Help Map the Philippines

It's summer again and time to help map the Philippines. There's going to be a series of Google Map Maker Summits to be held in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Here's the schedule:

April 12, 2012
Bacolod, University of St. La Salle
For more details and to register, check out http://goo.gl/cxZ2Z


April 14, 2012
Baguio, University of Baguio
For more details and to register, check out http://goo.gl/CiSVe


April 21, 2012
General Santos City
For more details and to register, check out http://goo.gl/3J30Q

For more announcements, please join the Mapping the Philippines mailing list and follow the page here.


See you there!

Muay Thai

"If you can't perform, japorms!" - Marc Macalua

(Japorms means "just dress to kill" to cover for your lack of skills.)

I learned that line a few years back from Marc when we used to have weekly bloggers badminton sessions. That was way back when my doctor allowed me to partake in strenuous activities. Now, I just can't and it can be frustrating at times (I missed an opportunity to enjoy the Swiss mountains a few weeks back! Sniff). 

So today I had the chance to attend a Muay Thai class in Bangkok. It was part of the sessions we had for a summit. I thought I'd skip it but heard that they had uniforms made for us. I knew the class would be too strenuous for me, but I thought it would be cute to wear the uniform so I could join the photo (haha). This is me in my muay thai japorms.

And with Professor Bruno, a famous Muay Thai master who taught the class.

When you cannot perform, japorms! Aja!

Lost in Zurich, the Lone Adventure

Whoops I did it again!

I seem to have a penchant for getting lost.

I felt so bad that I couldn't join our team outing today because my doctor forbade me. He said I shouldn't risk my health to have some fun in the snow (cry). Anyway, so I woke up early and caught up with work and around lunch time my friend from London pinged me to remind me to get out of the hotel and go around Zurich. He recommended me to go to a cafe to have some chocolate! He said the magic word (chocolate) and I immediately left.

I couldn't figure out the tram system so I took a cab. I got the address from the cafe's website, wrote it down and gave it to the taxi driver. I figured he could use his GPS to find the place. He brought me to the right address but the cafe was nowhere in sight! There were just a few kids playing ball in what looked like a school yard. So I walked back to the main road to find another cab. And I waited... and waited and waited. Fifteen minutes had passed and there wasn't any taxis in the area. I couldn't access internet on my phone so I looked around and saw that that there was a tram stop nearby (not that I knew where exactly I was going).

The instructions on the ticket system was in Swiss and I had no idea what street to go to. There was a sign that read "Bellevue" and thought it would be a good place to head to since it was one of the main areas. Bought a ticket and found myself just by the lake! I was pretty pleased with myself and rewarded myself by eating a huge slice of pizza at the Belcafe. I abandoned the idea of finding the cafe and just did a photo-walk of the area.

After my walk around the lake I thought I'd take a taxi back to the hotel but lo and behold I couldn't find one. Luckily there was free wifi at the Belcafe so I was able to check what tram to ride back to the hotel. Got my ticket just as the tram was rolling to a stop and hopped in. I was back at Four Points (hotel) in no time.

So that was today's adventure around Zurich. I certainly hope my colleagues are having fun in the mountains!