for G. Again, poor boy.

But all in all, not bad for a morning date. If this is what I get for only 3-4 hours of sleep, I'll do it anytime over anything.

...view from heaven and eggs...

For Myrha

I am not DITCHING my blog. I just have a lot of thoughts in my mind that I can't seem to make one coherent paragraph. Hence, no post. That plus the fact that I've been forgetting to bring the camera cable and the card reader to work so I can't post office photos of the day too. And okay fine, because I'm too busy working and being a tour guide at the same time that I don't get to post as often as I want to anymore. But...no ditching.

So as all people now know, G is in Manila for vacation. His vacation, not mine. Let me tell you this, it sucks when you NEED to work while other people are on vacation. It sucks more if you work at night and can't even go out to get a drink with the people on vacation. You might sneak in a two hour lunch/dinner break here and there, but that's pretty much the most you can do.

I'm only thankful that I do not do much in the office these days giving me a bit of time to power nap and rest a while before getting back to the cycle that is G's vacation.

Not only do I get to sleep later (4am) but I need to wake up earlier as well so we can profit of what little time we have together. Although the latter part isn't really true since we both usually wake up at around 11am. Leaving us 4 hours to go around town, which is not enough time to visit nice places (translates to: we only get to go to the malls). How frustrating.

And such a guilt-trip since I know he came here to spend time with moi. We only really have the weekends for ourselves so we try to make the most out of it. Like last week. We went to Lucban to experience the Pahiyas Festival.

...one of the nicer houses...

It was a bit gloomy the first day (Sunday) as it rained the entire morning. So people only started putting up decorations that afternoon. But it was a clear and sunny Monday which was spent going around the entire town, snapping photos and just having a good time. Tiring but well worth it. I do have to mention though that I went straight to work after arriving in Manila. Tiring X2.

...even the chicks were in a pahiyas mood...

So that was our first weekend. And now I'm feeling guilty leaving him at the mall every night.

But I am looking forward to this weekend's adventure:

Taal volcano, here we come!!

I have to conserve all my energy for tomorrow so I'll finish this up.

But not before the office photo of the day:

...look! clean desk!...

(this only happens once in a blue moon so I really just had to take a picture of it as proof)

'til next time.

peace and luv,

xc

LSS

*disclaimer: I'm posting this song for no particular reason. I am not touched by the lyrics but I like the melody. I've always like APO anyway. I do not relate, in any way, to this song. As the title implies, it's this week's LSS and I just like it. Period.

When I Met You - APO Hiking Society

There I was an empty piece of a shell,
Just mindin' my own world;
Without even knowin' what love and life were all about.

Then you came,
You brought me out of the shell;
You gave the world to me
And before I knew,
There I was so in love with you.

You gave me a reason for my being
And I love what I'm feelin'
You gave me a meaning to my life,
Yes, I've gone beyond existing
And it all began when I met you.

I love the touch of your hair
And when I look in your eyes
I just know, I know I'm on to something good

And I'm sure my love for you will endure
Your love will light up my world;
And take all my cares away with the aching part of me.

You gave me a reason for my being
And I love what I'm feelin'
You gave me a meaning to my life,
Yes, I've gone beyond existing
And it all began when I met you.

You taught me how to love,
You showed me how tomorrow and today
My life is diff'rent from the yesterday;
And you, you taught me how to love
And darling I will always cherish you
Today, tomorrow and forever.

And I'm sure when evening comes around
I know we'll be making love like never before;
My love, who could ask for more?

You gave me a reason for my being
And I love what I'm feelin'
You gave me a meaning to my life,
Yes, I've gone beyond existing
And it all began when I met you.
When I met you.

...Do I sound too defensive? Well I'm not!!

singing and luving,
xc

Taxi taxi

For the past three days, I have been commuting to and from work. For those of you who know where I live, it's obviously such a hassle. Since last week, they were not letting any cabs in the camp from 10pm onwards. Apparently, it's a new rule along with the no slippers for military personnel rule. C-r-a-z-y. They're not letting anyone in slippers pass through the gate, well, unless you're in a car.

I do not know what they'd like to achieve with these new rules. All I know is that I have been walking from the gate to our house for the past three work days...at 2 in the morning. Mega hassle.

I am thinking about writing to the post commander about this. It is just not right to let people walk miles in dark streets in the middle of the night. What's the use of taking a taxi if you're only going to end up walking the last leg of the freakin' journey!?!? And at 2 am!!! I asked the guard at the gate if he can bring me home with their jeep. Apparently that's not possible, he only offered to walk me home. No thanks. Unless he was going to carry me home, I am not interested.

I complained about this to my mom, as I was about to commute once more and I didn't want to walk in the middle of the night anymore. She obliged by having my brother (who has work at 7am) pick me up at 1am so I can go home early...

...to drive her and my other brother to the doctor tomorrow at 8 am. Talk about hidden agenda. Just when I thought my dramatic performance did the trick...

Anyhoo...there won't be any office photo of the day today, even though I took a picture. I forgot to bring the USB cable again and I'm too lazy to do the SD card swap. So I'm just going to save all office photos for this week and probably post it all at the same time.

I'm off. I wanna go home!!

peace and luv,
xc

Manic Monday

Not! As mondays go, this has been the best...so far.
The day was spent chatting with Toni (inuman na next time!) and G (see you on Saturday!).
Boss left early so I got to play my games.

I didn't even realize that it's 1 am already and it's time to go home.
Actually, I went in early today thinking I'd be able to go home early too.
But I got so obsessed in posting the office photos of the day that I had to stay to take a photo, upload it and write a short entry on my blog. And since I forgot to bring the camera's usb cable (but did not forget to bring the webcam), I had to improvise by using my phone's SD card as temporary memory card for the camera then switch it back to the phone and transfer the pictures via infrared. Although it took quite a while to download the 1.8MB pictures via infrared, it did work. And now I am happily posting today's office photo of the day:

...messy drawer...

Technology is awesome!!!

Now I've packed the things I have in my messy drawer and I'm ready to go home!
Too much time spent in the office is dangerous to your health.

peace and luv,
xc

It's not the vitamins

I forgot to drink my meds today. Including the vitamins. Yet my day wasn't all that bad.

Sure, my boss caught me playing online games, but do I really even care? (okay maybe I do, a little)

Anyhoo, to get to the point of this post: It's not the vitamins! It's just good luck. Unless the vitamin effect has spilled over to today.

Blah, I'm rambling.

Finally it's the weekend! A long weekend for the French folks (damn you and your holidays!!) even though I still have to go to work on Monday. Obviously I am going to have a lot of free time on my hands on Monday so be prepared for another long rambling nonsense post seeing that I can't play games as much as I want anymore.

In all fairness, my project manager (who won't be in the office in monday, damn you french folks and your holidays!!), she acknowledges that I will have a lot of idle time in my hands come Monday. So she gave me additional work. Winner.

I'll end this post here because even I am bored reading all this. It doesn't have a point.

Have an awesome weekend! There are only a few more days of summer left!

G, rien. Saperlipopette, tu vas voir tes fesses, oui!!

peace and maybe a bit of luv,
xc

Office photo of the day:

...work package...

The miracle of vitamins

Work has surprisingly been bizarrely good today.

Arrived early, which does not happen that often. Contacted the TPs I needed to contact, replied to emails and cleared up some outstanding issues.

Buffet dinner with some English guy who happens to be the team lead of the other team.

A bit of chitchat with the PM, downloaded Mark's Pandan pictures, did a bit of work.

Not a bad day at all, I say!

Now this gets me thinking. Is it just a lucky day for me or is there something else in the air that made this day a bit more bearable.

Or is it because of the Stresstab I took this morning that I had the energy to burn the entire day?

I have to take another Stresstab tomorrow to see if it is indeed the one giving me the extra oomph today.

That or this weekend bungee jumping plans.

Let's wait and see.

peace and luv,
xc

Office photo of the day:

...the meeting room...

It's all downhill from here

Wednesday! The middle of this stress-filled week.

Although technically it's only the second day of the work week, I already feel like I need another long weekend.

The project's reaching its deadline and yet TPs are still slacking off. Which is a change since I'm usually the one doing that. But now, I'm doing all the work and the TPs are off on holidays. Awesome.

I saw a dermatologist today to consult about my stupid bed bug allergies. I can't help it if my soft baby-like skin is a bed bug magnet. I'm the only one who sprayed layers of insect repellant and yet I'm the only one with bug bites. Anyhoo, long story short I now have special soap, layers of lotions and creams to apply plus antibiotics to pop for 2 whole weeks. Not to mention the consultation fee and cost of all those meds.
Great.

The only thing I'm looking forward to this week (just this week) is the family's trip to Subic. I'm not planning on soaking up rays nor hitting the beach as I've had enough of that already thank you very much. I'm looking forward to laying in bed in a luxurious (I think) hotel and be waited on head to foot.

3 more days to go.

It's all downhill from here.

peace and luv,
xc



Office photo of the day:

...dirty connection thingie...

No peechurs

It's hard getting back into the work rhythm after a great long weekend.

The only thing to look forward to is to show your vacation pictures to anyone who's willing to listen.

Unfortunately my stupid camera ran out of freakin' batteries 3 hours after arriving in Pandan. Of course in an island so cut-off from civilization that they have to have fresh water delivered from the main island everyday, each room has a 12 watt lightbulb running from a car battery, and wherein the only nightlife is playing Jenga with the "bartender", it is pretty much obvious that they don't sell high quality AA batteries. Hence, I have to wait until Mark D. uploads all our pictures from his camera.

All I have with me are the pictures before going to the island and after, when we were about to go home (right when Mark's camera ran out of batteries).

How sad.

And it's even sadder that I have no pictures to distract me from working today.

*sigh*

Well, it's not as if I have tons of work to be distracted from anyway.

*wink*

peace and luv,

xc


Office photo of the day:

...cisco ip phone...