Corkboard 'n Pushpins: Office Outing in Pines City

The plan was to go south. No. There wasn’t a plan to go anywhere actually. I don’t know what hit our boss on the head or what had he ingested for him to retract his unofficial proclamation that there will be no summer outing for us unless all projects has been completed. It just surprised me one day some colleagues were busy researching options, corporate package proposals of resorts and hotels were coming in while documents for official travel were being sent out. (We want to believe that all projects had been completed indeed) All plans were bound south but cost analysis revealed that a southward itinerary would be expensive. However, since we were in the verge of the (summer) season, it was a now-or-never matter. And so to the North we went once more!

Last year, we felt deprived of time and fun since we’re in Baguio City for only less than 24 hours. Hence this time we dedicated our 3-day itinerary in Baguio alone and made sure to visit more of its famous parks and marketplaces and of course purchase Pines City’s specialty goods: veggies, sweets, cookies, fruit jams, silver jewelry, ornamental plants and others. Unfortunately, nobody could afford the fresh strawberries because it were priced at PHP200 more per kg than when in season; very high considering that it’s the price at the harvest fields so we wouldn’t want to know how much more is its market price in the city proper. The vendors attributed this to the damages of a recent storm.

My mates who have been with the company for at least 10 years now say this is the 3^rd time they held the teambuilding in Baguio but is the best outing by far despite that many failed to come along; last year’s trip is no match. But looking at their pictures several years ago and ours this year, I couldn’t agree less that this had been a lot more fun!

Ascending Kennon Road