2008 Outing: Day 5 (Back to Reality)

The final chapter.

Lessons/ Tips/ Realizations:
1. Set a time for searching the money changer offering the best forex rate... especially if you're traveling with accountants.
2. Bring a pocket calculator. Uber-convenience strategy.
3. Utilize the group-check-in. Make sure there are guys in the group. Their baggage is less less less heavy.
4. Buy a luggage bag. With wheels. Wheels are the ultimate anti-shoulder pain support.
5. Bring water... especially in countries where water is like gold... like HK.

Whew! It was a really tiring trip (and a really tiring post). I declared a self-declared holiday the next day (hahahahaha). And I got the call that presented an opportunity.

I'm cutting this post short. Neway, expired na yung event. Nyahahaha.

2008 Outing: Day 4

Day 4 outing started with pain in my legs and feet, followed by a painkiller, followed by a shower.No time to feel sick.

The excitement gradually blocked my leg pain. Our agenda/itinerary that day includes Ocean Park and Victoria's Peak with Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Well, Victoria's Peak is now called simply The Peak.

Group picture entrance














The rides consists of relatively ancient versions of the EK rides: smaller versions of Flying Fiesta, Space Shuttle, Log Jam. It's fairly excusable since EK is a younger theme park. So, nangyopya sila malamang sa Ocean Park.

Nevertheless, Ocean park had lovable creatures:

Since this is a super-delayed entry na, tinatamad na ako maglagay ng mga pics (So hard to format the layout in blogger) Just check out the Day 4 pics at my Multiply account.

Due to time constraint, we did not ride all the rides. Around 4pm, we then proceeded to Victoria's Peak - The Peak na lang sya ngayon. I've been there when I was a kid, and, Whoa, did things change.

1) A tram is now in place. The train ride takes only a few minutes of inclined position adventure to reach your destination. We took a bus way back then.
2) There's a mall up there. As in a mall with Starbucks. We cannot hinder civilization, I guess.
3) Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum! Camwhore all you want! Pose a creative pose! Too bad my cambatt was low. Kelangan maki-picture sa iba. Honestly, this was the peak of my day. Ang saya pag-tripan ng mga wax statues. If we had more time and if my cam's batt did not fail me, we would've stayed longer.

Since it was the last night of our stay, we HAD to shop. We were too busy busy with touring the places that we had no time to simply shop. We raced back to our hotel, ate cup noodles, and proceeded to conquer the streets of HK. It was past 8pm then, and shops were only up to 10 or 11pm so we had to move really fast. I ended up buying Elizabeth Arden's green tea stuff: bath gel, lotion, body cream and perfume. I wanted to buy an mp3 player (I've been wanting to buy one for three years now), but...no player was asking me to buy it. So... I just bought those yummy Milo Energy Bars (hindi tulad nung andito, mas masarap). And being the accountants that we are, we toured the place to search for the store offering the cheapest price for this. Actually, we searched the place for an open store that time. Period.

After being slightly lost, we dragged ourselves back to the hotel. Though I wanted to collapse in the sofabed, I had to pack. Now my beloved luggage was really bulging with all the pasalubongs and souvenirs.

Collapsed to sleep around 3am.

2008 Outing: Day 3

It's like the busy season. You have a lot to do. You have little time to sleep. And you have limited funds.
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And the day began with another earlier-than-work shower, and a no-rice buffet breakfast. Squeezed some time to change currencies (where the CPA in me is already tired of computing forex gains/losses effects). We, Skywalkers, quickly made our way to Macau tower. The weather was cooperating so far.

The Skywalkers (see Day 2 entry) spent the morning Skywalking while the rest toured the rest of Macau. We were scheduled to ride the ferry crossing to HongKong at 1:15pm. We arrived in HK around 3pm, I think. Slept on the ferry to recharge my already tired body.

We kids proceeded to Disneyland while our seniors were very nice that they took our luggage to the hotel. Since Disneyland closes at 8pm, we had to Amazing-Race-run in HK's MTR (Mass transit Railway, a.k.a. HK's super more high-tech version of MRT)to get to Disneyland. Observation: The structures in Macau were more cool and sophisticated compared to HK. And Macau is also cleaner.

Despite getting slightly lost, still found time to take pics:
Observation: HK people are not that friendly. Or just not that friendly to tourists. They seem to be always in a hurry, it's hard to ask for directions. And their English is not that good too.















Found the Disneyland Line! The Disney line had its own Disney train with the Mickey Window. Kawaii!










Disneyland was really really MAGICAL. Growing up with Disney cartoons and singing Disney songs all my childhood, this is really the most magical/amazing/fantastic/spectacular part of our outing. They were playing Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid which was nakakatindig-balahibo-sa-kilabot. I became a kid again.












We made the most of what we time we had left. Surprisingly, Disneyland was quite small (but still magical) , we were able to tour it that time. We opted not to ride some rides because of them are actually kiddie rides. There was a Mickey Mouse (and Minnie Mouse I think) mascots available for picture-taking purposes. But the line was quite long, and given the limited time, we opted not to queue. I'll do that next time. hehehehehe. =)

With 3D Glasses:
Be sure to watch the 3D when you go to Disneyland. Walang sinabi Rialto ng EK. Not really comparable pala.















Narnia pic. BTW, Narnia - Prince Caspian - was great! Watch it!




















Sleeping Beauty Castle: Day and Night version. There's always a fireworks show at 8pm. Amazing amazing fireworks!
Castle + Fireworks + Disney Songs = Disney Magic












Shopping at Disneyland. Though I think I should've bought more and more. Party as a kid. Pay as an adult. Some of the items were quite pricey. Really pricey. Lesson: Budget a lot for Disney shopping. Their mickey mouse cookies look cute, but they do not taste the way they are priced.

I WILL DEFINITELY GO BACK TO DISNEYLAND! More pictures in my Multiply account.

2008 Outing: Day 2

After 4 hours of sleep, my second day begins with an early-early-early-earlier than-an-officeday shower. Followed by a no-rice breakfast buffet. Lots of fruit, bread, cereal, potato and bacon, but no rice available.

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We began our tour by walking walking walking to Senado Square. Here, we found the Macau branches of Starbucks and Mcdo... where prices are a bit pricey.

Senado Square boasts plenty of shops to shop. The shop-owners have limited English vocabulary so it is quite hard to ask for more information about their products. E.g.Question: "Do you have any other colors of this product?", Answer:"--blank stare--, thenthy pahtahcas" - that's twenty patacas. And I remember our somewhat-deteriorating English-speaking country. Even though the Philippine's English is deteriorating , we can understand the question. We just provide a barok answer.

After touring the place, we made tambay at the fountain... and eventually found... a flag...THE FLAG

And we saw a team... And although this is the peak, the height and the moment of all moments in Macau, I couldn't put into words what we witnessed. I might accidentally spill spoilers of the future Amazing Race Season. Hahahaha.

After Senado Square, we Amazing-Race-quickly ran to the bus stop. Our next stop: Macau Tower. And guess what we found:

No close up shots allowed. Pinagbawalan kami. Too bad. =(

The majestic Macau Tower. We climbed up the 61 floors or 338 m/ 1109 ft (passing a yellow and red flag along the way) of the Macau Tower. This is the highest building height I've climbed to date.

Viewing Deck shots:

The scene was breathtaking. It was quite cloudy that day so some of the view was quite...blurry. It must be quite amazing when its a sunny day, or at night.

What to do in Macau Tower:

A. Bungy Jump - jump freely with a harness - expensive and scary

B. Mast Climb - climb the tower - tiring and expensive

C. SkyJump - jump not-so-freely with a harness - relatvely inexpensive but still expensive
D. SkyWalk - walk around the top of the tower - for me

We opted to do for the Skywalk! These pictures were actually taken in Day 3 since our walk was postponed due to the uncooperative weather.

Our next stop was Fisherman's Wharf.

It was raining when we walked/dragged our feet to the place. Our partner treated us at a restaurant there. Yay! Ambait! Swerte namin!=) The restaurant was actually staffed by Filipinos: chef, waiters, and the manager. Then to burn of the calories of the meal, we walked, walked and walked around:

Before going back to the hotel, we watched and watched the Wynn fountain shows again. Then I collapsed in my bed with uber-sore feet.

2008 Outing: Day 1

After the journey of passport processing, places to visit research, rechecking of things to bring and saving like crazy... Here we come Macau and Hongkong!

What is so special with this outing?

First, the international outing planred pushed through. We travelled two Asian countries: Macau and Hongkong.

Second, this is a vacation... WITH ACCOUNTANTS. Since this is a overseas outing, this entails changing of currencies used. Which means there are four currencies involved in this outing: the Philippine Peso (PHP), US Dollar (USD), Macau Pataca (MOP) and HongKong Dollar (HKD). Although the HKD is accepted in Macau, it will save you more since the equivalent of 1 USD is greated when converted to MOP than HKD. So why did we convert our PHP to USD in the first place? Waaaaah. Pagod na ako. Ayoko na ikwento. My point is, considering that this outing involves all these currencies, the accountants in us yields us to compute, convert and hedge. It's not just our work anymore, it has become a part of out life.

Third, I really bonded with my batchmates. From the CR-scheduling to the Amazing-Race-line itinerary, we really got to know each other more. Wheeee!
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Our flight was 12:30 pm. THe recommended boarding time is 3.5 hours before the flight, which means 9:00am. I got there 10:00am. Hehehehe. Good thing my lovable officemates did not check in yet - as I wanted a group check-in to dissipate the weight of my i-think-was-overweight-according-to-our-weighing-scale luggage.
Airport pa lang, picture taking na!

It was a 1hour and 45 min flight. Picture-taking pa rin upon arrival! In the right picture, the one not smiling was not my officemate.

After about an hour of resting in the hotel (where we didn't really rest because we were under schedule), we proceeded to the Venetian... by walking and taking the free shuttle...Hehehehe.

The Venetian is where the "West meets the East"... or something to that effect.














I dunno if this is an imitation of The Thinker . But this is not a statue, it is really a person, which moves and moves when go give money. hahaha!

Nice ceilings of art.













No picture taking in the casinos though. The casino is currently the largest in the world at 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m²). Madaming pinoy ang nagtatrabaho dun. We even got to chat with one, and asked for free drinks... coke, orange juice, coffee and milk tea. Hahahahaha. I played the slot machine. Minimum bet was MOP 20. Won MOP 4, but I did not cash it. Played again. And lost. There goes my MOP 20 X 6 = Php 120.

After the Venetian, we then proceeded to the Wynn Hotel. (There's also a Wynn Hotel in Vegas. Watch the movie 21.)
Picture taking at a fountain on the way there.













We arrived just in time for the fountain show.The most amazing and coolest fountain show ever!





More pictures in my Multiply .

This is the busy season

Forwarded to me. Dunno the author. I can relate. =)

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Ladies and Gentlemen:
I would like to take a brief moment to explain to you what is known, in some circles, as "busy season". Here’s a hint before I get started though – it’s a season and it is very, very busy. Shocking, I know. If you’re an auditor (i.e. the last legal form of indentured servitude) or you have friends who are, you know this term well. Between January and mid-March, your ass belongs to whichever public accounting firm you have been fool enough to sell it to for the tuppence that you have agreed to accept as biweekly pay. You get to work at the butt-crack of dawn and routinely watch the sun rise from your desk. You see the cleaners so often, you now know the names of their children in ascending order of age and the name of their favorite pop group. You work through what used to be your lunch-break and is now just the ten minutes (usually around 3:45pm) during which you run to the bathroom, check your voicemail, check your email and/or catch your breath. You deal with bitchy clients, bitchy managers, bitchy receptionists, co-workers who used to be congenial but who are now just bitchy because they can’t stand busy season either. You get fat because of all the other things that your firm has denied you (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), it will provide you with the equivalent of your body weight in food with the highest caloric content possible. Here’s a snapshot into the snack-drawer (more like snack-closet) at my most recent busy season client – KitKat, Cheez-it, Cheetos, Doritos, Lays, Twix, Hershey bar, Ferrero Rocher (we’re classy, y’know!), Twix, Twizzlers, Reese’s Cups, Pringles, cupcakes, fruit snacks, yaki soba? -- all in bags weighing about a hundred pounds each. And what happens when you get frustrated, irritated and all-round aggravated? You reach for the snack drawer and pretty soon, your sizeable arse can no longer fit in your pathetic Office Depot swivel chair.

Of course, because of all the snacks you’ve been eating, you begin to break out, so you’re not just fat, you’re pimply and ugly too. This brings with it a wave of self-consciousness and low self-esteem comparable only, perhaps, to your ‘awkward teen years’. Perhaps. Your teeth begin to degenerate because you’ve basically been surviving on pure sugar and where do you think you’re going to find the time to visit a licensed dental professional? Not this busy season! You better pray your teeth hang in there till April.

When you notice the sun setting, you realize the second part of your day is just beginning! Your shoes start coming off under your little desk and you start getting real comfy – maybe you’re even sitting Buddha-style with your firm-issued laptop sitting beside your fifth cup of coffee of the day. The air-conditioning goes off, the client is long gone, the fatigue and the depression set in because you realize you’ve still got a full day’s work ahead of you and the partner’s just shown up. When you eventually get to leave work, your friends (remember those people? No? I didn’t think so) are practically already in bed. Oh, let’s talk about that – personal relationships. They’re shot. Just forget it. They’re shot because not only do you not really have any time to commit to nurturing these relationships, you’re so burned out from the day that the little time you do find to converse, you’re irritated, wired and snappish. So let’s recap; your formerly fabulous self has become an over-worked, under-paid, burned-out, pissed off, fat, pimply, love-less, friendless, sleep-deprived, caffeine-dependent mess, ticking and tying from here to eternity.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is busy season

Tambay sa Office

Ang office kapag may tao:











Ang office kapag walang tao:














Bakit walang tao? Kasi, Sabado. Ang sarap kasi mag-work eh. =)

Bakit ako nagtatagalog ngayon? Wala. Mas safe, para hindi ma-correct yung grammar ko. Hehehehe. =)

Screen Staring

It is a syndrome that occurs when:

1. You are bored at work and you'd like to pretend you're doing something.
2. You have to type something but you can't put it into words.
3. You are staring at a optical illusion picture in an email.
4. You would like to update your blog but you don't know what to blog about.

I stare.
And stare.
And stare.

Busy vs. Slack

Slack
1. There's people in the office.
2. By the time you arrive at the office, all the seats are taken.
3. The Internet is the primary source of entertainment.
4. No ovetime nor reimbursements in your payslip.
5. You can still see the sun when you go home after work. At least, sunset, hindi na sunrise.
6. You have time to watch the movies, but you don't have the money to watch them.
7. It only takes you one minute to make your time report.
8. There's nothing to do.

Busy
1. You don't see your officemates during the day.
2. At daytime, there's a lot of free seats. By nighttime, all the seats are taken.
3. There's no time for entertainment.
4. Your pay almost doubles because of overtime pay and reimbursements.
5. You can see the sun coming up when you go home after work. Hello sunrise.
6. You don't know thw movies. You don't know the TV. You just know your deadline.
7. You have a complicated time report. You don't have time to do it. You ask others to do it for you.
8. There's no one to do it.

Congrats Lessa and Levs!

One Dreamplace Down...

I voted for an international outing (Macau). But it was too expensive for a 3D2N summer outing. So the cluster opted for a 3D2N local outing. It was relatively less expensive... And to my greatest joy, the local outing was in Palawan! Yay!

My first airplane ride was 15 years ago. And I didn't remember how it actually felt back then. Sosyal, naka-plane pa kami. =)

With the OC2 cluster new staff... the babies. The young, fresh and vibrant.

Boat ride to Pandan Island. May epal na boatman (naka-shades).

Tambay sa beach at kalimutan ang trabaho.

Sabang beach for Underground River.

Oooohhh... clear blue waters.....

Palabas ng cave...este... Underground River nga pala

The young, fresh and vibrant new staff... looking towards beyond and after....blah blah

Had a blast in Palawan! I hope I can go to Coron and El Nido too. Someday... *sighs* *daydreams*

San kaya outing next year?

San na kaya ako next year?

Maybe here. Maybe there. Maybe nowhere.

March na pala

Huwaaaaaaaat!!!!??? March na pala!

Pano nangyari yun?

Time. Sometimes so fast. Sometimes so slow.

Talong swelduhan na lang, April 15 na...

2006 The year when

...I graduated
...I got my CPA license
...moved out of the house (well, not entirely)
...started real work
...spent half of my non-expendable savings
...my gadgets had their first birthdays
...our dog had its first birthday
...cooked to feed myself...daily
...bathed in cold water...daily
...I renewed my driver's license which I don't use
...turned 22

You realize that you have a new chapter in your life when you create a new folder in

your "My Pictures" folder.

I just created a new folder under "My Pictures" named SGV.


A big year. Cheers to 2006, welcome 2007!

Moving

Due to the forthcoming late hours required by my work, I've decided to "join the bandwagon" and rent a place in Makati; 5/7 days a week for the next six months. The Ayala-Tandang Sora taxi fare costs too much, and I am scared to ride the bus late at night. So the logical step, is to rent a place nearby.

The apartment reminded me of the one we lived in Pandacan when I was a kid. But our rent back then was only Php1,500 per month. Now that Php 1,500 is less than my share our rent expense for one month.

And the adjustments I'll have make...I guess I'll have to learn to how to cook. I mean really cook. I don't think I can live with fried stuff and itlog na maalat for six months. Then I'll have to adjust to the fact that I will have roomates. There will be no food when I wake up and there won't be food when I get home.

Well, that's growing up. That's life. I'll start growing up tomorrow.

Yuppie

According to my econ prof, the term yuppie came from the acronym YUP :Young Urban Professional.

Work. Work. Work.

The commute. It is not much different from my commute when I was an intern. I ride the MRT, then walk approximately the same distance. Only this time, I get off Ayala Station. Walking is no problem. I like walking. Walking with heels.. now that's a problem. Who invented the heels anyway? They are pleasing to the eye, but torture to your feet.

The people. So far, our cluster has 9 new hires. Only 2/9 are guys. 7/9 of those hires came from UP Diliman. And a lot of the other not-so-new staff are from UP Diliman.

The attire. Well, I've told you about the shoes and the heels. Let's add the stockings to the problem. And there's the blazer - the ultimate touch to a formal business attire. It is fun to dress up for work. Only, my wardrobe has limited office-attire-looking pieces. I need to save more funds for that.

The salary. Let's not talk about this. This is depressing.

The job. The first day was spent placing 3,000 letters in envelopes. I am now a master of folding and sealing letters in envelopes. The next day, I went to my first fieldwork. I was deployed without training, so I did the no-brainer tasks. My ears pop when we ride the elevator. Imagine being plunged to the ground floor from the 49th floor. Watching my in-charge, I think that the job is not difficult, but it is extremely stressful. I feel guilty when they make me go home at 7:00pm when they work up to 2:00am. Well, after the training, those days will come.

Our formal training starts next week. That means we are excused from doing fieldwork and we can go home at 5:30. And after the training, no more excuses from 16 hours of work per day. I'm both anticipating and dreading that.