summer time!

It's summer time once again!!

Everyone wants to hit the beach and have tan, ladies are on a strict diet and excited looking for the skimpiest swimsuits, lots of people are scouting for the best beaches around... We all want to lounge near the sea and have fun.

Had just one trip to the beach early this month. I admit, I just literally forced my hubby and his former team mates to include me on their team building but it was worth strangling their necks because I really had a fantastic time. At least I had my tan and I can already say that I went somewhere this summer, hahaha!

The place isn't as neat as those white sand beaches that will cost you a fortune if you stay overnight, and it's just regular sand, typical to those gravel and sand that we would normally buy to build a house, hahaha! It's somewhere in Ternate, Cavite, forgive me for forgetting the name of the resort, it's ranch something resort. The place has a pool with slides, with hall, videoke, and you can have bonfire at night. The rooms are just fine, and best of all, the accommodation rates are within your budget. You can cook, sing all day-all night, talk dirt and yell at each other for all they care. You can snuggle with your partner under the cool palm trees, you can climb the trees like monkeys and get coconot, you can do what you want to do!

If you are just after hitting the beach and having fun with limited funds, then this place will really do. I bet it will even be better if they will develop the place. Not as glamorous as Amanpulo or Boracay, but at least you need not worry about plane tickets and going home with no money at all. 2-3 hours drive from Manila and you're there. And if you are with someone you enjoy being with, does place matters???

simply mhei

NEW YEAR ESCAPADE

Goodbye 2008 and hello 2009!!!

The previous year has been really great. There has been a lot of good and not-so-good memories that I want to thanks everyone who has been part of it. Whoah!! Enough with the drama.

Well, this New year's eve celebration has been very remarkable! Even I am somewhat in recession lately, with huge credit card bills and all that, we were able to celebrate it with superb dishes, splendid fireworks and with my loved ones.

I was so fortunate to have been given December 31st and January 1st as rest days for this week though I had to be on split rest days per week for the past two weeks. Still all worth it!

Migs and I bought some colorful fireworks. It has been a while since I last bought fireworks and I was surprised how expensive they are now. Well, can't complain though. We just bought a handful-2 fountains, 2 small boxes of pink firework displays and 1 medium sized colorful fireworks. That already cost a thousand bucks, can you believe that?

We had grilled liempo, lechong kawali, beef caldereta, holiday ham, and fruit salad for our Media Noche. We didn't have that much time to cook and anyway it was just my mom and dad, then migs my hubby and josh my son. I bought ingredients for an italian-style spaghetti, but since I practically slept the entire day, I wasn't able to cook it. Can you blame me if I'm so tired? Hahaha.

The best part of 'em all was our ROAD TRIP with my close friends jaypee and jason. Jaypee used to be my editor in chief in college and the person who referred me to CVG and jason is our papa bear in the office. Well, originally, we planned to go to The Fort to party after the putukan blues is over. The place was so jampacked with youngsters that we decided to head to Antipolo at 4am in the morning.

The trip to Antipolo was like the movie/ps game The Silent Hill wherein the place was so foggy(was it really fog or the aftermath of the new year's fireworks?) and the road looked so silent and a little scary. Unlike The fort, Antipolo was a ghost town that early New year's day. Bars were closed and I could barely see any vehicle or people out in the streets. We then saw Cloud 9 with a signage that says they're open 24 hours. So we drove our way up to steepy Cloud 9. Guess what? We found no one, not even a guard or receptionist. We just took pictures and scared each other and drove off.

It's 5 in the morning on new year's day and we're still in the middle of nowhere with no idea where to go to after Antipolo. Well, though we have not stayed for more than 30 minutes at The Fort and antipolo, we were still enjoying our escapade. So, we hit Eastwood next. And ofcourse, since it's already breakfast time for everyone after a major party, we didn't find any open bar and party people, just a bunch of lunatics taking their pictures with Ronald Mcdonald. After Esatwood, we passed by Metrowalk, then, we went to Rockwell, no luck either. Well, what do you expect? Everyone was so damn tired by then.

Since we literally went to all the hang outs in Manila, we headed to Makati to check if there's still life at 5:30 am, and guess what, we found one in Makati Ave.!! We didn't like the genre of music so we tried to scout for other places. And since we became so hungry with this thrilling road trip, all we wanted was to have breakfast and go home. We decided to have Northpak for breakfast. And you guessed right...Northpark is already closed. We went to check Tiananmen(me and migs' favorite), they were about to close also, the we tried to check Nextdoor, which is below Tiananmen, they were still open but everyone was there I didn't think we have a fat chance to squeeze our bodies in. So we finally decided to just have our old time favorite tapa and proceeded to Ruffos' which is just a walking distance from Makati Ave.

At last, we finally found ourselves a table. Place was also jampacked with people who were so tried after partying hard. You might think that we didn't enjoy the trip, but we difinitely enjoyed every minute of it, all thanks to Jaypee and Jason who made the day really fun, specially having those snide remarks on people we saw along the way.

Yeah, it was like a long journey with no fair result, spending a lot on gas for going practically from south to north and vice versa, but it was really fun and definitely something I'll look forward to sometime soon.

Thanks our driver with no less than my husband Migs, my fashionista friend Jaypee and my ever reliable frined Jason. Happy new year and I hope we don't go around road-tripping all througout the year. Hahahaha!!
♥♥♥ simply mhei ♥♥♥

pictures of our teambuilding/bday of boss

We had our team building last week/birthday of our ever beloved boss AJ. Since i don't have a digital camera, i was able to upload the pictures just now. Like what I've said on my last post, the place was really awesome!! I hope we can go back there for the team's Christmas party.

We had our hard earned 3-day off after the team building, since we had split-offs for the past 2 weeks. This coming week, we have another 3-day off, life couldn't get any better, right? Well, after our rest days for this week, we will go back to the same Sunday-Monday off. Darn.


Here, some of us posing @ the pool side. We have been soooo tired since we came from the 10pm till 7am shift then we headed right away to this place. In short, we only slept when we went home so it was like we were awake for more than 24 hours. But it's all worth it.The swimming pool looks just great! It can accommodate 50 guests I think and you can still move around the pool. There are trees around as you can see, fully landscaped greenery and something that looks like a fountain, that is really not a fountain, do I make sense? Hahaha!

The place looks inviting. You can relax and have fun at the same time. If it get's too hot, there's a nipa-like cottage that you can go to or you can just stay at the air-contioned entertainment room, where you can choose to sing or to make fun of whoever is singing!!


And if it get's way too cold, you have the option of staying inside the sauna forever and loose those ugly pounds (ouch!!!), or you can do a walkaton or something to perspire. That's by the way Richard on your left, he's the other TCON (Transition Coach) that was not on our group pic that I posted the last time. He's the epitome of staying inside the sauna for an hour and being the runner(or our boy, hehehe) of the day.

If you get too drunk, then you can sleep in this nipa hut. Just beware since it's beside the pool. Next thing you know, you're already thrown at the pool by your good-natured(?) friends.




What's the best part? You can take pictures just about anywhere!! If you're a photo addict ( like us), then you can never run out of posing to do and places to have your picture taken.






You can take picture as soon as you get to the place...while waiting for the food to be served. Also after eating when your stomach is already full






When doing absolutely nothing, when others are busy doing something and you're just waiting for your turn...when getting drunk..Or how you look before drinking and after...







Resting by the poolside after having an absurd water fight with your peers.... Or just simply posing because the view is great....





I hope we can do it again...without spending a dime...(dream on Mhei!!)

♥♥♥simply mhei♥♥♥

team building/bday party of boss

Yesterday was really awesome. Well, it really didn't start swell for I have to work during the wee hours taking endless calls. I swear, I almost thought of quitting because of those irate customers disputing their bills, asking for credits, complaining the service they get from us, complaining of having to wait on the queue forever....Good thing that we have a team building afterwards sponsored by the birthday celebrant- our boss, AJ. He reserved a very cool resort in BF Parañaque. Actually, the owner of the place is his relative. I don't think it's really being rented for the place is superb! It's just a house, well, not really JUST a house, since it's really huge. I'll post the pics sometime next week..stupid me, I forgot to get Ann's memory card so I can upload 'em right away.

Let me introduce the rest of the Transition Coaches, or TCON's as they call it at work. Let me do it clockwise...I'll start from top left. Billy, the bald guy, who is one of the heartthrobs whenever we have transition agents (Agents who graduated from PST or Product Specifics Training, "transitioning" from training to the production floor). Next is our ever beloved BOSS AJ, who is somewhat strict (that's a compliment boss) but with a funny bone in his body. He's very efficient, mind you. Just make sure you hit the metrics and you're good. Next to boss AJ is Ann, our baby doll. Don't ask me why we call her baby doll because I honestly can't remember where it all started. Then, there's Ayith, which is THE LEGEND, being with Directv (our account) since it started it's operation in Alabang (need I say more?). Ofcourse, next to her is yours truly. After me, there's Jen, the mommy of all mommies. She really is a mom to everyone, even me, who's a mom,hahaha! KC or Khryzz is the person next to Jen, who's the sister of our old boss. Then, there's Cath, our AHT(Average Handle Time) queen. peace Cath :) Rose is next, I don't know how to describe her...she's good, she's the type who will tell you stories about life in general. After Rose is Ces, The youngest of all, one of the hot chicks (next to me,hahaha!). Well, behind that good looks-you'll never guess it but she can slap you real hard, and for her that's just a tap. After her is Chryss, who is not reporting to work anymore...(miss you Chryss!!) Then, there's Ivy, small but terrible (literally???). Then Dheck, another one of the sought-after TCON's, always being tagged as the TCON who smells good (so don't we smell as good as him?). next to Dheck is Marco, a very happy guy, he always smiles-not to himself. Then Eric is next, or should I say Don Eric? The big time alabanger guy who's feet stays glued to the ground, well, not literally or he won't be able to move his wheelchair to places. And last but the least,er, not the least, Rosh, one of the funniest. Oh, there's Richard, but he wasn't in the picture or he would have ruined everything.(good thing..hahaha!!kidding Chard!)

Going back to the party, the place is really great. The pool is big, there's jacuzzi, sauna, there's an entertainment room, and there's a hut on the second floor where you can relax and just drink or whatever. There's another hut on the pool side wherein you can lie down and just feel the wind breezing on your cheeks. Boss AJ ordered a lot of food, courtesy of Contis' and bought beers and vodkas. Well, I don't drink anymore, so I just spent majority of the time singing my heart out in the entertainment room, which is air-conditioned. Some went to swim, some stayed on the the bigger hut and played cards while drinking and the rest went to our concert in the entertainment room. It really was fun, that although we didn't sleep for almost 24 hours, being with friends and enjoying the time made it really worthwhile.