>Rant: The Clark Experience

7:00am ~ bring kids to school
8:00am ~ MEGA: breakfast at McDonald’s ~ oops… Starbucks ~ oops… Bali Blends ~ oops… Jollibee na nga lang
9:00am ~ tambay @ starbucks
11:00am ~ bus ride to Diosdado Macapagal Airport aka Clark Airport
12:30nn ~ start of rant:

• passengers are only allowed inside the airport 2 hours before the flight
  we were made to wait under the sun until an hour before the flight, without any explanation as to why we were waiting out there
• out of nowhere, amidst a restless mob, an airport officer shows himself and announces: “Yun pung flight papuntang Macau, yung Tiger, CANCELLED PO ANG FLIGHT NINYO. Yun pung papuntang Singapore, Tiger din po, Stand-by lang po muna.”

• of course, after making us wait for hours without any airconditioning, without any explanation whatsoever, they expect us to be calm and collected – and understanding. With my resounding voice, I demanded: “GIVE US SOMEBODY FROM TIGER! SOMEONE WHO CAN ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS.” They cannot offer us any alternative because apparently, despite the fact the Tiger has been operating here for awhile now, they do not have any employees here. So I ask, “ARE YOU GOING TO PAY FOR THE HOTEL WE’VE PAID FOR IN MACAU? DO YOU HAVE COMPUTERS WE CAN USE SO THAT WE CAN RE-BOOK FOR THE FOLLOWING DAY? WILL YOU PAY FOR OUR HOTEL EXPENSE IF NEED BE THAT WE STAY OVERNIGHT IN CLARK?” wow. All I got was silence from the crowd and a mum from the officers. It made me wonder if they understood English…
• after a few minutes, mr. airport officer comes out again, and practically whispered: “we’re allowing 86 passengers inside the airport to re-book for the flight tomorrow…” Thanks to Shierel’s super ears, we heard it… and thanks to our singit powers and our sungit disposition, we were able to squeeze up front…
• Thanks to calm and focused chie, we were able to make it inside Ü got the booking for the following day soon as we were sure that the flight for that day was really cancelled. Got an explanation from them: Tiger Airways’ landing permit expired last Dec 31. they were given 4 days to renew ~ Jan 1, 2, 3, 4… and our flight: Jan 5!!! So they couldn’t land then…
• got seats in the airport and went about calling the travel agent for a 1 day hotel refund and I got in touch with our hotel booking at clark for VILLA de LUGUE (hehehehe!) ~ Thanks Kuy Vic for all the help and to ‘Te Marge for the warm hospitality!
  a certain ms. Airport officer approached my buds and said: “Sa Macau po kayo? Nakapag re-book na kayo? Pwede na po kayong umalis.” >>panting ang tenga<< “NAGHAHANAP PA KAMI NANG MATITIRHAN ANO!”
• we pitied the employees of Macau who were helpless… those that were able to re-book but had no place to stay… a couple, who expressed their angst earlier on the confusion, had to bus back to Manila because of the frustration…

5:30pm ~ ride to VILLA de LUGUE
… had mucho food to eat! … shierel was happy Ü

we don’t know if we’re unlucky to be the first flight of Tiger from Manila to ever be cancelled or if we’re lucky that we still got the opportunity to fly to Macau… They’ve stopped their flights to Macau since then…
we don’t know if we’re unlucky that we had to pay for that one night lost hotel room in Macau or if we’re lucky that we just paid 2,700 for the roundtrip tickets… and got the opportunity to stay over and experience the Capampangan hospitality everyones raving about...

nonetheless… our trip was great… the weather, the place, the food ~ wonderful! Read on about our adventure in MACAU…

busy~busy~busy

i've had the sniffles & a sore throat since even before the new year came...

...m crossing my fingers that this isn't a preview of my health for 2006

but it has to be said that this may be because of all the activities we've been attending to the past few weeks...

and here i blog again about the last two...

january 1st

::a trek to tagaytay~batangas to visit taal::

with mike&mike around, we have to make sure they get a taste of what the philippines has to offer and on the first day of the year, we brought them to see the famous: Taal Volcano

it wuz mucho fun as we had lunch at the Taal Vista Hotel [managed by the Fuego Hotels] with everyone including the kids!

we took pictures with the view and just marveled at its beauty...

before heading home, we dropped by Cuenca, Batangas to finally see Archie's batangas home Ü it was really pretty! great job, arch!

january 2nd

::finally, d gang partee pushed through::

[unfortunately, jemil wasn't able to join us]

dinner was at Casita de Vimans a tiny resto in Makati that served home-cooked Filipino food ~ yum!

orders -- including those of my friends:

taco salad

grilled liempo

grilled chops with corn

porterhouse steak

macau sausage

dalandan slush

chocolate cookie a la mode

to cap off the night, we had our traditional Starbucks moment ~ chatting about... everything! hehehe!

up next: MACAU!

start: 2006

welcomed the new year with a bang!!!
...well, not really with our own firecrackers but hey, it did feel like it was ours! hehehe!Ü...
so here are the events for 01 january 2006:

new year's eve dinner was spent with the fam at the Zamuco residence in Magallanes Village...

yumyumfoodmenu!!!

assorted cheeses & dulong on crackers

pumpkin soup

pasta

grilled prawns

steak

corn and mashed potatoes

dalandan slush

FIC ice cream of your choice

when the firecrackers were beginning to pop, we said our byebyes as we had to go to safeground before midnight!

>>then headed off to the Purugganan residence for medya noche...

yumyumfoodmenu!!!

deli food: ham & sausages

spaghetti

prawns

fish salad

chicken galantina

sweet and sour lapulapu

bread

red wine

buko~fruit salad

carrot cake

7 pieces of grapes :þ

• firecrackers galore [from the neighbors] and fireworks abound [from eastwood&neighboring villages] joined us in greeting the new year when 12:01am came! the kids -- adi, rafael, aniela -- were up and about, lighting up sparklers and jumping up and down for a luck-filled year!

• momprecy rolled some oranges to the house and we had pasaboy of chocolates, candies, and cash!!! heheheÜ

• magic mic singing & chikahing till the wee hours of the morning before we brought mike&mike back to the hotel!

~ welcome 2006 ~

end: 2005

2005 was a pretty interesting year for me...
twavel took most of my time this year... and i hope to be able to continue this passion in the years to come! :þ
it allows me to have time for myself, my family, my friends... time for adventure, for learning, for sharing.

N-E-WEIZ...
how did 2005 end? definitely with a lot of get togethers... with a touch of surprise too!

get2gether number 1:

driving to the unexplored city of cavite

lizeth's birthday was celebrated in their new home in cavite city 'new and improved' canyons> where we were able to meet some of her other friends and of course spend time with her family as well.
seth's mom is really sweet! she prepared a huge dinner for us and we were stuffed!!!

thanks seth for a great partee!

get2gether number 2:

dinner and drinks with kalbo > finally!

december 20 >> the official last day for school was our night-out with good friend robbie Ü finally, our year-long plan to go out and spend laughing time materialized! ~ we weren't really planning on prolonging your agony, robbie! hahahaha!

surprisingly, robbie was the tiangge kinda guy so we spent an hour or so going around the karl edwards bazaar at the fort... browsing for last minute gifts...

we then headed off to red kimono to start our Christmas Tummy-Stuffing! yum! really love their agedashi tofu!

after more jokesÜ, we went around the bazzar at the fort strip where robbie saw he was nagulangan at karl edwards where he bought the CDs...
hehehe...
drinks came after at gourdo's...

night ended soon after since my compatriots reg&seth had to twavel extra miles home...

thanks y'all for a fun night!


get2gether number 3:

Christmas Lunch with the Mercado's @ the Yniguez'

the family gathered up at the Yniguez household for the annual Christmas Reunion Partee! It was mucho fun... especially with all the kids! my pamangkins~the youngones excuse me... and my apos! all five of 'em! gift-giving, yummy lunch , and picture-taking with the fam makes up a great Christmas Lunch!

get2gether number 4:

Christmas Dinner with the Purugganan's @ Metrowalk

Big Surprise! Mike is home for the holidays! MomPrecy was mucho surprised to tears! hehehe!
so... we've been spending the bulk of our time with him and Mike, mike's fwend from the US, to show them around the city and bring them shopping!

Christmas Dinner of 2005 was spent at misato <best to try their green fried chicken! yum!> and of course coffee and tea at Starbucks


>>It was a great year... mostly filled with laughter... tears were shed but the year woudn't have had meaning without 'em. I thank God for the blessings that I've received and praise him for all that I have experienced. My family, friends, my travels, books, conversations, have taught me much. All of these allowed my to be appreciative of everything around me.<<

WOW ~ Davao!

nothing beats a great vacation...

va·ca·tion n.

• A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.
• A holiday.
• A fixed period of holidays, especially one during which a school, court, or business suspends activities.
• Archaic. The act or an instance of vacating.

my friends and i waited for a month to finally fly to DAVAO for our long weekend vacay...

finally ~ october 29 - 31 ~ our davao escape

day 1: Manila ~ Davao International Airpot

time of departure: 0430 hours... arrival: 0630am ~ proceed to Waterfront Davao for the 45 minute boatride to The Barcelo Pearl Farm Resort ~ Samal

day 2: Davao City Tour

rented a van that will bring us around the city ~ to see what ought to be seen (supposedly) ~ which turned out to be practically a waste of our time. Got the chance to go around Aldevinco Mall though, and got our supply of malongs. We were also able to visit Colasas for a taste of their old favorite ~ bbq! *yum!

we also dropped by Jack's Ridge ~ a bar/resto/cafe set atop a hill with a beautiful view below. story has it that ages ago, the area below Jack's Ridge was completely underwater... they even had leftover giant clam shells and corals there to prove it! ~ it is best visited during sunset or at night when the city below glows with the sparkle of the lights...

day 3: Davao ~ Manila Domestic Airpot

we had the chance to savor what was left of the vacay at Samal, go about buying last minute pasalubongs for friends and family, and juz have that peace and quiet before coming back to the reality of the bustling life in the city

:: a diary of experiences ::

• spectacular view of nature ~ Davao is super clean, it has the slight hint of that (in)famous smell of Durian once you go outside the beautiful airport, it does have that country-side feel

• arriving at the pearl farm, we were welcomed with the freshest pineapple juice i've ever had and the view of a magazine-esque landscape

• the water was teaming with marine life... corals, starfishes, fishes of different sizes ~ and with more colors than the rainbow

• we got there in time for brunch and we were starving! grabbed our plates to head for the buffet tables! reg was the only one with her head still straight to juz order a la carte... the rest of us were so hungry we didn't mind paying extra... *food was hella' expensive there!

• rested in our hilltop suites to get ready for our first swim in the renowned fuego pools and also took a short&mini 'snorkeling' session with reg and chie in the beach. swam after our 'bora' fishes with our butts swaying here and there! hahaha!Ü ~ remember this seth?

• swimming relieved me of all the tension... it was a relaxing moment for all of usÜ and it gave us 2 good nights' rests...

• the pearl farm is a sight to behold and every angle is worth a snapshot... words and yes, even the pictures are not enough to capture the beauty of the place!

• bottomline: davao is a beautiful city, worth visiting a second time around. the experience is a memory that will always be present in our hearts.

::stumbled upon::

How You Are In Love

You fall in love quickly and easily. And very often. You tend to give more than take in relationships. You tend to get very attached when you're with someone. You want to see your love all the time. You love your partner unconditionally and don't try to make them change. You stay in love for a long time, even if you aren't loved back. When you fall, you fall hard.

How Are You In Love?