Of dogs and karts

Gail and I lead very disparate yet busy lives at work - Gail's job is about 20% office work and 80% fieldwork, involving restaurant visits everyday, and since most restaurants start to function at lunch time or in the afternoon, her work inevitably takes her all the way to the late evening.

I, on the other hand, have the more regular (a.k.a. "boring" in some circles!) work schedule of a roughly 9ish to 7ish in the evening. It's choke full of meetings and data analysis and more meetings, with the occasional fieldwork (both consumer and trade) about once every 2-3 weeks or so.

Needless to say, both of us have very busy work lives, so as much as possible, we try to "vege" it out during weekends or holidays. Which is exactly what we did during this long weekend prior to the Holy Week.

Last Monday, Gail and I decided to have a "Day of the Dog" and took Wuffles (Gail's shitzu) out for a walk at the Makati Salcedo park initially. Given Wuffle's perpetual state of hyperactivity, we figured that she'd enjoy the wide open spaces of the park...unfortunately, no dogs are allowed in the actual park itself. Boo! So we just took her around the park and nearby places.

Yes, Wuffles actually knows how to pose for the camera!

Taking turns!

*pant* *pant* *wheeze* *smile for camera*

After numerous incidents of "marking her territory," we decided not to push our luck and headed off to Gail's neighborhood for part 2 of the Day of the Dog. We toured Gail's place, which is an amazing neighborhood of contrasts - you'd see a wide range of house styles that seem out of place but they blend in really well. I wasn't able to take any shots as I opted to leave my camera in the car (given the numerous dogs that would range across the streets of her neighborhood, we had our hands full with Gail occasionally picking up Wuffles and myself attempting to stop other canines from pouncing on Wuffles!).

What's funny is that I'm quite familiar with her neighborhood from a work perspective - I had done numerous trade and consumer fieldwork in her area, from the Puregold to the public markets and side street sari-sari stores to the different fast food restaurants where we would have lunch. Again, it's pretty damn amazing that Gail and I had numerous - and I do mean numerous - opportunities in the past to have met up but never did. Whodathunk...

We ended the Day of the Dog after about 1.5 hours as Wuffles was panting like nothing...when we got back to Gail's place, Wuffles just ran to her water dish (despite giving her a lot of water while walking in Salcedo) and afterwards plopped down on the floor to rest. Gotta give it to the dog for being a very well-behaved trooper!

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Another thing we did to "vege" happened just last night - at the invitation of Gail's good friend Uichi, we decided to go karting! W00t! It was myself, Gail, Doc Harry, Uichi, and Uichi's cousin Jen (thanks Gail!).

Gail with Doc Harry (1st pic) and Uichi (2nd pic). Yes, the price of being a photographer is not appearing in your own pics...!

*zoom zoom!*

It was my first time to go karting, and damn it was fun! I was a bit hesitant at first since I still had to figure out the dynamics of the kart, but after a couple of rounds I was zooming down the track! Of course, I wasn't as good as Uichi (who must've lapped me at least twice!), but I'll get there with enough practice - and hell yeah am I coming back for more!

It's a nice gimmick for team building - P300 for 12 minutes, which may seem to be short, but I think it's just right. Any longer and the fun factor would go down and the pain factor would go up. Yes, pain - these karts aren't exactly equipped with power steering, so work out those laterals! But it's definitely worth it, so try it out for yourself!

Ok, enough blogging while at the office (ah heh!). Time to start working!