Thank God It’s Friday

It’s a pay day Friday! This means longer ATM lines, more traffic in Ayala Avenue and more jam-packed restos and gimmick hot spots. It’s also the first time all the people in the office are getting their adjusted salaries. I think almost everybody in the company is getting some increase this year. Alright!

Thank God It’s Friday or TGIF is also the place where we had yet another IC lunch. Jona opted to stay in the office because she wasn’t feeling well and her eyes were so red that it’s bordering on being quite scary. OK, she was excused this time. It was just me, Nick, Lui and Chris. The lunch was great but the conversations were even greater. As Nick observed, the IC group seem to have been rejuvenated. I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder. Bwehehe. From the start of this fiscal year, everything is not as it was – Chris is rolled off into another team in another floor, Lui is still on a separate team, although Nick and I are in the same team, we are not working together anymore since I moved to Testing and he stayed in Development, and lastly, although Jona and I are both in the same Test team, we hardly have a chance to socialize because of the aggressive deadlines that we have in the team. We are just glued to our monitors minding our own businesses and trying to catch up with all our deliverables almost the whole day. Given all these, I think that it only becomes natural for us to be happy to see each other on a break. People become more open, stories become more animated and opinions become more honest. Hihihi. I think we are in a better place to maintain what we have. No more whatevers…. Hhhmmm…

Oh, and whose turn was it? Nick and I. Due to some changes in position. Hehe.
Thanks TA and Nick!
Next stop, Lui’s birthday bash!

Hard Rockin’ Meeting

Nothing beats unexpected fun. Yesterday, my mother project (sort of like a division in a corporation or a department in a small company) held its last townhall meeting for the fiscal year (it’s like a general assembly). We are the biggest arm here in Accenture (around 700 people) and I didn’t expect that Hard Rock Cafe here in Glorietta could accommodate us. But we actually fit; quite comfortably at that. They started admitting people at 2pm and the first 80 people to arrive get the best seats. You see this one of the things I like about Accenture – you are actually required to leave earlier on times like these. It’s like they pay you to stop working, go to Hard Rock and eat food there. Hehe.

Anyway, the first part of the townhall was all work-related: updates on these, updates on that, what we did right, what we can improve on, what’s cooking for the next fiscal year etc. I’d say that I didn’t really get much information from the updates not so much because there’s nothing in it but because I’ve read most of the email circulations that pertains to those updates. The one thing I can say that I got a lot of was food. Mirienda was buffet style. Yahoo!

After the work-related updates comes the more alive part. For this townhall, the organizers decided to have a sort of Philippine Idol competition. At first I thought that it was going to be quite dragging and bland since I didn’t think that there would be a lot of real talents there. I planned on going home earlier since technically we can opt not to watch the presentation since it was already 5:30pm. But on the first singer alone, I became glued to my seat. There were nine contestants and all of them were at a minimum, say above average. The competition was stiff and the crowd was wild. Oh my, we were so noisy that one can actually hear all our screams and shouts of support even outside the venue. We were a great crowd to these awesome contestants.

After all nine finished their song numbers and critique from the judges, they were narrowed down to 3 finalists. The choices were right on the mark. I couldn’t remember all their names but I remember that they were the three best performances. The three guys sang again for the final showdown. Oh my, what talent. It was like watching pros on stage. I guess for most of them, it was a fantastic being there. I mean just to be able to perform at Hard Rock on a jam-packed and appreciative crowd is cool enough. After the performances, Spongecola and Sandwich performed for us. Two words: superb and kickass. Hehe. Oh, and did I mention that Chico and Delamar hosted the show?! Hehe. Dinner was also buffet. It was an electromagnetic blast!

And the best thing about it is that all the proceeds of the text votes for the Idol contestants go to Gawad Kalinga! Hehe. Rock on!