As part of my preparation for work abroad, I’m trying to familiarize myself with the different benefits that I have received from working here – bonuses, paternity leaves, social security disability insurance, and lots of other stuff. Andrea told me that I should remember these things so I have something to compare the benefits (I’ll be getting in Brunei) to.

I agree. The only way to determine which work place is better is to compare the benefits and the disadvantages between the two. And since I don’t know yet what the new work holds for me, I might as well try to remember what I had in the previous.

Frankly speaking, I don’t know what to hope for. Part of me still wants to go back to the place where I started and part of me wants to move on and try other stuff. Anyway, a few more months and I’ll find the answers for myself.

Due to mateo’s insistent demands, we successful finished setting up the Christmas tree yesterday. Despite the heavy rains, the mosquitoes outside, and the constant interruptions from anika, we still managed to put up the decorations before going to sleep.

However, even though the tree was securely set up, I still couldn’t leave the lights turned on the whole night. Since we weren’t using led christmas lights for the tree, I can’t help but worry about fire breaking out from electrical malfunctions in the wires. I’ve already seen and heard enough stories about Christmas lights and fires to know that these accidents are not myths… and I’m not about to risk my family because of such things.

So i told them that the lights would only stay on until it’s time to sleep. Everything else will have to be turned off once we get ready for bed. Thankfully, mateo followed.

Now that mateo has become a sucker for animated films, I can’t help but wonder how it would have been if we did not dispose of the ipod touch that andrea won in a raffle last year.

The iPhone-looking media player had a large enough screen for viewing movies and around 8 Gb of storage space – big enough to accommodate  around 8 to 10 movies. And it probably would have been a good alternative to our laptop (since he bugs us really hard whenever he remembers a particular movie he wants to watch).

Fortunately, the PSP Go that Papu gave him as a present last July is keeping him busy. It’s also sufficing as a replacement to the ipod touch since the device has a good enough screen too, plus a 16 Gb memory. Of course it’s not as thin as the ipod touch, but it’s proving to be quite sturdy. I’m happy with that already.

I was surprised to see a lot of young kids in the mall earlier. It’s a regular school school day today so I thought SM would be a little more peaceful than how it is during the weekends. Was I wrong or what?

I mean, it doesn’t really matter whether they’re wearing blac label clothing or not. Uniform or no uniform, kids are suppose to be in school and the authorities of the mall should be responsible enough to not allow these students to enter especially during class hours. They are not only disregarding the kids’ welfare but they are also promoting cutting classes if they continue to be irresponsible. They don’t have to push the kids back to school. Denying them entry to the mall would be good enough.

I’ve thought about buying lingerie for andrea on her birthday, but I decided not to go ahead with the idea at the very last moment. I figured, since she’s still hellbent on losing fat, the lingerie might only make things more difficult by putting unnecessary pressure on her.

Even though she still looks very attractive to me, she seems really focused on going several sizes down so I kept my peace. Besides, she still has a few lingeries at home and she’s not been wearing them for a long time.

If she goes back to wearing the older ones, then I’ll probably reconsider the idea of getting her more.

It has already been a week since an SM mall outside the subdivision opened, but it was our first time to visit the new mall yesterday. As expected, not all the stores inside have already finished setting up so there are still a few areas that remain in construction. However, I’m almost certain that 90% of the whole place is already operational.

We checked it out again earlier today. I figured since andrea and I couldn’t work, (mateo was all over the house playing with andrea’s 11-year old cousin), we might as well spend the afternoon checking out the rest of the mall that we haven’t explored yet.

So after getting there, we left mateo and his playmate at one of the play areas there  before going around. At the department store, I took the opportunity to look at some of the things that I might be needing once I get to Brunei – plates, kitchen utensils, and even some pillows. There were no heated mattress pads of course but there were a lot of memory foam pillows on sale. I was almost tempted to buy one but andrea convinced me not too, so I didn’t.

All in all, the new mall is a good enough venue to kill some time. It’s still far from being perfect (or complete) though, but it’s still such a joy to have, especially since it’s no more than 10 minutes away from home.