Summer Elements in Pampanga

Few more weeks before summer pave its way out to make way for the rainy season and as a last hurrah for the summer and in celebration of work-life balance, our company held its summer getaway last May 16 to 17 at Villa Alfredo, San Fernando, Pampanga.

For this year, the outing's theme is all about the four elements of nature or as they called it - the Summer Elements or Elements of Summer, whatever. The whole sector was divided into four groups - Alab (fire), Agos (water), Alapaap (air) and Abo (land) - and yes, they want all the group names to start with the letter A. Push nyo yan! :) I am part of the group on fireeee - ALAB!

The stage where the tarps of the four elements were posted:
Agos. Alab. Abo. Alapaap.

We left the office at around 6 AM and since traffic was unusually pleasant that day, we arrived at Villa Alfredo around 8 AM. I can't tell much about how to get there because our company provided buses for us and I pretty much slept during the travel. But as what I've heard, we took the NLEX and exited at the San Fernando toll gate. Brgy. Baliti is 45 minutes away from the exit.

Our bus. And there's my good friend Arnel posing beside it.
Pagbigyan, last day na nya sa company yan! :P

Welcome sign upon arrival at Villa Alfredo.

Since we're the first to arrive, we just helped in preparing for the props needed for the cheer dance competition as well as taking the time to get to know our group mates. I have not attended prior Alab meetings so it was my first time to meet all of them.

One of the ALAB Team props. So resourceful, right?

After almost an hour, the two other buses have arrived and the celebration of the Summer Elements started, finally! Since I was happily cheering for my team, playing Minute-to-Win-It games and booing other teams, I'll just let the pictures show how much fun we had during the program.

Team Alapaap with their muse and escort.
Bigay na bigay performance by our friend Jayson. D.I talaga!

Team Alab with our Cirque du Soleil-inspired performance.
I was not part of the dance but I participated as a voice-over. Haha :D

Team Agos' under-the-sea performance.
They won the cheer dance competition. Uso kasi ung sirena-concept ngayon.

Team Abo's performance.
They won the best group costume award.

Minute to Win It games - simple yet fun!

One of the host of the event is my pretty, fashionista friend Lyle.

After all events are finished, the results are as follows: 4th place - Team Alab, 3rd place - Team Alapaap, 2nd place - Team Abo and overall champion is Team Agos. Oh yes, Team ALAB are gracious losers :D

Since the program was finished, we are given our room assignments and basically, the whole afternoon is ours to spend.. Those who will stay for the night, like us, catch up on our sleep (we are graveyard babes) while those that will go home by 5 PM used the time to take pictures and swim. I also used my afternoon to meet-up with my small sister at SM Pampanga.

Two queen size beds with air-con. Not bad.
We slept real sound.

Our room got its own bathroom. Neat.

Nearest pool on our room. We took a dip at night but we did not enjoy because the water's oily?
Basta, mga 30 minutes lang ata kami then we called it a night.

Long catwalk of the resort. There are a lot of guests during that time.

Overall, the summer outing was fun and relaxing one. Kudos to the organizers! One thing though, the pools are blah during that time. Marami na kasing nag-swim during the day kaya hindi na refreshing yung water at night. Sayang! I'm sure the water's good pag morning. Plus, they have other attractions that are must-visit (na hindi namin nabisita kasi tulog kami). Check their website here for more info - Villa Alfredo.

Till next summer outing! And I hope by then, my group shall win! Bwahahahaha :D

Photo on the right taken before we left the office. Took a lot of effort on putting my legs on my work station to achieve the like-a-boss effect. Haha :)

Starting Over Again

I lost count on how many blogs I have started, updated for a few times then have totally forgotten. The only active blog I have as of date is my Tumblr account, huge thanks to Instagram. Some shameless plugging coming up, check it here - Twenty-Something-ish :)

Successful bloggers write about their interests, hobbies, what they do, what they love or hate probably, what they are passionate about. In that way, they care about what they write, they know it by heart and they have many experiences to share about it.

So for the nth time of taking chances on blogging, I took a leaf out of their books and thought long and hard about the things that I love, that excites me, that makes me react with fire, that eggs me on - anything that can keep me motivated to write. And lo, I came up with five things that coincidentally or not, forms the acronym of W.R.I.T.E. Amazing, eh? Here goes:

Julie and me during our training at Athens, Georgia.

Work. As hypocrite as it may sound, I love to work and I love my work. I am an accountant of a multinational, healthcare industry based in Parañaque City, handling North America companies thus working on a graveyard shift. Yes there are the usual hey and nay days that is common on every employee I know. The hey days are those days when I have marked as done all the items on my to-do list and I'm itching to do more, while during the nay days, it's as if all I wanna do is stare at my laptop or worse, sleep on it. (Hoping my boss ignored that part). But know what? No matter what they say about accountants being one of the most boring professions in the world, I love being one! I am in the best position to see how all the collective efforts of the company paid off, I am at a good starting point to climb up the leadership ladder plus, it is a stable profession because as long as there are businesses, we are needed. Right accountants? 

Read. I love how books or e-books take me to a whole different place and time without me leaving the house or while commuting to Ayala. I cherish those absolutely free times where I can spend my day poring over books, learning new words I can use in conversing, highlighting quotes I can share, shipping star-crossed lovers (Dramione please!) and bawling my tears out for tragic deaths of my fictional heroes. A huge part of my good written and communication skills, I owe to those damn good authors.

Inspire and be inspired. Most of the things I love doing are a result of being inspired. I am an accountant because of my dad who is also one. I caught the travel fever by being inspired of the Eat-Pray-Love adventure. I loved working with young people and I am still in the ministry of youth leadership because of the many ates and kuyas which have greatly impacted my life. I believe Edison's wise anecdote about the 99% perspiration + 1% inspiration = genius/success or whatever. And however seemingly immaterial the 1% could be, 100% will not be attainable without it, right? As for the "being an inspiration" part, that is currently a work-in-progress. Let's see. Cross fingers!

Travel. I used to hate travelling - the packing of clothes, waiting for cheap fares, long commutes plus add-up my unusually clumsy self which always drives my travel buddies crazy, you follow? But when I read for the second time the Eat-Pray-Love novel by Elizabeth Gilbert (and when I also realized that it's non-fiction), it's as if my perspective on travelling changed. I can't wait for the perfect time (and the perfect budget) where I can also embark on my personal Eat-Pray-Love adventure. I'm getting excited while typing this *insert goofy grin here*. I started looking forward to travels and have religiously followed several travel blogs. Now what's left is saving up for these travels I have in mind.

Just because it's summer.

Eat. Last but certainly not the least of  the things I love is the one "hobby" I know everyone shared - love of food, eating, pigging-out, name it! Please, everybody loves to eat. No matter whether you are a vegan or not, whether you are dieting or to heck with my body shape, there is something about food that draws us in (may ganun!) I am no foodie expert but I trust my instinct and my taste buds when it comes to food. I am big on pasta and cakes, coffee and tea. The only let down I have for food is that I am not much of an adventurer in the cuisine world. I stick up to the familiar - American, Chinese, Italian, Filipino, little Japanese but I'm hoping I'd get over my fear of seemingly unfamiliar cuisines so I can enjoy food more and more food! :)

There you have it. The top topics I will mostly talk, rave, rant and write about in this blog. It took some real careful thinking, writing and editing before I finally publish the kick-off post for my blog. I am hopeful that this will be the start of something that I will be continuing years and years from now. Exciting! :)