Archive for August 2010

A Day Full of Major Major First Time


What:  Sky Day Tour (Team Socials)
When:  Friday - August 27, 2010
Where: Crown Regency Hotels and Towers
 
This was the final agreement of my former team after receiving the CSAT incentives for July in which we ranked the top team. We have agreed to take the Sky Day Tour 888 promo, it consists of a lunch buffet at the Wang Shan Lo, one admission to 4D experience Theater Show, one Prana Medisa Treat (a selection to a body massage/foot massage/diamond peel) and one ride pass @ Sky Experience Adventure (selection of a sky walk or one edge coaster ride) in the country's tallest hotel tower, Crown Regency and Towers in Fuente Osmena, Cebu City. The Sky Day Tour Promo starts from 10:00am to 6:00pm so we went there at 11:00am. And that starts the day, a special day full of first times for me and some of my colleagues.

First step to the country's tallest hotel - Yes it was my first time to enter the said hotel, I was in college when it was constructed and that I had never imagined myself to go in to that hotel, maybe because of the thought that it was expensive and that the people who gets in there are those that are more fortunate or shall I say "rich". But anyhow, I was able to get there and that marks the first time. Inside in the lobby, I could sense the luxury of the hotel, here are some of the photos I took using my Sony Erickson C902:
 
A carriage was placed on the lobby area, I wanna take a ride on it but it seemed old, it might break.
Me @ the lobby
Like this photos from the past on their railings, it reminds me of how our heroes fought for our country.
We then went to the second tower's 19th floor to get our tickets for the Sky Day Tour. I took some photos of the view when we were there, from that point, I can almost see the whole Cebu city, the SRP road is really a nice view and the sea line was a wonderful spot. Here are some of the photos:
Welcome Wall at the 19th floor and these are some of the paintings which caught my attention, simple yet complicated.
A view from the glass window of the 19th floor. I was astonished since this is my first time to see the whole city from a near top view.
Another view from the 19th floor. SRP road is almost visible, I can see Sugbu where Sykes Party was held.
The lunch buffet was the first stop; we started eating almost 12 noon. The food tables were full of different viands, from sea foods to veggies up to the variety of meat. It was my first time to eat the "Century Egg", they told me that those were eggs preserved and stored for many many years, its looks seem to be disgusting but it was tasty. I took some Kim chi, that is the food which are mostly eaten by my favorite Korean movie artists. I was really curious about its taste, after taking some, I told myself to be aware of Kim chi, sorry to my favorite Korean artist, but your Kim chi is really spicy and hot, my mouth can't take it, good thing I only took some, whoa! For the desert, there were variety of fruits, leche flan, some sweets, there were puto cochinta and white puto as well, yema was also present and maja. There were siopaos and siomais and other Japanese foods. Here is my first plate:

First to use chopsticks, yes! After 22 years of existence, I finally got the courage to break a chopstick and use it with my bare hands. I found it really difficult but I managed to take some fruits using it. Hehehe. That was such a good experience. We took some pair of chopsticks home too, lol. 

Wahaha.. this is me, trying hard to eat using a pair of chopsticks, thanks Tanya for taking the photos.
Maddy here, trying to work with her own set of chopsticks, she is Charmaine's little girl. One thing I couldn't forget about her is her "Vertical Train" each time we ride on the elevator, she shouts vertical train.
A view from above, I felt like I was about to fall when I looked down and saw the vehicles below, whoa!
After lunch, we went straight to next stop which was the 4D experience. Yeah! I had seen movies in 3D like the Avatar, so I had more to expect about the 4D movie. Unfortunately, the available movies were all animated cartoons but it was fun. It was our first time; I mean all of us have never seen 4D movies before. Once the movie had started, we were all shouting up until the end, try to imagine, if there are bumps or impact in the movie, our seats would as well fall, it made us scream every time it does that, it will also shake like at the earthquake scene. There were animals in the movie and it felt like it was really true, there was an elephant, and the it threw water to the leading man, we didn't expect it but we were sprinkled by water as well, when a tiger was about to bite him, there was a wind hush as well. So overall, 3D and 4D are totally different I may say because, in 4D movie, it makes us feel like we are in the movie as well instead of just watching it.

We can't take pictures inside because it was dark, but someone from the hotel took a picture of us inside and for us to get the copy, we need to buy it for Php 230.00, tsk tsk, too costly.
Next stop: Body Massage, whew...this is a major first time. I have never been to any spa or something because first, I never had the courage to let someone touch my body or so, second I don't have someone to be with before and third, it is costly. But thanks to our account's incentive program and now, I finally had my first body massage. Four of the girls decided to choose the body massage, so we went inside, we were given keys for our lockers, mine was:

After changing, we went inside a cool room with I guess, more than 10 beds on it. The lady asked us to lie facing down the bed, it has a hole so there was no problem about breathing, she also asked me to take off the cloth I was wearing (I only had my lower undies then), ha-ha. The lady started pressing on my body, that time there was a bed sheet covering me, so I thought it was safe but then she took it off down to my butt, she even pulled down my undies, whoa!!! I could almost shout, but I held it since the room was totally quite and I can only hear music. She continued and the rest was history, she had seen my whole body that time including the upper one, wahahaha! Such a major experience, I could not look her in the eye after the session. When we were in the comfort room, we were all laughing about the experience but it was worth it, so refreshing and relaxing.

Tanya was laughing here because of the things that we talked about the body massage, most of us were first timers.
Last and final stop: Sky Walk. It was past 5:00pm when the body massage ended, since the Sky Day tour would end at 6:00pm, we hurriedly went to the 38th floor for the Sky Walk, actually we were arguing what to take, we need to only select one, either the Sky Walk or the Edge Coaster Ride. We then agreed to take the Sky Walk because the Edge Coaster Ride is only a 4 minute ride.

So we registered at the counter, we saw many photos from those who had taken their walks as well, like the world's famous boxer, Manny Pacquiao, Senator Kiko Pangilinan, ABS-CBN Trip na Trip hosts, my ever crush: Mark Nelson and a lot more. As part of their rules, only eight persons can walk at a time excluding the guide and the photographer. Since we were twelve, we were divided to two batches; I was part of the second batch together with Mommy Dy, Tita, Charmaine, Reggy and Janet. It was an unforgettable experience to be there, felt like I was at the top of the world. We started walking almost 7 in the evening so it was already dark; the view was so nice because of the Cebu City's lights. There was an orientation and we were obliged to wear a suit and shoes. We had photos during the walk and we were taught how to do a one foot stand on the edge of the flat form and the ever heart trembling look down from the edge. When I looked down, it was like gravity was pulling me down but there were no worries because a harness was attached to our suit for protection in case we fall down, I was confident about it so I was not afraid. At the end of the walk, a certificate has been given to us to prove that we have survived the sky walk extreme. Here is mine:
 
This is just the cover, this is given for free if you have finished either the Sky Walk or the Edge Coaster Ride.

It was already dark when we went home, it was such an unforgettable day for all of us, we have eaten great and plenty foods, had our 4D experience, took a body massage, conquered our fear of heights and survived the Sky walk extreme. 

FYI:
Within the year, Crown Regency Hotels & Towers will open their "ZIP LINE" from the top of the second tower to the third tower and their "FREE FALL" as well.

More photos:
 
Our tickets, the first one was the whole ticker, it was like a piece of paper and once we enter a specific stop, like the 4D experience, they cut the part of the paper and exchange it with a pass, like those that has logos on it.
I am really amazed every time I see a miniature building. I found it very hard to make, I remembered way back in college when we had a miniature project, we asked for an architecture student to do it for us because we can't even make a roof.
A souvenir machine. It needs three pieces of five peso coins and a token. The trick was, the token which was placed in there was flattened and marked with the design that I chose.
See the signage? The top one was in the same spot with Edge Coaster Ride, you can't see anything unless you drop a ten peso coin.
 Maddy and I at the Sky walk extreme logo. She followed my position here when I told her to do so, super cute!

 

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I *heart* Surprises


I can still feel the rush of my blood going up to the tip of my ears while sitting and staring at the 2k worth of gift certificates.

I was working on my blog in my station when my colleague pulled me and said that I was called by our Manager to receive an award. I thought it was just a joke or something because I was not listening to the Awarding Ceremony. 

I hesitated to walk towards them until my former team lead pointed me and signaled me to move towards the awarding personnel. I then walked faster to our Account Manager, Training Team Manager and some other managers. They then presented and gave me the 1k Premium Pass for Sodexo accredited merchants. I was kinda disappointed at first because what was on my mind was a bill with Ninoy's face on it, but later on, I realized, it is actually the same. I then thanked the managers and turned my back, started walking towards my station. But before I could go any further, my name was again called. This is a major major surprise! I received another 1k worth of gift certificate... Weeeh! I love this day, I felt like I was the luckiest person. Lol. Anyway, a huge drum was beating so fast inside me while handing the second certificate.  The first thing that came to my mind that time was "Grocery." Well, I love to grocery actually, I love to see the cart full. And 2k worth of groceries is too much for me, every payday I only set aside Php 500 for my groceries and now, I can get any food that I like. Evil Grin, Drool...


Aside from the award that I received, our former team also won the first place for the Team Stack Ranking and the Top CSAT Performer which has corresponding amounts: Php 3,500 and Php 5,000 respectively. We are planning to conquer and face our fears with that amount of money by going to Club Ultima and go on sky riding. Isn't it exciting plus the diamond peel/body massage/foot spa selection per person, whoah! More grinning!!!

And oh! I almost forgot about the movie tickets that I received today as well. I got six of them, so that counts them as part of the awards...

Here I am with the certificates...Am I that happy, no...I am definitely happy...hehe

Before I could end this post, I would like to share this quote from google mail which I can also relate to the incident at the Quirino Grandstand last Monday.
"We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life."

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Sticker set 2

Hi fellow scrap bookers!!


I just posted my second sticker set in my new scrap booking blog. Please visit it as well.
This is the direct link for the blog post and for you to download the zip file of the sticker set:

http://freescrapbooks.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-sticker-set-2.html


Comments are most welcome.



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Bohol Homecoming and Manong Jun's Wedding

"I'm coming home, to the place where I belong" - I was having this LSS or last song syndrome last Friday, August 20, 2010 because I was really going home to Bohol after three months. James and I rode on the 9 pm JnN ferry trip to Bohol. Before we went home, we just had a great pizza and hamburger time with my colleagues credits to Daryl Gapor for the food, it was his pre-birthday celebration. Click here to read the whole article.

JnN ferry arrived in Ubay Port at exactly 2:00am; it was a five hour trip actually. We get off the ferry at 2:30am and we rode a tricycle to the terminal, from the terminal, we rode the Saint Jude Bus to my home town, Guindulman arriving at 4:00am. Papa and mama fetched us from the point where we got off the bus.


A photo I took inside the JnN ferry Class A. There are five classes, respectively: Class A= Php 250, Class B and C = Php 230, Business Class = Php 280 and Tourist Class = Php 290.
In here is James, he was making a funface, we are at the upper deck. We did not sleep right away until the engine started. We arrived at the port 30 minutes earlier than before.

We took a few hours of sleep then and we took some ride on our Honda 125 motorcycle and looked at some places. I showed James the Basdio Beach, a few kilometers away from our place. We took the other path going to the sea shore, I shared to him that the place was already featured in Rated K because of the old wood coffins used by our ancestors before. 

Here are some of our photos going to the shore.
This part here where I was squatting is the initial path, or shall I say the gate part. It seemed that one can't see the path anymore because it sloped to the next path.
James making his bang pose at the middle part of the path, it was kinda scary though. But we managed to get through. The place was full of trees and rocks all over.


This is the last part of the path, it was like an abandoned place, the fallen leaves were all over the place and the road has grown weeds on it so it seemed that no one has stepped on it for a long time.
We reached the shore part then after a few walks, the place was nice but this picture was taken using my Palm Centro which doesn't give very good results. :(
FYI the end part is a resort bought by a German citizen. There are many foreigners here who go scuba diving every day.

He even went nearer the shore and said there were lots of sea creatures there like blue starfishes, small school of fishes as well and a lot more.

Notice the rock? Those have holes which are results of the waves, due to the impact; the holes were created which are really spiny. If you’re not careful sure thing, you’ll going to bleed with this kind of rock. In this photo, James is about to climb to see the old wood coffins.

Going back home... He had just seen the old wood coffins and was amazed by it. Unfortunately, I was not able to take some photos of them because the cave was too dark and my phone doesn't have a built in flash on it.
One of the reasons why we went home was because of my cousin’s wedding. Manong Junior or Jun was getting married the next day, which is August 22, 2010 with Ate Pamela at Dauis’ Church. So early morning the next day, we went to Tagbilaran, FYI, Dauis is an Island connected via bridge to Tagbilaran City. If you are familiar with Panglao, then you know Dauis as well because the island has a lot of white sand beaches and resorts in it where foreigners always visit.
The wedding started at 10:00am sharp, I met my relatives there many of them were my cousins from Alicia, Bohol and from Cebu. While the ceremony was pushing through, there were a lot of negative things that James and I had noticed, but we had just get it off of our mind and focused on the event. The ceremony has ended with the picture taking part; we went straight to Villa Alzhun for the reception. We were kinda unlucky that time because we arrived at the place late so we waited for the waiters to serve our food while others were already eating.
Some of the photos during the wedding:
They are my cousins’ sons and daughters from Alicia, they are gown ups now. From left to right: Jo Ed, Mitchi Ruth, John Ed and Vanessa Faye.
Baby Aiesha had her own gown during the wedding even if she was not part of the entourage. This baby is just amazing because if there is a camera in front of her, she looks at it and most of the time, she smiles when the camera is on.
Most of the photos here were taken at Dauis Church after the ceremony. We had our photo both like with Baby Aiesha. She was like celebrity that time. Hehehe :)

After the church wedding ceremony, we went to Island City Mall to buy something for our Baby Aiesha, my older brother’s baby girl. It seemed that my niece had great time while she was at the mall because she was smiling and shouting all those times. She is still six months old but she has a lot of energy, she never slept when she was there, she was looking around and staring all those that catch her attention.
It  was almost seven when we decided to go home, papa and the rest went  back to Guindulman but James and I were on our way to Tagbilaran port to buy tickets going back to Cebu. It was our lucky day it seemed because we didn’t need to fall in line, there were only a few ones there when we arrived. At 10:00pm, TransAsia moved its way to Cebu and we arrived here at 3:00am. We did not get off right away because it was still dark; we waited until 5:30am. It was such a beautiful experience and a hectic one but at the end of the day, we had learned many things, one is that there is no such thing as “Perfect Wedding”.



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Daryl's Pre Birthday Celeb

Daryl Gapor Lim had sent you a message:

"Its mah birthday..kaon lang ta pizza..mao ray ma afford.
just be there..kung mag dala mo og visitor bayad jud mo..hahaha...
"

"It's my birthday, let's just eat pizza, that's all that I can afford, just be there, if you will bring a visitor, you must pay, hehehe" 

It was an invitation for Daryl’s pre-birthday celebration, his birth date is on August 22 but he decided to make a pre-celebration together with his friends and colleagues then spend the actual birthday with his family. It was me, Voltaire, Tanya and Loreto who went there together. Since we were not yet familiar with the place, we agreed to meet at Robinsons-Fuente.  So that was it, we went to Mama Maria’s Pizzeria located in Gorordo, near Datamex IT school. You can ride a 04C PUJ if you are from Robinsons-Fuente or you can ride on 13C if you are from Ayala.


When we arrived at the place, Daryl and his two college friends were already there. The place was big enough for a normal pizzeria. While we were waiting for the others to come, we chatted with each other and we had took photos of the place as well.

Here are some of the photos:
 Daryl and Loreto at Mama Maria’s Pizzeria, with their peace signs.



The ceiling and the wall part... 

At 6:30pm, almost everyone was there so we started the most awaited part of the celebration which is the eating time. Voltaire started it with a prayer and we sang the “Happy Birthday song” as well. All had taken what we love to eat; I had a square piece of the huge Hawaiian pizza and a slice of the ultimate “Big Bang”, it was a Casa Verde’s huge sized hamburger.

Bigbang as it is...

Voltaire making his own pose together with the huge burger. This was his way of making a soveigner, I wish I had my own pose too...
My piece of Hawaiian pizza and a slice of the Bigbang. I almost couldn't eat everything because the piece was too big for me...

This is the rocky road cake from Red Ribbon, Joyce Alameda bought it at Ayala before going to Mama Maria's Pizzeria.

I couldn’t eat everything up because it was really more than my average piece so I went straight and got a piece of Red Ribbon’s rocky road, it was the sweetest thing. I had a couple glasses of iced tea and soda too. James arrived at 6:45pm so he had his own slices as well. Everyone was already full but there were still pizzas left. Three big full pizzas were too much for 25 people. That was my first time to personally see those very huge pizzas so I really thanked Daryl for the treat. We went home first because we still had a trip to catch. James and I were going to Bohol so we went first. I told Daryl that it was really a blast!

More photos:
Mama Maria’s Pizzeria’s crew, preparing for the pizza. It was refreshing for me because I was able to witness how they make the whole bread. They even had answered some of our questions.
Such a huge pizza it is. This is the result of the crew's hardwork...such a huge pizza, there were three of them, two were hawaiian pizzas and the other I guess was ham and cheese, not sure though.
That's my hand, see the difference? I could take a whole bite of it because of its size. Everyone of use needs to slice it first or take two bites to finish a whole slice.
Most punctual visitors...hehe. From left to right: Me, Tanya and Titah gwapa. Tita arrived a few minutes after us.
Pray before meal... serious mode. Everyone was pushing who would start the prayer, thank God Voltaire did it after all the argue.
Singing, happy birthday to you... We sang two rounds of the happy birthday song with the clap effects. I took this photo myself.
People smile!!! Magstart na lage ang kaon, be patient! This was after the singing and all. Everyone was ready to eat the huge foods.

Had taken our bites...yumyum! James arrived a couple of minutes late but he has finished eating before I could. He had just shown how fast males eat.
All went well and we took our way back to our each others' places, James and I had to go home first because we still need to catch the 9:00pm trip to Bohol. Read story here.




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