My dad has retired from his work for more than three years now and I miss his office. Yeah, I miss it. He used to have a huge office with a T.V. and couch and his own bathroom. Then they have two conference rooms both with projection televisions so it was really fun when I had to go there and wait for him. My most favorite part was at the back of their building is a small plane which the owner turned into a restaurant. It was so cool! And whenever I go there to eat, I just tell them to charge it to my dad and they would!

It’s just sad that their office had to move because of the country’s bad economy. And the owner of the restaurant had to close it down and tear down the plane because business had gone bad and the plane was already too old to run. Those were the days…

One of my favorite food is fried, grilled or stewed eggplant eaten together with shrimp paste and rice. I could eat that everyday and I won’t even complain. But one time my friend told me that eggplant you won’t get any nutrients in eggplant and it is high in uric acid. Afraid that I might get arthritis at an early age and might find it hard to look for osteoarthritis relief, I started eating eggplant less frequently, which made me sad a little. But then I read about eggplants and found out that it is not high in uric acid and studies even showed that eggplant is effective in the treatment of high blood cholesterol hypercholesterolemia and in the control of cholesterol. Now, nothing can stop me from eating one of my favorite food! I also liked it in the Filipino dish kare-kare. Another thing that my mom does is she stews it and then mashes it together with vinegar and chopped garlic and then she serves it together with salted fried fish. It really tastes wonderful, you should try it.

I love going to Anilao and I meet a lot of interesting people there. One time, the camp where we always go to was full so one of the members of the camp, Doc Willy, offered us his beach house just a few minutes away. His place was really nice and interesting. It’s like a little community of little houses. First thing you’ll come across to is the guest room then if you walk about a few meters away is the kitchen. Just outside the kitchen is the dining area, which is made up of teak outdoor furnitures. Then there’s a flight of stairs leading down to the main house and there’s another flight of stairs leading finally to the beach.

It’s really an interesting and beautiful house. And what I like most about it is the dining area which is shaded by two giant trees. Doc Willy even hired a professional to landscape the whole place. It’s really very beautiful and I’d love to back there anytime.

I’m not a big fan of jewelries but I do some pieces that I love. I really love animal jewelry in particular, like pendants, earrings, etc. Right now, I have a necklace that I wear everyday and the pendant is a tricolor bear. The bear is gold and on one side the bear is holding a bronze baby bear and on the other side the bear is holding a silver heart. Isn’t it cute? Aside from bears, I also dolphins and butterflies. I once had a butterfly shaped ring but I asked my mom to just sell because it was too big and she bought me a a pair of gold heart earrings.

My most favorite piece is a bracelet. I especially love bracelets with charms like my favorite animals, flowers, hearts, moons, stars and suns.

Both my niece and nephew have their own nanny. The other one, Nanny Aiza, will be going home to the province later today and the other one, Nanny Lyn, is still new at her job so I have to help take care of the kids. That’s fine with me because I did take care of them when they were still babies but what I’m thinking is I do have a deadline with my work and I still have some stuff to clean in my room. If only the kids are still babies, I’d put both of them on baby slings so i can still move around and do stuff. But that’s okay, I think I’ll manage. And my dad is also home to help take care of the kids.

The nanny hasn’t been able to visit her province for at least a year. We bought her siblings some food and some toys for her to take home. I’m sure her siblings will be very happy. Nanny Aiza will be back on Monday and I’m really looking forward to hear stories about her trip.

We went to Banawe earlier today to buy tires for our car. One of the tires is already oblong and sometimes the car wiggles because of it. Anyway, while looking for tires, we also looked for new car accessories. Then we saw these billet grilles and I thought they looked cool. Another thing we did is to have the window tints replaced. They still looked fine but there are a couple of small scratches on the side and on the side windows. After that, we had coffee at one of the cafes there. There are actually a lot of restaurants in Banawe but what I’m really looking for is Cajun Burger. Yep, it’s the same one in Glorietta Food Choices and someone told me that they also have a branch in Banawe but I’ve never been there. I just love their burgers! You must try it!

My niece turned four years old last August and she nows chooses what she watches on television. She switches channels from Nickelodeon to Cartoon Network to Disney Channel. And of course she often sees High School Musical on Disney. One time when we were on the mall waiting for her mom, she asked to buy her a High School Musical DVD. So when her mom arrived she bought her the first part. Next time we’ll buy her the second part. There’s also a stage play of High School Musical here in the Philippines and if she can understand already what a play is, I’m sure that we’ll also be lining up to get High School Musical tickets. She’s really growing up so fast and she’s so smart!

Aside from Lange Sohne watches, Germany is also famous for Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest is a 16 day festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany during late September and early October. It is one of the most famous events in the city and the world’s largest fair, with some six million people attending every year.

Here in the Philippines, the Oktoberfest is celebrated all throughout the archipelago. The Philippine Oktoberfest starts every first of October and ends thirty days later. The event is marked by concerts and parties usually sponsored by San Miguel Corporation and Asia Brewery, the top two beer companies in the Philippines. If you’re interested in joining in the fun, check out the schedule below

September 28, 2007:
Metrowalk Parking Lot
MEPZA Football Field (Mactan City)
Victoria Plaza Mall Parking Lot (Hi-Way Bajada, Davao City)
Magsaysay Drive (Olongapo City)
SideStrip, NE Pacific Mall (Cabanatuan City)
Pacific Mall (Lucena City)
Paseo de Sta. Rosa (Sta. Rosa, Laguna)
Penaranda Park (Legazpi City)
People’s Center (Tacloban City)
People’s Park (Roxas City)
Quezon Park (Dumaguete City)
Provincial Capitol Grounds (A. Velez St., Cagayan de Oro)

October 6:
People’s Center (Tacloban City)
Boulevard (Dipolog City)

October 12 to 13:
SSS Lot (Cebu City)

October 13:
Park 88 (Zamboanga City)

October 20:
Dumangas, Iloilo (Iloilo City)
Otis Mall Parking Lot (Butuan City)

My brother-in law will be leaving for the U.S. later today for a vacation and he’ll be staying there for about 6 months. He’ll be staying with his cousin who is a realtor in San Francisco. When he gets there, they’ll be going to Miami because his cousin just entered the Miami real estate market. He is really looking forward to this because he just loves going to the beach and the last time he went there for a visit, he wasn’t able to go outside of San Francisco. This is so exciting!

I’ve never written about my previous employer before but I think they do deserve at least one post from me. I was in between jobs then when my photographer friend, who worked for them also, recommended me to the cause they were in need of a layout artist for their new magazine. So I went to their office for a very casual interview with the editor and they accepted me right away even though I had no previous experience with desktop publishing. The company was called a Christian company because the couple who owned it were born-again Christians and so were most of their employees.

To make the long story short, I worked for them, I even sacrificed my time for them to meet deadlines and to grant their requests and in return, I found out that they were betraying me and all of the other employees. Every payday they deducted from my salary my contributions for my health care, social security and other benefits that they were supposed to be giving the share too. But I found out that they were not remitting my contributions to these agencies. I tried to talk to them about it but they just always say that they’re working it out and they’re hoping we would understand because the company was experiencing financial instability because of the company.

I’m a nice person so I did that. They even made me work on projects that were not the company’s anymore and I did that cause I thought they were not nice people. What made me hate them is that when I realized that they were fooling other people too. And considering that they were born-again Christians, they acted like they were not Christians at all. I remember one time they asked me to layout their church’s newsletter and they were going me to pay P2000 worth of gift certificates. I refused that job for the simple reason that it’s not part of my duties and responsibilities for the company anymore and that my salary was delayed. So what they did was they offered the job to the other artist and payed him P4000 cash. And when the job was already finished my boss told me that the people from their church didn’t like the layout of the other artist, instead of being thankful to the other artist for doing the job. That’s how bad they were.

I remember our office also, it looked so funny cause the walls were yellow and purple and they placed a peach colored blinds on the windows. And we even have a conference room but there were no conference tables, only a white board and cabinets and chairs. At 6 in the evening, they would turn the air conditioning already, even though there were still some employees who were working overtime, because they were cutting down on electricity. I also remember one time, our salaries were delayed and we had an event one night we were expecting to be payed part of salaries that night. They did not pay us and instead, they asked money from us so they can pay for the event. What kind of company would do that? That’s stupid… holding an event that they can’t even afford.

There’s a lot more to tell but you know just thinking about it makes me hate them again. They owe me more than $1000 and I’m not going to sue anymore because I know that God will take care of them for me. I believe in karma and I’m sure they’ll get back what they really deserve.

To my former bosses, Ms. Grace R. Mendoza and Janelito Mendoza, good luck!