mama maria's pizza

i have never seen pizza this big before and it tasted way better than chez andre or MB's. their xxl size is even bigger than a "lazy susan". it can easily appease 10-12 hungry "call girls and boys". but on top of my portion, i had their equally good tasting carbonara (minimally seasoned the way i like it before adding pepper) and a bottle of light beer. there's a lot of variations of pizza to be sampled but that will have to wait for another time.

mama maria's is located along lacson st., right across the alisbo memorial chapel. it is an open resto with ample parking space where an enormous canvas is strategically hanged giving the customer a good view of whatever video they have on.

leah, thanks for the treat.

keeping the ties alive...lecia's and pat's birthday

what do i write about now? my head stills reels from lack of sleep, alcohol intoxication and jet lag. i been to cebu and back here at home in the past 37 hours. with lugging all the stuff i left behind last july in mind, i took the opportunity of my days off on a weekend to do it and attend pat's birthday as well (bringing 2 bags of home cooked food-by her mom-on my way there).going there was a nightmare. i spoke too soon when i said that i was fortunate to be seated next to a woman. boy, but she's chatty and doesn't know when to stop. it didn't help that a score of them brought children that were beginning to get whiny just when i was already set to sleeping. my phone battery nearly went dead as instead of getting irate and sound inconsiderate, i just drowned the maddening noise with david cook's tracks.
it was already afternoon when i got the chance to sleep at rina's place. that was when the "kbl" dish was already simmering under very low fire. it was already 8am when i alit at "pocherohan" pointless anymore to get some sleep when there's marketing to do at 11am and i needed some time to erase the travel marks on my person. it was an invigorating two hour nap. by six thirty, everything was ready except the other celebrant (lecia and pats shared birthdates which knowledge only hit me as i was saying the grace before meals).

it was an eventful night with almost everyone renderred wasted, i disturbed nobody but pats (with whom i bunked with for the last three hours of my visit at llc) when i was ready to leave.

be

taking calls...

...nothing can help you prepare for it. anything can happen. but this time i was no lomger wrought with anxiety on what lay ahead. i kept my cool despite:
- spending more than 10 min (beat that!) taking the customer's username and phone number on the first call,
- QA listening in to one of the calls and getting a 0 (as in zero-even lower than my 1st phychem exam back in college) on it for a non first call resolution,
- groping for the right tool when a customer says something else than what's on the cheat sheet,
- missing lunch by two hours (a most terrible circumstance to be in),
- clicking on the wrong aux code for paid breaks (and not knowing when to use the personal aux),
- failing to catch the attention of SME's and SA's for quick fixes , and
- requiring escalation for the last call and missing logging out on the scheduled time.

pet wash day

it was difficult to ignore the bright sunshine and it's suggestion to be the day to bathe shi fu and bjork. so on top of the daily chore (since two weeks ago-when we elected not to hire any more household help and start on adjusting ourselves to having strangers again in the house-which includes marketing, cooking breakfast and mopping the floor) it was imperative that the furry friends should get cleaned today or endure their stink another day more, the pug especially.




both shared the sentiments of being subjected to a seemingly torturous action and gave me the most difficult 20 minutes of my life. bjork, i had to bathe inside the bathroom, with warm water (a lesson learned from previous sessions in the past four years that he's been with the family). Surprisingly, he spared me the contemptuous look and even showed up for lunch after painstakingly drying his rather healthy fur out in the sun. shifu, on the other hand sufficed with taking his downstairs as long as his leash is secured.

am i ready?

four weeks went past quickly; graduation from product training last friday, the project launch yesterday and on thursday, i will be handling my first call. i don't know what to expect of it. but if it's something like the first mock call that i did, then i am doomed. hurdling that first call is crucial. once i get past it, i know everything will gradually fall into place (like some chemical reactions that ultimately reach the equilibrium at one point in time) getting the look and feel of life on the operations floor gets me into thinking all the possible mistakes that i will commit during that first call, and ultimately surviving the first day ruffled (it's impossible not to be) but unscathed and hardened a lil bit into taking the same task the following day. it's exciting at one point having in mind the novel experience that the job description has in store, at least until (we) get the hang of things.

l-r: diane, christine, pepsi, teenee and mike

the small group that i have forged a connection with during the 20 days of training has been distributed to different leaders. that translated to different work schedules too. it's one of the banes in this work environment. what of the trade-off? that would be something that i will have to discover in my journey here...which i hope will be as enjoyable as my last.

on tour guide assignment

admittedly, i made a lousy job of it.
the day did not follow through the sun that rose at dawn. not only was i late for the volleyball game, but the team lost to competition due having not reached the required number of players on the court.
lunch at l kaisie was a lonely affair. i had california maki (which wedge cut i didn't like) and coke. around that time cece and the broker were also eating; at imay's (wherever that is).
my phone battery has been threatening to die on me the whole morning that i used my mobile phone sparingly; mentioning right at the beginning that i will just kill time browsing around NBS. three hour, a dover thrift classic and a sticker paper later, i went of to take a seat at the lobby and read my smses. i learned that cece won't be available until after 5pm. i texted back that i could wait and wait i did stating that i have to leave for home after the appointed time. right after that, my mobile was no longer of use and was short of asking the woman beside me if i could use her phone to make a call (which i never did and opted to just scout for somebody i know to pass by my post). prompted by my growling stomach, i headed for mcdo at around
520pm before finally hailing a puj going to the terminal. at the terminal however, i had a change of luck. not only jarlene was there, she also volunteered that i use her phone, which i did. so i called up cece and we agreed to meet at chicken deli at lacson street but something told me to go to pepe's at sorrento instead. i suggested the house specialty, the salpicao. for dessert, we had a black sambo (the only gelatin based dessert that i have come to love).
our next stop was the mayfair tiangge to look up some stuff but the traders were already putting away their wares, so to showroom we next went where we picked up some local creations.
i have been promoting that mcdo at lacson has the most extensive collection of mcdo toys. surprise! surprise! the toys on display were no longer there; nor were the display windows where they have been strategically placed.
after a brief stay there, we moved on and went inside the capitol lagoon and watch for a bit the feeding of tilapia and the kids on skateboard strutting their stuff on the ramp.
our last stop was at the city plaza. getting off was unplanned but the road was fenced off from traffic to accommodate the night flea market. it was inconvenient but it allowed us to have a peek of the closed cathedral and meet some fellow trainees.
looking back now, i wished i get to get her around shopping area...maybe some other time.