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It was that time of year again when work was left in the office while we enjoyed our time away from the city, noise, meetings and deadlines. It was all about having fun!

Stories and photo bomb after the jump…

This event saved me from having to spend a lonely night at home after my last work day in WELS. You all know I hate goodbyes. So after finishing the drinking spree at Metrowalk with the WELS people, EQ, Sarah and their friends dropped me off in the office building. I was thankful that they did because I got a bit drunk that night. I bought food but did not finish it because I so wanted to sleep.

We left Manila at around 7AM. I slept through the entire trip and we reached Batangas at 10AM. Canyon Cove was big and nice. The moment I found out that we’d stay there, I searched the Internet for pictures and found many beautiful photos. They made me a bit skeptical since I’ve experienced photogenic resorts that aren’t as good in person. But Canyon Cove did not disappoint at all. It actually looked better in person. The beach wasn’t bad though I thought it was too calm.

So when we arrived, while waiting for our rooms, they went around the place to take pictures…

…while I stayed at the lobby to get more sleep. My head was aching that morning and the bright daylight made it worse.

When we got our rooms, I immediately checked the bathroom – thank goodness it was good. It’s always important for me that the place I’m staying in/using has a clean bathroom – gym, spa or resorts. It was actually needless to be checked because the moment we stepped in our room I knew I was going to love everything about it. The living room, the pictures, the soft bed, the TVs, the day beds… perfect! I checked the view from the balcony and it was overlooking the large pool and had a view of the sea. Too bad we were on the 5th floor so it was hard to find eye candies. Haha!

My roommates were Celle, Jeyelle and Betsy. By the time we finished settling our things, we were all hungry but lunch time wasn’t until 30 minutes later. Buti na lang we didn’t eat our packed breakfast earlier and we were able to sneak them in (you can’t bring your own food/drinks inside the resort). At least the wait wasn’t as painful. Hehe.

Their food was good. Since I’d been feeling unhealthy for the past month, I chowed down pasta, chicken and fish. It always makes me feel better whenever I eat lots of carbs and protein. That’s why I don’t like fast food that much – it’s like I’m spending too much money on not enough nutrients. So instead, I feast on bread, peanut butter, milk and cereals on a regular day. Hehe. Anyway, here’s what I had for lunch (plus another round of pasta).

Because I came from a beer night just hours ago, I felt and looked dirty with my hair struggling to remain flat on my head. So after lunch, I watched TV for a while and then had a shower. Okay sana kaso mahina ang heater. I love taking showers when the room is cold and the water is hot and eventually the place will be filled with steam. That wasn’t the case. I kept waiting for the water to become warmer but it did not. Anyway, I just washed myself and disregarded the thought of savoring my bathroom moment.

We hit the beach at around 2PM. They were already swimming but I didn’t feel like dipping so I just watched them play around. I love the beach. It was actually unusual that I didn’t feel like swimming. Maybe because of the hangover or the calm waters, or maybe because it was cloudy and there wasn’t that many people swimming. Dami dahilan. Basta the beach didn’t appeal that much to me. So I just stayed and took their pictures – they were fun to watch.

After several minutes at the beach, we finally hit the swimming pool. I was already darker than I already am by the time I jumped in. I was excited. It was big, clean and nice. Now I realize I didn’t enjoy swimming pools before because they were small – big, wide and deep pools are fun! We enjoyed the water, took pictures and looked at people worthy of our gaze. Our eyes didn’t get tired though – wala masyadong cute. Haha! So after a couple of hours of fooling around, they thought of doing something else… we played volleyball.

The volleyball game was actually the part I enjoyed most during our first day in Canyon Cove. Perfect time of the day to play – it was around sunset so it wasn’t too hot. Everything looked tolerably bright and yellow so we looked like a million dollars in the pics! Hehe. Volleyball was my sport in high school and it’s good that after years of inactivity, I still knew how to play. I wish we have a company sportsfest or I can find a group to regularly play this game with so I can de-stress. It was a good feeling when we finished. The game was mostly about running after the ball outside the court but it was still fun. Haha!

And after playing… more swimming ’til it was dinner time! Hehe…

Dinner was good too. I had roast beef and something else but what I loved most was dessert. We had three actually: buko pandan, pudding and the other was my favorite but its name was hard to remember – it had peach, apple and cinnamon in it. I love! Carlo had an unforgettable moment of bathing in iced tea when this cute waiter (his name was Aries – yeah, I asked for it) slipped several glasses out of his tray and down to Carlo’s back. He was such a nice guy. I did not hear him yell or get mad. Poor Aries – that was really embarrassing. But he was lucky it was Carlo. Had it been somebody mean, he would’ve been humiliated. Getting soaked in iced tea while having a good dinner is no joke.

After dinner we had a short walk around the pool before we went up to the room for the “team building” activity. It was a feel good moment. Each person had a paper that would be passed around and you should write down only good stuff about that person. When the activity ended, we all had happy feelings and smiles on our faces. We were ready to take on the alcohol.

The night ended happily. I was sober, though. It was good because I was able to appreciate the beautiful view on our balcony that night. The moon was bright and it was shining on the dark and peacful sea. That was an emotional setting to reminisce about stuff. I remember my WELS friends and how it would be different from that moment on. I held a tear in and remembered the happy stuff. The sound of the waves was loud and it made me linger on that moment for some more minutes before I went inside to end the day.

Day two started with me struggling to get up at around 8AM for breakfast. You see, that day was really short because we had to leave by 11AM and we still wanted to swim that morning. Breakfast was simple but expensive. It was basically buffet of Tapsilog or Tocilog plus fruits for dessert all for 400Php per person. Anyway, sinulit ko naman sya so okay lang. I had my usual two rounds before I went back up to the room to change into my swim clothes. And there… another couple of hours of fun in the water… Oh! We did a little hunting. Haha! There were cute people that morning so swimming was fun.

Carlo kept doing this hand stand under water which I thought was hard because he didn’t have a nose clip. And he could keep his body straight for a few seconds. Jack could do it too.

And this is me ridiculously trying to do what the other two guys could do. Yeah I know I shouldn’t have. I even commissioned Jeyelle to hold my legs up to keep me straight but I kept falling. Good thing I didn’t hit her head.

We checked out at 11AM. But we did not leave without taking pictures. You see, that’s how you get people in the office together – take out a camera and aim a shot at one person. Surely in less than three seconds, the others will converge to get themselves in the frame. No words needed. Haha!

We stopped by RSM in Tagaytay for lunch. It got a nice backyard (I don’t know what it’s called – it had nipa huts where you could eat in as well) with a beautiful view of Taal Volcano. I’m not sure about the price of the food, though. I was too bothered by the silly chairs to care. They had this unmovable armrest that took up too much space and the whole thing had an ethnic finish that was so not my type. I enjoyed the food naman. It was a nice stop-over but it would’ve been better if we got the simpler chairs.

We reached Manila at around 4PM. Yosef, Jeyelle and I stopped by Starbucks in  Podium for a while before finally calling the summer outing over. It was a great time and so far the best summer trip I had with DTC. Good place, good food and good weather with good people. It was fine that I stayed sober – I don’t have plans of getting myself drunk in front of my boss (hello Carlo and Jeyelle ). Haha!

(more pics to follow)

Thanks to Shelby, Betsy, Virgil, Jeyelle and Mato for the pics.