Boracay (Day 2): Sales Alignment

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Bev's alarm clock woke us up (she's my room mate in the hotel also with miss Gigi). I feel like dancing to her "Party Rock Anthem" alarm tone. But I fell asleep again for another 30 minutes. It was a bit early in the morning but no pressure since the function room is just downstairs from our hotel room. Breakfast muna!


It's sir Elli's birthday! And we all went to the function room earlier to prepare a surprise for him.

We started our Sales Alignment at 9AM.

RJ presenting for Central Luzon

April presenting for GMA

Yup! We're still listening!
Angry Birds muna.

Waiting for their turn to present.Serious!

Ross invited our group to have a night out after the stressful presentations. We strolled from our hotel (La Carmella de Boracay) all the way to Guilly's Island Restobar where we had a few drinks.

Boracay (Day 1): The Long Travel

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Our shuttle service from office to the airport will leave at 6AM. And since April and I were just near the office, we woke up at around 5AM and we still manage to get in the office early to ride the shuttle service. Our group arrived in the airport at 6:30AM, had our breakfast and checked in.


Here was our flight details:

Manila to Boracay (Caticlan) Departure: 0825 / Arrival: 0935

Traveling with a huge group was a lot of fun. We didn’t even care if we were the noisiest in the airport while waiting for our flight, which was DELAYED due to bad weather in Caticlan. We packed non-stop talks and laughter so we didn’t get bored.

Standing: Camille, Ross, JP and Jo

Sitting: Jun, April, Patty, Glo and Karen

JP, Ross and RJ

After a long wait, they finally announced to board our plane. It was already around 9AM. The plane was small with huge propellers on the sides. It was my first time to ride a small plane, fortunately I didn’t panicked.

On flight, the pilot later announced that we cannot fly directly to Caticlan due to bad weather so our flight was diverted to Kalibo.

Funny moment:

RJ to Heather(Flight Attendant): Masama ba panahon sa Caticlan?

Heather: Yes, kaya we might experience some turbulence.

RJ: Ok. Pwede bababa nalang ako ng Iloilo?

After a while, I already got cold sweats and started to get nauseous during the flight and felt like I’m going to pass out! The flight attendant handed me a little bottle of White Flower to serve as inhaler.

We landed in Kalibo at around 10AM and had to ride a bus going to Caticlan. I eventually felt better after drinking a very cold water and fell asleep in the bus.

It was about an hour and a half bus ride from Kalibo to Caticlan and it was raining! Then we transferred to a boat which only took us 5 minutes from Caticlan port to the island of Boracay. We arrived in the hotel at almost 2PM (expected is 10AM). We were all exhausted and hungry from that very long travel! Fortunately the food was ready!

The managers arrived late too. So they decided to start the Strategic Planning the next day so we also have time to finish our reports and rest.

Stolen shot of Addrian. hehe

Everyone's busy working on their reports. :)

Hectic Season

Ho ho ho! Well well well! It has been quite a while huh? It is that time of the year and everyone is very busy christmas shopping, decorating, and organizing christmas parties! Wow, people are hectic these season! How's yours?


I owe you guys so many stories since last month! Here are some of the things I have been busy with for the past few days:


Last month, we went to Puerto Princesa in Palawan. We have been there before but the place is just so amazing that we don't mind coming back for a vacation!



A couple of weeks ago we went to Tuguegarao then Cagayan and explored Callao Cave which has seven (7) chambers but since we do not have a guide we only reached to the 2nd chamber. We also had a boat ride in the Pinakanawan River which is awesome!



Ok guys, I promise to post the whole stories very soon!

"Let Me In" Movie

Here is another vampire movie starring Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl from Kick Ass).

I personally think this is way better than Twilight. :-p I hate to compare... hold it... oh wait... what the heck... well the Twilight movie is just loaded with over-the-top cheesy-ness! Doesn't it? The characters in this movie, however, is just so natural. Kids in a not so childish roles.

I give Chloe Moretz some credit in playing such roles, roles where she can showcase herself as a good actor and get the attention of a mature audience. But at the same time, I just find her charming on screen. Pretty much reminds me of Kirsten Dunst though. But good for her!

The Impossible Quiz

You will surely get hooked to this quiz too. This makes our break time in the office fun!

You need to answer all the questions to complete the game. There are a hundred of mind-boggling questions. This quiz isn't that simple. There are a lot of trick questions which requires insane logic, fast reactions, and pure luck to get through! You will only have 3 lives per game. Once you get 3 wrong answers total, it's game over. You can start all over again, though. Also, watch out for time pressured questions (the one with bombs)! Nobody had probably ever get through this in just one take their first time, hence "impossible" quiz.

Play now? If the quiz doesn't appear below click here.

Game is created by Splapp-me-do.


The Impossible Quiz Flash Game

Surprise Party for Dad

Our most makulit, strict, but ever loving daddy is turning 80 on October 27! The best that we can think of for his birthday is to give him a surprise party! An early celebration that is.

Daddy

Dad likes the food in Max's restaurant. The branch along Quezon Avenue is a great place to set our party.
We arrived there earlier (before all the guests) to prepare, but noticed that the room seems small and we thought of getting a bigger room. The supervisor of the restaurant, sir Tom (who was very nice and accommodating to us by the way), is OK with our request but he was a bit hesitant because it is UPSTAIRS. He asked me "kakayanin pa po ba kaya ng celebrant na umakyat ng hagdan? Masyado po mataas", yes my dad is 80 but I told him "Malakas pa po siya mag-jog at mag-golf hanggang ngayon kaya OK lang po." he was surprised so he immediately sent his crew to prepare the bigger function room upstairs for us.

Maximo Room

Everyone arrived before 6PM, which is great! Just what we planned. I asked all of our guests to park at the back of the restaurant so that dad won't see any familiar vehicles once he gets there.

James Santos and Sam Mubarak

When mom texted me that they are near the venue already, we went all excited! We turned off the lights and looked outside the window to check. Then from the window, we finally saw them parked in front. Everyone were ready in their positions while holding up the party poppers and... SURPRISE!

Dad was really surprised.

Dad stood there frozen and looking at everyone in the room! He was genuinely surprised! Mom told him that they are attending a co-workers birthday, but he had no idea that it will be his birthday party. We all rushed to him, give him our greetings with hugs and kisses. I approached dad and told him to have a seat, but he was just so overwhelmed that he just wanted to stand for a while and look at everyone around him. Then he gave a little speech about how thankful and surprised he is.
Then he saw the cake and went there to have a closer look at it. We sang Happy Birthday as he blew the candles.

Dad blew the candles as we sang "Happy Birthday".

As we were waiting for our dinner to be served, Jhoanne and I showed everyone the AVP that we made for dad. I'll try again to upload the video soon (blogger sent me an error message when I uploaded earlier).

Watching the AVP.

Later on we went online to chat with my sister, Le-ai. The laptop was connected to the LCD projector, so everyone can see her on the webcam. Plus out tito Tommy called, using 3G, to greet my dad. Technology is just so great!

My sister online.

The surprise party for my dad was just a simple gathering with the whole family but really fun. It's a great feeling that everything went smoothly.

Here the other pictures:

Sam Mubarak, James Santos, Chie Sapinoso, Dad, and Marilyn Sapinoso.

Silly Cellophane.

The Stubborn Generals

Fun and Excitement in Star City

Star City is the longest-running and one of the popular amusement parks in the Philippines. They started in 1991. It is packed with exciting rides for kids, adults, and for the whole family. The park is also known for their Zyclone Loop and Wild River.

Zyclone Loop and Wild River

First time I've been to Star City was way back when I was about 10-years old. And that is the very first time that I rode the Zyclone Loop. I was too young to get in alone, so my mom had no other choice but to accompany me. And she didn't ride any of such ever again! Hehe

The second time was like 3 years ago with my nephew and nieces. The Flying Carpet (no longer featured in the park) became my favorite.

Flying Carpet

Now they have a new featured attraction that the whole family will surely enjoy, the Winter Funland (former Snow World site)! Race and slide down the 68-meter ice slide with others, plus you can also play ice bowling after that!

The bowling ball and the pins are fragile given the fact that they are all made of ice. But no worries, because they can make bowling balls and pins in just minutes so they will not run out of it.
Everything is made of ice! So make sure you are wearing something to keep you warm aside from the coat that they distribute to the visitors.

Just outside near the Winter Funland is the Star Flyer and I immediately got more excited!
Star Flyer is the Philippines' first and only inverted roller-coaster with loops. I swear that this ride is fun and guaranteed to make you scream! Perfect for thrill junkies!

Loop on the Star Flyer

After alighting from the Star Flyer, we ran towards the Surf Dancer. I was just like "c'mon let's go!" when in fact I had no idea what it does... seriously. I just thought, probably it just swings around like the "Viking" ride

Viking

or something like that. Not quite scary at all, right?

The Surf Dance doesn't look scary here.


Ok, it probably doesn't look convincingly scary in these pictures. :)

But oh my goodness! The whole thing goes CRAZY, I tell you! That's the only word I can find to describe it, crazy. It swings, goes around, tilts upward and downward. OK OK, fun but still "crazy". My advice: don't ride it yet if you just ate.

The good thing about Star City is that they also have rides indoors, so rain or shine you can still enjoy your visit. It's the "ber" months so expect a lot of people in the park.

Stain Stain Go Away!

It's that time of the month that ladies experience and then, at time, the unexpected happens... blood stains! Oh the horror! That will definitely spoil a day at work, in a party or anywhere. What will you do? If you have a jacket or a long blouse to cover the stain then you're off with no trouble at all. But what if you don't have any? How will you remove the stain? I actually discovered from a co-worker an effective blood stain remover... "Baby Wipes" or "Wet Wipes".

How-to:

1. You need 2 to 3 sheets of wet wipes (or more).
2. Squeeze off the excess liquid. So that the stain won't scatter.
3. Simply rub it on the stain. One wet tissue at a time.
4. Let it dry and viola! It's gone!
*Much better if you use a hand dryer or hair dryer if there's any, to quickly check also if the stain has completed faded.

Repeat the whole procedure until the stain is washed out. Try it to see for yourself.