Thank You 2012

With the year coming to a close, it's time to look back again to a wonderful year through this annual year-end gratitude post. I think 2012 has been really good to me in many ways. Yes, there were days in the year when we were being tested and challenged to the limits but still I survived with the help of family, friends and even strangers. Here's a quick run-through of the year that was...

My girls turned a year older in January...how time flies!

Traveled to Bohol for a running event

To Manila (twice) for a training...

PAS National Convention at Sofitel Manila

Ariva Seminar on 5S at A. Venue Makati

To Boracay for our 10th Wedding Anniversary...

Ran and finished my first 10k at the Citigym Marathon...

Discovered and embraced Zumba with friends...

Organized a half-marathon albeit the stress and Sisa moments...

Celebrated our youngest sister's graduation...also celebrated freedom from baon and tuition fees hehe

My other sister, Magee finally settled in Italy with her new husband...

Blessed with a lot of gifts (hotel accommodation gift certificates, watches, jewelry and a lot more)

Above anything else, I will be thankful for the gift of family, friends, good health and a career to keep me going forward. Thank you 2012 for being the BEST year for me. You've made me realize that I am capable  of doing things I never imagined. I shall look ahead to the coming year with so much hope and faith in God that things will be a lot better and brighter. Oh! And we survived that end of the world scare!

Cheers to 2013...please be kind to me!

The Synergy Run

Pardon the silence but I was swamped with so much activities left and right. I felt the need to escape from the entire buzz but there are just things that you can't leave behind and just finish it once and for all.

One of which is the 1st Synergy Run - a half-marathon run organized by the Philippine Association of Secretaries and Administrative Professionals Cebu (PAS) and the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP). It was a very ambitious project that almost took our time from everything including our sanity. At the start, there were already issues especially with the way both associations do things differently and there came a point when I just wanted to drop everything like a hot potato. But I feel blessed that I had the best team to back me up particularly on the PAS side. Towards the big day though, the committee pitched in and helped in the completion of some remaining tasks. We already felt the so-called SYNERGY. 

The committee goofing around

Well, the turnout wasn't really what we expected. We were short of our targeted number of runners despite the aggressive marketing and promotions. But it wasn't really bad considering the fact that it was a first time for us to organize such an event and despite the competition of runs on the same day. We got good reviews from the attendees with how it was organized on race day itself. And we were truly blessed with generous sponsors. 

Elite Runners in front before the 21k gunstart

When asked if we were to do it all over again, I would still go for it. I believe we have created a mark in the running community and we feel that there's still a lot of room for improvement. The only way to apply what we've learned from this activity is to do it the second time around...or the third and so on. There's actually more gain than lost. I learned so much and my patience was put to a test.

i can still afford a smile despite the pressure

Cheers to the 1st SYNERGY RUN!!!

Wanderlust: Around the World in One Night

Our company party keeps on leveling up every year and I am more proud being part of the organizing committee. In the previous years, I was tasked to head this committee and I'm just glad that the company finally assigned somebody to handle corporate events. This year, I am tasked to take care of food and the ambiance which is a no-brainer. I promised myself that I don't want to get stressed out in this particular party considering the role I portray. I didn't even take much effort on what I should wear.

Anyway, the party theme is "Wanderlust: Around the World in One Night" and everyone really dressed up for the party wearing national costumes and what have you's. True to the theme, the committee dressed up as flight crews. We distributed boarding passes to our employees as their ticket to this party and our registration was turned into airport check-in counters --- really cool!

Here's sharing some photos swiped from Facebook:

The flight crew ready for take-off

Captain and co-captain

Annual photo-op with our handsome GM

We know how to party too!

Day 11: Who Can't You Live Without?

For now, I can't live without my husband, my children, my sisters and brother and my parents. But I know, someday they will leave me but my world doesn't end there. But for the purpose of this post, I cannot imagine what my daily routine would be without these two "kasambahay" - Anna and Tina.

Weekend Party

To the eyes of our bosses and colleagues, the party we had over the weekend was a success despite half of the company populace not in attendance. But to the committee, it was a hell of an experience with Pacific Cebu Resort’s staff and management. They had the crappiest service this side of the planet. You wanna know why?

* They don’t stick to what has been agreed.

* They made you pay for the water and dispenser. They’re serving us food and they’re supposed to provide water, right?

* If you ask for a salt, they tell you “it’s in the kitchen, get it yourself”. Whoa!!!

* If you ask for hot sauce, they cannot give one. A small carenderia always has Tabasco in case a customer would ask for one and here comes a resort who claims to be Class AA resort and yet cannot provide a hot sauce. Crap!!!

* And the beer we sent a day earlier was chilled during the event day itself. That’s why we’re sending it a day prior because we want it cold not warm during our event. And their reasoning is so stupid.

* They have unkempt facility with cobwebs hanging by the ceiling. There seems to be a water drought as well because their shower is in droplets - this according our expat who booked a room for her family.

* And the banquet manager who happens to be a colleague’s sister was nowhere to be found after we paid in full.

Why am I ranting? Considering our volume (450 guaranteed heads), we expected excellent service. Even the mere fact that one of the owners is our employee, we were also expecting some considerations to our little requests but NO, our requests landed in deaf ear.

As in any business, excellent customer service matters a lot and I mean A LOT. Word of mouth travels fast and we have blogs like this that will document our experiences with service providers just like Pacific Cebu Resort. We still have upcoming company events but it will NEVER, EVER be at Pacific Cebu Resort. Mark my word for it. And just a piece of advice to PCR... don't mess with the event committee or you'll experience their wrath in the most unimaginable way.