021811 Cebu

Cebu is the first historic place in all of the Philippine islands. This was where the first foreigners first set foot in the country. I would not say discovered because the Philippines were already in habited by our ancestors before it was first invaded . But as history tells us, we fought back and hence we have our first ever recognized hero, Lapu-lapu.

Enough with the history lesson. I was in Cebu from February 16 to 18 for meetings with our resellers in the hope of establishing better relationship with them as well as getting orders (of course!). It’s my second time in Cebu already and i appreciate it more this time than last time.

Before I was here for a 4 days event ferrying back and forth for the Hotel and the event venue in SM Cebu plus a few side trips here and there <wink, wink>. So, I wasn’t able to visit much of the city. Now, however, I got the full blast of the city. And, I find it to be a laid back, peaceful city which has much to offer.

Since we have several meetings for the entire 3 day stay, we need to use public transportation. Cebu has some colourful jeepneys, our country’s main form of public transport. Cebu has, in my opinion, an ingenious transportation system.  Each jeepney has a number and letter corresponding to the destination it travels. I already noticed this during my previous visit but has never ridden one since am not familiar with the combinations and the place. In Manila, we had small signage  that let us know where the jeep is heading. See. The number and letter combination is really new to me. Riding the jeepney might not be the most comfortable way to travel around but it is the most economical one since fare cost are just PHP 7.50 minimum. In terms of dollar that would be about a penny (I think but I could be wrong..hehehe).  This can get you from one point to another quickly depending on traffic. To malls, to churches, to the market or to other local sites. There are also taxi cabs around the city. Just as plenty as jeepneys but costs higher. PHP 40 flag down rate plus PHP 2.50 per succeeding kilometres. Still not bad if you have foreign money. Taxis are somehow faster since they can go through shortcuts. Another thing that amazed me were Automated Tubig (Water) Machines a.k.a. ATMs.  These are vendo water dispensers! We don’t have this in Manila too that’s why it is SOOO AMAZING for me! HAHAHA. Your PHP 1.00 can give you about a tall glass of water enough to satiate your thirst. This is more economical and somehow more environmentally friendly too than buying bottled water from groceries. It’s amazing right?? Our Account Managers, Molina and Honey (also our Tour Guides to our resellers) also mentioned computer rentals with internet also has vendo machines! Your PHP 1.00 would give you 4 minutes of internet fun enabling less fortunate people access and maintain their Facebook accounts. SOOOOO AMAZING! I think it won’t get any cheaper than that.

Food in Cebu is also OK. There are a lot of options to choose from. Fast food, restos, fine dining, and there’s local dining. Larsian would be the epitome of local dining. Larsian is a known barbeque place here in Cebu where you have to eat with your plastic covered hand. These are clean plastics I assure you. The place is literally SMOKIN’ from all the smoke from grills of over 20 food stalls with offers ranging from pork bbq (there’s a big and a small size), chicken intestines (yes! Cleaned and marinated. This is a best seller), various chicken innards(gizzards, liver, heart.. I don’t personally eat this), chorizo, squids, and milk fish with veggie stuffing to be cooked on the spot to your liking. Plus you can also order siomai (showing our Chinese influence). Rice, the country’s staple, comes in a woven container made from banana leaves (i think) called “puso”. I think a trip to Cebu is not complete without eating at Larsian. This is not a place for people with weak stomachs as the area is like a wet market place. If you are picky, malls have fast food that might be familiar to you. But for the adventurous peeps, Larsian is a great place to eat.

Shopping wise, malls in Cebu has some of the international and local brands in Metro Manila. But for shirt souvenirs, I recommend going to Island Souvenirs where you can get personalized shirts like “Quiti2x loves Cebu” plus other cool designs. There is also a shirt store in Ayala Cebu that has the local dialect as their designs which you can have the store personnel translate for you. Local delicacies?? Try visiting the market for “dangit”(dried fish but I am not sure which specie) and dried pusit (squid) are the best sellers. These are like our take on beef jerky but using fish and squid but these have to be fried before comsumption. Also there’s otap ( a thin type of pastry). Really really good. And there is also dried mangos. I f you’re a guitar player, you might consider purchasing one from Cebu. It’s also one of their best handicraft.

Night life in Cebu is decent. But come to the bars or clubs on Fridays or Saturdays, otherwise you might end-up drinking by yourself. Believe me. I went there on a Thursday and ended up by myself. It’s either that or am not that sociable(hahaha). Mango Square is the place to be to party. Although there are other places to party, I was told that that was the place to be. There is also a comedy bar (22^nd Street) near the square to laugh your hearts out. Hmmm.. I should have gone there instead  right.. Oh well..

This Cebu City immersion would not be possible without our two lovely guides, Molina and Honey. Thanks for everything girls!

 I have just been to Cebu a couple times but it is a place that I would definitely visit again for a vacation. I feel there are still a lot of things I haven’t done in Cebu yet. I hope the next time I visit is for a vacation and not a business trip.

I’d like to end this blog entry with something that I read off a guy’s shirt in Cebu: “HINDI LAHAT NG GWAPO AY LALAKI, YUNG IBA AY BAYOT”[Not all good looking men are straight, some are gay]. Still gives me a smile every time I remember it.

021111 “nega” week

This week might have been the most draining week for me ever!

As always , life in sales is a stressful one. There is s daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly pressure to meet, no, to over achieve targets. Meaning to say, there is and always will be PRESSURE. I am not sure if this is applicable to all types of work. But I’m sure you would agree with me that this is something that we all can manage though sometimes it’s just too much to handle. Right?

Coming into this month with additional pressure for not meeting last month’s target is tough. It’s felt like, you were supposed to  set a stone down already  but ended up getting a bigger stone  to carry. <Sighs> This was like a weight that pulled me down from cloud “eight” (don’t want to use “nine” because I don’t know why there is a cloud “nine” but not a cloud “eight”..WALANG BASAGAN NG TRIP! Hahaha) back to the reality that is my job.

That was where it hit me hard and I mean hard because I just got promoted last week! And not being able to get orders is just freakin’ FRUSTRATING. My frustration led to me doubting myself and  blah blah blah.. I just can’t express it in words how frustrated I am at the moment. But i guess what my throat can’t vocalize, my skin can show! Urgh! I am having a pimple attack that is the worse one that I have had in my life. Before, I just get one pimple at a time and now, i have freakin’ 5. <bleep> <sighs> This might be from the stress that I’m going through. I have somehow asked myself, “is this my midlife crisis??!” I hope not since that would mean I will die by the age of 48! WAH!!!

The weird thing though is I was able to last more than 2 years of pressure and stress. And I am still at it! I tried to look back on the past 2 years of experience that I’ve had and found that I have had the same episode once a year. How quickly time flies by that I don’t even notice me having an “annual midlife crisis”(right?!?) for the past two years. I may just be overly dramatic right?

In my defence, I think it is but normal to have moments like this where you feel so “nega” (negative). The good thing about this is it is a reality check that it allows us to evaluate ourselves: what we did?; what works and what doesn’t; what do we need to improve one; why did this happen; is it just me or something else; and a bunch of other stuff. This might lead to clarity or doubt. In my case, it was doubt. And it was not a good feeling.

I knew I had to get it out of my system. Get the good vibes back. But how do you do that? Smoke pot? Just kidding. The best thing to do might be to acknowledge it, share the feeling  and deal with it the best way you can. I think it would be impossible to rush the good vibes back. But I think smiling would help a lot and surrounding yourself with positivity. I don’t mean surrounding yourself with flowers and bears and butterflies. That is gay not positive..I would know gay <wink wink>. I guess each one of us has our own coping mechanisms.

Would you look at that? Something positive can come from a negative. It’s just a matter of which angle you are looking at it.

020511 personal discretion

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, beliefs, theories, disposition, likes and dislikes, and so on and so forth. This is the definition of being free.

But the question is are we all really free??

There are rules, laws and regulations that we need to conform to limiting all the we want to do.

Let me share a personal story. Since I am a smoker, I need to comply with the laws of the land where I am. For instance, the Philippines has a no smoking policy in public transportation. Violation of this can lead to you pay a fine, community service or worse, 3 days in jail. I was so freaked out when I was caught.

This happened 2 years ago. I normally ride at the front of the jeep next to the driver and I smoke. I knew then that the government, being concerned to their citizen <eyes rolling> announced and publicized the campaign against smoking in public place since smoking is dangerous for one’s health and even more dangerous for others who inhale 2^nd hand smoke.  So there I was half way to finishing my smoke when all of a sudden a police man suddenly stopped the jeepney and asked me to step down from the vehicle. I was super shocked and made a mental run down of what I did wrong .

I was a bit shocked to be brought in a police station. I am a law abiding citizen! What did I do wrong??! The policeman then told me that it was illegal to smoke in public utility vehicle (dendendenden)<imagine this was a sound effect used in movies so reveal something shocking, hahaha> and since i was caught red handed, i needed to do choose between the following options: 1.) go to jail for one day (HORROR! This is not an option for me!); 2.) community service (still not an option, cleaning the streets plus attending early morning flag raising ceremonies for a week. I already have bad skin. No need to darken it with the sun and tarnish it more because of lack of sleep); 3.) pay a fine (seems like the most viable option but i was poorer then than now. So, it’s still a no.). I choose nothing!<evil laugh>. I then knew what I had to do. I said to the police officer with puppy dog eyes that I promise to NEVER do it again and would be a model citizen from now on. A little white lie wouldn’t hurt right. But he was not letting me go off that easy. He asked for an amount which thankfully I can pay but it was big! So I exited through the back door and handed the bribe money to the guy by the door and went my merry way.

So much for fuelling corruption. Again GUILTY as charged with regret (promise!). May be that’s why our country is dubbed as one of the most corrupt in the entire world. The main reason is because not all is willing to take responsibility for their actions.

Which brings me back personal discretion. Yes we have our own disposition but we must exercise it with care. Rules are placed to give order, to maintain peace and to equalize everyone’s right to freedom.

Freedom is a earned and not a privilege but must be exercised with responsibility in order for one to fully enjoy it. So tread carefully. Or your freedom might be taken from you. We wouldn’t want that don’t we?

020211 ranting and raving about two pieces of paper

A month has passed since 2011 began. As always in the life of sales, each month is a stressful one. And I mean STRESSFUL! With quotas to meet, resellers to please, papers to accomplish, programs to run and so on and so forth. Told you it was stressful.

Normally the first week of the month is a time to recuperate and get our bearings right again for another month of full throttle of selling. But on Monday, I got a piece of paper that made me rant.

Exhibit 1: Memo – 3 days suspension

Wah! This is the first time that I have ever received a memo because of tardiness! I have accepted the fact that punctuality is one thing that I really need to improve on. This particular memo is for my tardiness for October. This is equivalent of 3 days suspension. In monetary term, I won’t be paid PHP 1800 plus worth of salary<tear> That would be equivalent to a shopping spree for my much needed new shoes and additional office wear plus plus. By I have no complaints because being late is entirely my fault.

Still debating when to serve these suspension days and if I will be reporting in the office to work or just spend the time in getting valid Ids? Will let you know my decision in future entries.

Since there I got this paper that made me rant last Monday, I was already over it before I went home. Well what can i say, i am guilty.

Tuesday passed. Not much happening.

And now, it is Wednesday. Earlier this day, my boss called me to his cubicle and presented to me a piece of paper that made me rave.

Exhibit 2: Promotion

Promotion!! This just rocked my morning. I remember holding this paper and staring at it in disbelief with my mouth wide open. I was brought back to reality by my boss saying, and i quote, ”umupo ka nga at baka mahimatay ka.” (take a seat, you look like you’re going to pass out). Hahahahah! Embarrassing moment much?? Well, that was how clearly shocked I was about this paper. I recall my boss saying something else but wasn’t able to process it. Did I mention that I was in shock?

The shock came from 2 things: 1.) promotion from product specialist to senior product specialist and 2.) my increase.

The new designation does not entail additional work but more of additional expectation from the management.

The increase was really a big shocker! Although I prayed and prayed for an increase and have mentioned this also to my boss, I never thought they’d give me that much. I won’t disclose my former salary but the new one is just not what I expected.

MY “PAGMAMAYAMAN DAY” CAN NOW BE SUSTAINED!

Hahahaha!

But I promise to myself to SAVE MONEY. It’s a good thing I have a bank account already that has zero balance for quite a while now. If an account corresponds to vault in the bank, mine would have cobwebs and an inch of dust. I hope I can keep that promise.

See how a surprise can come from the most odd things? Mine came from 2 pieces of paper.

I hope you have a surprise of your own too!