Random Europe Moment I

My brother and I toured Europe with some family friends and a group of Australians on a tour package in 2003. During one of the nighttime visits to a wine bar/restaurant (I'm thinking this was just outside of Venice but I could be wrong) everyone was just hanging out after dinner enjoying glasses of wine when one of the elderly Aussies suddenly shouted:

"Where's my camera?!?"

She began to shout hysterically. "It was just here!" Everyone started to help her look around for it while her husband was trying to clam her down. But she still went on, "where's my camera?!?"

This went on for around ten minutes when someone finally pointed at her arm and said, "There it is!" Sure enough, her camera was slung around her elbow and she said sorry and everyone had a good laugh afterward.

Later when everything died down my brother whispered to me, "I swear, we were like, five seconds away from 'I'm sure one of you Filipinos took it!'"

Decade In Review (2000-2003) Part II

Yes I know it's March. Get off my case.

2004. Looking at the photos I had from 2004, I guess it was a weird year and maybe not exactly the year my career "went to hell". On one hand, it was the year me and my brother went to tour Europe for two weeks, and on the other (and just two weeks after my European tour),I went to the US (Salt Lake City, Utah) for work. The Europe trip deserves a review all its own so we'll leave that for later. As for the US trip, well, on the very first night I was there I got a fever and skipped the very first day of work, and had to self-medicate with whatever they had at the gas station next to the motel. I'm not sure I was staying at a motel but it sure as hell was not a hotel.

On the other hand, I discovered the awesomeness that is Krispy Kreme a few weeks before the first branch opened here at The Fort.

My three-month long stay was cut short because I decided to start a long-distance hate affair with the office back home. I'm partly kidding. But the ending of all this is covered in this post. I spent the last two months of the year unemployed and well, happy. Started this blog in November that year.

Other notables: Fete at Eastwood in the two weeks between the two major trips. Talking with Donut Girl over YM because she was the only one on the late shift back home. Boracay for the first time. Christmas at Alabang Town.

2005. I was unemployed for most of 2005. The personal projects I promised myself that I'd get into never really materialized except maybe for one: finally studied art at the Vargas Museum in UP Diliman, where basically I was surrounded by five-year olds and Kathy Tan.

When all my savings dried up, finally looked for work and ended up having a record five interviews with eTelecare. I guess they couldn't tell if I was applying to get a job or a girl. Eventually one of us gave up on the other, and I'd like to think it was me.

Finally got in contact with one of my old companies sub-contractors and got a job with them. On the first day they assigned me to RCG, and for better or for worse, that reminded me that I could still do this job.

2006. Quit RCG (why of course, everyone does) to work at the big, bad top-10 Forbes-listed multinational company, and I guess, here I am. Everything (well, mostly) is here in this journal. It's kind of slowed down because of Twitter but some stories can't be told in 140 characters no matter how much you cut it up.

I need to tell better stories.

Was there a point to this review? Maybe not. But there's no point to anything, really. I am drunk.