Barthroom Queen

Bathroom Queen (Banyo Queen) is what friends tag me most especially those who go to shower after me, sorry dears, but it’s one of the habits I can’t help myself doing. And I will rather choose not eat in favour of one long bathing. Long shower for me is a form of relaxation, detoxification and a way of relieving the stress from a day of work. Doing it feels like rejuvenating my body and mind.
My husband sometimes finds it amusing that I can spend long minutes lathering and shampooing, although most of the time he finds it very annoying especially when I am the first one to hop on the shower room. He would always grumble on how can I stay on a confine space with very poor bathroom lighting for an hour and find enjoyment to it, and I would just respond that men don’t know what self pampering means and that ends our petty conversation.
I know it’s getting in his nerves and even opt to change our house plans, he revise to make way for a “his” and “her” bathroom. It was such a pretty idea at least I don’t have to rush and cut my relaxation and I get to decorate my own bath as much as I please. I am planning to put a vanity strip & lighting for a more dramatic effect and a chic torchiere floor lamps for some added drama, what do you think?

OEC or Overseas Employment Certificate, How to get one in Singapore?

One of the benefits of being an OFW and an OWWA member is you are eligible to have a Travel Exit Clearance, you got to enjoy going home free of travel tax (P1620 from Manila Airport) and terminal fee (P550 from Manila Airport). This is a lot of savings specially if you are constantly jetting from Singapore to Philippines and back. And you can also avail a  travel tax reduction if you are travelling with your dependent/s.

UPDATES (2013): Starting 5th of November 2013 POEA  introduce the Appointment System so no "walk-in application" will be entertained from the mentioned date. Here in Singapore you can book for an appointement just click at the link >>> Balik- Manggagawa Online Appointment System

Pleasse note that Philippine Embassy here in Singapore opens only on weekdays, Mondays to Fridays, 9-5 PM, close on Saturdays, Sundays, Philippines & Singapore declared holidays. OEC Issuance at Lucky Plaza Mall was already discontinued

SUGGESTION 1 : If your staying 5 days or less in the Philippines its more convenient to avail an OEC at the Airport Terminals.

SUGGESTION 2 : It your staying for more than 5 days you can also get your OEC at the following locations...

(1) POEA main office in Ortigas Avenue, Mandaluyong City

(2) Duty Free Philippines in Parañaque City;

(3) SM-Manila near Manila City Hall; and

(4) Trinoma Mall in Quezon City.

As I mentioned only OFW who have valid Working Pass, S Pass, E Pass and PEP are eligible of this perks, list of required documents includes... ( from Philippine Embassy Singpore website)

Household Service Workers

• Accomplished OFW info sheet
• Valid Employment Contract (processed by POEA or the Philippine Embassy – if there is no valid authenticated employment contract, please proceed to contract processing counter (Counter 1)
• Original Work Permit Card
• Original Passport
• Two-way ticket or Itinerary issued by travel agency
• Proof of OWWA valid membership
• Updated receipt of Pag-IBIG Fund membership contribution

S-pass/Employment Pass/Training Employment Pass

• Accomplished OFW info sheet
• Original Employment Card, S Pass, Work Permit Card
• Original Passport
• Two-way ticket or Itinerary issued by travel agency
• Proof of OWWA valid membership
• Updated receipt of Pag-IBIG Fund membership contribution

Personalised Employment Pass

• Accomplished OFW info sheet
• Valid Employment Contract (Present Company) or Certificate of Employment signed by the Employer/HR stating the contract duration
• Original PEP Card
• Original Passport
• Two-way ticket or Itinerary issued by travel agency
• Proof of OWWA valid membership (i.e. official receipt, certificate of coverage);  worth S$42.00
• Updated receipt of Pag-IBIG Fund membership contribution

You can get one or multiple OEC at the Philippine Embassy located at 20 Nassim Road, Singapore 258395 for only S$3.00 with one (1) year validity from the date of issuance (subject to validity of work pass and OWWA membership)


Update:
Map with direction from Orchard MRT station to Philippine Embassy at Singapore

click photo to enlarge (from Google Map)

You can check the following link for further information.

Balik- Manggagawa Online Appointment System

OEC Requirements

OEC FAQ


SOURCE: EMBASSY OF THE PHILIPPINES SINGAPORE

My First Quarter in Singapore – Job hunting, misfortunes and homesickness

Staying in a foreign country is a big dare, and I had confirmed it right, you must adjust on a lot of things especially on foodstuff and communication.
Just like other Filipino, I primarily came here to seek a greener Pasteur. I had been working for six years straight and the sole investment I got is my son. That is why we decide to join the wagon of engineers who manage to squeeze in the S'pore and so I'm here mingling with Chinese, Malaysians, Indians, Bangladeshi other races.
I came here as a tourist, it's my first time to leave Pinas and travel alone. Manila to Singapore is a three hours and 30 minutes air travel. I get out of immigration a little cold because of crazy honesty or stupidity whatever you want to call it, when the officer ask me if how much cash I got, I told him I only got ATM and Credit cards since my I am visiting my husband and he is the one in-charge of my stay, in that very instance I want to kick myself. Good thing the officer is in good mood and told me that if I intend to visit my husband again after this trip I must bring at least S$300 or he would not let in next time.
My first four weeks here is spent in job hunting and some side trips on here and there. My daily companion is our housemates' laptop (we still don't have a laptop then) and google is the one who uncomplainingly search and search for me, for the whole day I will open all job search sites, edit my resume hundreds of times. I was that desperate especially on my third week and still I have no job interviews yet, it came to a point that yahoo mail suspected me as a spammer because I send 20 to 60 application emails daily, I need to enter a capcha before sending mail hee hee!
Fourth week and I got tons of phone calls, for the whole week days I go see a 2-3 job interviews per day in different area, north to south, east to west. Good thing Singapore got a very systematize public transportation and almost all building and street was known to google map.
After several interviews, I landed a QS job and processed my working visa or Pass that is after some hard luck, $60 taxi fare and two very kind lady officers in MOM. Since I am working with construction company I need to attend a two Work Health and Safety courses and that was a few days before Christmas day.
My first day of work came and I was agitated though the Boss and Admin lady (they are married) is very kind, co-workers are a little snooty and very unfriendly. Bosses must have noticed it and decide to transfer me to another office where people are a lot nicer and not too nosey on eying my every moves.
Chinese New year is a big festivity here, overflowing mandarin oranges, lucky charms, red envelope orampao, food and wines. I luckily won in the raffle during our annual dinner, a fat red envelope yeeha!
That sums up my first quarter here, but I miss a lot at home, Christmas day, New Years Eve and my Levi's second birthday. I am coming home this weekend, but only for three days just to hug my angel again. I am hoping he still knows me.

Thanks You to My February 2011 Droppers

This is a very late post, but then better late than never right guys! To the lovely people who drop by this month of hearts, thanks to all of you.....

Until next month dear droppers.

You Lose, Some You Gain Some

I had been absent here for some days, quite busy counting facade, beam and column which takes toll on my blogging these days, being a QS is no joke, now I know. Anyway, enough of my real work stuffs, if some of you noticed lately number of bars had been added on my top and sides as well as on the bottom, it's because finally Google approved my site. I excitedly setup various ads and testing widget from this part to that part to see if which fits well. I ended up having two Google widgets on my home page and ad links on some pages. Doing so I sacrifice some of my ads, but still retain my  Adbrite widgets, Nuffnung, CMF, Entrecard and Adgtize since these are ones I consider relevant in maintaining my blog both for trafficking and monetizing.

A little went wrong after some days, as my new ads start to gather up dollar values some seem to slow down and some even ended or cut even though my page views and traffic are still on same scale. It's stupid of me not to realize earlier that having number of adds from different company will definitely have an effect on earnings because there will have a competition if which will stand out to win attention from viewers and receive pay per click services.

I also added ads on my feeds, Do you think I am an advertisement addict? Oh I can't help it sorry, as much as I want to contribute something through blogging I am also saving up to fill the cost of the most anticipated (as for me) makeover of this blog which hopefully by the middle of this year, cross my finger then.