Little Miss Apple Pie

I honestly had no idea how I fell asleep the night before but I was sure Ge and I were listening to random Disney songs till we gradually fell into a deep slumber. LOL. But I got up at around 9am after being awakened by the smell of breakfast courtesy of Ge's baby sister, Tricia. Haven't had that kind of breakfast in ages and it was really satisfying.

Soon after breakfast, we visited their neighbor to whom they introduced me to. We stayed there for sometime just chatting randomly and somehow managed to talk about future adventure trips together. Not long after that it started raining really hard and when the heavy rain turned into a light drizzle we headed back to their house where Tricia and I spontaneously took off our shirts and jumped in their pool while the rain continued.

After showering, we had lunch and had some idle time; watched the Mayweather-Pacman fight. Then Ge and I harvested mangoes and santol in their front yard and on their roof, haha. I have never tried picking the fruit that I'd eat so that's new for me. We picked lots of fruits as they cleaned their lawn and roofs of dried leaves. Then we all sat down and had a very delicious snack of Banana con Yelo... well, Ge had a different preference so he had Mais con Yelo.

We all indulged into a random conversation which eventually ended at around 4:30pm when Tricia and I decided to go home; I, to Antipolo, and Tricia, to her apartment in Cainta.

The drive home was fun, as always. There is never a dull moment when I'm with her. She has proven to be one of my very few good friends; I honestly don't feel the same bond, fun and excitement with anyone else than with her and her family. They were more than my friends, they are like my second family.

So, that's how my Sunday went. It was a fun-filled weekend. <3

I have not been anywhere remotely fun in weeks. My life has revolved only both at work and at home. But I have been looking forward to this weekend's getaway for ages since the Daraitan trek.

As far as I know we will be trekking with a lot of people, but a lot has also cancelled on the last minute making our group as small as six people. We decided to call our newly formed group as "(E)X-Men" after realizing that four of our members were ex's. LOL Funny as it may seem, it didn't make the trip even a wee bit odd, weird and awkward. It was actually the opposite.

Okay, so I got to my best friend's place at around 12 midnight on Friday. His mom, whom I have missed so much, made me a warm cup of Milo which we drank as we sat on the mattress laid out in front of the TV. Soon after finishing our drink she retired to bed while Ge and I stayed up a bit longer to watch TV.

However, our plan of retiring to bed sooner didn't go so well. We ended up chatting till about two in the morning; we tried sleeping but couldn't resist the urge to wake up the other in a funny way. For example, just when I was about to succumb into a deep slumber he would intentionally tap me and say 'good morning' or ask if I'm about to go to sleep. Yes, we're weird, mainly the reason why we're still friends after all these years. LOL

Anyway, we did set an alarm but no one got up on time. LOL. We ended up leaving their house in Baras at about 6-6:30am. As soon as we got to Famy, Laguna we stopped by at our favorite Lomi stop and had, well, Lomi for breakfast. Shortly afterwards, we made a quick trip to the grocery store across the restaurant to buy some snacks before we headed to Pangil.

We arrived in Pangil and started our trek at around 9am. The trek, honestly, was unlike the others I had. It was the roughest trek I've been to so far but it definitely is the best.

The trek was divided into five stations, the fifth being the majestic waterfalls but I'm getting ahead of myself. Of course, no heavenly place can be attained without passing through a long and rough road. And boy, was the trail rough. LOL. The longest were the first two stations which seemed to go on for ages, but once at the third station, the view got a lot better making us thrive harder to go on and get to the best part.

 

Now, the photos above were the trails going to the fourth and fifth stations, consecutively. They were really steep and slippery but get this, by the time we reached the fourth station, all tired and sweaty, we were amazed of the view in front of us.

And finally...

Que bella, indeed! oh and yes, more photos!

We stayed there for hours, just basking in the cool and refreshing water from the falls. It definitely is a lot of fun and no words can ever describe the happiness I felt when we went behind the foot of the falls after lunch. We were at ease though the rocks were slippery; we also managed to get a very heavy shoulder massage from the raging water. LOL It was loads of fun being there at that time and moment with the people I was with.

Oh and here's a video of me jumping off a not-so-high cliff. Believe me, this video is actually 4 mins long, with 50% of it showing me contemplating whether to jump off or not. I'm actually afraid of heights and I have this very weird fear of jumping off and hitting my head on some huge rocks, so... yeah hahaha it was actually really hilarious.

 After the soothing time at the back of the falls, we jumped off again and packed up our things. Soon after we're back on the trail; it took us a bit longer than the first time though since we're all so tired and sleepy from the day's activities.

Then halfway through, my best friend asked me to stand beside this tree and pose for a photo for some reason. I love this shot. Captures my sleepy eyes and red hair under the mid-afternoon sun.

This indeed signifies the end of our day. Later that hour, we were back in our van driving to the same restaurant where we had breakfast and had dinner before heading back home. Everyone in the back were asleep as we drove home. LOL. I shall never forget this experience. There is a sense of achievement in this for I have never expected to make it to the end and back knowing that I have gained so much weight and had less exercise than before. Most of all, my fear of heights had somehow lessened. Nothing beats an adventure like this; I can never trade this experience and the feeling it comes with after with the comfort of my bed and pillow.

This weekend and the start of my week was a total whirlwind in some ways. For one, I had to rush to SM Magnolia (from Antipolo) to see my childhood friend and give her some 'emergency godmommy kit'. It was honestly unplanned so I literally rushed to Gilmore station on a lazy hour. The trip, though unusually long due to traffic, was really worth it. I mean, just look at the picture on the left. Freakin' adorable!

And since it wasn't planned at all, I had to bid them goodbye but first, we roamed around a bit and grabbed a bite of a yummy pizza cone being sold by HRM students from St. Paul. It was good! The wrap wasn't too moist nor was it too hard as a chip; it was full of cheese though and had less mushrooms and pepperoni. Nonetheless, it was still a treat and we enjoyed it while drinking a large serving of Apple and Orange juice mix. Yummy!

Later that evening, I met up with my bestie, Jaycee at SM Taytay where we had dinner at Tokyo Tokyo and had a drink in my room back home soon after. We did nothing special but spending quality time with her (e.g. watching funny videos while pigging out and drinking vodka) is just as good as going on adventures with her and our other bestie, Ge whom, by the way, dropped by at around 3am and brought us food and a movie entitled "PK". It was an Indian film which stars Aamir Khan. As expected it was funny yet full of life lessons. Ergo, it was worth watching till 5am. Haha! Ge still went home as soon as the movie's over, leaving Jaycee and I to sleep.

   

Later that morning, Jaycee and I decided to grab lunch at Savory in Victory Park Mall before I head to work. We tried calling Ge, hoping that he could join us for a bite but apparently he's still asleep so what we did next was kinda 'nice' for our kind. Haha! We decided to take out his portion of the meal and delivered it ourselves only to be left waiting for a long time outside his apartment. It took him so long to open the door that we changed the sweet message we wrote on his takeout bag. Refer to the pic below. HAHA!

Sorry for the language. But yeah. We're still his best girl friends!

My besties and I took yet another trek in Daraitan, Tanay yesterday. It was the roughest trek I've been in so far, but it was worth it. 

Once we're back to the town proper, we decided to grab some late afternoon snack at a local restaurant before heading back to my bestie's parent's place to shower and prep up to go home. 

I couldn't imagine this day going any other way. This experience has definitely boosted my confidence; there is definitely a sense of achievement in completing a total of 4-5 hours of trekking.