Tanauan, Batangas
The outing was not planned, nor were there any real agendas. It was a sudden out-of-town trip borne from bored text messages and a long weekend. Naturally, it was the usual suspects, and this time, it was back to our farm in Tanauan, Batangas.
We decided on an overnight trip, because we had to be back on the first of November to fulfill our familial obligations. So, we left a little before lunch on Sunday, stopped to buy a couple of provisions, drove through McDonald's along the superhighway (and had my first BigMac and TwisterFries in a long time) and had a good dose of R&B, acoustic and Vienna Teng along the way.
Long drives under a light drizzle, I found, can also be charming.
We arrived at around two in the afternoon, and promptly set-up the DVD player and the cooler. Not having seen the new renovations to the main house, I found that the new set-up was rather homey: nothing grand, however: simply a television in front of couches and cushioned rattan chairs. We parked the drinks inside the cooler beside the couch, and got down to the business at hand.
Kristine was in-charge of the movie selections, and she started us off with an indie film, Particles of Truth, which I found to be cathartic and redemptive. It told of the story of an artist desperately unsure about her worth, and how, within a crazy 48 hours, she had pulled her life together (while those of the people around her fell apart!). I particularly liked the last scene where, as a sign of her redemption, she reached up to the sky from the sunroof of her new boyfriend's car.
Then we watched the pilot episode of The L-word, a drama series revolving around the lives and issues of lesbians living in West Hollywood. After the initial titillation of watching two girls actually getting it heavy on screen, I found the series rather engrossing, honestly. The fact that the story revolves around the often conflicting (and conflicted) world of lesbian relationships forced me to look at things through a different paradigm; and a new point of view, however shallowly conceived, is always good.
Following the films, we went to dinner in Tagaytay, which is just about a thirty-minutes' drive away via the winding (and scenic) Talisay route. We then had a hearty dinner in Carlo's Pizza (which was filled to capacity because of the holiday crowd), then back home to Tanauan, where cold beer, chips, and the movie A Lot Like Love awaited. I slept after the movie, a little after midnight, without drinking much alcohol (because I wasn't in the mood), while the others (I think) had vodka and watched How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.
I woke up at nine-thirty the next day, laid in bed for a full thirty minutes, waiting for the others to get-up. We all eventually got moving about at around ten thirty, and since it was too late in the morning to have breakfast, we decided to have someone buy food from the market for lunch. We headed to the pool, and spent the rest of the morning in the water. Late lunch followed at around two (Kristine and Paolo cooked porkchops and veggies), where we discussed: When is cheating cheating? (This will be the subject of another blog entry!-- Abangan!) Deciding to head back to Manila by six, we opted for a couple more episodes of The L Word, and probably a nap in between.
The drive back to Manila was quick and almost uneventful, save for the usual cracks and tsismis. We made the house in one and a half hours.
We decided on an overnight trip, because we had to be back on the first of November to fulfill our familial obligations. So, we left a little before lunch on Sunday, stopped to buy a couple of provisions, drove through McDonald's along the superhighway (and had my first BigMac and TwisterFries in a long time) and had a good dose of R&B, acoustic and Vienna Teng along the way.
Long drives under a light drizzle, I found, can also be charming.
We arrived at around two in the afternoon, and promptly set-up the DVD player and the cooler. Not having seen the new renovations to the main house, I found that the new set-up was rather homey: nothing grand, however: simply a television in front of couches and cushioned rattan chairs. We parked the drinks inside the cooler beside the couch, and got down to the business at hand.
Kristine was in-charge of the movie selections, and she started us off with an indie film, Particles of Truth, which I found to be cathartic and redemptive. It told of the story of an artist desperately unsure about her worth, and how, within a crazy 48 hours, she had pulled her life together (while those of the people around her fell apart!). I particularly liked the last scene where, as a sign of her redemption, she reached up to the sky from the sunroof of her new boyfriend's car.
Then we watched the pilot episode of The L-word, a drama series revolving around the lives and issues of lesbians living in West Hollywood. After the initial titillation of watching two girls actually getting it heavy on screen, I found the series rather engrossing, honestly. The fact that the story revolves around the often conflicting (and conflicted) world of lesbian relationships forced me to look at things through a different paradigm; and a new point of view, however shallowly conceived, is always good.
Following the films, we went to dinner in Tagaytay, which is just about a thirty-minutes' drive away via the winding (and scenic) Talisay route. We then had a hearty dinner in Carlo's Pizza (which was filled to capacity because of the holiday crowd), then back home to Tanauan, where cold beer, chips, and the movie A Lot Like Love awaited. I slept after the movie, a little after midnight, without drinking much alcohol (because I wasn't in the mood), while the others (I think) had vodka and watched How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.
I woke up at nine-thirty the next day, laid in bed for a full thirty minutes, waiting for the others to get-up. We all eventually got moving about at around ten thirty, and since it was too late in the morning to have breakfast, we decided to have someone buy food from the market for lunch. We headed to the pool, and spent the rest of the morning in the water. Late lunch followed at around two (Kristine and Paolo cooked porkchops and veggies), where we discussed: When is cheating cheating? (This will be the subject of another blog entry!-- Abangan!) Deciding to head back to Manila by six, we opted for a couple more episodes of The L Word, and probably a nap in between.
The drive back to Manila was quick and almost uneventful, save for the usual cracks and tsismis. We made the house in one and a half hours.
* * *
Looking back now on the last two days, I can't say that it was a particularly memorable outing. I won't even say that the conversations were anything to be remembered, or that our house is particularly picturesque to merit some note.
But what I will say is that I learned what it was like to actually be on a trip without having any plans or agendas, schedules or timetables. How fun it was to just bum, park yourself in front of the television, with a cold beer, and lots of comfortable silences. While it is true that I have been on official vacation-mode for the last month or so, and have actually gone to the Visayas and Mindanao with my family for over a week, this was the only time in a very long time when the moment was really just mine-- no errands to run, no people to meet, no things to do, no places to visit. It was, I guess, a realization (or perhaps a re-introduction) of what it is like to have those days of utter motionlessness, without a thought or a care in the world.
I sat on the porch of the second floor of our house, and watched as the sky turned from a bright blue to a deep lavender. And for a moment-- I'm sure it wasn't more than a moment-- the rest of the world seemed to melt away. And I knew that, somehow, things were going to be okay. And that wasn't so bad. Not bad at all.
