a welcome weekend

Shuumatsu ha dou deshitaka? (Musta ang weekend?)

I had a good one.

Friday night found me, Khen, Rose, Pita, Tibo-san, Mam Ken, Jon, Von, Peejay, and Tid at Tid's new crib, seven floors above and more than twice bigger than her previous residence. Tibo-san provided the junk food and drinks; everything else--guitars, songbook, playstation, violin, the couch, spectacular nighttime view of Katipunan Ave.--was courtesy of our gracious host.

Upon getting ourselves settled, the drinks were prepared, a tekken tournament was initiated, and the first song in the mellow rock songbook was played. As there were hundreds of songs, and since we were going through the songs one by one--yes, page by page, skipping only the overly boring ones--our night didn't end until 4:30. Our competitive spirits also didn't help to shorten the night, for the tekken fights stretched out until everyone was ready to admit that Pita was the best among us.

I tried tekken too, but against Peejay, Von, and Tid and not Pita because he'd gone home already and he'd already built up his mean reputation that I didn't dare play against him for fear of some major butt-kicking.

A lot of times I can be found strumming one of the guitars, but mostly what I did for the night was lots of singing (surprised? hehe). I also tried my hand at creating decent music with the violin. But alas, I realized that decent violin music are not created by first time violin players. The violin was such fun, though, and I don't mind learning it at all.

When everybody has left, I remained behind and crashed on Tid's couch only to be woken up with barely an hour of shut-eye. My dad was calling and urgently needed me back at home because he just got into a car accident (again!) and he'll be needing two vehicles so he could still go around while the damaged one is being fixed.

So *right away*--which surprised my dad--go home I did, and then continued my interrupted rest, and then learn, when I woke at around 4pm, that I'd nearly missed another day! But what a restful sleep that was...

The rest of my Saturday afternoon I revisited the piano, and tried Pachelbel's Canon in D. Oh, how frustrating it is to play the piano when one's not good at it at all! But I love Canon in D so much I just know, with tons of practice, someday I'll be able to play it. It'll be my latest piano masterpiece -- mwahahaha! (Tin, you're probably laughing up your sleeve at me right now!)

Then, a short while later I arrived late for choir practice. It seems I've been terribly oblivious (for this was supposedly going on for three montsh already) that Saturday choir rehearsals have moved its starting schedule one hour earlier. So, I was an hour late. (Too bad, I would've been just right on time by the old schedule!)

After choir practice was another rehearsal, this time for the band for tomorrow's praise and worship. I was supposed to be the drummer, but ended up as guitarist because nobody else was available. Hmm... I probably have already sensed this all along, because I didn't go through my usual practice session at home and actually forgot to bring my drumsticks with me. Good thing I had some sort of practice from the previous night's songbook session.

I got home around 9 with the house still almost empty. So with almost nobody to bother with very loud music, I hit the drums.

So that was my Saturday.

Sunday morning found me unusually early at church because we were supposed to do some last minute rehearsals, this time with the drummer, Carlo. But the keyboard person, Tin, and the leader, Ate Darlene, were late, so Carlo and I practiced on our own first. When the band finally got its members all present, it was almost time for sunday school. So after going through a few of the songs, Carlo and Ate Darlene were off to their groups. Since my sunday school leader and classmates were all still in Europe, I spent the next 30 minutes in fun conversation with Tin.

So the morning proceeded with church activities. After lunch, Carlo, Moti, my Mom and I tried out the still-untouched Monopoly game board that I bought two weeks ago. We had a great time, although we had to end the game after only one hour of playing because my brothers and I had to go to the usual Sunday choir practice.

I went home right away after choir practice, but only to find out that I had been locked out of the house. I was alone and hungry. But I had transportation and good thing Tin hasn't yet left the church and was still jamming with Ate Bhoom. So I went back there to pick her up. But before we left I can't resist but to jam with them some first (the guitar was already locked away, and Ate Bhoom was already happily seated on the drum throne, so I was left with taking over Tin's other role as the singer! Hehe, no choice.) Afterwards, Tin and I went to starbucks and, over coffee and ham and cheese croissant (yum!--I always remember a certain person whenever I order this) continued our morning chat. I learned a lot about Tin, but despite her saying afterwards that I had been a good listener, I still think I blabbed more about myself than listened. I just hoped she enjoyed our little yack fest as much as I did. ^_^

After dropping Tin off at Bayan, I went home for a quick dinner and headed to the cinema to watch Madagascar. It was a fun movie, and had its hilarous moments, but the story was so plain. The moviehouse, though, is still the place to watch it because one would surely be missing the outstanding graphics if watched at home through the constricted frame of a TV.

After the movie, I went straight back home, and after only half a chapter of The Dawn Treader -- quite an interesting read, if only I wasn't so tired -- was off in dreamland.

decisions...

I'm sitting here, still at the office, but doing nothing in particular. I'm in a state of confusion, and have been the whole day, trying to decide on what I'm going to do this evening, tomorrow, and the future. And although I've somewhat reached a conclusion, I still can't say that I'm fully convinced of the choice I made.

See, I've decided to skip tomorrow's climb to Mt. Daguldol. Because of that, I don't need to go anywhere tonight to buy food and gear as part of preparing for tomorrow. And also because of that, my budget for the climb is now free to be spent on something else, like a pair of new rubber shoes, which is not an urgent need in at least four months but will only be available in its ultra super low priced form (that's a 70% slash) for just four days (and that's today until the end of this month!)

But a part of me still wants to go. I haven't actually told those who'll climb that I'm in, so I have nothing and no one to back out from. But mentally, I've been preparing for this climb. Now I feel like I'm backing out from myself, like I'm leaving an eager and expectant part of me in the air, leaving that part of me dissapointed and crushed.

And why the change of heart? Why, the rain mostly. The daily afternoon rains has been making me lethargic. And today its full effect was upon me. I can't even think straight.

But I've made my decision. I'm not going anywhere tomorrow. Now, I hope I can decide on where to go for dinner tonight.

Pangasinan behind the scenes

Yes, I know, this post is about something that happened ages ago. But somehow, despite being happily in draft form for almost a month now, this entry didn't want to stay like so forever. So here it is, better late than... Oh yeah, there's a reason it was hidden. It's boring.

As you can see, it's actually just more pictures from the Pangasinan trip. But not the usual ones. Just pics of trip's photographers caught on still camera while doing their jobs. OK, now I think it's a bit interesting. I just noticed that there was always somebody who manages to take behind the scenes shots of other people taking pictures of other people. Mostly it was PJ, who took the first photo, capturing me photographing other people. I also remember myself doing it once during the trip: shooting peejay while he was shooting... me (shooting him. That should count!) But there's one more person, I'm just not sure who, who caught PJ taking a picture of other people (me again, actually). Pics 3 and 4 illustrate.

Bolinao

Second day of the Pangasinan weekend was Bolinao day. 14 beach lovers in four vehicles headed out from a hotel which fronts the Hundred Islands in Alaminos, to Patar Beach, a long strech of almost-white sand which fronts coral-rich sea.

After waking up Sunday morning with far from enough shuteye (with the activities of the day past and the activities still ahead, three hours is never enough), I, with the rest of the gang, packed, checked-out, made a stop at McDonald's Alaminos for our packed lunches, set the plan to go to Patar Beach (ah yes, the actual destination was not known until right before we stepped onto the highway to Bolinao!), and then drove for more than an hour and a half through long straight roads and climbing zigzag roads, and then through a seemingly endless stretch of patience-testing dirt road to finally reach... China, er, Bolinao's Patar Beach.

The beach, though, was well worth the troubles. The place was a nice long and wide stretch of fine clean sand expansive enough for us--and many others, if them others had wanted to--to play frisbee and football. Sand also stretched way into the water, offering our feet soft ground to lazily wade on. And after just going a little deeper into the sea, the sand is soon replaced by lovely corals.

And the water. Cold but not too cold to make you shiver, the water had just the perfect temperature to give the perfect refreshment under the burning hot sun. Also it didn't burn my eyes much. Somehow, it wasn't as salty as ordinary seawater.

We enjoyed Bolinao till almost late in the afternoon, then it was time to go home... already. We were just happily playing and eating and relaxing and soaking up the sun and then it was time for the six hour drive back to Quezon City... already! I haven't had a decent night's sleep--not even a decent amount of daytime shuteye--in three straight days and yet I have to be driving--again!

Then a slight change of plans from some of my passengers. My brother and his friends, who travelled with us going to Bolinao and were going to ride with me again going home, weren't ready yet and needed at least a couple of hours more. (Some were so not ready they were postponing their departure until two days later.)

Turned out I could snatch a few hours of badly needed slumber before hauling through the highways again. And I actually got 5--just enough.

What a great day!

Hundred Islands

Ah, hundred islands--where the Astra gang spent its Saturday during its weekend expedition to Pangasinan last week.

After going around the islands, with Khen's friend the boatman bringing us from island to island and introducing each one to us (apparently, every tiny island has a name), we finally made our home on Scout island, a nice little patch of land with a mini cave and, more importantly, trees to shade our camp from the scorching sun.

But our tiny little island had more to offer, we soon discovered. Aside from its stone canopy that provided us shade while wading and swimming near the shore, its small patch of cream colored sand, we were delighted to learn and play with, was of the fine fine kind.