2016 Week 7 Recap: Of Work and Parties

February 8-14, 2016

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

And then there was Ash Wednesday, which I was able to wake up early to attend mass.

And Valentines Day. Too many events in one week.

Work
Work has been busy but better busy than nothing to do at all. Finally, the vendor showed up last Friday and while I still don't have the final product, at least he showed up and set another date for his next visit. Hopefully, by this week, he'll have all the changes we've requested him to incorporate.

I am still having challenges balancing my new project with the rest of the projects. While I am not directly involved in another project, I have to guide a colleague who's handling it so I have to be there during her discussions with the developers. And it's draining when you sit down for 3 or 4 hours a day. Mostly at the end of each session, I can only force my brain cells to at least do some admin stuff hahaha. But hopefully, I'll find that rhythm this week since our discussions will end today.

Lastly, thankfully, I was able to book for a meeting room in a hotel that's aligned with the team budget. We'll have our late strategic planning and the boss would like to do it outside. Among all the 4 or 5 hotels I have contacted in the Ortigas area, Discovery Suites gave us the most affordable rate, plus they have a seamless process. After getting my contact details, they sent me a proposal, with all the information I need so that on the same day, I was able to make a recommendation to my boss. Good thing that she agreed and that her boss approved as well.  They also have a corporate package for meals, which we opted to make over ala carte type since I think that will be more cost effective rather than planning and ordering our own menu. If there is one thing I don't like doing, it's working on things with budget constraints hehehe.

Living Quarters

Thanks to the extra holiday last Monday, I was able to sort out and file and store second half of last year's bills, and record the payments I made to the lots. 

I also planted pechay, which I will blog about in upcoming posts. While I am a gardener's daughter, it was my parents who did the planting, especially of vegetables that needs transplant from the seedbed to the main plots. Most of our work as children were on the preparation of the plots, watering the plants, weeding out, and harvesting. Not really so much on planting, unless these are beans or sweet peas or corn, which are planted directly into the plots. So, let's see if I am successful in at least growing pechay hehehe. But I hope so. I am not so sure given the temperature in Manila but let's see.

Weekend
I was invited to 2 birthday parties last weekend. Last Saturday, it was for the 7th birthday of a teammate's not so little boy. Last Sunday, it was for the 2nd birthday of my inaanak. Unfortunately, I overslept on Saturday so I was not able to attend hehe. Guilty but he also attended my inaanak's party on Sunday so I was still able to hand him my gift personally.

My inaanak's party was held at Jollibee E.Rodriguez. It was fun! I didn't know until then that there is such a thing as Jollitown and that there are other characters aside from Jollibee hehehee. I was able to see Popo and Yum. I have yet to see the rest in person, hopefully hehehe. Anyway, this made me realize again that we need to surround ourselves with kids sometimes. Kids generally don't worry about anything. They just want to play and have fun, even with kids who they just met for the first time. No complications at all, just pure fun. And watching them is refreshing for me, especially that I leave in an adult world most of the time haha.

And oh, Valentines Day. I saw a lot of Hot Air Balloon Festival pictures in my FB feed. A friend invited me to join them too but I already said yes to the birthday party invite so no for the Hot Air Balloon. Let's see next year. In my attempt to just chill this year, I am implementing the first come, first served rule hehe. I just don't want to get stressed trying to decide which one to choose and if I choose the latter, how will I break the news to the other one? Haha. Too complicated. So yes, first come first, served, unless it is a family emergency. In fact, a cousin also invited me for lunch at their place last Sunday but I declined because a) it was too late to buy tickets for Baguio and b) I dread the weekend crowd back home, especially now that Panagbenga Festival is also ongoing there. Whew.

Travel
I forgot to blog about this last weekend but anyway, we were able to book our return tickets from Osaka to Manila for Php6,255/pax during the weekend Chinese New year sale. So adding that to the 3K++ we've booked around last year for Manila-Tokyo, we spent around Php 10k++ for airfare. As per my friend, it's still cheaper compared to their airfare when they climbed Mt. Fuji last year. So we are done with airfare and even the pencil booking for our accommodations. Pambaon na lang! Push na 'to.

I hope you all had a great week. Cheers to another great week ahead.