Simple Pleasures

I will never forget my first birthday here in Singapore.

I started my birthday at 12:30am in the morning working for my Indian counterpart on a site launch for my client. I was working, with my sleepy head almost hitting the keyboard, until 2am.

I woke up at 8am to rush to work in the morning, doing my usual routine of several phone calls and work to be done. I finished my slide presentation for some presales work in India .

In the afternoon, my boss suddenly called me to the office asking how things were going in my current projects. I thought it was the usual chitchat that bosses do to their subordinates but lo and behold, my team mates barged in the room with a birthday cake and singing happy birthday. I never thought this guys would even remember my birthday. My boss planned for it a week before. No wonder Jojo was asking if I will be in the office tomorrow. I better find a way to treat the boys out one of these days. I looooove the surprise!

Anyway......

At 6PM, when I was about to clock out, I got a call from my favorite client and conferenced me in with the other guys I used to work with for an EMERGENCY deployment for the same work I was doing this morning. It seems that the end-users has missed something after all the rounds of reviews, approvals and sign-offs. Argh! So I had to call Madi and tell him to go back to the office while I went back to my cubicle to open my laptop and start working again.

At 7:30pm, I got the sign-off from the project sponsor. I instructed Madi that I am moving back home but will continue to monitor the status with the end user. In the train, I kept track of my email and nagged my end-users, thanks to pocket PC technology. It can do wonders and even work as your mini office while on the move.

At 8:30PM, we reach Sembawang MRT. Jojo bought some chicken wings to go from Cavana for dinner while I was tapping away in my PDA before heading home. At quarter to 9pm, I got home. Charl was cooking the spaghetti for my birthday and took home an ice cream cake from Swensens. God bless her! I stopped working for 30 minutes to enjoy my birthday dinner with two of the dearest people in the world. Got my birthday song on video but I promised Charl I will never post it haha.

After that, I went back working. Even troubleshooted one of the Javascript code of this one Indian lady who is supposed to troubleshoot it for us. What happened to the chivalrous developers who is always two steps ahead of everyone? Madi and the boys were able to finish the deployment at 11PM. I feel sorry for them that they had to stay up waiting for my end-users to clean up the mess. I'll make it up for them someday.

So that's how my birthday went. The surprise and the dinner really made my day despite the stress.

The worst thing happened during the first time I worked out in the gym. I got a bad back during Body Jam class and the worse part is, we are still warming up when that happened.

I signed up for a beginner class for Body Jam in FF AMK and I'm soooo looking forward to sweat out and have fun. The instructor taught the moves which is fairly easy. We ran through the moves for about 30 mins without any effort. But when we started warming up and pushing some grooves, a very sharp pain shot out at my lower back and made me walkout of class in the middle of the mambo routine.

Maybe it was my 15 minute workout at the wave machine that caused it. I missed that machine so much that I decided to experiment on the effort between 8-18. Or maybe it was the forward bending in the body jam dance routine that made my back carry all those extra body weight. Or maybe it was just age catching up on me.

I better focus on improving my core. No body jam for me and start considering Pilates, Body Balance and Yoga. I'm also welcome for other non-back breaking suggestions.

I can't believe my eyes while I was reading Jared's tweeter posts for the past week. If U2 is set to play in Manila in October, I'm soooooooo going home to watch the concert.

i <3 U2.

http://www.u2tours.com/news/article.src?ID=1274

After realizing that my pants no longer fit my growing waistline, I decided to join the gym. I went to Fitness First AMK Hub to become a FF Plus member to get access of all FF Plus branches islandwide paying only SGD 28 membership fee and SGD 150 monthly charge.

My fitness goal is to lose 2 pounds a month which is a healthy way of losing weight. In six months, I should be 12 pounds lighter and fit back in my beloved jeans and slacks.

First 3 months is mainly cardio and some classes like Body Jam then Yoga and Pilates to improve my core. Once my body is able to take amount of workout, I can hit the free weights and even join the Body Pump classes.

Also, I try to walk as much whenever I go home from work. Also, I try to eat more greens in my diet.

Hopefull, I see some results soon.

The waiter approached us as we are having our dinner in Swensen's two days before Valentines. "Hi! Would you like to book a seat for Valentines and avail of our Valentines dinner package.....", he said.

Valentines in Singapore is clearly a commercial holiday. All flower shop stack up their inventory and hike up the prices for as low as 2 SGD per stem. Dinner reservations are full on the date itself. Movie houses (mostly featuring romantic movies for the sake of valentines) are packed. Ladies are considered fortunate to tote a simple bouquet while riding the MRT.

I was not exactly expecting a spectacular valentines day given so much work to do. But Jojo bought me a bouquet of roses with a nice dinner at Toriq (Jojo, I will be your unagi-don for life.... hahahaha) with Francis. And to top it off, Charlotte brought home huuuuge strawberries and Jojo popped open some sparkling grape juice while we are watching an episode "Maging Sino Ka Man" in TFC.

It was the best Valentines day I ever had.

Jojo and my friends have embarked on a trip to Johor Bharu (aka JB) which is located about 30 min from where I live.

Prior to this trip, I was already hearing rumors of the shopping mecca of Singapore despite of its notorious thievery and pickpockets, who takes advantage of its ardent visitors. JB is so near that I can almost see the buildings from where I live (I can even make out the fireworks last CNY from my window view).

We met up at Woodlands interchange at 9AM and took the 950 bus to Kotaraya terminal. The bus had to make two stops to the Singapore and Malaysian immigration to stamp our passports before we reach Johore.

When we got there, the atmosphere is no different from Manila except that the air is a bit cleaner. We had to wear non-descript clothing to avoid attention from the pickpockets. We reached the City Square mall (which was just opening when we arrived) and we had our breakfast in McDonalds.

Food in JB has the same price in SG except that it is in Ringgit! A meal worth 7 SGD in Singapore costs about 7 RM in Malaysia. That is roughly 3.50 SGD using 2 SGD/RM as exchange rate.

After that, the shopping begins. I found a lovely sit strap for my inaanak-to-be in March, a wrist blood pressure reader for Lola Laling, a lady shaver (with the cap missing grrrr) and some consumables that we had to buy.

Jojo found some potential replacement specs similar to his former silouhette brand. Unfortunately, the price is just as expensive as in Manila.

Clothes and shoes are cheap here btw. I just had to stop myself from buying though. Vent out my frustration at Watson.

After going around the mall for half a day and feet already tired, we headed back to the Malaysia immigration and boarded the next bus into the city.

I am sooooo going back for those shoes and clothes. And this time, nobody is going to stop me. Haha!

"Gong Xi Gooong Xi Goooooong...."

This silly hymn of the CNY still kept ringing in my mind.

Later at 9am, I am heading towards the nearest Shop N' Save to buy ingredients for the pasta, which i'm bringing to Claire's All Pinoy CNY Party. I still have yet to decide if I want to toss in the Del Monte Pinoy style spaghetti sauce, hot-dog and the corned beef that I have surreptitiously brought here for the sake of my taste-buds. Who can resist Pinoy style spaghetti (or should I say spa-ketchup).

I'm so looking forward to be in a roomful of Filipinos speaking the same language, laughing at the same old Pinoy hirits and jokes, eating all those glorious Filipino food, Magic sing (I hope there is one) and of course, good old times.

But hey, do not be mistaken that I'm so excited in the party that I cannot sleep. I just can't sleep. Period. Zombified maybe because I cannot do post processing on my truckloads of unprocessed photos. But my eyes are still open wide like it is still daytime.

Maybe I'll try to cook something in the kitchen or do laundry then maybe I will drop on the floor and fall asleep. *blug*

I spent the very first day of the new Lunar year wide awake posting and glossing through friend's photographs in the internet. Images painted things of what has happened during the past few years. This girl is engaged to this guy. My friend's cousin's officemate's dog's neighbor has gone to this place and that.

So much things has passed in their lives. And so was mine.

For those who didn't know, I am engaged to a wonderful man who I'm living with right now. It was so wonderful that my life has revolved around him and work whilst the world kept turning, missing the things that mattered: forgotten birthdays, postponed plans, promises made gone empty. It was a good thing I still got some good friends and family who have knocked me out of my senses to make me put my life in perspective.

So slowly, I am starting to pick up my so called senses, re-established contact with friends and get to re-balance my life. Family still have yet to be worked out given my slight reluctance of their recent comments about my aberrant decision of getting hitched. Mother thought I'm not the "family" type of person. I know domesticity is not one of my best traits. But I do believe that one I get that skill of balance work and personal life, house chores and a hubby to keep happy, I will be doing just fine. I just hope I know what i'm doing.

So far that is in my head right now. Need to sleep now before my eyes gone puffy for lack of sleep. Nyt!