I have a confession to make and it’s sort of a disgusting one.  I’m kind of embarrassed to be talking about it here but I figured that I can’t possibly be alone in this struggle and I will jump at any medium that will allow me to connect with fellow addicts.

Here goes.  I am a groupon junkie.  Metrodeal, Ensogo, Dealgrocer are websites that I frequent often and even though my addiction has waned somewhat (I have successfully unsubscribed from all of their daily e-mails, but I still visit the websites when I’m bored), every now and then I am reminded of how my life was before I got my shit together.

It’s always a hit or a miss with these types of things and while I have been fortunate enough to get a few memorable good hits (a good example is our Cintai by Corito’s Garden Escape earlier this year), I’ve had my fair share of shitty misses as well.

I was looking through my uploaded pictures on Facebook and I was reminded of a groupon deal experience that was both sort of a hit and a miss.

Around January last year I chanced upon this “deal” on Metrodeal that offered a 69% discount on an indoor target shooting session with Jethro International.  The voucher was good for 20 rounds of ammo for 499PHP instead of the standard 1600PHP.  The best part was that they had a branch in Festival Mall so the activity was perfect for my ex-workmates.

I chatted with them about it and they were all more than willing to try it out.  Foolishly I bough five vouchers without properly reading the fine print and so we all cleared our schedule one Sunday afternoon to do it.  And then the lady behind the desk crushed our dreams by saying that the vouchers from Metrodeal can only be used during weekdays.  #FAIL.  In our frustration we ended up driving a couple of blocks and queuing up for two hours just to get some stress pizza

In the end we all cleared our schedules again just so we could do this and in the process, one in the group wasn’t able to go because she had to go to work on a Monday.

We were all first time gun handlers and needless to say, we were excited as fuck.  Because it was a Monday, we had the place to ourselves.  Jethro’s Firing Range on the 3rd floor of Festival Mall was smaller than I expected; they only had five or six stables (I don’t know what else to call them) in the back, but they did have a fully stocked gun related store up front.

I was so excited that I didn’t even get to know the type of gun I used.  The instructor, after a brief lesson on the do’s and don’ts of gun handling, handed us sheets to be used as targets.  I got to tell you, watching those sheets being rolled away from us was one of the cooler things I’ve seen in my life.  The gun was heavier than I thought and I struggled against the recoil.  Probably the hardest part was the actual keeping my eyes open as the gun went off; the sound was making me flinch against my will, LOL.

I followed the instructor’s directions as best as I can – keep a your stance wide and aim with one eye closed – and I think I did a good enough job for a first timer.

Here are our mandatory poses with the guns and our “kills” and of course we couldn’t leave the place without a group photo.

At least now I understand part of the thrill that gun enthusiasts feel whenever they’re out on the range, but this isn’t an activity I’d do again, I think.  The sound of the gun going off was just too traumatizing to me, LOL, but it was a fun experience that I got to share with my quality room peeps.  Thanks, Metrodeal!