our hard-earned car

I have always wanted to own a car. I have been working my ass out for the longest time and finally, we were able to buy(along with my husband) one last summer. Well, it's not a brand new car, not something that will cost you a fortune, not something you can be proud of like Miata or Porsche...But I'M DEFINITELY PROUD OF IT since it's our first car and from our hard-earned money. It's just Mitsubishi Galant model 91. We're so lucky to get it at a very competitive price, let me not mention though how much, but we got it in a perfect(well, not so perfect since it's a second hand) condition. No scratches, cool aircon, superb sound system and all the works! It's just very untimely for us to buy a car when everyone else would rather commute because of the gas hike. Right now, I would still say it's a good buy and we can go almost anywhere without having to commute, or ride a cab. It's no longer a hassle for us to go to my mom's place to leave my son (we don't have a maid) and pick him up after a few days. (When it's our off). Plus the recent gas roll back which is at least for a peso or two ever... I hope that continues.

I did mention that it was in a very minty condition when we bought it. Well, just a couple of months after, we were so lucky that we got hit by a truck, or let me rephrase that, WE HIT A TRUCK!! I didn't know if my hubby just didn't see the truck slowing down or he was just daydreaming...He was the one driving by the way since I don't know how to drive. I tried to, once or twice, but he said I'm a clutch driver. (Ours is just manual transmission) In short, I'm always on the passenger's seat, with my husband as the driver. Going back to the incident, I don't know how luckier we can get...we actually hit that stupid truck (Or..are we the stupid ones??) just right across where there were a handful of policemen. So in short, we have to pay or we'll stay there forever. What's worse?? (I can say this is cataclysmic) WE DON'T HAVE A LICENSE!! And what else? It happened the day before our pay day!!Sucks, right? Thanks to our life savers AYEN AND NICO whom I phoned. They came to the rescue an hour later and paid the police 750pesos. They said we were lucky because sometimes you will be asked to pay around two thousand or even more. If you come to think of it, we were still lucky because no one got hurt (We were with another officemate Rina), and we hit a truck that didn't get any dent at all.

So, what happened to the car?? Well...it got dented big time. The hood had a big dent, the grill of the car was busted totally, so we have to use my son's shoelace (very clever right?) to close the hood of the car. Now, what we are doing is to have it fixed one at a time. We started with the hood, it's a little ok now, then, we had the aircon fixed. I think it got affected by the accident, and now we had the grills replaced. So it looks as good as new (Well, not really). At least it looks like a car again,hahaha!

Now, I've realized that maintaining a car is such a pain. You have to make sure that the car undergoes tune-ups, change oils, overhaul, what have you. You also have to take it to the nearest car wash every week. Then, you also have to pay for the registration every year whick would cost you 3-5 thousand!! Well, that's the price I have to pay literally for wanting comfort of not commuting and passing short cuts.

CALL CENTER WORLD

Call centers or contact centers in the Philippines have grown rampantly over the years, giving thousands of people high paying jobs that provides services to western markets, specially American companies. Approximately around 10 to 20% of Filipinos employed in the country work for off shore contact centers. This is one of the most sought-after jobs in the country, you just have to sit and talk to irate customers and you get paid big time. This being the major trend in the industry, there are now courses that focus on working on a call center.

Western investors pick Philippines as top priority in outsourcing their companies for several grounds. One of the major reasons is the fluency of Filipinos in English. According to several reviews, natives from the Philippines have the highest level of proficiency in the English language all across Asia. Filipinos are eloquent speakers and have the most naturalized accent that can be easily understood by western customers. (Love your own, right?) They are secure that we can communicate effectively even to customers off-shore.

American, British, and Aussie employers hand-pick Philippines as their target because of the fair labor costs. It is way expensive to hire someone from United States, or United Kingdom than getting people from our country work for them, which is good, for without this kind of industry, I'm probably jobless or not being paid well.

Filipinos are also known to have good work ethics, being able to adapt easily, making it another basis why people from the west prefer to outsource in the country. They are confident that they are investing their money correctly. It is also believed that we, Filipinos, are already familiar with their culture, thus, we can easily adapt to their environment.

So how does it work? Or how do you get a career in this type of industry? What skills you should acquire to be able to land a job as a call center agent or customer service representative? What are the benefits? What are the pro's and con"s of being in one of the most talk flourishing jobs in the Philippines?

It's pretty simple. SPEAK ENGLISH with a good twang and you're ready to go. You really don't need to have that heavy Brit accent to work for a contact center. As long as you can construct a coherent sentence, can understand the language, and can speak clearly (since you will undergo culture and communications training anyway), then all you need is to polish your English vocabulary.

Next rule of the thumb: instill in your mind that PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE. Like what I've said earlier, you will be talking to irate customers. Most of the time, customers will call because they have problems, they will not be calling in the first place if they are just doing great and they feel like just talking to a customer representative of her cable provider just for the heck of it.

Flexibility to shifting schedule should also be put into consideration. If you will work for a call center, you should be aware that it has 24/7 operation hours, which means, you have to work at nights, Sundays and holidays (Even on Christmas Day). So you'd have to give up your usual night-outs or dates with your boyfriend. You need to adjust your body clock because changes in schedule can happen in a short span of time.

Computer skills can also be an advantage. I'm not saying that you have to be a computer savvy that you know how a mother board looks like or what have you, just basic knowledge on how to run a computer will be fine. It will be to your edge if you know some technicalities though. Since you will be using computers to access your customer's info (I doubt if we still have call centers who don't use computers), you'll need to know keyboard shortcuts, like control V for pasting and control C for copying, etc.

Ofcourse, you should also have the ability to make the customer believe you are giving accurate info, the skill to pacify a very outrageous customer and most specially, you have to be analytical or you woudln't understand, what more assist your customers.

Some would say it's one of the easiest job you can have, next to being a dancer, well, I completely beg to disagree. If you are already working for a contact center, you'd think again. FOR THOSE INTERESTED, AND WANTS TO TRY YOUR LUCK, JUST EMAIL ME YOUR RESUME AND I'LL HELP YOU.

Signs that you're INLOVE

Sometimes I wish I can be single again and all. I's not saying that my married life is on the rocks. It's actually doing just great. I just envy my friends when they tell me how awesome their partners are. Here I go again...being hopeless romantic. So how would you know if you were struck by Cupid?? Ofcourse I love my husband so much, but I can't help but think how would it be if you have been single for the longest time and all of a sudden you stop and say to yourself "I think I'm inlove", with a gleam in your eyes. So, what are the signs then?

*YOU FEEL COMPLETE-From having an uber pessimistic personality, you turned into a very logical human being. You feel like no one understands you before the way he does now. You see yourself building a family with 3 kids with him. Yes, you feel like uttering that line from a movie "You complete me".

*YOU ARE CORNY-You suddenly become a party pooper-you just want to be with him. You can no longer be found at any get-together. You nake plans to go out with friends and cancel it on the last minute because the object of your affection asked you out for a date.

*RADIO IS YOUR NEW BESTFRIEND-You put your JAY-Z and NELLY cd's in the drawer and you start listening to Frank Sinatra and Angela Bofill all day. You listen to every line intently, feeling like every word makes sense. You feel like the songs are created just for you.

*YOU FEEL LIKE DYING WHEN YOU'RE NOT TOGETHER-You feel devastated when you have to part ways, specially when he can't be with you to go to a business trip. If only you can fit yourself inside a luggage just to be with him. Then you go to your friends (which you neglected literally when you met him) and bore them to death about your new love story.

*YOU THINK ABOUT HIM 24/7-You think about him when you wake up, while doing the laundry, while eating, when you are at work (you write his name across yours), while preparing dinner and before going to sleep. Everything reminds you of him, even that silly cat of you neighbor.

*YOU LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT-You laugh at all jokes though they aren't really funny. You smile at all times and that sparkle in your eyes will always be there specially if you talk about him. You started doing weird things you though you wouldn't dare do in the past and now you feel it's fun.

♥♥♥mhei♥♥♥