My Three Marias

Today's blog should have read Sydney Spring Cycle 2005. Jeanne (my first Maria) and I have just completed a 50km journey across Sydney to the Olympic Park on a bike. This is my fourth year in this event and Jeanne's second. For us who are not terribly fit, this is no ordinary feat and I'm very proud of Jeanne for doing it. This year was a lot easier than last, simply because we did not have to cycle on a 38 Celsius heat. It was still hot, towards mid day it must have reached 25 Celsius, but the ambulance were not as busy as last year.

There were also substantial changes in the route this year as it features more magnificent views of Sydney (pictures to follow). It includes lots of largely undiscovered cycle paths (at least undiscovered to me and Jeanne). It also ended at the Olympic Park instead of the traditional Paramatta Park. The Sydney Bicycle Exhibition was also on. After the ride, we had enough strength to attend the exhibit and tried riding the folding bike 'Birdy' and also a recumbent bike.

Reaching home at 6:00pm, our night was just beginning. Celine has already left to attend a talent quest, more of that later. We are attending it and Jessica (my third Maria) will be driving. Until now, Jessica has not driven over 11 kilometers in 1 trip. She has been driving short trips regularly for the past 2 months. Her confidence on the road is very noticiable but to let her drive tonight was not an easy decision. Canley Vale, the place we were going to, is over 50km away and we are not familiar of the place. This brave young girl is undeterred even as I have given her a back-out option. She drove through multi-lane roads with ease. She drove through detours due to road constructions and as expected we also missed some exits and had to stop and re-map our trip. She was confident, relaxed and composed even when there were times I freaked out, panicked and sometimes confusing as a supervising driver. She's really done well taking us there and back, which means that by the night is over she had clocked 102 Km - not bad for a skinny 16 year old :-)

The Talent Quest - Celine (my Second Maria) was invited to compete in a Talent Quest regularly run at Cabravale Diggers Club. This was no Karaoke contest - each contestant will be paid whether they win or not, so the 8 contestants are expected to be good and can join by invitation only. They are accompanied by a live band, each of the contestants must bring their sheet music, and had very little or no rehearsal with the band at all.

We got there just in time to catch the last 3 contestants. Celine was the last contestant. The first 7, we learned, are regulars and judging from what we saw it is a tough competition. They were confident and very entertaining.

Celine was introduced as a new blood into the contest. She sang 3 songs - "I Enjoy Being a Girl", a lesser known number in Miss Saigon, and a pop number. The judges comment on her was : "You can tell that Celine's voice is suited for the theatre and she styled each song differently. Her choice of a less popularly known number in Miss Saigon is very brave but she was very effective. She's a new blood in the contest and were glad to the kind of talent she brings into the contest."

At the end of the night, people were coming to Celine asking her to come back again and sing more of her songs. It's a refreshing change to the usually standard songs they hear in the contest. They are referring to popular music, Celine's choices of music (to borrow Jessica's description) is obscure. I bet noone of you have heard "I Enjoy Being A Girl" - it's a fast and playful theatrical number which captivated everyone in the audience. Celine did not try the easy pieces - she always pushes herself.

We were not expecting her to win. We did not hear the first 4 but we heard they were good. If I am to judge solely on the last 3 performers - I'd even say that Celine has an even chance. Celine won the 3rd place for the night but the winners (both from the first 4) hugged her like she was the winner.

What a day - I'm so proud of my three Marias.

My First Trip To New Zealand

Rommel and Cesario Pascual, taken at One-Tree Hill, Auckland New Zealand on the 15th of Oct 2005.

Nothing too dramatic. I was asked to look into the ACNielsen Retail Factory database between 11 - 14 October 2005. I was billeted at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland. An office mate in New Zealand was visibly impressed when they learned I will be staying at the Heritage instead of the usual hotel near the office in Takapuna. So, naturally I was a bit excited myself.

The hotel is right smack at the center of the the city, next to the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower is that needle like structure that is visible throughout the city. About the hotel - It has a view of the bridge. It has kitchen and oven facilities - not that I intend to use it. It has a washing machine and drier which is a plus since the company does not pay for laundry if you stay less than a week and I usually pack light. It also has ADSL, which seem to be common now on hotels. Later on, however, I will discover that their ADSL is very crappy, it does not sustain a connection long enough to be useful and the help desk they have is so moronic - the guy on the other line does not even know what 'PING' is. (I know some people might not know it, but you have no business working in an ISP Help Desk without a basic knowledge of network troubleshooting).

I arrived at 2:00am of the 11th and was up well into 4:00am. Nevertheless, I was in the office by 9:00am. I was treated to a Thai Restaurant for lunch and everyone in ACN New Zealand were extra nice to the the new comer,that was me.

I was back in the hotel by 7:00pm. Uncle Cesario and Auntie Ruby came around to pick me up at the hotel. They were a bit hesitant because they knew I had very little sleep and just had a full day of work. But,I was just too eager to see them to even notice how long my day was. We drove to Epsom, at the home of their daughter Raquel Pascual-Bannister. They just learned, from this visit, that Raquel has quit her well-paying job at Aztec (also a major competitor of ACNielsen).

Raquel and Robert has a triving Kindie school in the middle of the city and they are looking into expanding it. So they decided, it was time to spend the time in their business. I also learned that Robert is a successful Mortgage Broker and runs his own business called Mortgage Cafe in Mt. Roskill. As you can tell - I'm very proud for the accomplishments of this young couple. She and her husbond strikes me as very astute business people and very much on their way to financial freedom.

Later that night, we went to Uncle Cesario's residence in Green Bay. Uncle keeps pointing out directions for me at the dark. Like that's where Clarissa lives, that's Robert's office, this leads to the ocean, blah - blah - blah. After a while I switch off (so I thought).

Thier place is a modest size house and at their back, Raquel built another house that is now rented by Memet, her brother. There were also a few friends and Memet's family who shares in the rent. I brought 2 boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts which were instant hit to everyone.

On my second day, I got up at 9:30am. I had to quickly call the office to move my 10:00am meeting. This gave me a bit more time to enjoy a hotel breakfast at the Hector's Restaurant at the Tower side of the hotel.

Once again the day at the office went quickly. Shortly after breakfast, I'm enjoying a Tepanyaki lunch right across the office. I stayed a bit late in the office to get most of my work on its way. At night, I took a cab to Epsom to visit my school friend Carol and Joel. Joel is working the night shift, so I did not get to see him. He works at the Montana Winery, so there were a lot of nice wine in their house. I opened a bottle of a very nice Pinot Noir. I consumed a third and Carol chucked the rest in the sink - what a waste :-(.

I also met Julliane and Tiara, there daughters and Julianne's boyfriend Venny (sp?). Later, Venny was picked up by his dad Oscar Batukan, who I later learned to be a kumpare of Uncle Cesario. It gave me the impression that Uncle Cesario and Aunt Ruby are well known for their community work within the Filipino circle. Even the Filipino employees of ACNielsen knew them well.

Carol told me that Julianne's condition was diagnosed my a dermatologist in the Philippines. A credit to our Filipino doctors. The New Zealand GP dismissed the rashes in Julianne's face as a common teenagers' skin problem, rather than the most serious sign for the onset of her Lupus. I told them a little about Jeanne's own battle with MCTD, which like Lupus, is also an immune disorder.

On my third day, I spent lunch with four Filipino employees of ACNielsen NZ. They are the only Filipinos in the company. The lunch was organised by Nonito. He stikes me as very nationalistic and proud to hear of any Filipino doing well. Our conversation revolves around their life in New Zealand - how pleasant it is and how much they love living here. I can tell that there is a lot to be desired in living here in Auckland, their proximity to the water and access to beautiful views without paying a fortune compared to Sydney.

My Thursday night was uneventful. Uncle Cesario and Aunt Ruby took me to have dinner at the Casino. We retired early and when they left, I ducked in at a nearby cafe to relax a bit.

By mid-day of Friday I was almost done with what I came to do here in Auckland. This gave me a bit of time to take photos of the spectacular views seen at the NZ office. At night, Memo, my officemate, took me to the pub across the road and met up with some ACN employees. It was nice to join the hip crowd :-) ... Let's leave it at that ;-)

I took a cab from the office to Green Bay. The taxi driver admitted that he never went to Green Bay before and had to stop a couple of times to check the map. To my surprise I can actually recognise the way as I saw Clarissa's place, and Robert's office and the way that leads to the water etc. Uncle's incessant chat while we were travelling earlier had paid of. The cab went pass Bishop Street but I was quick to point it out and saved me from being lost :-)

Ah - weekend at last. Uncle Cesario took me around the city. We went to the place called 'One Tree Hill'. Well, it use to have one tree on the hill until some protester went up with a chain saw and cut the solitary tree down. It offered a very nice view of Auckland. We drove around the city taking obligatory tourists photos :-) Then I treated him to a Steam Boat Lunch in a Chinese restaurant where none speak a word of English. It was very frustrating but we still had a good feed in the end.

The evening was the birthday of Christopher Ronald-Pascual, the only grandchild of Uncle Cesario who will carry the Pascual surname. He is the son of Memet and has turned 14 on the 14th of October. I met Clarissa, Gary and Napoleon for the first time. Clarissa is Uncle Cesario's youngest daughter. They recently arrived from Brisbane and may be planning to settle back here in Auckland.

Carol and Joel surprised me when they arrived at the birthday party later that day. We caught up a bit but later we were all overwhelmed with stories of my uncle :-).

Sunday - Raquel's daughter - Taylor, will have her sacrament of confirmation today. The time for the mass is too close to my scheduled flight - so I opted to leave early for the airport and give time to the family to attend to this event. It was a short and sweet visit. I feel like it had enriched me to learn more about my relatives here in Auckland and I hope to be back here again one day, hopefully with Jeanne and the girls. Admittedly, the trip was not as fun without them.