Tribute to my Friends and “Enemies” (Part 9)

 ALL-GIRLS GROUP FROM MARBEL

Whenever Elsa, Genevieve, Malou, Mimi and I meet somewhere (usually at SugarHouse Megamall), time is so short to catch up with each other’s freshest news. Although we want to meet as often as we can, it seldoms happens. But when somebody from Marbel comes to Manila, we always gather and have an instant mini-reunion. Our last meeting was June 14,2007 when our friend Marichu was in town.

THO LIDASAN

If there’s one person whom I owe my life with (literally), he is the loving husband of my friend Elsa. When I gave birth by caesarian section to my eldest son, I desperately needed blood transfusion of 1,500 cc. I was immediately given 500 cc from the Blood Bank but my obstetrician insisted fresh blood for the succeeding 1000 cc. Waves of friends and relatives came to visit me at Manila Doctors Hospital but none of them was type “O”. Except for Tho.

Tho patiently went through the tedious screening process which lasted for 6 long hours. He finished all the tests and requirements without any complaint. And Elsa, together with their well-behaved sons Junji and Seiji silently waited after everything was completed.

This is one family worth emulating. Despite the fact that Tho and Elsa don’t share the same Faith (I stood as secondary sponsor in both their Catholic wedding and Muslim Matrimonial Rites), their love for each other withstood the brutal tests of time. They were able to overcome all obstacles and stayed together as one solid family. I salute you, Tho and Elsa!

Tribute to my Friends and “Enemies” (Part 8)

 MY CONTRACTORS

I’m thankful to my contractors who believed and trusted me. I may not remember all of them but from 1988 to 2002, please forgive me if I failed to include you in this list:

Tita Sylvia, Olive and Bea for Goulbourn, George Salud for Kirei, Elite Garments & Fashion Apparel for 22BC, Ensembles, Krizia, MARIKO for Sari-Sari and Dalagita, Rana’s Manufacturing for Georgetown, Marj for her company/school uniform projects, Lourdes Ong, Gap, Jordache, Ann Taylor, Macy’s, Sew-Fine Apparel, Supreme Garments, and Julia’s Collection.

MY LOYAL WORKFORCE

When I was still single, I only maintained a workforce of around 10 to 13. We were like one big happy family. But when my EX took over, he transferred to a 3–storey building and employed 40-45 workers. I still see some of my original staff and sewers from time to time. I wish them well. 

MY LOYAL MADE-TO-ORDER CUSTOMERS

How I miss talking with my customers! One of them was Mimi, when she took her Residency at Perpetual Help Hospital. Mimi visited me whenever she had the time and we would just chat and laugh our cares away.

Tribute to my Friends & “Enemies” (Part 7)

 TITA SYLVIA

My mentor for my garments business, she encouraged me to learn everything first before taking the giant leap. I took her advice and studied fashion designing, pattern making, tailoring, RTW sewing, boutique management. She presented to me what to expect in the future. She told me I will be faced with 3 major problems in the workplace: 1) unscheduled absenteeism, 2) procurement of vale because of so-called family emergency, and 3) unavoidable intrigues among the workforce. She patiently oriented me how to deal with these challenges based from her years of experience.

ANGIE AND CHARO

My two “partners in crime” in the school where I took Fashion Designing, Pattern Making, Dressmaking and Tailoring. We would watch movies and eat at Harrizon Plaza whenever we have time. We have become very close friends after that.

CHERRY AND ZENY

We were three’s company when I was still a rookie in the garments subcontracting business. Problems always tormented us but we went through them in a breeze because of the support we extended to each other.

A Tribute to my Friends & “Enemies”(Part 6)

 TATAY CALOY AND NANAY CEL

I can never thank enough these two wonderful people who lovingly accepted me in their home whenever I visit my friend Tess in Cebu. They were simply generous, kind, and thoughtful. The first time I went there, I arrived very late at night coz I took the last flight from Manila, having a spur of the moment urge to escape the hustle and the bustle of writing my thesis. I wasn’t even seated yet when Tatay offered me an ice-cold beer and ordered pizza delivery. I had so much fun in Cebu that it became my home away from home everytime I wanted to disappear from the phase of the earth. Tatay Caloy and Nanay Cely showered me with so much affection making me feel like one of their daughters (Tess was their only daughter).

I remembered one time when we were about to watch a David Carradine movie, I saw Nanay putting assorted foodstuff inside a native basket. I commented “Nay, parang picnic ang punta natin—hindi sinehan”. She was laughing while explaining to me that Tatay will just sleep inside the theatre if he’s not munching on something so we had to bring the basket full of goodies. It’s interesting to note that Tatay still slept halfway through the movie hahahah . . .

Well, I have inherited Nanay’s family ritual up to this day but I replaced the native basket with a really large bag. Whenever my kids and I watch movies, we would bring 2 packs of ACT II popcorn, 4 packs of Lay’s sour & cream potato chips with dip, juice for them in a cooler bag and diet Coke for me in my Coleman filled with ice.

A Tribute to my Friends & “Enemies” (Part 5)

MY SQP BATCHMATES:  Dahlia, Gay, Grace, Marilen, Tess, Vins, Louie, Jessy, Jeyps, Ning, Fernan, Edwin, Ricky and Vic

JPE (Jesus P. Estanislao) pointed out that SQP stood for Summer, Qualifying, Program for IEP (Industrial Economics Program). It was tough as hell. There were 33 of us who started and everyday, 2-3 participants walked away. Thanks to my SQP Batchmates, I was able to recover fast from a freshly broken heart and miraculously qualified to the MS Industrial Economics Program.

MY IEP BATCHMATES

Being the oldest, I stood as the “mother” of the group. It was a completely new experience for me but I enjoyed every minute of it. We had so much fun inside CRC (Center for Research & Communication) and outside as well. 

V.C.

I was unanimously chosen to take care of our IEP Batch except for one person. VC refused to be just a part of the flock and struggled to be “the godfather”. Maybe he was used to lead, not to follow. I had nothing against this guy so I couldn’t understand why he tried to make my life miserable. But thanks to him I was able to practice self control. By God’s grace I was able to prevent myself from wringing his neck. Ning and Gay kept telling me to forgive and forget. Really, there’s nothing to forgive. I can’t blame the guy for being annoying. It’s simply his nature. Besides, I have completely forgotten about his existence. But this post is about friends and “enemies” so I forced myself to comply with that hahahah . . .

A Tribute to my Friends & "Enemies" (Part 4)

THELMA

There  were only 2 female staff in the Coca-Cola Makati Sales Office—the secretary of the Manager (Thelma) and the Marketing Analyst (yours truly!). Thelma taught me how to wear slight make-up to enhance my beauty(kuno!), aerobic dancing to maintain my Coca-Cola figure, how to talk properly to customers and how not to be intimidated by the 100+ men in the warehouse. Thelma also encouraged me to run small businesses inside the office: a) All rank-and-file employees of SMC receive a sack of rice every month. I buy the men's rice allocation for P85/sack and then sell them to outsiders who go to the office for P120/sack. b) I also buy the route helpers' allowance. What does this mean? After the 30th of the month, the men no longer have money in their pockets (drained by their 2-3 wives). They approach me to buy their allowance. I would pay them P80 and then on the 5th, their P120 allowance will be given to me by the Payroll Master. Failure to fulfill this promise will automatically forfeit their chance to have business with me again, plus I will squeal to the real wife how much he was really receiving (they apply correction fluid on their pay envelopes to lower their take-home pay).

Thank you, Teng, for the wonderful years that you shared with me. Thelma left this world at a tender age of 33. Please join me in offering a short prayer for her . . . One week before her departure, she invited me to celebrate Valentine's Day in their apartment. She was then happily married with her 6-yr old son & a 4-yr old daughter. I was her only guest yet she prepared buttered chicken, kare-kare and fruit salad with corn. We spent the day just catching up on each other's news, talking as if there's no more tomorrow . . . The following week, she was gone. For 5 consecutive nights I was beside her coffin, not ready to let her go. Nanay accompanied me on the day of her burial and it was one of the very rare occasions that I saw my mother cry. 

ATE ALMA

Part of my business was buy and sell of signature pants—name it, I have it. Ate Alma was generous enough to supply me with pants which she brings to my office with a certain minimum order. If my memory serves me right, I buy the pants for P120 in cash and sell them for P180 (payable in 3 gives).

Nine Months to Go

Shame on you--if you're thinking that I'm conceiving and will be giving birth in 9 months! I'm referring to the remaining nine months that we have to train for our 5k run (walk for most of my friends) on June 7, 2008. So let's see. What have we accomplished so far?

Let's take a look at our track record:

May -- started with 2k walk & 1/2k run, slowly increasing distance for both walks and runs
June-- 3.6k walk & 1.4k run
July -- 3k walk & 2k run
August -- 2.4k walk & 2.6k run
September target -- 1.8k walk & 3.2k run
October target -- 1.2k walk & 3.8k run
November target -- .6k walk & 4.4k run
December target -- 5k run

You might be wondering why I'm targetting December and not June 2008. Well, better to be ahead of schedule so that when something goes wrong and I have to prolong my training, I could still make it by June next year.

For those of you who still haven't started your training, you've got 9 months to go. Good luck! Hope to see you all on June 7, 2008.