Okay everyone. Last night I came back too tired after my work day and I thought about blogging about how my typical work day here in Manila but then after a while I gave up because I was just wayy too tired.
So tonight, as tired as I am after a full day of meetings and presentations, I am going to blog about my days here in Manila.
I’m staying in the Mandarin Oriental here in Manila.
It’s a really nice hotel and more comfortable than I could ever imagine. So here’s how my morning starts.
I wake up really early in the morning to the sound of my alarm clock. I turn off my alarm clock and try to steal a few minutes sleep until I realize that I’m going to be late. The funny thing about Manila is that the sun rises early, like really early… and it sets early too. By 6PM it’s totally dark, like as if it’s 10PM in Malaysia.
I drag myself out of bed and when I look back the bed is a mess.
Seriously.
I mean this is how the bed looks like before I sleep on it.
and this is how it looks like once I get my lazy self out of it in the morning.
Yeah… I know.. it looks like a warzone…. even the comforter seems to have almost fallen off the entire bed.
I sleep like a barbarian.
I quickly rush to the bathroom to wash my face to make sure I’m awake.. you know so that I’m not tempted to fall asleep in my bed again.
Then I take a hot warm shower and get dressed for work.
I pack up my stuff and then leave my room to walk down this long corridor to the elevators to head downstairs for my breakfast.
The hotel has a great breakfast every morning. It’s a buffet kind of thing and they have chefs to help you fry eggs or.. you know have all sorts of things.
Plus there’s my favourite and very very oily hash browns that I almost can’t seem to get enough of.
I struggle so hard to eat my breakfast. I mean the food is great but it’s just waaayyy too early to be up in the first place.. but oh well… when you gotta work you gotta work.
After breakfast I walk into the hotel lobby.
Then out into the porch to wait for a driver to take me to work.
Now I have had a few types of work days so far.
One type was when I spent most of my time in the meeting room of our Nuffnang Philippines office working some things out with our Pinoy Nuffies and getting updates on how the operations are going on there.
I occassionally get to peek out of that glass room at everyone else.
Then there are my other days like today where I spend almost the entire day from morning to evening meeting clients and giving presentations to them only to occasionally break for lunch at a place like Max Brenner with some of our Nuffies.
Or if I’m lucky I get to have lunch with the whole Nuffnang Philippines team including the Bosses of Outcomm Inc, Jay and Eric who are the nicest people ever.
After lunch it’s normally back to the office or back to my meetings and the only next quick break I get is perhaps a quick Starbucks with some of the Nuffies in between some meetings.
My schedules for both work days I’ve had in Manila so far have been packed to the ultimate brim. That seems to be the case for all my work trips here… up till now I haven’t actually had a chance to sight-see or even shop a little.
It’s always come to Manila, then work work work until I leave.
The good thing though is that I love our Nuffnang team here too! They’re a bunch of fun people and very often after a long day’s work we have dinner together and if we’re lucky… drinks!
Last night we went to this popular bar here in Manila called Fiamma.
I mean you’ll be surprised man.. it was a Monday night and by the time it hit 11.00PM, the bar filled up with people… all on a Monday night!!!
Geraldine told me in the club
“Monday is the new Friday Tim”.
Well I could use a lot more Fridays in my week.
At Fiamma we had some drinks, talked a little, joked a lot
and some of us danced our stress away.
Especially Jay.. he’s a great dancer.
After drinks I get sent back to the hotel and by then I’m really half dead but here’s the thing I love about hotels. I open the door to my room and I come back to a fresh room, everything all made up thanks to housekeeping.
It’s so nice having someone tidy up your mess sometimes hehe.
I sit on my computer for a while to clear all the hundreds of e-mails I have and then straight away go to bed.
Before I know it… it’s morning again and it’s another day at work.
It’s tiring.. really tiring and even tomorrow morning for example I have an early start with meetings all the way from morning till dinner but I guess there are two things that keep me going: I love what I do and I love the people I work with.
Because of that… I think I’m one of the luckiest people on Earth. I hope all of you will share the same joy as me someday.
Gotta go to sleep now everyone. Long day of work tomorrow.
This is Timothy Tiah.. signing off!
PS: Suanie asked me to pimp this 88DB Ad she posted up and is in the chance of winning the grand prize. Go help her vote if you have the time. Click here
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space