A Pot Belly Full Of Pasta

I have to admit to losing every single bit of self-control today, as I more or less single-handedly finished off what’s left of the pasta prepared for my father’s birthday yesterday… Which is to say the whole cooking pot’s worth.  It’s no wonder I feel bloated, and likely over-loaded with carbohydrates.  Ugh.

Ironically our fridge, aside from the freezer, is pretty much empty.  This means that I’m going to have to withdraw the 200 USD nanay sent us via Western Union tomorrow, just so that we can put some vegetables on the table again by Sunday, and not have to fall back on canned goods.  Sheesh.

Not really asking for much for tomorrow’s shift, just that everyone who’s supposed to be there comes in.  It’s simple really.

Muggy Sluggish Saturday

It’s our father’s birthday today, though aside from preparing a whole pot’s worth of spaghetti during the afternoon my sister buying a miniature black forest cake was the highlight of the proceedings.  Nanay did remind us to send the actual greetings (my sister did hers via Facebook, while I settled for an old-fashioned SMS) when she popped up for the video conference this morning however.

Aside from that, it was pretty laid-back as far as my Friday day offs went.  Spent the day trying to escape the heat the best we could, with my sister and her kid heading downstairs for most of the daytime, while I  napped upstairs. Kind of hard to avoid getting sleepy by the time noontime rolled in, really.

There was an impromptu baby powow between the kids in the apartment during the late afternoon (there were three of them including my nephew), likely because it wasn’t hot outside by then and there was a good breeze going.  Unfortunately said nephew wasn’t able to go to sleep as scheduled, which led his mommy becoming frazzled and frustrated that he was keeping her from sleeping as usual.  Thankfully, he seems to have calmed down by now, and since I’m not hearing any noises from my sister’s room, it seems that both parent and child have finally achieved slumber.

Hmm, which reminds me, it’s about time for me to do the same.

Checking For Holes In My Pockets

And here I was thinking that I could extend my streak with regards to not taking in Merchant calls for the week.  It started well enough too, where I couldn’t even connect to the remote server properly, and had to undergo several system restarts to ultimately no avail.  However, all that trying eventually dropped me into a server that had all systems up.  Oh well.

The merchant systems I can handle — it’s what I’m technically supposed to do after all — but I would have done without the CS calls that I found myself answering around mid-day.  Good thing I only had to do three or four, but I’m of the firm belief that one CS call is already too much for the day.

The day was cloudy again today.  No rain though, but it did seem like there’d be some at one point, but no downpour came.  Hmm.  At least it made leaving the office somewhat bearable.

Ah, savings almost spent again, and there’s still ten days to go until the next payday.  All those bills to pay, and my enrollment on top of that, ah, it’s not going to be pleasant for sure.  Going to definitely have to ask for mom’s help for this one, if only to actually survive to the 25th.

Misty And Cloudy Mother’s Day

Although it started out sunny enough on the way to work, the usual summer sun quickly gave way to a thick blanket of haze.  It covered the horizon and much of the cityscape (at least, the one I could see outside our 9th-floor window) for much of the morning.  It wouldn’t be too surprising that you’d think that it was actually raining, but it wasn’t; things were just alternatively gloomy, with varying degrees of visibility, particularly towards the south, towards Cavite and Alabang. 

Indeed, the only thing missing was actual rain, but it never did fall.  I suppose that while there was a lot of cloud cover accompanying th fog (or smog?  can’t really say for sure), it wasn’t enough for an actual downpour.  Oh well, can’t have everything I suppose.

The haze persisted until around noon, at which it slowly dispersed I suppose (likely due to the heat), until the sun was out again in force.  Indeed, it was very sunny once our shift was over, which was too bad really.  Some of that cloud cover would have been very welcome, but on the bright side, it wasn’t as hot as you’d expect as a result.

Got home dead tired for some reason, despite having gone to bed relatively early last night.  Despite my father’s protest, it was straight to bed for me.  Heck, I didn’t even linger to taste the spaghetti they prepared for Mother’s Day (as well as to make use of it before the pesky bukbok wreak havoc on the new pasta again), but given the quantity, I’m sure I can accommodate that tomorrow morning…

Oh yeah, it’s elections tomorrow.  I’m not sure if I should go out and vote this time, as the last time I tried, my personal information apparently didn’t show up.  Doesn’t hurt to try though, but man, I sure hope it isn’t blazing hot tomorrow afternoon.

In One Pocket, Out The Next

Today was another demonstration on how I have lousy budgeting sense.  Easily half or more of the salary I deposited yesterday is gone, with two thousand pesos worth paid to my VISA credit card bill, and a thousand to my Mastercard one.  And after that, I withdrew a thousand pesos more… to fund a rare outing to the cinemas to watch Ironman 3.  I can’t say that I didn’t feel totally guilty with that one, but darnit, it’s been so a while since I treated myself that it was a a long time coming.

And hey, I always wanted to try beef pepper rice anyway, so it was as good an excuse as any to shell out for it.

Of course, this just means now that I’m going to have to shepherd what’s left until the next payday.  With my father leaving for the province again before the 15th (meaning I’m on my own again to pay for the household stuff), and my enrollment on the 27th, well, it’s going to be a long and very tight two weeks, for sure.

Overstuffed And Lazy

There are really only three highlights to this day.  One was the fact that my salary came in late (as in well-past lunchtime and well around two in the afternoon late).  Two, was as a result of my salary coming in late, I was forced to use my credit card for purchases again, which will sting a bit as I haven’t even paid for this cut-off’s credit card payments.  And three, was I had my hair trimmed at the usual place, which since my salary was delayed, I also had to pay with the aforementioned credit card.

Yes, it was a slow day, but it was hot, and it was boring.  What else can you expect?

As for being overstuffed, you can guess that I over-ate today as a result of said boredom.

Hot And Sweaty Welcome

My fears about queue capacity was unfounded, as we had a full complement of three people for the team today, including the one who was missing yesterday.  This meant that the calls were more than manageable rather than possibly stressful.  Though I have to say, the shift had a worrying start, when the very first call that I took in turned out to be a CS call.  Thankfully the customer was actually level-headed, and what’s more it was the only CS call I took in for the day.  Whew.

It was terribly hot as usual when we finally got off work (really disappointed when there wasn’t a single bit of cloud cover again), and what was worse, the vehicular traffic seemed to have slowed to a crawl.  But given the choice between walking with the sun blazing unrelentingly overhead, and sitting down in a possibly stuffy jeepney as it slowly made its way in the direction of the MRT station, the latter was still more preferable.

I was worried that there wouldn’t be any MRT service today, as May was supposed to be the start of maintenance work, which means variable times of interrupted service, but that didn’t seem to be the case today.  Which was fine too, as I didn’t want to get stuck in a bus that was slowed down in traffic either.

When I finally got home, needless to say that I was looking forward to a few hours napping with the AC at full blast… but apparently that wasn’t to be, as the electricity in our neighborhood was out.  It was that way since early afternoon, which made it a terrible pain to be even moving around.  Heck my father, who had just bathed in preparation for heading to Baclaran church for Wednesday mass, was already sweating barely minutes after the bath he took.

Had to console myself with playing with the baby (my sister had come back obviously), including propping him up seated on the sofa for some pictures (taken by his grandfather).  He was very well-behaved, though later (after I had actually dozed off a bit upstairs) I had to calm him down after he woke up with a start and raised a ruckus.  It was nice, though I have to say carrying a six-to-ten pound baby can be a real ordeal on the arms, especially if you’re doing it for more than ten minutes straight.

Thankfully the power finally turned back on during the late afternoon.  Wouldn’t know what to do if it continued past dinner.

Anyway, my vision is blurring, so I better get this done and turn in early.  This is what I get for doggedly trying to go over the 53% win rate mark in World of Tanks, which led to me going to sleep at almost 3 in the morning. Ergh.

Fleeting, For What It Was Worth

Thankfully the shift at work wasn’t one of the stressful types, barring an instance during the first half of the morning.  Everyone who was supposed to be there came in, which made taking in calls easier (though there was yet another bit of break overlap, which left me all alone for a stretch of time).

It was obviously hot, but this time around there were intermittent cloud cover over our area.  It didn’t last too long — the clouds drifted northward, by my estimate — but it lasted long enough for us to leave the office and not get sunburn this time around.

Now, if I could only stretch what’s left of my savings to Friday, and I should be set again…

Pizza-Brimmed

It was a very idyllic Saturday if I should say so myself.  Very relaxed, and what more, very lazy.  The heat excused the latter of course, and really there’s very little one could do.  It was such that I couldn’t even think straight while I was in my room, it was so hot.

Oh, and we had another little teleconference with nanay during the morning.  Well, not exactly a conference, but my father booting up Skype on his laptop downstairs, and pointing the camera in the direction of where everyone was, and leaving it on for several hours.  Of course this meant we spent time alternating between fussing over the baby, showing him to his doting grandmother, and worrying about his currently mucus clogged nostrils, which was making it hard for him to comfortably breathe.  Oh, and idle chatter as well, though as usual my sister had more to share than yours truly.

Speaking of my sister, apparently she just got a new BPI credit card today, so she decided to give it a use.  This led to her ordering two whole family-sized pizzas from Pizza Hut (plus a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi).  Compared to our electric bill, this was a minor expense I suppose.

This also led to me being stuffed.  Makes me regret eating dinner before the pizza arrived.  Ugh.

Tomorrow it’s back to work. As usual I hope that everyone who’s supposed to come in does, as if they don’t, ugh, I feel a headache incoming.

Stewing On The Sidelines

It was hot today.  That’s the only way I could describe this weekend at home.  I think at some point during the day the temperature peaked at around 36.8 degrees Centigrade, which might not mean a lot for people in temperate climates, but coupled with an insane amount of humidity, it made for an unbearable experience on the second floor.  It’s no surprise that, early on in the day, all of us — including the baby — retreated downstairs.  It was still hot, but compared to how it was upstairs (especially my room, which was beside a corrugated stainless steel roof, and as such beside a place that positively radiated heat during the day) it was a whole lot better.

This rare confluence of us three, the baby, and our cousin, made it possible to have a little family reunion of sorts, as my father had his laptop fired up and my mother on Skype for a teleconference.  Nothing really special, with us showing off the baby (while he was awake), and talking to mom as we went about whatever we were doing downstairs.

Anyway, going back to the other room for the evening.  Yeah, sharing the AC, I know.  Hopefully the baby doesn’t make too much of a fuss so we can have some uninterrupted sleep for a change.