Operational Excellence Leadership Training

TEAM 4 - All set and energized!!!

We've had a great opportunity to attend the Third Asia Operational Excellence Training in Singapore this week.  You can see the picture of our team above proudly showing our "This is Me" masterpieces, together with our team facilitator Francisco.  At the end of the week, we were asked to create an artifact to represent the insights from what we have learned throughout the week.  Every end of the day, we were asked to jot in our reflections/learnings into our training handbook (journal time). And so, we thought of putting together these insights into this blog!

The training touched several topics throughout the week including personal leadership style, culture, strategy development, operational excellence and capability building, among many others, with senior leaders of the company as trainors and speakers. 

This is our team's recap of the highlights of what we have learned ...

Personal leadership.  "We are all born and growing into different kinds of people. We can become better leaders and be more successful when we tap into each other's strengths."  By Benson Li, Greater China

Executing with Excellence. "We understand (Personalize the strategy); We engage (Key message). We execute (Set the standard and RTT)." 
By Davis Zhao, Greater China

Leaders as Drivers of Right Culture. "Build a culture of trust, respect, winning, creativity and transparency." By Shirley Liu, Greater China

Our Heritage. "One of core heritage is to value our people, this speaks company is committed to help people to discover what is important for individual and help to get out of success. As a organization leader, it is important for me to be role model the right behavior, invest the effort on the right people who has the same value, same belief and help them to make every day a little better. Together, we continue to build the heritage and enjoy the journey."  By Penny Pan, Greater China

Leading Change in a VUCA World.  " I learned that with the right mindset of unleashing the power of people and by explaining why change is important for the company and how we make choices, we can create something that makes a huge difference. We have the power to Change from Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous to Visionary, Understandable, Clear, Agile situation."  By Keiichi Mito, Japan

Managing Change. "I learned the importance of trust and how it can be a positive driver of change. Personal leadership accelerates credibility to pull forward the behaviors that promotes trust and creates an environment that accelerates the pace of change." 

By Thang Nguyen, Vietnam

Personal Equity. "Your behaviors best demonstrate your equity. By building your equity, you help yourself getting better. Increased personal awareness will also help improve how others perceive you."  By Shanaa Zhao, Greater China

Our role as leaders. "We don't have to be extraordinary people to be leaders (and lead organizations) that deliver extraordinary results. We simply need to tap on the strengths that are already inherent within us." 
By Armie Umale, Philippines

Year Older

This is a very very very late blog post.

I have forgotten to upload my birthday blog early this year. That day was a literal chaos.  One of our production plant had a fire incident the night before and so the day started amidst a flurry of emergency meetings and conference calls left and right.  We were huddled the entire day in what we called the situation room.  And uncannily, three of us who were meeting and talking together the whole day, were wearing black! 

I am not really big on (my) birthdays. Often, it is a quiet family celebration over dinner. I never needed a flashy, fancy celebration.  Just being alive and happy, surrounded by few but important people in my life, is enough to be thankful for and I keep it simple as that.

I am also grateful for friends at work who made it extra special and ensured that I will not be spending my birthday boxed up in the "situation room" over soda and takeaway sandwich (my go-to meal if I had to work over lunch).  Or worse, missing your lunch during your birthday. Which happened to me three (or four) birthdays ago!  Not by choice.

So they cajoled me into having a Japanese lunch.

The SNO Team, the PS lunch regulars

But being a certified sweet tooth, I did enjoy so much the Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting.  It's a neck to neck favorite alongside a mean Chocolate Cake. 

My Birthday Carrot Cake

I left a bit later than usual that day, still huffing and puffing when I arrived home for the family birthday dinner, with all my favorite dishes cooked up by my better half, as requested!

And somewhere in the back of my mind, hoping that the next birthday would be a more 'regular' day than it has been.

What's Cooking Up at Cookyn Inc.?

It's the first ever teambuilding event for the AAIJK PS Team!

Arranged by the PS team's self-appointed Chief Entertainment Officer Bharath and with Kanitha's help, the  teambuilding a la Food Network Challenge was set in the kitchen studio of Cookyn Inc. tucked somewhere along the Rangoon Road.


The Wacky Wannabe Chefs

Thanks to Cookyn Inc for the hosting and facilitating the cookfest
and for the pictures for this teambuilding event

We were divided into three teams and each representing a unique cuisine. Takagi-san and team got the Japanese theme. The Spanish cuisine was led by Pepe (of course).  We thought those were pretty convenient set-up.  And last but not the least, my team got the Vietnamese cuisine, not to mention we had to battle it out with only 5 members for the greater part of the competition. We should have named our team Voltes V.

Ready, Get Set, Cook!

Each team will prepare two dishes, the quantity should be able to cover the PS team attendees. The gastronomic value of the dishes will determine whether or not we will have an enjoyable group dinner later after the cookfest!

One of the two dishes is unique to the group's theme and will have to incorporate a special ingredient that was revealed in the middle of the competition.  The "challenge" dish will be common for all three teams (Potato Salad) and will also need to incorporate the second special ingredient. This must be presented in a way that epitomizes the cuisine being represented by each team.

We had one hour and fifty minutes to complete the task, including preparation, plating, poster making and clean-up.  Each team will then have to plate up their masterpieces and and a chosen speaker will have to present this to the entire group with posters/visual aids to boot! Needless to say, our artwork planners were indeed very busy in the dying minutes of the competition!

See the different teams in action!

Getting ready for some serious cooking!

The seaweed as the Japanese team's secret ingredient

Whip it!

Chef Pepe calling the shots!

Andre and Regina in charge of the challenge dish

All done and ready for the presentation



Wrap away !!!

Multi-tasking at its best.
"Hey, start thinking of the poster design while you are peeling the mango and potatoes, ok?"

Can't wait to try 'em!

A closer look at the final products... all world class creations!



Turning Japanese
Strawberry and Green Tea Trifle and their version of Potato Salad ala Sushi Roll

...and I need to get the recipe for this!!!! Yummy!

 

Spanish "El Torero" Team's Chicken in a Parcel and Chunky Potato Salad



A closer look with a dash of the Pimiento powder

The Dai Doi (Great Food) Team's Vietnamese Spring Rolls and
Creamy Potato Salad with Caramelized Lychee, Red Pepper and Onion topping

Top View. This plating also showcases the mango, the special topping and a dollop of the peanut sauce.

And the Winner is... The Vietnamese Team!!!

Creative presentation, clock-work precision and teamwork won the day!

Once in a lifetime chance to win an I-PADdle!

And the final verdict is in the tasting!

Cheers to the PS team!!!

And, it's the moment of truth... Time to taste the dishes!



Seriously Now!



You can say that it has been truly a tough competition, with each team, true to the indomitable PS Spirit, gave their best and also had fun in the process! Campai to the PS Team for a job well done! 

Love What You Do and Do What You Love

This blog is in celebration of my upcoming 15 years anniversary with P&G. I finished the blog earlier than my anniversary date though. This is also dedicated to the men and women of P&G that I have worked with, from R&D to Product Supply to SGO/AAIK. Our challenges and stretch goals will always be there but you have made each day at work a little better, brighter and lighter. Your stories at work are forever linked with mine. -- Armie


We have a bunch of new hires in the SGO organization this year. New hires make you realize how old you are in the company and all that drama. Newbees were asked to introduce themselves and say something (witty). We were amused how most new hires exclaimed that P&G is their dream company. But I had to smile. It was my dream company too. During my 3rd year in college, a keynote speaker from P&G was our guest. It was a very impressive and inspiring talk and it got me to aspire to work for P&G as well. Rest is history.

One of the new hires in our team asked me, quite innocently "Armie, if I want to be promoted to Band 3 does that mean I also have to work until 2AM?" (This was because they get emails from me written between 1-2AM in the morning.)

I had to laugh. Not at the new hire but at myself. Who indeed, would be up at 2AM? Me and someone else I know. And we are at same level. Thus, the new hire's conclusion.

So I answered quickly, "Oh no, no, no, no (and some more "no's")... it's just me and "this-someone-else" (not sure if being identified in a blog will be appreciated. or not.). I quoted examples of SNO folks who can be better role models of work-life balance. I obviously do not and have never belonged to that circle. And quite frankly, I had to say that with perverse pride.

And I continued explaining.... "I have been this way since I was a new hire like you. So its not a big deal."

Which got me thinking. That is so true indeed. And my mind went ahead to auto-rewind the memories. Tales of the workaholic is more like it.

When I was new hire in R&D, I spent one weekend prowling the libraries of University of the Philippines College of Science for magnesium soaps because we didn't have internet access then at the R&D G.O.

We did not have laptops back then too. We had this very slow desktop PC that eventually got upgraded to Pentiums and Internet was made available. You have to work beyond 8 hours to finish a report in case you needed more time unless you have a PC at home (I don't). We usually needed more time. In my case, I came back on weekends to work at the office to finish my technical reports and manual data tabulation. And it was not charged to O.T. (overtime) by the way. We called it O-TY (Thank You).

I even experienced spending overnight of Dec 23rd (going to Dec 24th which is Christmas eve in the Philippines) at the Makati office by myself. I was waiting for a shipment of powder samples from Belgium, due to arrive after midnight. I had to conduct an odor testing for the 3 samples (this was past midnight), and call my supplier's technical contact's home number in Belgium to confirm which sample passed the odor test, which they should be preparing to send for airshipment in time for my Plant EO (trials) after Christmas. We didnt have a lot of time then because CPS (project schedule) was well... accelerated as usual.

While still in R&D GO, I spent many EO days at the Plant that lasts 24 hours or more. Spent long hours at the hot and humid Plant Warehouse taking and measuring samples, lifting and moving the cases from the pallet by myself. Today, they have contractors who does that for them. I spent forever in the Plant if an equipment broke down during an EO and we decided not to go home until we produce something.

When I eventually moved to PS, my first engineering project was handed over to me in the middle of massive delays. My first day on the role, I had to be the messenger (to this big meeting) of the bad news of its delay. Needless to say what happens to messengers (yep, they get massacred). I took it as a challenge and brought the schedule back on track without resorting to crazy short cuts.

I started up a new making and packing line for this new product, in my 9th month of pregnancy, completed Q-run and close out one day before I gave birth. The AAI GM even visited us at the line during that 1st production run. I should have had my picture taken with the GM! At the hospital, while labor started, I was still on the phone speaking with the Making engineers while the pain started kicking in, on how to troubleshoot a batch with borderline color. They even suggested to name the baby after that variant (!) when they learned I was on the brink of delivering while they were speaking with me!

The most challenging initiative ever was the so-called EDSA project. All brands, all variants, all skus undergoing changes at the same time at a super accelerated CPS. We had to qualify and start up new machines, we had to do formula upgrade and packaging changes, had to qualify and start up an external contractor, had to modify machines etc etc. All the technical changes in this world. We did not have the luxury of time either. The technical teams were really fragmented then but this project brought everyone together. It brought out the best of everyone because nobody wanted to be the cause of failure.

If I add and narrate my operations-days experience we will never see an end to this blog. Suffice it to say that it was an assignment I tried to avoid, but it ended up to be one of the most fulfilling and rewarding of all. It wasn't the results and records that I missed most or was most proud of. Records are meant to be broken. But the road to get there, how I saw that it brought the best out of people, how the teams broke barriers and gave their best - were most inspiring for me.

As my mind made the involuntary mental rewind, all I can say was that "well, those were the days".

Many years after those episodes, it made it difficult for me to understand why folks surrender at an EO after 8 hours, why folks shy away from hard dirty work. Or why people dread writing issue sheets (my theory was because of this messenger-thing). I couldn't understand why they think an accelerated CPS will bring a nervous breakdown. Believe me, I've worked against the worst CPS of all time. Try launching four initatives in one quarter.

I also thought, our working style will never really change much in the course of years. This is true to me and after observing many people I have worked with, this is generally true. It is like your study habits. Or sleeeping habits. The difference at work is you actually get paid for it. Your work habit stays with you for life. It's in your DNA.

Where I am leading to from all these musings anyway?

It is true we choose how we work. We can work smarter. Or work harder. Sometimes both are necessary, really. We chose to have work life balance - we chose how we define balance and what we ought to do to achieve it.

My definition of balance really sucks, hahaha. I have to finally admit that I comfortably live a life of imbalance. With perverse pride. If it were not for a super supportive and understanding spouse, I would have been separated by now. When we were talking about favorite things, my little girl told me that she thinks my favorite thing is my laptop (I have two). She said this in a matter of fact tone. I am not offended or worried. And she does not say it with that make-you-feel-guilty tone. We have an extraordinary understanding of each other. She understands that my love for my laptop is the same as her love of soccer, scooter, monkey bars and bikes. It doesnt mean I love them less.

But one thing also stood out. I loved what I did all these years. I am a Process person by heart but I also took an adventure into the world of engineering, project management, packaging, operations and even some bit of QA and IWS. Time will tell what I think of Planning.

Loving what you do made everything far more easier.

You have to do what you love. And at some point, you have to love what you do!

 

The Weekly Ops Board Review. Becoming #1 is a daily commitment.



Believe me when I say we've done a lot more crazy stuff ... usually involved lots of dancing. arrrggh.

Our early years at the Plant. The original PD&A team from R&D.

 

My team organized and hosted the 1st Asia Packaging College.
Becoming Asia's best include paving the way for others to also succeed.



WPI Pillar Masterplanning Event
From invisible to invincible! Doing more with less effort! 

 Group Picture from the Last Ever R&D Offsite

Honoring the unsung heroes. The 1st Granules Golden Suds Awards Night.
An R&D tradition which I brought to the Plant. 

The self-funded Supply System Christmas Party

My Last Day at the Plant. Didnt want to say "Farewell" really.
You never know in this life.



You are a Planner If...

My ultimate tryst with Planning came 7 years too late. I was actually offered the Ops Planning role way back in 2002 when I was about to complete my engineering assignment as Project Manager (or one-woman army, more like it). But then I chosed to go the technical path and many other challenging roles thereafter.  Of course, I have always worked with the Planners and the Supply Network team over the years until the inevitable came which made me an official part of this network.

This blog is dedicated to the Planners. With this article is my awe and respect to these extraordinary people - the planners I work with, behind the scenes. It is an honor for me to have now added planning as part of my journey.

You are a Planner If...

• You are (or have at least been) the scapegoat for undershipment. Supply Issue.  Even if MTD is 33% vs 65% par and inventory is overflowing. Supply issue pa rin.
• You are wearing glasses. Or candidate for wearing one.
• You have mastered Excel and knew features no one ever thought of using. You might have even enrolled to the advance excel course. And everything has to be on an excel table.
• You have 50 windows or more open all at the same time.
• You have backache. Or ulcer. Or migraine. In my case, I now have all three of them.
• If you work in an office, you probably eat lunch in front of your laptop/PC.
• When natural disaster strikes, apart from worrying about your family and loved ones, you literally worry about the state of the nation and the plant. And the suppliers. And their suppliers. And the lists goes on....
• You are glued to the computer 24 hrs a day you might as well be married to it. Even on weekends and holidays. And if you are off for a minute people wonder if you have been working.
• You are a miracle worker. Like saving a hopeless CPS. All the time.
• You have superpowers. Like reading minds. Even if they can't make up theirs.
• You are the bearer of bad news or provide perspective of what could latter lead to more bad news. Supply issue. Delayed CPS. Ridiculous CPS. Less than believable forecast. Delayed equipment. Late delivery. Overflowing inventory. Remnants. etc etc.
• As they say, "Dont shoot the messenger." Good thing we have nine lives.
• You are the Historian Extraordinaire. You live to tell people why things are the way they are. And for that you need an exceptional memory. Or archive. Coz well, (some) people have either short term or selective memory.
• You have probably mastered writing issue sheets. If you haven't, go flex that brain and write one!
• You create RCCP for your team's capacity. I know, I made one years before I became a planner.
• You have Safety Stocks for your fast moving items at home. I do.
• You have monthly NPI clean up at home. I do too.
• You implement contigency planning beyond work.
• You have probably the most number of meetings in a week. We have pre-meetings for meetings.
• Now I understand why during my Operations days, our planners need hours to answer a simple question. :-)
• You have at least experienced working on a complex spreadsheet and forgot to save it before the PC hang! Bummer. BUT you can recreate it back from sheer memory.
• You have a polarizing impact with Operations, Engineering and QA-- that is, they either love you or hate you. Well, perhaps the latter.  During my DLP days, we were one happy family for as long as people share the same vision!

And, you will never be right! Go figure!



Picture from my 1st SG Bday with CSP and friends



Winning the AGILE Category for VSM Lead Model.
SNO Tool with team work at its best.

My Team (MPD) Christmas Party circa 2005 with our Planning, MSM and QA friends.
I decided that our team will sponsor this party with people we work with most- we are the folks nobody invites. With Ed Macias sponsoring the venue.



Camphone shaking. The other half of CSP team.

Flexing My Wings: How I Overcome Shyness

The butterfly is my chosen icon for Metamorphosis. There is parallelism between the lowly and unglamorous caterpillar transforming into a butterfly after weeks of hibernation. The original article Metamorphosis was born at a clandestine time when I was going through my own coming to age journey.

Reaching Out

In my second year in college, I experienced working in a fast-food industry as a service crew. Financial crisis struck our family and supporting me through college put a toll to our finances so I had to find a way to help out. I was a shy person and you'd understand that this is quite an effort for me. I dont mind working but one that required constant exposure to people is enough to make me cringe. Not to mention that I had to learn my way in getting SSS, NBI, Medical clearance, interviews, etc etc and enduring long queue.

My first job was at Dunkin Donuts in Sta. Lucia East Mall. We were to be the 1st set of crew in this franchise store in Cainta, Rizal. The glitch? We had to complete a 72-hour OJT in their shop located at Novaliches! And we did not even get paid for it, mind you. For the OJT duration we received an allowance of Php30/day which, if you add up the fact that I had to eat and commute from Binangonan Rizal daily, is not even enough for a day really. But between nothing and a prospect of a job, we had to take it anyway. I left Rizal at 4:30 am daily because my shift starts at 8AM and came home past 9 PM. I met my friend Mhel in my first day of OJT and we were both from Binangonan. Our friendship continued long after I went back to my college, graduated and worked in Makati. I was even in her wedding entourage and a godmother to her daughter. There were six crew in the Cainta branch and being a small team, we bonded naturally and worked well together. They were all present in my 18th birthday and we continued our friendship long after our contract ended.

My next job during my 4th year in college was at Pizza Hut. It was also a new store in the same mall where Dunkin Donuts was located. You can also say that after my stint at DD, a veil was lifted from me and somehow helped me overcome my shyness. I was more confident already when I joined PH and had less trace of awkwardness that I had years before. I was stationed at the slice pizza counter. I already started writing for the college journal then and the other crew would always run to me if they had to write promisory notes.

I realized now that it was after my stint with the fastfood industry that I actually learned to overcome my shyness and be more comfortable around people. After my DD stint, I finally had the strength to apply for the staffwriter position at the college journal, compete for (and won) a position in the Chem Engg Society organization, led the SK at our hometown and many others.

Looking back, I did not only gain experience about life, I also got an important gift for myself.

The Ups and Downs of UPS

Nope, not the courier.

Its the Unified Problem Solving tool-- the IN thing when it comes to solving chronic process instability issues. From the sound of it, seems that UPS is your modern day hero that will put an end to issues that has been haunting you since time immemorial.

For our group's UPS workshop week, we dared to brave one of our so-called 'since time immemorial' problems. We were quite doubtful if we can solve it in 2.5 days given that we have been working on it for about 3 years now with various degree of success.

So, what did we learn?

1. What is essential may be invisible to the eyes.
Had to agree with Antoine de Exupery on this one. UPS and its twin, SWP, train the eyes to see the issue and not guess the root cause. Cool. But what if the issue you are working on is not accessible for scrutiny? Well, you still need to observe the phenomenon but you have to be open minded to catch meaningful connections between what you see, see where it leads you to further observe and condense what the invisible connections mean. Thus, UPS does not just train the eyes to really see. It is also mental exercise, after all.

2. Looking at a different vantage point.
Funny how for most of the teams, the issue seemed to have disappeared altogether come observation time! Our team was on floor for at least 3 hours and we were bracing ourselves for a breathless morning. But zilch! Nada. Zero. We left the video cam, all strapped and secured at the chosen vantage point so we can move around to the other lines and observe. The battery ran for two hours. As soon as the battery died, the culprit appeared and we were having our lunch break then! This recurred for the rest of the day until we decided to change our tactic (from lesson 1 above). We still worked on the same issue but decided to investigate from a different perspective. I'll spare you the sordid details. But needless to say, we made progress from there.

We often label our problems X or Y and we try and search somewhere where we think we can find X or Y. But sometimes, you just need to look for an entirely different point that's all!

3. Real problems, real solutions.
The best part about UPS is that it eliminates our obsession for theories and hypothesis. Unlike the old Cause and Effect where we include "what ifs", UPS requires that you only work into the Cause and Effect chart those phenomenon you have observed and that there is logical and observable explanation. That way, we can save our effort by working only on real problems. Of course, we had to remind ourselves from time to time to ditch the cow (bawal ang baka)!

So did we solve the problem? We found that there are three phenomena in our issue. We found the two and have solutions for those. The third phenomenon is still somewhere in the Twilight zone.

Adhesive Episode 1

Thanks to my three-year packaging stint, I have sincere respect for adhesives. No species can be as fickle-minded and highly misunderstood as the adhesives.

I inherited an entire empire of training materials on all sorts of packaging. Flexibles, rigids/bottles, caps, labels, printing technology, CMYK, inks and pigments – but the common denominator of most packaging when assembled together is the adhesive. Without it, there will be delamination. Cartons will have open flaps and bottles will have peeling labels (or worse, no labels). Being the most obscure and less popular, there is little training material on adhesives. Most are only the basic stuff.

While we were working on a supposedly big project, we encountered a packaging problem that was linked to adhesives. It could be the equipment; it could the bottle; and it could be the atmospheric condition as labels are temperature-sensitive. But the root-cause pointed to the adhesive.

Adhesives are temperature-sensitive. In my thirteen-year career so far, I have worked on at least two products and four raw/pack mats that are temperature-sensitive. By temperature-sensitive, we mean it cannot be stored below 30-35C or more (depending on the degree of testing done by its manufacturers researchers, or the lack of it come to think about that). Which means air-conditioned shipping and storage or else, blah blah blah blah will happen. I recall our Ops team sharing an office space with such a raw material, during those early days when insisting on AC-storage meant shutting down a project, and not sharing the office space with the raw material in tow would mean a violation of the RMS.

I, a human being survived working in a 32C/88%RH warehouse, spending one shift or more for several months collecting samples and doing my weekly testing in the same area, survived. But apparently these materials can’t. We have a material now for whom we cleared a hefty amount of warehouse space (while others slumber on floor space, which gave rise to the On-Floor Location to make it technically correct and acceptable), just so it can sit under 26C temperature. Air-conditioned, of-course. We even joked that it is so comfy we can probably put a work pod next to it, or hold meetings in the same space during diabolical seasons. Assuming HS&E will allow, of course. And assuming humans won't contaminate the atmosphere.

Back to the adhesives…

I was victim of lousy shoe adhesives at least twice. The first one can be ruled out as unfortunate but the second one was downright embarrassing and shot up my BP to dangerous levels.

Both circumstances involve travelling at high altitude and low temperature. And both involved shoes that come with soles that are held together by adhesives. Which formed my hypothesis that shoe adhesives fail when exposed to sudden low temp and high altitude. Which means you end up with broken shoes. Note that it is plural because in my experience, it happens not only to one but to both!

The first incident involved a pair of sneakers. A new pair bought by my husband in his futile attempt to get me to do some exercise. I decided to wear it to this teambuilding event somewhere in foggy Tagaytay where sports attire is a must. Few minutes after landing to our venue, the soles gave way. Given that it is new and that it is a reputable brand, I found it weird. I probably look ridiculous with my sneakers’ wayward sole flapping noisily everytime I had to walk but there was nothing I can do. But to add to the horror, the other pair started to give way too! Pair of soleless sneakers flapping about makes me want to laugh hysterically for looking like an idiot without even trying! I won't be caught looking like one so I had to think fast.

And then in a perfect Mentos-moment, I summoned enough force to tear-off the blasted soles from the sneakers and in a jiffy, I was walking back normally and you can’t tell the difference. I was 0.5 inch shorter but the sneaker looked just fine.

Talk about Adhesive Episode Two, it requires a separate column space altogether so I'll end it here for now.

Fat Tuesday @ James'

The invitation was tempting enough. A night of good food and conversation with friends on a Tuesday night at James hideaway, beat that! But wait until we saw the menu of what James had in store! It was enough to keep us excited with anticipation (and glutton).

The dinner date, aptly on a Fat Tuesday, was indeed a cornucopia of sinful gastronomic delights:

Appetizers
Nachos, crackers and nuts with aperitif of either rose or lemonade

Main Course
Stuffed Squid with Apple Wine Reduction
Roast Pork Belly on a Bed of Seasonal Vegetables
Creamy Shrimp and Crab Fat Pasta

Dessert
Decadent Cheesecake

The exciting part was finding his house ala Extra Challenge. I went with the ladies (Bevs, MJ) with Zarah driving. Predictably enough, none of us paid attention to the hand drawn map from James, or the address to the place! We arrived at Ponticelli around 6 pm after stopping more than 10x to ask security guards and passersby. We suspected that the streets were newly named because 4 out of 5 village guards gave us a look as if we were looking for a Martian instead of Via Alba Street.
At last, we arrived at a yellow Italian house with sounds of waters gently rustling from the garden. James cheerfully welcomed us to his home and we decided to hang out first at the lanai. Ponticelli is an Italian-inspired community but James’ home a vivid, unapologetic reflection of his artistic streak. His proudly self-designed living space is an interesting mix of eclectic styles -- his black chandelier is neo-Baroque, various Crayola pop art pieces and Asian finds. This prompted us to raid the rest of the house and liberally took pictures amongst the many gem of fancy pieces and ideas!

I read somewhere that you can easily deduce the personality of the home-owner through the design and style of the house. James’ home is cheerful, kaleidoscopic, fun and playful, friendly and a bit melodramatic.

The color scheme of the house was multi-themed. Each area though very tightly packed, stands out to have its own theme and design. Even the chandeliers and lights were conversation pieces.
Among my favorites are the bookshelf which doubles as a cupboard, the circular shoe rack (I swear I will look for it at True Value!), the elephant painting and the brown slim bench.
Dwight was simply amazed at how the bold colors were put together and achieve the overall effect of harmony. The floor tiles were black while the walls are a variety of red, maroon, blue, paisley wall papers and white. I also love how James was able to maximize the compact space for the kitchen and dining room. The furniture were generally minimalists but not boring. We told James he can make a living being an interior decorator or having his own quaint Bed and Breakfast somewhere in Tagaytay or the likes.

Then came the much awaited dinner. What made it extra special was that James actually cooked all those mouth-watering dishes! We had to make a mental note to make sure we increase our physical activities in the next few days to burn all those calories and trim down the cholesterol! And so we spent the next hour or so, wolfing down all those lovely dishes and snippets of anything-under-the-sun topics in between. Not to be missed was the sinfully decadent cheesecake which we carefully partook thin slices (conscious...). I reminded myself to ask for a recipe from James.

The night was still young but for us moms, we had to call it a day and recharge for the last day of work week the next day. But I am sure that everyone will agree with me that it was indeed one of the best ever dinner dates we have been invited to. Totally loved the company, the good food and the ambience. And a perfect way to bid farewell to an interesting person whose home is as artsy and ecletic like himself.

Good luck James and you will surely be missed by the Gen Y (young ones) in CLT!