Mama and Papa Arrival

As the day started, I was still awake from the previous day. I was burning CDs for my students in PC Networks and Troubleshooting. When I reached the last CD, I laid down on two chairs and closed my eyes to take a nap, and after 10 seconds of rest, Marcia woke me up and told me to get ready to go to the airport.

We left the house at 4:45am and got to the airport at 5:15am. I even felt like I was not going that fast since I was sleepy and would not want anything crazy to happen since sleepiness sometimes slows down reaction time. We were a bit early so me and Marcia slept first in the car.

When we woke up, it was past 6 already. We first saw Joey and Puking in the van. Then we joined Emil, Janet and Harry. I was so sleepy, I sat on the sidewalk as they waited, experiencing microsleeps. When Mama and Papa came, we all greeted them, welcoming them back to the Philippines.

Harry was the first to leave since he still had some work and already had a memo on tardiness at GSIS. Marcia, I and Emil left next since Marcia had to get to work since her boss was getting irritated already for her many lates and absences. I needed to get to work as well. Emil had to go, since I also needed to assist him to his appointment at Dr. Jameson Uys clinic.

Before we left, Janet asked is we could bring Harry’s pants, that he left with Janet. When we passed by GSIS, it was all traffic all the way back to EDSA.

At Emil’s appointment, he found out that he has a cyst in his knee. Thus a surgeon should work on his knee and not a chiropractor.

When I got home, I prepared to go to work, got their late. After my class I received a Notice to Explain document, tell me to explain my absences and tardiness.

When I got home we still needed to go to and fro at North Olympus up to night time.

Things not done

I had to bring CDs today at Informatics. They are the PC networks and troubleshooting CDs for my students. I was not able to burn them all on time.

I had to bring the BayanTel application today. I was not able to, since I was burning CDs.

I needed to bring some printouts to En Blaze, but was not able to. Since I needed to clarify some things before I printed them and was not able to talk to Ms. Lani.

It was tiring going back and forth Olympus, Teresa, Olympus, Teresa… but that’s fine. As long as it is for family and relatives, since these kinds of events don’t happen all the time.

Jamie’s Fever

It’s the 3rd day of Jamie’s fever. It’s a Monday, and it’s my day off at work. So most of the time I’ll be with Jamie. She has been taking Biogesic for kids orange flavor, 2.5ml every 4 hours.

Passed by North Olympus to bring some plates, spoons and forks since Kuya Gerry & Emil are there right now.

Will call up Dr. Jameson Uy later to set an appointment for Emil. Then bring Ate Dawn to her UPCAT Review.

Got to finish a CD for my PC Troubleshooting and Networking class. And talk to Lani of En Blaze for print-job clarifications.

Emil’s Arrival!

Last night, right after work, I headed to McDonald’s just outside Ever Gotesco Commonwealth where I work. This is were Marcia, Dawn and Jamie were waiting. We were all heading for the airport to pick up Emil, Marcia’s younger brother coming from Japan.

In the car, with us was my colleague Bennette who road along up to Philcoa where we then headed home since out way was also his direction home.

It was 9:40pm when we left and the estimated time of arrival of the plane was 10:40. We got there on time since there was no traffic. We first went to the Centennial Airport, and found out we support to be at Ninoy Aquino International Airport since Centennial is for Philippine Airline flights only.

When we got there, Jamie kept going all over the place while we waited for Emil to arrive. We stayed at the waiting area labeled GHIJK which means that is the area where the people arriving with lastnames starting with G, H, I, J and K should go to. When Emil arrived he Marcia to go to section TVU waiting area.

We then all walked to the parking area and headed straight home. Dawn was so tired and sleepy, she was out cold in a few minutes along with Jamie beside her. Me, Marcia and Emil ate some mechado for dinner and had a few chats.

Before I retired to bed, me and Marcia did some few emails to send and receive and Emil got to bed. Emil slept in our room. Me, Marcia, Dawn and Jamie slept in Mama’s room. My Mom slept in my sister’s room with my sister and her kids.

We all woke up about 9am preparing to go to work. I was not able to go to work on time since I remembered I needed to print something for En Blaze, my client and burned a CD, brought the laptop and printer to work so I could do it there in my freetime.

Emil seemed to be preparing all his schedules since the day his foot landed on Philippine soil. He was finding out where places are and how to get there.

My teaching schedule is 9am to 9pm and I am still at work right now, will be back home in 4 hours. And after that me and Marcia will go to Citation to do a few things there before going to bed.

BenjArriola Students Blog

Today, was start of PhotoShop day for ST109B (CorelDraw, PhotoShop class). Selection tools, Copy and Paste, Using Layers were taught. After doing that, I just played around with my students website, http://students.benjarriola.com and updated it a created a new blog for my students to visit.

This site should basically help as an educational medium to augment my current teaching at Informatics. Like my blog, it is updated occasionally, but not as often as I do on my personal blog.

The rest of the day was boring. I was preparing billing statements and official receipts of my clients on YDS Web Solution to mailed out today, but I wanted to add some thank you letters to clients who pay semi-annual, annual and quarterly. I haven’t made a letter and I decided to make one but when I was about to print it. There was people in the library where the network printer is, and I can’t really print something that is not officially for Informatics.

Now everyone plans to watch Troy this evening at SM North EDSA. I wanted to bring Marcia along and go with everyone, but Marcia told me we need to buy some stuff tonight, so I’m not going with them and will head home and do some shopping.

North Olympus House Getting Better!

My day started out with going to Federal Hardware. Marcia bought some cabinet doors again for the new kitchen cabinet where the hood will be. We also checked out Gillamacs to see the airconditioners there. We were not happy with the aircons we saw. They were not brand new, but their price was like a brand new one too.

We then checked out the cement tiles for the back of the house, but decided to get from ET Pineda Enterprises. Their prices are the same all over, so we decided to get from the people we know, and ET Pineda Enterprises is also Popo Pineda’s Family business. It mainly his parents’ business, but since we know him, we might as well talk to him on the tiles. Popo is also the drummer of the band MoonStar88.

I then brought Marcia to work and headed towards North Olympus to check out the house. The skeleton of the door roof was taking shape and looked good. I worked on the TV Rack Entertainment Center and installed the glass doors on it.

After that I headed for a car wash. And I went to the car wash again, owned by Popo Pineda. And then I brought Dawn to her UPCAT review. Printed some billing statements of YDS Web Solution and headed for work at Informatics.

Schedules got jumbled since my XP2WP (Internet & Email, MS Outlook) WF 2pm to 5pm class was replaced with Flash – Fun Animation at the same schedule. Then the old XP2WP was moved to a new time slot. Classes were interrupted when Sir Anthony Maribay came, he requested a meeting for all lecturers. He taught us the basic stuff we should know that we already know. *Ehem* But it was still a good reminder,… *ehem* *gwrraaacck* *sniff* …since we do forget basic stuff. AutoCAD was exercise as usual, drawing the classroom with all the details in it, drawn to scale.

At home, I was a bit tired, so I did not do much and went to sleep early.

Back to work…

Yesterday Morning, I was not able to wake up early even if Marcia kept waking me up and when I woke up, she no longer had time to pass by Federal Hardware. So we both went straight to work. Our plan for the day was to go to PNB Escolta at around lunch time, just after my 9am to 12pm class, and come back just in time for my 6pm to 9pm class. Unfortunately, Marcia was not able to get out of work. So what I did instead was to pass by Ever Gotesco HomeWorks as recommended by Marcia for me to pass by and get the glass windows for the entertainment center furniture that we did not get when we bought it. I did not have any problems at all, as Ter, the guy at HomeWorks, simply got the glass and handed it over. At Informatics, Bennette was fixing all the wirings of the server putting the UPS plugs in the right places, and I was installing a new hard disk on one of the PCs.

Sir Dan talked to me about my lates and absences, and all he said is whatever my plans are, give them a notice and tell them right away so they can prepare. It was also Tiney’s birthday that day, happy birthday Tiney! And she got Greenwich Pizza for everyone and also gave us a Big-O(That’s Zest-O Big 250)!

For my XP2PC classes, boy they didn’t come again! So there is still no classes. But still decided to stay at the center since I was not finished working on the computer I was installing the new hard disk.

I Slept the Whole Day!

I had a total of 2 hours sleep since yesterday, I was sleepy the whole day. I literally slept through the whole day. After bringing Marcia to work, it was my day off, I slept. I woke up to bring Dawn to her UPCAT review. Then I slept. I forced myself to wake up to go to North Olympus to bring the doorbell switch, then got home and ate lunch. I supposed to pass by Briones Glass and Aluminum Supply to inquire about the mirrors that we wanted to be installed at the house, but it was already past 3pm and the car was already under the coding scheme and was not allowed to go out on Mondays from 3pm to 7pm. I slept again. Marcia got home and was constantly waking me up, but I was so sleepy and dizzy, and didn’t get to wake up. I then woke up at 7:30pm, but Marcia just got mad a lot more, since she was waking me up to go to Federal Hardware, and Federal closes at 7:30pm. I promised to bring her to Federal in the morning before going to work. After dinner, I didn’t work at all and just went straight to bed, but only got to sleep when Jamie feel asleep too.

Kuya Gerry’s Arrival at the Philippines

Yesterday, I supposed to be at work at 9am for my ST109B class (CorelDraw, PhotoShop). But I needed to give some print jobs to En Blaze, and the printer ran out of ink. I had to wait till 10am to get ink at SM. I finished my printing at 11:30am and decided not to go to work anymore since my first class is up to 12pm. And I totally forgot about my 1 to 5 class, XP2PP (PowerPoint). It was a good thing my students were the security trainors of En Blaze. So I did hope they understand why I could not make the class, since I was working on their company’s corporate folder.

That day, I also had to pick up Kuya Gerry, Marcia’s brother, at the airport coming from Australia who arrives at Manila at 4pm. At the airport, the Almeda Family was there minus Kuya Louie. Harry and Janet were there. Me, Marcia, Dawn and Jamie were present too.

When we got there, Jamie was so happy pointing at all the airplanes she sees starting to fly and leave the airport. Once Kuya Gerry arrived, and everyone was in their respective vehicles, we headed towards Marina, a restaurant at the corner of Roxas Boulevard and Buendia, near Philippine Trade and Training Center. This restaurant had a look and feel as if you are on an old sailing ship made of wood. There were outdoor areas, and indoor air-conditioned areas, but always felt outdoor since the glass windows were so big, you never feel you are in the indoor area. There was an aquarium that seem to have salt water fishes in it. And I have heard that salt water fishes are more colorful that fresh water fishes. And those fishes were definitely colorful. And the famous “Finding Nemo” star, the clown fish was also present, further confirming that salt water fishes were in the tank. I am not sure if I am correct, but I think salt water aquarium-selling is being regulated by law, since it is now illegal to sell corals since our coral reefs have been depleting in the Philippines. But I looked closely at the aquarium at Marina and they did not have any corals there. Just a big rock. One thing I also noticed was the UV (ultraviolet) light they had. Actually there are three frequency ranges of UV light simply nicknamed UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. Where UV-A is not harmful. UV-B and UV-C is harmful to the skin which could give rise to free-radicals (unpaired electrons) causing skin cancer which basically comes from the sun. The UV light at the aquarium was for sure to be a UV-A light and it’s effect on surfaces is it gives white colors a bright neon like effect that is slightly violet, but still predominantly white. So the fishes in the aquarium with light colors seemed to light up a bit, but most people looking at the fishes didn’t know about it.

When we ordered what to eat, we ordered a lot, Crispy Pata, Roasted Tuna (katawan), Kare-Kare, Pork Sisig, Pancit Bihon, Pancit Canton, Chopseuy, Lechon Manok, Sinigang na Tuna (Ulo). As desert, we had ice cream and Main Con Yelo. The food was ok, I ate mainly the food that I do not get to eat at home that much, so I went for the Sisig and Roasted Tuna and Chopseuy.

Before eating, the kids kept running here and there and Kuya Gerry told me to take pictures of them, so I did. Jude Loi kept wearing his vampire mask trying to scare everyone. When it was eating time, Jamie couldn’t be kept in one place, while I was eating, Marcia was with Jamie, and when I was done, I was with Jamie so Marcia could eat.

We went home on a full stomach, thanks again to Kuya Gerry. We then proceeded to Dapitan, to bring Ate Ning home, and Janet and Harry as well at Quintos. Then we all proceeded to our house.

Our (Me and Marcia) house, fresh from painting, and construction of the interior, has never been slept in after the renovation done. There is also minimal furniture inside. We got our mattress from home and a few cushions for us to sleep on at the living room. After all the ‘pasalubong’ giving (thanks again Kuya Gerry), Kuya Gerry went straight to bed. Everyone else Went to Burger Machine and get something to eat. When everyone else went to sleep as well, me, Madelaine and Dawn were still awake playing cards. I taught them a few card games, like Speed, Bluff and Crazy 8. As we were still awake, Jamie was awake too and did not stop from going up and down the lower steps of the stairs. We slept at 3am.

At 4am, Marcia woke me up to bring Kuya Gerry to the Airport for his 7am flight on his way home to Bicol. The kids came with us and after bringing Kuya Gerry to the airport, we all headed to Dapitan to bring the kids there. Had a little chit-chat and I then headed home and slept another 1 hour before I went to work.