Isla Verde: MY 29th Birthday Celeb Part I

Our real estate broker, Rolly, offered us a free overnight stay for 6 people at Isla Verde in Batangas in the hopes that we’d also be interested in buying a property there.We got interested coz we are also scouting for nice beach lots that we can eventually purchase. So we gave this one a look. Hmm… not bad.

After more three hours on the road, we eventually reached this private pier in Batangas for Isla Verde boats. We waited for almost an hour  for our ride. Finally, we boarded and headed to the green island. It took us another 45 minutes by sea. Half the time, I was watching Grey’s Anatomy on my portable DVD player until I decided to turn it off amidst the growing srprinkle of the sea then I dozed off with the gentle sea breeze hitting my face.

Me & Papa                                         Me & Peachie 

With Mommy and Daddy 

Finally, at around past noon, we reached the beautiful island. 

It’s beautiful alright. And it gave me the feeling like we were in Costa Aguada Resort in Guimaras…

However, their beach is not that fantastic. It’s full of corals and is usually low tide in the morning. If we do decide to go somewhere deeper for snorkelling, jellyfishes would be the problem.

At the resort, I noticed that there are various types of accommodations. Aside from the usual cottages, they also offer CONDOTELs at a much higher rate. We were considered to be the first occupants of this brand new condotel.  

This is the pavilion/receiving area… 

It would be nice to throw a ball here… a wedding ball perhaps. 

This is the suite we got… 

Quite spacious huh? 

Time to take lotsa pictures by the beach! 

Then we started exploring the island and its lots for sale… 

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Surfing in La Union

Pa has some friends in Narvacan he wanted to visit during his stay here. Peter and I wanted to go surfing. So together with Peachie, Vina and Francis, we headed to La Union three weekends ago (Feb 10&11) and had the time of our life catching waves, soaking up the sun, eating good food and just plainly hanging out with each other.

Francis, Vina, Peachie, Pa and Peter

As the sun was rising on our way up north, we stopped over at one of the gas stations in the town of Rosario.  It has a nice ambience and it made our breakfast alive and fun. After about 20-30 mins of eating and talking about anything and everything (including some weird stuff c/o me, Peachie and Vina), we continued our journey to the land of surf and sea…

Me, Peachie and Pa having hotdogs for breakfast.

When we arrived at San Juan Surf Resort, our rooms were not yet ready. So, we hung out by the shed first and checked if the surf’s already up. Unfortunately, the sea was flat and we didn’t think we’d be catching waves any time soon…

 Hanging out at the surf shack fronting the beach…

True enough, we didn’t catch any waves that Saturday. But because we didn’t wanna waste any opportunity, we still brought Didi to the sea and practiced paddling. Pa tried to ride our surfboard and he was great! Now, if only he can catch a wave too. Hehehe.

That evening, we brought Pa to Halo-Halo de Iloko. We ordered our usual favorite dishes and dessert. Unfortunately,  Pa didn’t like much the  viands  but  he  loved the special halo-halo. After dinner, Echo brought us to town to see the fiesta celebration. But there were just too many people and all the streets were congested. Amidst the pollution and traffic, we decided to call it a night and headed back to the resort.
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Post Valentine Update

Before Peter and I went to sleep that fateful Valentine’s day, we were already ok. I just hugged him  and kissed him and said sorry. I also read to him and Papa my previous entry even before I decided to finally post it. I even asked Papa “Pa, I’m so bad. Do you want another ‘daughter-in-law’?” To which Pa answered , “No anak… the devil you know is still better than the devil you don’t know…Hehehe… Ikaw ang mahal ko…”  Awww…who can beat that? I guess I need to be goody-goody now. Peter and Pa deserves so much more from me.

~~~oOo~~~

The next day, Feb. 15, the three of us had dinner at Hap Chan near our place in QC. It’s sort of a preliminary for the actual post valentine celebration we’d be doing the next day. And since we were training our tummies to be flexible and expandable in preparation for the buffet, we had coffee and dessert at Figaro nearby. I was full to the point of nausea! 

 ~~~oOo~~~

We bought a brand new underwater camera! Our Pentax is still not repaired coz the service center is located in New Manila and is only open Mon-Fri during office hours.  I don’t know if I’ll have the time to go there any time soon. And God only knows how long repairing it will take. So, with all our upcoming travels, I couldn’t wait anymore to have my Pentax done so I bought a new one. Hehehe. I really am impulsive.

The Olympus µ (mju) 725 SW – main features:

• Waterproof up to 5m**
• Shockproof (equivalent to 1.5m)*
• 7.1 million pixels
• Tough metal body in three colours: Deep Blue, Cherry Red and Titanium Grey
• BrightCapture Technology for better low light photography – with improved brightness for underwater scenes
• Large 6.4cm/2.5” LCD with 115,000 pixels
• Bright 3x optical zoom (equiv. to 38-114mm on a 35mm model) 1:3.5-5.0, with optical folded light-path
• 24 scene modes (incl. Portrait, Candle, Landscape and various underwater modes) plus Auto
• Movie function with sound (640×480 pixels, 15fps)
• Macro and Super Macro mode for shots from as little as 7cm
• Editing functions (e.g. Red-eye Fix, Calendar Composition, Layout Composition, Title Composition)
• Internal memory plus xD-Picture Card slot
• Multi-language menu with 10 languages plus possibility to download 15 more languages from the internet (on board: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, Czech, Polish, Danish, Dutch)
• Supplied with Olympus Master Software, Neoprene Case and LI-42B battery plus LI-40C charger
• Optional underwater case PT-033 (waterproof up to 40m)

*Shockproof complying with MIL Standard (MIL-STD 810F)
**Waterproof equivalent to the IEC standard publication 529 IPX8.

  ~~~oOo~~~

We went ahead with our dinner buffet at the new Spiral Restaurant at the Philippine Plaza. Man! It does have the longest buffet ever. I looked like a pregnant woman after 3 hrs of eating. I think I tasted everything on the table especially all the goodies in the dessert section. Hehehe.

Aside from the buffet, we also saw a dragon and ballet show. It was held on the stage in the middle of the pool area and it looked so magical and fantastic!

Mixed Thoughts & Feelings… A Continuation

Again, warning: Still PMSing Jen writing:

Then he announced about his dinner reservation at Plato Platina, in Blue wave, which could’ve been his shining moment. They do serve good food there and it’s one of our few favorite dining places. But the thing that kept ringing in my head was “Why Plato Platina?”. I know we love it there, but it’s a special day! He could’ve gotten a more special place to dine, like somewhere we’ve never been to (such as M Cafe in Ayala, or at least a hotel restaurant of some sort like in Astoria Plaza, Discovery Suites, Shangrila, Manila Hotel, etc.), and NOT a noisy place to dine at. Gosh! I was really beginning to hate myself coz by this time I knew i couldn’t stop myself from being a brat anymore.

It’s at that moment that I realized  how hard it is to please me, especially when it comes to Peter. I guess, I expected more from this surprise even if I wasn’t really expecting all of this in the first place, you get my drift? Coz like I said, HE IS ADAMMORDO, someone who’s supposed to know everything about me… Apparently, I was mistaken. OR am I just so damn hard to please? I guess I am. Even I myself am having a hard time pleasing me! I guess it’s because I tend to compare. Like last year was so perfect. He asked me to bring a change of clothes without telling me what the real plan was. At least I felt comfy in my attire and I wasn’t wearing my ugly uniform the whole time. I was in my element so to speak. And I was ready for him to take the lead… Something like that. Not like on this day when I felt so tired, sweaty, plus I already had plans to take care of our digicam which needs a little repair. And when I do make plans, I stick to them. Most of the time (if not all the time), I have very little room for flexibility especially when it’s not practical.

So lesson learned here is that little surprises would be ok, as long as I can still have some semblance of control in the situation (or at least, he could’ve bought me a new dress which he actually planned to do but I guess I drained his energy with my bratinella mode so it never pushed thru).

Sigh. I would’ve been happy to have just gone home after my intended date at Mall of Asia with my digital camera, rested and done the chores on my list for that night (Yes, I’m an OC type of person too. OC: obssessive - compulsive). Or he could’ve at least told me about having dinner together so I could’ve brought a nice dress to wear, or he could’ve told me that he’s taking a leave from work so I could’ve done the same. I was just feeling lousy the entire time. Oh, what possibilities this day could’ve offered! There’s the thought of doing a spa thing together or going up to Tagaytay or locking up oursleves in a kinky motel somewhere for some “sexy time” … I just thought that the whole thing could’ve turned out better if he didn’t surprise me. Bottom line is, I GENERALLY HATE SURPRISES  coz if I didn’t like them, I get disappointed with all the ‘could’ve beens’. BUT I AM GRATEFUL  for his good intentions like wanting to surprise me, wanting to please me… wanting to be with me. I REALLY AM! (Peksman!)

Anyway, like the song says “LIFE GOES ON” (OBLADI-OBLADA, life goes on..yeah!). Weeks ago, we already decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day on the 16th. We have buffet dinner reservations at the Spiral Restaurant of Sofitel Philippine Plaza, the newest hotel resto with the longest buffet in town. That’s where we made bawi with everything that has happened on this supposedly happy heart’s day.

And yes, he’s right (and if you’re thinking about the same thing, you’re right too)… I should’ve just accepted whatever plan he had for us that night. It’s the least thing I can do for all the trouble he went through. Unlucky him, he married me — a bratinella girl who never fails to show her true feelings  no matter what the consequences are. Darn it! He deserves so much more, you know. And I wouldn’t be surprised if one day, he just suddenly falls out of love with me. I’d fall out of love with me!

PS: Yeah…yeah… I’m the vainest person on the face of the earth. Superfcial stuff is important to me, they make me feel good, no matter how shallow they seem. Deal with it. 

Mixed Thoughts & Feelings On A supposedly Happy Day

Feb. 14, 2007…

WARNING: Pmsing Jen writing… 

I wasn’t expecting anything from him… ok,  maybe a bunch of flowers to be sent to my office like what happens every year (I don’t wanna be a hypocrite naman and say na I didn’t really expect anything from my hubby). After all, he is ADAMMORDO, THE Human walrus, one of the proponents of  THE Man Blog, everybody’s adorable, generous and kind friend, my creative and talented bestfriend, my better half, my soulmate.

Well, true enough, the biggest bouquet of roses were sent to my table that afternoon and I was happy as a fluttering butterfly. I didn’t only love it but my colleagues were also happy for me (& I guess dying of envy as well…hehehe).

So, I was going about my usual business of being the Andrea Sachs of my boss when all of a sudden, a red vision appeared before my tired eyes!  It’s Peter, in a red polo! Woah! I HONESTLY didn’t expect him to be there! It was a pleasant surprise and again, I was happy as a well-fed puppy.

In the midst of all the chaos in our office, with my boss’ blaring voice in the background, telling me to do stuff left and right all at the same time, my baby handed me another gift, a Charriol package with two gift  boxes inside. Wowowee! Not that I knew what Charriol was (chocolates perhaps?)… So I again went about my business, hoping for 5pm to come sooner so I can be alone with my gifts.

I guess my EQ was way down the chart coz a little after 4pm, I already started opening my gifts — the little purple gift box first and the big purple one next. I thought it would contain Belgian chocolates or something (What do I know? I grew up in poverty remember?)…  Then I saw a ring box… my heart flipped for a second before finally opening the little box. It did contain a ring. I was hoping for a split second that it would be my diamond engagement ring but…

It’s a cute silver ring with black and white pearls. Looking at it for the first time, I felt kind of sad… ok, ok, disappointed (happy I’m telling the truth and not sugar coating?). I really, really, REALLY thought, even for just a second, that it would be THE ring I was waiting for my whole life… (I know I’m being overly daramatic here. I can’t help it, sorry). 

So I in turn opened the bigger purple box and it contained a unique necklace of the same make. In hindsight, it dawned on me that Charriol is an expensive and special brand of Jewelry coz  Ate Rose fuzzed over it earlier. However, when I saw the necklace, they didn’t look expensive at all (or it’s just my hormones taking over my brain). And since I still haven’t learned the art of faking happiness or joy, Peter saw everything in my facial expression especially in my eyes, like my disappointment with the gifts and knowing that from then on, this supposed special evening will turn into a nightmare, all because of me being a brat and all that a woman is NOT supposed to be to her loving husband.

(TO BE CONTINUED… I’m sleepy already…hehehe)