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Stress for the past few weeks has gone up the notch eversince our landlady gave us a month's notice of vacating  our rented flat.  She needed to leave her parent's home due to some serious family issues and thus, she decided to go back to the house.  Though we are sympathetic with our landlady's predicament, we had to face the fact that we have to find our new abode sooner than expected. 

We found this particular flat a little over two years ago at the beginning of the real estate boom in Singapore.  Also, This is the time when the Filipino population in Singapore increased due to EPEC, which alllows foreigners to stay in Singapore for one year while searching for a job.  As such, the influx of foreigners increased the demand for rentals and tenancy in the island, which increased the property prices and rentals between 30-50%.  Before, people claimed that you can rent a 3 bedroom flat in Woodlands below SGD 1,000 (approx Php 30,000).  When we found our flat in Sembawang, it was SGD 1,300.

My friends wondered why we picked Sembawang, in the north part of the island that takes approximately 15 minutes for a commuter bus to arrive at our bus stop to the nearest train then an hour-long commute to get into the heart of the city.  HDB flats (government developed buildings similar to tenements in FTI) in Sembawang are recently developed, quieter, peaceful and cheaper.  We had viewed a couple of flats near city limites but never failed to disappoint us. 

Choosing a flat is like a relationship.  You have your own set of standards in choosing your own place to stay.  If the one you viewed had failed to live up to your expectations, you would not probably want to have them.  And then there are those what you call "exceptions". These ones you fell in love with despite of all the parameters you have set for yourself.  And this is how it happened when we found our lovely place in Sembawang.  Despite the lengthy commute, we fell in love with the place.  The moment our agent took us inside the flat, I couldn't say anything but "I love this place."  My friend, Charl, who eventually became my roomie, agreed with me.

And for the next two years, it served as our humble abode.  Even with those lengthy commutes that made us late for work, we hardly complained.  Our visitors, which are few, is always amazed how we found this place.  It's a bright and spacious enough for two (then, three) of us.  and as gratitude to our landlady, who chose us despite of bigger bids, we made sure we keep the flat clean and orderly.  For this place that is worth a gem, it deserves a tenant that recognizes its value.

And after our two year love affair in this place, it is time to move again.  We have found a smaller place in Hougang, which is slightly expensive but just 15 minutes away from where we work.  Another journey begins for all of us but we will never forget our old home in Sembawang.

In times when your life has gone lightning speed, you needed to adjust yourself to keep up with the pace.  You learn a lot of things.  Learning is not supposed to be bad.  It makes you more capable and do great stuff.  And when people do great stuff, they feel good about themselves.

But there is such thing as the virtue of unlearning the things you have learned.  It is like going back to basics.  You need to know how to build and do things the old fashioned way.  Not only you gain appreciation of the things why you had to do it the other way but it also open doors for other things which you can do.

I have always wanted to be a mobile person where I can work remotely anytime and anywhere.  Technology in Singapore has enabled me to become the most mobile person I can ever be.  I learned how to email through my PDA, retrieving my plane ticket through mobile internet, blogging in a coffee shop, reading e-PDFs in my laptop on my cab ride to work, answering customer queries while riding the train.  But when my PDA got broken, I had the opportunity of unlearning being online all the time.  Instead, I had to ensure the idea of being offline for a short period of time.  This gave me time to think about myself and other finer things in life while in transit or out of office.  I enjoy reading my books in a long train ride to work.  I learn how to be patient.  I learned not to be tense and jump at the next phone call from customer.  I learned to pace myself being work and outside work.

It's never too late to unlearn.  You better ask yourself, what is that one thing you want to unlearn.

It has been long since my lips has touched a glass of margarita.  The last time is when I was in Gerry's alabang with my high school friends having our usual Saturday night outs.  I have never liked margarita because it has the bitter after taste of tequila, which is my least favorite among my preferred poisons.

Ever since I moved to Singapore, I made a conscious effort not to spend money to get myself wasted.  This explains why I have dramatically changed my way of life.  Gone are the days when I frequent watering holes and bars drinking with friends and be merry.

But three weeks ago when Charlotte gave her birthday bash to her very intimate and closest friends (which includes me), we went to Botak Jones and drink their house margaritas c/o Brewsky Jones, the in-house bar sitting in the same roof as Botak Jones.  Jojo and I have been raving about Botak Jones because of it's dirt cheap.  Where can you find good steaks valued less than 20 SGD and serving San Miguel Light on the side for 5SGD/each from a bucket of 4?  Also, I have been curious to try their margaritas. 

And true enough, we had our share of Brewsky Jones' Frozen margaritas.  It was the greatest margaritas I have ever tasted.  True value of money!  The strong taste of tequila is not there either.  I can even chug the whole pitcher if I want to.  And from the moment, I have always been taking a trip down to Braddel for the past three Fridays and have my fill of those margaritas.  It has been helping me de-stress after being in a stressful mode for the past few months.  It is the only time for me to forget about work and other things that I hate which are too many to mention right now.

I think I have to re-institutionalize my drinking habit once more starting with Margarita Fridays. 

I read an interesting article about "How IT Job Wears Your Body Down" and I decided to change the title a bit because I think IT Jobs can kill people.  It may sound pessimistic but I feel that my job as an IT Consultant is killing me slowly.  From there where I draw this weird pleasure of being the masochistic slave worker and thus explains the reason why I work late nights and constantly checking my emails even if I'm not expecting anything important.   

Maybe someday, I will need to switch jobs.  Maybe I can take up waitressing jobs or cleaning building windows for my next career \but I need to recover from my future Musculoskeletal disorders. 

To read this article, go to :  http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/151763-1/how_that_it_job_wears_your_body_down.html

Watch out for him singing South Park theme.

• 2-in-1 wedding (catholic and christian)
• looking at Fernbrook gardens located South of Manila (www.fernbrookgardens.com)
• Ball gown wedding dress is a must.  A bit of beige because off-white is soooo 80s.
• Corset or off-shoulder? 
  
• For the 2-in-1 wedding, refreshments will be served in between ceremonies
• Definitely a morning wedding, as early as 6AM!!!!!  Must be crazy planning for this but photos are best taken early morning. 
  
• Pastel colors for motif.  Deep red is just too err sultry.  Black is too depressing.  Blue is sooo Shoemart.
  
• Guest count of 150 pax.  50 from my side of the family.  50 from Jojo's side of the family.  50 for good friends.
• Very flexible on the caterers but it would be nice to opt for sit down dinner to enjoy the highlights of the wedding.  I would love to give a grand entrance on food alone similar to Chinese weddings in Singapore.  Still have yet to decide whether I should play Moby or Yanni with some disco lights along with it.
• No high heels please.  Prefer Slip-ons with one inch high.
  
• Weddings rings should be from Sookee's and in platinum.  Things like this should last a lifetime.
• No-gift policy.  No money to pay over limit baggage for gifts alone.  Probably cash gift policy with percentage to donate to religious communities.
  
• I will have my hair up so I do not need to mess with my hair during the event. 
  
• On Hair and make-up artist, Regine's is ok-lah in my experience.
• Should we invite friends from Singapore to fly in for my wedding?
• Where can I rent a rolls royce for bridal car? I want to know this for trivial purposes.  At least I get to ride in a limo once in my life.
  
• I need to find out about acquiring marriage license in Philippines or if I need one when we marry first in Singapore.
• Unique programs during reception.  I do not want to usual program.  

We have finally concluded our Sharepoint forum event yesterday.  After one month of planning, preparation and execution, we managed to pull through one day of pure Sharepoint bliss.  Thought it has been tiring for me, I'd say it is just as satisfying to see a lot of interest the customers on Sharepoint.  It was also a chance for me to know the challenges customer's face today in this new product and how to maximize its capabilities.

We have taken home a lot of leads.  We manage to arrange a lot of meetings also with some potential customers in the next two to three weeks.  And I'm so excited to work on these opportunities and close a sale that I can call my own. 

I am also thinking about doing some product development on top of our latest offerings.  A consultant from another partner firm whom I had the honour to work with had suggested that we should consider creating core products which some of their partners had done on top of Sharepoint.  However, my company is driven towards a different strategy to meet our numbers, sad to say).  How I wish we had enough resources to do the product planning and road map to develop a product that sells.  It is a waste to see talents wasting their time everyday chasing opportunities without any clear distinction of what we are supposed to do.

Francis and I started to talk about brainstorming for solutions that sells.  My head has been flooding with ideas since yesterday.  But I guess true solution selling is not how creative you can be but how you can crossover technology over functionality that works for customers.  Having said that,  I'd say we still need to do lot of homework, research and heart to make this happen.  I also pray that we get enough support to make this all possible.

Just when you thought you knew everything you needed to know, you realize you knew little than what others already knew.  In the race of being the best brain in the field, it felt like you were just getting started the race while others were already midway to the finish line.  You stood there in awe like being wiped out by a giant wave despite of working hard day after day trying to learn how to tame it..... ride it ..... win it. 

It frustrates me to lose on something I'm supposed to be good at.  But I will never give up unless I die trying.