Finding Everland

I first heard of Everland in Korina Sanchez's Balitang K, as she features one of the world's biggest theme parks in the world. From then on, my heart lingers to experience the majestic fun and festivities in Everland Korea. 

In our second day in the land of morning calm, we finally get the chance to see and experience fantasies, adventures and awesome attractions plus the freezing weather at -2 degrees. Despite the cold, chilling atmosphere, we fearlessly explored Everland.  

First ride was a simple ups and downs at the human sky :) 

Next ride was at Double Rock Spin; the powerful spinning and rhythm of this ride gave us an almost-vomit experience, plus the thrill that we don't know what's gonna happen next! 

Finally we're out! We made it :)

Next ride is common in most theme parks but the size and speed of Everland's   Rolling X-Train is super exciting with two 360-degree revolutions! 

And how could I forget Pororo? We didn't understand the language but I'm sure he's a superhero for the bubbles; thanks to 3D technology.

There are lots of photo spots everywhere! 

Day or night, Everland is a picture of fantasies, magnificent architecture and happy faces. Thanks to Alex and Paul for the photos.. 

A wonderful vacation indeed!

Welcome us to your heart; SEOUL KOREA

5:25 am today, the pilot announced our arrival in Incheon Airport, Korea. Ground temperature as announced is at 0 degrees, lot lower than the 7 degrees forecast last week. This announcement excites me, being a woman who grew in a tropical country, this temperature could be an awesome experience! Just like most of the kids from Philippines, i am dreaming of a crystal white snow but caught in this situation unprepared is a whole new story. 

This has started our new journey... cold but meaningful our hopeful hearts are now chilling with happiness.. 

We were picked up by a snob Korean guy and drive us to Backpackers Korea. This is a cozy cafe with rooms upstairs perfect for budget conscious travelers like me. It's a good choice actually, it gives us the comfort that  we need in a family set-up dorm type rooms. 

Our  journey begins with a cup of coffee, snapshots and happy hearts that we bring with us all the times. Breakfast was made by my dear husband a.k.a "Korean Chef" who loves to cook more than ever. After we filled in our stomach, we planned our itinerary and began exploring Seoul :) 

Though we had a hard-time communicating with Korean nationals, I'm really thankful to iphone's available applications like itourseoul and Learn Korean. These apps ease out the communication barriers. 

Finally after a detour and several wardrobe improvements to combat the chilling atmosphere, we were able to reach the magnificent Myeong-dong Catholic Church. Its beauty stands proud, leaves every visitors amazed by the charm of an old church at the center of progressive  Seoul.

When we get inside, there were couples receiving the holy matrimony, indeed Koreans also value and honor family and marriage. 

And like flowers in Seoul, the journey of these two hearts continue... Rache and Paul in Korea :)

Life is a journey, you can only live life to the fullest when you take away your fears to explore the road less travelled.

Loving the LOVE Month

Love month? It's very simple! Girls definitely love it, men don't for lots of complicated reasons. Admit it guys, this is one of the heck celebrations that causes you troubles, sleepless nights and hmm sinful indulgence. Women's sinful indulgence is into chocolates and cakes, well men is into sweet escapade as well^^

Loving the love month? Definitely yes! Here are reasons why^^

My Valentine's Birthday - Yes, birthday is a lot more special for me because everyone remembers the date. It's not 14 but Feb. 13, to effect it's still easier to recall. This year, I am going 30, scary for some but it's the other way around for me. I always say yes, it's 30 going 13. Let's not fear of growing old, be matured but stay young at heart and

of  course maintain the youthful glow.

Valentine Gifts / Birthday Gifts - Sweet and nice, pretty and cool, small yet charming - I receive all the best gifts during this season. Whether they combine their gifts into 1, it will always be special. Love letters, friendship bonds, heart shaped necklace with photo inside, bouquet, balloons, bears, a poem, a wishing lantern etc... real sweet presents :)

Love Songs -  I'm into alternative songs, it's very rare for me to listen to music that are too sentimental! Weird :)

Valentine Events - Of course, I'm into events and advertising industry. This is part of loving my work. But aside from that, I really enjoy working with creative people, doing centerpiece that's pleasant to the eyes. Here yah, I wanna share our latest project for Valentine's Day.

This is our centerpiece this year. A giant heart shaped wood painted with different pink and red pantones and covered with tarpaulin designed with hearty crafts! This is about 12 ft. tall, our star for all season red sofa is given a make-over ^^

Spell it right with  L-O-V-E!

This is a very nice concept by Ruth, my Marketing Officer. We featured Valentine symbols, love horoscopes, love quotes and pick-up lines!

Valentine Cards -  Who wouldn't love it. But the most romantic Valentine's Day Cards for me are black and white with cute anime' or cartoon images.

Happy Heart's Day!

Frugality Sparks Creativity

In every seasonal activities conducted in SM Supermalls, one factor is definite; it will always go big time, as big as SM’s name in the industry.

In today’s Marketing approach, we do not just entice people to shop, dine and have fun in SM. We have given our shoppers what they are looking for in a shopping mall, modesty aside SM is now far beyond being the second home of millions of shoppers nationwide. The challenge has leveled up to creating a lifestyle which people will admire to be part of. This really sounds costly because innovation and creativity always twin up with pricey investments. Success stories of SM is an open book to all of us but aside from the many reasons behind, SM definitely was able to inculcate the value of prudence to all its employees.

The challenge to Mall Marketing is to outdo its performance vs. last year in terms of event implementation, budget management, creative efforts and a lot more. Therefore we shouldn’t run out of creative juices, or else we wouldn’t fit anymore to the trends that SM is eyeing forward.

The Chinese New year being the very first seasonal campaign for the year has been a great start for Marketing. We saw all equally beautiful centerpieces across all malls; atriums were decorated with Chinese lanterns creatively hung on different heights giving us a really Chinese ambience. I am pretty sure people enjoyed the celebration; it was evident in the social networking sites as I see fellow Batangueños post their photos in our Chinese temple and Ang Pao tree. It is rewarding to hear good comments but seeing people enjoy the fruit of our labor is good enough to inspire us to do more and keep our passions alive. Indeed, it was all applause beyond words.




Chinese New Year Centerpiece - view from 2nd floor

 


Batangas KIPSI students performed an authentic chinese dance. Our temple fits well :)



When everyone else thinks it’s easy to hire a contractor to deliver our needs for thematic set up, it’s impractical to pay them our entire month’s budget for one centerpiece. This is the time when we need to improve our perspective on available resources of the company.  Passion is the key to create beauty out of a scrap. Our ideas for Chinese New year centerpieces were overflowing but for it to materialize within the given budget were a totally different story. The good thing with the situation, it pushes our creativity to the next level, most of the times we are surprised to discover alternative materials of the same effect with the expensive one but of totally lesser cost. Perfect example was the red carpet that we used last year; this time around our flooring was a bright red taffeta, with superb luster and easier to maintain than the red carpet. A trip to our storage also helped as we found good materials to recycle to build the Chinese temple. And who would think our Ang Pao tree was recycled?  It was an old red tree that we keep; it was used several times in different seasonal activations. It has been an Easter Egg tree, it was even borrowed by other malls. This year it was repainted with sunlit gold, fuchsia cherry blossoms were extended on the branches to symbolize good fortune, low-priced gold foil were added to achieve balance of colors between red and fuchsia. The result is an abundant ang pao tree, signifying a prosperous Chinese New Year.



Lucky Ang Pao Tree



The creative minds of Marketing team, the artistic hands of our VDD team and support from Operations made it all possible.  This certainly proves that two heads are better than one and stunning centerpieces need not be costly.  Without a doubt frugality benefits us in unexpected way – it prompted the creativity within ourselves!

Christmas in the Eyes of a Child

Christmas is always the most wonderful season of the year especially for kids! But for grownups, its meaning has been tarnished and associated to so many different meanings! For employer expenses shoot up for employees' bonuses, for businessmen it's like a dollar sign  as they double their earnings because people do not mind spending their money! I always enjoy Christmas and even now in my late 20's I still do! When my sisters asked me, what's with Christmas that still excites me, I just nod and recall good Christmas memories!

Aside from the fact that I receive lots of gifts, left and right; it's the time when people are showering so much kindness to each and everyone that we end up praying "Sana araw-araw ay pasko! Admit it,  people are extra caring, patient and  kindhearted!

It has been five years when I joined the magical world of SM and Christmas means a lot different! This is the time when I cannot go into shopping ahead of time because there are lots of more important things I have to do before I think of shopping for my myself! This is also the time that my job spells BUSYNESS and stress!

Last year, I am so proud of our centerpiece! Because from the start I knew what I want to see as centerpiece! I gave a title that's so me :) It's Sweet Christmas at SM City Batangas!

Candy house plus candy tree made last year's Christmas so sweet! Plus we had cupcakes, variety of candies, chocolates and candy canes in our candy buffet!

The candy tree is just an addition to our centerpiece! I got the inspiration from Candylicious  in Singapore during our first trip to Sentosa. And I'm really satisfied with how my contractor gave justice to my love and  addiction to sweets :)

This year, I'm kinda confused! I have lots of things in my mind! I like snow, i like santa but all year round I'm imagining of a snowy playground with hundreds of snowmen playing! And I ended up having a WINTER WONDERLAND with all the fat and huggable characters around!

View from second floor

The "Bear Tree" made it more special! Thanks to Bear Cuddler for lending us all the cutie bears :)

After all the busy days and nights, everything is all worth it!



And of course, what I like most about my job? Dressing up :)

But what completed my happiness is when i saw kids' smiles turns into laughters... Instead of performing their dance number, they play around as if they were in real snow! Truly, this is Christmas in the eyes of a child!





Pahiyas Fest is the best!

I love colors and lights and i admire creative people, that's probably the reason why I love Pahiyas Festival among other local festivities that I know. I was in SM Lucena for My City, My SM  and  one of the endorsers is from Lucban. Soon after the event, at around 8 pm, we went ahead to Lucban with my  good friends in the magical world. I was  still in my yellow dress, matching the bright colors in Lucban but I didn't mind.

Great that I joined my SM friends in this trip! My eyes were busy adoring the leaf-shaped wafers called kiping! It comes in all great shapes, brilliant colors and it truly depicts festive celebration. And it's really nice for photo opp, yeah that's the best part actually.  

During our trips, we comment on funny yet entertaining statues and I love the climate! We also enjoyed the food in Ground Zero! Perfectly Italian piconne in the province of Lucban! It's amazing because I  didn't expect much in the place and yet I consider it a wonderful travel experience :)

Kota Keluarga for Beautiful Batangas

I am a beach bum so living in Batangas is absolutely rewarding! I’m close to stunning beaches, deep blue sea, translucent water, virgin islands, fresh breeze and lots of nature wonders! Swimming gives me inner peace, it feels like the sea waves can take away my burdens! Yes, I’m convinced I was a mermaid in my past life. I can even sleep at the sea, floating! My mom doesn’t believe I can do so until she really saw me floating asleep. The sea waves are lullabies to my ears! (baby ) hehe.

I have been in hundreds of resorts and beaches in Batangas and other places,  but there’s one place where I want to go back every now and then. Have explored the stretch of Laiya, Mabini, Nasugbu and  Anilao beaches  but the pristine water and clear sky and rough rocks that were naturally formed  over the years made me fell in love with Kota Keluarga! 

Going there is easy especially now with Startollway. Travel from Manila to Batangas is now 1 and a half hours. It is located in municipality of San Juan, southeastern-most part of Batangas along coastlines of Barangay Laiya and Baluarte. Here's the map.

Unfortunately, Kota Keluarga is not open for everyone, it’s a residential resort which means you need to own a part of the subdivision or know someone who lives there to enter this paradise. Since very few can afford a piece of land there, the beach has maintained its coral reefs and white powdered sand.

Unlike in other famous beaches, you won't find a banana boat here! There's no souvenir shops, nobody will offer you to braid your hair or put tattoos on your skin, it's just you with the nature. And what I love most? There’s no communications signal at all, whatever your network is. You are really "out of coverage area" Yes, I love twitter and facebook but when I’m in Kota Keluarga, I can bid goodbye to social networking sites!

I'm glad I was invited to have an overnight stay here. I enjoyed playing with the waves, climbing and jumping from the rocks and of course, the rock that stands proud at the shoreline, and take note it looks like our favorite muffin :)

Two thumbs up Kota keluarga for Beautiful Batangas!