Free Escapade to Zambales

This entry is about my recent all-expenses-paid trip A.K.A work outing. This is another mark in my early adult years because this is my first work outing attendance. 10-12 years ago (It was that long already???), I (together with my brothers) was the one being brought to my own mother's/aunt's work outing. Now, I'm the one playing with my officemates' little kiddos. :l This will also make up for my supposedly weekly Saturday Favorites entry because obviously I was busy with my rest and relaxation days. :)

31 March 2012, Friday

Nora's Beach Resort

Pundaquit, Zambales

For this trip, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning not because I was super excited but I was afraid to be left behind or to be scolded upon for my tardiness. Hahaha! Jaja and I watched Hunger Games the night before and I accompanied her to her wedding errands, too, so I was really tired when I got home. It took me 3-4 hours to pack! I was so sleepy already. I wanted to pack before I actually leave the house but knowing me, if I do that, my chances of forgetting something necessary would be a notch higher. Haha!

I arrived at the office at 6:45 AM. Ha! I was the third one to arrive! Everyone expected me to be late. But I wasn't! It was an achievement. Oh wait, no, it was a miracle. Haha! We left the office at around 8:00 AM. If I wasn't busy munching and filling my tummy, I was sleeping during the 5-hour drive (with one stopover only!). Define butt sore and deep vein thrombosis, please. 

Some had lunch during that single stopover; the others upon arrival. Days before this 3-day, 2-night event, three of my closest people from work thought of dividing what food/beverages to bring. They included me and Jackie in the division. I belonged to the beverages category with Ate Dency. Another two people for chips. And most importantly, the one and only person for the meals -- Tita Dory. Yes, my food for the rest of the trip were taken care of. (A shoutout of thanks to Tita Dory!)

After lunch, I took a nap and woke up just in time for the sunset. In fact, I was awakened by the rain in the middle of my sleep. Mas masarap ang tulog, mas malamig! (Pumunta lang pala ng beach para matulog. Hahaha!)

By night, we had a few drinks. The kids played. Others slept early. The men stayed out until the wee hours in the morning.

01 April 2012, Saturday

Anawangin, Zambales

Jackie and I woke up around 7 or 8 in the morning, I think. We had no intention of moving out of the bed that early if we didn't hear our officemates' voices waking us up. We had an island-hopping schedule that morning. Jackie and I wanted to go to the four islands: Anawangin Cove, Capones Island, Nagsasa Cove and Camara Island. The boatride to those four islands costs only 1,500.00 Php (350.00 Php per head) but no one else wanted to join us. All of them preferred a trip only to Anawangin Cove. :l So what else were we supposed to do?

So off we went to Anawangin Cove.

Anawangin Cove was amaze-balls!

The cool, white sand...

And cool, blue waters... Relaxing sight!

I also felt like I was in a forest or lake in United States!

Low tide pa.

Aside from frolicking under the sun and dipping in the cool waters, you can also camp in here, too. If you're looking for that kind of adventure, I think this is one of the best places to go to. Not that I experienced it first hand but from observing the place and the people there at that time, you can set up your tents here. Light up a bonfire and cook or something and gaze under the stars (or go skinny dipping if it's even allowed, haha!) by night. The place is quiet, has cool weather (I'm not sure by night time though, probably cooler) and really far from civilization. If you're not very sensitive about the use of comfort rooms and can survive without phone signal or wi-fi, try Anawangin! :)

Within 30 minutes or less, nagka-water na ulit ang kaninang low tide. :)

I wore my swimsuit without the intention of dipping myself in the water because I know the sun would cast its rays upon the earth very madly by 10:00 AM. I don't want to experience his wrath, even if I had showered myself with sunblock. Still, fortunately I came prepared, the sun wasn't as mad as I expected it to be. The weather became gloomy by 10 in the morning. Yay! :)

Preoccupied with purchasing of souvenirs. :)

  

It was also a good thing that Jackie and I didn't insist in going to the rest of the three islands because it was starting to drizzle when we left Anawangin. The waves were starting to get slightly crazy, hence, the slightly bumpy boat ride on our way back. It rained minutes after we got back to our cottage.

Oh yes, you predicted it right! Jackie and I slept after lunch and woke up almost dinner time. We conquered the karaoke and played with the kids after dinner. Again, the boys were the last people standing. They didn't put the microphone down until 2 or 3 in the morning!

*****

We checked-out by 9:30 AM the next day and headed to Pure Gold Duty Free to do our grocery-slash-pasalubong shopping. Since I only spent less than 25% of the allowance given to us (Yes, my pocket money pa kami. Bonggels. :D), I had spare for shopping! YAY! :) Yet as expected, I spent more than I intended to. Thankfully, the extra money that I brought with me was enough! I was the one who almost filled the car with goodies and caused a 'para-lang-kaming-sardinas' situation. Hee. What can I say, they were sold cheaper there! Grab na, diba? (Impulse shopping -- with the exception of food that is a physiologic need, -- sometimes, is and can be very bad though, kids. Haha!)

I arrived home at 5:00 PM, headed to Mass and unpacked my things and slept the night away like a baby. Monday was a pseudo-holiday for us since it was our 'rest day' from the trip (Yes, nagbakasyon na nga, may extension pa!). We have no work today as well so another additional day to the Holy Week-slash-long weekend vacay! Ako na talaga! :D

This is how giddy I am over the free pass at work. And the long weekend. :)

And that concludes my recent weekend! How was yours? :)

(Photos without my name on it were grabbed from a friend.)

6th collection: Bohemian Summer Vibe 1

Another collection for this month is out!!! :)

Here are some of the items up for sale:

Visit here to order!

Thank you! :)

(Shoutout to my cousin who took the product photos! Thanks, girl! :D)

Saturday Favorites 011

Disclaimer: This entry should have been photo heavy but until now, I'm still waiting for tagged photos through Facebook. Will put in photos here once I get some from my friends.

After missing one Saturday Favorites entry from last week, I'm back! :) I got a very hectic weekend schedule last week and I was just dead tired every time I went home. Anyway, I'll squeeze in my Saturday Favorites from last week in here. :)

1. One of my closest friends was in Manila for a vacay!!!!! :) She was supposed to be my house guest since Tuesday last week but she changed her mind and decided to stay at her cousin's. She slept over by Friday night though. :)

2. Music Bank with Pits and Keith! :) Damn, I missed these two!!!

3. Shopping with my brother and Pits. I bought cute boxer shorts and some accessories (Refer to the photo under item number 5.)

Thank you, Pits, for this Alexander McQueen-ish ring! :)

4. I had my x-ray done and the way my spine looked wasn't so surprising at all. Haha! Although I expected it to be curved a little less than it actually is.

5. As I was waiting for my turn to be x-rayed and for lunch break, I scored good deals (the semi-sheer khaki cape top and one very sexy white one-piece swimsuit) at the mall. :) Lucky for me, it was a sale day. To make things even better, I expected it to be only half the price off but it's freakin' 70% off!!! Whaddup! :)

6. Pyrolympics finale show! :) (I only had videos of the show so I really can't share you anything visual. Once I get the photos from my friend's cousin, I will post some here. :D)

So, meanwhile. Let me share a story about our unimaginable Pyrolympics experience.

We expected traffic since it was a Saturday. We took the train to save time. AND ENERGY. We got off at Gil Puyat station and from there, we would take the jeepney going to SM Mall of Asia. Once we got out of the station, we were shocked by the number of people waiting for a ride. I mean, it was crazy. Like there was a transport strike or something, that the number of PUVs seemed... lacking. We know it would be impossible for us to get a ride, even a cab. Still, we tried. We (among others) tried intercepting jeepneys in the wrong side of the highway and in the wrong drop off spot for their passengers. To our utmost surprise, only a few drivers entertained us. Out of all the days that they can break road rules, why didn't it have to be that night? (HAHA! Sorry, MMDA. :l) You see, this was the part where we had to use the energy that we tried to save, which I mentioned earlier.We had no choice but to do the unimaginable thing -- WALK. I had no problem with walking. BUT TO WALK FROM GIL PUYAT TO SEASIDE?! That's like 3-4 km? (Or probably that's just how far it felt for us. Correct my estimate if I'm wrong.)  Thinking about it now, it felt like an accomplishment! It was insane. The cars weren't even moving so even if we were able to get a ride, it would be useless. We would still have walked.

After 30-45 minutes of 'spontaneous' walking, we reached the spot! We spent another 15 minutes, I think, of looking for the entrance for the tickets we got. We got VIP tickets so we had to walk further more, all the way to the front. There seemed to be three checkpoints just to get in to the area where we were supposed to be! After showing our tickets and getting stamps on the wrist, we walked towards a girl behind what seemed a silver barricade. We passed through that and walked more. Of course, since we got in late, there weren't seats available. My friend's cousin insisted that we probably got in in the wrong area and that we might have to walk further. We saw another silver barricade with a girl behind it. We asked her where exactly was the VIP section. She asked for our tickets and she let us in. I was surprised to see a buffet table! Then, a guy came up to us and asked if we could wait for a few minutes and he'll find a table for us. I was even more surprised when he said that. I nudged my friend's cousin's elbow and told her I was sure that we weren't in the VIP area either. I was the one who bought the tickets for us and I know that next to VIP is the Patron one, wherein free dinner will be served. We were wondering why they let us in, in the first place. We were already starving and our legs were just dead tired so we just didn't bother saying anything. Haha! We just thought of it as a blessing that we deserve from the long walk we had to take. And initially though, it really was an honest mistake. We showed our tickets to them. They could have said, "No, you're not supposed to be here" or something. We just got lucky after all, I guess! :) The food was superb! :)

We didn't get to watch the final contestant for the Pyromusical, which is Italy, properly since we were walking at that time. We got there just in time for the finale presentation, which is the Philippines, the host country. The finale show of the Philippines was astounding, worth the wait of the pause caused by the technical difficulties about halfway in the presentation.

Since it was the final week, the winners for the Pyromusical Competition were also announced that night. The winners were: 1st - Canada; 2nd - tie between Australia and Finland; 3rd - Netherlands.

Of course, our night wouldn't end just like that. May huling hirit pa. Since the mall was jam-packed with the Pyro-goers and the sale-oholic people, commuters like me had a hard time waiting for a ride home. I was too tired already that I didn't bother looking for an alternative and faster way to go home. I know I would either be standing or walking again. I didn't want to ride a cab alone at 10:30 PM either. So I waited at the van stop. There was a long line so when it was my turn to be able to get in a van, it was already 12:00 in the morning. Nganga talaga ako for 1 1/2 hour. Haha!

It was the first Pyromusical show that I have watched and it was made even memorable by the free food, the longest walk I had ever walked and the butt sore from waiting. Nevertheless, it was still a good night (and experience) after all!

7. The Power of NO. :) Don't just kiss ass or nod and say yes all the time. You gotta say no, too, if really deemed necessary. (At least that's for me. 'Yes'-girl is never my thing.)

8. BUSIEST WEEK AT WORK E-VER. Whew.

9. My supplier will be supplying me items (as additional to the items that I handmade and on my online store) anytime soon! :)

10. Second consult at my spine doctor. He told me not to worry for I won't have to undergo any rehab or surgery. My spine only had 26 degrees of curvature, very far from critical angle which is 45 degrees, around my thoracic area. I would just have to do another x-ray by next year to see if there will be any increase in the angle of my spine. :)

11. This random photo over tumblr.



12. Finished the book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I thought I was gonna finish it before February ends, but I was wrong. I marked my February List in advance, haha!