Archive for the Category »Escapades «

We were supposed to go swimming this weekend. Well, the original plan was to go to Canyon Cove in Nasugbu but it didn’t push through because my nephew had an entrance exam yesterday and nobody could stay behind and wait for him. So, my cousin planned on going to Subic instead. it also didn’t push through because my other cousin had an event to attend to so they all couldn’t come. So, my cousin just decided we go to Laguna. A family friend offered we stay at their house with their pool.

So, the plan was one car will leave earlier and the other (my sister, the kids, and I) will stay behind to wait for my nephew. What happened was the first car left just an hour ahead of us. But we got stuck in traffic so we were able to reached the house in Laguna at about 3 p.m. already. When we got there, my cousin told us that they didn’t want to stay there because there were too many dogs and there were too many breakables inside the house. It’s just not kid-friendly. So, we just ate the food they prepared for us and then decided to just look for a house with a pool that’s for rent in Laguna.

If you’ve been in Pansol already, then you know that you have to be patient n looking for a place to stay. There are literally thousands of places to choose from and you have to really look around to find something something nice and cheap. After the third house that we checked, my cousin decided we just go home because it was already late and the kids wouldn’t be able to swim anymore. Anlabo! I mean, the kids could still swim the next day, right? And it was already 5 p.m. and it was really raining hard. We reached home about 9 p.m. already.

My sister and I were disappointed. It was like we just went to Laguna to eat then went back home again. It was such a hassle. Good thing my mom didn’t prepare much food or else, all her effort would have been for nothing. And the poor kids kept asking when they were going swimming. Hay buhay.

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I was going through my CDs and found these photos and thought I’d share them here.

These are photos from our trip to Canyon Cove in Nasugbu, Batangas way back 2007, April 27-28 to be exact. My whole family and my cousins went there and we rented this big flat where we all stayed. The flat has two bedrooms with bath, kitchen, dining area, living room and a small patio.

The place is very kid friendly. They built a breakwater so there are almost no waves entering the shore. The sand isn’t as white and as fine like in Boracay but it’s nice enough to build sandcastles with and they don’t hurt the feet when you go barefoot. And the water is clean and there’s still sea life so it’s suitable for snorkeling.

They were renovating the place when we were there, including the pool area and we had no TV also so, we were stuck with the beach. But that’s fine because it was still fun. Anyway, we’ll be going back there next month and hopefully we’ll be able to use the pool this time.

I can’t wait to go back there and I’m sure the kids will be pretty excited too if they find out about it.

June 12

My nephew, Marc, and I attended AkoMismo.org’s Dog Tag Day event at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. It was quite an adventure even from the beginning. The event started at 2 pm but nephew and I decided to leave around 3 pm. I didn’t know how to commute going there but my sister gave me directions so that’s what we did. My original plan was to take the MRT (train) then just take a cab from the Ayala station to the venue but my sister told me that there are shuttles in the Magallanes station so that’s where we went. When we got to Magallanes, we asked around where we could find the shuttles and it took us awhile before someone finally told us that there were no more shuttles there anymore. So, we ended up taking the cab.

We got to the venue around the 4 pm. On the way there, the cab driver warned us that the line was long and boy it was! You had to buy the dog tag first, which serves as the entrance ticket, before you can enter the premises. It took as an hour before we finally were able to go in. It wasn’t that bad… the line was long, the sun was high but it was breezy enough, we didn’t didn’t feel too hot. There were already lots of people inside and the lines at the booth were long. There were several charity booths where you can sign up and show your support for the causes that appeals to you. There were face painting, henna and glitter tattoo booths. There were photo booths with Ako Mismo backdrops where you can flaunt you dog tag. And there were several McDonald’s and Pepsi booths scattered around for the hungry folks. Oh, there were also a couple of walls in the middle area where you can sign your Ako Mismo pledge.

Marc and I walked around for about an hour, checking the booths. We both bought the limited edition dog tags then we bought food and looked for a nice spot for the concert. People were already gathering around for the concert so we just decided to stay on our spot and eat there.

The concert was fun and I was really excited because it would be my first time to watch Ely Buendia and The Dawn perform live. It was really crowded we decided not to finish the concert anymore. Ang daming mga singit… singit interviews in between performances and singit  sa mga audience. We caught the performances of Hale, Skabeche, The Dawn, Up Dharma Down and Kamikaze. We missed Ely Buendia’s performance (but he came to the stage at the beginning so we still did see him), Kwjan and Bamboo. We just walked around again and checked the booths before heading home.

We walked all the way from the Global City open space to Market! Market! just to get a taxi. Well, it really wasn’t that far but we were already tired from being on our feet since 3 pm and it was already 9 pm. And thank God we got home safely… our cab driver was really sleepy and I caught him falling asleep while driving a few times.

Here are a few photos from the concert…

Category: Escapades, For A Cause  Tags:  2 Comments

April 25th was Litratong Pinoy’s Summer EB (eyeball) at the Aliwan Fiesta in Manila. Aliwan Fiesta is an annual competition of floats and street dancers representing the most popular festivals around the Philippines. You can read more about the Fiesta here.

I arrived late, as usual, and as soon as the LP EB-ers were done eating lunch, the fun began. Lino took our jumping group photos first. Umpisa pa lang, kakapagod na. But it was really funny! Then we headed off to CCP were the floats were parked and the street dancers were rehearsing. We got separated sometimes but were able to regroup again and again.

It was a really hot day and it was pretty tiring but the colorful floats and the performances by the street dancers were well worth it. And it was fascinating to see numerous photographers, both amateurs and professionals, gathered together in one place, dooing their thing. It was actually overwhelming and I was a bit intimidated, seeing all the DSLRs and me with my pink and old-fashioned Holga. Haha! And I couldn’t imagine how much energy the participants have. They were dancing almost the whole day under the scorching heat of the sun then got soaked in rain later that day. I mean, I just walked around and took some photos and I got pretty tired, what more dancing and wearing those costumes complete with body paints. I don’t think I have the energy for that.

So anyway, it was such a wonderful and learning experience for me, especially as a photography enthusiast and I will definitely be watching again next year.

P.S. Thanks to Lito Almuenda for the photos.

March 21-22, 2009

It’s been a long time since I last went to Anilao, Batangas. I texted my good friend Che and teased her, inviting her to go to Anilao. Surprisingly, she said yes and we began planning. She asked me who we’re going with and I asked her to invite her friends and she did. This was my first out-of-town trip with her friends and my second time to be with them. The girls invited me to hitch with them because they were leaving early Saturday morning but I was still shy from them so I told them I’d just ride with Che and Deb. Che had lunch with her family first because it was sister’s birthday and we were able to leave Manila at 6:00 pm already. The ride was fun! We remembered about old days when we used to to Anilao almost every weekend. This time though, we weren’t going to stay at SSJ camp, instead, we’re going to Punto Miguel, a boat ride away from camp.

Che picked me up at around 5:30 pm at Market, Market and we fetched Debbie in Bicutan. We arrived in Anilao at around 9:00 pm. It was San Jose’s town fiesta and it was like all the people were outside the street, first time I saw the place like that. I saw the camp too but it looked like nobody was there so we didn’t drop by anymore. The boat ride was only about 10 minutes and I loved it because the water was calm and the sky was clear so there were a lot of stars in sight. When we got at Punto Miguel, they were all at the shore waiting for us. They set up a table there and there were a lot a of food, including fondues, which one of the boos brought. The food was yummy but I didn’t eat much because we just ate on the way there so I was still full. And then the fun began.

The socials was really fun, I got to know better many of my new friends. We took  lot of photos, including group shots with categories like decades when we were born, bra cup sizes (we were all girls), etc. It was really wacky! We also had a short-lived bonfire. The fire died-down after just a few minutes because we didn’t have enough driftwoods so we just took some photos with us pretending to roast marshmallows. Haha! We were able to actually roast at least one marshmallow each but the fire was too hot and we didn’t have long sticks to stick it to that’s why just gave up on that. We also played charades. We were divided into two groups, the docs were in charge of the games and Che was in charge of the video. The docs altered the game a little. Instead of just one doing the acting, what we did was one guessed the words and the rest of the group did the acting. The docs used Tagalog words and there was one round when I think I only recognized a two words out of the five. LOL! It was pretty hilarious how the words were acted and it was kinda confusing since four people were acting at the same time! The other group was really organized and we were chaotic but we won! Yay! After the photo shoot and the games, we just sat around the table talking, telling each other stories, eating, drinking and listening to music. I think I went to sleep around 5:30 am already.

My roommates were Che, Deb and the two Karens. We all woke up a little after 7:00 am and my roommates and I started talking about last night and looking at the photos from Karen’s that’s why we weren’t able to go back to sleep anymore. We ate breakfast and after that we prepared to go on a boat ride for snorkeling. We went to Dive & Trek and fed the fishes Skyflakes but we didn’t stay long because they said the water was itchy. I didn’t snorkel because I felt too lazy and besides I could see the fish from the boat, there were a lot of fish, including my favorite parrot fish. We tried to look for the place where we used to go snorkeling but didn’t find it so we just back to the resort. We took a swim for awhile and I took some photos of the place too. After that, we took a bath already and then had lunch. Karen treated those of us who were left to some dirty ice cream. Yummy! Then we settled the bills, took a nap for a few minutes then prepared to leave.

I took a ride with the docs and Imee on the way home. We took the re-route too because Che was thinking that there would be heavy traffic in Bauan since it was still daytime. We took the road to Cuenca instead, then Lipa, then Startoll. As always, it was traffic in SLEX because they’re still fixing parts of the highway. We stopped by Total to buy some food then headed home again.

We dropped by Santuario de San Jose in Greenhills to hear mass. I was a little distracted during the mass because there was a boy sitting in front of me who looked like AA’s younger brother when he was little. The boy was really handsome! Haha! And Doc Grace noticed the boy and I had the same attire… yellow polo shirt, khaki shorts and sandals. Haha!

I reached home around 9 pm. I was dead tired! My sunburn hurt and was starting to itch and I still lacked sleep so I went to bed after a while. I didn’t even unpacked my bags. Haha!