Tag Archives: beach

Beaches and Awesome Music Videos

So yeah, I’ve been busy. A little too busy than normal, and I’m really sorry for not being able to post. I wanted to, but there were always other things I had to work on, like a surprise party for one of my closest friends and a beach trip over the weekend. I don’t know why I ended up organizing all those in the span of two weekends, but I did, and truth be told, I can’t wait for May.

But that’s always the case for me, so I really should stop complaining and wishing for other things when I can be satisfied with what I have now, right?

Right.

So anyway, yes, I am off to the beach this weekend, because we’ve all been itching to go to the beach. I’m glad we won’t be spending so much there, and I’m just really psyched to go somewhere out of Manila and enjoy the heat of the sun in the best place — right beside the ocean. I can’t wait to go snorkeling again (because that’s a really effective way to lose the unwanted fats, even better than the best diet pills for women), and just feel the sand and water on my feet.

Yes, yes, I can’t wait for the beach.

And speaking of the beach, here’s Dave Barnes on the beach, with his music video of God Gave Me You, which premiered yesterday. Awesome video to an awesome song, and I fell in love with him all over again. ♥ His wife is at the end of the video, too, watch out for her! :)

[youtube]h7M7cJ4DydQ[/youtube]

Lazy Sunday

day twenty.

I think I missed the arrival of summer.

Ah summer. I don’t know if I missed you.

You know what’s funny about me and summer? I hardly get to go to the beach during actual summer time. Summer plans always fall through somehow. Most of the people I know take the opportunity to go some beach during the Holy Week, but family and beliefs make me stay at home and celebrate the week in a different way.

I can’t imagine going to the beach during Holy Week.

But I digress.

I wish it’s that easy to go to the beach anytime I want to, especially during summer. I wish the beaches are just one to two hours away, so I can always enjoy the salty air and stop complaining about the heat because who complains of the heat when you’re at a beach? Hearing the waves, feeling the sand between your toes and seeing everyone frolic by the shore in swimsuits (that may or may not fit better because of diet aids) and summer outfits just reduces the annoyance with the heat, don’t you think?

Sigh.

We’ve got a couple of beach plans and I really hope they push through, even just one trip for this summer. Just so I can actually enjoy the beach during summertime. I don’t care if it’s just some place near — bring me to the beach!!! We can reserve the higher, more expensive resorts sometime at the latter part of the year, when airfare and accommodation is cheaper. :P

So friendships! We are going, right? Let’s make it happen, please? :)

But right now I’d have to content myself with looking at beach pictures and hoping that I’d get there sometime soon. Sigh.

Coron, Palawan

I’ve dreamt of going to that province for the longest time. I remember, ever since seeing the place somewhere on TV or reading about how beautiful it is there (I can’t remember which, exactly), I told myself: someday, I will go there. And I did. Before 2009 ended, I was able to see a part of Palawan, Philippines.

View before landing
View before landing

It’s ironic how we got to book the trip on the day we got flooded. I remember coming out of my room that morning, totally jubilant, because I had just booked my flight to Coron, and then all that joy got wiped out when I saw the water rising up our street.

But let’s not talk about that.

It was a trip I looked forward to after the entire flood thing. It was a trip that I looked forward to after I suffered through major burnout last November. It was a trip that I wanted to experience to make  my 2009 a little bit better than it was turning out to be.

And what do you know, it was.

Now, I won’t be able to write down every single detail that happened, so let me put them down in bullets and photos. :)

  • Coron is a province. I haven’t been to Puerto Prinsesa yet, which is a city, but Coron is far from being a city. I don’t think I saw any cars, save for the vans we rode, and everything is walking distance. And don’t expect to see anything like Minka Aire there, because there’s none. I almost thought we would be landing in the middle of nowhere as the plane descended when we got there. This was my view:
    The view WHILE landing
    The view WHILE landing

    It was a bit unfortunate that while we were there, the island was having electricity problems. Then again, we were always out of the house, so it didn’t matter anyway. :)
    Continue reading Coron, Palawan

Beach bound

Photo from Our Awesome Planet
Photo from Our Awesome Planet

Someone’s excited. :)

I can’t help it! We’re hitting Coron in a few days and I am just super excited. This is like the beach trip of the year — four days of sun, sand and water, and I don’t care if it’s really, really cold in the country right now. :P

I can’t wait to see that (see picture up there) beauty up close. :D And swim in their waters. With life vests, of course. We don’t want any travel emergency, don’t we?

Of course, this trip will probably be the most expensive trip I’ve done this year that I pulled out of my own pocket, but I think it’s well-deserved. After everything that happened this year, especially during the latter part of the year, I think we deserve a treat like this. :) (Ironically, we booked our tickets for this trip the morning before we got flooded…is that a sign or what?)

I will definitely blog about this after the trip, and post loads of pictures and details about our trip in case others want to go to Coron too. In the meantime, I’ve got to shop and prepare for this trip!

BUT WAIT! Because I can afford this trip, it also means I can afford to help other people out this December. I’ll post more about that tomorrow here. :D

Balai Laiya

So last weekend, we went to the beach.

Beach!

And yes, that photo up there is the same view we had for two days. :)

Anyway, we’ve been planning to have a beach trip (or just any trip of some sort) for the club since last year after all the work we had done, and I’m really glad we got to do it last weekend. Of course, not everyone made it, but it was okay. The weekend was just what I need to relax and have fun, you know?

So Saturday, after my long night of dinner and drinks and talks with my teammates at the previous night, we rode the rented van and headed for an almost four-hour trip to Laiya, Batangas. We were at Coco Grove last year for our company outing, and Balai Laiya is a few resorts away. After breakfast, a long ride and no sleep in the van because of all the jokes and the bumpiness of the rides, we finally got to the resort.

And let me just say: WOW.

Continue reading Balai Laiya

Last Weekend of April

April’s ending in 3 days! How fast does time fly? I had a very hectic, tiring but fun weekend, thank you very much. And because I’m too tired to construct proper paragraphs, I’ll go for bullets:

  • Overnight at a friend’s condo at Eastwood. This is to prepare for the outing the next day. It was fun talking to new friends (and seeing old ones; Hi Ate Xenia!), and it made me miss my dorm days when my school was just a few steps away. I swear, I really felt at home walking at Eastwood in my pambahay attire. Heh. It makes me wonder if I’ll ever live on my own in a nice condo with proper bathroom lighting somewhere near where I work.
  • Summer outing, second batch. It was…fun. Haha last week was more organized and we had a lot more things to do. This week had more people, but we also got to the resort late, so the games (which I was handling) was postponed. We decided to fill the balloons we have with water and throw it at each other. That was followed by swimming, throwing sand on each other, burying someone in the sand and then more sand throwing. :D The way home was filled with sound tripping and talking about stuff, which got my mind off some things but got me depressed over other things. Oh well, such is life. But the outing was fun, and it feels weird that its over — no more organizing (for now) and no more thinking about loot bags and games and whatnot. :D But I love my co-organizers. Go IBM Club! *group hug!* Loser moment though: I didn’t take any pictures. My camera decided to act up yesterday and I was too busy throwing sand at some people to actually take photos. Ohwell. Everyone had cameras anyway. :P
  • Sleepover! I got home last night late, and Happy was waiting for me at home for the sleepover. I was supposed to help her with WordPress but I was just too tired. I even fell asleep while she was talking. Oops. ^^; But it was fun, as usual. :D My moment of the night was when I woke up in the middle of the night coughing, and I went out to take a drink of water. When I got back, I had no voice. @_@ Oh, and there was when my mom stormed into the room to urge Happy to sleep on the folding bed, because my bed isn’t so wide. =))
  • Altar Boyz! I watched Altar Boyz again earlier with Reeya and Happy. It was their last show today and that made me feel sad, but I loved it as usual. I loved it as usual, and I’ve finally decided that my favorite Altar Boy is Luke. :) And yes, that is also because Reuben is the easiest to talk to among the Boyz and he also said my review was easy to read. *is 100x flattered :”>* Reeya was so amused that she’s looking into selling Altar Boyz to schools. I sure hope this pushes through. :D I have more thoughts about the show now that I have observed it more (the first review was all squealing and stuff haha), I’m gonna write a separate post. :D
  • Some other thoughts. This weekend does not excuse me from having more thoughts about some things that is not so easy to write about here. One thing I’d like to ask aloud though: Why is it whenever there seems to be something good coming out of something, there’s always something that happens that makes everything…I don’t know, complicated? Hay.
  • Last. Besides listening to the Altar Boyz soundtrack over and over again, I’m also loving an old song I know: Don’t Even Start by Dan Mackenzie, only because the lyrics hit me straight. Heh.

There you go, my weekend. Back to work tomorrow. I need to start writing my to-do list for tomorrow — focus focus! Good night everyone. :)

Beach!

Beaaach!

And so tomorrow’s my second weekend at the beach. Thank you dear company, for giving us funds and thank you Ynna for inviting me to join the club that organizes these activities. It’s super stressful and all, but it has its perks. Like last Saturday, I was with the advance party and I got a massage at night. Woooh. And there’s bonding with new friends and all, which pretty much makes up for a lot of the stress.

Oh, but the best part? Hitting the beach. Finally! Hearing the waves hit the beach, smelling the saltwater, feeling the sand in between my toes. Suddenly the heat of the summer isn’t so bad, yes? Wohoo. FINALLY, after more than a year!

Yes, it’s a sad fact. I didn’t get to go to the beach last year (let’s not get into why I didn’t get to).

Anyway. Like I mentioned, tomorrow’s our second batch for the company outing. I’ll be going, of course,but this time I won’t be sleeping over there. I don’t mind, since I want to feel how to ride the buses. :D Later I’ll be buying some clothes (yes, they’re my April clothes shopping thing, since I realized I haven’t bought new clothes this month yet :D) — shorts, swimsuit and all. It’s a pain buying some stuff though, because some of them are so small, they could be considered as baby clothes…or maybe I’m just really big. Heh.

I’m not sure if our team outing pushes through next week…but I do hope so! I just realized that I can never get enough of beaches, even if I’m not the bikini-wearing type or the beach sports type…I just love it because the beach is synonymous to relaxation to me. :D Just like how I see summer — even if it’s really hot, I like it because everyone seems more relaxed. :)

How about you? What are your other summer plans?

Summer Escapades

I have one confession to make: I love summer. I know summer in the Philippines is VERY HOT, and there would be no use for tankless water heaters (who wants hot bathing water during the summer?) but I love the entire feeling of summer. :)

Last weekend, I was capturing some videos for a friend to be burned in a DVD. Two of those video tapes contained footages from two of their summer outings, which made me realize how summer really is here. I suddenly had that feeling I always get during summer — the one where I realize I have tons of free time on my hands (which is not really true now because of work), the one where I feel all excited about whatever I will be doing this summer, the one that makes me think of plans to go somewhere and just enjoy the sun (no matter how hot it really is).

Ah yes. My summer used to be composed of the following:

  • YFC International Leaders Conference at the start of summer
  • Everyday fellowship at a YFC friend’s house
  • Planning for a youth camp
  • Attending other chapter’s youth camps
  • Sometimes a Kids for Christ conference
  • Beach trip with the family

When I got into college, my summer became relatively short, but still full of activities:

  • YFC International Leader’s Conference before school really ends
  • Gawad Kalinga summer build
  • GK meetings
  • Movie gimmicks with college friends
  • Batch Assembly stuff (when I was still a part of the BA)
  • CCS LPEP (Orientation) volunteers
  • Enrollment, adjusting, etc.

Things obviously changed when I started working, as I stopped having a real “summer vacation” where all I do all day is wake up at 10, watch TV (preferably cartoons :p), eat, go online, go out and sleep really late. I bum around a lot because I have no money. Plus I stopped attending ILCs (well just this year) because…well, I can hardly relate to them anymore. I also had less time for YFC fellowship and summer builds because I don’t have leaves.

Last year’s summer is very different. The only time I went out was during the YFC ILC in Bicol, and there were planned beach trips which unfortunately fell through. I went out only to go to job interviews, and there was no outing at my old work. Talk about boring.

This year…is unknown. Seriously. We have beach trips planned, and although some are not confirmed yet, there’s this anticipation in the air for things about to happen. Something trying to urge me to have “the best summer yet”. Or at least, something close. :D

Things to look forward to:

And more to come I hope?

Happy Summer! Don’t let the heat get you down! :)