It's TGIF and I am basically, excitedly looking forward to it. Not because I already have some plans for it but I am beginning to see it as an escape from my so-called "monotonous existence" at work.

Anyway, I am going out-of-town tonight even though I do not have any budget. I just hope things will be okay.

Come next week, I will be pretty loaded with schedules.

Monday: to attend a business conference at Dusit Hotel regarding the Free Trade Agreements with the US and Japan. This will surely be an interesting lecture since it will be mostly presided by respectable persons from the academe and the private sector. Keynote speakers will be the Secretaries of the Department of Trade and Industry, Sec. Mar Roxas II and Sec. Cito Lorenzo, Jr., from the Department of Agriculture. Maybe I have to do some reading to equip me somehow from the various information that will surely flood my overworked grey cells.

Tuesday: To accompany a fellow researcher from our Head Office in Tokyo. We will be visiting the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), UP School of Economics and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. It is a good thing that I did not encounter any difficulty in setting up appointments with these busy homo sapiens. [Really, it is hard to come by with people who are well-regarded because of their brains and tight schedules].

Well, to accompany her will absolutely be gratifying for me but it is not the way it is. It is up for me to listen, ask my own set of questions if ever, comprehend them and make a verbal and written report for the benefit of my superior (and mine, too).

Wednesday: I will be heading to the Embassy to check if my "thingie" is already way past initial verification. I just hope it will be without a hitch since I do not want to go back there anymore and risk a half a day of supposed accomplished task.

Anyway, "it" will be just a few more days and off I go.