catching up series: used to have friends :P

I warned yah, right? So here we go! I honestly contemplated whether or not I would include "friends" posts in this catching up series because I no longer get to see most of my friends now. Oopsie, what is anti-social? Hehe! But here it is anyway! I just decided to gather everything in a single post so I can easily get this over and done with. I actually realized just now that 2016 was the last year that I was actively seeing friends. Anoba, I'm so tita now! And I mean it literally 'cause all these time that I was on hiatus, I was just very busy with my nieces. More on that soon, of course! (You were kind of expecting that, right?) 

JANUARY

It all started with a mini-reunion the past month and then all of a sudden, I was constant buddies with some college friends. We started the year with dinner and desserts at Maginhawa. From the same month, I also met-up with my closest friends from Accenture. (These people) It was a korean bbq kinda night at Bulgogi Brothers, Greenbelt. I think this was the last time that we were ever complete. Yah know, friendship dramas and falling-out. HUHU.

Wicked Kitchen, Maginhawa

Bulgogi Brothers, Greenbelt

FEBRUARY

We took the close-close-an to the next level when we went to Star City, just the four of us. We were never a group back in college so it was funny that we were doing korny things together when we got older. Up to now, we have this group chat in Messenger that we call "Road to 40" to mock our age. Ironically, we mainly use the group chat to exchange memes. Haha! We refuse to adult sometimes.

Star City 

It was also the month that I decided to go back to the corporate world so I got busy attending interviews and taxing exams. This was from when I visited friends from PLDT/Smart. Remember Tin? My friend from way back when? I think this was the last time that I saw her. Dont judge me! I actually told myself to reunite with friends this year. And guess what? I met up with my high school best friend last month. Yep, after not seeing each other for like three years. :P

MARCH

Another mini-reunion, and in Eastwood no less! Stayed in Eastwood for quite a long time so it had so many memories both good and bad. Say it with me.. Awww! Hehe! I met with another group of Accenture friends because Mark was leaving for US. Remember Foursome? Now both Job and Mark are in the US, and Monique is in NZ. While me, on the other hand, never really liked the idea of working abroad. Pilipinas kong mahal. Haha!

TGI Friday's, Eastwood

Still from March, I went bowling with my college friends. I told you, we were suddenly so close after that December mini-reunion. I can no longer remember what ensued that night but most likely I got the highest score in bowling. Hahaha! Kidding, of course. But if I remember it right, we had dinner right after courtesy of Juni and Den. Thanks, guys! 

Bowling Center, Megamall

APRIL

Maginhawa night, yet again. With college friends, yet again. Random realization: I miss restaurant hopping in Maginhawa. Also, I miss going out with friends. Hehe! You have to believe me when I say that I really haven't been going out with friends for a few years now. Grabe! I've been so focused with my nieces that they've become my only social life. Haha! #superauntie, much!

Maginhawa yet again

MAY

May was the month when I finally went back to the corporate world. Shoutout to Bayview for taking me in. Haha! It was also the month that I started boxing regularly with Noni. I've always loved the sport even if I'm not really good at it. Hehe! And I just thought I'd linked up my old boxing posts, here and here. Nakakamiss!

And since I was a Makati girl then, I got to meet my fellow corporate slaves regularly. Photo below with Sheena and Dwin was taken from Charlie's somewhere in Makati. During that time, the other member of ASDS aka Silina was in Switzerland for work. 

Charlie's somewhere in Makati

JUNE

Another boxing sesh with Noni! And if you're gonna watch the video below, please don't judge. Haha! I love the sport but the sport doesn't love me back. Hahaha! I remember posting this video on Facebook and getting teased by friends because of how I punch. Haha! Tse! Suntukin ko kayo jan, eh!

Also, since I was back to the corporate world, lunch & dinner outs left and right has started again. I can't remember from whom I stole the photo below but it was from a team dinner at Yakimix, Greenbelt. And although it may not seem like it, team buildings like this are so awkward for me. I am a self-confessed introvert so it takes so much for me to socialize especially with people I'm not really close with. 

Yakimix, Greenbelt

JULY

Up next, July! Birthday month! It was a busy month that started with a coffee date with Sheena. I remember us video calling Silina because as I've said she's in Switzerland. It was also the time when Snapchat was a thing. Sheena introduced me to it and I was very unamused. I was reacting like "Ito na yun?" Bakit sila tuwang tuwa? Haha! I was such a grinch!

Starbucks, somewhere in Makati

My teammates at work also surprised me with a birthday celebration. Someone called me to go to the pantry and they were all there waiting with a cake. Sweet, eh? Office perks that I no longer get because I'm working from home now. Although to be honest, I wouldn't trade what I have now for anything else. Because, duh, Caloocan to Makati = Traffic. So never again. :P

Sheena and I met up with Joel, too! Silina's boyfie! He treated us to dinner at Yabu and we ambushed him with love life questions. Haha! That's what he got for meeting up with nosy people. JK, one half!

Yabu at (I don't remember where, Haha!)

And the highlight of the month was when we went to Sandbox, college + Accenture friends combined. At that point, I was sorely missing traveling because the last time I traveled was 2013 pa to Ilocos with my Foursome friends. Wait, let's make it rain with links cause #shamelessplugging..  1, 2, 3, and 4! I am going to write about this Sandbox trip in detail so hold your horses. Hehe! But really, it was like a breathe of fresh air after taking a hiatus (no work = no travel for three years!)

Sandbox, Pampanga

SEPTEMBER

More random dinner outs with Sheena! I remember us having dinner at Paper Moon cafe + froyo at Llaollao. On top of the good food are the realest conversations. 

Llaollao, Glorietta

And then more lunch outs with teammates because if I remember it right, it was Teo's birthday. I am actually blaming the free food left and right why I became out of shape from 2016 to 2017! But the latter year was worse! Haha! I am actually dreading the time when I would work on my 2017 posts. Parang I can't share how chubby wubby I got! And speaking of chubby, photo below was taken from Chubby's somewhere in Makati. See what I did there? :P

Chubby's, Makati

OCTOBER

October was another exciting month because it was the "summer" outing for the newbies. They brought us to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, all expenses paid! We even stayed at Princesa Island Garden Resort, a 5-star accommodation. It was extra fun because from a group of three (Carlo, Mike and I), we got along with another group and we made the most out of our stay. Of course I'll be writing about this in detail too. Because why not, photos galore! 

Bohemian Party

And then finally for October, the Halloween Party at the office. I dressed up as Minnie Mouse by decorating my red skirt with white dots and buying a Minnie Mouse headband. Haha! That's the best that I can do!

NOVEMBER
Up next, November! We pretty much spent the next few months with the people we met from Puerto Princesa. We would have lunch together at the pantry and sometimes go out too! Photo below was when we had lunch at Yellow Cab. Sobrang dami pang lunch outs that we didn't have a photo of. But one thing I realized is that people really just come and go. I'm not even friends with these people anymore. To think we had such a grand time when we were in Palawan. 

Yellow Cab, Makati

And then after what seemed to be ages, I finally met with my high school best friend again. Akalain mo yun! She was about to work as a nurse in Jeddah so we had to see each other. My brother, sister-in-law and of course Mithril, tagged along. The next time I saw her was three years after na. But the thing about our friendship is that we just pick up where we left off. Don't you just love friendships like that?

Pizza Hut, SM Fairview

DECEMBER

And then finally, December! Contrary to what is expected for this month, I didn't have much going on. I decided to skip the Christmas Party at work and no reunions whatsoever! I only got to meet Jhov for dinner at Maginhawa.

And that's it! Wheww! Napagod ako! After this, it's gonna be all about the fam especially my nieces. I am so giddy about this whole resurrecting-my-blog-thing. I don't care even if blogging isn't an IN thing anymore (and probably no one would get to read my posts), I am doing this for myself. FOR MY SANITY. Let's do this! More posts comin' right up!

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treat after treat

How many times have I said I'm blessed with friends? Countless, you might have answered. I never realized that fact until I got tired of work, eventually resign and be a couch potato for nine long months {and counting}. When I left Eastwood and moved back to my parents, my plan was to hibernate. Hibernate?? What? Am I an animal now? Hehe. Seriously though, I was supposed to not meet friends, not update my social media accounts {which by the way happens to be a lot}.. I dunno, probably make my presence unfelt in general. It's weird I know and it's difficult to explain, but what the photo below says kind of sum it up.

via Tumblr

There! I hope it made sense 'cause that's exactly how I felt - just tired of everything. So I took the big leap and left the life I've lived for years. Ha! I felt so brave then. :P Most things after that were as expected, EXCEPT FOR ONE THING {felt the emphasis?} - my friendships here and there.

Supposedly, the point of this post is just to share the treats I got from two sets of friends the last time I visited Eastwood. Yes, that explains my blog title. Turned out, I have lots to say. My brain is puking words, might as well make the most out of it.

Going back, you might have wondered how I came to the realization that I'm blessed with friends. Or you might not have. Either way, here are my reasons in bullet form. Brace yourselves!

• Back in February, I went with my former officemates to Nuvali. I was honestly surprised that I went with them. Why? Because I've always been incapable of carrying over friends from one phase to the next. You get what I mean? I have exactly one remaining friend from highschool and about five {seven the most :P} from college. Hahaha! Binilang ko talaga. :P I'm just bad at communicating and my social skills suck. Trust me. {post here: prelude to summer}

• The next month, I met up with one of my few college friends - Tin. Please don't tell anyone that I told you but.. yes, she's the popular Vleague photographer. Hahaha! She hates it when I do this. :P Anyway, I got a treat from her from Holy Cow. It's a once in a life time treat 'cause she's extremely kuripot. Peace, Shoms. :* We call each other that, by the way. {post here: THE tin pe benito ✌}

• Early April, I was having dilemmas. One day, I was all alone somewhere when I felt that I can no longer contain all the grudges. I sms-ed the best friend for rescue and after few hours we were together in Kangaroo Jack eating four cheese pizza and uhmm.. can't remember what pasta we had. Hehe. On top of everything, it was her treat. Didn't I tell you I am a lucky creature? {post here: best friend duties}

• I really didn't get any treat the month of May but it is the best month by far. And why not, I went all the way to Ilocos then with my Foursome friends. They are what's left of my friends from where I resigned. I told you I am bad at keeping in touch. From around 10 {first bullet}, they're down to four. Looking at the bright side, it seems I can keep these three.{not yet blogged cause I haven't gotten a copy of our photos. halleluia!}

• From my birthday month onwards, I met quite a lot of friends. Early July, I celebrated my birthday with four of my college friends. I share the same birth month with one of them so even if it wasn't our treat, we made them see us. Friends, papasaan ba't makakabawi din ako kami. :P {post here: birthday double up}

• Towards the end of the month, I met with three more college friends - different set from the first ones I met. I am no longer THAT close to them but it was good that after years and years of not seeing each other, we finally decided to catch up. I had to be a bum lang pala. Hahaha! {post here: wetpooh once again}

• Early August, I got another treat from one of the college friends I met back on my birthday month - Jhov. It was her late birthday treat for me, movie plus dinner. We were never close back in college but we surprisingly clicked when we got older. Life's surprises.♥ {post here: percy jackson kinda night}

Wheew! That was a lot! And as if all those are not enough, let's move on to what originally this post is all about - two separate treats I got from different set of friends in just a day. Yaaay!

August 31. It has long been planned that Sheena, Dwin and I will meet for dinner, their treat of course. Everyone's spoiling me. :D But few days after the said date, Mark from my Foursome friends {Mark, Job, Monique and myself} said that he's going to treat us because of his promotion. He chose a weekday originally but I requested for a weekend instead. I didn't want to go all the way to Eastwood for a quick lunch. Hell no! He agreed to have it on the coming Saturday but another conflict came in the form of my commitment with another set of friends - Sheena and Dwin. If I remember it right, we thought of meeting for lunch on the same day instead but we didn't have final plans.

Morning of August 31. I was having the time of my life tinkering with my laptop when Monique called reminding me that we'll meet for lunch. I was like.. whuutt?? I didn't know we'd push through. Hahaha! Imagine the horror! But with Monique's convincing powers.. by 2 pm I was with them in Eastwood. Voila!

We ate at Friday's. Yet again, I know. I swear the lunch was crazy. Andaming kwento, all the more tawa. Plus I really missed them 'cause they are the closest people to me before I resigned. Believe it or not, when I get to work again I want to go back in Eastwood. The place is just too familiar plus they are there. You get the point? :)

Foursome ♥

After lunch, we went to Mark's crib to chill. Made me miss tambay days all the more. I bet you know how it goes, kanya kanyang pwesto.. texting, might be instragramming too, pasulpot sulpot na kwento and tawa. Most of all, silence isn't awkward.  Need I elaborate how important is that?

Come night time, the boys went swimming while Monique and I stayed by the pool side for more chismis. Hehehe. I had to leave though when Sheena texted me that she's in Eastwood already. We waited for Dwin and then headed to Jack's Loft for my second treat for the day.

With these people, I'd say we've outgrown the riot kwentuhan. Must be because we've known each other since we were just starting in the corporate world, we now talk about more serious matters - career, investments, problems.. hahaha! Although I kind of miss our happy-go-lucky days. Travel dito, travel doon. Gastos dito, gastos doon. 

 

Sheena and Dwin ♥

After dinner, we moved to 711. Why in the world did we ditch Jack's Loft in favor of 711? I honestly can't remember. It was a short stint though. We had to leave earlier than expected cause everyone seemed to be tired already. Must be a sign of aging, huh? Uh-ooh!

have you seen my Selecta ad yet? :P

After this one long day of treats, I got more the following days. Honestly, what did I do to deserve all these? Gaawwd, I'm blessed! #TYL

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wetpooh once again

Few days after my birthday, I met up with one of my closest group back in college - Wetpooh. Did you just raise your eyebrows with what I said? Yes, Wetpooh! Hahaha! I was lucky with my block mates in college 'cause we were really bonded. At one point the groups called themselves Wetpaint, Wetsaks, Wetpaks and of course us, Wetpooh. Sobrang korni if you think about it but at that time tuwang tuwa kami sa mga sarili namin. Hahaha!

Anyway, we really didn't plan this get together but when Lia greeted me on my birthday, she gave the idea of seeing each other. Being the kaladkarins that we are, go naman kami. We went to Eastwood again. Apparently most of us are comfortable with the place. I once lived there while Lia and Tricia once worked there. Yeah, that's how I remember it.

Tin was the first one to arrive and I was next. We roamed around Eastwood while waiting for the two. We even saw Chito with Neri and then Sam. Since we haven't decided where to eat, Tin and I stayed at Starbucks first. 

When Lia and Tricia arrived, we stayed at Starbucks for a while to start catching up. Funny how when Tin and I were telling the two about Sam, Tricia suddenly saw Sam arrive in the coffee shop. Speaking of the devil moment. Only that it was a good looking one. Hehe. :)

Need I say what happened next? Syempre, nagpapicture kami. It was actually my first time to ask for a photo from a celebrity. Nadala lang ako sa kilig ni Lia. Hahaha! After that, I kind of like Sam already 'cause he seemed nice. Fan girl bigla?

fan girl moment ♥

We then decided to have dinner at Friday's. I have to be honest, it was a bit difficult to make the conversation going. I guess because we didn't see each other for a really long time. It's true what they say, the more you talk to each, the more you'll never run out of things to talk about. We are the exact opposite, that explains.

Despite that, I'd say we were still able to catch up - a little about love life and a lot about work. At our age, we are supposed to be talking about kids and building our own home but apparently we aren't. Is it just us o di na talaga uso mag-asawa ng maaga? Haha!

on nom nom
love the dessert ♥

By the way, here's an OOTD. Maisingit lang. Hahaha! It was few minutes of fun taking our parting photos. Andaming bloopers.

Tin - Tricia - Apple

Tin - Lia - Apple

After our Friday's stint, we dropped by J.CO to buy pasalubong. I even almost lost my phone there 'cause I left it in the wash room. I went out ahead of Tin and I left it in the sink. Jusmio! Good thing we still have good Samaritans and someone told Tin I left my phone.Whoever that girl is, God bless her. :)

As we head home, Lia dropped Tin and Tricia to where they'll catch their ride home. On the other hand, Lia and I had extended kwentuhan 'cause she sent me home. Thank you so much, Bullie! :* We call each other that by the way. Another college ka-kornihan.

Thanks again, girls! 'Til next time. :)

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thank God it's friday

Yep, definitely not today. I meant when I celebrated my birthday with my teammates. So that was a Friday and we ate at Friday's. We're rich like that yah know. Haha! #conyoproblems

Below is my outfit for the day. I'm tryin' to go boho lately so please bear with me. It still looks a little trying hard but I'm gettin' there. One day I'll turn completely bohemian. Yung tipong mukhang manghuhula na. "Hindi hawak ng bituin ang ating kapalaran, gabay lamang ito. Meron tayong free will, gamitin natin 'to." Hahaha! 

ootd :')

Good thing I'm not the only July celebrator. I had Kerol to share the burden with :P. Ms. Ana also brought us cake while we gave her a card since she's a July celebrator too. Ain't we sweet?

those who turned a year older wiser :P

Can't exactly remember what we had but it was a feast. Good for me since I've been trying to gain wait. Only that it's bad for my pocket. Meh, could have been for shopping. Haha! I love you guys though. :*

Friday feast

Update 11.06.2013

And thank you everyone for our fun birthday song. ♥

Let's move on to our obligatory group photo which by the way became a trend on our Facebook accounts. We were making fun of how our dark-skinned {is there even a nicer way to say that?} teammates almost didn't show up on the photo below. It was a 4 versus 6, lamang ang pwersa ng kadiliman. Tell me you know where I belong. Hahaha! :))

you can see me right? xP

I also got another cake from the project that day. Sweets overload, literally and figuratively. ♥ :)

thanks for all the luuurve ♥

More birthday stories soon. For the meantime, I'll prepare to go for a swim. #lifeineastwood :')
 

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.. then the christmas season with friends

Moving on with the next part of my Christmas post series, I'm going to share now my Christmas with friends. Surprise, surprise! Inspite of being anti-social for months now, I have managed to keep some special friendship. And with some, I mean four. Oh yes, I still have four remaining friends. Haha! Kidding. I really wish I was kidding. :D

Anyway, remember Silina? The one who left us last April for some work obligations? She's back last month for a vacay. But as I share this story she has gone to the US of A again. Oh well, at least I was able to meet her twice for dinner. One with our batchmates, Sheena and Dwin, and another with her teammates {yes, I was dakilang sabit}.

with the manggugulat of city walk

Apple & Dwin

Celine & Sheena

For our batch dinner, we ate at Friday's. Baby back ribs, seafood platter and yummy pasta {let's just call it "yummy" because I cannot remember what it was, k?} The night was full of stories and laughter. It's always been like that with them. Puro nega ang kwento pero masaya. Laugh your problems away, guys. Hahaha!

food porn + Silina's gift

The next day after our "Friday's" night was a holiday {okay fine, Dec 30}. Tin and I went to Tagaytay because we have decided to make it a tradition of going out of town every year end. Last year, we were in Subic.  We went to Treetop Adventure and got high on nature {tagline much?}

so full.. so lazeh..

postcard worthy, eh?

Sadly, our Tagaytay trip wasn't much of a success. Aside from the fact that it was almost impromptu, I wasn't feeling well too. We only ate at Josephine and dropped by Picnic Grove. Good thing we enjoyed our lunch at Josephine as it was the only highlight of our trip. We weren't able to do much in Picnic Grove because (1) it's getting dark already, hence no good pictures, (2) its drizzling and (3) I'm sick! We could have tried the zipline and cable car if only I was feeling better. Yeah right, if only.

thank you for our sumptuous lunch

baked tahong, camaron rebosado, kaldereta

On a positive note, we still have the last days of all the years to come. Next year's trip will be a lot better. Pinky swear, shoms? ♥

Watch out for the last post of this series, Christmas with family. I'm definitely in love with blogging again.

*first three photos are Sheena's edit

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