balintong chronicles

april 22, 2006

dear diary,

today, i went to eastwood in libis, quezon city with yoni for a get-together with high school batchmates who are currently living in the greater manila area. i now agree with my friend who said that eastwood's not that impressive. i find the place chaotic and i would rather have GB3 -- no offense meant to eastwood babies out there.

yoni and i got there in time, but we had to wait for our batchmates. they decided to meet somewhere in cubao before going to eastwood. to while away the time, we explored the place, i bought a pair of pink socks to add to my collection of cute socks, and we explored the place some more until we got tired of walking around. we found wooden benches in a semi-dark corner and we sat for a while. aside from "planning" for our next out of town trip which will be pretty soon, i also spent the time taking pictures of us using my cameraphone. i had to delete many shots due to inadequate lighting -- only two survived, one of which is that black and white photo that comes with this post.

just as i was getting too comfortable on the bench, our friends, ai-ai and mishay, finally arrived and we trooped to dencio's for dinner.


ladies and ladies
the four of us feasted on inihaw na tuna belly, sinigang na sugpo, pork sisig, ensaladang mangga, and rice. too bad, other members of manila-based ids99 couldn't and didn't make it to the venue for various reasons. almost two years ago, we awed ourselves when our attendance for the ids99 manila get-together in el pueblo, pasig city was 13. nevertheless, yoni, ai-ai, mishay and i were quite pleased with our night together. rose and ilian, an ids99 couple, called us while we were having dinner. the two couldn't join us because rose just got back from singapore that hour and had to deal with jet lag. in between eating, talking, dealing with our "busy" phones, we also took pictures!

we had long finished our meal and already paid for our bill when eldani, another batchmate, arrived. he came all the way from tagaytay and had been driving all day. being the body-builder that he is, he was mindful of his food intake so he didn't bother to request us to order food for him while we were waiting for his arrival nor did he order food when he finally arrived. instead, he suggested that we transfer to metrowalk. so, from eastwood in quezon city, we got into his car and drove to pasig city, where metrowalk is.

just as we got to metrowalk, manman, another manila-based ids99er, sent me an SMS asking how we were. i was a bit annoyed by him earlier because he didn't bother to reply to my text messages regarding the "spur-of-the-moment" get-together organized by mishay. after being ignored all day, there was his text message on my phone! (may pagka-consistent jud ni si manman ba.) i sort of updated him on our whereabouts and demanded that he should head for metrowalk ASAP to join us. he must have really thought of the things he was going to miss, he found his way to metrowalk an hour or so later.

april 23, 2006


in good company, out in the open, sitting on high chairs
we found a place in front of phi resto bar. from a little before midnight to 3am and in between trips to the restrooms, we had beer, talked about our lives, other people's lives and whatever, ate calamares, observed and "made comments" on passers by and other people in the vicinity, wondered about their behavior and fashion statements... and had our share of fun and laughter over our own stories. we whiled away the time the ids99 way, so to speak, until we finally decided to head back to our respective "homes".

eldani offered to drive for all of us and since he was eventually heading for antipolo, our first stop from metrowalk was sucat, parañaque. after several wrong turns, we finally got to lopez village and bade ai-ai goodnight. from sucat, we went to mishay's place in makati city. we were all so sleepy by this time, mishay offered coffee and refreshments. we declined and decided that all we needed was sleeeeeeeep. so, we spent an hour napping before we headed to shaw, yoni's drop-off point. actually, only eldani and manman got their nap. yoni and i tried to sleep but couldn't -- must be our insomnia acting up. by 6am, yoni stepped out of eldani's car. by 6:20am, it was manman and i's turn to step out of the car. eldani was driving all the way to antipolo to fetch his parents, who're to attend his sister's graduation in UP diliman. (yes, after driving all day from tagaytay to libis to pasig to sucat to makati to shaw to quezon city, it's antipolo then UP diliman for him!) to help him a bit in saving his energies, manman and i got off in front of quezon city hall. from there, we took a jeepney ride to get to our respective dorms. i was able to grab my needed sleep at 6:30am.

whew! what a night! what a day, too!

at about 2:30pm, i left diliman and went to the megamall in mandaluyong city. my friend weng and i decided to finally watch tristan + isolde. we planned to meet at 2pm, but i was late (as usual? hehehe)... i got to our meeting place at about 3pm. i found her in almon marina near powerbooks. she patiently waited there for me... sitting in front of her cup of coffee, which she placed beside her tumbler of "fake" fruitshake. it was still quite early for the screening time we intended to catch when i arrived, so i ordered yummy boston club sandwiches and refreshing real watermelon shake. too bad, i wasn't able to take a picture of the sandwiches with the tiny flags of switzerland and france planted on the top slices. weng and i were quite amused with the flags, we decided to keep them -- she got the swiss flag, i got the french. they're cute friendship souvenirs!

"Why be capable of feelings if we're not to have them? Why long for things if they're not meant to be ours?... Wherever you go, whatever you see,
I'll be there with you."
--lines of Isolde in Tristan + Isolde

after watching the movie, weng and i walked around the mall. we bought chicharon and ordered real fruitshakes -- she had buko pandan, i had banana split. i took a picture of our happy faces...


nerdy, pesky, and happy
p.s. while we were waiting for tristan + isolde to start, we saw for the first time the trailer of SUPERMAN RETURNS. according to the official movie website, it's to be released on june 30, 2006. so he's really coming back. i can't wait!!! (will christopher reeve be proud of brandon routh's performance? that remains to be seen.) now, if you'll excuse me, i'm going to listen to london symphony orchestra's theme from superman. babush. sorry if i got you bored with this post.