Typhoon Ondoy Emergency Hotlines and Relief Operations

Reposted from: http://sourpolitics.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/typhoon-ondoy-emergency-hotlines-and-relief-operations/

It has been raining the whole day. Tropical Storm Ondoy has wreak havoc across Metro Manila, and provinces around. Here are the key numbers to contact for information, rescue operations, relief services, donations. Thank you very much.

Rescue Operations

1. National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) (+632-9125668, +632-9111406, +632-9115061)
2. Red Cross (143, +632-5270000)
3. MMDA (136)
4. Coast Guard (+632-5276136)
5. Senator Dick Gordon (+639178997898, +63938-444BOYS, +632-9342118, +632-4338528)
6. Senator Manny Villar (+639174226800. +639172414864, +639276751981)

Rubber Boat Requests

1. NCRPO (+632-8383203, +632-8383354)

Power Supply

• Meralco (+63917-5592824) If you want service cut off to your area to prevent fires and electrocution.

Relief Aid and Donations

1. Victory Fort is opening its doors to those affected by the typhoon. Call 813-FORT.
2. Clare Amador (+63928-5205508) or Jana Vicente at +63928-5205499). Drop off for relief donations is at Balay Expo Center across Farmers Market Cubao.
3. Drop off points: One Orchard Road Building in Eastwood, or message http://www.twitter.com/miriamq for more details.
4. Donations for Ondoy Victims to be distributed at the Philippine Army Gym inside Fort Bonifacio or GHQ Gym in Camp Aguinaldo starting now.

People Tracker (using your phones, get your friends and family to turn on their finderservice for you)

• FINDERSERVICE. For Smart, text “wis <your name> <your mobile>” to 386.
• FINDERSERVICE. For Globe, text “find <your name> <your mobile> to 7000.

MRT and LRT are open 24 hours today.

SemCon 2009

This blog has barely been updated because I’ve been engaging in micro-blogging or the popular application known as Twitter. You can follow me there and hear me express my mind in 140 characters or less but this post is about something else.

This post is about SemCon 2009 or more specifically the contest to win free tickets to it. SemCon 2009 is the Search Engine Marketing Conference and will take place during Oct 1 &2. The official website of SemCon 2009 offers more juicy details about what the conference will be about with topics like SEO ranking factors and Twisted Twitter Tactics.

Now, why do I want to attend SemCon 2009? Reinvention. I’m a project manager for IT systems. I am however very interested in SEO and Social Media Marketing. The first few people that I followed in Twitter aside from my friends were Mashable, Guy Kawasaki and Dan Schwabel. We are entering a new era in communications. People are broadcasting their entire lives on the Internet and we are bombarded with information. Social networking is everywhere where even my 63 year old mother has a Facebook account.

My belief is that in order to deliver a great product, you need to understand it. I always wanted to look at everything from 360 degrees. There are so many opportunities for social media and search engine marketing for Philippine companies to take advantage of. However, things are moving so fast that new trends and techniques are created every day.  I want to attend SemCon 2009 and get up to date information on the latest practices for SEO. I also have a love of Twitter and would like to see how I can translate that love into an integral part of a Social Media strategy.

I sincerely hope that I can win the free tickets to attend SemCon 2009 so that I can reinvent myself and expand my repertoire as a project manager. Choose me. Pick me!

Day trip to Macau

On our second day in Hong Kong we decided to go on a day trip to Macau. The round trip ticket cost us each HK$321 which is via the 1 hr ferry. Riding the ferry is like riding a bus and is quite comfortable. There are people eating and talking so bring your own music player to drown out the noise.

Our first stop was the Grand Lisboa hotel. It featured many statues and carvings of jade and gold. It also had the largest emerald in the world! Once we were satisfied ogling the artifacts we left the hotel to walk to St Paul’s church. The pictures below were taken with my Nokia 5800 phone.

We didn’t do much at the Church. I was a bit disturbed by all the tourists taking pictures in the aisle. They were too noisy. I tried to be a bit more subdued and just sat down to take my pictures.

Our next stop was St. Paul’s ruins where we had to take this alley which was teaming with shops and bakeries. Turns out the favorite pasalubong or souvenir from Macau is the almond cookies. Bakeries seem to churn these out all the time and free cookies for tasting where being promoted right on the street. Tourists would swoop in and grab these free cookies. We munched on a few and decided that we definitely had to buy some to bring back.

It seems St. Pauls’ ruins lay elevated on a hill where you had to climb up the stairs to get to it.

Unfortunately, we were trudging uphill on the hottest part of the day which is noontime! The sun was beating down on us and I was thankful that I packed my umbrella and sunglasses with me. The place was flooded with tourists and we realized that it was Sunday so it must be doubly packed.

I went up on that hill while my mom rested a bit in the shade. My sisters had wandered off somewhere else for more photo opportunities. Due to the heat I couldn’t wait to get back down despite the lovely view and just went back to my mom and sat down beside her. When my sisters were done, we decided to go buy some foodstuffs from the bakeries. I got a batch of the almond cookies and some fried tofu snack. I then decided to pick up some pork floss for my MIL since my sister reminded me.

We decided that we needed to have lunch already since it was past 2:30 in the afternoon! So off we headed to the Venetian hotel. I always wondered why people would want to visit a hotel and stay there but it turns out the Venetian is huge! It is in fact like a hotel with a mall inside! I even took a picture of the ceiling. It was painted to look like the sky.

We ate at the food court and I had a bit of a difficult time since the food attendants didn’t speak a word of English and I do not speak Chinese. The attendant was calling out orders and I had no idea if she was calling out my order. An inquisitive girl beside me helped as she glanced at my receipt and would point to me when my order was called.

I was dead tired and famished when I sat down to eat my beef noodle soup. I don’t know if hunger is the best sauce but that beef noodle soup was good! The noodles were still firm and springy while the beef gyudon strips were tender and flavorful. The soup could have used a bit more chili but I had no idea how to ask for it.

We took turns going to the restroom and then decided to go around the mall portion of the Venetian. I saw a lot of stuff on sale but even at sale prices they were still a bit pricey. Although I think I did pick up a blouse from Bossini. After going around I was too tired to go anywhere else so we decided to head back to Hong Kong. My feet were aching and even my lower back was screaming for help. On the ferry back I noticed that almost everyone had the same packages we did. They probably bought a lot of almond cookies too.

I don’t know if I’d really want to go visit there again. Maybe if we didn’t have to always walk all over the place and could take a taxi. I’m not the gambling type so casinos don’t attract me. In fact, I was repulsed by the way people smoked everywhere including inside buildings! Ugh, not for me. So it was back to Hong Kong for me and more shopping ha ha!

Using the Nokia 5800

I’ve had my new phone for a little over a week and even got to test drive the wi-fi capability in Hong Kong. So far it is a step up from my previous Palm Centro in that the phone functions are not wonky. My Palm Centro would not let me answer phone calls at times and it became really frustration for me when the OS would hang. Not so with the Nokia 5800. The only slowdown I notice is if it is changing from portrait to landscape mode.

Texting on a full touchscreen phone is quite a challenge. Although there is haptic feedback, sometimes your thumb will miss the designated key spot and end up touching a different key spot. But using the numerical keypad for texting like a normal phone allows quite a bit of area for your finger to touch. The full screen qwerty in landscape mode is also surprisingly easy to use. Just be a bit careful with how you text and you’ll end up composing messages quite fast.

Using the phone on wi-fi with the built in web browser can be frustrating at times when I try to navigate to buttons that are too small. You will need to use the guitar pick or increase the zoom so that the buttons are bigger.  Going up or down the page was at first difficult because I was so used to the scroll bar on the right side of the screen but it turns out you can can just slide your finger anywhere on the screen.  The bigger screen also makes it easier to read what you are viewing on the internet.

Pictures aren’t quite as nice as my old Sony Ericsson k750i. It may have auto-focus and flash but it isn’t that great a camera. I have yet to take video footage on this phone since my Flip HD does so quite nicely.

Playing music on my phone was quite enjoyable as it comes bundled with an 8 gig micro SD card. I haven’t even filled this up totally since my last IPod was the Mini and it only had a 4 gig capacity. The shuffle song function however seems a bit iffy.

Overall I am quite pleased with the phone especially since I got it as my retention phone with less cash out than usual.

Shopping in Hong Kong

My mother recently had her birthday and to celebrate it the girls in our family went to Hong Kong. My dad and Lloyd stayed behind since they both have work. My sister on the other hand was going to start on her new job in a few days and wanted to take a vacation. I was a bit hesitant to leave baby J alone with hubby and the yaya but turns out he was fine all the time I was gone. In fact, I think he barely registered that I wasn’t around.

Anyway going to Hong Kong became a good opportunity for me to test out my new Nokia 5800. Our hotel had free wifi at the business center so I would pop in there in the mornings or evenings to check my Twitter and my Facebook accounts.

Arriving at the new HK airport I was taken aback. I haven’t been in HK for several years and the airport I last used was the old one where you were scared at the high-rise buildings whizzing past you as the plane landed. The new one is very modern and is huge. It is however a bit far from our hotel and the ride took around 30 to 45 minutes.

Upon arrival at immigration I was experiencing some allergies and indicated as much on my health form. Little did I know that the HK immigration officials would panic and take me to a medical section to check my temperature. My mom got a bit worried when I disappeared from her view for a few minutes and was excitedly talking with an immigration person when I made my return to the immigration section. I do not have AH1N1! Mom was relieved at my return and told me that I shouldn’t have indicated my nasal congestion on the health declaration. Sigh.

Anyway, I was suitably delighted staying at the Marco Polo because once you go down from your room it is the mall already! A lot of shops were on sale. However I wanted to make sure I squeezed every last dollar from my shopping budget so I followed several rules.

1. If you can buy the same thing in Manila for around the same price then do not buy it!

2. Check if it is on sale. July to September is the Hong Kong summer sale season and there are a lot of bargains if you look around.

3. In relation to rule no. 1, try to visit stores that aren’t in Manila. The best example of this is H&M. My gosh, I could spend half a day there.

4. If you bought something but once in your hotel you didn’t like it anymore, check the returns policy of the store. I got carried away at H&M but since they have a generous 30 day policy I was able to exchange a  blouse for some toddler sleep suits. I always fit the stuff I buy but sometimes you change your mind. He he.

5. Again in relation to rule no. 1, I noticed that beauty products like skincare stuff and make-up was cheaper in Hong Kong than in Manila. So if you need to restock some beauty supplies you can do it in Hong Kong.

6. Try to buy in bulk. I went with my family so we pretty much like going to the same shops and buying similar clothes. Cotton On became a big favorite with their buy 2 for HK$99 deals. Unfortunately my mom ended up buying some of the same stuff I got.

7. Eat in the food court! The more money you save on food, the more money you can spend on clothes!

8. Check out all the shops, there may be cheaper versions of that cover up or blouse you’ve been thinking about purchasing  in a different store.

It was quite exhausting walking all over the place and our feet ached so much. I even got to go to Macau for the first time. However I was thinking if maybe I should have just used my ferry money for more clothes ha ha!

My next post will be on Macau.

Win a Bumkins Bib

This is for all those people who have babies or even toddlers who still drool like anything. My friend Jane is having a contest over at her shopping blog Fab Finds where you can win a Bumkins Bib! All you have to do is write about the contest and link to her shopping blog and to Terra Babies Boutique which is the sponsor of the contest.

Terra Babies is an online shop where you can buy your baby essentials like cloth diapers, swim diapers and even ring slings.

So go check them out now!

Weaning Baby J

If you’ve been reading my blog you know that I have been having difficulty getting Baby J to gain weight. In fact, we were recommended to start him on formula and to only breastfeed at night. I’ve tried lactation sessions and malunggay capsules but the only time he did gain weight was when we were giving him mostly formula. In time, I couldn’t deal with only breastfeeding at night because he would latch and unlatch several times in a row and it was quite uncomfortable.  After a few weeks of doing this I just decided to give him formula as well and stop breastfeeding.

The first few days of giving Baby J formula were very difficult since I was so used to feeding him every two hours. My breasts would be full with milk and quite hard. I would usually give in and breastfeed when I couldn’t stand it anymore. Then over time it would take longer for me to be uncomfortable. When I stopped breastfeeding at night, I still felt some lumps in my breasts but I was able to live with the feeling.

It has been almost a month now since I totally stopped breastfeeding and I feel both relief and sadness. I feel relieved because finally I can wear regular clothes when I go out. I don’t have to be wary of my breasts getting hard from milk that has not been expressed. I feel sad because breastfeeding was such an amazing bonding experience between me and my son. I literally fed him with my own body’s supply of milk for several months with no need for outside food! Breastfeeding used to calm him down and help him go to sleep.

Now I have to rely on a bottle of milk. It used to be quite easy at night since I would just pull up my shirt and sleep while he nursed. But once you give him formula the dynamic just changes. Baby J also had to adapt but he was already used to drinking from a bottle. However, he was very picky about the formula’s taste. We went through several brands before we were able to get him to drink Pediasure. Someone should have warned me not to buy the big can at first to check if he likes the taste.

Right now Baby J likes eating solid food. In fact, he seems to like it more than milk! We feed him banana yogurt, pureed vegetables and meat with rice. We’re trying to get him to eat pancakes to test his reaction to eggs but he’s not liking pancakes so much. He’s still below the graph for his weight. But at least his length and head circumference are always steadily increasing.

Now the only other concern on my mind is planning for his 1st birthday. It’s going to be an amazing party. Heck, I never had something like this when I was a kid. His cake will be more expensive than our wedding cake. The grandma doesn’t want to have a Jollibee party and said to just choose whatever I wanted because she’ll pay for it! Hubby thinks his mom is making up for his childhood.

Anyway we’ve reserved the place na at the Big Red Barn in Fun Ranch and the theme is Formula 1 at the request of the father. I’ve found a place where I can purchase his costume and I even have a Ferrari T-shirt for my costume. Everything is falling into place.

Limbo

Our current helper and yaya have been around for almost a month and I’m getting comfortable with them. What I really feel right now is that I need to get a job. I guess it was never my dream to become a stay at home mom. I can see that I could enjoy this lifestyle where you just prepare everything for the family but I don’t like being dependent on my hubby. Nevermind that my job wasn’t as spectacular as I’d hope it would be. It was something I enjoyed a lot and it gave me spending money. I guess it is like my pride telling me that I can do more than just stay at home.

When I was at my 9th month and we still didn’t have a yaya or maid I didn’t hesitate to resign. Hubby and I were used to fending for ourselves with me cooking and cleaning except for the bathroom which was hubby’s specialty. However I did my research and knew that I would be courting post partum depression if I tried to do everything and take care of the baby.

I do not regret any decision I made at all. However right now I am wondering if I just killed my career? I’ve contacted numerous headhunters and recruitment firms. I’m constantly checking jobstreet and jobsdb but nada. I’ve been to several job interviews where hubby tells me that I can do better so I don’t pursue them. I’ve had a VP tell me that I’m overqualified. Maybe I should swallow my pride and work for someone who is more junior than me? I think it would just grate on me and the resentment would build up. Sigh.

What if I am supposed to be a stay at home mom? Is it destiny? I don’t think so. I think we make our own destiny. I am in this situation right now because of the decision I made.  The only thing I can do right now is to keep on trying and play the waiting game.  Perhaps when the economy picks up I will have an easier time finding a job.

Agency to the rescue

After one month of trying to contact maids who were on vacation in the province and asking everyone for referrals for maids or yayas we have finally succumbed to hiring from an agency. The agency we went to is one that a friend’s family uses regularly so we felt a bit ok with it.

The funny thing is the maid and yaya started last Sunday but yesterday wanted to leave us na. The yaya couldn’t handle my 8 month old while the maid felt that there was too much laundry. This is laundry for me, my hubby and our baby ha. Well, what can I do? At least nagpaalam sila ng maayos. Plus, they’re from an agency so the agency replaced them that same day. So now I have a yaya and maid who started yesterday.

Baby J is getting used to his new yaya. I am more comfortable with her. She’s much older than the first one the agency sent and more experienced. However Baby J is in that stranger anxiety stage. So whenever he doesn’t see me, he cries like he is panicking. So I have to show him that yes I am around.

New maid is also seemingly better. She’s supposed to be a good cook so we’ll see tonight if her adobo is up to scratch.

Now I have to train them to our routine and I really hope they stick around longer than the previous ones.

a new challenge

I write this as I gaze upon my baby boy who is asleep knowing that he is the most important thing in my life right now.

Our yaya (nanny) went on her monthly day off last Sunday and did not return. Her husband texted us that she went to the dentist and needed to rest since she had some teeth pulled. However, she never said anything before leaving and we even discussed what time she would be back. As per her husband, she would be back on Wed.

This morning I awoke to find out that our maid had left as well. She just left a note saying that the pay was too low and that the food was not enough. Not once did she raise these concerns to me.  I always ask them at the grocery what food they want and I make it a point to buy stuff they need when it runs out. We even bought them a cushion because I didn’t want them sleeping on the floor.

Turns out that this was premeditated all along and both the yaya and maid are going back to the province. They didn’t even have the decency to tell me the truth to my face. The maid left like a thief in the night just leaving a note. Maybe I should be thankful they didn’t steal anything. However, her salary was advanced for this month since she wanted to send it to her kid so we obliged. Our yaya still has the cellphone hubby lent her in case we needed immediate feedback on baby J. She has not even repaid the fare we gave for her to go to Manila from the province.

I took care of baby J when his first yaya lied to us. This is a bigger challenge right now because I am alone in our condo and baby J is now mobile. He is very insistent on his demands. He is now formula fed so I have to sterilize his bottles and feeding utensils too.

I had a few minutes of self pity before hubby went off to work. Then I pushed them aside. I never wanted to be a stay at home mom. But I do what is needed because my baby is the most important thing in my life right now.