The Davao trip proved to be very informative.  We had a very interesting dinner with a customer that made me realize just how little I know about business and… well, life.  I always like talking to people who have already been thru life and have no qualms sharing what they’ve learned along the way.

The next day, I got the early morning flight since there was a company meeting that afternoon and everyone had to be there.  After the usual updates, we had the employee awards.  I heard talk that this was the month that the awards were to be given but I didn’t know that I was going to win one.

Yeah, I won.  Manager of the Year (2007) for my division.  (woohooo!)

Quite unexpected, actually.  So that was why my boss didn’t want me to go on leave that day.  Sayang kasi I didn’t win manager of the year for the entire company… but then again, there’s next year.

I’m currently in the airport, at the Delifrance cafe and having breakfast.  Have to catch a flight to Davao for the day and will be back in Manila tomorrow.

Its only 8:30 am and this trip has already been amusing.  And I haven’t even left yet.  I woke up from my nap on the way to the airport when I realized that I forgot my cellphone.  Oh what joy! (insert sarcasm here).  And because I really don’t think I can survive the next 2 days without a phone, I borrowed my dad’s (ultra low tech) phone and just asked my brother to send all the relevant work numbers.  What a way to start a trip, right?

But then, I didn’t really want to stress on that minor mishap.  So I just went through the airport drill.  You know how they ask you to remove your belt before you enter the gates?  I always hate that because I can never really get myself to put on my belt right after the xray machines.  I dunno.  It just feels like you’re dressing in front of the entire airport.  Weird, I know, but hey, that’s how my weird mind works.  So, with belt in hand, I went to the ladies room.  There was a line and I squeezed myself in there to put on my belt.  There was a lady who just finished her business and as she was exiting a stall, said “Alam mo, ayaw mag-flush nyang toilet na yan.”  It was an automatic flush toilet, but hey sometimes they don’t always work.  And then she washed her hands as a good uhmmm girl ought to.  But then, the water wouldn’t come.  And so she said (rather loudly) “Ano ba ‘to, SOLAR??”  Uhmm…. solar…. yeah right.  Someone then assisted her and she was able to wash her hands.

Hay, naloka ako don.  As I sat down at Delifrance (thanking God for having a free table free for me), I struck a conversation with the Australian lady who was sitting next to me.  She and her husband were going to Laoag for a few days’ vacation, she said and she commented (correctly) that I couldn’t part with my work for long.  With mobile phones and wifi internet, heck the office will follow you around whether you want it or not.

And so that’s how my morning is shaping up so far.  Pray that I have successful meeting in Davao.  More blogging later.

I just finished the big project that I’ve been working on for months.  Well, its connected with the call center we launched last May.  Since the launch, I’ve been preparing for a workshop of my regional counterparts that we hosted here in Manila.  The big finish for the entire event was a big dinner with the management of our company and the call center.  The whole preparation for the big dinner was something alien for me.  I didn’t know how to begin to prepare for it.  By the time we started preps for the dinner, I was frazzled with all the work I was doing already, so I was really relying on our marketing manager to do all the creative stuff.

And you know what?  It all paid off.  All that hard work and bewilderment - it all paid off.  The dinner was great, the workshop was a success.  My regional bosses were satisfied and whew! I’m just so glad its finished.

So that was what was eating up my time and explains why there are (again) few entries.

Life can not be more boring at the moment.  I work, I eat lunch and laugh with my work friends, I work again, I munch on some stuff instead of having a proper dinner, I go home tired, I watch some tv, I pray the rosary, I go to bed.  Repeat Monday to Friday.  On the weekend, I work a bit, I sleep a bit, I read a bit.  On a good weekend, I go to the derma or go to have a massage or go to a mall and buy more books to add to my hoard.  I have stopped shopping because goodness knows I’ve shopped my fill.

I know I should get a new hobby but really, I’m tired.  So instead of a blog that details exciting things and exciting thoughts, instead of tales of partying and wild nights (wooohooo!), I give you mundane thoughts about goings on in the office and my own foray into understanding how leadership works and how my own mind works.

So while I would love to tell you about partying all weekend long, meeting up guys and all that wild stuff (!), I will tell you about how insanely happy my officemate was when he hit his target - after 4 months of not even being close to hitting his target (how exciting, you say?!@)  But it was something that was significant to him, and a cause for celebration.  He promises to get drunk… nay, wasted, pare this weekend.

And I can tell you that sometimes I have all these stories in my head about what I did at the office and what I thought about things or what people I met or interacted with… and at the end of the day, I don’t have anyone to talk to.  Its at these times that loneliness creeps and gives me what would be a giant bonk on the head, reminding me that he’s good and strong and he knows where I live.

… and I didn’t answer.  I held off.  I stayed firm.

So I am Mac-less.

But I almost almost reached the luggage weight limit.  Almost, but not quite.

And so my flirtation with the Great Singapore Sale has ended.

I thought that this time I would have the chance to get to look around Singapore.  But alas, the Great Singapore Sale beckons.  So my sister and I headed to the one attraction that can make us feel like it was a normal day in Manila - the mall.  We went shopping on both Saturday and Sunday, all the while justifying that it would be much more fun to see the Singapore sights (Sentosa or the Merlion or the Night Safari) this coming weekend or when my brother decides to get on a plane.

And so the sisters shopped - for clothes, for shoes, for bags (I was not successful in finding a bag that called out to me), for gadgets.  Lord, help me - I want to buy a Mac, its cheaper here and I can here it calling my name.

I also got to stay with my sister at her flat.  She was so proud showing me around her flat and her little world that I can’t help but be proud of how independent she has become.  She and her roommates have a clean and spare flat.  She has made friends with her neighbors already and she looks to have adjusted well.  Sometimes, she would say that while everything looks ok, there were times that she felt homesick and lonely.  It was heartbreak for me, I tell you.  But its good to know that she can stand on her own.  It was a concern for me because she was always the one that was so close to my mom and dad.  I felt that she would have a tough time living so far away.  I was right but she’s coping real well.

I did get to taste what her life was like - I rode the bus, the MRT, shopped for groceries, threw her garbage, went to Mass.  For me, it was part of making sure that she’s ok.  If I learned some of her routines, then I know that she can handle stuff.

I’m meeting up with her again this weekend.  Because she was working nights and I had work in the mornigns, it wasn’t really possible for us to spend much time during the week.  Plus I had a full load of work plus the workshop stuff so I really have to concentrate.

More about my Singapore trip soon.  I’ll tell you if the Mac called my name so loud, that I just had to listen to it. 

I attended the John Maxwell seminar on leadership yesterday at the Edsa Shangri-la.  While I have read his books and listened to his audiobooks, it was a first to me to listen to John Maxwell speak.  He was charismatic, clear, concise and infectuous.  After hearing him speak, you’d want to read all his books, I swear.

There was a major aha! moment for me during the seminar.  It was when he was speaking about the five levels of leadership and he said that people follow you, not because of what you say, but because of their perception of where you are in the levels of leadership.  Major aha! for me because I figured out why I can say the same thing to the different people in my team and I get different reactions.  I thought it was because of the different motivations they have coming into the workplace but then it dawned on me that it wasn’t them, it was me and where I was in the levels of leadership.  I can be saying the same things and to someone who just doesn’t want to get fired will not respond as deeply and will not be as involved as if I said the same thing to someone who has given me their respect.  That realization has helped me understand the dynamics I have with my team.

In my life, I’ve been called a leader - sometimes too hastily, sometimes belatedly.  In school, the smart girls are automatically said to be leaders, sometimes mistakenly.  For whatever its worth, I’ve participated in one form of a leadership seminar most of my student life.  But really, I’ve just realized how dynamic and how complex and how influential leadership can be.  There’s so much to learn, to finetune, to assess , to practice that it would be a lifelong pursuit.  And that’s what is exciting about it.

The dearth of entries the past few weeks can be attributed to too much work (but that’s nothing new) and also to an ongoing argument with my brother on who gets to keep the modem in the room.

But then, with the wonders of a new router, we both can have access in our own rooms.

So, yeah.  I’m back.

I’m going on a business trip all of next week and this time, I’m excited.  Its Singapore again but the difference is that I will get to spend more time with my sister this time.  I’m flying in Saturday and will be going back Sunday of the following week.  My sister and i will be able to spend 4 days at least.  Which means, I can get a proper tour of Singapore this time and also we can do the things we used to do here in Manila… like shopping and eating out and uhmmm some more shopping.

Actually, I think she’s much more excited than I am but nonetheless, having her to hang out with for 4 days would really be great.

I’m reading Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now uhhmmmm now.  I’m having a hard time reading it, to be honest.  Maybe because its a bit more cerebral and theoretical than I thought it was going to be.  I’m still at page 75 though but I sorta get it.  The trick is to stay in the Now.  And that there is no past nor is there any future.  Just the Now.  The past is all but a memory trace and the future is just anticipation.  Everything happened in the Now.  The more you are conscious of the Now and the more you stay in the Now, the more you can accomplish.  Or something like that.