BPtW@7: Magic and Colors

HSBC - HDPP recently celebrated its 7th year in the Philippines, and the highlight was the Family Day/ Employee Appreciation Day held at Enchanted Kingdom yesterday! The theme park was reserved exclusively for HSBC - HDPP employees, family and friends, and aside from the Wizard Money we were given to spend inside the park, shuttle buses were also provided for employees' convenience (even though we went in a van). It's things like these that truly make HSBC the Best Place to Work :)

All employees were given three Ride-All-You-Can day passes: one for us and two for our guests.
If we wanted to bring more, we can easily buy more tickets at special discounted rates (P280 only instead of P500).

 My family :)
My brother Ken, my sister Kyla, my Mama and Papa, and my cousin Jerico.

And there's me :)
Top - Onion Laundry | Pale pink shorts - True ♥ Love | Sling bag - WWW by SM Dept. Store | Loafers - Cathryn & Charlz
Necklace - ANAGON | Bracelets - handmade | Earrings (though you can't see it LOL) - H&M

My siblings and I explored the park on our own since Jerico is too young for the other rides anyway. 

The first ride we rode was Flying Fiesta. It's like a Merry Go-Round, only instead of horses on poles, it has swings suspended on the air.

I love these photos Ken took of me and Kyla, on the ground and up in the air :)

After that relatively tame ride, Ken and I then went to EKstreme Ride. It is a concessionaire-owned attraction meaning you'd have to pay extra even though you have a Ride-All-You-Can day pass, but because it was a special day the rate was also discounted. A ticket cost us P65 each.

In EKstreme Ride, you will be harnessed on seats that will ascend a 150 feet high tower in 45 seconds, after which you will be dropped free-fall  in 2(!!!!!!!) seconds! What's even more freaky is that there's no signal to say you will be dropped already; you are just there, marveling at how high you are perched (even higher than Wheel of Fate and Space Shuttle!) at the same time silently praying the ride's mechanisms won't fail, and before you knew it you are falling! EKstremely EKshilarating!

My father took these photos.
You can't see me because of the poor quality of these pics, but my mouth was opened WIDE in both in the original high-res images. Very calm and collected ;D

With my knees still shaking a good ten minutes after being in safe ground, we looked for my good friend and officemate Michelle who was also with her friends Jonas and Dax. We wanted to ride something sweet and safe so...

We went to the Space Shuttle!

We fell in line for more than 30 minutes!
Me with Dax, Jonas, and Mich. It's not too obvious in the photos, but Jonas is deathly scared of heights ;)

Ken was my seatmate in this ride.
I wanted to take more photos while we were twirled and looped about, but I couldn't feel my  hands! :D

After Space Shuttle, we went to my favorite ride - Anchors Away. I rode this about five times the last time I was there, and the stomach-churning thrill never goes away each time!

Up in the air!
Those are Jonas' hands, beeteedubs. He has conquered his fear of heights!! :D

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating and visiting souvenir shops. I really wanted another go at the Anchors Away but nobody wanted to go with me any more. Mich, Jonas, Dax and I were able to ride the EKstreme Ride, though! I was able to ride it twice in one day, I feel so brave haha!

I was also able to ride the Flying Fiesta again, this time with my friends.

Flying through the air!
1 - Dax | 2 - Mich | 3 - Jonas | 4 - couple I don't know who is seated in front of me. I took this photo as I couldn't exactly take a photo of myself, could I? ;)

At exactly 7PM, a fantastic display of lights and colors were shown to us when they lit fireworks in the sky! Dubbed as a "concert in the sky", it was a perfect way to cap the magical day. I will never get tired of being amazed by fireworks ♥

All photos taken with my 5mp Samsung Galaxy Ace.

In the souvenir shop by the Midway Boardwalk,

I saw loooots of Eldar the Wizard plushies
I already have two big ones, given by someone as a surprise for my birthday last year :)

And lots of Eldar the Wizard pillows, pouches, and other novelty items.

Giant Eldar the Wizard plushie
Seeing it brought back a rush of memories from the last time I was here.
I couldn't help but feel a bit sad... If you've been a long time reader of my blog you will know why.

The day was too beautiful to stay sad, though.
Look, my brother won a big shark plushie for me in the Arcade :)

FUN FUN FUN FUN! Even though it rained and we spent half the day falling in line, I still had a great time with my family and friends. Long lines were to be expected, seeing as how HSBC has so many employees! While in the restroom I actually overheard someone from the Registration Area saying that as of 4PM, more than 12,400 people had arrived! WOW!!!

Aside from the Magic and Colors celebration held yesterday, there is also an ongoing photo-exhibit at the office that displays photo-entries from employees that best exemplify the reason why HSBC - HDPP is the Best Place to Work. The photo in this blog post taken by my good friend Frank is one of the finalists in the exhibit. I am so proud of him! Tomorrow is his birthday, so Happy Birthday! ♥ And because the photo only shows my silhouette and not my face, I am so tempted to stand beside the photo and do the same pose until someone notices I am the lady in the portrait! HAHA kidding! ;D

Congratulations on your 7th year HSBC - HDPP! Long may you prosper and continue to be the Best Place to Work!