summer shebang @ zambales

a good 'ole dependable van with a busted aircon, a box of gran matador, two groupies picked up at irc, a couple of ipods, and seven passionate minds with one goal. just the perfect ingredient of having a perfect kick-ass summer getaway in zambales.

some say it couldn't be done. but we did it anyways. though we're short of dough, chicks and time, we just want to have a ball to get away from the heat of the summer. and by god this one's for the books!

departure time was after dinner wednesday night. before that. me and erick had bumvan ready: change oil, check the tires, have it wired. but still, the signal light won't work. frans called and up learned about it: "kamay n lang natin gawin pang signal light!" hmmm. pwede nga.

then out of the blue someone bought two long necks of emperador. of course, it's time to pick some mangoes up in our tree for pulutan. shot na. roll call: dekdek (my borther), jack aka mang arts (not my brother, but a shoe repair dude living with us for a long time), cousin bobet, and frans. yes, it's frans. the one whom all of us thought wouldn't come to our gigs 'coz he's more of a draftsman than an electical dude with all of his promises that he would come. but this time, he came 2 hours early.

dinner time came, so is erick and his new-found friend, chielmar. they met at irc, ericked asked if she wanted to tag along. chiel willingfully obliged, afterwards. bobet revved up the van as we packed up our stuffs at the back.

we fetched arnel at masalunga street. aside from the bags and coleman cooler, he bought a case of gran matador to avoid the hassles of buying at beach. afterwards, we picked up both awie and richie at their respective cribs. we are in full battle gear, so to speak. arnel also brought his guitar. awie brought his ever-dependable altec lansing speakers (w/o the ibm laptop pc, this time. guess it's time for it to rest) and 40G ipod, while brought along my mini ipod care of chairwoman.

locked and loaded. as we were calmly cruisin' along the newly-refurbished asphalt freeway of NLEX, someone broke the ice. a magic word to wake up the sleepy heads travelling up north. SYAT!!! and that was it. cutting empty plastic bottles of mineral water plus pouring them with lukewarm water as chasers, we let go of johnny and walked the walk. at hindi nakuntento dun,ha? pinakawala pa si grandma para solb aang byahe. hehe!

the trip went fine. someone cracking gross jokes or corny punchlines that spiced up the laughter of everyone. and as some felt the agony they went through the work week and try to get some power nap after getting tipsy with the booze that passed among them, i was carefully on the watch with whatever trouble that might hamper our trip, from the mechanical to the manpower as well. along the way we also picked up another new-found friend. the petite but enigmatic gurlalu named marivic was patiently waiting in the sheds of double happiness in guagua.

ahhhh! touch down IBA ZAMBALES! i forgot about the correct time. so, i would roughly say it was 2 am already coz we had so many pits stops along the way. richie, the "kaliwete" almost made our tired spirits worse as he forgot the correct way gping to josie's crib. but we managed to wear some smile and cracked some laugh as we were glad the trip went well and got there safe as sound.

but lo and behold, we cannot hit the sack without having some "pampaantok." so after surveying the pad and the rooms where we would supposed to sleep at, we opened up a bottle of grand ma and some some chips to continue what has temporarily stopped during the fun-filled road trip. after a few drinks, stories and laughs, we realized that we are so tired of drinking already and we needed to charge our batteries for the next day's activities. hmm, buti na lang naisip pa un kasi pagod at puyat na ang karamay namin for the whole night.

pero eto ang catch. as were readying our mindset into REM, a thunderous voice from afar tore up the slumbering silence. "maaaai laaaabbb willl sii yuuu truuuu!" that belch was further amplified by an ear-deafening videoke machine. it was from another resort. we suspect that those voices come from "bangkeros" prepping up before going to the sea. maybe, it was their way of asking the gods to catch more fish. but to us needing some silence to get some sleep, it was their way of driving us off their turf. lupet ng diskarte, noh?

hayy!!! 8 am. and the machine is still full blast. as well as the voices we were hearing. i was praying all morning that i would hear a thunderous explosion that spelled the demise of that machine. para burnout ang punyetang videoke na yan!!! pero hindi eh. nagputloy pa din siya. as in nagpatuloy pa din siya.

richie tried to sleep at the tent pitched at the beach. but he gave up as he went upstairs asking for us help to just fix breakfast. maybe after that,we would get so sleepy we would forget about those singing bangkeros nearby.

morning has broken and off we went to the marketplace. i helped arnel prepare his adobo, while fransmade his signature delicacy: bagoong alamang. ang hirap nga gawin eh, hehehe. at dahil dun, we opened a bottle of grandma and let the drinking.

good friday came. made me wonder, what good is it about good friday when it was the day when Christ was crucified? that, i would have to verify. tradition say that we have to keep silent, to keep the solemnity of the day, especially during early afternoon during crucifixion. so we played poker after a heartful lunch of sigang sa miso na bangus courtesy of richie. we enjoyed playing cardsd so much that we decided to get a few drinks (yes, hindi namin pinalampas un ...). as usual, bangag na naman kame. eto naman ako, akyat baba ng pasyat sa lahat ng makasalubong ko, from the kitchen wer arnel n richie wer cooking toasted eggplant, to upastair wer nagpo-poker ung ibang dabarkads. grabe, the few drinks got more, and more. until we got venghhegg again. say, wer did i sleep that nyt?

ahh, sarap ng buhay.


sabado de glorya. syempre, dami tao sa beach nyan. dami legs. dami tsiks, hehe. punta uli kame sa palengke. lyupet ng ulam: nilaga.elibs ang ermats nila josie, anna, at iba pang mga kamaganakan nila dun. afterwards, pahinga konti. syat na naman. lasing na naman. pumunta ata kame sa san mig party in a nearby barrio. me ka-eyeball si arnel. zyonget. kaya tuloy cguro nawala pitaka nya sa party. karma. beh! hehehe.

kinabukasan. easter sunday. la na party. la na syat. empty na budget. so umuwi n lang kame. gusto pa nga nila magstay pa kame. don't worry, sa bday daw ni ermats sa june 19 punta daw kame. sabay pinaghahampas kame ng 1.5 na litro ng coke.

malamang, talagang babalik kame. sarap ng gimik dun. babait pa nila. tulog muna ko, hangover ...