Watermelons!

Now that I've seen the premiere episode of The Amazing Race, and it looks like that lady turned out okay... I can finally admit that I was laughing my ass off after watching this scene. Multiple times.

So here's what I tweeted as I was watching the team intros. First impressions:

• Home TV Shopping Hosts: Annoying.
• 8months Dating Couple: Will fight a lot.
• Beach Volleyball Teammates: Woot!
• Ivy League Acapella Singers: Good voices, stop singing.
• Doctors: Double WOOT!
• TeamJumba: Dad's hilarious.
• Tattooed Couple: On the fence.
• Theater dudes: Not theatrical enough.
• Outspoken Douche Couple: Yeah...
• Dad/Daughter: Thick accents.
• RH Poster Girls: They just met.

This turned out to be a very likable cast, except for the blonde Home TV Shopping Host, who wouldn't stop talking and talking and talking and seems to just be generally self-centered and rude. Even the self-proclaimed aggro dudes from the dating couples weren't that bad. (Thomas, the self-proclaimed outspoken douche, was even polite at times.) The tattooed couple were HEE-larious. I was rooting for them to not be last just so they could bring in the unintentional laughs in the next episodes. It was fun to see the theater dudes get lost in England after boasting of their superior navigational skills and Bachelor and Master's degrees. I liked the Parent-Child teams too. The dad from TeamJumba is funny, and the Dad/Daughter team are pretty endearing.

I'm rooting for two FF teams though - the Doctors, who are most probably smart and can work well under pressure, and the Beach Volleyball teammates, who look athletic enough to last on the race, and seem to have cutthroat-bitchy personalities hiding underneath, which I like on TAR teams.

Next week: Teams head to Ghana! (I think.) Should give Tattooed couple lots of opportunities to bumble around.

Best Of '09... Part 1

Best movie I saw this year:
(500) Days of Summer

In second place:

Up

Most under-appreciated TV shows (because I don't know any friend who watches this show):

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

In second place:

The Soup

Best Trip I Took In 2009:

Coron, April 2-6

In second place:

Caramoan/CWC, Feb 21-24

Best Nickelodeon TV show:

Spongebob Squarepants

In second place:

The Fairly Odd Parents

Best "The Amazing Race" elimination:

Season 15, Dubai Leg Part 2: Mika and Canaan gets eliminated after Mika refuses to go down a 90-foot waterslide, allowing Globetrooters Flight Time and Big Easy to overtake them (this after the GTs fell behind by almost an hour when they couldn't figure out the right sequence that would open the combination lock of a briefcase that holds their next clue)

In second place:

Season 14, Beijing Leg Part 2: Kisha and Jen gets eliminated after Jen insists on taking a bathroom break, allowing Jaime and Cara to overtake them (this after Kisha and Jen gets U-Turned, and Jaime and Cara got lost for 3 hours++ finding a Chinese Opera House)

Most Unwelcome News of the Year:

Typhoons Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma) Flood + Damages. :(

In second place:

Ampatuan Massacre. Grrrr.

Most Addicting Website of the Year:

Facebook

In second place:

Tie: Television Without Pity/Twitter

Best Sporting Event of the Year:

Roger Federer wins a record 15th Grand Slam title in Wimbledon, 16-14 in the 5th set, over Andy Roddick

In second place:

Roger Federer wins his 14th Grand Slam title and 1st ever French Open to complete a career Grand Slam.

Da da da, da da, Da da da.

Great song, awesome voices.

Randomly stalking people while singing? Sounds like a great idea while walking around the streets of Paris.

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And here's another good one. Great old school song sung by a great old school voice.

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Been watching the 15th season of the Amazing Race on Studio 23. They broadcast it via satellite, so it starts on time, and with no commercial breaks. Best way to watch TAR! Only six teams left, and I like all of them. It's been a pretty good season so far, they've been to Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Dubai. The last Dubai episode was AWESOME.

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I had another bout with the flu 2 weeks ago which lasted for more than a week. Never went to the doctor though so I have no idea what kind of flu I had. What's annoying is this is the 2nd time I've gotten the flu this year, after paying for flu vaccine earlier. Before the vaccine, I've gotten the flu maybe once or twice in my life.

Thanks, flu vaccine. You were worthless.

...the right combination of brains, brawns, and teamwork

The 14th season of TAR starts tomorrow! Woohoooooo!



It includes Asian siblings who both have Harvard law degrees, 30/40-something flight attendants, stuntmen brothers, sisters/athletes, another mom and son team (but the twist here is the son is completely deaf since birth), former NFL cheerleaders (one of them is also a former police officer), a former drug addict and alcoholic and his wife, a formerly in the closet father (who's now come out as gay) and his son (School of Rock screenwriter Mike White... Ned Schneebly!), a blue collar married couple, and the requisite bickering/dating couples.

Here are the intro videos of the teams.

Based on initial impressions, I think I'll be rooting for Team Motherboy, since they're obviously the underdogs here, and the Asian siblings, who look really strong on paper (although they also look like a combination of last season's Nick & Starr and Terence & Sarah, which might get annoying.) The 3 all-female teams also look stronger than the pretty blondes in pink that TAR usually casts.


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Now playing: Joss Stone - Under Pressure
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A Mixed Bag

In another not-so-good news, my grandfather has been in the hospital since last Friday. I really hope he gets well soon.

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*Some spoilers here, if you haven't seen the TAR 13 finale yet...

On a much lighter topic (because I really need to talk about a much lighter topic), I just finished watching The Amazing Race 13 finale. I really liked this season, and that final leg was pretty exciting with Ken and Tina and Nick and Starr neck-and-neck through most of the leg. The final task was a pretty good life-sized memory game, and since it was life-sized, there was a lot of running around involved too. I still think last year's final roadblock, the logic puzzle that Rachel (of TK and Rachel, the mellow quasi-hippies) rocked, was more challenging though.

And just like last season, the team I was rooting for won! I love this show, but most of the time, a team that I hate crosses the finish line first... So it's good to have a team I like win two seasons in a row.





(It was the siblings, Nick and Starr btw)


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Now playing: Kings Of Leon - Fans
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Awesome Things, and Things One Should Probably Rethink Before Trying

Had a great time last Wednesday, celebrating my team lead Jonpe's and my former team lead Seph's new roles. The pics are over here. It was a fun night with the free food and beer, and the all-night karaoke. But what really made it awesome was when one of our teammates suddenly was given a rose by a "mystery" guy. What's funnier is my teammates went out to investigate who the "mystery" rose-sender was, and they were given the most obvious clue about who it was by the staff who delivered the rose... ROTFLMAO! Some things just align in a way that makes you think the universe intended them to happen exactly like that, and some things, well, not quite sometimes.

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Nickelodeon is back on my cable. I can finally watch Fairly-Odd Parents again. Yay.

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The Amazing Race 13 had teams going to Siem Reap, Cambodia last episode. Woohoo! They went to Angkor Wat for the roadblock task (where teams had to look for the Chamber of Echoes, which I think I found when I was there, but I had no idea that it was a chamber where you had to thump your chest to hear an echo), and to Bayon Temple for the pit stop. Awesome awesome awesome!

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Krispy Kreme has some new Reese-flavored donuts. Which will probably make me fatter because I love Krispy Kreme, and I love chocolate, and I love peanut butter. (I just took home a half dozen box of donuts for the weekend, right now only two are left.) Hurray for my belly!


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Now playing: The Magic Numbers - Mornings Eleven
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Other Food Products, #4

Damn It. So apparently Lotte Koala Biscuit (Family Pack)(Chocolate Filled)(Double Chocolate Flavor) is contaminated with Melamine. I ate a whole pack when I was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago.

Well, the bright side is, this buys me a viable excuse to go on endless sick leaves from work.

Officemate: Absent ka na naman? Tamad ka talaga.
Me: What? You're calling me lazy? Don't you know what I'm going through??? My kidneys are failing because of the Lotte Koala Biscuit pack that I ate 3 weeks ago! I'm so sick my piss is milk chocolate and my shit is shaped like koalas!

Anyway.

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The Amazing Race 13 premiered last Monday am here in Manila. The 13th season's first leg had teams going to Brazil. Woohoo! I'm a huge TAR geek so I'm happy the show's back. However, the premiere wasn't as exciting as I thought it could've been, partly because the tasks weren't that hard, and partly because the Married Beekeeping senior citizens were so slow and unexciting, their elimination was basically a foregone conclusion. Last year's premiere was awesome, because really, it's hard to top braying donkeys in Ireland when it comes to comic relief.


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Now playing: Massive Attack - Live With Me
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Add Salt and Pepper To Taste

I realized that for the past month that I've been spending way too much money on food. With the frequent take-outs from Sbarro in the nearby SM mall and the almost-nightly deliveries for pizza and giant burgers (and the frequent trips to Starbucks and Seattle's Best for coffee breaks in between work) being the main culprits. So last Saturday, to conserve my dwindling cash-on-hand, I attempted to cook a meal that would last me the whole weekend. I just basically grabbed whatever I saw on our kitchen cabinet and mixed them all up, and I came up with a dish I would like to christen Mackerel with Garlic Mushrooms in Tomato-Teriyaki Sauce. I think I'm Top Chef material.

Ok... So it was canned sardines in tomato sauce with canned button mushrooms with lots of garlic and onions and instant teriyaki sauce from a bottle (+ sesame oil, some basil, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to taste.)

It still tasted good though.

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The 13th season of The Amazing Race is coming in September! WOOOOHOOOO!!! And according to this article, the teams will be going for the first time to Cambodia! Awesome! I've always wanted TAR to go to Cambodia, because 1) it just fits a TAR location, in my mind, with the exotic culture, non-English-speaking people, unconventional transportation methods, and the beautiful landscape. 2) any temple in the Angkor complex would make a great pit stop and 3) up until last month, it was one of my dream destinations that I've never been to yet, so I was hoping my all-time favorite show would take me there. (The linked article has more location and other pseudo-spoilers that came from the show's executive producer, btw)


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Now playing: Massive Attack - Live With Me
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Sobering Facts

The world is a vampire...

I can't believe it's time to bust that song out again.

Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved.

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So I missed the Aussie Open finals (but I missed it because of my El Nido trip, and it was totally worth it), just to recap, Daniela reached the semifinals (her first in a Grand Slam) where she lost to Serbian Ana Ivanovic, who then lost in the finals to Maria Sharapova, who takes her third Grand Slam title (after Wimbledon and the US Open). On the men's side, Serbian Novak Djokovic takes his first Grand Slam title after beating Roger Federer in the semifinals. It was the first time Fed didn't reach a final of a Grand Slam in 3,273 years.

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TK and Rachel won TAR12. Woohoo! This is the first time a team I liked from the very first leg actually won the whole race. (Remind me to do a geeky post about my TAR lists)

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And finally, El Nido. So I posted a few pics on my previous post. And I mentioned how awesome El Nido is. Well, I'm gonna do it again.

We went island hopping El Nido has the most beautiful islands, beaches, lagoons. We went kayaking in the snorkeling and kayaking in the Big and Small Lagoon in Miniloc Island, and we saw baby sharks! with our bare eyes! swimming right beside our kayaks! We also stopped by Entalula Island (it's the last pic on my previous post) where we tried some rock climbing. It was awesome! I have short arms and legs, so getting to the top took some effort, but it was still awesome. Most of the pics are in Charmaine's cam so I'll probably post some once I get a hold of some copies. We also tried some scuba diving (there was a free introductory course, just like every freaking activity you could do in El Nido). I've snorkeled a bunch of times and but scuba diving was a totally different, and a whole lot cooler experience. You could actually see fishes and corals and sea creatures right in front of you! It was amazing. Definitely one of many highlights of the trip. We also had lunch at a private beach. A speed boat dropped us off a private beach, with our lunch all prepared right on the beach (baby back ribs and grilled salmon, shrimp kebab, shrimp sinigang, baked potatoes, salad, and a bunch of fruits) and left us to enjoy ourselves.

Speaking of food. The food was fucked up great. It was buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner (including desserts!) I'm not sure but I probably gained a few pounds in those three days.

And it was an awesome three days.



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Now playing: The Postal Service - Nothing Better
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The Aussie Open 2008, and The Amazing Race 12

Lots of action at this year's Australian Open in Melbourne. Roger Federer almost lost his third round match yesterday to Serbian Janko Tipsarevic. The match lasted more than 4 hours, ending 10-8 in the fifth set. A couple of days ago, Andy Roddick was beaten by German Philipp Kohlschreiber (who I'll be calling PK because his last name is so long) in 5 sets too, 8-6 in the third, with PK playing out of his mind. Other huge upsets yesterday came from Maria Kirilenko (pictured, while practicing one of her flying trick shots), who beat #6 Anna Chakvetadze (I liked watching their match, they looked like Russian teen-age socialites on the verge of a cat fight), Agnieszka Radwanska, who follows up her upset of Maria Sharapova at the US Open with a win over #2 Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Croatian Marin Cilic, beating out last year's runner up Fernando Gonzalez of Chile. The other huge upset came from Day One, when #9 Andy Murray of Great Britain lost to French Muhammad Ali look-alike Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Bring on the second week of action!

Also coming up (tomorrow) is the finale of the 12th season of The Amazing Race. It has been a great season so far, and TAR 12's ratings are really going high so that's great news too. I'm rooting for TK and Rachel, and Christina (I suppose she needs her usually assy dad to cross the finish line with her...) The Grandfather-grandson team of Nicholas and Donald are fine with me too, which makes this the first season ever where I like all the final three teams. Awesome. Amazing.


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Now playing: The Dresden Dolls - My Alcoholic Friends
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Europe’s Schengen visa expanded to 9 other countries

Europe’s Schengen visa expanded to 9 other countries

MANILA, Philippines -- Starting December 21, the coverage of Europe’s Schengen visa will expand to nine more countries -- the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia -- increasing the number of Schengen states to 24, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday.

Ahhhhhh!!! And just when my trip to Poland was over! Prague! Budapest! Malta! Vilnius! the Baltics! (and not to mention France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries) :((

When (and how) can I go back???


on a side note: The Amazing Race 12's episode in Croatia made me really want to go to Dubrovnik. Now I only have to think of the easiest way to swindle money from rich people to have enough money for a plane ticket.

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Now playing: Muse - Stockholm Syndrome
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And you were the places that I wanted to go

I've been away from home for 8 weeks now, so I figure right about now would be the perfect time for me to wax poetic about how much I miss home, how homesick I am etc etc... But I can't, because I'm not. I've just been having such a great time here enjoying every second of this experience that I have no time to be homesick. Of course, there are some things in the Philippines that I'm dying to see again. But I figure, I'll only be here for 3 months... Why waste those three months on thinking about how much I miss what I'll be going back to for the rest of my life? You know what I mean?

Anyway having said that, I do miss my family and friends. That's a given. Even though I've met a lot of friendly people here in Poland, those people back home can't be replaced. (Naks!)

And I do miss Filipino food. Luckily, we met the Filipino Community here in Poland (yes, all 9 of them) who invited us to a gathering last All Saints' Day holiday, and where there's a Filipino community, there's sure to be Filipino food :D There was adobo, lechon manok, lumpia, Pinoy-style spaghetti, and my favorite, caldereta! So that really helped ease out the "I miss Filipino food" part (and anyway, if you see me now, you probably won't believe I'm missing any kind of food whatsoever, haha. I think I've gained more than 10 pounds since I got here. waaaah...)

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Right now, it's 0 degrees outside. And tomorrow (at least according to Yahoo weather), it will be snowing in Warsaw! That's gonna be a first for me (experiencing snow, I mean) and as much as that may seem exciting, I really really really was hoping it won't snow until we leave. Because snow would only mean it's gotten colder. And it's already too coooold for my tropical ass!

I saw some pictures of my Boracay trip from last year and from earlier this year, and it really really made me wish for the sun and the heat and the general tropical weather of the Philippines. The sun barely shines here, and if it does shine, it doesn't even sting the skin like it does in Manila at 12 in the afternoon. I wouldn't have thought I'd miss that, but there you go.

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Last weekend, we made our way to the town of Malbork and the city of Gdansk way up north by the Baltic coast. We went to Malbork to visit its castle, which is the largest Gothic castle in Europe, and the largest brick castle in the world. It was the seat of the Teutonic Order in the medieval times, and walking through its grounds and halls, you could really feel the grandness of it all. Gdansk is a port city on the Baltic Sea and has one of the most beautiful city squares in Poland, in my opinion. I'll post pictures and talk more about them on my next entry :D

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On a side note: The latest season of The Amazing Race is now on! WOOOOOHOOOOO!

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Now playing: Sigur Rós - Hoppipolla
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The Girl That Does Yoga

Hey, its Fed vs Rafa in the Monte Carlo final!

Have I mentioned that I'm buying a puppy soon? (umm, not me exactly... my dad's paying for the puppy (I think), but I was the one who convinced him to buy one. Heh.) So anyway, one of this pups will be named after whoever wins The Federer-Nadal final later today. (Federer or Rafael) :-)

Of course there is a chance that we might get a female puppy, and if that's the case, then the Fed/Rafa thing won't really fly.

I'll probably name her Dustin or Kandice :-))

21 inches of sleep

I finally got around to buying a TV for my bedroom last Sunday! =D I think it should help me whenever I have those nights when sleep just can't catch up to me (I'm not sure if I have insomnia. There are no problems with the quality of my sleep, but I do have ocassional problems initiating sleep. I may be an intermittent transient insomniac, if that makes sense). Cable hasn't been connected yet though, so I'm just watching DVDs in the meantime.

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Just because it can't be said enough (or there are too few chances of actually saying this without lying): Work has been kind lately.

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Did I also mention that the latest season of The Amazing Race just kicks major ass?!? If not, then let me just state for the record that TAR 10 is awesome! One of the best seasons ever (along with Season 1, 3 and 5, imo). I really like the racers this season (there are now just 5 teams left, the Beauty Queens, the Model/Former Drug Addicts, the token Bickering Couple, the Asian Brothers, and the Single Mothers), the cluses and tasks are back to the level of difficulty where you really need to use your brains, skills and enough common sense, and the locations are just awesome amazing! (so far they've been to China, Mongolia!, Vietnam, India, Kuwait, Mauritius and Madagascar.) The Amazing Race Asia also just premiered an hour ago (it's an Asian version of the original TAR, franchised by AXN.) TAR overload! I love it! :D

I'm also back to religiously watching Survivor again. I sort of stopped watching the show somewhere between the 6th and 9th seasons, then started at it again the last couple of seasons (the one where Steph and Bobby Jon kept on losing and losing and Ian did this stupid move to hand Tom the win, and the one with Cirie, where Terry kept on winning everything but it was Aras who won in the end.) I don't like Survivor as much as TAR (since TAR is, uhm, my favorite TV show of all time), but it's enjoyable enough to get me glued to it again. (Plus there are two Pinoys in Survivor this season, which i have to admit, adds to the Watch Me! factor)

Oh, thank you TV.



ps: Other shows I recommend: House and The Office. =D

Natalie Portman, You Own Me Now.

It's already the middle of March and I still haven't posted anything here...

So here I go.

My brother left for the US (to Atlanta) about two and a half weeks ago for a project he's been assigned to at work. He'll be staying there for atleast three months. Ano kaya ang magandang hingiing pasalubong?

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My favorite show of all time - The Amazing Race - is back with a new season... Woohoo! And it's back to the good, regular format of teams-of-two-racingaroundtheworld! (Good thing they ditched that completely sucky "Family Edition" racearoundtheUSandnearbycountries shit)

By the way, AXN just bought the rights to produce an Asian version of the Amazing Race. I'd join this, but I don't think I can take a month off from work... tsk tsk...

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Finally got to buy the Up Dharma Down cd... Haven't listened to it yet though... I'll try to post my thoughts later...

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Hostel!!!

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I scored two tickets for last night's advance screening of V for Vendetta. The movie was AMAZING. It's a really really really good movie (a timely one too) that I highly recommend to anyone. So watch it!

I shall die here. Every last inch of me shall perish. Except one.

An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.

It's a really smart movie (I don't want to use "intellectual", because honestly, intellectual is such a blrergh word, you know?) that combines substance and style in an awesome way. It's a Vertigo movie is what it is. I could go on and on about how much I loved this movie, so I better stop now.

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F1 season is back again! Great start of the season with the Bahrain Grand Prix too, with Fernando Alonso overtaking Michael Schumacher on his way out of the pitstop, at the most perfect time in the race! Kimi Raikonnen took third place after starting the race at the bottom of the pack after sufferring suspension failure during qualifying (again). Still, good race...

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Last March 3-4, we at the office had our first teambuilding activity of the year (hope there's many more to come.) We had it at this resort at Balai, Indang, Cavite just a few kilometers off of Tagaytay. The place we rented was really nice, had very nice houses and rooms, good food, weather was great, it was a great weekend over-all... Except for one hilariously embarrassing thing that I did...

We were assigned our rooms and I was supposed to room with my manager, my team leader, and a teammate of mine. So we're four in the room right? Well, the short story is that I was the only one who actually got to sleep in the room because I fell asleep before everyone else and locked the door. Accidentally (y'all have to believe me on this). My three roommates (yep, including the manager) ended up sleeping in the sofas outside... So yeah... a little awkward seeing them the next few days...