afternoon delight

all hungry from the lengthy journey, we headed straight to 'd'mall' for lunch and ate at andoks. we all stuffed ourselves w/ roasted chicken, roasted liempo, sinigang, sisig & rice.

after finishing lunch, we went to the bans resort, chose our rooms, unpacked our things & changed to our swim wears.

it was almost mid afternoon when we headed to the beach. we almost spent the whole afternoon taking pictures of ourselves so by the time we took a dip in the beach, it was sunset so we didn't have to worry about getting tanned by the sun. some of the boys went skimboarding.

the beach was lovely. the white sand was as smooth as powder & the ocean water's very clear & clean we can see the tiny fishes swimming at the bottom of the water.

walking towards 'fridays'

stopped for pictures, ofcourse

when we got the 'fridays'. ofcourse again, we had to pose for more pictures

more 'fridays'

as dawn set in, we went out of the water and showered up for dinner.

boracay bound

a few months ago, our british boss gave everybody an approval during a supervisors' meet to take each of our teams out for fun using the department's annual budget. we initially thought of the typical 'dinner' or 'bar' out w/ our staffs until he eventually mentioned 'boracay'.

a few days later after, one of the teams booked for boracay. ultimately, everyone got hooked on the idea our boss suggested so we all went to bora!

my team converged w/ another for the better fun of it. so the other team had to fit our scheduled days off so we can all go together. our total man count was 18. we booked a flight out to bora from nov 12-14.

it was my first time to step foot on this very famous tropical island so i felt so giddy the night before i hadn't had much sleep. for the preparations, luckily, my 2 kumares lent me some of their 2-piece bathing suits so i didn't have to worry what to wear there.

we all met at the domestic airport in manila at 8am for our cebu pacific flight to kalibo at 930am. the flight was brief, afterwhich, we rode a bus to caticlan. the bus ride was lenghty so i had time to nap having only slept 2 hours back home. we arrived in caticlan before noon. we took a very brief boat ride to the island & waited for awhile at the dock for one of our officemates who didn't reach the airport on time & had to travel by herself.

as soon as she arrived, we rode one of the white mini buses who drove us straight to the beach. wow. boracay was indeed magnanimously beautiful.

at the airport

inside the plane with khaye & shiela; at the kalibo airport

boat ride to caticlan; at the dock

waiting

terrace view of the bans resort

our 'bora' experts booked rooms at the 'bans resort' located at station 1 which was so conveniently located just a few steps from the shoreline and very close promixity to the restos & bars.

team building in antipolo

october 14 to 15

we held this year's team building at the ELC (eugenio lopez center) in antipolo. they booked the same venue 2 years ago & i was on my 3rd trimester so ofcourse i wasn't fit to join them.
my team's actually scheduled for the activities today but i preferred to join the 1st batch coz all my friends were there. *:)
by 730am, i took a cab to maricel's place to hitch a ride w/ her. her bf's gonna drop her all the way up to antipolo. how sweet diba!

most were already there when we arrived. we went directly to our rooms & had breakfast. a brief conference was held at their seminar hall to detail us the exercises for the day. basically, we were going to war. :)

they separated the batch into 2 groups. the first group went to the war zone for the war games whilst my group headed to the ropes courses.

while waiting for the shuttle to bring us to the challenge sites

we did a few stretches at the basketball court then separated areas for the main challenges. first exercise was the tire + block. the objective was to send 2 tires to another wooden block using ropes w/ hooks. the wooden block at the center of the tires should not topple or else the game will reset. we were given 30 minutes. we finished it at 20 minutes. next challenge was called 'traffic jam'. everyone of us was assigned a floor mat. we were divided again into 2 groups, each facing each other, stepping on each of our own mats in 1 line, 1st in line facing the other group, also the 1st in line. there was only 1 mat unoccupied in the center. essentially, we had to think of the smartest move to get the other section's line swapping positions, & avoid a 'traffic jam'. we've had several infractions but nonetheless, we finished it.

after 2 games we had 'merienda', a wonderfully made lasagna & garlic bread, yummy!

at around 11am the shuttle brought us back to the building & walked the short trail to the pool. we were again challenged to setup an A-frame planks & fish out from the pool styro balls. fishing out 4 balls would gain us a small basin or 'tabo', to help us on another challenge, filling up a small drum punched w/ multiple holes. everyone had to try fishing styro balls & when we finally had at least 1 'tabo', we started fetching water from the pool to the drum w/ several plus myself, plugging the holes with our fingers & toes. all of us got wet in the end. we won the challenge once again.

we ate lunch at 12. rested for a few minutes, then headed to the war zone. we were briefed on how to handle our guns, test fired bb pellets then positioned ourselves for war!

we played an exhausting 4 rounds & we all ended up muddied & sweaty from the games. i unfortunately got hit twice by the pellets, one at my right hand & the other at my left elbow.

we took a break after & met with the other group to eat then we were prepped once again by 3 more games, the trolley, the wooden planks & bricks, & the cable harness. it took us past 6pm to finish everything.

back at the elc center, everybody freshened up for dinner & went ahead to the game area to drink, sing videoke, play table tennis & billiards. the bosses busied themselves at the mahjong & poker tables whilst us girls preoccupied ourselves at the videoke station. alcohol was flowing so everybody went crazy as midnight approached. it was a hell of a party. you do only see your colleagues go trippin' once in a while. *:)

the pictures i have here mostly highlights the events after the exercises.

w/ lea at the balcony; at the cable harness site

relaxing after the war game; the party at the game room

at the balcony w/ our rooms at the left; morning seminar

influenced w/ alcohol
at lunch time after the last challenge inside the conference room in ELC.

rayne's 2nd birthday

free yourselves on the 24th of november! we're having a dora the explorer & spongebob birthday party at kenny rogers quezon ave, 3pm to 6pm.

see you all there!

baby time!

my baby darling rayne is turning 2!
at this time she has learned to do the following:
- say daddy & mommy very clearly
- ask "am-am" for food & "mamam" or "dede" for milk
- knows the names of her body parts
- knows a few animals & calls them by what they are
- cries for "bee" or TV everytime
- dances haplessly
- kisses & hugs everybody
- runs at the malls
- points 1 of her fingers when asked how old she is
- calls her yaya "yaya" now (she calls everybody "mama" before)
- loving spongebob alot
- plays w/ other kids
- says "hi" to everybody
- approaches anybody

good thing she hasn't learned to say "buy me"!

at a toy store in eastwood

officially old

oct 4

bummer.

anyhow, my sister insisted we make pesto pasta so i had to invite alex over to make 'em coz she doesn't trust my cooking. i met with alex a day before for a little shopping at tiendesitas and groceries at the hypermart across for the pasta ingredients. i bought mattress for myself & my little rayne's bed which caused us a few problems loading it inside our SUV. we ended up tying it atop the SUV instead. the mattress was my gift for myself (how sad ba? hehe). i got my daughter a bunch of clothes & some items for myself at the tiendesitas. they are holding a bazaar for early christmas shopping discounts.

ryan brought me a cookies & cream cheescake from cheescake etc.i invited over my other sorority sister saleng since alex cooked more than enough pasta & my mom served barbeque. her belly's pretty big now & she's expecting a boy in 2 months. before midnight we sent saleng home & bought booze. i chatted & drank beer all night with ryan, ian, sam, mike, alex & ate anna.

i had fun nevertheless.

heading back home

4th HK morning, september 6

woke up at 7am to pack our stuff. it was a little dark outside & we hoped & prayed it wouldn't rain for we were flying the skies in the evening.

finished packing by 9am, we headed to central to check back the stalls at li yuen streets. i got my daughter a chinese pair of shoes w/c unfortunately weren't her size anymore when i had her fit them back home.

we got more stuff & food to like pastries & biscuits, shirts etc. we had mcdo (again) for breakfast.

at the hotel lobby
H&M store in central

we exchanged our left HKDs at TST to USD. we still had time to drop by granville road where you can find strips of shopping outlets. we bought noodles around the corner for our lunch. when we had nowhere else to go, we went back to our hotel & waited for the travel agency's bus to fetch us by 5pm.

inside HKIA

back in HKIA, we took our last cafe de coral lunch. there are several shops inside where you can still buy 'pasalubong' at the last minute for the same low prices you'll see outside. by 7pm, we bid goodbye to HK.

temple st night market & mongkok

we left ocean park right after the dolphin show by 4pm. we rode the same bus to the admiralty subway station to the yau ma tei station & exited to temple street for the temple street night market. we were there by 5pm so merchants & peddlers were still preparing their goods.

a bakeshop at temple st. mom's buying HK's famous eggtart me while waiting for mom outside the bakery

it was exactly like walking through quiapo or divisoria, minus the stink of wet slimy garbage scattered on the streets. the items they sell are the same as what divi has. we just passed that short section of temple st and crossed the street to get to the other side of temple. we bought another 2 sets of HK souvenir shirts, sold there for 5 pcs for HKD100. i bargained for 4 zipo-like lighters, magnets & others. we didn't find enough goodies at temple so we decided to leave early to go to mongkok. we went back to our hotel first to leave some of our baggage, rest for 30 mins tops then left. rode the subway again, now to mongkok, for the ladies' night market.

we got there by 10pm & we were already exhausted. we no longer have any day to sched mongkok so we forced ourselves out of the hotel to be there.
we got overwhelmed by the massive amount of chinese & tourists walking the streets of mongkok & it was already past 10pm! it appeared as if there was a party or a concert being held. cars could barely pass through the streets due to the thick crowd.

anyhow, we went past the electronic shops to the tiangge itself. there you can find heaps & heaps of good finds. it was a pretty long stretch of stalls we gave up when we reached the middle! our feet gave up walking so we were literally dragging our feet to go back to the hotel. we rode our 2nd cab that night. we bought a microwavable dish from 7-11 & had it for dinner. mom loved it we brought home 2 of those.
we slept right after.

trying shoes