This week was my bday week! I celebrated my birthday eve on stage (!!! still can't believe they managed to do that to me), bade farewell to a friend bound for South Africa, bonded with new friends, conducted a stressful user training and dealt with a lot of IMS and tension-filled CRs at work. Whew. I am still surviving (but barely), which is kind of an achievement in itself considering that I have been sleeping between 3 to 5 in the morning already and waking up at 7 am everyday this week!

Monday

For nearly five hours, I had to make a practice run of my training to some management people. They apparently did not trust me enough yet to conduct a fluid, and comprehensive training for users. So I spent most of my voice and energy discussing with them stuff that I do everyday already at work. I mean, if my boss trusted me enough to do this training, they should too right?

At night, we went to CM2 in what I dubbed as the 'Night of Paglalandi ng mga Boys'. (I will not name names because Kuya Mervs, Jco and Paui might kill me...oopss.. hahaha). We went out just us Filipinos plus two Russian girls and Vicky. Our Russian friends were very um, energetic when dancing. Which of course attracted quite unsavory guys to them. Good thing there was kuya to the rescue ;) . I had to go back to the apartment though because it turned out I forgot to bring my passport and the GQ-ish, gorgeous manager of the bar wouldn't let us in because the ID really is a prerequisite to get in. Sus, kung di lng sya gwapo, nasungitan ko na sya. So we went back, rushed to get our IDs and back to the bar.

At near midnight, Reysiel and the others surprised me with a cake and birthday song from the band. And I had my first dance on stage. Let's just say it's not something I will be doing again in any kind of future. hehehe. Then we had tequila shots (which probably worsened my already bad hyperacidity problem). It was one of the best night outs we've had (and this is saying a lot, considering we've had several great night outs. hehe).

Tuesday

My birthday!!! When I woke up, I felt really sad actually. I realized I had turned 25 already and I have not accomplished anything really. I have not had my great romance, not met my one great love, not written the best novel, had not gone on to my greatest adventure. It was kind of a depressing feeling and not something I would like waking up to everyday. But I realized that I was looking at things from a half-empty-glass perspective.
I may not have had my grand passionate romance, but I have been blessed with great friends who accept me with all my faults and eccentricities. I may not have written the best novels but I have resources to buy the best ones and learn and revel in their stories. I may not have hied off to the sunset with well laid plans of a crazy adventure, but everyday working in a different country makes me feel I am experiencing something new everyday. So for this birthday, I am thankful for what I have now, for what will be given to me in the future and what has been dealt to me in the past.

Len gave me a bouquet of flowers. Elle too. Happy ako...kaya lng bakit walang lalaki nagbigay ng bulaklak? hahahaha. My teammates also greeted me Happy Birthday in the office (while I was seriously engrossed doing an issue). So I had ice cream cake in the afternoon. I had dinner at Crepes and Co with my Filipino colleagues.

We had crepe (lots of it!) and ice cream. Then they sang happy birthday to me again with candles on top of ice cream. And Reys and the others gave me the Legends trilogy book. yehey! So I guess I would be cooped up again in the house for most of the time. hehe. So all in all, my birthday was pretty fun although I was really tired and sleepy.

Wednesday

This day was Mike's first trip to Spring and Summer! Soft and large bean bag pillows under the night sky and chocolate cake and other pastries and lots of tsika to dish around. I was trying to actually study for the training the next day but it was quite hard to concentrate. :P When I got home, I tried to rehearse but with all the tension knotting in my stomach, it was impossible. So I played tekken instead. :P

Thursday

My first training day! I finally met some of the Level 1 users I have only dealt with in the IMS or talked to on the phone. To be honest, while I was discussing the first parts of the presentation, I wasn't even nervous. I only got some little problem when one of the participants suddenly raised a question about printing set up issues. hello! di ako basis. wala akong alam dyan. hehehe. But I was stumbling through already when my boss came in to lend a hand. I was so self conscious already that I inadvertently let him do most of the talking. In the afternoon, I continued on, alone, so it was pretty much smooth and we finished the training pretty early. The downside about training is that I had to go back and finish up on the issues piling up on my plate while I was gone the whole day. Which basically meant I went home already at around midnight. :(

Friday

This was a pretty good day. I finished the training and got good evals as instructor. (Oh well, if they didn't understand a word I was saying at least I was able to charm them into giving me good evals. hahaha).
Then during the evening, the grandmasters treated us to pre Valentine's Karaoke at Fortune. It served also as Paui's farewell party before he left for South Africa.

Saturday

Sat night, Mike, Shirley, Reysiel and I had bonding session over coffee till 3am. We talked about past loves, about tagalog movies and profound lines found in those movies. All in all, it was a pretty enjoyable night and it was nice being able to get to know Shirley and Mike as we've never had the chance to talk that much in Accenture before. The coffee place we were in is one of the few places in Bangkok still open after curfew. Madami lamok, pero madami din naman kaming napagtsismisan (este, napag usapan pala) so ok lng. :)

Sunday

Trabaho na naman ako. :P
I am feeling a bit down and sad today...and my stomach is gearing for ultra hyperacidity mode. :(

To Reysiel, Mervin, Paui, JCo, Shirley, Mike, Vicky - thanks for making my birthday week a really great one in Bangkok. :)