barong

You should see me with my "gusot-pangmayaman" barong. It's been a long time that I wore one, probably four years ago when a friend forced me to be part of her wedding entourage. Now, this becomes my daily get-up, from 8am to 10pm, except Saturdays. I feel a little confident facing a client-- "sabi nga nila, nakakahiyang tawaran"! Wala lang, wento lang.

Racket!

Whoa! Sabi ko kailangan ko pa ba magexam? "Oo, ceremonial lang. Para naman masabing dumaan ka sa proceso." To cut the long story short, hindi na ako in-between jobs. I have job na uli! Problema ko ngayon paano pagkasyain ang oras ng J117 at J200 with this new job that requires me 8:00am-10:00am and 7:00pm-10:00pm in office and sales pitches in between. Medyo mahirap kasi mataas ang expectation-- imagine, 12 days pa lang, I had P.700M personal sales na! Yeah, hindi ako magaling... magaling ang network na dala ko-- it has the most number of No.1 stations nationwide. Hay, sana maabot ko target ko and have my brand new car in less than 6 months... Hehe... libre naman mangarap. Let's see then.

Sorry Aling Suming!

I'm supposed to be in school this evening. I have more reasons to be there than home, and than anybody else, perhaps. First, because this is my last workless Saturday, and the suceeding Saturdays hereafter will be busier-- my first day of work is on Monday. Second, it's the CMC alumni get-together homecoming, dubbed "Tawag Ka ni Aling Suming"-- our retired trusty CMC manang who knows every detail of our requirements (I went back 7 years after AWOL and she can still recall my name and my incomplete Thesis!) Some of my batchmates in the mid 90s might be coming over and it would be a good time hanging around with them. Besides, our org, UP Journ Club, has a presentation to make (I just can't imagine me cheering on the side of the students rather than with my "real batchmates"). It would have been very amusing and nostalgic. But here I am, over powered by laziness, or perhaps sleepiness. I slept almost the whole day, watched TV in between slumbers and deeply pondered what might be the nicest place to unwind tonight. Yeah, I'm free tonight, and coffee and beer are more inviting than the CMC alumni homecoming.

Smart has been reminding me via SMS to pay my overdues, otherwise my outgoing call will be redirected. What can I do, they'd been texting me for a week now and my account is still active, hehe. Don't worry Mr. Pangilinan, I'll be paying you soonest! Is another week okay? Sige na, or I'll switch to Sun, haha!

Mouse Story

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me.
I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a Mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house --like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did
not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for
one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

Of Shrinking Sales and Stenches

Callous is an adjective which means "emotionally hardened"-- example, "a callous indifference to suffering". Callousness is what best describes my former employer who, after 4 months of leaving them, continues to pester me with an account I bagged them for P1M. They reminded me that commercial airing of my account will end January 15 and I have to give them feedback at once if it's gonna renew, otherwise other interested parties might take over of the account. The gall of this company to put pressure on me when they still owe me hundreds of thousands of unpaid commissions, including my incentive for the account in question. I just can't keep my pique on this one-- they'd been holding what's due me for years! Their audit system sucks, their documentation of collectibles and payables sucks and their alibis reek of a management stenching from the top. A classic case of outrageous ingratitude for people who raked-in millions of sales for the company. What can I say, theirs is a typical "pakabig" mode of management. Thank God, I'm out of there. Pay me first dude, before you ask me to sell! Are your balls now on the line? I guess yes.

No Thanks, It's Friday!

Friday was a lazy day. I carried again my gymbag, unused the previous day, hoping this day I'd be able to work out. I went to Greenbelt 1 for lunch and in one hour met my friend Blessy for her business presentation.

Well it was an offer to head a sales team with a Marketing/PR monthly magazine she and her other friend from the Middle East is planning to put up this year. It was kind of ambitious because her friend would want it regional in circulation, with Philippines, Hongkong and Singapore as the initial circulation market. I don't know personally her friend but from her stories, he is in his mid 30's, employed in a multi-billion company and belongs to a wealthy political/business clan from Manila. I'm giving it a wait and see stance before I finally get my teeth into it. Nevertheless it's a project worth pursuing, since the money potential is large and there's not much of similar magazine in the Philippine market.

Late afternoon I went to our tambayan and found at least 7 people already there, including our sisses. I'm still brooding about what topic to propose for the forthcoming Alternative Classroom Learning Experience (ACLE) on Jan. 19. I've set another meeting on Monday 6pm for the brods to deliberate on it, plus a number of urgent issues I wish to discuss.

In the evening we had a bottle of SMB outside our tambayan before heading for Jami's in the Fort where we also had couples of light beers and crisy pata, courtesy of our 2 visiting Alumni from the US. From there, after the elders were summoned by their sleepiness, and others by their wives, the younger us proceeded to Timog for the Brownman Revival gig. It's been a long time that I arrived home feeling sick, drowsy and smoky at 5am.

Anytime today, I'll forcibly drag this gimp body to Fitness First again. Procrastination, you're killing me!

My Laundry and the Undies

Thursday morning. My laundry bag was bursting with soiled clothes when I delivered it to the laundry station. Two weeks on vacation must have released a very unpleasant smell when the laundry staff unpacked what I thought was a goldmine of sweat, dirt and dust. Well, not my goldmine, but the laundry station’s. Every time I drop them my laundry and the weighing scale starts rotating downwards, they’re turning dirt and grime into gold. So there goes my P264 for an eight-kilo dirty, stinky, icky laundry.

Before heading for my 1pm class I went by SM Makati. I sifted through some brassieres of different names until I made up my mind for the Bench brand. Fortunately, my “manita” (yes, I’m still shopping for my Christmas gifts) has disclosed in her “wish list” her cup size. So I bought the 32-A pink-dotted white bra with its matching thong, not without asking the sales lady what she would choose if I were to give her a bra present. I know girls have different tastes, but would my taste any better choosing something I haven’t used? Early this evening I got a text message, “I love them!”. Wow, and this is past Christmas! Shall I reply, “Really? Can I see them?", ha-ha! Happy New Year, batchmate!

home is heaven

There's no place like home. Really. And I'm still home. The old woody smell of our cabinet, the sweet cold zephyr of the evening, the crowing of our roosters and the cackling of its hens, the warmth of the burning logs in a pugon-cooker, the ember of coal warming the "sinaing", the mosquito net and the cushioned "banig"-- these and more I will miss again when I go back to Manila two sleeps away. I just had bamboo shoots (tambo) cooked with "tagabang", "hipon", "kuhol" and "gata" for lunch and fresh pineapple for dessert. I can have this every day but it won't shake off my appetite. Why the hell, aside from being my favorite dish, it's lovingly cooked by my Nanay. Home sweet home-- its indeed heaven second to the real one!