happy December!

It is the first day of December... and we are down to twenty-four days before Christmas. While I may not have a Christmas party to attend to at work, (another first in thirteen years) I am pretty sure that there would be quite a few with friends.

Oh, I love this season! And this year is a special one because we will have a taste of how Christmas is like in the land down under, which they say is the continent of contrast. Yes, it is gonna be a our first Christmas in summer!

spam

I have totally forgotten about my blog, until Angeli sent me a message saying there's a post that's more likely to be a spam. Those who have been following my blog would know what kind of stuff (non-sense or otherwise) I am posting. I'm sorry for not closely watching after this site that it got spammed.

And thanks, Anj, for taking notice of it.

it's like music to my ears

Today at the restaurant were two Filipino customers. They were surprised when I suddenly spoke to them in Tagalog (my native dialect), and bursted out "Filipino ka pala! (You're a Filipino)" They said that I look like some other Asian race. I told them that they, too, look more Chinese than Filipino, and I wouldn't have known had I not heard them speaking in Tagalog.

It is not very often that we have Filipino customers come by. In fact, it was the second time only. The first one I met there is a first cousin to the Sottos in Manila; known both in the showbiz and political arena. In a place where people speak different languages, and English of different accents, it is relaxing in a way to hear my native language being spoken. It feels like home! :)

birthday with shelves of books

It's my birthday today, and I spent it by starting on a new casual job tending a bookstore in one of the largest malls in the area. It was pretty good. I got the chance to have small chats with some shoppers. There was an old (German) man who approached and started a conversation with me. He said I sound American with how I speak my English (thanks to my country's history for that, I guess), and encouraged me by saying that I would be able to find an office job, just as I wished. He even invited me for a cup of coffee, but since I was the only one tending the store, I had to decline the invitation. It was a nice chat, I would say, with a lovely man, old enough to be my grandfather. :)

For dinner, husband and I dined at a small Chinese restaurant nearby.

I'm missing home at this very minute, yet I am excited to be where I am today.

3rd month

I have just recently stopped importing blog posts into my facebook account to give myself freedom again to write about anything I think of. Family members, relatives and long-time friends seem to worry about my state when they read any of my writings that somehow, they think, reflect a not-so-good condition.

Nothing to worry about me, I am A-ok. It's been three months now since we arrived here. I would say that my circumstances haven't changed that much yet, but I am coping up. The weather has been getting colder, with winter starting in less than three weeks from now. I have joined a library, and now few pages away from finishing the first book I borrowed (The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho).

Today is extra special because I have received a package from my Kuya (big brother), and even more special because my nephews sent their handmade birthday card for me... the first presents I have received for my birthday on Monday. :)

fashion tip for us...

Doing good never goes out of fashion.

Let's be fashionable, let's do good!

Hope you'll have a fashionably fabulous week ahead!

you can call me Penny...

For those of you who would like to know how I have been, here's a quick run down of updates.

In my previous post, I have mentioned how I like it here, having spent only a week. And now, after four more weeks, I still say "I like it here!"

At the start of our second week, I was fortunate enough to be called for a job interview. However, I wasn't that fortunate to have been hired for the position. While I felt that it was totally fine to have missed that chance (it was just the second week then... it was still time to play the tourist role), I was still hoping I would receive another call for other job opportunities.

Unexpectedly, through the network of a relative, I have gotten myself a part-time waitressing job in a Malaysian-Chinese-North-and-South-Indian-cuisine-under-one-roof restaurant. (Let me tell you that they cook REALLY great food! I am enjoying my free take-aways everytime!) This kind of job is entirely out of my league, and this is the first time I am doing this, that my mom, and my parents-in-law as well, worry that the job may be too physically challenging for me. Well, it is... but after a good rest, I am back to the normal energy level I have before doing it. My brothers find it cool though, one of them wants to call me Penny (from The Big Bang Theory, if you are watching it).

Before we left home weeks back, we have already prepared ourselves to get whatever work experience that would initially come our way... we have a long way to go, and we believe that we have a great life ahead of us. The best is yet to come... and only God knows when is the time.

So to our friends who are wondering how have we been, well, we have been great, and we are enjoying it here! We are always grateful to the Lord for making this dream possible.

Well, how about you? How have you been?