It was 2 days of darkness. We have no electricity for 2 days and finally, it’s back and it’s nice to be online again. My good friend wanted me to check on phaser 8560 the other day when the brownout happened and it lasted until 2AM this morning.

2 days felt like it was a week. Not being able to get online for 48 hours felt like I have been missing a lot. I was actually in panic mode last night because I will have another store opening tonight and I don’t want to miss it. I have been preparing for it for 2 weeks! Fortunately, Meralco answered my call

So to you all – and to all who were affected by the brownout, welcome back online!

When was the last time I slept early? Can’t even remember. All I can recall are the days when I have the best sleep ever and they are as follows:

1. When I gave birth – SEDATED
2. When I had an operation – SEDATED
3. When I underwent gastroscopy – SEDATED (I requested it)

Guess I really need to be sedated to be able to sleep soundly and really feel refreshed after. The best was the 2-hour sleep after the gastroscopy because there is no pain. Ahhh, if only it isn’t dangerous, I’d probably request another shot. LOL! The other night was the worst. I was able to feel sleepy around 1:30AM so I went to bed. I woke up around 2:00AM, went back to bed at 2:30AM. Then I felt I needed to pee around 3:30AM. Gosh, why is this happening to me. Around 4PM I was startled when I felt pain and when I came to my senses, I saw the little girl beside me has kicked me. Arrghh…went back to bed and the alarm sounded by 5:30AM. Whatever happened to my sleep????

I felt like a zombie that day. It was irritating and I recall I have sounded a bit harsh to some office mates. Who wouldn’t? I guest this is why even the best acne treatments aren’t working for me. I have always been deprived of sleep and sleep is essential in having a good health – and skin.

Am I classified as insomniac? It’s pretty obvious. I just do hope I’d learn to sleep so soundly like my husband – he’s already asleep, 2 minutes after he laid his back. LOL!

Been away for a couple of days. I needed to take care of my pending kits and gladly I was able to complete 2 exclusive kits for Scrapbook-Bytes and 2 for My Life and Scrap. Yes, last week was a busy week because I opened my store at SBB and I am so happy to be guesting at the site for March. Done with my kits for March.

Whew! March. It always marks the start of summer in the Philippines. It has been awfully hot these past couple of days. These times you’d love the air condition turned on while you are at home working in front of your PC. But then our is malfunctioning. Worst, our house is on the side where the sun shines directly at noon. What a wonder LOL! Hubby has been complaining about watching his animes from the PC because he couldn’t see clearly on the monitor because it’s too bright and he’s been bugging me to get some window blinds next time I go to the mall. Yeah, I can see him getting irritated arranging the curtains every now and then and he’s just so cute doing that. LOL! He looks like a little boy terribly wanting to get what he wants.

The kids are having the summer fever too. They have been asking me to open their inflatable pool and have a swim in the garage. But as you all know, we are experiencing an El Nino phenomenon this year and I’d like to contribute a little in saving water. That pool is quite big and I don’t want to waste water when everyone is doing their share in using it properly. We’ll have a rough summer this year and I just do hope I’ll be able to get the aircon repaired this weekend. Oh and summer also means higher electricity bill! So don’t be frustrated!

I was never really a fan of video games and I never expect I’d soon be able to learn how to play it. In our household, the only gaming console freak is my husband (or so I thought). It was before the girls turned 3.

The little ladies started with our mobile phones. They loved the simple games from our mobiles and would always want to borrow it whenever we are at home. Later on, hubby introduced the PSP to them. They were able to easily adapt to it. They learned how to turn it on and off, choose the games and even play videos or music stored in it. Quite amazing because I never get to do that on the PSP myself. LOL!

Then came Nintendo DS at age 4. It has more friendly games for toddlers than the PSP. With each touch screen functionality, the girls easily loved it – particularly Cooking Mama. I must admit, this one got me into playing huh! But I have never played well like the kiddos. Scieszka would always scold me and tell me I am doing the wrong thing. She’s very keen to these games really. Later on, they started fighting over the DS. The daddy offered a solution. Not a bright one though.

He brought home a Nintendo Wii so the girls could play together. Isn’t it just a wonderful idea a dad could offer to her kids? Haha! I was very much against getting it at first but he was able to motivate me so there. Look at the girls when the wii came in to the house that day.

They are already enjoying it on the first day! I was amazed at how well kids could adapt to the technology nowadays. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day, there would be four of us banging to use the computer LOL. This console is amazing too! It’s very interactive. I have actually tried playing tennis and Wii Fit and I think it’s one of the best weight loss programs you should try. It’s kinda tiring but sure you will sweat a lot just by playing inside the house. How’s that for an exercise?

It has been over 3 weeks that we are working on completing all the documents needed by hubby for work. Early Monday, we were able to complete his Annual Physical Exam and part of the itinerary for that day was to get an NBI clearance at SM Megamall. If you are working or have been to Megamall and happen to see the NBI satellite office there, you’ll know there are so many people who are renewing their clearances every single day. And Monday was no different.

As I was handling my old clearance copy, it did not occur to me that I had my maiden name in there. So I kindly asked the lady if they will be able to track that I have already made the necessary status change in 2006, they said not – and that they will only depend on the copy I have with me. I asked again, if I can just cancel my application and get my P115 back, they said NOT because they have already issued a receipt. OMG!!! Only in the Philippines!

Another odd scenario happened when hubby finally got his clearance (2 copies), his name was misspelled! When we checked, it was mistakenly coded when he got his very first clearance but he never noticed it until Monday. Now, we have to go to the nearest NBI office to get his name corrected. Tuesday, we went to our Municipal office – they have an NBI office there. We were there 7AM because we knew that the office would open at 8AM. And to our shock, there were already hundreds of people outside the hall and we barely made it for their daily cut off. We were included in the 5th batch of processing. We were there 7AM and our documents were processed at around 2PM. And here’s the worst, the clearance won’t be released until another day! Another OMG!!!! We waited the whole day in there, waiting for the day to pass while seeing a nearby house owner change his pond filters only to be told that we have to come back. It was terribly disappointing. I just don’t understand why there is a need to ask for us to come back when they already knew we have wasted a day to process that single document.

I am not sure if the oldies in the Municipal Hall doesn’t want improvement. They could’ve made use of existing technologies to make life easier for everyone. But my guess would be, they are afraid to use it not because they don’t know how to but because they are afraid that when everything gets automated, they would lose their jobs. With all the people lining out there, some are new applications, some renewal, some are correction of entries, they don’t have a proper system. They were numbering the people in batches but they don’t have a specific number for the individuals – just plain batch numbers. So – every 50 heads get the same batch number, just that. And by the way, you’ll have to guess what batch are they currently processing each and every moment LOL!

And so, we went back early Wednesday morning at 8AM. And yes, they never cease to amaze us LOL! The office people waited for 9AM before they released the clearances! OMG again and again. After we got our documents, we checked it thoroughly to ensure there won’t be a single mistake again. I won’t come back to renew in that office again.

So far, I’d still prefer getting my renewal at SM Megamall office – the line is really long but the processing will only take you 5-10 minutes and after that you’re all set (if you don’t have issues).

Have you had this same experience?