i like this!

according to the Guide to Wealth from HSBC:

At age 36, the Early Investor starts saving
P100,000 every year at 7% per annum. If he
stops saving the said amount at age 45, by the
time he is 65, he would have P5,720,786 even
if he only saved for 10 years.

and i can definitely save more than P100,000 every year!

free monday

the only thing marring my free monday is the stressful dream i had last night which basically centered on my problematic juniors.

on the other hand, i would now want to just highlight the happy things, such as: my perfect timing for taking a leave which spares me the traffic due to the SONA and the rallies related to it, jacob softly snoring on the other side of the room (yes, he slept over), jacob and i going AV rack hunting today, my food poisoning full recovery, L and V who are such happy fish partners, the thought of a fourth fish meeting and opening our account on thursday, the happy dinner last night with friends, three very restful days, the gems i've picked up from the research seminar, the series of inspired action that has been pushing me about lately, negative results from the pregnancy test kits...

i have to send nanao-chan some poetry samples. she asked if she could quote our personal works for the pre-nup photos. so nice! ^__^

farming and plotting

i have gotten quite hooked on facebook's farmville, where i have attained level 4 status overnight.

i got up at around 730AM moved by inspired ideas for the fish business. so i'm putting together some slides for our next business meeting while growing strawberries in my farm.

the curtains are drawn in my room so i have this nice cozy sunday setup. i may have to step out sometime before lunch to get my laundry and drop by the supermarket.

recovering and relaxing

i had a slight fever going on and off for a while after my vomiting bout. jacob has been very attentive and caring - he kept feeding me soup, taking my temperature and making sure i took my meds. last night he even cleaned up the kitchen!

i slept for most of the day today. woke up at around 12 noon, then cooked some simple lunch (adobo with olives) and then slipped back into sleep about two hours later. got up at 7pm and was seriously considering just staying home. i started to watch Persona Trinity Soul but my sister made me go out with the group. luckily we only went to shang, which was near and we only had dinner and coffee (i had apple berry freeze because i have to stay away from caffeine while still recuperating). so now i'm home early for a saturday night.

there's supposed to be practice with the group tomorrow afternoon but i think i'll skip that as well and just meet up with them afterwards. i think i could use more sleep and relaxation and puttering about in my place. my place is quite a mess since i have not been really able to clean up a lot from being weakened by the food poisoning.

so after this entry i'll clear some stuff and then resume my anime watching. yay! and it's such a happy thought that i'm on leave on monday. a long weekend!

food poisoning and fish mania

i had food poisoning yesterday. i attended a seminar, the food was absolutely delicious. i ate a bit more than intended, including some mussel salad. three hours later i was feeling queasy. when i got home i vomited for six times within three hours until i was only churning out bile and saliva and the aftertaste of undigested mussels.

i was extremely weakened by the experience and could not even make myself soup.

jacob dropped by and i have messaged him beforehand to buy me more bottled water since i was not able to step out to the supermarket. he made me soup, took my temperature (and we discovered i had a slight fever), gave me meds, made me rest (hugged me warmly while i was tucked in bed). super sweet jacob!

today i went to the second day of the seminar but only ate safe foods, which meant i was hungry all the time. but if i tried to eat more or tried introducing complex foods i start feeling crampy in my tummy and i certainly do not want another tortuous vomiting episode.

on the other hand my geeky brain was bursting and crackling from the seminar stuff and i got loads of ideas for the fish business. it was worth it making myself go despite still feeling un-well from my food poisoning bout. finally i have tuned in to the perfect frequency through which i could hear the magical ding-ding-ding of a win, the satisfying thump of things falling into place, and the tingling sensation of "this is it!"

i believe L's call over lunch was a timely one, meant to serve as a punctuation to all the surge of messages from the universe (she got a wee bit irked at the implied laziness of some people).

i think i'm going to be resting this weekend. i feel an inspired action creeping in along the way.

amazon books, pomegranate face mask, etc.

today was coding day so my dad drove me to work. hence i had the luxury of waking up later than usual since i won't be driving. no need to catch the early morning light traffic.

serious work until lunchtime. lunch was with the fish-girls --- we had our third secret business meeting.

i progressed significantly in one of the projects i'm working on and i feel mighty proud.

there was a client party in the evening and i managed to sneak out early.

an amazon delivery was waiting for me at the reception area. two books on research and ethnography. work-stuff but the kind that's fun.

i took a bath first thing and now i have a pomegranate rejuvenating mask clinging to my face as i wait for twenty minutes.

alright, let's see...

i was awake for 22 hours yesterday, having only slept (or more like, napped) an hour between 430AM and 530AM. and then i couldn't sleep last night even when i tried to and had to resort to remedies like warm milk.

sunday at 2AM i was wide awake and starting to worry about the workload. so i worked through the night in-between brainstorming with jacob on a little project he wants to explore. i napped at around 430AM when i have sufficiently gotten a lot of to-do things on my list into the next stages. i was in the office by 730AM, as usual and was madly working until about lunchtime during which i paused to prepare my whole wheat pasta and spicy arrabiata. i've decided to bring lunch to work to start saving money for the fish business with V and L. i worked while eating lunch and got at least two days' worth of work done. i headed for home a few minutes before 5PM, feeling justified in doing so.

i got permission from my boss to take the next few mondays off as a compromise on my desire for a long midyear break. i can't afford a long midyear break due to projects comings in but i can break it down at least into long weekends.

as for projects, i have four happening simultaneously in the next couple of months. two of them will be directly under my supervision, and one of the two will be personally implemented by me while my trainee learns from the process.

last night i had dinner of leftovers and then i cooked a whole batch of pork steaks for saucing later. that way i don't have to wait too long for dinner.

jacob kept me sane. *loves jacob to bits*

ooohh

go jacob! ^_____^

needing a vacation

not the usual kind i used to take - multi-day stays by the beach, although i could use some of that too. more of multi-day of no work and just puttering about in my place, slowly flowing from one unhurried activity to the next like maple syrup. sleeping for long hours and eating at odd hours. experimenting with recipes and enjoying some time-tested ones. watching movies and reading the last few unread books in my library. buying new books and selling old ones i would never read again. cleaning up my hard drives and making sense of my data disks. planning very carefully for the fish business with L and V. working out more often. re-acquainting myself with the malls.

spending lots of time with jacob.

i will muster up the courage to request for leaves next week. it's just a teensy bit awkward these days because, well, it's my old-new boss, and work has been really unbelievably loaded lately. but i need this and i want this.

the situation at work regarding the young ones in the team has not yet been fully resolved. but it has been teaching me a lot of things about myself and my work and how i want to live my day-to-day life. in a certain way it has been significantly instrumental in motivating me to pursue a different way of working, and has driven me to enough frustration to gather up that courage to spin away...

i'm making a new blog, by the way. i believe my cooking self feels confident enough to do its own spinning off. please check out the bubbling little cauldron soon.

totemo isogashii

with work, with jacob, and with planning that new venture with V and L.

i finally received my etsy decal and will be putting it up today. i'll post pics later. i haven't posted pics lately, was too lazy to upload.

had really good practice last night even though i was half-stressed for having to be acting-captain of the women's and beginner's class. ururu was absent and apparently i was next in line. i kinda miss those days when i don't have to worry about being in the frontline.

on the other hand, i kinda enjoyed sparring with the beginners. it made me realize that all those months of practice are bearing fruit. i am developing speed, and my form is not bad at all.

jacob has been having allergy attacks the past few days. he's been sniffly and all. he went home instead of sleeping over last night so he could rest all day. he finds my place noisy during the day, which it is, actually, because of the tricycles and the neighbors' tacky radio playing. that's why i often opt to pay for the electricity bill having the aircon on all day to keep most of the noise out with the windows all shut.

my sis said she dreamt i was pregnant and that jacob and i were trying to deal with the surprise of it. i said the dream could also mean pregnancy in some other form, like the business project with V and L bearing fruit.

i should be starting clean up and eating lunch now but i'm dilly-dallying...

a ten-hour workshop on a saturday

which also means i will be missing the first day of the new july batch and practice in the dojo today.

and it meant jacob had to go home last night because i would have to get up early today and sleeping over was not an option.

little details like these further convince me that spinning off is a very good idea. and i have a very good feeling that the universe is conspiring.

year of resolutions

and next year will be the year of growth and blossoming coming from stories than have ended and started this year.

and the year after next will be the year of harvest.