Thank you, Wiley...

An exciting chapter in my professional life concluded today. The last 5 years at Wiley was filled with meaningful and memorable experiences! Many blessings came my way and my family's because I work with Wiley, because I am in Singapore. For the opportunity to work for a well-respected publishing house, for the amazing experience of working outside of the Philippines - THANK YOU, MARAMING SALAMAT PO!

Busy, busy...

This week has been extremely busy.

A lot of things have been happening, a lot of things are going to happen.

There's a lot to write but I just really have to find the time to sit down and compose my thoughts.

I'll prolly do that later or over the weekend.

In the meantime, I have to head to the first of three meetings for today! TGIF! :)

Let's makan...

We had a department lunch earlier.

It was at a feast of local Malay dishes since the food had to be halal. I'm not complaining as I love Malay cuisine! If I didn't worry so much about my waistline expanding, I'll have beef rendang or ayam as often as I can. Hehe!

Five years in Singapore...

Today is my fifth year in Singapore! *applause applause* LOL!

I can't believe it's already been five years. Hmm, I think I've been a good foreigner in my adopted country the past five years. And I'm grateful for the experience/lesson.

I fell in love with Singapore in 2008, as I wrote in one of my blog posts then.

It took me three years before I finally got to make the move to Singapore.

All these became possible thanks to the help of a lot of friends - Chris, who passed my resume to Wiley HR; Rej and Tey, who helped me fly to SG for interviews (I had to fly THREE times!!!); Mr. and Mrs. B and MonRich, who adopted me on my first month of living in SG; Stephie, who also helped me fly to SG; MkSurf8, who helped me move to a new place, to name a few. Thank you to these kindhearted and generous friends!

Salamat, Singapura

Pasko na...

The first of a few Christmas dinners for 2015 took place last night.

A bunch of fellow Filipinos at work organised a gathering to celebrate Christmas as well as the birthday of our colleague, JM.

The whole day was spent at the museum and as soon as I was done with my assignment, I took the bus to head to Redhill.

As expected, it was a feast! Everyone brought something - liempo, chicharong bulaklak, spaghetti, ham, hipon, siewmai and hakao, and two super yum homemade cakes!

Fun, fun evening!

Cultural Day cum Bring Your Kids to Work Day...

Today was a fun, fun day at the office. Today, I also got to wear a second time the Barong Tagalog I bought for my brother's wedding. Haha! As Tey said, "Nag-ROI na si Ernie Barong!"

It was Bring Your Kids to Work x Cultural Day. Since I don't have any kids (doh!), I meant to participate in the Cultural Day portion. Haha! I asked some friends to dress up in Filipiniana as well. I wasn't sure who was going to come in Filipiniana. When I saw Sheryl in a simple but wonderful baro't saya, I was really happy. Haha!

I was hoping to join in the Individual category of Best Dressed competition. Hmm, I guess I didn't get to join because I already won the Best Child Pic. Lol! I submitted a photo of myself when I was 6 years old or younger wearing Dad's barong tagalog. Whoever the judge was found it cute and I was selected winner. Lol!

It was a fun activity! :) Any chance to wear the Barong Tagalog, sign me up! I really love the Philippines' traditional costume!

...anything or everything for the picture

Image from here

In the documentary "In Vogue: The Editor's Eye," fashion designer/ex-Vogue sittings editor Vera Wang said, "...anything or everything for the picture!"

I completely understand what she means and I can relate to those words, having been in the magazine industry for two (or was it three?) years. That was the time when some friends and I just went "crazy" and said, "Let's put up our own LGBT magazine!" The next thing we know, ICON was born.

Tonight, I am having that "...anything or everything for the picture!" moment. The only difference is this time is that I'm working on a complete issue and not just one photo.

This past two (or three?) months, I've been working with editors, typesetters, copyeditor, proofreader and authors putting a special issue together for one of the journals I handle.

It has been quite a challenge to shepherd this particular issue because we have a very short working period to complete the issue.

Tonight is a very crucial point because the issue needs to be sent to press by this weekend in order to meet its publication deadline. I have never had an issue miss its deadline and I don't want to tarnish that record. Lol!

This past week has been extremely challenging as I have been repeatedly hounding my editors for their final set of corrections for the issue. Up until this evening, I was corresponding with one of the editors. The thing is two editors are in the US, one editor is in Amsterdam, the series editor is in the US. Add to that a typesetter who is in another timezone and then there's me in another timezone. Thank goodness for the World clock feature of iPhone. I had to find out the local time for everyone so I can properly set deadlines. Haha!

Right now, I am waiting for the typesetter to send the final files of the issue so that I can have one final look. Hopefully, hopefully, there are no more corrections because the issue already needs to go to press. I can't afford to have a late night as well because I have a morning training tomorrow for the museum. Need my proper sleep.

But at this particular moment, "...anything or everything for the issue!"

Wonderful non wonderful day...

Today was quite a busy but still manageable day.

I started my work at 7AM. There were items on my Inbox I did not get to work on yesterday. Thus, the decision to go online as early as possible. I think this is one of the good things about working from home. Work files can be accessed 24/7. Some may find it a good thing, some may find it a not-so-good thing. Haha!

The January issue of one journal I handle is running late. It needs to be approved within the week. Another issue of another journal is ahead of schedule. This is a good thing because the number of corrections for some of the manuscripts included in the journal is just too much. Two papers included in the issue each have more than 300 corrections! Walau eh! Die die! Haha!

The highlights of today are lunch with Chris and the newly-married Alexie and Pump class after work.

My dear landlord told me that the Internet guy will be coming in today to do some work needed for the upgrade of our Internet connection. To be honest, I am perfectly happy with the previous speed. I thought it was very fast. Apparently, it can still go faster. Haha! Oh well, as long as my rent does not increase (or the increase is very minimal), I’m okay with this latest upgrade.

When the Internet guy arrived, I got dressed up and told my landlord that I’ll work at the office in the afternoon. The Internet guy came close to 11AM. That was perfect because I meant to leave the house around that time so I can meet Alexie and Chris at Star Vista for lunch.

I suggested we eat at Morganfield’s since I thought the food was good. Thankfully, my lunch companions were okay with the suggestion. I ordered a grilled chicken and had the fries and coleslaw replaced with the house salad. The set meal came with a soup of the day and a tall glass of iced tea. For $15, it was okay, I think.

Lunch convo dwelled mostly on the beautiful wedding of Alexie and Jasper. The now Mrs. B shared “exciting” behind-the-scenes incidents that happened days before the wedding and on the wedding day itself. It was such a beautiful wedding still. I couldn’t be happier for the couple.

The rest of the day went by with usual work stuff. I’m glad because I was able to finish a lot of things.

After work, I rushed to Metropolis to attend the 630 Pump class. I dunno if it was because of the instructor or because a lot of people are working extra hard to get rid of the weight put on during the holidays, but it was a packed class. I do enjoy Pump a lot but the class today was really challenging. In particular, I hated the back track. I felt like I was going to keel over before the track ended. Haha!

Thankfully, I survived the workout and I’m definitely happy with the class.

To end this wonderful non wonderful day, I finally bought new books to read. I found a list of recommended LGBT titles and I decided to get two out of the 10 suggested Summer 2014 readings. Hehe! I intended to buy a gift card for my Amazon account. It turns out there was no need for it as my gift card balance is still enough to get me the titles above. These books should keep me busy for the next few weeks. Yay!

It’s only 10PM and I’m already sleepy. What is happening?!?!?!

Exhausting day, happy day...

Today was a rather exhausting day.

Not physically, but mentally. When I ended my work at 630PM and as I was making my way to the gym, I felt really tired. Haha! That gave me more reason to want to go to the gym.

Most of the day was spent figuring out how to resolve an issue with an external supplier. The thing is, with my position, I am sort of acting as the middle man between partners and suppliers. There were some serious issues that came up with one supplier and that has given partners and me a major headache.

The good thing about these problems is that they break the monotony of work. At the end of the day, it all boils down to perspective. Either you see the problem as a headache or as an opportunity. Lols!

For now, I am seeing it as the latter.

Today was also a good day. I spent the day at the office since I had to take care of some papers. Aside from that, there was an arranged lunch with a few of the fellow Filipinos working with the company.

It was nice to be back at the office. It was nice to have lunch with people. It was just nice to be surrounded by people. Period. Lol!

While working from home grants me a nice working environment of working in peace, I definitely want to see other people. I definitely want to talk to other people.

Thanks to technology, I also got to catch up with a bunch of other friends. Last night, I attempted to Facetime with Tey since she was having dinner with Ella and Trish. Today, Trish flies back to the US. We didn't get to have a decent Facetime call but we managed to have one photo taken.

This morning, I had a brief chat with Coly and Tipz via Facebook messenger. Tipz called via Facetime but I didn't get to pick up as I was on my way to the office. In the evening, while waiting for Combat class, Tipz and I were chatting via Facebook. He is spending the day in Bruges and I'm pestering him to get me a statue of the Bruges Madonna. Haha!

I couldn't be more thankful for technology as it connects me to friends who are in some place else.

Tomorrow, I'm back to working at my home office. That's fine. I just wish that the supplier issue will already be resolved. I just wish I can finish all the things I want to do.

The thing to look forward to is the evening and Monday next week. Arranged to meet some people for dinner. Hehe!

Random blah during lunch hour...

Lunch break!

Since I'm working from home, I already ate my lunch while checking some emails earlier. I'm just going to use the official lunch hour for blogging. Hehe!

Today is the 5th day that I am telecommuting.

So far, it has been going quite well. There was never a moment that I jumped back to bed to get more zzz. There was not a moment when I spent more than 90 minutes for lunch. Work is still the same. The entire day is occupied replying to emails, analysing problems, checking manuscripts, and so on and so forth.

In fact, having access to work files 24/7 now tempts me to get some work done even outside of office hours. That's what I did last night. I checked some manuscripts that were due for publication. Since it didn't involve communicating with counterparts in the US, UK or India, I figured I can do the work and not give the impression that I'm available outside of official working hours.

A colleague's comment was right. "Telecommuting can even be more productive."

Nothing has changed with the wake up time. Okay, maybe a little. I now wake up at 6AM instead of 530AM. Haha! I still shower. I wear a nice work shirt but paired with berms and flipflops. I still go out in the morning, either to go to the gym or to go for a walk around the neighbourhood, before heading back to my home office to start the day.

By the time I reach home, my landlord and my other flatmate would have left the house/ or are about to leave the house for work. The rest of the day, the house belongs to me. On certain days, Auntie drops by to clean and to say her prayers. Usually, it's just me. I keep the door to my room open as leaving it closed gave the feeling of being caged. Lol!

My current home office has its pros and cons. The pro is that I have the house to myself and I can have a work environment that I want. (e.g. I can listen to the radio, play some loud music, or just work in a quiet space). I have complete command of my time and activities. The major con, which I'm starting to observe, is that there's a feeling of being alone. Lol! I should be thankful I guess. When I spoke with some other colleagues, they have to deal with housemates, or kids of their housemates, or noise. I am in a better home office setup, I suppose. To deal with the lonesome feeling, I head out after work just to be surrounded by people. I go to the gym. Once I get more used to the schedule, I'll probably head to the city for dinners with friends. The thing is most of my friends are Central or East dwellers. Hehe!

Earlier, I messaged Tian3x via Office Communicator, "My takeaway from telecommuting. I need love. I don't want to live in an empty 3-BR flat." Hehe!

First day of telecommuting...

Today, I started working from home. Wait, let me correct that. Today, I started telecommuting.

One of our big bosses told us that the correct term is telecommuting since technically, we can work from anywhere in the world as long as we have our laptops and there's a good Internet connection.

Well, surprisingly, it was better than I expected.

I dunno if it was the company's resources or if it's because of the good Internet connection I have at home, but I didn't have too much of a problem accessing the company's systems, shared drives, etc. via VPN. The bed was a foot away from me, but not a single moment was I tempted to jump into bed and sleep the afternoon off.

In fact, not much changed with my schedule. I still woke up the same time. Instead of showering to commute, I showered because I headed out to buy breakkie and also, do some grocery. Twenty minutes before 830, I was already logged into the system and starting to work. It was quite a busy day.

Productivity is not an issue.

The main change that I did was to set up a home office in one corner of my tiny room. The desk that used to be my home desk now serves as my home office desk. I moved it to the side of the room so that I am facing my "Success" and "Personal Development" directions as per my Geomancy app. Hahaha!

Where my home desk used to be is now my new "home" corner. Tipz sold me his desk, carpet and a cushion seat. I set up my Angelo area beside the home office area. The fantastic James Jean print I recently purchased is now beautifully leaning against the well. I know, I know. I should have it framed. I will definitely.

The Angelo area setup has such a homey feel because of the low table and that fact that I'm on the floor sitting comfortably on the seat cushion. Hehe! The laptop I use is my own personal Mac. There is really that distinction between work and home. Nice!

Alright, this is it for tonight. Going to watch an ep of The Good Wife first before going to zzz... Tomorrow is another work day.

No need to get up at 530AM tomorrow...

Today is the last day of working in an office environment.

Tomorrow, my office shall be one corner of my room.

But that also means I need not get up at 530AM and leave for the gym before 6. That also means missing the Wednesday morning Pump class I usually attend. Hmm, I have to rethink my gym schedule as well.

I wonder how this whole thing will pan out. Haha!

Some random things...

1.) Things at work are a bit slow. Most of the journals I'm currently handling are published either quarterly or bi-monthly. This means that there may be very slow days at the office, especially when no journal issues in production. Thankfully, I have one journal that is under a continuous publication business model.That's been keeping me busy. I do plan to check with my team lead if there are new journals that may be assigned to me. I want to be busier. Haha!

2.) Recently, I found out that one journal I handle is included in the Top 40 (or 45) scholarly journals list of the Financial Times. A little more digging about the journal and I learned that Nobel Prize winners have actually written and been published in the journal. Whoa! I'm one proud prod editor!

3.) Ariana Grande has been on repeat these past few days. Haha! It started with Break Free, followed by Bang Bang. Now, Love Me Harder is on repeat, repeat, repeat. Haha! Obviously, the last song is a current fave. The words, the music. So damn sexy to listen to. Haha!

4.) After so long, Tipz and I went again for Pump x Combat classes at Cathay. Just how long have we been away from what used to be our weekly Thursday night routine? The very friendly instructor walked over to Tipz and then me to ask, "Where have you been, ah?"

5.) I'm more than halfway through with The Death Cure, the third installation of James Dashner's The Maze Runner trilogy. Hmm, I am starting to get annoyed with it. Poor Thomas, Minho and Newt. I feel sorry for the misfortune after misfortune that the trio has been going through. At one point, I wonder why they just don't end their lives and put themselves out of misery! Lol! I'm determined to finish the book though for one main reason - closure. TMR is giving me the same feeling as I had with the Divergent trilogy. At one point, I just wanted to give up reading the book. Thankfully, I haven't. All I'm saying is the book better have a good ending.

Oh, I also got an extra phone. Just got a 5S as work phone. It's part of the whole Work From Home setup. Hmm, tbh, I dun need another phone. Lol! But it's there sooo... hehe!

Weekend is almost upon us. Let it be an awesome one!

Third anniversary...

Today, I am more grateful than usual. It is my third anniversary with Wiley and of living in wonderful Singapore. Looking back, it is all thanks to the inspiration and the support of a number of people. You know who you are, maraming salamat!

Happy email...

I received the email above early this afternoon from one of the team leads in my department.

She attended the session I gave on Best Practices for (relatively) new hires in our department.

Actually, I was wondering why a team lead was attending a session meant for new hires. I should have known that a team lead should really be there just to ensure I dun create new policies/procedures to the newbies. Hehe!

To be honest, I actually enjoy giving "classes." Here at the office, it is an outlet for my creativity as work can be sometimes monotonous. Presentations are always a nice break from the usual work.

As with previous presentations, mine was very visual. Lol! I included a few GIFs which I thought would make the presentation more interesting. Hehe!

Uhm, I guess I got this style of creating presentations during my years with Smart. The senior management, as well as our big boss at the Public Affairs department, always like presentations that have visuals and not too text heavy. I guess I sort of got that from them.

If it were up to me, I'd use Keynote. Hehe! I feel like it's more superior to Powerpoint in terms of making kickass prezzos. Hehe!

Oh well, thanks to this email, this week ends on a very good note. :)

Back to work... I need a drink... Lol...

It's the first day back at the office and I wouldn't mind having the drink I had for New Year's Eve. LOL!

Things have been extremely busy at the office. I'm not complaining that there's a lot of work.

Having something to do is always something to be grateful for.

I'm just saying that I have a lot of things to do. LOL!

My guess is because 8 of my journals went into issue production for December. One of the journals is a big issue - close to 400 pages!!!

I'm hoping that things will slow down once all the issues go to press.

How was your first day back at the office?

Twice as good...

For some reason, the week that just ended was just a string of unfortunate events at work. It is supposed to be Christmas and yet, I felt like the mood was that of Good Friday.

Some problems came up with some of the projects I was working on. What should have been a smooth sailing workflow suddenly entered a stormy sea. Rarely do I feel stressed at the office and this week, boy did I feel something happening on my nape. (Hypertension, is that you?)

Friday was the worst I guess. One, a project that was almost done is now facing a slight delay all because of a simple request to add a small detail. Two, I missed including important dates in a report that I wrote. An email from a higher office sent a chill down my spine. Strangely, I am somehow thankful that a team mate got a similar email. It may have been a joke. It may have been not. But it was enough to remind me of a friend's advice when I was still planning to move to SG.

When I got home close to midnight, I turned on PG Boy's laptop to check some emails. I was very happy to see three emails. While composing my reply, I was telling PG Boy how I'm kicking myself for the few hiccups. He told me that I was putting too much pressure on myself. #justsaying And I told him that surely, he must understand where I'm coming from.

"Why should you be chosen?"

Sheesh, I've been overanalysing things that a scene from the first episode of Scandal season 3 played in my mind. It is definitely good reminder to keep me on my toes.

Let's hope the coming week and the whole of 2014 will be awesome.

On a bigger picture, I think I really have to find time to sit down and work on another project. It's time to set things into motion.

Pasko at Wiley...

A few of the Filipinos at work had a small Christmas gathering today.

And even if it was a small group, there was a lot, a lot of food. Haha!

Alexie brought barbecue and bibingka all the way from Pinas. Paula made Oreo cheesecake. Chris brought ham. Alex brought baked mac. Belle brought pancit. JM brought fruit salad. Syd brought bagnet. I brought roast chicken.

It was a feast! Haha!

Happy Christmas!!!

Hobbit night...

Our company had a screening of The Hobbit last night.

Since PG Boy was away for work, I had to look for a companion for the event. I had already purchased a tix for PG Boy, but then work came up.

Luckily, good friend Jon was free to go with me. During lunch time yesterday, my team lead asked if I wanted an extra ticket. Yay!

I messaged Tipz was free to go. He has already seen it. LOL! It was good though that he didn't mind seeing it again. Yay!

I asked Ian as well, but he turned down the invite. I didn't get to ask MkSurf8 nor RKGreg because I only had one ticket initially. Hehe!

The movie was loong. I was falling asleep at some point. My guess is because it was already time for bed. Haha!

Still, it was an enjoyable watch. I liked the escape via the barrels sequence a lot.

Back-to-school/Farewell dinner for Lady G...

She would always be in black at the office. Outside of work though, she transforms into a whole other person. Hehe!

That's a quick way of describing colleague Gemma, who Alexie and Paula have christened as Lady G.

I'm not quite sure which one I like more. What I'm sure of though is that she is a friend and that she will be missed once she leaves for Europe in a month.

Last Thursday, we had an intimate farewell dinner for Lady G at Kinki, the Japanese restaurant/bar at Customs House.

With Lady G, it wasn't going to be any regular farewell dinner though. We were required to be in a school uniform. Hehe! Easy for me since I decided to go as a school boy from some boarding school. It was also an opportunity to wear the badge of my beloved primary school Lourdes School Quezon City! Woohoo! Hehe!

Alexie and Paula were also game for the whole thing and they came prepared. Hehe!

It wasn't surprising though that we got the look (well, more them than me... haha!) as we made our way to Kinki from Fullerton Bay.

Before you let your minds wander about the restau/bar, let me clear it up for you. Kinki is a province in the Hokkaido region. Why the restau/bar was named after it, I'm not so sure.

However, I can say that the food at the place was good and enjoyable. There is also a rooftop bar to enjoy the view the CBD and MBS areas while having a drink and chitchat with friends.

It was definitely a good Thursday night. It was definitely worth skipping the Club 21 Accessories Bazaar. Hehe!

Best of luck in Brussels, Lady G!

Kinki Restaurant + Bar
70 Collyer Quay #02-02
Customs House, Singapore 049323
T: +65 6533 3471 | F: +65 6533 3473
Web: www.kinki.com.sg