Roadtrip2: Tagaytay

The adventure begins with Reiland looking for a romantic place to take her girlfriend for their 6th anniversary.  Majo suggested Tagaytay but he hasn't been there yet so I suggested we take an ocular. One sunny Sunday morning, we headed to Cubao bus station to get to Olivarez, Tagaytay.  According to our roadtrip manual outlined by Majo, our first itinerary would be "Palace in the Sky." Its a two hour bus ride from Cubao and a 30 minute jeep ride from Olivarez.  "Ang Layo!"

Palace in the Sky, or People's Park turned out to be a lone structure built atop a hill.  It looks rather doomed as opposed to the impression its name implies.  I would only give credit to the breathtaking view from the topmost floor which is like a revival of the vast mountainous landscape in the Harry Potter movies.  Makes me wish I own a hipogriff.  I particularly took interest in the road which leads to the 'palace' having lost 3 pounds ascending and descending it. Anyway, I got these guys for company:

  Silong with Bryan, Robert, his girlfriend Jessy and Reiland

After a quick lunch, we rode a jeep to get to Picnic Grove where the stench of horses welcomed us. Yihaa! Never got the chance to ride one though. Instead, we took a walk and found the wooden pathway which goes around the park enabling the park-goers have a fantastic view of Mt. Taal and the customary pichur pichur.
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adjusting to the new home

August 24, 2007 Friday night:   Been out on fieldwork, met some new persons, say, if your name is Jerrybel and you're a guy, how would you deal with sneerers when they speak your name? I find his name funny. I fancy calling him Ate Jerrybel but I doubt if he would let me get away with it.

About our new house.. the space is wow compared to the previous, although we are renting it at the same rate. The only drawback is, it stinks. It smells like haunted; like some corpse is rotting somewhere between the crevices of the closets. Anyhoo, i'm sure it will smell fine once we got the whole place swept up and polished. I was actually taking a video of my bedroom last night expecting to see a ghost or whatever-you-call-it-things that show up in photographs and videos na pasimpleng agaw eksena.  But not even a hint of orb appeared so it’s just my big nose after all. 

new home

"Lipat na tayo sa Martes."

Is what my father calmly said one Sunday rainy afternoon. My only concern is if the new place has its own bathroom and kitchen. The rest, I can fairly compromise with.

My family has always been mobile.  We would move from one place to another in a span of  6 months to 6 years.  We have lived in a wide two-storey apartment in a cozy street, a  claustrophobic two-storey inside a villa, a studio-type room, a poorly made room, even a space under a staircase when mom and pop got back here in Manila to start doing business again (me and my sibs stay at the province).  Though our lavish lifestyle went down the drain because of involuntary and voluntary indiscretions, I can only do so much but to live through and not below.

Moving from one place to another didn't make so much of a difficulty. For one, I dont mind the neighbors I will have to live with so long as they mind their own business.  Me and my siblings are never in a goodie-goodie terms with any of our neighbors in the past anyway.  Not hostile, not close either. Indifferent.  When we moved last year into a house whose rooms are for rent rather than the house, we had two room neighbors.  We occupied Room C.  Room A was occupied by a police officer and his bitch (cause she looks like one, manners and all), Room B by an obese couple whose form of entertainment is to scold and humiliate their lanky, rather ill-looking daughter to contrast their intelligence quotients against.  Nevertheless, I don't remember I have spoken a word with any one of them.  I may have spoken more words to the rodents then living with us.

I have always favored living close to relatives because they give you food, they let you borrow their vcds and they look after your house when you're out.  I hardly give the same credit to stranger neighbors because I am boxed up on thinking they are all nosy and waiting for a time to put you on a black-mail. It has been eight years since we moved into an entirely stranger-filled neighborhood but instead of making friends around, we tend to be the snob.

Now we're moving again and I doubt that there's anything to look forward to. New place doesn't mean new perspective. At the very least, I'm glad that my plants will be free from the stench our pet-lover neighbor's dog.

pop art (pag walang magawa sa ofc)

sigh

And so, they are the friends whom I hold beloved here in my small heart. I could not muster enough words to tell them how grateful I am to have them around because they keep me sane.

I am in a whirl, as always. Can't make sense of things happening around me, except to 'go with the flow.'  I'd like to think I'm doing fine. But going home to find my father's face tired and weary makes me want to reassess. There's something wrong about our family, something money can't fix. I just can't point it out, but maybe one day, i'll burst it out infront of them, once I found the right words.  I may see past some of my family's inadequacy and not give a rat's ass about it, so long as we're surviving but for how long I don't think I can stand another year. Everyday, I'm losing a sense of myself to people I should have learned to appreciate as we share the same blood and whatever you call that consanguinity shit. I wanna be like any other common family around composing of relatives who talk to each other, make bonding moments together, who fight and argue and teach each other life lessons..

I sound bitter am right there do I? Ugh, anyway. I hope I find more money so I can treat them to Italianni's or something.

Jaiza

I went to an orientation last Saturday to speak before our org's newbies. I talked about history and squeezed in a bit of eye-openers so they realize that being a member of an organization isn't just about for their resumes but an opportunity to build on their character (which so needs improvement). I couldn't anymore remember what I said (so frustrating).

Anyway, after the chat, Jaiza and I went goofing around with the camera phone because we were seated in the pavement (its just because).

Stories after the jump.
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