economics
Ciel from our HR department informed me yesterday that today is the day when my boss and HR talk about the salary adjustment (or what one of my artist referred to as "economics") I will be getting after the annual evaluation I underwent last Monday (or in blog chronos, a post ago).
Hoping it'll be a significant one given that I have been advised to smile more often (LOL).
visa talks
Chat with Elaine yesterday afternoon and she informed me that their visa for immigration to the Land of the Sheeps has arrived. Congratulations!!!
That of course brought to mind the recent (dismal, I say) state of my family's own immigration plans which has been brought to a standstill thanks largely to a lack of funds needed to meet the settlement provision requirement in Down Under - South. While the amount is not overly large, the amount is still too large for my wife and my own income to cover. Now, if I were earning about PHP150,000 per month that dilemma would've been solved a long, long time ago and we would be in Adelaide probably by early next year. Unfortunately, the case is not so and while I earn probably a little better than what the average middle manager is getting, there's nothing left every payday for the immigration thingy.
There's also a slight concern because we checked South Australia's skills shortages list and the update for this second half of 2008, my nominated occupation -- Marketing Specialist -- was already off the list. Egad!!! Now, why is INS not calling us and panicking as this development might seriously derail our plans!
We're just hoping that since the VETASSESS validity is good for one year, as long as we are able to process our papers before the VETASSESS expires, we are still cool for South Oz.
Pautang!!!
ikai down with the P
Cold, cough, and a recurring fever -- our toddler, Ikai, has had these since late last week that we actually had to rush her to the hospital. The pedia in Emergency diagnosed it as bacterial something and had our little one medicate on anti-bios.
But the darn bacteria didn't disappear well into Monday and she had a difficult time sleeping at night because of the cold and phlegm (which, of course, translates to Elvie and myself being deprived of sleep because we had to wake up everytime little Ikai woke up). So, Tuesday I bring her to her regular pedia and Dra. Salas (who herself was sick) diagnosed it as acute broncho pneumonia which she said was uso or in season.
No need to have her confined, the good doctor said, because only those little ones who were dehydrated and not eating needed confinement. Just plenty of fluids and regular medication. Now, that's the good thing about Ikai. Even though she is feeling under the weather, she still has a good enough appetite and takes in liters and liters of fluids -- meme and meme (or milk and water). So, no cause for alarm for us, her parents.
She prescribed a alternative medicines and fortunately the new meds worked and Ikai is now on the mend. Well enough we hope for Saturday when she becomes a flower girl for the first time at her Tita Erma's wedding.
running on caffeine
Since I've not been sleeping all that well these past few nights -- on the average about 4-5 hours of disrupted sleep -- I've been wrestling with antok in the office all week long. To combat the onset of sleepiness, I turn anew to caffeine and this week, there has been a marked increase in my coffee consumption, often reaching about 4 mugs of coffee a day (3 on the average).
Hopefully, when Ikai shakes off the pneumonia then our normal sleeping patterns will return and no need for me to take in the extra caffeine doses.
Talkin' 'bout stuff over steaming cups of coffee. Grab a seat and be part of the chit-chat.
