All kids! Kids by age and kids by heart! (photo by @foureyedlaagan)

"Hitting two targets with just one stone." This is Cebu Worldwide Instameet 15 was all about - Outreach Activity and Instagrammers' Meetup.

Worldwide Instameet is bi-annual meetup event of Instagram users in order to connect and network with fellow users and participate in different activities related to a given theme. Instagrammers will have the chance to enjoy each other’s company, gain new friends and at the same time gather ideas and plans on what will be good and beneficial for the group.

The 15th Worldwide Instameet was held last March 26, 2017 at Brgy. Luz's Barangay Hall in Cebu City. It was organized by the Cebu Instagram Community. The event’s theme correlated the act of sharing kindness to the little children living in the said barangay.

It was my first time to join this. I never knew this existed until one blogger friend of mine shared the details to his wall. Upon reading the event description, I got interested so I signed up. It was perfect on my schedule as well because the date fell on a weekend, my rest day from corporate work. Few days before the event, the organizing team were looking for some volunteers in order to provide assistance on the actual day. You know me, yes, I volunteered myself. Volunteering is one of my ways not to get intimidated or feel awkward especially that this was my first time. The act of volunteerism gave me the feeling of "belongingness" to the group.

On the day of the event, my journey going to the venue was very funny and a little awkward, too. I almost wanted to go home because I was lost literally, lol! I’m not very good nor a master of directions and places of Cebu. Instead of going to the Barangay hall, I went straight to the school because that was the only place I was familiar with. It took me almost 15 minutes before finally able to hit the right place. Thanks to my friends who picked me (Iji and Ciji).

I saw many little, innocent kids as I entered the venue. I’ve never seen such plenty of kids for 5 years already. I guess that’s what happens when you plant your butt in the office and at home, hehe. Moving on, we started the program for the kids. We threw games to them that they surely enjoyed namely “Don’t Break the Fita”, “Heep Heep, Hooray!” and “Paint Me a Picture”. Through these, they’re able to work as a team and gave their best strategies to win…which are really good. We also provided them goodies as prizes. With the help and kindness of our sponsor, we were able to give them free lunch. Yay!



After the kids' activities, it’s time for the grown ups – us! Yay! We gathered a circle and started the getting-to-know each other session. Some of the instagrammers were already my friends (but not close though), some I just met online through social media and some I didn't know. We introduced ourselves and state a sentence or two about what we’re doing in life. The group was composed of bloggers, developers, entrepreneurs and more. Very cool because there’s a diversity of individuals at that time. We also ate together in one big table just like one big happy family and continued on discussing, might as well chitchatting, about our daily lives, activities and future plans.

This is one of the memorable events I have attended to so far because I met and greeted really lots of kids approximately 50 of them.  I was happy to see such innocent faces because I could think of my childhood days. I was once like them - innocent and vulnerable. Apart from that, I was able to gain new cool friends and got to talk a little bit of their life – work, likes and plans.

Yay, new friends! Follow us and we'll followback :)

Thanks to our generous sponsor - Virginia Food Inc. and Virginia Premium Hotdog for making this event possible. Thanks as well to Christopher John and the rest of the team for spearheading. Until next time, see you guys!

Michel's Bistro, the newest restaurant located at G/F Skyrise 1, IT Park Cebu is now officially open! At a very reasonable price, you can enjoy exceptionally delicious and properly cooked foods as well as savory drinks served with great care in a very comfortable place.

Here are top 5 main reasons why I love this place:

1. Great foods and drinks
At a reasonable price, you can choose a variety of foods and drinks that you will surely love. Paella Seafood Pasta, Paella Valenciana and Pork Stroganoff are extremely my favorites.
If you want to sip a glass of wine or any of your favorite drinks, this is a perfect place for you as well!

2. Comfortable ambiance
The place is very clean, cold and elegant. The lighting is of blue shade which makes it so cool.



3. Party rockin' rest room
This is my most favorite part of the restaurant. There is a speaker in the rest room! When I was inside, I felt like I was having a private concert. Headbang here, headbang there, headbang everywhere. Sometimes, I intentionally went to the rest room not to pee but to re-charge and feel energize with the music inside.



4. Smiling staff
The staffs are very friendly. They make sure to cater your needs. They smile to the customer as well. I like it so much especially that I am a “feeling-close” (sometimes) kind of person.



5. Accessible location
The location is reachable because it is located in G/F Skyrise 1, IT Park Cebu. Whether you are from Fuente, Ayala or Talamban, there are accessible one-call-away jeepneys. If you have your personal car, there are parking lots as well. Just prepare 50 pesos for the fee.



Indulge goodness and yumminess in Michel's Bistro. Their foods, drinks, staff, place and price are definitely check na check! Barato na, layshoo pa!
Will definitely go back here every now and then.

I am an IT Engineer at CROFTi, the techy young lady you wish your one-call-away friend, charr! Baga rah, hahaha!

Well, a lot have asked me lately about where am I working now? What do I do? ... and many more. This post is to answer those questions. I cannot guarantee that I will cover "all" but I hope I hit the important points. Please note that this post contains techy words. I tried my best to make them simpler through integrating them in relevant words and sentences that will be easily understood. I hope I did well. :)

CROFTi is an Australian-based company that specializes in delivering Innovation and technology consulting with business focused outcomes for firms and organization. As a broad and fully integrated company, we offer an array of solutions ranging from IT consulting, IT help-desk support, technical implementation and offshoring teams. And yes, I am one of the people who are responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of IT and computer systems; especially multi-user computers, such as servers.

In simple terms, we offer IT support/service to our clients. Our service include Unlimited IT Support (UIT) , which best means “Ask us whatever IT issues you have and we’ll fix it for you. Request us any IT-related setup/stuff and we’ll have that configured for you. Any time of the day, all year round!” May it be local IT requests, email deliverability and monitoring, web hosting and migrations, server setup and maintenance and much more. Think of it this way, if you are an administrator of your computer who can tweak every configuration in your device, then I am your ninja spirit that can do so much more unimaginable things on your computer and your network. ~wink~ And as usual, I am with my boys squad. Yeah, the only techy-lady in my team and I find it  so amazing! We also have other ladies in the team and they are on project management.

I started working here last March 20, 2017. That is just merely three weeks as to this writing and yet all I can say is “working here is one of the best decisions I made in my life this year”. I find it so amazing that with that small span of time, I am able to learn tons of new IT knowledge, helped lots of users with IT issues, and configured settings I never imagined before. I am happy onboard! It is good to think that I am part of something larger who makes a difference.

I find myself excited every day to come to the office and exert my best when it comes to my responsibilities. I am challenged everyday! It is very nice to work in an environment wherein everyone shares the same vision and is dedicated to the mission. This truly creates a family environment where everybody is there for each other and I find that kind of spirit here.
Not only that, people here are absolutely amazing! Though we are of different races and cultures, everyone is still helpful and supportive. We have the freedom to think outside the box and have all thoughts considered. I am able to use my skills and knowledge as well as push myself in areas that I am unsure of myself.

Communication within the team is convenient. If I want to talk to any of my teammate, I can do that because we work on the same shift with very slight difference.
It is so fulfilling having great colleagues everyday who assist me in times of doubt, appreciate the work that I do and also pat as well as thank me for the hard work at the end of the day. Every day is different and it is a constant adventure here. My job challenges me in different ways. I love it! Cheers to more greatness and challenges!

“Best place with best people equals awesome experience.”

This quote sums up my whole experience during our summer getaway at North Sky Beach Resort.
As one of the lucky scholars of a French organization during college, I and my co-scholars were molded and sculpted under three core values, namely Solidarity, Trust and Responsibility. During that chapter of our journey, our lives solely revolved on these values. We have that “all for one, one for all” kind of spirit in our veins, a solid trademark that mostly every one of us possesses. I’m so happy to say that until now we are still firm. Even if couple of years have already passed since our graduation, we remain one big happy alumni family up to this moment. Our core values are still present. In fact, our solidarity value has been properly observed during this year’s summer outing and I’m so glad about it.

It is our tradition to celebrate summer as one alumni family. This is a perfect time to catch up with everyone’s life updates, career chikkas, future plans, life detours, lovelife and many more. We celebrate our alumni summer outing at North Sky Beach Resort in Sogod. This is located at the Northern part of Cebu and is really beautiful, you will surely love.

Before that magical day, the alumni officers had been planning rigorously for a complete itinerary as well as task list so that everything would be smooth and calm. I’m glad that others cooperated and took charge of particular responsibilities.

Why do we choose this resort?

North Sky Beach Resort is wide, green and lovely as it is. Just impeccably perfect for team bonding activities. When I set foot at the entrance gate, I know right there at that moment that this place suits best to our getaway. Entrance Fee is very affordable at 90 pesos for day use per person. Compared to other resorts that require you to pay thousands of pesos, this one is different. Though if you stay here overnight, there’ll be an additional fee but it is not that as big as compared to others. Maybe because this place is kind of away from the city or maybe because the owner is just that generous? Either way, that’s a good news and definitely likable! There’s no corkage as well if you’ll bring food from outside, that’s very customer friendly, you see!

By the way, just be patient about the transportation going to this place because it will take you around 2-3 hours to get there if you are in Cebu City. It is better to leave early so that there’ll be no heavy traffic along the way. In our case, we meet at North Bus Terminal at 7AM then ride a bus going to the resort for a fare of less than a hundred pesos. We arrive at around 9:30AM to our destination.

The resort has:

1) Beach Gazebo
This is a great and convenient place to stay in for a day to enjoy with your family or friends. It is equipped with comfortable seating and a center table for food and drinks.

2) Grill House
A grill with running water is free of charge. It is a great place to barbecue meats, seafood or other food that needs grilling.

3) Pool
For those who prefer to enjoy the beach environment without dipping into the sea, a slide and swimming pools for kids and adults are available.

What are the activities we do?

1) Team building games – As an in-charge of this, I make sure to choose those games that will surely tighten our bond even more. Especially that there are new alumni joining, games that incorporate interaction to the group, strategy and enjoyment must come along. Human Binggo, Group Cheer, Nips Transfer and Lemonsito Transmission are the chosen games and they are very fun! Seems all of us are near to dying the moment of our participation of these. Laughter here, laughter there, laughters everywhere! Kabuang here, kabuang there, kabuang everywhere! Hahaha.

Nips candy transfer. Make sure not to drop them eh!

2) Photobooth and Photoshoot – Shout out of many “Thank you’s” to Claire Ann for making a photobooth during this event. She’s the artist of our batch and she makes a good job when it comes to executing fancy stuff like this. By the way, the tarpaulin is made by yours truly (charr!). Printing it is a struggle on my part because I'm late. There are10 tarpaulains on queue to be printed before mine. I panick gosh, because I need it to be printed right away. Luckily, my charisma has been used against the printer operator and he prioritizes my request. Hahaha aja! Just have to be super feeling close at needy times like this, throw jokes he can relate, talk about stuff he knows and then puff I get what I come for, the printed tarpaulin! Hahaha, thank you bongga!

Thank you as well to our official photographer Kevin Olores for my fun photoshoot on this day. I love it and will surely create a separate blog post about that!

Brothers and sister for better or worst. Yay!

3) Lots and lots of eating – By this, I mean eating with no limit! Cheat day for those on diet! Fruits, meat, dessert, snacks, chips and many more you may put that on your plate. There’s no corkage in the resort so we bring foods that we love, lol.

The fruit ninjas!

4) Swimming – Clear and cold water in the swimming pool. Who can say no to that on a sunny, hot day?! Everybody is enjoying plus playing ball game on the water is a hundred times entertaining and drolling. Our kid spirit has also been channeled through the pool’s water slide.

Our wacky divers, hahaha!

Thank you to all the people who participate and make this summer getaway a memorable and happy one. Another entry to our happy thoughts! Here is a video compilation in the pool area. See you on our next gathering!

Thanks to North Sky Beach Resort for offering us the picture-perfect venue for this summer getaway.