Beach Weekend!

So last weekend, I went to the beach for the first time. This year. I don’t know why it took me so long, but I’m glad that I got to go because I was dangerously close to not going to the beach at all this summer. And wouldn’t that be very tragic? I mean, if you live here in the Philippines where the beach is only two and a half hours away (or 3 if you take the wrong exit at SLEX and end up in the Calamba town proper instead) from Metro Manila, it’s almost a crime not to go to the beach at least once during the summer time.

So my officemates and I, went to Aguila Beach Resort in Anilao, Batangas. The resort was, okay. And by okay, I mean it was one of those “you get what you pay for” places. There were 8 of us and we paid around P750 each for an overnight stay with breakfast. Anyway, here’s the verdict:

The food wasn’t very good, but at least it wasn’t that expensive (P130 per meal).

The swimming pool closed at 9P.M. (so early!) but at least it was clean-ish (I mean, what swimming pool is clean, really).

The room was small, the pillows were flat and they only gave 2 blankets even though there were 8 of us, but at least the aircon and fan worked, the bathroom’s drain didn’t clog, the water didn’t run out, the electricity didn’t go out and once you close the door, you couldn’t hear the noise from outside.

As for the beach, it was quite small, it was near the pier, the sand was brown, and there was a lot of people, but it was cleaner than the beaches I’ve been to in Bataan and Zambales, and Sampaguita Beach, which is cleaner and has less people is only a 15-minute boat ride away (with additional fee, of course). Also, the sand isn’t so rocky that you wouldn’t be able to walk barefoot (like in La Luz in Laiya). I took off my slippers as soon as I saw the sand and my feet didn’t have any problems.

Of course, the best part was that I went there with my friends so I knew that even if the resort had sucked, I’d probably still enjoy the weekend because you have fun with your friends wherever you are anyway. It was really fun, and I actually still can’t believe it a little bit. Because, you know how there are people whose lives are like those of people on TV? I mean, that they go on beach outings or Tagaytay weekends and they don’t have any problems related to scheduling and logistics and budget and asking permission from their parents? Well, I’ve never been one of those people. My friends from high school and I have been wanting to go on a beach outing for ages, but we’ve never managed to do it. Because there’s always someone who will complain about something — the cost, the location, parents didn’t allow him/her to go, and whatever other reason. So it was very strange, but very nice, that things sort of just fell into place for this event. It’s almost worth not having gone to the beach any other date this year.

And now, pictures!

In the car, during the fun fun fun road trip Don’t you just love road trips?

We buried V in the sand!

Last picture before boarding the boat to leave Sampaguita beach

Hope you had a happy summer everyone!

42

I cannot believe how fast time flies. I just looked at my planner for 2009 and can’t believe that the events I wrote about in there took place last year when I remember them as clearly as if they’d happened yesterday. Then again, I still remember things that happened in high school like they just happened yesterday, too. If only my memory could be as good when it comes to academic stuff.

Anyway, today I went to a Christmas party of sorts with my former officemates. We haven’t worked in the same office since 2006, but we’ve remained friends anyway. I’m happy about things like that. When things in your life change, but other things stay the same. We all have different lives now, way different, but we find time to see each other and have dinner together, even when it’s just during Christmas time. OK, I’ll admit it now, this is my favorite thing about Christmas — how old friends miss you. Of course, if it were me, I miss old friends all the time, holiday or not. But I’m happy that at least once a year, they remember me, too.

Aww, was that too dramatic? What can I say? My self-hatred knows no bounds.

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There’s now barely 2 weeks left for 2010. I don’t even remember what my New Year’s Resolutions were back in January, if I ever made them at all. Probably not though because I don’t really believe in New Year’s Resolutions. But I am kind of happy about how mankind has created this calendar system so you can keep track of things. I mean, how did people live before times and dates were invented? Even now that we have dates, and I write down things that have happened or will happen, I still have problems keeping track of my life. What did people do back then? So they were born, and then they don’t even notice growing old because they don’t keep track of/celebrate birthdays, and all their experiences feel like a blur because they can’t tell how long ago a certain event happened, and then suddenly they have grey hair and have a hard time walking and will just realize that they’re about to die?

How did they keep track of their jobs? I mean, sure there’s sunrise and sunsets, but what about seasons? How do they know when it’s about to be winter and their plants will die? They keep track of how many sunrises there’ve been?

Such random things in my head. And brought about by such a mundane thought, too — I need a new planner and I’m having trouble deciding on what to get. On the one hand, I’m only a few stickers away from redeeming the Starbucks Planner. But on the other hand, all my friends from my old office got the same planner, and being the sheep that I am, I want my planner to be the same as theirs. (OK, this isn’t the only reason. The planner they got, the Witty Will Save the World, Co. planner, is also pretty cool.) Hence, I am really confused.

Is this even a valid concern regarding the new year? While other people are concerned about getting older, making a difference in the world, saving the environment and other things important, I’m using up the last few days of 2010 trying to figure out what planner I should use for 2011. Talk about superficiality.

We Won! We Won! Part III.V

Woohoo!!!! Yehey!! Wheeee!!! Asteeeeg!!! Galeng!!!! Panalo!!! *applause!*applause!*applause!*

Hahaha, hindi naman ako masyadong high na high? Can you guess why? (Oy, rhyming ‘yun!) Nanalo kasi kami sa singing contest sa office. Yehey!!! Whee!!! I love it!!!

Although, you may have noticed na Part III.V (3.5 hahaha na-gets n’yo ba? ) lang imbis na Part IV ‘yung title ko. That’s because we actually only won 2nd place. Pero so what? Ang sagot ko diyan:

2ND PLACE, HELL YEAH!!!!
(Bonus points to whoever can figure out what movie that’s from.)

Hehehe! After all, I personally think na kaya lang kami second place was dahil natalo kami sa alam n’yo na, the ever important criteria — audience impact. Mayabang ako kaya sasabihin kong magaling kami, pero honest din ako kaya sasabihin ko ring pagdating sa audience impact ‘eh wala talaga kaming laban. Paano ba naman? 10 lang kami sa team, and we were against 9 other teams in the department, who each had mga 10 members din. And of course, none of them ever cheer for us, kasi, ewan ko rin. Haha! No, kasi nga, mga alien kami na madalas mag-solo. Hehehe. ‘Pag meron ngang isa sa kanila na may birthday, invited buong department except our team. Pero oks lang naman, nasanay na kami, plus, it’s really mostly our own fault, you know, for not socializing too much. But, I’m getting off-topic. I was talking about the singing contest.

We’d cheered as hard as we could when they announced my teammate’s name (for the purposes of this entry, let’s call her T). Yeah, all 10 of us cheered. Haha. Well, okay, we did have some friends from other departments. And by some, I mean about 3 people. Haha! But again, it’s fine. I think we cheered loud enough for everyone to know that T had some real loyal supporters. Haha. One of the judges even mentioned us and said “You’ve got a great cheering squad!” Wheee!! That’s us! Hehehe. Although speaking of the cheering thing, I really didn’t like how some girl would always raise the banner they made for the other contestants whenever we would cheer. I mean, she was obviously supporting the other contestant and was doing it as an “in your face” kind of thing, which is really just so low. I mean yeah, we don’t cheer for the others as much, but we also don’t sabotage or boo them. But whatever. Complaining about it more will only make my IQ points drop (if they haven’t already just by being offended).

Anyway, T did really well. She sang My Immortal and she even had the “Amy Lee look”. Seriously, she was in a black dress and hi-cut boots, plus dark make-up. And we asked the special effects people to turn down the lights, too. You know, to get the atmosphere.  She hit all the notes, save for one, around the end, and you could tell it was because she ran out of air because the note before that was really hard. But the judges said that it didn’t really affect her performance that much, since it was after all just one note.

Biases aside (oh, who am I kidding, of course I’m biased, but I will tell you why I didn’t like the other performances), I really think that it was T’s performance that showed the most amount of skill. But I’ll give points to the other 2 contestants as well, since by choosing an upbeat song (i.e. I Kissed a Girl, Jai Ho), they really got the crowd going. One of the judges even said that she felt like dancing along with the contestant who sang Jai Ho.

Anyway… After all the performances were done and deliberation was over, I knew that we were only going to get 2nd place. Because sabi ko nga, talo talaga kami sa audience impact. It’s really weird ‘pag nandito ka. I mean, on normal days, we don’t really notice it, kasi we’re all working and don’t need to interact with each other much, pero tuwing may event na ganito, kitang-kita mo talaga — it’s Them v.s. Us. Hahaha! Pero ano ba, bring up ako nang bring up niyan, nakakalimutan ko tuloy ‘yung point.

The judges were so nice to say that T was “only behind by 1 point“. I mean, if that’s not a clear indication that she had talent, then I don’t know what is. And here’s a secret: After the awarding ceremonies and encore and other hullaballoo, one of the judges approached T and told her, “It was a really great performance, but we didn’t choose you as the winner, because of the crowd.“

WHOA! Way to validate what I had in the back of my mind! Haha! But we didn’t really make anything of it, unless you know, unless we wanted around 90 angry people glaring at us everyday in the office. But you know what, I think they’ll do it anyway? Hehe. You know, our supervisor even had to remind us to cheer and support M, the winner, when she was doing her encore song. Because our team had actually already gone out of the venue and were taking pictures — enjoying ourselves, but with just ourselves. Hahaha. We even made quite a ruckus when we got back to our work stations, too. Although that’s nothing new since we’ve always been the noisiest team anyway. (Yeah, that’s why we’re a, and I quote — “great cheering squad”! Hahaha!)

Right. I have a feeling that all of this is going to be too wordy and isn’t going to make a lot of sense tomorrow, but haha, whatever. I’m still high on excitement. And this is without alcohol!  Haha! (Oh great, now that I mentioned alcohol, you’re all going to think that I’m drunk, aren’t you? Well, I’m not. Get my blood tested (or is it urine that you’re supposed to test?) if you want. Haha!)

Right. Stopping this now and going back to work. Would you believe, after all that, I still have work to go back to?!?

O Ayan! Update!

Not that anyone’s pressuring me to post something new here, except maybe myself. But seriously, here’s a question:

HUWAAAAAAHH!!! KAILAN PA NATPOS ANG KALAHATI NG JUNE??!?! Or not even June, but 2009?!?!?

Bakit last year ang bagal bagal ng oras, pero ngayon, hindi pa’ko nag-aadjust sa pagsulat ng “9″ instead of “8″ sa dulo ng taon ‘eh biglang June na. At eto–patapos na ang June! Is it true that I only have 2 blog entries for this month? Why?? What happened?? Busy ako? Tinatamad? Or both? (It’s both, of course.)

Pero ayan, naiinis na’ko dahil wala akong mabasang bago sa sarili kong blog kaya sulat muna ako ngayon. Hopefully hindi masyadong walang kwento ito. Hehehe.

Hello Fate, It’s You Again

So there I was, sitting in the bus, complaining to myself about how I have nothing to write about in my blog, when suddenly the guy seated next to me turns to me and asks me something. Because I’m an absent-minded stranger-hater, I ignored him at first (and actually thought that he might be talking to someone else, although he couldn’t have since I was the only one sitting next to him) but eventually couldn’t find a way to get out of the situation so decided to listen anyway.

“Gaano katagal ‘yung travel time mula Bictuan hanggang Alabang?” he asks.

I shrugged. “20 minutes? Depende sa traffic,” I tell him, and then look away. I really don’t like talking to strangers. But he was apparently really bored because he asked me something else. This time, it had something to do with the traffic situation in Skyway. I had half a mind to tell him that I wasn’t an MMDA officer but decided that that was too rude so I just answered him using the shortest words I know like ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.

And I guess he was really really bored, because he went on to tell me about his cousin’s birthday party wherein they have to hire an Elvis impersonator and that they were down to 2 choices — one who was chubby, and one who was thin. He said that they were equally good, and their rates were equal, too. So given those parameters, he asked me which was the right choice. Again, I was thinking of telling him, “Are you really going to base your decision on what a random stranger in a bus tells you?” But again, I didn’t want to be rude, or waste any effort in being smart so I just told him to pick the funnier one, or toss a coin if they really couldn’t choose.

I’d thought then that the conversation was over, but I guess he was really really really bored (and apparently, I was wrong, and that it takes more than 20 minutes from Bicutan to Alabang, ugh.) because he eventually told me about what kind of food he liked and how he and his dad used to spend their Saturdays together. Fine. In fairness to him, he didn’t look like a serial killer (though who knows, right?) or a petty thief. But still, he’s a stranger. And he wasn’t even a cute one. So yeah, I basically just nodded and pretended to listen. Eventually, the bus stopped at Alabang and he told me, “This is my stop now.”

“Okay,” I said and stood up as well. I got off the bus and ran to the opposite direction of wherever he was going. No way I was going to take the same jeepney as he was. I ended up waiting 10 more minutes for a new jeepney to arrive, but whatever. I think that’s better than being subject to another strange conversation with someone I really couldn’t care less about.

Maybe I’m rude and I’m mean for not being nice to him, but he’s a stranger after all, and if there’s anything the Philippines has ever taught me, it’s that you can never be too careful. Seriously, I checked my purse and my pockets to see if anything was missing. I mean, he may have been a professional con artist who was distracting me with the conversation to get to my wallet or cellphone or something.

The connection of this story with fate though, is that well, it was at least an experience to blog about. Boring though it was, I don’t think it’s a normal thing to be talked to by a stranger in the bus. At least, not in this country. (And for good reason. I mean, you never know who people are.) I’ve actually been talked to by my bus seatmates before, but most of them were women and they asked me practical things like directions, bus stops, fares… They didn’t tell me their life stories and what kind of food they liked to eat. Sorry, but I’m just not a friendly person. Of course, people on the internet are different. If someone leaves a comment on my blog then I’ll respond to that, and even start conversations in forums and other places like that. I’ll even give my real name (because really, staying anonymous and leaving a controversial comment is just not proper etiquette) if it was required, even though they say that the internet is a dangerous place. But it’s still different in real life when you’re talking to an actual person who is actually in front of you. I think that that’s more dangerous.  So yeah, I probably won’t be taking the bus for quite some time, or maybe change the time that I go home so there’s less chance of running into him again. *sigh* I really don’t like strangers.

We Won! We Won! Part III

OK, so it was only the elimination rounds, and the actual contest isn’t until Thursday of this week. But still, our team’s representative for this year’s office singing contest was chosen, 3 out of 8!

The judges didn’t say which of the 3 they picked got the highest score, but they’ll be the ones competing in the finals. And yes, our team’s representative will be one of them! I’m pretty confident that she’s going to win, she’s a really great singer, after all. Although she’ll maybe have a problem because I think the judges (or the crowd haha) may be biased.

I told you that not a lot of people in the office like us, right? Hehehe. In fact, earlier, when it was time to announce those who were picked for the finals, it was only our team who was left in the audience. The other had left after the performances and a lot of them didn’t even bother to know who were picked. Or maybe we’re really just more enthusiastic than the average person. But what’s wrong with that? I for one, am happy that we have a reason to celebrate. Even though our teammate isn’t the real winner yet, she’d at least already beat 5 others, and to me, that’s already something.

We’re pretty confident that she’ll win in the finals, too. But again, maybe that’s just us being over enthusiastic. But who cares? I’m happy we have someone to cheer on in the final round. Oh and BTW, this is called “We Won! We Won! Part III” because this is the 3rd contest wherein our team’s (or at least a representative from us) has come out victorious. Oh yes we are arrogant. But for good reason! Hahaha!

What’s Next…

I actually have a lot of ideas for blog entries. I just can’t find (or make) the time to write them. *sigh* Oh, I want to share that one of my former officemates asked me to write her a recommendation letter. She said that she needs one from a colleague and she picked me to write it! Isn’t she sweet?

But going back to the topic of my blog entries, I have several ideas, really. And most of those ideas come with pictures, but gah… I’m finding it so hard to balance everything that’s going on at the moment. Did you notice, there have only been 2 updates this month?! (Well 3, counting this one). But I do just want to say (more to myself than to whoever reads this, you know, so I won’t forget hehe) that I do have things lined up. And I do believe that this blog is important enough to me (or my writing) for me to keep going at it. So in conclusion… Stay tuned! Hehe!