altered ego's alter ego

[(Mis) Adventures of Maleta Girl] Half-nniversary

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:09:34 GMT

In three days time, I will be celebrating my sixth month in this country. And although half a year had passed already, I’m still amazed at how quickly I had been able to adjust to this new life.

My friends here (and those who had been reading this blog) would know of the many misadventures I’ve had just within my first 10 days. Maleta Girl never runs out of them. Up until now, I still get my self into (and out of) funny and sticky situations.

I’ve been locked in and locked out of my bedroom. (Yes, you got that right. I had gotten myself locked in my own room and someone had to help me get out.)

I’ve gotten lost around town – the most memorable incident of which is my journey from Clarke Quay to Dhoby Ghaut which took more or less one hour and 45 minutes. If you’re familiar with just how near these two places are, you’d be puzzled at how I had managed to prolong the travel time.

I’ve celebrated a birthday. (Technically, I hadn’t, because I had spent the actual day in the Philippines.) But of course, many thanks go to my Singapore-based friends for the surprise post-birthday party and the birthday gift.

I’ve completed one performance evaluation at work and for the first time in the short history of my five-year career, I had not been asked to write a second draft of my year-end review (YER) document. So it’s either my HP managers had done a good job of training me to write PPRs that I got the YER document right with one shot or my boss here isn’t just too particular with it.

Twice, I’ve been escalated for singing in my workspace at the office. (Do I really sound that _____?)

The rest of my story is posted here.

Puppy Dog Eyes

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:19:13 GMT

Whenever I see the icon of the Hush Puppies product line - a basset hound, I feel like crying. It's crazy, I know. But that look, those eyes, they tug at the heart's strings.

For all my "bitchiness" and devil-may-care attitude, I've realized, I'm still every bit that sensitive person with the soft spot for every pitiful creature - man or animal - out there. Sometimes, I think it a blessing to be able to empathize and sympathize. Most often, I consider it a curse - that which enables one to feel and understand how the other feels because the moment I do, I begin to care even if there's just no reason to.

* * *

One should not forego kindness to another out of anger or spite. We do a kind act because it is always the humane thing to do. Humans should always act as humans should. If everyone would choose to live this way all the time, the world would be a better place.

I hope I will always be able to make that choice.

*** This entry is also posted here.

[(Mis) Adventures of Maleta Girl] Lost

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:56:39 GMT

We were at the Batangas City New Public Market – Daisie, Kian, Ben, Mike and I. For some reason, I brought along one of my pillows. I ended up asking Kian to carry it, though. But I remembered seeing him give the pillow to Mike.

Daisie and I separated from the rest to buy a rose from one of the stalls. Then I joined Ben while he was buying vegetables for the meal he’ll cook for the Holy Week. Everyone met up again at my house.

When I arrived with Daisie, Kian was already sleeping on the sofa and Mike was sleeping in my brother’s room. I asked Kian where my pillow was to which he replied that Mike had it. I asked the latter for my pillow then. Mike just dismissed me, saying, “Nandyan lang yan.” So, without anyone else’s help, I searched the whole house for the pillow. In vain.

I went back to Mike and asked him again where he had put it. However, he was fast asleep, dead to the world.

Frustrated, I cried.

What happened next is detailed here.

[(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl] MG can cook!

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:17:31 GMT

Presenting, MG's first ever attempt at cooking - <read about it here>

[(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl] MG vs World

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:30:56 GMT

Everybody seems to like arguing with me. Maybe, not everbody. But I found two who does just within these last two days.

Yesterday, one of my functional bosses <read here>

I see the moon

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:44:31 GMT

I just thought this is a cute nursery rhyme. I got it from KIDiddles.

I see the moon, the moon sees me
The moon sees somebody I want to see
God bless the moon and God bless me
And God bless the somebody I want to see.

It seems to me that God above
Created you for me to love
He picked you out from all the rest
To be the one that I loved best.

I had a heart; 'twas true and good
But now it's gone from me to you
Take care of it as I have done
'Cause you have two and I have none.

Awww... Isn't it sweet? Hehehe. (What are they teaching the kids these days?!? Tsk tsk.)

*** Also posted here.

[(Mis) Adventures of Maleta Girl] Confessions of a nasty person

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:07:25 GMT

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was last month. My sins are:

I snapped at the iRemit folks because of the two-day delay.
I officially don't like four people: (a) Ms. Por Favor, (b) Ms. Rekla Mador, (c) Mr. Paki Alamero and (d) Mr. Sam-angot Milby.

Shucks. Why am I really so nasty? Honestly, I feel guilty. But... but... They were mean, too! Tsk.. tsk.. My lame excuses for my un-Christian-like behavior.

[(Mis) Adventures of Maleta Girl] Fast forward

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:44:22 GMT

This blog has been silent for quite a while now - not because nothing has been happening to Maleta Girl all this time. It's just that I've just been too lazy to write a proper entry that I've settled for one-liner posts in Plurk, Twitter and Facebook.

A lot had happened over the last two months. For one, I came home <read more>

(Mis) Adventures of Maleta Girl Day 23: A wet kiss

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:39:51 GMT

The best things in life happen in Singapore - at least, for Maleta Girl, that is.

I GOT KISSED... <read more>

(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl Day 22: The original Maleta Girl

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:22:23 GMT

Yes, there is an original Maleta Girl. And she has arrived! Haha.

I picked up my mother from the airport last Saturday afternoon, June 27. It was my first time to commute to the airport via MRT (Last year, I had ridden a bus from Sengkang to the airport.). Note: I did not get lost on the way. Changi was a far place to go to but it was not difficult to go there. I had no need to take out my reliable bus stop directory (though I had brought it along too, just to be sure.). :P

But, as most of Maleta Girl's followers ought to know by now, I can't last a day without getting lost somehow. Hahahaha. I couldn't find Popeye's in the airport! Sadly, I couldn't remember which terminal it was located. My mother and I went from T2 to T3 and then back to T2 and then T1. We found a Popeye's branch at T1 but that wasn't the one where Karon, Ish and Ben took me for lunch on Day 1.

Will someone tell me, please, where Popeye's is? Hehe.

*** Other pictures are here.

(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl Day 9: Right place, wrong time

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:42:06 GMT

I rode the bus again today. I had to. It was the least time-consuming, smartest way to get to the Philippine Embassy.

This time, however, I was more than prepared. Armed with the thick bus stop directory and map just given to me yesterday by Yvonne, I had a brand new confidence that I won’t get lost anymore. I didn't get lost but <read here>

Misadventures of Maleta Girl Day 8: Too much togue

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:23:01 GMT

*** delayed posting for 13 Jun 2009 ***

Blame it on my addiction to this Taiwanese telenovela, I’m running another series of delayed postings.

* * *

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it to anybody but I don’t eat bean sprouts. I avoid it like the plague. Guess what I ate for lunch today.

(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:29:46 GMT

After quite a long time of silence in this blog, I finally got down to writing something. In the preceding entries, I had tried to describe how the first seven days of my new life has been. I think some people may actually have been waiting for my blog entry on this past week (Yes, I'm referring to you, Karon, Ben, Mike, Ish and Jyue; I know you can't wait to put down your own comments on my anecdotes. Haha.). I know I am because all the thoughts are just sitting in my head.

This explains the titles of the last blog entries.

(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl - Day 7: Independence!

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:23:40 GMT

*** delayed posting for 12 Jun 2009 ***

Day 7 was June 12, Philippine Independence Day. Not really a big deal for me, I suppose, when I was in the Philippines. It is now, since I don't get a day-off on this day anymore.

So what could happen on such an ordinary day in Singapore? Well, the day is ordinary but, as I have proven for the last couple of days, I'm no ordinary girl; I'm a living and breathing testament to Murphy's Law.

(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl - Day 5: Happily legal

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:20:26 GMT

*** delayed posting for 10 Jun 2009 ***

Maleta Girl's day 4 was quiet and uneventful, except for the fact that she's pretty overwhelmed trying to learn a lot at work in the soonest time possible. My line manager's not pressuring me into learning all things at once but my functional bosses and some workmates are piling up the training for me that I'm literally drowning in training documents and my calendar is packed with training session schedules. For now, I think I can say that my line manager, a Singapore local, seems okay; we both come from an ITIL process-oriented background so I think we will agree on a lot of things.

Fast forward to day 5.

I got my employment pass today! Finally, I "feel" legal here.

--------------------------
This entry was also posted here.

(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl - Day 3: Land of the lost

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:15:12 GMT

*** delayed posting for 08 Jun 2009 ***

I am never going to ride the bus to the office again! Never mind if I had to walk a couple of blocks to get to the nearest MRT station from my temporary apartment, but I am not taking the risk of riding the bus ever.

Here's why.

(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl - Day 2: Wrong doors

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:54:12 GMT

*** delayed posting for 07 Jun 2009 ***

Day 2 was a Sunday so I planned to go to mass. I checked out the churches and the mass schedules via the Archdiocese's website and then checked out gothere.sg for the way to commute to the nearest church. I found out that Bus 51 passes by the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd.

I haven't been to that cathedral and I haven't ridden a bus in this place alone (except for last year when I went to the airport for my flight back). Going to church that Sunday then was an adventure.

First boo-boo of the day: I went into <read here>

(Mis)Adventures of Maleta Girl - Day 1: Immigration disaster magnet

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:50:16 GMT

*** delayed post for 06 Jun 2009 ***

I realized I must have been some walking magnet of Immigration Department "disaster".

Last year, on my first international trip, I got picked on by the Immigration Officer because <read here>

Hello, weekend. Goodbye, weekend.

Sat, 02 May 2009 09:54:06 GMT

** super late posting ^_^

There are weekends like this last one, when it feels like I just breezed through it.

Hello, weekend!

Friday night, I had dinner with a number of my SE47 batchmates and our class shepherds. The dinner was at Guilly's in the relatively new Glorietta 5. It being a Friday night, the restaurant was filled with diners.

This dinner was also a <read more>

Of love and chocolate chip cookies

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:47:26 GMT

I believe that love is a moment-to-moment decision that one makes.

Some people would disagree. "Love isn't decided; you either feel it or you don't." In my opinion, however, love is <read more>

Galaw sa tag-araw

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:53:19 GMT

Tayo na at gumalaw-galaw sa tag-araw
Gumalaw ka na
Gumalaw ka na
Galaw-galaw sa tag-araw
(jologs mode ^_^)

* * *

And so it happened that our family went to Laiya, San Juan last Sunday for a day trip to the beach. For me, Laiya is quite anti-climactic after Caramoan. But then, the Laiya trip was <read here>

In the news and April Fools'

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 08:53:09 GMT

I haven't exactly been able to regularly follow the news for many months now - a downside of working during the midshift a.k.a. EMEA shift. And I'm quite lazy to read newspapers too! So I've managed to pick up only these.

Still my greatest fear

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:31:21 GMT

** late posting

I've just completed a three-day Certified Internal Trainers' Development Workshop and I've realized yet again that I wasn't cut out for public speaking.

I know - I've heard it too many times - that public speaking skills can be improved with practice. Still, I just can't get comfortable enough in front of an audience - even one that I've interacted with for three solid days and to whom I've already presented to five times in those three days.

Each of the participants in the training were required to present five times in front of the group; that's equivalent to two individual presentations, one pair presentation, one two-minute impromptu speech and one interpretative reading. Out of those five, I only felt a bit confident (and accomplished) with the interpretative reading. Alex and I were assigned an excerpt from Og Mandino's I Will Greet this Day with Love in My Heart. Many thanks to Alex, a natural on stage, who coached me on how to "interpret" the reading with the proper intonation and emphasis.

No one would probably believe that one of my fancy dreams is actually to become a <read here>

A different weekend

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:23:25 GMT

** late posting

I spent the weekend crying - Jason's fault.

Hehehe.

Seriously, though I had to shed lots of tears and ended up with puffy eyes, I'm really thankful that Jason had invited me to join Bukas Loob sa Diyos (BLD) Singles Encounter (SE). Because of this weekend retreat, I had met 39 new persons - a community I can belong to and who will help me keep the faith.

More of my story here.

Seriously

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:03:46 GMT

(Delayed cross-posting ^_^)

If you're sad and hurting, you'd wish people would take you seriously and not badger you about things that are highly inconsequential, like things of the past that are either false, unconfirmed or mere hearsay.

Thanks to the friend who without knowing the names/facts/figures still tries to understand how you feel.

Sigh. What would someone do without a friend like that?