Archive for July, 2008

All that glitters… is it real gold?

July 29, 2008 · Filed under Working Girl

The job offer finally came out of nowhere.  I got distracted last night with all that they were flashing in front of me.  I wanted to reach out for the pen right that moment when she said she’s going to give me one month worth of salary as signing bonus.  It was too easy to grab the pen and sign.  But I stood my ground and said that I needed to discuss the offer with my husband.

Though the basic pay is just a little over 10% increase of what I’m currently getting, it is still above what I’m getting.  Plus there are other benefits that they’ve put it the basket to make it more interesting….the offer was sweetened.  Too sweet at one point, to be honest.

Good thing there’s excel and a sound thinking husband to help me look at the real score.  Though I still haven’t really made up my mind up til now, I wanted, no NEEDED, to see all the angles surrounding this.

The clincher though, I really like what I’m doing now.  It has been something I’ve always wanted to do, now finally it is here and I’m actually doing it.  But I do sometimes get tired traveling to and fro Makati.  It takes about an hour and a half if you’re lucky where traffic is light.  And I used to hate doing different shifts within the week, only because I have teams to look after.  But in my new role, that shifting thing is of the past.

Hay, I’m still praying about it.  Praying hard about it actually.  Until then, I’ll keep doing what I’m supposed to do and be great at that.  Please pray for me, for wisdom to guide me.

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Mama!!! Mia!!!

July 22, 2008 · Filed under Mommyhood, Movies, Working Girl

I had a blast last Friday with my old office gang.  My previous boss, who is also actually a friend and a Kumare at that, came to Manila.  So we watched Mama Mia which we enjoyed tremendously!  I’m a huge musical fan to begin with and I love Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth – which made Mama Mia an all go.  It was fun from start to finish.  Much like how I remembered Sound of Music – I know, I’m an old soul! :)

My Mama’s family is very musically inclined and they have absolutely good taste in music and movies with music.  So I grew up listening to my Mama and her sisters playing and singing with the piano.  Watching musicals on Betamax, Sound of Music was the first then there was Mary Poppins, Snow White on revolving stage.  I thought all kids watched that growing up, but when I talked to my cousins on my Papa’s side, I realized it wasn’t the case.

Anyhoo, love, love Mama Mia.  All the songs are the ones we hear everywhere, anywhere.  Anyone could literally sing with the movie.   I already know what I want for my birthday, an original DVD and soundtrack of Mama Mia.  (Hubs, I know you READ this :)

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

I’m transitioning to a new post and will officially start on August 1st in my new post.  I’m excited and hopeful but at the same time scared and uncomfortable.  I still have a lot of things to learn, new avenues to discover and new territories to conquer.  And I’m going to concentrate on the Asian market, which I hadn’t had time since 4 years ago. But I’m going to work with a new team of people that I know, so that’s comforting.  I do have a new boss and he does sound very reasonable and supportive, plus he’s not based here in Makati :D   He’s based out of Tokyo and will only visit a few times a year.  He’s also agreed to give me more days work-from-home set-up, which I super just love.

I guess the saddest part to all of this is that, I will be losing my team.  The team I have kept and developed to what it is now.  I won’t be a manager anymore.  It is actually bittersweet in a way.  I’m thankful that I won’t be receiving emails/texts even in the middle of the night about production issues or sick leave notices and all of the admin stuff, including bi-annual performance appraisals and quarterly bonus computations.  But I would miss belonging to a team, knowing and seeing them develop gives me personal satisfaction too.

I would have to learn to let go, if not, I’d be stuck dividing my time and effort in a team which I don’t really have to look after.  They call me their Mother (with a British accent of course! haha) and I think I will always have that special place for them in my heart.  And I guess that’s fine too.  I do have a heart big enough for all 32 of them.

 

 

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Banking woes

July 10, 2008 · Filed under Dawter

BPI is our bank – not by choice but by circumstance.  My hubs and my payroll are both handled by BPI.  My parents’ bank of choice is also BPI.  One good thing about BPI is that it has mushroomed all over the place, much like Starbucks and 7-11.  It is very convenient to go to home to Cagayan de Oro and they have a few branches there. Even in the small cities, BPI is present. 

However, I have experienced bad service a few times already.  I like the convenience of not carrying cash when I go grocery shopping – it lets you pay the exact amount.  A couple of times I used EPS (Express Payment System) and I’ve been debitted twice!  I asked the cashier to double check first before reprocessing, and its not yet credited.  The next day I checked my account, it actually has been debited. 

A few times also, I was trying to withdraw, no money came out of the ATM machine but my account was debitted.  It didn’t just happen in one machine, it happened in different locations.  Sometimes the machine just hangs, then after a few minutes it comes up. 

What I hate though, is it takes them at least 3 working days to process the credit back to your account.  So like I tried to withdraw 6k on a Friday, I was only able to get back my 6k the following Wednesday.  What if that’s the only money I had in my account?  Then I won’t be able to pay my bills?  What would I feed my family? Hay, it’s all so frustrating re-thinking about it. 

I certainly am not one to take these things sitting down.  So I called their customer service hotline, which takes eons for them to answer.  You can even go and get your nails done before they pick the phone up… Heniway, when I spoke to them, the lines were all so generic AND what irked me more is that I didn’t hear any single apology.  Not even the super used line of “I’m sorry for any inconvience this has caused”.  NADA.  Nothing.  Is that Customer Service?! 

One time, (I was probably PMSing), my account was debitted again, I called their 89-100 and ranted but the line was cut.  I had a very bad suspicion that the agent intentionally cut the line, and so I called again.  And then the line was cut again.  I then went to a branch, which was a pretty small one and ranted again.  Just so I can get it out of my system, sometimes you have to let steam out or you’ll go crazy.  And still, the 2 persons in that branch, didn’t apologize.  I was fuming mad!  I told the manager that it wasn’t the kind of service I have expected for a big bank like them.  From the goverment of course, but not from BPI.

Which brings me to my next encounter with BPI.  My Dad’s account is also with BPI, and my Mom needs the Statement of Account of my Dad’s.  Being that I’m the eldest which also makes me my parents’ secretary :P , I was asked by Mama to get a copy of Papa’s Statement of Account which she hasn’t been receiving since January this year.  So I called 89-100 again, after listening to instrumentals for close to 30 minutes, I was able to speak to an agent.  She told me I could get hold of the statement of account but I would need a letter of authorization from Papa.  Eh, hello, Papa is in Russia, so that letter is a no-go.  She then told me that I could try enrolling the account in www.bpiexpressonline.com and download the statement of account there.  That part was a bit promising.  So I did the whole enrolling thing, at the end of the enrollment, a pop-up of a confirmation letter came.  The letter should be signed by the account holder and sent back to BPI to complete the enrollment.  WHAT?!?! 

That’s it.  Welcome to Philippine banking made easy.  OR NOT :P

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Books and such

July 6, 2008 · Filed under Movies

So I’ve been reading again.  Which is both good and bad.  Good mainly because I’ve always loved reading, something I did while growing up.  My Dad used to complain a lot when I was a teenager coz I just lock myself in my room and read the whole day.  He’d say that other kids my age then were helping in the household chores, while I just read the whole day. 

Which brings me to the bad side.  Coz when I read, the whole world literally stops for me.  When I love a book, I go on hours to devour it.  I do everything with my face buried in the book.  I found 2 books at the book sale and finished both in just a week, 3 days to be exact.  One book which I finished in 2 days was She’s come undone by Wally Lamb – a bit dated but it was still interesting.  I initially saw the book when I was in college from my cousin’s huge book collection.  I wanted to borrow it then, but was more hooked on John Grisham, and yeah, Judith McNaught :P

And then last Wednesday, an officemate mentioned Twilight.  I’ve briefly seen something previously on the web about it but didn’t really spend time to look it up.  As I’ve already finished the 2 books I’ve bought, I borrowed Twilight.  And it was AWESOME!  I loved every page of it, I couldn’t put it down, read it in less than 24 hours! :D  I’ve always been interested in vampire novels, was an Anne Rice fan back in the days.  So I thought it was going to be slow, but Twilight was pretty fast and amazing.  I can’t wait for the movie! 

Last Wednesday, hubs and I decided to catch a movie at a real movie house.  I wanted to watch Wanted but he is a Will Smith fan, so we ended up watching Hancock.  Bad choice.  It was too emo.  I would’ve enjoyed Wanted better – I craved the adneralin rush.  But all’s good, we’ll just catch Wanted this week.

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