FAILED TRIP TO MALAYSIA

Last year, at the height of the airline booking bagsak presyo frenzy that was started by Cebu pacific (with its PISO fares)…other airlines followed suit and among them Air Asia. At that time, my sister was still staying with her BF in Malaysia/Singapore and so my mother and sister decided to take a trip to visit her. It also happened that at the time Air Asia was giving its own gimmick with ‘zero fares’ which is why we were able to book tickets to Malaysia at only PhP500 per person …two-way trip huh! Imagine that! It’s even cheaper than our own Palawan trip at PhP1200 per person and our recent Bohol trip at PhP1500 per person!!! WTF?!?? Good thing too I had a recently acquired passport at that time and so I consented to go on the trip with all four of us girls…that would be exciting! That was last year…this time though it’s quite a different story! As the date of our flight nears I began to get apprehensive that I may not be able to join them after all…For starters, there is the matter of the budget. It had been barely a month when my resources had been severely depleted by the kids’ enrollment and the buying of school uniforms, books and other necessary school stuff and after a month, I have not been able to get back on track with my finances just yet…Then, there is the other matter of the current changes happening in the office…we have a new boss, I have just been recently transferred to a new unit and now have new jobs/tasks that I am still learning to do, new people/officemates to adjust to…so I couldn’t very well just get up and leave them after only a month!?!? So what am I to do???? I guess the fact that this trip was partly unplanned had something to do with it… Maybe it would have been better if we had all sat down and planned this trip together, arranged an itinerary, and maybe even set up a ‘common fund’ to ensure that we’d have money/savings for the event…oh well, as it turned out even Mama was hesitant to leave her teaching job (because classes had already started, in fact last month pa). And what’s more, Marn is back home here in Pinas so I guess the real essence of the trip isn’t there anymore …so I guess we also need to work out the proper schedule din next time… make the trip during vacation time so the Mama will be able to join us…oh well, I sure hope there’s gonna be another time! As it is, only Anna will be able to make good on the trip…alone! Good luck to her! After all, she doesn’t have any family or kids or bf to worry about…go girl and have some fun in Malaysia and Singapore!!!

TRANSITIONS

We're in the midst of numerous changes... we have a new president...and since I work for a government office, it is expected that we would also have a new boss. This has led to some organizational changes and quite unexpectedly... our unit was dissolved. It seems our new boss had no love lost for the media and doesn't fancy himself being interviewed incessantly unlike the previous boss so he deemed it unnecessary. At first we were apprehensive, wondering if together with the dissolution of our unit (comprised of 3 personnel and a unit head), we would also be retrenched. But thankfully, we were not and instead just transferred to other units. What's bad though is that we all weren't together anymore. I'd surely miss the people I have been with these past four years. I would also miss the job of handling media events, a job which I was trained to do in college and which I have been doing for the most of my working life...I also miss reading my newspapers every single day; and always being on the lookout for important news 24 hours of my existence (be it on TV or radio). For a time, I thought I have reached my saturation point of breathing and living on nothing but news...but now that it's gone... I realize I missed it. But I knew I have to accept this... who knows, there just may be something better in store for me.

A NEW REF FROM PAPA!

I received an urgent text from Papa asking me to call him at the office (well, all texts emanating from him are classified as urgent since if you don’t respond immediately he’ll call and ask what’s wrong!) And dutiful daughter that I am, I immediately called him and good thing I did too because it seems he won something in a raffle at one of their golf tournaments (again!). He asked if I had a ref and I told him the one I had came from him a few years ago and it was previously owned by original owners of his condo. I also told him that the bottom part was a bit rusty na and that I was planning to buy a replacement by December…and so he said he’d give me the ref na lang and I could pay for it when I have the money na! So I said YES! YES! YES!...I just hope he doesn’t mean that I need to pay him the entire amount huh? I am thinking maybe half is a good deal…after all I am his favorite daughter???

The hubby and I decided to get the ref immediately that night…so that he won’t have the chance to change his mind! And besides the ref is just placed downstairs behind the guard so we could easily pick it up no matter how late the hour is…and it was a Friday so expectedly they still weren’t home when we got the ref from Ateng at around 9PM. Upon arrival home, we excitedly opened the box and saw that the ref we got was in our favorite color pa – a six feet gray Panasonic ref! Thanks again Pa for an advanced Christmas gift!!!

ATE FELY’S HOME


My hubby’s sister is home after two years of slaving away in Qatar…I am not sure if this is the first time that she’ll be coming home but what I do know is that this is the first time we will be going over to the airport to pick her up. It was just too bad that her flight home is too late (10 or 11 pm I think) but I guess that’s the promo package that she got so who am I to complain. It was a weekday when we picked her up so after delivering the shuttle passengers at SM Fairview, we picked up Kaye and Ditse at SM and went to the airport. Expectedly, we were there early at around 8 so we had to wait for like two hours more before she went out. We ate our dinner there at a Jollibee kiosk inside the waiting area. Much has been improved with the NAIA terminal but it still leaves much to be desired.

When finally, Ate Fely came out, we travelled all the way to Bahay Pare to bring her home to Inang and the others who waited up for her arrival. Of course, we had to stay for the opening of the packages so we can have our share of the pasalubongs… I don’t remember anymore what she got for me or my kids but what I do know is that she gave Jun rubber shoes – black Adidas which is a bit small but can still fit him. And of course, chocolates! We were able to go back home at 2am na…but I’m just glad the hubby is happy not only with what he received from his sister, but also to be able to spend time with her. At least, if even for just a month, they would be able to spend precious moments with her before she goes back to Qatar for two more years of hard labor.