throwback april 2o1o: taal (plus my travel diaries widget)

If you're happy and you know it.. BLOG!! :) 

I've been positive and lighthearted lately. With lately, I mean.. like a month already? Hihi. Tonight is no different. My brother and I were laughing like crazy because I was teaching our 3-year old niece how to open a locked door with keys. There were four keys together and she can't figure out what she already tried and failed. Picture my niece's super cute face then add determination, annoyance and anger. Hahaha! She even had "napapagod na ko" lines but she kept on trying. Haha! I can't get over it. Now I didn't want to waste the good vibes so I thought of blogging. It's such a breeze to think and joke around when your happy, right? There, I just let you in on a secret. 

Anyway, for tonight let's relieve the moment of my first unglamorous short trip. This was back in the days when I haven't dreamt of trekking nor running, or any other strenuous physical activities. I was the typical girly-girly back then so imagine the horror when I found out I have no choice but to join the activity. We had clients then and they personally chose to trek Taal. Trekking? Why on earth? Hahaha! And as I've said I had no choice. Or probably I had. I was just too chicken to say no then. 

And the experience? It was horrible! I remember posting on Facebook just how horrible it was - heat of the sun, dusty trail, smelly horses. Those were my exact issues. Ang arte ko dati dba? Annoying!! Hahaha! But as cliché as it may sound, it's true that change is the only constant thing in this world. 3 years after this nerve-wracking incident, I have climbed mountains, joined fun runs, went spelunking, tried wall climbing, got frustrated in wakeboarding and successfully stood on a surf board! All that and even more!! 

I'd have to note though that this activity wasn't my turning point. It is after I found out about bucket lists that I realized I've been missing out a lot. And that there are a lot of things out there that we should try - even just once in this lifetime. Naks! Yan tayo eh!! :P

what I perceived as bad before ✌

the beauty that's Taal

I regret to inform you though that this blog post will entirely be personal - no travel details or whatsoever. Heeyy, I know nothing about organizing trips back then. Plus this was three freakin' years back! I really just had to do this throwback thing altogether because as you can see I created a "travel diaries" widget on this blog. Look right or down. See it? See it? :)

Update 02.15.2014 
Deleted the photo 'cause I realized it's ugly. Instead, I have my TRAVEL PAGE now. Woohooo! :)

I was supposed to just list down all the places I've been to from A-Z like most travel bloggers do kaya lang my OCD hit me. By all means, I tried to understand a little about Philippine geography and tadaaaaa.. Thank you so much to Wikipedia. And since I'm feeling informative, not to mention, hyper tonight, I'm going to share some realizations I had. By the way, I tweeted the bullets below with the hashtag #geographyfordummies. I felt such an idiot!

• I found out that Olongapo is just a city in the province of Zambales. All the while I thought Olongapo is a province by itself. All the while too I didn't know that Subic has got something to do with Zambales. At least now I know, Subic is a municipality of Zambales.

• And speaking of municipality. It was my question too, what the heck is a municipality. Wikipedia said that a municipality, after reaching certain population and revenue requirements may opt to be a city. A bill should be passed then signed into law by the president. Really now.

• All the while I thought Camiguin, Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro are equals. I don't know - probably they are all cities of a certain province, or they are all provinces by themselves. Anything that would make them peers. Apparently, I'm wrong. Camiguin and Bukidnon are provinces while Cagayan de Oro is just a city of Misamis Oriental. Why do we frequent the term CDO over Misamis Oriental??

• I got refreshed that we have 17 regions and I found out that I've been to 10 of them. 7 more to go including Region II (Cagayan Valley), Region VIII (Eastern Visayas) and the rest from Mindanao. I doubt though if my parents will ever let me to Mindanao again.

• Last but not the least, I realized that my bullets are black and there's no obvious way for a geography idiot to figure out how to switch their colors. Ho-huummm.

PS

I cannot believe you let me bore you like that! ;)

ELSEWHERE

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come rain or shine

Please welcome me back as I continue my series of summer-ish posts. xD Last May 8, we had our project summer outing at Virgin Beach Resort, Laiya, San Juan Batangas. It's exactly the week storm 'Bebeng' was here so it was raining almost non-stop that day. I was honestly pissed off because 1) I am a part of the organizing team and I was worried all our efforts to make it happen would go to waste. 2) Who would ever want a rainy summer outing, after all {member or not of the organizing team}?

As planned, the participants will be given 30 minutes to rest or freshen up and then we will proceed with the games. Obviously, what was intended to happen never did. We opted to let them stay in the dining parasols as we waited for our lunch. Some still chose to brave the rain, which by the way isn't so hard at that time, and went swimming. Personally, I chose to stay in our shelter.

me and my sister having the time of our lives in the cottage

and please don't mention our matching outfits

We requested for our lunch to be served early since most of us had nothing else to do but try to get ourselves out of boredom in the parasols.

On the brighter side, what was supposed to be just 'packed lunch' became a buffet. They didn't bother to explain why. But yeah, Virgin Beach, thanks a lot!

buuurrppp! :P

Heavens must have felt pity on us and soon the heavy rain turned into drizzle. In a moment, we found ourselves enjoying Laiya's big waves. What made the whole trip fun were those waves, actually. Everyone was acting silly playing with them.

While most of the time we'd ride the waves and let them bring us back to the shore, I experimented a bit and tried jumping over them. One time I made a mistake of jumping too early and I landed the water the exact moment the wave has come. Nagpagulong-gulong ako literally. And I have paparazzi shots to support my story. 

'twas a lot of work washing off the sand from my hair :|

Of course, there's no way we'd miss the 'pictorial' part of every trip. The credit goes to teh Pholet and her Bebe Glam {camera with a name, yet again}.

with my sis and teh Pholet's sis, Donna

Day trips btw is from 8am to 5pm only. So at around 5pm, we were ready to leave the place. Our official photographer, Jabey was finally in action to take our obligatory group shots.

my immediate team, ku-yu-ey
Jam.Apple.Pholet.Jabey.Jem.Ochie

the entire project

I'd say the summer outing wasn't an epic success, but it's not a total mess either. Some efforts may have been wasted {planning for games and all} but still we had fun and I guess that matters the most.

Now who's looking forward to next year's summer outing?

Virgin Beach Resort

http://www.virginbeachresort.com/

Day Tour Package, Inclusive of Lunch

Adults .................. P 850.00/day

Kids (2-10 years old). .. P 525.00/day
Dining Parasol .......... P 1350.00/day (capacity of 12, max 15, extra person, P130.00)

ELSEWHERE

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once is enough but twice isn't too much

Quick post on what took away my could-have-been rest days. Hindi ako bitter, pagod lang talaga ko. Haha! Two consecutive weekends of running and climbing as if I have an active lifestyle for real. So far, I'm enjoying. But not to the point na igigive-up ko ang kaartehan ko. Haha! So after this, magiinarte muna ko. ;))

Anyhoo, to give justice to my blog title, lemme just say that this is about goals #3 and #14 which I have accomplished months ago but due to insistent public demand aka friendship, I needed to do 'em all over again. Don't get me wrong, because if these activities would always equate to bonding with friends, I'll be very glad to do them again. But sorry, not too soon.

First tiring weekend, January o9. PSE Bull Run at Fort Bonifacion Global City. Finally, I experienced a real fun run. Remember my disappointment with Pasig River Run? This time I was able to really run and mind you it's not just 3k. It was 5k! Though we only registered for 3k, we were informed that we can run for 5k if we'd like to. So there, a fulfilling spur-of-the-moment decision. Now I can confidently cross-off goal #14 from my bucket list. Who knows, our next run might just be 1oK already?

yeah, obviously we're trying to prove it's 5k!

Second tiring weekend,January 15-16. Climb to Mt. Batulao. Yep, you read that right! Mt. Batulao again. Goal #3, double check! At first I was hesitant to join because I was there only last September. Who would want to climb the same mountain in a span of 4 months? But with the thought that it will be a little different since it's overnight and I'll be with a different group of people, I never dropped the possibility of joining. Then came the expensive conference call with Sheena and Silina. That made me decide. Sasama ako. For.the.sake.of.friendship. =)) No regrets, I had fun. Above all, narealize ko na may talent pala ako sa pag-akyat ng bundok pero wala pala akong talent sa pagtulog sa matigas na higaan. Hahaha! Hence the decision of not climbing again til I'm fully equipped. When will that happen? I have no idea. As of the moment, all I wish to do is to rest, shop and pamper myself. Obvious ba na pagod ako ako? ;)

ang mga mahal kong kaibigan hahaha

we were requested of a wacky shot,
that's the best we can give booo!

we were around 3o but here's my immediate group
thank you for yet another Batulao experience =)

Uh-oh, I said quick post. Vavoo! *hurries to bed*

**pictures of the climb were grabbed from Joel's Facebook account. Thanks!

ELSEWHERE

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I think it's LOVE! {for Mother Nature}

I know I got you with my title. *wink*

Tell me if its weird but I feel like it's my responsibility to update this blog. I already ticked off few items from my list and I feel I have some sort of unfinished business 'coz I haven't posted them here yet. I thought I need to come up with three blog entries to get the updating done then I realized they all have something in common. If you don't get that common thing I'm talking about, you can just come back when you're smarter. {I don't get this bitchy in real life, btw. Heehee.} Thank goodness they do because right at this very moment my laziness won't allow my depleting braincells to come up with three worth reading blog entries.

my #14 Run A Marathon

10.10.10 Run for Pasig River

With their target number of runners participants, they could have named their event 'Walk for Pasig River'. That would make it more appropriate {sense my disappoint, please}. Though I have been warned of what could possibly happen, it is still, again, DISAPPOINTING. :( While I was there and I realized I was not running after all, I had second thoughts of considering it a reality of my goal. I guess I'll have to run another marathon {a real fun run this time} to have that sense of fulfillment. You know how I hate to not be completely satisfied of something. On the brighter side, I still finished the 3km WALK {is the emphasis enough?}, managed to claim my finisher's band, got to be part of another history and contributed a little something to the restoration of that beloved river. I should still feel good, I know.

the run left me with these memorabilia
i am keeping them!
not in the photo: finisher's band

the finisher's band
tell me it's worth all the sweat, tell meeee!!

my running mates? hahaha
because the election is just around the corner

my #3 Go Mountain Climbing

09.25.2010 Mt. Batulao Climb

Don't you just love friends who, even unintentionally, are able to help you out with your goals? Well, I do. Right the next morning after I first posted my little project over my blog, an irresistible offer came. A friend sent me an IM asking if I want to be able to cross out an item on my list on the coming weekend. Jokingly, I said 'kung papaakyatin mo ko ng bundok ngaung sabado, ayaw ko' {or at least something like that}. True to what was supposedly a joke, they indeed have plans of climbing Mt. Batulao on the coming weekend. I initially said no because for one, I am unprepared {Lord knows I super hate being unprepared} and next, the closest friend {aren't you touched?} can't go with us. After few days of much thinking, I decided to go with them. Lucky for me, the friend was also able to make it to the climb, flight back to Manila got moved and all, thank heavens. I also had the time of my life Thursday and Friday night before the climb to go shopping for some sort of appropriate apparel.

And the Batulao experience? It was crazy cool. It has always been like that with friends like them anyway. And you know what? I feel proud my ass didn't fell flat on the Batulao trails. I survived the climb without so much of hardships except during the night on our way home when my thighs {I call 'em my jelly jelly by the way} and knees hurt like hell. I was claiming I developed rheumatism due to Tagaytay's extreme coldness and the mother and sister would only laugh at me {sige na, ikaw na ang may rayuma! haha!} And even after a day or two, I still felt half dead. But all is good now. I am alive and kickin' and my list just got shorter by one.

more mountains to go?

my #15 Do Something for Mother Nature

08.21.2010 Tree Planting in Marikina Watershed

This happened even before I was able to come up with my list. So parang sinali ko lang talaga sya para one down na ko. Kidding. I really have the heart for activities like this. I even want to join coastal clean up drives and the likes.

Anyway, the tree planting activity was held in Marikina Watershed. I actually texted a friend leaving in Marikina that I'll be dropping by their house for lunch but ironically, the venue was in Antipolo. Why didn't they call it Antipolo Watershed for goodness' sake?

Fast forward to the actual tree planting activity, I felt like I risked my life just to plant four {yes just four, I'm so sorry} wildlings. I expected we'll plant in plain lands, but far from what I expected we planted on steep mountains. I know I can climb mountains but it's totally different when it doesn't have trails. You are totally clueless on how to get to the next spot you'll be planting your wildlings on. Sure you can see the bamboo sticks as indicators but it's hard to figure out how you'll be able to get yourself there, where to step next, where to hold. I wish my words are enough to explain how difficult the experience was for me. And to Silina and Sheena as well, for sure.

Despite how hard it was, come next tree planting offering I will still sign up and volunteer. It's the least I can do for the environment. {And since when I became an environmentalist? Hahaha!}

oo, haggard ako >.<

with the other volunteers
can you even see me?

**credits to jabey, tin and jigs for the pics 

ELSEWHERE

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