Gusali para sa LP

Isa sa mga pinakamatandang gusali sa Maynila.  Oo ito ay litrato ng isang gusali na matatagpuan sa Maynila.  Kuha ko isang sabado ng hapon na kami'y namili sa Divisoria.  

Maligayang Huwebes sa lahat!! 

Indian Pillows

The start of my Indian-inspired sala make-over...

I drool over bargains like anyone. Especially if i get to buy something expensive at almost 70% off the original price.

  

Bought this babies originally priced 395.00 each at 120.00 each.  Still quite expensive but its really nice and beautifully made.  These are items bought from India, made in India.  I guess a lot of people found it too expensive that Shopwise had to offer it for clearance sale.

Bought this a little over a month ago but just got to use it last night.  Shopwise Sucat finally had the pillows for it.

I intentionally bought different designs as advised by my Mom who was with me when I bought this.  I got 5 pillow cases which turned out to be a problem since the throw pillows came in packs of 2.  Now i need to find another pillow case to make use of the extra throw pillow.

My very first (and maybe last) Prada

I'm not really into designer bags.  But I do recognize and appreciate them  a but for me to buy one is out of the question.  Firstly i dont have the money to buy them and if i do have the money, i wont really spend more than P2k for a bag.  I kind of believe there are more items that'll need more budget allotment than the bags for my use.

Anyway, it was a normal Monday morning yesterday until an office mate came to me and strutted our halls with her latest bargain purchase - 3 PRADA bags,  a green one, a brown one and a blue one.  All authentic with authenticity cards and all nylon

 pradas.  They were second hand items, but who cares?!  One of our lady bosses moved to a new home and cleaned up her closet, wanted to get rid of the some of her items,  that included the Prada bags and priced it at P500.00 each.  yes that's right, a mere P500.00 each.  So my friend, who have announced yesterday as her luckiest day,  happened to be in the lady boss' office for an issue she wanted cleared out, she  grabbed 3 out of the 4 bags being sold and did not even think twice.  

She initially wanted all he 3 bags to herself.  2 hours later, she came to me saying, "I think its too greedy of me to get all 3 bags so i'll just give the blue one for you to buy

, it matches your outfit today."  

There goes the story of my first Prada Bag ever.   

Took me another hour to look it up for the bag's actual value. A flying $600.00 on retail!

Here's the bag, but i have it in Blue :-) 

The Commitment

I have memorized this from Kei Tabbada's poster in one of her apartments in LB.  The one near the moon.  That house with the anthuriums.  

Too bad whoever wrote this was never known.  Or he chose not to be known. 

“Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. 

It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. 

And the actions which speak louder than the words. 

It is making the time when there is none. 

Coming through time after time after time, 

year after year after year. 

Commitment is the stuff character is made of; 

the power to change the face of things. 

It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism." 

I made a promise to my husband and to myself.  Its up to me now to fulfill that commitment.  For everyone's sake, for my family's sake.  Gotta turn this promise into reality. 

Over-cooking charge at Mickey's Deli

Mickey's Deli is unreasonable. Don't you think it's a little too much to pay additional 250% for cooking charge?  

This morning we wanted to have breakfast in their Jupiter branch. The lady in the counter suggested that we just order from their menu, which i said NO to, platter of 6pcs Nurnberger (around 200g) with side dish is at P480.00. Thought of buying different hams and sausages and have it served in a platter. Maybe it'll cost us more or less the same but we get to eat not just sausages. Then the lady said they will multiply the cost by 3.5x for the total bill if we have the sausages cooked. Something like a "cooking charge". At first I thought it was just 3.5%, which is ok. But when the lady computed the 6-pcs of sausage i ordered priced at 140.00, to something like P442.00 including cooking charge, we had to walk out of the place! Come on, additional 250% to have the 6 pieces cooked?? More than the cost of the actual items bought? Way too much... way way too much... Im a big fan of delis, and i love Mickey's Nurnbergers and Sauerkraut. But if this is really a rule they implement. I think they may loose me as a customer. tsk tsk stk Too bad...

The Wean-er is...

We have bean meaning to change Taal's feeding bottles since Nov 2008.  When it comes to personal things, i sometimes get too attched to it which makes it hard for me to let go. Especially when i have been using it for a time already. That's why even if i had issues with Playtex' nipples and the vent-aire seal, i still hanged on to it up until last weekend.  

But hey, I still love playtex' baby products  I cannot be more thankful for their  breast pump which became a good friend for almost 5 months.  And their breast milk storage system which filled our freezer for a while. And Playtex is not really cheap.  I had to save up on some things for this!  I'd still give high ratings for the Vent-Aire bottles.  Taalrarely had colics through-out his infant days. And i'd like to think the bottles worked as it promised.  

I guess a product cannot just be too perfect. The nipples and the bottom seal started to accumulate milk particles even with the thorough washing.  At first I though it was just myYaya not brushing it too well so i started brushing it myself.  Only to have the same un-brushable  remnants in the nipple and the seal.  

The option is to either change bottles or completely switch to Playtex Drop-ins.

The search went on...

The Tommee Tippee bottles caught our attention.  SM's Baby Company was on sale for this kind of bottles.  P1500.00 for a pack of 4 but when you buy individually, its at P399.00 each.  We could not gamble P399.00 that time we were there. 

We initially tried the Even-Flo bottle by buying 1 piece for P199.00.  And after trying it out for 2 days, we had to say goodbye to that P199.00 purchase.  Taal did not like it.  

Last Saturdays trip to the baby store made us again explore our options.  

And we found this quite interesting... The Breast Flow bottles...

I then asked the merchandizer to talk me into it.  Its specs and features... 

Which made us more interested.  

At P550.00 for a pack of 3 bottles, it wasn't so bad!  So we purchased it and crossed out fingers.  The bonus feature, which my husband only realized after we got home, is the bottle cover fitting unto the base so it wont get lost.  Bottle covers getting lost ruins my day.  Thank God they thought about it!

The conclusion?  We found a winner! Taal's been feeding on it for 6 days now  :-)

Sad part is the saying goodbye and packing up of the old Playtex bottles.. I gotta get over it somehow..

Life Studies

The 400 pesos worth of books and magazines bought last Saturday consisted of four hardbound books and a 2-in-1 pack of Time Magazine.  

In an aisle full of books on sale, its quite hard to find a good book given the limited time. 

It was the cover that caught my attention.  Yes that naked lady caught my eye.

Today, I decided to bring with me Life Studies by Susan Vreeland.

I just finished 2 chapters and I'm already loving it.  

Its a collection of short stories of ordinary people then.  Painters and artists who made our world more colorful now.

At P49.50, i think this is one of the highlights of my week! 

Read more about it here. 

Black Saturday at Glorietta

Last Black Saturday was spent in Glorietta, Lunch with Julie and Ate Lulu at New Bombay in Glorietta 3. This was Ate Lulu's post-birthday celebration. 

   

Taal had the spinach rice and ada enjoyed her Chicken Biryani and Chicken Curry.  The restaurant, having just opened after the Good Friday closure, did not have much available in their menu.  I feel like they only had what we ordered, Chicken Biryani, Shrimp Biryani, Spinach Rice,Chicken Curry, and a really spicy vegetable dish i cannot remember.

Thanks to ate Lulu who paid for lunch and the coffee after.

After we said our goodbyes to Julie and Ate Lulu, we had a few stops to make. This day-out costed me almost 2 thousand pesos of worthy buys.

P550.00 - new bottles for taal

P130.00 bag organizer for Mama

P100.00 yosi and napkin

P100.00 coffee for papa

P150.00 scrapbooking materials for ada

P400.00 books and magazines

P300.00 yummy snacks

P200.00 toll fees

Why am I writing this down?  I had to remember where my money went!  

Turning a Boring day into an Exciting one - yeah yeah...

Its Day 3 of my office life without the Boss.

My Boss is in the US of A with his family for a month-long holiday. As of this moment, based on my calculations, they have just arrived in their hotel in Lake Buena Vista, for a late-check in.  They were in San Francisco for 5 days.  Tomorrow, they will start the day as early as 8am to use their 6-day Disneyworld premium hopper tickets.  

Why do I know all of these? Don't be surprised.  I would not be called his "executive assistant" for nothing.

Last night, i had to be on the phone with our office guard

 for 30 minutes for a step-by-step instruction. Had to pull out a file from my archive so it can be sent it to the US via fax.  Because the Boss could not have received that envelope with his Disneyworld tickets upon his check-in in his hotel at this very moment.  And so far, I have not received a text message from him asking why his tickets are not there.  So i guess the after-office-operation

 last night was a success.

Everyone's actually surprised to still find me sitting here on my desk even if the Boss is on leave.  They're all saying i should also file a vacation. 

I just thought i could do more here.  Its starting to become boring actually.  And I'm just on Day 3.  I still have to wait 20 more days for the "real work" to start coming...

But for the mean time, here are some of what i thought i should start working on, equally important as the "real

 work": 

1.  Time to work on my eternal-pending files for filing. I hate filing.  If there's anything I hate with my job, its the files.  The paper files.  My soft files i can handle

 even with my eyes closed, but paper files, i just hate it. Hay, Have no choice but to deal with it though. 

2.  PC clean- up.  Which i cannot do if the boss is around.  My 300gig worth of files for clean up will require a lot of time.  I started it last week with the

 archiving of old soft files and burning it into DVDs.  But had to stop, ran out of blank DVDs.

3.  Paper shredding.  This is fun for the first 2-inch pile of confi docs for shredding but with the almost 6 reams of papers for shredding, I have to ask a janitor to do this.  I need to do the sorting myself  though.which ones to shred and which ones  to recycle for scratch paper. 

Well, that's it for the day.  YeY with sarcasm... 

A Tagalog Movie Marathon Easter

My easter was spent at my parent's house. Cutting curves while watching some of the more recent tagalog films. I know its been months since these movies were shown, but im not really a fan and a bit "choosy" on what tagalog movie i will watch. So it was One True Love and You Changed My Life afternoon for us yesterday.  My say on each film? here goes...

One True Love - a very mature love story . Story plot was good.  

All 3 lead characters did a good job. 

Iza Calzado was really good.  Being the contrabida and the not-so-contrabida,  Her character will make you think all through out the movie whether she should be hated or not.  Or she would actually do something "heroic" or not. 

Marian Rivera portrayed a serious role here.  Full time drama.  And she pulled it off quite well.

Dingdong Dantes, the hunk that he is, can really act!  And in this movie, he expressed his character quite well.  

For a tagalog film, i'd like to give 4 stars for One True Love.  **** 

You Changed My Life - more for the kids, if you ask me.  Unlike the first one, this is a complete disappointment for me.  The plot was very predictable. I guess this sequel did not have the "kilig factor" rate as the first one.  

If there's anyone i really like in the Star Circle generation, its John Lloyd.  Good looking and a good actor.  If not for him, i would not even bother watching this.

I like Sarah Geronimo's shoes though...

Over all, 2 stars. For John Lloyd, for the effort, and for sarah's shoes. :-)

Where is love?

Where is love?
Does it fall from skies above?
Is it underneath the willow tree
That I've been dreaming of?
Where is she?
Who I close my eyes to see?
Will I ever know the sweet "hello"
That's only meant for me?
Who can say where she may hide?
Must I travel far and wide?
'Til I am beside the someone who
I can mean something to ...
Where...?
Where is love?

Who can say where...she may hide?
Must I travel...far and wide?
'Til I am beside...the someone who
I can mean...something to...
Where?
Where is love? 

Handy Manny

I just can't seem to get the music out of my mind. 

Been spending my usual teleserye time to Handy Manny moments with Taal.

The funnier thing is, i actually look forward to how Manny will fix whatever is broken!

Sheesh!!

Paboritong Litrato para sa LP

Ito ang paborito kong litrato.  Simple, pero may dating.  Hindi yung tao ha.  Yung kabuuan ng litrato.  

At asawa ko nga pala yang nasa litrato.

This is my favorite photo I took so far.  This is a classic example of beauty in simplicity.  I mean the over-all concept of the shot, not the person in the photo per se.

By the way, that's my husband in the picture. :-)

13 Ways to Avoid Burnout

13 Ways to Avoid Burnout  Source

by Alyssa Gregory

When you freelance or own a business, it can be challenging to get away from work, especially if you love what you do. This past weekend I took some time off from work for the first time in months, and it was a reminder of how much we need to walk away sometimes in order to stay at the top of our game.

You may not always mind working long hours or weekends, but at some point, when you work non-stop you face the risk of burning out. Which isn’t good for you or your clients. Here are a few things you can do now to avoid burning out.

1. Get Organized

If you don’t have control of the day-to-day business administration activities, it can be a major source of stress. At the end of a 14-hour workday with your nose to the screen, do you really want to deal with two more hours of miscellaneous to-dos that are necessary to keep your business running? I don’t. So I use aproject management system to stay on task, a bookkeeper for my finances and a number of other systems to help my business run without too much daily interference from me.

2. Make a List

I admit to being a consummate list-maker. Without my daily task list, I would be lost in the sea of things that I need to do with no idea where to start. A list can be overwhelming, but it can also be a great way to focus.

3. Prioritize

We all have a million things we need to get done and if you have a list as mentioned above, you know this better than anyone. But luckily, most of our to-dos don’t need to be done at the same time. Take your list (or whatever you use to keep track of your tasks), and break it up into more manageable segments, based on priority. For example, you may have lists for today, tomorrow, this week, next week, this month, sometime in the future. And then mark the most important items on each of the lists so you know those are the things you need to do first every day.

4. Schedule Time Off

If you have a packed schedule, there’s no chance you will be able to take a break or do anything non-work related without shuffling your time and causing more stress. One way to ensure you take time out (30 minutes a day is a great start) is by scheduling in the time as if it were another meeting. In time, this will become second nature to you and will be one of the most valuable slots of time during your day. And don’t forget to schedule a vacation.

5. Know Your Stressors

There are probably certain things that you don’t love about your job, so you probably procrastinate and put them off as long as you can. Then when you finally tackle them, they take longer and are much more painful than they need to be. Be able to identify what these stressors are, so you can create a plan for getting them done and off your list as quickly as possible.

6. Outsource

If you have more work than you can handle and it’s causing you to work non-stop, consider outsourcing. Subcontractors can be a great way to off-load extra work and even the stressors identified above that you want to get away from.

7. Say No

It’s always tough to turn down work, but there may not be a quicker way to burnout than taking on work you really don’t want to do. Create an ideal client and an ideal project and measure all incoming work against that list before taking it on. If it doesn’t meet your ideal criteria, pass it off to a colleague or a subcontractor.

8. Eliminate the Riff-Raff

If you find you have a few non-ideal clients and projects in the mix, consider cutting them loose. This will likely alleviate some stress and free up time for taking on more of the work you want.

9. Set Work Hours

Some of us work better when we have a set schedule. If this is the case for you, try creating work hours. It can be 9-5, 5-9, whatever, but once you set them, stick to them. And that means when the day is done, you’re done…e-mail included.

10. Take On a Different Project

If you’re doing the same exact thing day in and day out, you’re on a fast track to burning out…and maybe some boredom, too. Be open to taking on a different kind of project to add some variety. You might find a new skill and be able to expand your service offerings at the same time.

11. Go Out for a Drink

Or a shopping trip, or an ice cream sundae…whatever your guilty pleasure. Socializing and unwinding can do wonders to stop a path to burnout. And it’s fun!

12. Blow Off Some Steam

This is especially important after (or in the middle of) a particularly stressful day. You need to decompress in order to refocus, and you don’t want the frustration and stress to build and create a time bomb. Do something that can act as your reset button — workout, scream, punch a pillow – and take a deep breath before jumping back in.

13. Go Back to the Beginning

From time-to-time, it’s a good idea to revisit where you were before getting started on your own. What were your first goals? What kept you going? And then celebrate your accomplishments and acknowledge how far you’ve come.

Have you faced burnout? How do you recognize it’s time to re-center yourself?

Photo of man, image credit: Michael Lorenzo
Photo of calendar, image credit: Pawel Kryj
Photo of ice cream, image credit: Sanja Gjenero