Whew. It's been a while. And a lot has happened, I don't even know where to start. All I know is, there's no looking back, and neither do I want to. The best thing is, there's no reason to. What more can I ask? :)

So, here's what happened the last couple of weeks....

... I flew to Cebu for a 1 week vacation. And it's always fun to go back. Went to the beach in this lovely yet surprisingly affordable resort (pictures to follow as soon as I get digitally organized once again :)). Spent lots of quality time with the fam. Boy, my niece is growing up so fast and she's becoming quite a handful. I bought her a walker because she loves to "run" around. We celebrated the grand opening and blessing of the 2nd branch of the family's school business. So, if you have kids, do check out Bright Minds in Action Learning Village (Liloan Branch). Enrolment now ongoing for pre-school to grade 4. Leave a note if you want to know the contact details :) I discovered new restos - Oh Georg! and Big Mao. Yum!! Of course, I could not pass by Cebu without eating AA's bbq and baked scallops (the best, I tell ya) and Sunburst Fried Chicken. Waah, I'm getting quite hungry now. Needless to say, I gained a lot of weight while I was out of work for about 2 weeks. Thankfully, I lost around 5 lbs already since I started work again last Monday.

... Which is a good segue to the 2nd highlight, which is, I started work in my new company. So far, so good. Actually, I'm super loving it already. I love the way the cubicles are designed -- enough to give everyone privacy, but the walls are low enough so people can just talk directly to everyone else. I have an almost-window seat (hehe), and I love having a view. And speaking of views - most of the big conference rooms have nice views as well. It's so conducive to meet in a bright room, while you can see life happening below you... My teammates are great. We've been bonding really well during the last week. They welcome the new faces because they started with a team of 4 locals and 2 expats only. And now we've grown into this diverse team (multicultural, multigender, multibackgrounds). I've found a couple of yosi buddies, though all 3 of us are trying to quit :) I also found a boxing buddy. And speaking of boxing, the gym is a mere 10min walk away, instead of 45min drive away. I've been introduced to some players and I guess because it's a start-up, wala pang nag aangas. The environment is still very light. I still have to get used to speaking in English all the time. "Hello, who just joined?". Hahaha! Speaking of environment, I spotted a couple of cuties. Unfortunately, the 1st one is a negative - ring on ring finger alert (and baby pic wallpaper). Hahaha! I still don't know anything about the 2nd cutie, but I bumped into him twice (the 1st one, quite literally, ;)). As my seatmate pointed out, this is a male-dominated workplace, so, the more chances of getting cute boy alerts. hahah! On my 2nd day at work, I still didn't get my badge, so I had no access to everywhere. So this gentlemen had to run to the other door to badge in, and all his other cards fell pa in the process. Kakatuwa lang :) I also like the 10peso ice cream in belgian cone at Mini-stop across the street. The team indulged last Friday - TGIF and all :) We had an eventful week (start-ups and ramp down, and me having to catch up in this whole new world) and a tiring week, I was asleep mostly by 9PM everyday. It's not a perfect world, of course. There's the paid parking (pero covered naman), the traffic (mornings are an easy 20min drive but the evenings are really bad) and the food is expensive (we have the same caterer as the old company, deja vu! hahaha)... But right now, none of those matter. I just know that this is where I wanna be right now (so I have to do well!)...

I miss some of the friends from the old blue.. Specially my lunchmate, my old housemates/neighbors... But, for everything we decide to do, there's always a price to pay.

Labels: Boxing, career, Cebu, vacation

Finally, I sent my butt off to the boxing gym. Waking up early on weekends is a chore, but I was there by 8AM. Woohoo. First small victory.

Then it was a series of small victories for the next 1.5hours. From the weird stretching procedures (damn, I gotta practice those hula stretches as Ali calls them!), to the shadow boxing (in-out, in-out, jab!), to the ring practices (man, I gotta work on my footwork, timing, jab/straight punches, well, basically, everything!!).

And how can I forget, gotta work on my fight face!! I almost always fell out of sync, I can't help but laugh at myself. Hahaha!

Just give me a couple more sessions, trainor Aljon, and then, I'll be able to make punches without laughing.

And I'll look as good as Ali in the ring.

We look super flushed and happy here. We are. The day after, was a different story though. Man, I hurt all over. Still do.

But it's absolutely worth it. I may not be the next Pacman, but at least I can put those funky pink gloves to good use ;-)

Labels: Boxing