Jumpstart

Coming Home

I’ve been home to Manila for the past 2 weekends.

The most recent one was planned 3 months ago and I was able to get a cheap flight. My trip the week before that was just a last minute thing because since it was Sasha’s first birthday party on Sept 3, and it was mommy’s birthday on Sept 4, I thought it was sulit to go home that weekend.

An all too familiar scene

It’s a given that I love going home. Everything that I miss are there - my family, friends, my home, my bed, the food, being able to get around with a car and all other things that spell comfort. But my recent trips made me miss one part of my life even more - my family. And this was a surprise.

Recent family pic at Sasha’s birthday. All my pics are blurry :(

I always had this notion that our family wasn’t close to each other, but then again after looking back, I realized that that might be true before, but in the recent years, that has changed and we are actually a pretty good bunch. 

We have our lunch feast prepared by mommy every Sunday as a tradition (or alternately a Hai Kang visit, which replaced Alex III circa 1990), have random dinners in new restos we want to try (but usually end up in Hai Kang or Choi Garden), visit new places to go (which usually ends up with a trip to SnR for mommy’s peace of mind) and meddle in each others’ affairs (how can you not with two resident ke-po’s around?:P).

I missed riding the Starex where we’re all complete

With the Golden Granchild Saki at our favorite resto - Hai Kang

Mommy’s birthday at Legend

If there’s anything good that being away has brought me so far, it’s this realization that I value and should value more the people who were with me since the day I was born.

Love Actually in the Airport

Last night I went to the airport to ‘salubong’ Manny, Rica and Trixie. Enrique arrived earlier and was already snoozing at home from a very long day. The Singapore Budget Terminal is very compact that you could start seeing the person that you’re waiting for through the viewing glass the moment they’re going through immigration. Of course you would need perfect vision for this. By the time I saw a giddy girl in a pink get-up moving around the baggage claim area, I was pretty sure it was Rica. Then when that giddy girl approached a tall man, whose small head from afar was very familiar, I was certain already, because that guy was surely Manny. So I stood up from my seat and approached the main door where all the travelers exited. There were many of us there who were waiting. I was listening to music then and had my earphones on and suddenly, Oh Holy Night by my amazingly-talented ex-officemate Izza played. (I will upload that later on).

It was a like a scene from the movie - with a very touching background music to match. The first person to walk out the door was a Filipina mother who was carrying her newborn kid. She was met by her husband who was all smiles. She carefully handed on the baby to him since she still had to go back to get her baggage. When the father turned around to join us other receivers, we saw how intently and joyful he was looking at his baby and then we all had awwww looks in our faces. I saw one woman placing her hand on her chest as she made a very touched look. It was such an emotional scene.

And then came out a guy who looked like he came from the beach. He was wearing white wife-beaters, shorts and sported a hat. He stepped out of the exit with a big smile and when I turned to look where he was looking, I saw a petite girl who was equally enthusiastic. They hugged like they haven’t seen each other in ages and gave a good 3-second smack for everyone to witness. It was again, very touching.

And then more people started to exit. It was like each person in the receiving area was waiting for their moment that was free for everyone to see.

And then it was my turn. I saw Manny, Trixie and Rica nearing the door. I was smiling like crazy and started waving that way too! I made them stop so I could take their picture and it was quite embarrassing because everyone was looking and they were blocking the door.

But then again I thought that’s how it was in this magical space of reunions. Each one has his/her turn. Everyone there just understood.

I took off my earphones and ran to hug them one by one. I miss these guys so much. It only hit me when I saw them.

I’m so happy that Manny, Enrique, Rica and Trixie are here! We’re going to have one hell of an (extended) weekend! (with Ian of course) :)

The whole scene actually reminded me of the movie Love Actually. Not only because they had a similar scene in the airport, but more of right at that moment, you could actually feel that love actually is all around. (yuck cheesy but yeah haha)

I Survived Quarter Close (and other accounting shizz).

As I’ve tweeted before: “Never in my life did I imagine going through quarter close or any close for that matter. BAA nga course ko!”

Brief summary - I moved from a very investments-related training-to-be-a-private banker job in Bank of Singapore to a very financial accounting management trainee role at General Electric. Basically I’m in a 2 year program (Financial Management Program) where I get rotated to a different GE business every 6 months with a different finance-related role. I could end up in controllership (hello Ma’am Agustin), financial planning & analysis, global supply chain, treasury, audit, risk or to any other finance role word I learned in BA 141 and 142. They warned me that the job could involve hard-core accounting depending where and what role I get assigned to. Of course I said I didn’t mind, but prayed deep in my heart to never end up with a pure accounting role. Accounting was never my favorite subject (sorry Ma’am Dani), though I graduated BS BAA.

When they told me that my first rotation would be in GE Oil & Gas as part of Global Supply Chain (GSC), I thought my prayers were answered and that I should brush up on my BA 105 lessons. Little did I know that GSC for GE Finance meant dealing with manufacturing numbers and operations shop stats, which in UP parlance is better known as BA 116 – by far my least favorite accounting subject (hello Virge and Lawrence)!

In my first two weeks, I cringed and gagged as I heard the words variable, fixed, base, applied and actual, overhead application rate, operating plan, rework, scrap and all that crap! I wanted to cry when my boss asked me to take care of the rework numbers as it was my most hated concept back in BA 116! I can’t believe I’m facing all of these again!

The third week was quarter close and numbers had to be produced and explained. We had to talk to shop people to figure out what was causing their variances. We also had to make sure that costs were charged to appropriate platforms else the platform leaders would cry foul and complain that we are making them miss their targets. The work actually started to be interesting. This was exactly what we were discussing back in BA 116, 117 and even in Ma’am Agustin’s class in BA 126.

The initial stress and resentment to what I was doing was suddenly overcome with an appreciation of what I learned from my BAA courses. Suddenly things that I resented before made sense. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t love accounting as much as I should, but at least I am not as resentful as before. I guess I needed to experience this. After all, I did graduate from the toughest accounting program our country has to offer.

Religious Coexistence (LongShan Temple Visit)

Back to Taiwan Trip posts. As mentioned in my previous one, this one wont be about food. 

I thought traveling with my family meant that no tourist attractions would be visited since most of them, especially my mom, would rather spend time on shopping and eating. So I was surprised when my two sisters agreed to visit a nearby tourist spot, the Mengjia Longshan Temple. Our two young “healthy” Taiwanese cousins were tasked to be our guides while their mom (my aunt) accompanied our mom to more shopping.

Our tour guide cousins Austin and Ainan:

The temple was only a couple of MRT stops away so we decided to commute. I always find it exciting to try out the MRT when I’m in another country. As expected, their rail system’s advanced compared to ours. I just found their single journey tickets so cute!

Their cute “casino chip” MRT token which you scan going in and drop in going out:

The Longshan temple even has its own MRT station, so it was easy to find. After a few stops, we alighted and found it right across the exit.

Exterior of the Longshan Temple:

When we entered, we were greeted by a very ancient Chinese-styled structure. Of course we needed to have a picture with it.

After many tries by our cousins, this was the best they could do to capture us with the structure:

I liked the intricate details of the roof.

As with all tourist attractions I’ve visited, I arrived in Longshan Temple with a very tourist mind-set of wanting to explore and take pictures of everything. I was too excited that I forgot that for most of the people there, it wasn’t a time for exploration, but a time of sacred prayer.

I only realized this when I entered the main chamber where dozens of people were offering their prayers with incense and gifts. The whole temple was playing the chant music that my mom would always play over and over in the car.

I quickly put aside my camera and decided that I should pay my respects. Although we were Catholics, my siblings and I were all brought up familiar with the ways of Buddhists and Taoists since our mom was Buddhist.

We were products of the usual Tsinoy (Chinese-Filipino) set-up where our parents were Buddhist/Taoist while we were Christian Catholics as brought up by the schools we were sent to.

I went to get a set of incense sticks (which contains 8 pieces). It was a long time since I did this.

Me lighting up my incense sticks (Ainan surprised me by taking this pic):

All the people praying in the “first chamber”:

The way to go about it was to visit the altars/chambers of the different Gods to pray and offer an incense stick. The different Gods were pretty much like the Greek Gods or Saints of the Catholic Church wherein they had their own domain/specialty.

You would see some people take more time in some altars than others depending on what they needed at that particular time in their life. I particularly noticed that the saint who promised love had lots of worshipers :)

Other altars in the temple:

People moving around and offering their prayers:

More details of the temple’s architecture:

Notice the glass panels of the modern building around the temple? Interesting contrast.

The temple visit was fun. Not only did I satisfy my cam-whoring (even though I had to be very discreet), but it also made me realize how much I appreciated how our mom brought us up in terms of religion. She had her own beliefs and did not force them to us. At the same time, we developed our own but still respected hers. It was a peaceful coexistence.

If only everyone respected each others religion.

Cliquish (Mang Kiko’s @ Somerset)

A break from Taiwan Trip Posts (so much has happened to me since then). 

Been so busy with the whole moving-to-Singapore thing that I haven’t had time to write about it. I am writing this entry because I had a sudden realization awhile ago that I wanted to share.

Back in Manila, I always found it strange that foreigners flock to restaurants that serve their specific cuisine. Like I recently dined in Murtabak in Mall of Asia which serves Indonesian food and the whole resto was filled with Indonesians. Also Little Tokyo restos are always filled with Japanese the same way Ye Dang, Massan Garden and Ara are always filled with Koreans.

I don’t know if I’m the only one who thought this way, but I found it weird that they flocked to restos which offered the same things that they’re used to having. I’m sure they’ll only probably end up saying that the food there was no match as the ones they had at home. To me they were cliquish. I mean, they are in a foreign country - isn’t it more exciting to try out foreign food?

That was my thinking up until today.

After 5 days of being in a foreign land eating Singaporean food everyday, Auntie Lora, Marie (Ian’s family and my housemates) and I, ate at Mang Kiko’s in Somerset for dinner today. They served Lechon Manok and BBQ - Pinoy style.

Lechon Manok complete with sarsa:

BBQ:

When we got there, most of the customers were of course, Pinoy. But instead of cringing and thinking that we were being cliquish, I actually felt relief and joy that in this not-so-faraway land, we weren’t alone. Aside from eating familiar-tasting food, it was nice to be surrounded with people who spoke and acted the same way as we did. For a moment, I forgot that I was in Singapore, and that I missed so many people back home.

Mang Kiko’s Lechon at Somerset:

And it was only then that I got it. The Japanese in Manila don’t just go to Little Tokyo for the ramens and the sushi. They go there to see other Japanese so that they do not feel so alone in a foreign country such as ours. The Koreans go to Ye Dang so that they could be themselves and not worry about being laughed at when they try to speak English. The Indonesians visit Murtabak so they could have a sense of community even for just one meal. Foreigners go to where they can have some semblance of home, and we Pinoys are no different.

I will not be so quick to judge next time. OFW na talaga ako, and I have lots to learn.