Let’s Drink To That

Another belated post. LoL. I’ve been meaning to post about my musings as the year got underway but was just too damn lazy to do so.

First of all, I was feeling melancholic at the start of the year. This was mainly due to the reason of me not making it to the sendoff of my brother Ray. He had been arranging his work papers to Dubai during the 2nd half of last year and before the year was over, he got word that he’d be leaving early in 2009. He will be there for a 2-year work contract. When he got word that his final travel date would be January 7, he immediately texted me asking me when I’d be home. My base off from work would not be until the 10th so I asked him to delay his departure so that we’d still see each other before he leaves. There was no way I could escape from my work schedule and I was in Kidapawan that time.

Emotionally, I didn’t know how to describe how it felt thinking that he’d be leaving soon. Growing up separated by just 2 years (I am older, but I could easily pass off as younger than him..LoL), there was the usual sibling rivalry. It even is funny now that I think of the memories. My brother and I used to sleep in 1 bed together when we were still little. He was malikot when he slept, often kicking and turning about throughout the night, and I’d be awakened by this trait of his. At times, I’d punch him when this happened. Naturally, he would be at the losing end since I was awake, while he wasn’t..LoL. We weren’t that close growing up as I think I sort of looked at him as competition. Even in sports, we both were very competitive. I was even closer to my friends and classmates than I was with him. Oftentimes, we couldn’t converse without one eventually raising his voice. This did not get by without our parents noticing and numerous times, they even brought this to our attention. Blood was thicker than water, they told me.

As far as I remember, the turning point came when we were separated from each other for a long time, when he decided to work in Manila as a callcenter agent. When he came back after that, things were different. I couldn’t quite describe how, but it was just that. We were more gentle with each other. Another thing that brought us closer to each other was the game of badminton. We became partners and on a number of occasions, we went out of town to on road trips to join badminton tournaments. Yes, the usual conflicts between us were still there, but somehow, we were already communicating and it was easier to talk things over, unlike our situation before. When I was assigned in Bacolod, he’d text me whatever was happening back home, sometimes also to blow off some steam. I guess our bonding developed at that point. It came at a later part in our lives, but I think what was important was it did.

..1st runner up during our first tournament..

The whole family went to Cebu to send him off at Mactan International Airport last January 7..while I had to be contented with being passed around and talking to everybody on the mobile phone while they were at the pre-departure area. My brother is now an OFW.

Blood indeed is thicker than water.

Ingat always dinha brod!

I am off from work today and I am at home. Well, I was off work since last Monday. However, I had the luck of picking the short end of the straw, as I won’t be home for both the Christmas and New Year holidays. I will be celebrating it while on duty in Bicol. Tough luck! Anyway, I consider it as our baptism of fire. LoL.

I just thought of posting this pic of our own version of the christmas tree at work. This is our Rig No. 12, located at Northern Negros.

Advance Merry Xmas everyone! Let’s drink to that!

p.s. Once again, thanks to Tomtacks for all the help in updating our WP.

That is a term I coined to describe how we were reprimanded by our immediate boss. That would be the equivalent of ’sinabon’ in Tagalog.

Hehe. Anyway, it was sort of a wake up call on our part, especially on my part as a trainee, as I do have a tendency to slack off when the going gets easy. And it wasn’t much of what you’d call a tongue-lashing as in a way, it was, as I said, a wake up call, as if we were held in the shoulders and shook up from our stupor. It made me realize that I still had an uphill climb ahead as to the things that I would have to learn as a novice drilling engineer, and the wide range of topics that I still have to cover (*sigh*). There’s still bit hydraulics, well casing cementing, and not to mention completion testing. Sorry if I might sound like I am babbling here. LoL.

Anyway, I am glad that I was ’soaped’. Sure it may be an ego buster. Cmon, whoever would want to have their boss giving them a mouthful of how dismal their performance is, right? However, It’s always the realizations afterwards that count. It’s not in the falling down but in the getting up part.

Time to turn up my gear into overdrive..

I am now at our head office here in Fort Bonifacio.

As I expected, I knew that my body would need some adjusting to the weather condition (read: pollution) here. Right now, my throat hurts, which is usually an indication of not-so-good things to come my way. If left unchecked, this usually escalates into cough and colds, and then to fever, in extreme cases. Good thing I brought along with me a bottle of my most trusted oral antiseptic, Betadine garlgle.

This is truly a godsend for me especially when I am feeling the itch on my throat, as it has been proven time and again, that if only I stick to the schedule of gargling every 4 hours, usually I find that the itch goes away, with no more onset of the complications I mentioned earlier.

Now, who says that only those on the field should be eligible for hazard pay? :p

Correction, here ‘we’ come.

Just drew the short straw today, and we were lucky enough to be the first group to be posted at our head office at Fort Bonifacio come Sept. 1.

AFter the culmination of our month-long classroom instruction at our Leyte Geothermal Production Field (LGPF), we were divided into three groups, to be distributed to our different sites all over the country. One group would be posted in Bacolod, and the other group at Bacman, Sorsogon.

While we will be there, we will hopefully be learning on the mechanics of contract administration and being part of the technical support team of all our other groups on the field. Personally, I am welcome to this development, so long as all of us gets equal opportunities to be posted at our head office. I just have one apprehension though..being the promdi that I am, I hope not to get lost in the place they call Manila…hahaha.

On a happier note, I will be leaving for home tomorrow…in time to reach Dumaguete for my birthday…yey!