a 'dear diary' entry

"...and when i looked Your light was everywhere!"

pooh. it's my december and nothing much is happening. let's see...

when december came in, i -- as written previously -- bought good reads, hied off to metro manila, enjoyed an afternoon with yoni my travel buddy, had my hair cut a bit, had a hair spa, met with tiff, enjoyed a yellow cab pizza, had a foot spa and a chair massage, invaded a music booth and, with another p6peeps member, made videoke masters out of ourselves. i went back to my place in laguna rather late but the trip was all in all okay and i really had a nice weekend. i saw a fireworks show, too!


12.02.2007: videoke addicts in denial, hehe

i soon had a trip to batangas. i saw gwen garci there but no, thank you, i didn't go there for her – i’m blessed, i had better sights to enjoy! i loved the night air, traveled back to laguna late at night, really felt grateful for my carpool buddies, and slept well.

after a productive workweek, another weekend came and i made a trip to metro manila. i got together with my p6peeps friends in trinoma... ah wait, what was i saying? nothing much's happening? of course, by now, you do realize it's a lie. hahaha! when i say it's MY december, it's NOT an empty claim!

owkey, now, back to my story.

i made a trip to metro manila and got together with the rest of the p6peeps in trinoma. after approximately 75 thousand years, i was finally able to visit trinoma for the first time. whew! one year ago, it was still a facility under construction. sm north used to be my place -- not for any other special reason -- but only because it's the nearest and most accessible shopping/cinema area from my then UP diliman. uh, where was i?

8th of december 2007
saturday

triangle north of manila – trinoma
i enjoyed dinner with the p6peeps in lamesa grill. actually, we took a lot of time deciding where to eat. we went around, went up, went down, then went up and around again before we were able to come up with a decision. typical p6peeps decision-making scheme, i should say! haha.

by the time we got our table in lamesa, we were already very hungry. we must have been really starved because even before the waiters could finish serving all that we've ordered, we were already gobbling up -- and all the food was gone in no time. even my memory failed as i could not recall -- except for the fact that there was an assortment of seafoods served on platters -- the names of the orders we made. after dinner, we still felt our stomachs could take in more -- plus the night was still so young, anyway -- so we swung by the krispy kreme establishment in trinoma and ordered donuts and caffeinated beverages. yum, yum.

magic on the bus
from trinoma, my friends and i rode on a bus to get to our next stop. i was already very sleepy by the time i took my seat and i really wasn't in the mood to do much thinking anymore. with eyes already half-closed, i simply fished twenty-peso bills from my pocket and stretched out my hand just enough so my friends can easily take them bills when it's time for fare. BUT whoa! just soon after the bills left my hand, there were twenties on my palm again. i didn't have to count... i knew by weight approximation that my money already 'grew'.

it seemed my friends pooled their twenties and, when one of them, decided to pay for all of us, dumped the collection of orange bills on my still outstretched hand. i, in turn, unceremoniously dumped all the bills in my pocket and stole a nap... no issue there; because by virtue of p6peeps' magic, the bills became legally mine. :-P

9th of december 2007
sunday

market! market!
i spent the earlier part of the day with the p6peeps guys -- randz, anwar, and edson. we went around and around market! market!, had a lunch of steamed crabs, grilled squid, ampalaya, and liempo 'til we all felt bloated and kept laughing our heads off at randz, our hotseat victim of the day.

we later invaded a music zone booth and gave in to the videoke addicts in us. tiff and jerk came to join us. thanks to randz' curiosity and his restless fingers -- think of 'what does this button do?' here -- we were able to avail of free songs in between the songs that we paid for. eureka! it's better and cheaper than video-singko!!!

"naay libre na song basta..."


12.09.2007: the music booth invasion
after singing our hearts out -- we used up 3 timezone cards, go figure! -- we went for dinner but only after i finally bought myself a konoha headband from comic alley. yoohoo!!! it’s an early birthday gift for myself. i'd been wanting to own one ever since i saw a photo of my friend's son wearing a konoha headband. AND then, one fine day, i finally got one! die-hard naruto fans will surely understand this. hehe.

i received christmas goodies wrapped in christmassy wrappers from my officemates over the next few days. i lost track of how many lunch outs we had. then, another weekend came...

15th of december 2007
saturday

trip to subic
if you could only read the SMS exchanges between yoni and i on the 14th of december, you wouldn't really believe we'd get anywhere. we were, as usual, walay klaro.

i was wanting to go. she was wanting to go. i didn't want to decide on the time. she couldn't decide on the time. she had things on her mind. i had things on my mind. she was tired. i was tired, too. we agreed not to push through with the trip and i said i was gonna make other plans with other people. i tried.. BUT... but... but...

it was already very late in the evening when i sent yoni another message and said i wanted to push through with the trip. she wanted to push through with the trip, too! so...

here’s the 'one-point lesson' from my travel buddy and i: all's well for people who agree on one thing even in the absence of 'detailed plans' -- "kung dayon ka, dayon ko." what’re we travel buddies for if not for that, right?

detailed plans??? what're they?
our gameplan was simple: go to subic and buy some chocolates from duty-free. anything more (or less) than that's something which can be left to fate... or whatever.

getting to subic just by impromptu asking
from laguna, i made my trip to cubao to meet up with yoni. in cubao, yoni and i went to a bus terminal and asked people in uniform how we could get to subic. we were told to ride a bus bound for olongapo city. we did that. we bought our tickets and got on a bus... this was around noon. 3 hours, a long trip spent on some napping, talking, and munching, and several countryside scenes after, we found ourselves in olongapo. at first, we weren't sure about our stop... but all the people started getting off the bus, anyway, so we got off, too. hehe. we were doing real adventure!

"welcome to the city of olongapo!"
yoni and i welcomed ourselves to olongapo. we didn't want any people to take advantage of our being strangers to the place so we pretended nothing was amiss even though deep within us some degree of worry was brewing. wasn't it cool?! we were already in olongapo and we knew subic was just somewhere... and yet we had no idea how to get there. by the way, we had no map with us, too. yup, yup, we had no map!

we stuck to what was safe and found temporary 'refuge' from a nearby mcdo. wahahahaha!!! after our late afternoon snack -- a sundae never fails to do its wonders -- we were finally able to pull together some courage and went up to the nearest security guard and popped the 'question of the hour' -- pa'no po pumunta sa duty-free?

so there... we rode on a jeepney and went to the GATE. we made the mistake of getting off at the other gate though. hehe. we had to walk a bit more before we found whatever it was we were supposed to find – even though when we got there, we still had no idea what it was – we just knew that was already it! more hehehe.

gameplan check -- destination: subic. yup, we got to subic! so check. buy chocolates: yup, we bought chocolates! that's another check. then, what about the bonus adventures??? you mean, like walking around and enjoying the wind, karting, and scouring the weekend market and bargain shopping? heheheeh. we did those, too!!!

giving in to NFS: need for speed
ehhehehe... we went KARTING!!! yup, yup, we gave in to our need for speed! weeeeeeeeeee... karting's always been one of the things which i find fascinating. so when i saw the go-kart circuit in subic bay freeport zone, i really felt the urge to be on a kart and speed-drive around and around!

pictures? except for the built-in cameras of our phones, we didn't have a camera with us... but we do have photo souvenirs of our karting stint in subic; we just haven't uploaded them yet. in the meantime, here's a photo of my other ever-loyal travel buddies...


"kung dayon ka, dayon pud ko"
anyway, yoni and i did not get lost in subic and we're able to accomplish what we went there for, after all. we were able to buy our chocolates -- supposedly yoni's chocolates only but, hey, when i saw them chocolates i wanted to buy them, too. yup, yup, those chocolatey goodies and more.

we realized we didn't have much time to explore the entire place since we had to make our way back to manila by 7pm. while we were walking around, we took a mental note of the places we won't be able to see just so we could check them out the next time we'll be back there. yup, we've got plans of going back there! as to when... we don't know how soon… or late for that matter. what we know for sure is this: basta kung dayon ka, dayon ko.

it was already 10pm when we reached cubao. i was supposed to make the trip all the way back to laguna but it was already late so i decided to sleep over at my aunt's house in makati. the next day, i woke up early and brought myself to laguna just in time for my tagaytay trip with the p6peeps.

just to make one thing clear, the whole point of our subic trip was not really about the chocolates. it was about getting to subic without any clear idea how to get there and without contingency plans whatsoever.

it has always been on my to do list to just get on the bus and hie off to wherever it takes me. i'd like to think i’ve taken at least one step closer to that.

there and back again
i'd like to say 'there and back again'. in just a span of 24 hours, i went through both the north and south luzon expressways twice and still went further.

whew! call it a marathon trip. from laguna to cubao to subic to cubao to makati to laguna to tagaytay. it was tiring a bit -- i won't deny that -- but it was what i wanted for a birthday celebration. it's my way of simply declaring, hey world, i'm 25! weeehooooo!

the 15th-16th of december weekend was the weekend before my birthday and, because my birthday fell on a workday, i sought ways to celebrate it ahead! BUT then again, if you take a look at MY december, it's safe to say it's really a month-long birthday celebration... hahaha.

16th of december 2007
sunday

p6peeps' day-out in tagaytay
since i first went to tagaytay in 2002, i have yet to miss a year. 2002 -- i was there. 2003 -- i was there, too. same goes for 2004, 2005, 2006 (i was there twice!!), and now, 2007. tagaytay's definitely one of my fave places and, what luck, i'm currently living just very, very near it! hehe.


12.16.2007: 5 p6peeps at the picnic grove

12.16.2007: fun by the pine tree | spot the difference!
tagaytay. check. great friends. check. cool wind. check. great natural smell. check. nice greenery. check. bargain shopping. check. mushroomburger trip. check. meaningful adventures with drizzles and fogs. check. happy times. check.


12.16.2007: life is good...
more, more, more
more christmas goodies in christmassy wraps came. my birthday came and, of course, the birthday greetings came, too -- THANKS, THANKS FOR ALL THE GREETINGS AND THE GIFTS!!! -- hehe. i shared birthday chocolates and ice cream. i bought myself another birthday gift – a design-it-yourself starbucks tumbler, yehey! our company's christmas party came and we had a fun trip to ayala-alabang village where we celebrated and even had videoke and dance craze bonding. we got entertained by a superb choral group, too! on the last workday before christmas, we had christmas lunch and milestone celebration at poquito mas.

21st-22nd of december 2007
friday night & saturday

tiff and jerk's 2nd wedding anniversary & p6peeps' christmas party
whew!!! so what if the christmas rush traffic was very, very horrible? i had so much fun! videoke fever 'til the early morning hours... and seemingly non-stop dance revo craze right after!!! wooohooo!! my throat didn't hurt from all that singing but fatigue sure set in because of all those dance revo steps i had to do. for crying out loud, my legs still hurt as i write!

23rd of december 2007
sunday

home, here i am!!!
"christmas won't be christmas without any presents," says jo march in little women. i say, "christmas won't really be christmas if not spent at home."

so, here i am, grateful that i have a real home to call all these years... and really happy and proud to be home with my family.

i'm home and gunning for adventures... hometown peeps, what's the gameplan? ehehe.

HAVE A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A GREAT NEW YEAR, Everyone!