tumagaytay. (01262010)

repost from nini.


...

and so most people would think road tripping with family sometimes is a complete waste of time. okay. maybe just a few. but it just feels that way sometimes cos well, you feel like you're restrained from doing all the other fun-er things. that's what i thought so too. or still think. haha. but all i'm saying is that i spent an awesome weekend in tagaytay with the family and a whole lot of the extended ones!

left the office relatively early last friday. actually, come to think of it, i didn't leave early at all! i left half past ten already. but i stopped working 9ish. had dinner with the AS people on the 24th. didn't know you could do picnic indoors. it worked out perfectly fine. considering we were planning to have something much much better. sucks though cos i had to leave "early" for tagaytay. which totally didn't happen cos i had too much fun laughing my ass of with them AS. so off to tagaytay at around 11. i was pleasantly surprised when i didn't get any contradiction from my dad when i offered to drive. he completely went with it. and even much more to my surprise, he slept all the way through! meaning he really was trusting me with the drive. it was the first time i drove more than 50km on the highway that he slept. amazing. i guess this means i can have legitimate roadtrips. of course i don't want to push my luck. hahahaha! an hour and a half later, we we were at tagaytay. didn't stay up that long cos i was really sleepy. at one point, i was actually sort of dozing off by a few seconds on the road! i had to stop by caltex to get a couple of cups of coffee. which were lifesavers btw. so anyway. tagaytay weekend started the next morning.

we found this new place in tagaytay. they're selling the house to my dad. i've been bugging him to buy the place. it'll totally be the ultimate road trip place! so near but still a decent drive away. and you gotta love the trees! didn't get to explore much of it though. spent the entire two days with my recently re-married (cos they already had a civil wedding in the states) cousin. the entire other side of their family went also. it was there that i met two more kids i sort of like.

andre. aaron.

spent the entire saturday morning playing with the kids. apparently, gv's been giving me my much needed patience with kids. either that or they're really cute kids that you can't can't be nice to them. you'll just be an utter ass if you bitch-slapped your way through little cute boys. whoa. that sounded pedophilic. hahaha! but anyway, they were my cousin's kids. brought wiilbur along. and the rest of my (and the kids') morning was solved!

wiilbur saves me from a whole lot of baby-sitting.

the entire place was brimming with kids. i was surprised i didn't go crazy from all the little creatures running around. good thing they didn't start crying all at once. i would've totally lost it. i shit you not.

sab. my sister's second daughter. she grows hair like crazy. and yes, my dad's a proud lolo that way. he wouldn't let go of sab the entire time. no thank you, stroller.

gabbie. she's still the ball of energy she's always been. it's a proven fact.

so a couple of hours later, everyone decided it was time to start seeing tagaytay. or at least pretend we're still tourists. left the house half an hour past eleven. my parents thought it was an insanely brilliant idea to bring them to the palace in the sky. my parents are cheezy old-timers that way.

in tagaytay, the rule is to smother your face with craploads of espasol. otherwise, it wouldn't be tagaytay.

so i walked around with them and pretended i was the least bit amused by the place. nice location actually. too bad mongrels had to tear it down apart and turn it into a market-esque place. well, you can't have a filipino landmark without all the little trinket-vendors clutter every corner. nice little stuff they were selling though. i would've bought me a couple of shirts if only i didn't feel as poor as i am. haha!

they got everything you need up there.

oh and gabbie was an all too willing subject. she's my vain little god-daughter that way.

and so were they.

a full hour later, i finally got to pull my balikbayans out of that place. we had far cheezier places to go to. i trust my parents to randomly line up tagaytay places. and as if on cue, we were off to the horse-back-riding place. it's just utter tour-guiding brilliance i tell you. good thing the place had a good view of the sunset. and couples started getting all mushy.

ze parents.

ze older sister with ze husband.

i was afraid 5pm-light would be a bitch to work with. but quite surprisingly, they all looked nice. enthrallingly nice.

yes, there were 20 people inside. three more cars were left at the house.

then we decided to call it a day. went home to have some good old home-cooked food. i can't remember the last time i ate that heartily. i guess i've been getting more and more careless about what i stuff my face with. no really, i've been less mindful. i'm not sure if that's exactly a good thing. but after dinner, totally burned everything i ate from all the jumping around while belting it out with the magic sing! hahahahaha! me and my sister has just rekindled our passion for entertainment. i was having too much fun that i forgot to take pictures! my sister and i totally developed this whole repertoire of performance songs. and i wonder they still think i'm straight. or maybe they think i'm really just an insanely giddy and energetic boy. hahahaha!

the next morning, we decided it was the perfect time to visit sonya's garden. it was just a street away from where royale tagaytay was. of course with all the flowers around, how could you resist pretending to be such a bad-ass photography-hobbyist right?! i couldn't stop myself from taking shitloads of shots.

oh my peppercorn. why have you eluded me?

the dog came for some fierce action too.

and so did the kids.

after a few more shots, my cousins and her husband's family had to leave for another set of people they had to meet. they did sing us a thank you song before they left. oh and yeah, they're serious choir singers. and by serious, i mean serious. the kind that'll make you wet your pants for having to sing ever so crappily in front of them. that kind of serious. a really really nice bunch of down-to-earth people though. there're four of them. girls and boys split down the middle. so they've the whole eight octaves covered. pretty awesome if you ask me. got goosebumps all over when they started blending and all that. reminded me of my frustrated choir days. hay hay!

but i had fun. surprisingly!

to family!