More PICs - CFG Climbs TAAL Volcano Dec 15, 06

CFG Team on Taal Volcano Top

The "Horse" did not make it.

You can see the horse and understand WHY it didn't make it below in previous posting.

POCAHONTAS

Thien (CMS)

1 Hour and 30mins climb to Burn Calories

10minutes and Quarter Pounder Mcdonald's to bring it back...then wash it down with Cold Buko (Coconut) Juice straight from the coconut shell!

Evening at the Days Hotel - Tagaytay City

Who said the volcano climb will suck out our energy?

Several San Miguel Lights/Pale Pilsens later and everyone's grabbing the microphone. Hey, we got even Rebecca Cohen and Mike De Muro belting out their favorites.

Cimbing Taal Volcano, Superman, More Pics

Here's more pics from our Taal Volcano climb last Dec 15...

Beach Landing at Taal Island

(L-R) KJ Ong, Leah, Thien,Darwin, ME, Lourdes

(Behind) Mike de Muro, Emir

("Superman" is Leo) - Leo wanted to complete his outfit by donning his cape and wear his red briefs outside his pants. That would have drove all the island inhabitants out to Manila...and we swore we would end up leaving Leo on the island! :)

Midway Checkpoint: Superman Leo, Lourdes, Orly (rightmost) with MY folks

When the Going Gets Tough... Leah and Superman LEO on a rented horse. Poor Horse! This is the 2nd one as the first horse bucked Leah/Leo off...I heard Leah's facing a lawsuit for "property damage" from the Horse Owner.

View from the TOP - the top is actually the "rim" of the Volcano Crater (backdrop) with a pool of water (looks like a lake within the volcano which is within the lake!)...

The CFG Amazing Race or How We Conquered Taal Volcano

The air was crisp and cool on the morning of December 15 as spirited men (and women) of the Cavite CFG assembled for the day's Teambuilding Event.

This year's version of the CFG Christmas Party took a different turn as we decided to climb the Taal Volcano (the world's smallest, active, and in the middle of the freshwater Taal Lake - those who have visited CV and had lunch in Tagaytay are familiar with this volcano as it is a magnificant sight from any of the overlooking restos; Taal is about 2hour drive from Intel CV plus a boat ride).

Joining us on this trek are the East Asia RPC (Schaeffer, Lo, De Muro) and some Intel Malaysia visitors, KJ Ong, Clement Lee, and the other MY Interstitial Benchmarking Team members (Neoh, Muniandy, SK Lim).

First Stop was the Taal Lake Yacht Club where we hired 4 motorized bancas (as renting a Yacht was a pipe dream for our budget)...and this set the mood for ala-Amazing Race.


Our team - Me, Leah, Bong (CMS), Thien (CMS), and Darwin (CSC) took the boat "Palikero" (Pinoy term for playboy)...and true to form, our boat took the lead and we hit land first. Hey, our boat even had sirens wailing as we sped past the other boats.
















Picture right...Me, Lourdes (CSC Admin),
and Bong Briones (CMS).



Picture below...Thien, Leah, Darwin

"The Allied Forces making Beach Landing on Taal Island" - Conor, Mark, Steve, Rebecca...and TI PM Orly Longakit acting as helmsman.

Merry Christmas!

More Pics to Follow on the next Posting...!

Arizona! FOCAL is almost upon us!

I have not posted for a while and here's one from actually way back Feb 2006...year-end is almost upon us and in Intel, this means the end of another fiscal year...the end of another 12months window to "prove yourself" worthy of another Successful, Above Expectations, or that rare rating of Outstanding ...or at "minimum", keep your head above water and avoid getting a Below Expectations or Improvement Required;...shudder the thought! ;-> )


My personal rule: Begin with the end in mind (FOCAL is one of them...from a development and advancement perspective...rewards/recognitions/or a performance message) and THEN try to keep it at the back of my mind so it reminds me its there, but don't get in front of me...just do my best and be consistent (concentrate on the Job...and the "journey"...)...not an easy thing. But one reason I do look forward to FOCAL is the chance to be with some friends/acquaintances from Asia and US...and FOCAL 2007 may happen in Jan and February next year...I post some of the pics from the last FOCAL early this year.