Ola, Chinabank ATM Center!!!

"ATM Center, good morning, this is evaaaaaa...."

Yup... a little over two years ago this was my morning, noon and afternoon to whoever may be calling our local line. That was the tip of the iceberg for my life at ATM Center.

Having crossed career paths, I have since left the banking industry to join my co-geeks at the IT industry. I've been exposed to several seminars and workshops on IT technology sales -- one of which ironically brought me closer to my previous home.

Yesterday, I "walked the familiar walk" in Makati, towards Fraser Place, for an IT sales workshop. After 8 confusing hours, I texted a former colleague of mine and asked if he wanted to meet up with me by Chinabank's entrance. Mi amigo, King, and another former officemate (and now supervisory trainee) Aimee forced me to go up to get that ATM Center feeling again. I reluctantly agreed, since I knew my former boss was having a meeting in the pantry, and the chances of her seeing me was kinda high. But my reminiscing feeling got the better of me, and we boarded the elevator up to the 14th floor.

By the time I stepped inside the office, it was like a time space warp... Everything was the same... just like my feeling when I went back to my university early this year. I sat near my former table, and my officemate was even showing me what used to be my computer during my eBanking days. I recognized some of the employees there, all of whom shrieked when they saw me, but most of the others there were already after my time. What surprised me was that AJ, the newbie in recon that I helped train as I was leaving, was the most senior recon analyst left in our section....and even she was already resigning...

In the 15 or so minutes I spent there, I made sure to take something with me as proof of my return, haha.

Mommy Jelai, Moi, AJ BadingerZ,
Mi Amigo Kingkong (err... anong ginagawa
mo mi amigo?)....

This time with blo0ming blo0ming Tessa
(wid mi amigo doing the "nguso" look)












...and as I was leaving, one pahabol picture of the gateway to my previous life.... (Oi bakit nga ba wala pang chorva yang christmas tree? dati September pa lng kuntodo borloloy na yang Christmas tree na yan ah!)

Ciao, ATM Center! Till we meet again!

IRONMEN

Yesterday, Jemmi & I had lunch at ATC (something we RARELY do) because we wanted to avoid payday lines in ATMs after office hours. I was wearing an Ironman shirt (that i bought at the kids section @ SM). After withdrawing, we were about to go up to Food Choices when Jemmi suddenly suggested, "Burger King?" I immediately agreed and we set out for Burger King's direction. We spotted a two-seater table by the glass wall and I told Jemmi to go and order while I guard our table. As I was nearing the table, I noticed a family (a mom, 2 grandmas and 2 little boys) at our nearby table. Then, as I was about to sit, the younger boy (maybe about 4 yrs old) suddenly pointed at me and shrieked,
"Ummm mama mama mmmmm". (Yeah he was babbling to his mama and pointing at me.)

I was surprised and I initially thought the kid was saying the table was actually occupied by them, so I waited for his mama to say so. But she was equally puzzled and told the boy, "Why baby? No, don't point, don't point!"

But the kid kept on pointing at me even as I was already sitting down. He finally mumbled something like "...Aynyonman..."

So then it dawned on me that he was pointing at my Ironman shirt. I laughed and said,
"Ahh, Ironman?" Pointing to my shirt. His mom and grandmas smiled at me and said, "Ahh, si Ironman pala, hehehe."

So then the kid stopped pointing at me and I was smiling at his family, when my eyes fell on his older brother (who was about 6 or 7 years old). He was sitting in between his two grandmas, and, to my utter disbelief, he was wearing the exact same Ironman shirt I was wearing.

I couldn't help it, I blurted out, "Ay, pareho pla kami ng t-shirt .....!" (gesturing to the older brother)

All at once, the mom and the two grandmas looked from the older brother to me, and laughed heartily, as I was grinning myself. They were saying that was why the younger boy was pointing at me. I commented sheepishly, "Ay, nabubuking kng san ako bumibili ng t-shirt hehe!" and they were smiling at both of us. The older boy even stood up, craned his neck to check out my shirt, smiled widely and said, "We're the same!" "Yes," I answered, smiling back. "We're the same!"

Yes, we were the same... the 7-year old boy and the 27-year old girl were the same. hahahaha! I would have been humiliated if it were an adult, but it was a cute little boy and the incident was d@mn funny. By the time Jemmi got back from the counter, I was struggling to keep a straight face -- moreso while I was telling her the story. She was snickering and glancing at the boy then at me, causing the boy to look at me and "our" shirt and smile again.

My only regret was that I wasn't able to take a picture with the boy -- I was really tempted to ask for a picture for my blog but I wasn't sure how his mom would react -- knowing some moms are overprotective when it comes to the exposure of their kids over the Internet.

Nevermind the 20-year age gap... it only took one shirt to turn me into a 7-year old kid -- nevermind if it was a boy. Haha!