this lack of update is brought to you by

the fact of the matter is i am utterly disgusted disappointed by my lack of updates since the rain started pouring, considering how my sister graduated over the weekend. she was fourth in her batch of molecular biology and biotechnology students - the same batch that had one of the eighteen summa cum laudes in the entire diliman system. so, not bad really, considering, and i therefore conclude i am mediocre. hahahaha. no, seriously, my sister is brilliant.

so anyway, since coming from that weekend off and surviving the rainy stretch of days with andrea in bangkok -- she's back now teehee and right now we're obsessing about that camella commercial and how she looks EXACTLY like that kid -- well, after that, i've been suffering dysmenorrhea (oh to be a woman at this point in time) and about up to *here* with Read-Along work, so what's new. heh.

i hope adam lambert bumps danny gokey off the American Idol stage and that the skies clear up before our clan reunion on the weekend of the 9th. thanks universe. xoxo.

nineteen

come home! :)

photo taken last month in zambales, c/o ruthie ♥

you make a girl insane

i've always had reservations about writing something set in an all girls high school basketball team because it scares me to think about how it could trip a lot of real chords unintentionally, but then again, aren't we all about tripping chords everywhere?

footnotes to a mixtape
~3800 words, to barbie's music from the buffet table.

laiyeah! (2009)

or, alternatively, the third and last of a series

this one here's for the graduates. :) 2009 being dual-grad time for krista and wy, i dragged le familia to laiya for some sun, sea and sand on black saturday, capping off holy week's three-part beachineering tryst all over the place. hehe. this was also drea's first beach outing with my family (yay!).


saturday's outing was in balai sa laiya in san juan, batangas. the drive was surprisingly short and relatively unmarred by holiday traffic, much unlike our six-hour bataan trip on thursday. we left the cavite house at quarter to 6 and arrived at the beach around 9, with auntie on the wheel and i navigating from the backseat with dad on the passenger seat. krista and drea were dozing off; wy was listening to taylor swift on his psp (seriously).

the place was surprisingly deserted on a black saturday when we got there, much unexpected really. i had prepared myself for jampacked beach resorts in nearby batangas, since i figured this was where everybody else would be trooping, what with its proximity to the metro, but lo and behold the shore was clear and quiet.

and so, we camwhore.




krista and wy wanted to rent snorkels and life vests, and so we did. actually, the life vest rental was a good idea because the waters got deep not too far out. the snorkel mask was good for small fishy viewing (ika nga ni wy, "minnows" - whatever).





as previously mentioned, the beach was unusually unpopulated, and the resort had only a few people in it aside from us. we actually got to play billiards for a few rounds - this was how un-peopled the place was. and we loved it.

around noontime, drea remembered that she brought her zips with her, so she showed us a few moves:


as expected, type ni wy ang zips:


here he is pictured trying to play zips under the shade. ka-arte. heheh. anyway, drea says wy is a fast learner - much faster than i am, at least. hehe.


anyway, buffet lunch served by the place was awesome - we had grilled tuna, caldereta, stew, rice and singkamas with bagoong and mangoes for dessert (yum). their dining area was located on the second floor, amidst trees. dining was al fresco, and the summer breeze went perfectly with their mangoes and the drying salt on our skins. teehee.

let it also be noted here that you could come up anytime and fix yourself coffee or tea here and drink it while lounging in their rattan recliners or their egg-shaped duyan. double teehee.

by noon, we'd almost had our fill of the sea, it was time for some tanders timeout by our cabana:


regaining our strengths in the afternoon, we figured, maybe it was time for jumpshots:


but then, some jumpshots are not meant to be:


(sorry, natawa talaga ako dito hehehehe)


(buti pag anino lang pinipicturean parang magkaka-body size lang kami nina krista at drea. WAHAHAHAHA.)

we went home around 5:30p.m. but by then we'd already been caught into the outpour of vacationers into manila. we had dinner on slex and reached metropolis alabang around 9-ish. drea and i boarded a bus home to makati since auntie was too tired to drive all the way to makati then back to cavite hehehe.

all in all, a good beach trip. actually, a good series of beach trips, at that. hehehe. my shoulders hurt from sunburn and sleeves are currently some form of punishment, but hey, it's all good.

summary of expenses: P750/pax daytrip rate in balai sa laiya. covers entrance, welcome drinks (we had mango juice), the cabana, buffet lunch, one light snack (they delivered sandwiches, fish chips and juice to our cabana and we ate them by the beach - pwede na rin) and of course, the bottomless coffee. covers as well free use of junior billiards table - which wy enjoyed immensely. rental of life vest, P100/day. rental of snorkel mask, P100/day. pwede na rin. if you're not really looking for a pool (kasi sadly they don't have one) this resort deserves two thumbs up. :)

temptation island, bataan edition!

or, alternatively, bataan tryst 2009

for a while there, i thought this trip would not happen at all, but after several last minute arrangements, from reservations for the trip to recruitment of participants to surfing sulit.com for van rentals, we got there anyway. it was Maundy Thursday.

so now, presenting...


hahaha. actually, this picture lacks two beachineers, but i couldn't resist putting the title on the sand space. it was begging for it! hahaha. the beach we headed to was bataan white corals in morong (P300/head entrance fee, cabana for 10 @ P1,500), but this photo was shot on the opposite shore.

after much haggling, the final number of beachineers reached 10 on d-day, and we left makati at 5 a.m. holiday traffic doubled our estimated travel time, so we reached the resort around 11:30 a.m. the sun was already high, we were already starving, and sorry to say their restaurant service was a disappointment, but no matter. we wanted to get sunburnt so we hit the water as soon as possible, appendicitis be damned.

we rented a banca (P100/head) to get to the opposite shore. it was supposedly better for beaching, since the shore we left was full of jellyfish, but after a bit we started feeling stings anyway. ah, jellyfish, what to do with you. anyway, when the water starts stinging, you know what to do:


jumping shots, of course. (props to fran k for this one) hehehe. actually, i am in this picture - i'm the left-most one, and yes, i didn't know i could jump this high before this shot, either.




pardon the ridiculous camwhorage, minsan lang naman, wag nang pumalag, oki?


(really, this photo's filename is "woohoo-nakuha-sa-anggulo.jpg")

that trip to the other shore had time limit, sadly, so we had to head back to the resort after an hour. tumambay na lang at dumalife sa kanilang seawater pool. and yes, the water was salty. very.



and then somebody suggested beers by the seawater, and so i said, what the hell, why not?


and then the sun started its descent, hence the golden hour when everything the sun falls on just looks golden:



i know they look exactly the same, but then again, minsan lang, pagbigyan na please.


we left the resort after sunset, after wrestling with their clogged communal shower and then we trooped to SBMA to have dinner. we were hoping for Gerry's but then it was full and the waitlist had at least 14 sets of people ahead of us. so we went somewhere else, and their service was thankfully quick.

we reached makati around midnight. all in all, everybody pitched in P1,000 each for the resort, the van (P4,500 with gas), the toll fees and the driver's food. not bad, eh? anyway, that certainly deserves a repeat. so ano guys, next week ulit? hehe.

endnote. some photos taken by drea. postcrossprocessing mine. drea's attempts (as seen on facebook) do look better. ahehehe.