clan outing

It's always a blast when you spend time with your loved ones back in the province. Especially during summer. Ours happened on April 13, 2008, at the El Grande Hotel and Resort in Lipa City Batangas, one of the only few resorts in the city.


I happen to have a shift on saturday, April 12. However, due to my constant rantings about it, they agreed to have it the next day. I was excited to show my newly acquired swimming skills. :D


I woke up after a 3 hour sleep, to head to the Bus station, in Buendia. After an almost 2 hour bus ride, i finally made it home, full of people, readying themselves for the upcoming clan reunion.


We unfortunately do not have a ride to use to go to the resort, but thankfully, my cousin had a Canter truck, so me and all my male cousins just crowded at the back of it.


A cousin who is working in London also came, and thankfully he had a mini van so the problem of transporting the bulk of my relatives are solved.


FOOD!


I have to mention my mother for preparing a very delicious feast for us. Green Mango with bagoong, tomatoes and onions, inihaw na bangus, chicken pork adobo, fettuccine, and other stuff that i was not able to touch because of my excitement for pool water. But what i liked the most was the green mango with bagoong, for i was craving for it for like 4 months.


In El Grande, there are four pools, one with the octopus slides above, two 6 foot pools, and a children's pool. There is a hotel and cottages available for use. The overall site was awesome, windy conditions even if the temperature was in mid-30's celsius.


ITO ANG BUHAY!


Showing off my swimming skills was one of the reasons why i was so excited about this outing. I spent some bucks just to learn it during the summer of 2005 and 2006, and if i have not gotten the chance to show it to my folks, then i spent the lessons for nothing. I also taught my other cousins the proper way to swim, from basics to advanced. What a day.


NEXT YEAR


We are planning to do this clan reunion every year, with more relatives, more fun and more food. I wish we could do it again this summer, for this experience is worth a repeat.

by the pod on the fourth

i saw you coming
and i can't help but stare
you came and asked but all i answered was ok
until when can i keep this
until when can i ask
until when will i hold back

i have to tell you
how much i care
how much i want to be with you
how much my heart screams for you
but all i can do now is stare
gaze into oblivion while thinking about you

when can i look into those eyes
all i can look at is a picture in my thoughts
of what those eyes might look like
of how those eyes express
but shaded by the night
i can only guess

i'll just be waiting for the right time
the right moment
the right words
until then, i'll continue on staring at you
thinking
will we ever be?