Work Work Work

One project takes me to Bicol almost three times a month. I don't mind the travel time as long as I will be greeted by this view every time. Stories have it that this majestic volcano doesn't show its full glory to people who are not kind hearted. I've been here five times and the only times I failed to see this view was when I am with my other team mates. Hmm, what could that mean?

Being nice

I joined a team that will provide consulting services for a project somewhere in the Southern province of the Philippines. Our group (three of us) was just a support crew to the main consulting group that won the project bidding. As the project rolled on, it happened that our group are now the star players while the two other groups have nothing to show for their own work division. And in our own group, the client goes to me for advise and requests, while my two other groupmates take their time answering the queries and requests. Is it because I am always the "nice" one to people?Why can my two other group mates afford to look the other way when the client is requesting for things to be done. I do not have the heart to let a client wait. Maybe, that is what is wrong with me, I am too nice to a fault. That clients and friends are already abusing me and has taken me for granted. Maybe I am always available. Maybe I should learn a thing or two from my other group mates who don't care and will deliver the work product on their own time. I should stop caring.

March already?

Funny how time flies. I just noticed that it is March already!

i long to be at the beach. i wish to hop on a plane and go to a secluded beach somewhere south of the Philippines. but somehow, budget wise, i cannot do so.

the good news is, i got invited to give a lecture at California, USA by the second quarter of the year! So yey for me. Maybe I could satisfy my travel bug by then.

On line banking

My bank account was hacked recently, allowing withdrawals be made therefrom by another person from another country. This came in the time that I am short on cash and the bills are coming. After more than twenty days of waiting, the bank did not even admit liability and even faulted me for using my ATM card in an unsecured place! To think that I only withdraw from this bank's own ATM machine. When I went to my branch of account to sign the waiver and quitclaim, I was even asked to pay for the notarization fee of P300.00! The staff there even told me that I should be thankful that the bank is returning the money that was rightfully mine to begin with.

I know that I am a small fry in their list of depositors, but I wish, in my small way, I could influence others to leave this bank and place their hard earned money someplace else more secured. I've been telling friends and colleagues about this experience and I wish that they would do the right thing. Because personally, the service I got from this bank leaves so much to be desired. And they tell me they find ways. Boo.

One day more..

January is nearing completion, February is but a few steps away.

The first month that I am supposed to be out of job proves to be the most busy.

I am always out meeting old and new friends, trying to find projects that I could take in for my daily living.

God works in mysterious ways since I've gotten more than I imagined. Had I only known that consulting is a possible avenue for me, I should have done this long ago. However, I am still afraid of the unknown months that will be coming. And my resources are limited but the debts are constant. I have an offer for a more firm project, but that will entail me coming in regularly. Plus the fact that I've turn this down a long time ago when I was still employed. Hmm. decisions, decisions.

On a side note, I can personally attest to the saying that when God closes a door, He always leave a window open. This has been so true lately. Sometimes, in our hurried lives, we fail to see the little miracles being performed before our very eyes.

Case dismissed

After agonizing since September 2012 over a case filed against me which is purely for harassment, I received a copy of a Resolution dismissing the charges against me. Sadly, I was not able to take with me another person who was also included in the lot. And it was hard for me to acknowledge the fact that I cannot do anything to help him as it was like a "hunger games" situation. I should stop feeling guilty that I was able to extricate myself from this sticky situation although a lot of cleaning up still has to be done. I did not ask to be placed in this situation, maybe I was too trusting to a fault and too blinded for receiving a monthly stipend for not doing anything. But then technically, it was only for a few months, after that, it was all bickering and backstabbing. Maybe, the lesson to be learned here is that I should accept that someone is  not really my friend and that I should stop associating myself with her. Another lesson is that I should not "lend" my name to random strangers since that is the only possession that I really own.

Costly life lessons

Last year, actually it all started a year before 2012, a friend asked me to help her with her client. She needed someone who will act as a "caretaker" for a company that she is setting up for a foreigner client.  As I know my friend from way back, I did not think twice to say yes. The job description did not require any other skills or specification, just common sense and some reading and writing.

Middle of the year, I found out that I lack common sense. I had been in the middle of a turbulent turf war between two foreign corporations fighting over Manila space and I am now looking after me. My friend who placed me in this situation, has left me to deal with her clients, saying that I should be the one to talk to them about my demands (apparently receiving an honorarium from them automatically made me responsible for them).  I also found myself a respondent in a criminal case with respect to this.  Having a criminal case made me realize that what I just read about anxiety, sleepless night and stress are not mere words on paper. I was also exposed to the lowest of the low in our criminal justice system.

Hopefully, this start  of the new year will bring me good news. I should learn to fight for myself. No more being nice. I now learned that this really is a "dog eat dog" world, and unless you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth, life will never be easy in a third world country. I also learned that some friends are just there for PR and marketing and the length of time that you know each other is not a guarantee that they will stand by you through thick or thin.