More Marc and Rovilson Pictures

There were press people in the event and one of them asked Marc and Rovilson to pose and do something with the chair. The picture on left is one of Rovilson's poses.












I almost fainted when I saw Marc strike this pose. It took so much from me to stop screaming that I squeaked. He's really awesomely hugely sexy!!! Yummy yummy yummy!!! When my officemates saw this shot, they were saying, "Take off your shirt!"












Of course, here's the best picture of all. Both of them in one shot. Hah! Gosh, they're really so gorgeous. I want to see them again on TV!

Marc and Rovilson Forever!

These pictures really made my week.

We had an awarding ceremony at the office where Marc and Rovilson claimed their Amazing Race Prize Winnings. They're absolutely awesome. Never mind that I had to wait until 9PM for my turn for the photo op (the press had first dibs). They were both very accommodating moreover when they learned the part that I played for them to claim their prizes. Hehe.


Rovilson was so funny throughout the whole program. We were encouraged to ask questions and I blurted out a question about the episode where he danced in a strip club in Germany. One also asked who were their favourite teams in the Amazing Race Asia 2. They were teasing each other (the Malaysian team and Thailand team) but in the end they gave a safe answer: Teri and Henry. Hehe.



Of course, this is the best picture of all. Marc Nelson in his yummyness. And he had his hand on my shoulder. Oh my gosh! Fan girl! Fan girl! Fan girl!

Go Amazing Race! I really hope there will be an All Star episode or they join the US version. I want to see them again on TV!

People Problems

Ito talaga yung panahon na iniisip ko kung may karapatan talaga ako maging unit head. Nawawalan na ako ng  bilib sa sarili ko dahil sa isang tao ko.

May isa kasi akong tao na nagsasalita sa likod naman. Napaka-unprofessional kung baga. Papasok siya ng alas-diyes pero susulat niya sa log-in niya alas-nuwebe. Tama ba yon? Sasabihin niya, demotivated siya kasi tinanggal namin siya as team leader pero hindi na rin kasi namin kaya yung mga reklamo na nakukuha namin mula sa ibang departamento at kahit sa tao niya.

Iniisip ko nalang, may kahulugan lahat nang nangyayari. Everything happens for a reason. The reason why she's in my team is that this will teach me or give me the skills to handle difficult people. As Bo Sanchez said, your biggest blessing is your biggest problem. I know that my heart is in the right place when I made my decisions and that regardless of all the things that she has said and done, I still believe that she's still a good person.

Siguro kaya ako affected, she was a good friend of mine, until she began saying those nasty things. She was even at my wedding!

Happy Easter!

Leo and I spent the last four days at Tagaytay with his family. It was great to just relax and do nothing except eat, marathon CSI, eat, sleep. We went to Tagaytay Highlands to attend the masses/holy week rites on Maundy Thursday and attended the Salubong last night as well. As Highlands was not actually a parish, their Salubong was not as a big deal as regular parishes would have them do.

Salubong is where the images of Mama Mary and Jesus meet at the church entrance and little children dressed as angels pull the black veil covering Mama Mary's face and shower the images with flowers. The images are then placed at the altar and all the cloths covering all the images are removed as a symbol that Jesus has resurrected from the dead. This is usually held during Easter Eve or at the dawn of Easter Day.

Anyway, probably the best place to spend Holy Week that I've been to was Marinduque's Moriones Festival. It's when men dress as soldiers and wear masks like that of the old Spanish soldiers. They go around town wearing these masks and on Good Friday, they play their part to the hilt when they escort Jesus to the crucifixion. They also regularly hold the Senakulo--which is a reenactment of the last few days of Jesus on earth.

We were there for 2 or 3 consecutive years and if I remember it correctly, it was when my maternal grandfather was still alive. My aunt's husband is from that place so we would visit them and stay for the festival. We had fun going around town and I especially had fun biking around the towns. I think I lose weight while I'm there due to the biking that I do.

One of these days, I would want to go back to that place. Being an island, it's a place where life is slow and relaxed. A place where one can just take a break from the fast-paced life of the city and find oneself.

Happy Easter everyone!

Youtube 2007 Awards Winners

Here are my favourite category winners in Youtube's 2007 Awards:

Adorable - Laughing Baby





Creative - The Original Human TETRIS Performance by Guillaume Reymond

Happy Easter!

Leo and I spent the last four days at Tagaytay with his family. It was great to just relax and do nothing except eat, marathon CSI, eat, sleep. We went to Tagaytay Highlands to attend the masses/holy week rites on Maundy Thursday and attended the Salubong last night as well. As Highlands was not actually a parish, their Salubong was not as a big deal as regular parishes would have them do.

Salubong is where the images of Mama Mary and Jesus meet at the church entrance and little children dressed as angels pull the black veil covering Mama Mary's face and shower the images with flowers. The images are then placed at the altar and all the cloths covering all the images are removed as a symbol that Jesus has resurrected from the dead. This is usually held during Easter Eve or at the dawn of Easter Day.

Anyway, probably the best place to spend Holy Week that I've been to was Marinduque's Moriones Festival. It's when men dress as soldiers and wear masks like that of the old Spanish soldiers. They go around town wearing these masks and on Good Friday, they play their part to the hilt when they escort Jesus to the crucifixion. They also regularly hold the Senakulo--which is a reenactment of the last few days of Jesus on earth.

We were there for 2 or 3 consecutive years and if I remember it correctly, it was when my maternal grandfather was still alive. My aunt's husband is from that place so we would visit them and stay for the festival. We had fun going around town and I especially had fun biking around the towns. I think I lose weight while I'm there due to the biking that I do.

One of these days, I would want to go back to that place. Being an island, it's a place where life is slow and relaxed. A place where one can just take a break from the fast-paced life of the city and find oneself.

Happy Easter everyone!

Singapore

Singapore was everything that they said it would be. What really struck me was how clean everything was. You could probably drop a piece of bread on the floor and you can still eat it without fear of germs. And heck, tap water was potable! It's been a very long time since I was able to drink from the tap.

I made the mistake of agreeing with our EA who booked my trip that I was ok to leave Manila at 740PM. I thought that there was a time different so I would arrive at Singapore at 10PM. Just enough time for me to go to the hotel, check in, fix my stuff and go to sleep. Obviously, it was a wrong call. That's why I was not too alert at the first day of the workshop. Good thing our facilitator, my boss (indirect line), was understanding enough to acknowledge that not all of us would be participative on the first day.

When I arrived in Singapore Tuesday night, it was raining. When I woke up the next day, it was drizzling and by the time we were done, it was raining--hard. It prevented me from going around too much.

The whole workshop was interesting though--even if we worked through lunch during those two days. We ended at 530 on the first day and 6PM on the second day. I guess that's why we worked through lunch so we can leave early. Meeting my counterparts from other countries made me a bit insecure about myself and the work that I do. I felt so insignificant and for the first time since I got the invitation email, started to question my own presence in the workshop. I felt I had no input whatsoever as the other countries have better operations and business than what we do. But I learned a lot in terms of improvement of our process and having some sort of goal for my team.

One thing I noticed was that people there work really hard. During dinner on the first night, everyone was so quiet. Either everyone was really tired or everyone's just serious. We had dinner at Peach Garden Restaurant at the 31st floor of the OCBC Centre near Orchard Road. They served Chinese cuisine and it was good. Not superb but good. The portions were small but afterwards, I felt so full! It was 7 courses, I think.

On the second night, I met up with my friends based in Singapore. They took me to Suntech Plaza where we had dinner at Pepper Rice where I had a Chicken with Pepper Rice while they had Salmon with Pepper Rice (would want to try that next time). After that, we went to Carrefour where I bought some pasalubongs.

It was 9pm when we adjourned. Since my friends had work the next day, they took me to the taxi stand where I caught a cab that took me to Mustafa located in Little India. I swear, being in that mall was the longest time I held my breath. I had to go out every few minutes to catch my breath. (You have to go there so understand what I mean.) But it was the only mall open at that time (they're open 24 hours!). I managed to buy more pasalubongs and the tissue box cover that my mother-in-law asked me to buy.

When I woke up Friday morning, the sun was shining! Of all days it's when I'm supposed to leave for home. While waiting for my shuttle to take me to the airport, I walked around the block and check out the sights. Since I'm far from Orchard Road, I was only able to see a couple of temples and more buildings.

The shuttle was prompt in picking me up and when we got to Changi Airport, we found out that our PAL flight was delayed by an hour. However, there are a lot of things that one can do at Changi Airport and the hours can fly by unnoticed. I went shopping, surfed the net (go free internet access!), mailed some post cards and had lunch at Burger King.

When I got home, I still went to Duty Free as Leo was asking for Planters Cheese Curls--which they did not have. So I just bought more Combos and chocolates. Haha.

I would want to return to Singapore someday and hopefully, Leo will be with me. It was an adventure though. It was my first trip alone in 20 years!

Singapore Trip 11-14Mar08

I arrived in Singapore 1130PM Tuesday, Mar 11 and stayed until Mar 14, Friday.

It was a business trip so I was not able to go around that much. I only was able to go to Suntec City Mall and Mustafa. In the morning before I left, I walked around the vicinity of my hotel and took some pictures.

On an frustrating note, when I arrived in Singapore, it rained non-stop. When I woke up this morning to get ready to leave, the sun decided to shine. Argh!

Credit Top Team Teambuilding - 7-8Mar08 Montevista Clark

Our Credit Top Team had a teambuilding this weekend at Montevista Clark, Pampanga.

It was physically exhausting, but fun as well. The only pictures that I had of the event was the wire traverse. Two wires were strung 20 feet above the ground and we had to cross it. Each wire is around 50 feet long.

We arrived at Clark at 830AM and had a breakfast at Montevista. We had our first activity which reminded me so much of a childhood game that we used to play called Dr. Quack-Quack. It is where we literally tie ourselves into knots and we had to untie ourselves into a circle.

The next activity was also as exhausting as it involved a lot of walking. We were divided into two teams and with a help of a compass, we were made to hide 6 stress balls, plot the coordinates in a map and give them to the other team to find and vice versa. With a big area which we can utilise, it took us more than 30 minutes before our facilitator asked us to stop. The other team found 5 balls while we only found 3.

After that, we had the wire traverse. As mentioned previously, we had to cross a wire strung across two poles. We had to wear protective gear and had to have ourselves hitched to a safety harness. It was really fun. I wouldn't have second thoughts trying it again. My arms and body hurt afterwards though. Maybe when I'm more fit.

It was a great experience. I never felt scared that I will fall. I was also able to look down and not get dizzy when I saw how high I was.

Uniquely, Singapore

It's final. I got my invitation this afternoon. I'll be going to Singapore next week for a business workshop/meeting with my new boss. Since my department transferred divisions this year, I not only got a new boss, but a new indirect reporting line in the Region as well. It's good, it's also bad. But it's a new exciting change for me.

I was nominated by our Regional Credit Officer together with my Malaysian counterpart to attend the workshop. We'll be brainstorming together with our new regional boss and some other representatives from other countries on where we will take our respective departments in the next 12 months.

I don't have my travel arrangements yet but the workshop will run on Mar 11 and 12. So that means I'll be leaving Manila on the 10th. I don't know when I'll be returning though. Of course, I want to stay an extra day and do some sightseeing, but it would depend on my boss.

My boss told me to come well-prepared. I need to bring a laptop though and I'm not bringing my personal laptop. I'll see if I can borrow one at work.

So, what can I do/see in Singapore?

=================

UPDATE (04Mar08) - My workshop is scheduled to start on March 12 (not March 11 as I earlier mentioned) at 8AM and will end on March 13 530PM. It's going to be off-site so instead of our office there, it will be held at a place near Bras Brasah. We were recommended to stay at Rendezvous Hotel or Carlton Hotel. My boss' EA is helping me with my flight and hotel bookings. PAL flights that we saw: Leaving Manila on Mar 11 at 740PM; Leaving Singapore on Mar 14 at 1PM (last flight!). We'll just see if I can extend.

Dinnertime Conversation

My father-in-law and I were left at the dinner table tonight and our conversation ventured into politics. I think I was telling him that I saw Erap last Friday when he marched down Ayala in front of our building. The picture above was taken from my office window. Too bad I wasn't able to take a picture of Erap in his red jacket and Maceda's prominent balding head (Hey, that's the only thing you seen when you're 6 floors up).

I haven't written anything about politics as I haven't had time to watch/read about the whole thing. I don't dare get the low-down from the newspapers as they can get pretty biased. My father-in-law advised that before I form my conviction, I should really discern and watch the events as they unfold.

I'm very confused with what is happening to our country right now. One thing's for sure, I'm very impressed with whoever concocted this whole thing. Things happen for a reason and some of them happen because someone let them happen. Something out of the Matrix. There's an Architect who thought of all of these things and like a Director, he/she cued Lozada to come out with his story.

The general sentiment in my floor as the rallyists, especially when Erap, walked by, was that we elected someone to the highest position in the land and we imprisoned him. Now, we're clamoring for the same person that was imprisoned to take up the position again? We're also asking for the President to resign with less than 2 years in her term left.

It's the reason why the politicians who are aiming to run for President on 2010 are not speaking up and joining the hullabaloo. They do not want to jeopardize their chances. I mean, where's Escudero? Roxas? Pangilinan? All I hear speaking are the priests, nuns and some people from the lower ranks. Oh, and there's Cory too.

Hay naku. This is the reason why I don't want to ponder Philippines politics, I just want to pull my hair out in sheer frustration.