The First Test

I, We, think, I'm Pregnant with baby no. 2! 

How's that for an introduction? I've been sitting for a few minutes now and still can't decide how to start this entry. Although, Far-ouT and I decided that it is still early to tell anyone (except my friend no1else) about the good news. Since I don't think anyone from my family and close friends are actually reading my blog, I decided to spill it out here first. 

I've done the first test this morning. I just want to check before I went for a training. I do dragon boat paddling, by the way.  Nevertheless, even when the pregnancy test showed 2 pink lines, I decided to go ahead with my sports. I don't want to feel that I am again limited with what I normally do. 

Taaadaaaaa!

Some says that the home pregnancy test is accurate but I'm only a week's delayed from my period, that's why we are planning to have another test the following week just so to see if it will have the same result.  Maybe I would still doubt the second one though, I guess the only thing that would really make me believe is if I will missed my period for a month and a visit to the doctor.

It was again a planned pregnancy since last year, my mini-ME will turn 6 this coming June and its time for her to have a sibling. We started trying last February 2015 and it would really make us happy if indeed Baby number 2 is on the way. My mini-ME was born in the Philippines but this time we are considering giving birth in Dubai to save ourselves of some hassle. My company is only allowing 45 days maternity benefit and as you know, I need to book my flight before reaching my 8 months of pregnancy. If would only  be longer, I would still prefer to give birth in my home country. 

Anyway, I have considered several hospital and now choosing between Latifa Hospital and City Hospital. I would still be doing a lot of homework, I am all for my safety and my baby.

That would be all for now and I think you will now hear from me henceforth.

All the best,

Manga Sushi

After seeing the deal in Groupon, I immediately send a private message to 2 of my colleagues who also love Japanese food and without further ado, we availed of the AED 99 for assorted Platter at Manga Sushi and right after getting the voucher, we set the date. 

We were all excited to dine in Manga Sushi because of the impressive food, adding to it is the unique manga-themed restaurant, fun atmosphere and the quirky costumes of servers were very kawaii. 

The use of a chopstick is not something I look forward to, as I am still not confident of using them.but is a challenged I always try to conquer. 

We had a complimentary Entrée. The veggies is a little sweet and sour to the taste and the small amount of it is just right. I don't want to get full before the main dish comes. 

The package comes with 2 soups and 2 salads


The 2 salads are Seaweed Salad

and Seaked Salmon Salad

The soups that we ordered were:

Tomato Lobster Miso

and Miso Shiru

We had 2 servings of the sushi platter: Manga Sushi Moriawase with 18 assorted, sashimi, maki, nigiri

I chose to have a Cola during binge eating to get that Big Burp!

My colleagues ordered hot tea for their meals.

We split equally the seafood platter and had 3 different la vergüenza,  so we decided to draw lots to get the best of the 3. 

I got the Alimasag. 

After the Happy Tummy Experience, we agreed to drive around town and went to Box Park, these are literally made up of an eye catching line-up of 220 shipping and industrial containers of various colors on a 120,000-meter stretch along Jumeirah on Al Wasl Road.

These containers have 44-high end F and B outlets and retails stores. Some of it were designed to change lights during the night.

It is nice a night out once in a while.

All the best,

The Do's and Don'ts of Business Writing

I finally gotten over with my love and hate relationship with Facebook and made peace with Social Media. Although, I am still against people who does unnecessary shoutout about their lives but its their pages so when I see people who's use to this kind of practice, I immediately remove these notification from my own news feed without offending them of blocking. At least they wouldn't know what hit them.

Moving forward to a more sensible matter to discuss, our office conducted a training for all of us in the office about business writing.  We had 2 batches. The first batch was arranged last 22 February. I was on the first Sunday of March. It was a good way to start the month.

To top it all, I finally made a conclusion that I didn't like the content of the topic. I mean, I was looking forward to it and then, at the end of the session, I was like, that's it? It left me more confused than ever on how you property addressed clients in a situation. 

Lets say for example, the trainer is saying that internal clients are more important than your external clients.  For me, this doesn't apply in all department in the company. In a service provider industry, especially as a Customer Service, you expect other departments to do their jobs whilst you, concentrate on providing Customer Satisfaction at all times with your external clients, because this is your job in the first place. Let the Human Resources Department handle the internal clients. Let the Management solve internal conflicts.

Nevertheless, I learned at least a few basic words not to use in a business correspondence:

• But 
• However
• Unfortunately
• I hope - is a dangerous word

In a business letter, below are the Dos:

• Use Bullet points to highlight the important matter
• Always go straight to the point
• Provide solutions

It was a very basic training of business writing. It was more of a team building as we were requested to know more about our colleagues, and even built free standing houses made of newspaper and scotch tape.

Venue of the training was in HardRock cafe in Deira. They have a conference room where we also had our Annual Party. The training was from 9:00 - 5:00 so still no distraction from loud music

They started the music around lunchtime already but we barely hear it from close door and windows.

The best part of it is, Lunch is free. I ordered this huge servings of burger and fries

By the way, we had some colleagues all the way from Doha, Qatar as attendees.

At the beginning, we were told that coffee and tea are complimentary, I was like strike while the iron is hot -  so I ordered one cup of coffee and one cup of latte and still planning for more...

But then, It was later announced that we had to pay for the drinks as it was not part of the package.  The trainer repeated this several times (nuff already). I guess he was concerned, we will all run away  and he will have to pay for it.  Eventually, towards the end of the session, the company had no choice but to cover the expenses as well (Har! Har!). We finally heard the end of it. 

Looking forward to more trainings in the future. I will end this entry with a quote: 

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin. 

All the best,

Excuse This Post: I am struggling with Facebook

I am struggling right now. With Facebook. I can't help but raise my eyebrows or roll my eyes every time I read someone else's shout out, negative shout-out for that matter. Let me make a disclaimer first.  Facebook is fun, it gets you connect with people in your life, families, friend, old colleagues, neighbor, etc. I, too, am guilty of posting hateful statements, happy thoughts, and even updating my daily activities with people who I don't know if at all care at some point. But Facebook posts also have negative effects on us. It becomes a place for saying something bad in an indirect and unpleasant way. A form of subtle manipulation, in a backstabbing manner. 

I don't mean you need only to posts the good things in life. But I see some posts of hate towards people, a husband, a boyfriend, a mistress, an enemy. What do you get from revealing your most intimate feelings to the world? Do you feel relieved after posting your family problems? Do you think people will even care if your husband is having an affair? Or that you need money? or your pet died? or that you cut yourself? Or how you criticize people because you think you are superior? How far can you go exposing your life to strangers. Why do you want people to know just how miserable your life is right now? 

Why do you even post your prayers to God for heaven sake or Thanking Him for all your Blessings in a post? This is beyond connecting to social media. 

I hope these people will realize the limitations of technology. Abusing the benefit of what we are enjoying is not good. Use it sparingly.

Now I know a lot of you will argue with me. You'll say, its my Facebook account, its none of your business what I post. I understand that we run our own lives. Its fine with me. We are all entitled to our own opinion, you have yours, I have mine. And I say, you are a sad case. So now, Ignore me.