My work desk - at home

I haven't been out to my "real" office this week - on my 4th day running.  So I thought I'd share what my work desk looks like at home.  It isn't much, but for some reason I very much rather like working at home more than I do at the office.  Although on hot summer days, I'd rather freeze at the office than fry in my own oil at home.  Anyway...

My very messy work desk at home

I've converted our old dining table into our work desk.  This is where the hubby also does his OT work or online "window" shopping :D  I do lots of things here, like work, blog, facebook, tweet, pay bills, online banking, skyping, scrapbooking, gift wrapping.  You name it, this table has seen it all.  And more, in fact :D

To my right is a window where some birds take refuge on rainy days.  To my left is the flight of stairs and where we also put the towels to dry - dual purpose.  In front of the desk is a small window and a blank wall.  I'm still thinking what to put against the wall.  I'm thinking bookshelves or paintings.  We'll see how this progress.

My trusty Blackberry and Ipod

I can't live without both.  I even sleep with them under my pillow.  I get in touch with people from work, the hubby, family and friends through my blackberry.  For me, BBM is LOVE :D  My Ipod gives me music (listening to Miss Saigon sound track at mo, and yes, I love musicals).  I'm a huge fan of Plants vs Zombies!  I play PvZ before going to sleep.  If I get stumped at an issue at work, I play PvZ to give me a short break.  I play it while waiting in line.  It's my daily doze of relaxation hehe



Blackberry earphones

 I need this for those quick calls with officemates or clients.  It works great as it takes out all the ambient noise and I get to hear clearly what the other person is saying in the other line.  And they won't know where I'm at!  Plus very convenient coz I'm hands free.

Landline with speaker phone

There are times when the wireless signal go haywire, like you know, last night, I have my speaker phone to use during conference calls.  The unit actually has a handphone, but for the life of me, I can't find it.  So all my landline calls are on speaker, even when I order our gas or set an appointment with our suking Spa LOL

External drives

Let's just say that I have lots of files, both work and not work related.  So I have lots of external drives.  There's even a red one, but it's plugged into our media drive downstairs.

I'm a fan of CD-R King

And because I have lots of stuff attached to my laptop, I need a USB port.  Hence the blue USB port from CD-R King.  And I when I need to upload pictures, I have the CD-R King card reader.  Both are really cheap and work well.  My card reader is already as old as my son and even survived about 2 other card readers.  My USB port is quite new, but so far, it's doing it's job really well.

Fan-ny han-ny

There's a small fan for my laptop.  And then a desk calendar, to keep me updated hehe!  And an well, an extension wire for the power cords.




To file and pay

 At the other end of the table, I keep the things to file, fill-out and pay.  I keep it in a separate corner where there's space for writing.

So, that's my work space.  What about yours?

Cabin fever

I haven't been out of the house for more than 30 mins since Wednesday.  Yesterday, I stayed put since it was raining non-stop.  Later in the afternoon, our gasul was empty.  I needed to got out, but opted to ask the yayas to use charcoal.  And it worked, we had hot food on the dinner table :)

This morning, I was contemplating about going to Makati but then saw the cloudy sky.  I ended up staying home and remembered it was Game 5!  I did do a 30-minute walk/run around the village, just to move a little.  And then worked, watched Game 5, cheered for both teams and then worked again.

But now, I absolutely must go out.  To get money to have our gasul delivered and buy milk too for my little one.  Perhaps get a Yellow Cab pizza as well.  Who knows. *grin*

I'm actually fine with this kind of life.  Work, play with my little one, call a friend, blog, watch tv - all inside the comforts of our home.  I don't get cabin fever much, as long as I have everything that I need within reach.  In fact, last Sunday, we went out to Festival Mall in Alabang, there were too many people!  I literrally got dizzy with all the moving, shoving and walking in the crowd.  Don't get me wrong, I love malls, but only when they're not full to the brim.  I don't like crowds much apparently.

So, now, I must go out.  The promise of pizza is the only thing that makes me want to go.  *grin*

Perfect explanation

Kids grow up so fast!  My little one is not so little anymore and he asks and says the most interesting things.


Enjoying a late afternoon swim

The other week, we celebrated his Dad's promotion (congrats D! so proud of you!).  While we were preparing for bed, my little one, K, asked me "Why don't you get promoted too Mom?".  Ouch anak! haha

And really made me think.  I was a go-getter pre-motherhood.  I went for a promotion like there was no tomorrow.  I worked crazy hours and almost lived at the office, just to get promoted.  Thankfully I got promoted a lot then... I even became an Operations Manager for 2+ years. 

But then 2 years after I gave birth, I chose non-manegerial post and basically stepped off the rat race.  My role now gives me more time with my son and hubby since I could work from home and don't have a team to look after.  I don't have to render a lot of overtime work now too, which is great since my health can't take less than 7 hours of sleep.  The thing is, there isn't a lot of growth in my role now.  But it's all good and I like it.  No, I LOVE it.  It's perfect for me, since I don't need to get promoted to know what I'm worth.  I get salary increases annually, and I get good bonuses too (it could be better though haha). 

How do I explain all this to my son though?

Yesterday, I worked from home.  While we were at our room, about to take an afternoon nap, he was smiling his lovely smile and suddenly hugged me so tightly.  I asked him why he was so happy, he said "Because you're here".  And that's the perfect explanation to why I don't run after a promotion.

Better!

I was working from home again yesterday and was on the phone with a client for more than an hour (10am to 11:20am).  I was in the middle of our bed, earphones tucked in my ears, in pajamas with my notes all over the place.  While they are in their 52nd floor office in Central, Hong Kong, overlooking the bay, wearing black power suits.  I wonder who has it better? :D

Oh, and another thing I love when I work from home?  Drinking my favorite tea from my ancient favorite mug...

Little joys

I love working from home.  Coz I get to spend more hours on the bed, not necessarily sleeping...but working or facebooking/blogging/blog hopping :) haha  It's 7:45 and on a normal go-to-the-office day, I would've been in front of my PC already, drinking tea and starting with emails or doing data runs.  Now, I'm trying to work, now logging in to the office server and watching the little boy sleep.  It's absolutely wonderful.  I wish I could sleep longer, but when I'm up, I can't go back to sleep anymore.

Later today, the little man and I are going to the office for the company's annual Trick or Treat.  Sugar pumped kids on a work day?  Must bring the yaya. haha  Then tomorrow, Trick or Treat at the hub's office.  Saturday will be Trick or Treat in our village.  Yay!

I got the little two costumes for this year's Halloween.  For his school and our office's Trick or Treat, it's the 17th Century Soldier costume.

And then the Halloween theme at the hub's office is Superheroes so we got the little boy another costume for tomorrow.

He clearly likes the Superman custome better... he refused to take it off after trying it out! haha