Ponderosa Leisure Farm - Tagaytay City
Day 01: 13 December 2013
It was Friday the 13th and all of us - leaders of Kerry-ATS Logistics were exhausted. We had just concluded our CEO's farewell party at the F1 Hotel at The Fort. The program that we had been preparing for the last three weeks was a success. Our CEO and us went home happy.
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| Puzzle Mansion |
I and few other leaders left the hotel quarter to 12AM on the 12th of December and I reached home longing for the bed past 1:00AM. My energy was almost completely depleted and all I wanted to do was to hibernate. Though I was aware that our last Strat Planning for 2013 will push through at Tagaytay few hours from the time I reached home. Our Strat Plan call time was 9:00 AM at Tagaytay.
I set my alarm at 5:00AM. I told myself to leave home at 6:00AM and proceed to a Lani's place then we will both proceed to Tagaytay for the Strat Plan.
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| Mona Lisa |
After retiring on my bed, I never heard the sound of my alarm. When I woke up, it was 6:00AM already. I was shocked. I hurriedly took the shower, wore my jeans, grabbed by laptop bag and camera and then run out for a taxi.
While on the road I sent a text message Lani that I was on my way to her place. I was about to text her that I can no longer make it to the Strat Plan. Fortunately, she replied to my first message saying that she just woke up.
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| Puzzles Display |
We left Paranaque almost 8:00AM. Alen, our HR leader was with us. There was no heavy traffic on SLEX and we reached Sta. Rosa exit at 8:45AM. The road to Ponderosa Leisure farm was clear of any heavy traffic so we reached the venue 5 minutes past 9:00AM.
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| Puzzles for Sale |
When we were preparing our materials for the Strat Plan, we learned that somebody left the LCD projector and so NLR decided to send someone to pickup the LCD at Paranaque office.
While waiting for the LCD projector, we decided to visit the Puzzle Mansion. The said Mansion is a holder of the World's largest puzzle with 1,028 pieces and recorded in the Guinness World Book of Records. It is owned by Gina Gil Lacuna. We drove from Ponderosa down south for atleast 30 minutes.
The mansion is located on a slope similar to the sunken garden in Baguio City. The road going down is steep. I never heard of this mansion before and I was puzzled. The registration fee is P100.00 per head. Aside from the Puzzle Mansion itself, there are rooms for rent and a swimming pool at the place.
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| Enjoying Boko Pie |
The Puzzle Mansion is a two-story building. At the ground floor is a display of hundreds of completed puzzles nicely framed. In particular, my attention was captured by the "Mona Liza" portrait. Every puzzle there is nice.
The second floor is a store of puzzles. This is for those we love puzzle and those who have time before bed to do puzzles. We met the owner, Gina herself and she explained to us that the best time to do puzzles is before bed.
I got the 1,000 pieces 69cm x 50cm Sistine Chapel. I liked the design.
Before 11AM, we left the place back to Ponderosa. On the way, we stopped at a Robinson's Mall to buy something for our leaders bonding after the Strat Plan.
We were back at the Tea House, Ponderosa Leisure farm at 11:20AM. LCD was in and we started our Strat PLan proper.
We concluded our Strat Plan at 5:20PM and then we head on to NLR's place for our bonding.
We started our bonding/party with the Barbeque. Maggie and I prepared the frying pan while NLR and Rhea went out to get more charcoals.
We brought our gifts of any kind. There was one gift for everyone and another one for the exciting "White Elephant". I never heard of White Elephant before. White Elephant is another creative way of exchanging gifts. Pair of dice is rolled. An even number of dots means "Take a Gift" from the table while odd number of dots means pass on to the next person. Each person will roll the dice depending on the number of gifts he or she brought.
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| White Elephant |
Our gifts were all at the table and we started the White Elephant. Melanie was the first one to roll the dice. We had our turns on the dice and it was a very funny way of exchanging gifts.
After the White Elephant we had our dinner. Alen, Ronnie and Icar left the place after dinner.
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| Leaders Bonding |
NLR's place is so peaceful. I felt that we were the only person at the place at that time. The wind was cold. After a while, we started sharing our stories with each other at a table in the garden near the Christmas tree. This was one of my most favorite parts of the bonding. We reminisced our past - working with the company, Hapag-Lloyd and Kerry - ATS in particular. It was a very relaxing session and we learned a lot of stories from each other.
I enjoyed taking photos of NLR's backyard at night with the warm lights and the green Bermuda grass. We decided to go to bed past 11:00PM.
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| NLR's Backyard at Night |
I had a goodnight sleep at a room that I shared with Dr. Norway at NLR's place. Lanie and the rest of the ladies were upstairs.
Day 02: 14 December 2013
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| Walking Tour - Ponderosa |
I woke up 7:00AM the following day and a nice "Champorado" was waiting on the table. NLR was ready for a walk around Ponderosa. Melanie, Dr. Norway, Myra and I joined the walk.
The walk was also a tour of Ponderosa Leisure Farm. Ponderosa is a high-end subdivision. Houses are on Mexican accent/style. More info about Ponderosa Leisure Farm.
At 10:30AM, we were all back at NLR's place. We left Ponderosa at around 11:00AM.
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