phone, class and ballroom

What a day!

I opened the studio and waited for the secretary to arrive and i left her there while i went out to get some stuff done. Minutes later, she calls me up and tells me that bayantel people are there to connect our phone.Great right? Wrong! The shopwise maintenance guy who knows where to connect the phone isn't around and the place where we were directed to connect the phone line to was not accessible during store hours. To make matters worse, they sent a friggin trainee to assist us. I ran around and tried to bypass shopwise and go direct to the phonebox which was in araneta center territory. In the end, a little grease in the right place got the wire connected without the need for a gate pass and such.All that crap for just a silly 2 meter wire.

I had a karate class at noon composed of kids. The contractor for the finishing work arrived at 2pm. I had lunch and then got back for my 4pm class composed of adults. Then i took a break before coming back for the ballroom dance class. I met up with Vannie at the coffee shop before the class and i brought her to the studio. Were both beginners but we got to catch up pretty fast. It was my first time to dance the TANGO! It is a really cool dance. I have pictures and i think, aside from my butt jutting out, i didnt look that bad.

I had to do accounting before going home. The money not matching the log freaked me out but i realized later that the secretary dated one of the receipts wrong so it was all good.

Food and sleep felt really good after :)

Slow computers and even more unreliable secretaries

Today is a day of delays. I needed to get a sign beside the entrance to our new karate and dance studio in Shopwise Araneta Center. However, before i get to fix that need, i needed to open up the studio at 9am and wait to meet the secretary candidate who was supposed to arrive at 10am. She didnt show up. I got a text asking me what she was supposed to wear. Duh! I met the pilates instructor at 10:20. Cool of her to be very prompt. We discussed her class schedule and the demo class for next week. A few minutes after 12, i get a text that the secretary is there. Her excuse was that she got lost, the MRT had a problem and she cant find it. Fine, i said i'll give her another chance mainly because i really need a secretary to man the reception desk.

Finally, i get to run back to my office and eat lunch and fix up the design of the signs. They are actually temporary signs, tarpaulin banners 14x72 inches. One for each side of the door. My computer was choking on the task. I didnt know that manipulating a 1400x7200 pixel graphic would be so difficult on my computer. My computer is about 8 years old. I guess i need to upgrade. Sigh. Then again, i dont do that task often and i still managed to get the work done despite the lag so i guess i can still use it.

Black belt training was fun today. Lots of people were there. People had fun hanging out at the waiting area and gave out flyers. The people who stayed after danced around with the music from the newly installed sound system.

I cant complain. The day was full of tasks to do yet i managed to get it done. I like days like that.

Newspapers and Blessings

Talk about a hectic day. It started out benign enough. I just had to walk the 502 steps from my place to the new dojo to entertain an inquiry. I grabbed the opportunity to get an overdue haircut and then as i got back, i got a message that our club was featured on the Lifestyle section of Manila Bulletin today. I grabbed our copy at the office and to my surprise, this is what popped out:

Yep, thats me right smack on the middle of the top picture with a weird mouth pout and my belt ends tucked up my waist because it was swinging up to my face during training. I swear. I gave those guys different pictures. It was supposed to be Sensei Okazaki's pictures but they grabbed these from the gallery of iskf.ph. I do admit to being a little thrilled but i wish they got the better pictures haha. The article is very well written. Some of that is from the press release my friend Rezza gave me writing tips on. (the whole article is easier to read online at http://www.mb.com.ph/20080402120775.html)

Then i had to get it copied for the dojo and prepared the invitation for the blessing that evening. I was stressed because i didnt know if anybody was coming. Luckily the juniors and some seniors were there. I picked up the priest, went through with the blessing and then brought the priest back before joining the party. During the trip to church, i explained how karate isnt just a sport but something with a deeper martial arts aspect where we foster discipline and other virtues that hopefully will lead to becoming better human beings. He liked it and he said he was going to come over and train with us. Imagine that! Were going to have a priest in our ranks!

These are photos of the place we are now renting before construction began.

A month or so later. This is how it looks like when we had it blessed.

Not bad, oui? :)

I missed the double points of shopping at shopwise during the first wednesday of the month because i was so busy but i think getting all these things done today was well worth it.