saying goodbye to my first blog

September 3, 2005, I saw my first blog post on my 2nd blog. I think I started blogging in the 2004, but it was my friendster blog ANNtold stories that I kept updated for more than 4 years. 4 years of memories i need to say goodbye to because friendster will throw them away as they will no longer be a social networking site.

I am no techie, so I really am not sure if there is a way to transfer it to another site or something. but I hope there is.

In the meantime, I will just have to be contented with reading my posts again. Sad moments, trying times, young-carefree moments with my airport friends way back when we were still starting our career, parties, boy troubles,those days of feeling mature in independent in Macau. hopes, dreams, fears, frustrations.

Goodbye friendster... 

UA... Unbelievably Annoying

I have been trying my very best not to write about stuff that concerns my work.. but my experience this morning is something that I can't afford to not share.

The customer service of UNITED AIRLINES sucks big time. Call their ticketing hotline and I bet all my little toes you will end up using up all the patience you have allocated for the entire year.. no make that for the entire decade.

Read on and find out what made me lose every bit of my sanity

0918h - I called their ticketing hotline and was told that I was "important to them" but I will have to wait since all their agents are engaged.

0922h - A certain Kelvin took my call. I explained to him that I am from a ground handling company in manila and that the flight that I was handling will depart in 25 minutes. I informed him that I have a parent and an infant traveling together but the infant's ticket was not yet rerouted and can not be used on our flight. After giving him the necessary information (ticket number , name..stuff like that) I was again placed on hold.

0930h - Now a girl named Mabel told me that their Chicago office has been made aware of my concern and that they are working on it. And then I was ... well right guess! Placed on hold.

0940h - Mabel gave me a series of numbers, and advised me that the rerouted ticket for the infant has been issued and can now be used on our flight. I thanked her profusely.  Great! looks like our flight will not be delayed. So the passenger was allowed to board the flight.

0943h - Since I was confident that the tickets are now in order,I attended to dispatching the flight first.  After all the passengers have boarded and the flight was awaiting pushback, I started to amend the infant's record.  This is when I saw that the new ticket that Mabel gave me was voided.

0945h - My 5-foot frame was filled with panic as I raced back to the telephone to contact United Airlines again. The phone rang and once again I was made aware of my "importance" to them and I waited to be attended to.

and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

1105h - At last! Kelvin took my call again. As i started to introduce myself, Kelvin sounded something like -yeah yeah so what do you want now--- But when I informed him that the ticket information that his colleague gave me was voided, he too got the shock of his life.

1110h - I was again transferred to Mabel. She apologized for the booboo and told me that she will again get in touch with their Chicago office. She then asked for my contact details, but I decided to stay on the line and wait. So I once again waited....

and waited...

and waited... 

and waited...

1205h - Mabel gave me the details of the new ticket of the infant... but before that sarcasm filled the airport. I might have threatened to take her life too... or maybe not. I can't be sure, maybe I was already hallucinating since I haven't eaten anything since I reported for duty at 6am.

2 hours and 20 minutes.  I spent 2 hours and 20 minutes with 1 hand holding the phone against an ear and the other hand wiping away the tears that was already streaming down my cheeks... yup I cried... out of frustration... and maybe because I can not believe that such incompetence exist! 

running away

     I have been wanting to try running for the longest time, and with Ma'am Emily's encouragement and cheerful support, I bravely went pavement pounding last April 10 and successfully finished my first 5k run.

My company decided to send participants to this run...

With free registration fee, free shuttle service, the chance to bond with my colleagues in a healthy environment plus a hearty breakfast, I must say I chose the best way to kick start my running. My official time read 46.09. not bad for a first time runner... Not bad at all for someone who almost gave up when, after feeling like running my legs out, I saw the 1k marker...hahaha

I'm running out of words , I will just let the following photos tell my story.

T'was still dark, we were waiting for our run to start, gray numbers are for 5 k, green for 3k.

A few seconds before we officially started to run... With pretty mommy Joy!

Happy finisher! 

After everybody has finished, we all went to a nearby parking lot where our shuttle was parked for a little bit more picture-taking before we had our breakfast.

Friends for more than a decade....

Now this what we were served for breakfast,

Of course I ate the banana first!

I didn't have a camera that day, so all these photos were right-clicked from Meg, Elaine, Tin and Sir Eric!

Next up:

Yup, I will be running in the ALASKA FUN RUN with my 10-year old nephew. I love the fact that he is more excited than I am. I hope to have time to blog about this too.