FLOWERSBLOOMS by "Elvie": February 2012

Sunday, February 26, 2012

AMCHAM 29th Honor Your Secretary Day

AMCHAM'S "Honor Your Secretary Day"

The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines hosted the “29^th Honor Your Secretary Day” on Friday, 17 February 2012 at the Manila Peninsula. HYSD is an annual opportunity for AmCham members to recognize and express appreciation to their secretaries and administrative professionals for their valuable help and support. This is also an occasion to celebrate the secretaries’ valuable contribution in the workplace. It is a gathering for bosses and their executive assistants or administrative staff. This year our table was half full since the bosses did not make it for the first time. Even only one boss will make the celebration complete for us. But sadly no one was there.

With Joema Delfin, Catherine Bayhon-Crusem and Cory Espiritu

With Sunpower Admins : Joema Delfin, Evangeline Malabuyoc, Cathy Bayhon-Crusem and Fe Imperial

Our Guest Speaker and Entertainer at the event

REMINISCING THE AMCHAM'S HYSD IN PREVIOUS YEARS

With my previous boss, Greg Reichow and Cypress MD, Donald Mika in 2004

I was first introduced to the Amcham's Honor Your Secretary Day way back 2004 when Sunpower was just a start-up company in the Philippines. Prior to joining the company I came from a Japanese company and we did not have this kind of event. SunPower is a member of the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines. It was my previous boss, Greg who informed me about the event and that we need to register to participate. Below were some of the photos I kept on Amcham's HYSD over the past years.

With our bosses : Greg Reichow, Greg Mihalik and Rey Mella at Makati Shangri-La Hotel

Rey Mella and Greg Reichow

With Robert Vinje at New World Renaissance

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Share and Learn on Valentine's Day

Our Share and Learn on Valentine's Day

February is the "Love Month" and I decided to schedule our Share and Learn Session on a special day, Valentine's Day. This session is held every quarter only. We normally start with a sumptuous lunch inside the conference room and then followed by the presentation. Topics presented during that session were on Friendship, Unconditional Love and Personality Development. The topics were interesting as they sync together. Valuable to a person is love, friends and having self confidence. During the presentation, an attendee can make a comment or share something related to the subject matter based on their experiences and knowledge. This is a good learning medium. So, here were some good points during the session :

"Friends are flowers in the garden of life." Friendships need nurturing to grow healthy and remain strong.

Genuinely appreciate what others do and express how impressed you are with them and their accomplishments. Every little and simple thing one does to a person is an act of love and we should be thankful for that.

It is about acceptance and respecting the way you are.

We all wanted to be loved and we are yearning for that kind of love which is UNCONDITIONAL. This is the kind of love that gives us true happiness, a sense of peace and fulfillment that satisfies our heart and soul. True happiness is our entire reason to live, and it can only be obtained as we find Real Love and share it with others.

Give of yourself without expecting anything in return.

It is about acceptance and respecting the way you are.

It is God's love for mankind.

It is caring about the happiness of another person without any thought for what we might get for ourselves.

It doesn’t go away when circumstances are difficult. It survives and even grows during hardships and struggles.

Pet's love for us is unconditional.

My staff discussing her presentation

We are having fun sharing and discussing among ourselves

This is what my friends wrote about me

In the Personality Development portion, we were given a piece of paper and we were asked to write our name. We passed it around in three counts and three times. The person who is holding your paper must write something about you after every three counts.

Love without condition, talk without intention, give without reason and care without expectation.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Doggy Day Out

With my parents, aunt and housemembers with our four legged friends

On a weekend, you see me early in the morning at Nuvali walking, running and frolicking with my four legged friends. A lot of people come to this place to jog, bike, walk with pets, have a picnic with friends and family and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

Nuvali is a new developing community located in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. It is a refreshing place with green local plants and great landscaping which serves as habitat for birds. It makes one feel one with nature. It has a man-made multi-functional lake with fountain, the home of a number of omnivorous, colorful fishes called "Koi", which helps keep the water clean. You will enjoying watching the multi-colored koi while fish feeding. Experience riding the Nuvali boat taxi that will take you around the lakeside Evozone. You can also rent bicycles to stroll around the place with friends and family. This place was featured in ABS-CBN's morning show "Umagang kay Ganda" (A Beautiful Morning) yesterday.