Everything under the Sun…

Is it scorching hot or what?? I think it’s almost 40 degrees outside and it’s already nighttime!! Aww, I think I will give in and finally turn on the ac for tonight, just for tonight! I’ve made a resolution since last November or December not use the airconditioning anymore and I astonishingly was able to do it! That is, until tonight, haha! I came home from playing Mini-golf at PAR 43 at The Fort with Nanah and Aldrich and the air was really humid. So when I entered my room, gloriously cool air enveloped my entire body, wow, ang sarap ng malamig!

Anyways this post will be about the three straight weekends that I’ve gone on an outing or gimik!

Office Teambuilding
The week after Splash Island was our project’s overnight team building activity at Splendido Suites somewhere in Makati. It seems that that month’s team building was the most prepared for and thought of of all team buildings that I’ve attended since I was rolled into the project! Haha! My officemates and I were divided into two groups and each group had to prepare a presentation, “no presentation no food!” Well of course, that was not followed coz once we got to the function room, we happily lined up for the buffet and gorged down our food.

After eating, we had a mini-survivor kind of activity. It was a mixture of charades, pass the message, eating contest, obstacle course and finding clues type of game! It’s kinda complicated to explain but anyway, our group won that game! We had to stuff ourselves with huge huge bananas, polvoron and then rush to another room in the condotel and look for strips of paper with clues---leaving the room as if a hurricane passed through it! After finding all the clues, we had to rush back to the function room and one of our teammates had to memorize the words written on the strips of paper in a particular order! Boy, was that hard! (I wasn’t the one who had to memorize it by the way, hehe) but was really worth it coz we won! The other team spent a lot of time looking for a strip of paper wedged between the pages of the yellow pages directory and they came back to the room without finding it, hehehe. However, it was the other group that became the overall champion in the team building activity coz they edged over us in the Bring Me and Guess What games.

Those games really left us pooped or maybe just me coz after much excitement, I crashed on the bed and went to sleep! We checked out at the hotel at noon and I had lunch with Aldrich at Oliver’s Super Sandwiches, dessert at Cheesecake, Etc then finally went home! What a weekend!

The BEACH!!!

My wish of going to the beach finally came true!! I went to OceanaDive resort, Puerto Galera with a bunch of my officemates last April 23-24! We met up at around 6am somewhere in Buendia-Taft and rode 2 vans going Batangas Pier. There, we waited till 12:30 to get a boat ride to Oceana Dive! The place was really nice! There were was a recreation area with billiards, darts, chess, pingpong and a ministore; a hut like place with pillows and comforters to lounge around, white sun bathing chairs, a hammock, a beach volleyball area, swimming pool, and a place to rent snorkeling and diving gear! The rooms were also comfy, they had towels and toiletries that the guests could use. The room I stayed in had 2 double deck beds and I stayed at the lower level.

The beach itself wasn’t really spectacular like Boracay or something. The sand was light tan in color and had lots of stones. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed snorkeling there especially in the afternoon since it was low tide. We could go to the places where there were a lot of beautiful corals and colorful fishes and still be able to reach the ground when we get tired! Oh and another astonishing realization I had there—I can float without much effort! I really don’t know how to swim and I usually panic but since the snorkeling gear allowed me to breath, I didn’t worry or panic about drowing. I just floated naturally and it felt so good! I was even able to go the deeper areas where I couldn’t reach the ground anymore but my companions called me back to the shallower grounds for safety, hehehe. I miss snorkeling already! I could snorkel every single day! I’m a water lover as long as it doesn’t pose any danger to my health and existence, hehehe. We weren’t able to go kayaking coz the place only had 2 kayak boats and there were some guests who were hogging the boats! Oh well, I just immersed myself with snorkeling!

When night fell, we went to White Beach to have dinner and enjoy the soft sand! We even lay down on the sand and I got a really relaxing massage! I even asked Richard to bury me in the sand just for fun, haha, but he stopped halfway since I didn’t have a change of clothes with me. Lying down on the beach, feeling the sand in your toes, watching the cloudy sky and looking for stars, listening to the sound of the waves while chatting merrily with friends was such a wonderful experience! I could live in the beach my whole life! Nakaka-high! Hahaha!

The next morning, I woke up at 7am to prepare to sunbathe but the sun was hinding behind the clouds! Awwww. So we decided to do some snorkeling again but it was high tide already so we couldn’t go very far. The areas where the water only reached our knees the day before already submerged us to the necks that morning! Wow! Fact of nature that I only experienced that day. When we got tired of snorkeling, Richard and I played billiards then I sunbathed at around 11am. My sunbathing was cut short because of a news report that a typhoon was on the way in the area and the time of the departure of the Ro-ros was advanced to thirty minutes! All of us rushed to take a shower and prepare to go home! Luckily, we made it just in time and managed to squeeze ourselves in a ro-ro even when there were no more seats around. Hehehe. I miss the beach already!

Tripping with Friends

Last Saturday was the day that I had waited for such a long time because it was the day when my friend Richard and I were set to raid Saisaki!! We absolutely love Japanese food, most especially sashimi! We actually stayed there for 2 hours, hahaha! We even felt that the waiters there were trying to shoo us away coz they were already giving us the glass of water even before we were done! And there was also a time when Richard hadn’t even put his bowl down and the waiter took it away from his hand already, and we just laughed it off coz we knew that we managed to maximize our buffet fee!
Here’s what we had in our crossover Saisaki, Dad’s and Kamayan buffet.

Round 1:
Tempura first since both us didn’t eat breakfast in preparation for the binge.
Round 2:
Sashimi galore! We took lots and lots of tuna and salmon sashimi and let our taste buds savor the soft texture of the fish meat dipped in soy sauce with calamansi and wasabi.
Round 3:
Meat platter and Egg soup. We tried out some of the dishes offered by Dad’s that tickled our curiosity and also had the egg soup thing from Saisaki. I sooo love that soup, whatever it’s called! It actually looks like crème brulee that’s only egg flavored and with a crabstick on top and Shitake mushrooms at the bottom! Absolute heaven!!
Round 4:
Sushi platter. I tried out the new sushi offerings of Saisaki but didn’t really like it that much. I’m still sticking with my old time favorites: California maki but also discovered something new and delicious: California temaki—that’s the one wrapped in a cone shaped seaweed covering with rice, crabmeat, Japanese mayo and a slice of mango inside! Another window to heaven!
Round 5:
Dessert! I got tiny slaces of each of the cakes served at Dads and also the profiteroles and puff pastries! That’s when I went on a sugar high from the sweet ecstasy of the puffed pastries. I can still taste it now, hehehe.
Round 6:
Ice cream! I had a combination of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice cream! I like vanilla the best coz it was so milky and creamy! I was sure that Aldrich would also love that type of ice cream.
Round 7:
Fruit round and a slice of leche flan, hehehe. I had papaya, watermelon and orange. The leche flan was delicious too and after I finished off the plate, I finally enjoyed my bottomless iced tea to fill up what remaining space I had left in my very very satisfied and contented stomach!

Two days after, which is May 2, a non working holiday as decreed by the President was supposedly ‘tripping day’. Aldrich and I planned to have a seafood lunch at Rockwell after our support tasks, go to Starbucks, then go wall climbing there then take a shower at his condo afterwards. We’d then head off to The Fort to play mini golf and have dinner at the grill beside it (Jaymi’s). But somehow, the odds were against me coz there was an emergency at work and everything! that could go wrong probably went wrong already! So I finished all the tasks I had to do at 6pm and we had no choice but to just continue with the latter part of our plan! Well, I was really sad at first but there’s no use crying over spilled milk as they say. I really enjoyed playing mini-golf even if I was the lowest scorer, haha! Oh and the food at Jaymi’s Grill wasn’t bad! We orderd baked tahong and the inihaw platter which consisted of grilled squid, chicken, pork (liempo) and fish! I, of course, concentrated on the baked tahong and grilled squid, hehehe. I also tried the Tequila Sunrise but found it too harsh so I mellowed it down with some water.

There! Now I’m home already and finished writing a blog entry before finishing the ‘homework’ that I brought home, hehehe, oops! ;p