RAINY HOLIDAY

The vacation I had to Virac for Christmas turns out to be a big disappointment. Well, really also a mix of a bit of goodness to it. The whole time we were there it was raining almost every single day, and the couple of days it did not it still was gloomy and cloudy. My hopes of visiting at least one beach and soak some sun spiraled into pfft.

We ended up being at home most of the time, either watching TV or playing video games. At night, though, as if to taunt me the weather seemed fine and permitted us to go to the Christmas Cheers, a variety show pioneered by Virac held from the 16th-23rd of December and then again continues to 26th-30th of December. The show is held at the town plaza, and there are no seats provided so you have to stand the whole three to five hours show each night. The venue also is open-air save for the stage, so you also have to brave the elements.

I'm not really an internet person who spends most of the time online, although I have the ability to connect online almost anytime and anywhere with my phones. We also have purchased a Smart Bro prepaid kit, so we can go online with our notebook computer, but then the connection available is nothing but regular GPRS and the almost to a trickle of 3G during the night. It seemed many people from Virac who are now living in big cities, especially Metro Manila, have chosen to come home for the holiday and the massive demand for the 3G network setup by the two telecom networks-- Globe and Smart, couldn't cope up with the demands on peak hours. There still is no HSDPA signal available in the island. The biggest disappointment with connectivity was on Christmas eve when we were trying to have video chat or at least do video calls with some relatives who were not able to come home.

Among other things, we also have hoped to see some old friends we have missed the past couple of years. It's not that we have not been home the past two years, but all those times we have gone home we were too occupied with other things to pay them a visit. This vacation is actually no different than the previous. Well we didn't make an effort this time to contact them at least as our attempts before have been wasted. We then have to be contented only with Friendster.

Before we know it, we again have to be back to the city. I could have stayed for at least two more days, but then again I have given up on the weather ever clearing up.

As I am writing this, I currently am in the office trying to survive the next eleven hours of my shift, and it's only a few hours before the new year comes in. I couldn't possibly aford to be absent from work again as I don't have anymore paid leave allotment. I have used them all up even before the Christmas vacation I took last week.

Anyways, I have to look on the brighter side of things to pull it through today. So, Happy New Year to everyone and hope we all have a prosperous new year.

I'M COMING HOME

After much deliberation and weighing of the pros and cons, I finally have decided that we should come home to Virac for Christmas, my wife and I. Our workforce management team has decided to declare the 23rd and 24th of December as critical workdays, so it will be a big offense, earning a step in the progressive counselling, to be absent those days. I guess I don't care that much anymore about the job, what with all the politicking on the floor. Besides I have an alibi on standby, and it is that I will sprain my ankle on a trip to Virac and won't be able to come back to Manila until after the 28th of December. I will have a medical certificate from our family doctor to back it up.

Well, I'm looking forward to basking in the sun on a beach in our island home, if the weather will permit. It was long time coming as I was supposed to come home last May this year. We don't have much money to bring with us, but then we won't be needing that much as my brother whose a bit well off than most of us sibs will be home too.

I need to getaway from American callers who more often than not are spoiled brats, from one of our team managers who's a fashion roadkill, from my supervisor's really sweet sheepish smile, from my bullying team mates who are "pitikeros" and "pitikeras", and most of all from an Avaya callmaster. My head is spinning from the pressure and stress on the job, and that's what I need a quick break from. Well, alongside my daily doses of fastfood meals, road pollution, the more than an hour commute to and from work each working day, addiction to malls, and the sight of the crowded Metro Manila itself.

I have to do this. Not only for myself but for me to get myself together-- I have not been performing good at work lately. Largely because of too much stress and the insensitivity of the client on our plights, which is the refusal not only to upgrade our salaries and incentives to be at least a fourth of our counterparts in the US. I guess being in the third world country doesn't deserve you at least half the respect of what people from the first world get.

Come what may now, I'm going home for Christmas.