Ok, that’s quite a long gap from my last post. Good thing my domain hasn’t expired yet or else I would be asking my wife to get me a new one! haha.. Well well, there have been a lot of things that had gone through my life - places visited, brother-homecoming, Christmas season, Valentines, work,work,work…. and more work.

Let me skip the chronic and boring part-”work” and give you a quick rundown of the good stuff!

Here is the Top 5 of my happenings (in sequential order)

In the number 5 spot is the most awaited homecoming of my brother, “Dandy” last September 2008. My younger “Utol” is going to settle down for good as the wedlock plan with her “long-time-long-distance” beloved “Cheryl” progressing to a finish. Good to have him close to home! Congratulations both of you!

………..………..

Number 4 is the long overdue visit to our province, Nueva Ecija, last November 2008. My family had a 2 day and 1 night stay in our grandparent’s house as we visited a couple of relatives, walked around the farm and of course went to the cemetery to give a prayer for Tatay.

3rd on the list is Christmas Time! This is very special to us because it’s the first Christmas we’ll be celebrating with Dandy since he decided to be Arab-”ish” for so many years… haha. I almost thought he was having a great time in Saudi that he stayed there for 6 years straight. But the truth is I know it must have been a piece of hell being away from his loved ones. Here is a glimpse of our Christmas bonding..

Top 2 would be our Bohol escapade (January 17 - 22, 2009)!! After all the drained energy from the resonating work all-year-round, my wife and I finally had our chance to unwind and recharge in the exquisite beauty of Bohol. With the wondrous tourist spots and beaches, we made it to a point to dispose our time exploring and experiencing the island. And with our little Greggy on board, there is no telling when the fun will stop. This is our birthday gift for him on his 3rd year by the way.

Top 1 is my not-so-frequent-date with my wife last Valentines Day. I must admit that our time together (other than the fact that we are working in the same building with 1 floor apart) had greatly diminished since we had little Greggy always on the scene. I’m glad we agreed to have a movie and dinner date since she is after all not a movie buff. But since it’s a Tagalog-Romantic film that most women love and this one having it’s first installment a reputation at that, she is the one who invited me first. We’ll what can I say, it’s a good one indeed.

So there you go, my 5 picks for the worth reminiscing happenings in mid 2008 to present. I just hope that when I resurface, I won’t be stacking another list for being out in a long time again. God bless you all!

It’s been almost 2 months now that I was transferred to SITC (one of our company’s sites) as senior OMD Analyst (Operations Management Desk) and I just want to thank my OMD family in BCT for all the learnings and continuous support I have from them since the beginning… well so much for the jargon..

It was August of last year when this all started. I was a bit growing weary as a Customer Service Representative of a credit card company who lives through a day of receiving all sorts of calls about credit ratings and all kind of financial stuff. Whew! I provide answers to people about finances (almost the same questions I ask myself every day). Haha! Funny huh? It’s an interesting kind of job you know, but when you’re on the same routine for 2 years, you’ll have the feeling of either being too confident that you can carry on a next level position or the jitters of “Oh man I shouldn’t be left behind here, gotta keep up the phase” kinda-moment-to-myself. I think a fitting description doesn’t matter; what did make sense for me at that moment is it’s about time I move my cheese.

Peace Out boss!

Rocoe I hope you don’t mind (joke!)

Flor ano ba? Not here! Hahaha!

My team manager and I were constantly waiting for an opening to a new position and getting the right timing, OMD just hit the road. With the other 28 applicants I studied it, went for it and luckily passed it. I think I already said it to her but thanks again to Arien who believed in me and (according to her) fought for me in getting 1 of the 2 slots open.. The thought of it makes me smile coz she kinda said it in an intriguing way.. (Peace sister!)

And so I was in. I met a couple of struggles along the way when I was learning their steadfast process which were totally new to me. Not long enough, (Ooops, I hope boss Lhen is amenable with my time frame) I finally learned how things revolved in the world of OMD and I owe it all to the veterans in the team: Will - for your strong words of guidance and advise; Erick - for showing me every corners of eWFM; Roscoe - for trading me your styles and techniques in workforce; Lemon - same with Ros but with a hand or so in my schedules. To my batch mates, Flor - for being a tag partner and good luck as well; Charley - for your assistance in excel and for the awesome punch you’ve given me. Can’t forget that bro!; JC - same with Charley minus the punch, good luck! To the rest, Jong and Rico - for the joke times, sexy times (hehe) and working with you in the team. And lastly to Ms Lhen - thanks for giving me an opportunity and for keeping up with me.. I just want you to know that I look up to your standards and expertise. I just hope that you don’t find it too boring having no one to make fun of jerky fashions anymore… hahaha!!!

Thanks guys! Those were the times…  (sorry these are the only pics I have)

I couldn’t believe that such an awesome and yet unexpected gathering would still come true. For a moment i thought it was just a dream in the past, or maybe just a wishful thinking hoping that it might still happen one way or the other.

It’s been so many years now that Mommy and Tatay parted ways due to a dreadful decease of which death is certain. My dad died of cancer and my mom remarried after 2 years to a wonderful man, hence making our family a bit bigger by having 2 more brothers on board. Sorry I haven’t mentioned it was just me and my ‘utol’ before but now we’re all 4 ‘barakos’.

When I look back I see that it all went well. My mom turns out to be with no regrets, thus happy; me and my bros when all of us combined… we rock! There had been a bit of a problem though. The marrying part was not so delectable to my dad’s 3 little sisters. Well maybe I can’t blame them. It’s so hard to find a gentleman these days who would be more than willing to take over a ready made responsibility and an instant family having 2 kids already. Maybe my 3 aunts just care for me and my brother (Dandy) too much that they don’t want the both of us suffer from step dads who typically displays the ugly character in TV shows and in the movies. Because of that, the gap between my mom and my aunts thicken that communication between them eventually became tantamount to a zero. Well just a bit of justification, only 1 from the 3 is still living here in the Philippines (tita Baby). The 2 already migrated in the USA although once every a couple of years they still fly over here to visit some relatives and as expected, never to my mom.

For 19 years this had been the set up. My mom and our family went ahead with our life and so did my aunts. No more encounters (just them and my mom ok) and no more negative feedbacks as well. This debacle slowly drowned in still waters waiting for some kind of ripple to know what the real score is. I guess finally for 19 years, it proved that the past were all behind them when my Tita Vitaline and her family flew over last Friday for a summer vacation.

From L-R: Me, Tito Ralph, Vivien, Paolo, Tita Baby and Tita Vi

On their 2nd day here in Manila, me and my wife met up with them in Trinoma for lunch and a bunch of catching-up-talks. All of a sudden after we’re done in the restaurant and already walking on some lobby inside the mall, my tita Vi said she wanted to go to my mom’s place (where I also live about 5 blocks far) and see how she’s doing. Wohow, wait a minute! Is this true or what? And I told myself, “Are you dumb? Of course you heard the real thing!”. With not much time to lose, we went ahead to my mom’s and I even called her cell phone for about 4 times while on the way to tell her to get the house and herself ready. I asked my Aunts what would they want to eat and excitingly they said, “Pritong dalagang bukid at inihaw na tilapia” - foods they don’t often eat in the US.

When we arrived, my mom with all her sensitivity and sentimentality wept in tears as tita Vi and she embraced and greet one another. What a pleasant sight… Daddy (it’s what we call our step dad, Maj. Jenie Heyasa) wasn’t there- he and my younger brother Gerald took off to grab the preferred fish at Market Market. Not long enough they made it home with the fish and some refreshments. I called daddy and introduced him to tito Ralph (tita Vi’s husband) first and then to tita Vi. My tita’s first words to daddy were “Thank you”. “Salamat sa ginawa mong pagpapalaki sa mga pamangkin ko, sana hindi ka nila binigyan ng sakit ng ulo”, these were the exact words and for a moment there I felt very gratifying for my aunt and at the same time, I was so proud for daddy. The words were so harmonious and I don’t know why I couldn’t look at them while they’re talking. I just pretended i was doing something else. I don’t know why but i walked towards tita Baby and mommy while they’re checking out the other house. I don’t know.. Maybe I was just too shy to see how would daddy react towards tita Vi’s acceptance and gratitude.

@ My mom’s house

We did a lot of things yesterday- we sang our hearts away using Magic Sing, me and daddy roasted the Tilapia (Catfish) outside by the Nippa hut where my aunts and mommy exchanged stories of their lives, Paolo and Vivien (my cousins) played with my son, Greggy Boy, in all areas of the house. All of them even visited our house and checked how I am doing and it’s a good thing that it seems I didn’t disappoint them.

@ our home sweet home

From 2:00 PM they bid goodbye roughly at 10:00 PM.

Mainly their visit was satiated with talks, talks and talks. It was sad that they really have to go home but the truth is they still have a lot of stories stored in their pockets (specially Daddy who never runs out of them, hehehe…) It was a awesome day! It was refreshing. I felt like Tatay’s presence was just there, standing and enjoying the goodness of being at peace at last.

I had my time with Tatay when he was alive and every minute with him was wonderful. He never failed to show his love and care for me and my utol. Those times were amazing… Uncomparable…

Now, I’m having the time with Daddy, for as long as he’s alive.. He never failed to show his love and care for my me and my utol. These times are amazing… Uncomparable….

Looks like I have no choice but to enter the world of blogging… Well my wife is addicted to it for these past years and I tell you i surely mind her strapped on our computer chair for hours!! At first I really can’t comprehend what’s the big fuss about blogging and I know I get to her nerves sometimes when I pressure her with the time that should have been spent with me. It seems blogging is my rival to her attention!!

Only lately that I’m beginning to realize that it can be a sweet hobby specially when I saw it all that for the many months my wife had been stealing time from me and working on her blog, it really pays off when she took me and our baby in a four day vacation (Island-get-away..hehe) in Boracay last April!!! I didn’t even spend a single cent for that and you know what? All of that was made possible through my wife’s little resource in blogging.

Not only that, when I was almost out of budget last April when I took our house for another stretch (renovation and room extension), my wife’s blog capital saved the day again!

It’s kinda weird that there are some things in this world you just can’t rub off or fight off no matter how hard you try.  What’s even peculiar is you can also get caught in the hook when you thought you’re trying to save someone from it. And that ‘hook’ is not as bad as I thought afterall! I mean I think it’s not bad at all!

This domain happens to be a gift from her… She said I should do some writing if I have some spare time at my disposal. She said sooner I’ll see the beauty that lies with in… We’ll let’s see.. I just hope that having another common ground with my wife will spark up our friendship and hopefully our romance even more…

Thank you sweetie…