My bucketful of sunshine

An after surf bonding with my sister, Mitch.

We were so tired from an hour of surfing and we decided to lie around yet was hesistant to get burned by the sun (Derma will get mad!), so we placed our board on top as if we’re making love. We were singing Florence + The Machine and Bruno Mars hits out loud while basking under the sun.

We were both hoping someone could take a photo of us while doing this pauso making love with the board. And luckily, someone did! I was just browing thru my FB and glanced a surf album in Baler and chanched upon this. GOOD TIMES!

Thank you FB friend and EL alumna, Olive. :)

PS. And oh yes, in reference to my previous post, I ended up breaking my own rules. Baler won, savings lost. :p

Looking at this photo makes me so bitter I can’t go to Baler for the Chinese New Year long weekend. :( First, I don’t follow Philippines holidays at work and second, I’m strictly sticking to my tight budget for the remaining weeks before Batanes. Haaaay. Frustrating. But on the second thought, who says I can’t break my own rules? hehe :p Let’s see!

Uhm, i miss you guys.

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Another out of town vacation with the whole Pelagio clan for my cousin’s wedding on February 4 2012. Exciiiiting. (but not excited for the very costly airfare. SRSLY). Oh well… but I think it’ll be worth it. ;)

We had 3 physically challenging games - obstacle relay, tug of war and search and rescue. I’ll the skip the 2 games and just blog on tug of war — kasi dito lang kami nanalo. Haha.

I think I have never joined any game of tug of war - apparently because I not the “most fit” contender for such game of strength. Sa intrams, sino ba naman ang pipili sa lampayatot na tulad ko? haha So i think this is my first time to play the game and shyet, GANUN PALA. HAGGARD. Seryosong pagod at super sakit sa kamay!! Everyone looked like we’re in labor. :)) Super exciting pa kasi at first, it was a deadlock. As in, hindi gumagalaw. Equal strengths exerted on both side. Until finally the other team got tired and we grabbed the opportunity to pull hard!

As for the search and rescue and obstacle relay, red tribe won. They were lucky to have Papa on their team, because he strategized well enough to outsmart us. Galing!

Looking at the photos while tugging of war, nakakatawa talaga. Mixed looks of game face, constipation and in labor. LOL

We organized an a la Survivor program for everyone. The family will be divided into two tribes - Yellow & Red.

Unfortunately, I was the only Sayoc in the Yellow Tribe. Papa, Mama, Mitch and Let were all in Red, while Ate was a game official.

Uncle Danny thought of our tribe name - Saldang, which means sun in Bicol that represents our yellow color. The red tribe on the other hand was named Sangre, Spanish term for blood, which represents the color red.

First activity: tribe cheer! I got bibo over this thing and I actually thought of the melody and the lyrics of our tribe cheer! Haha! Kate and Jopee helped me with the lyrics too. We patterned our cheer on J.lo’s On the Floor and titled ours On the Shore. Witty, diba? :)

That part on Brazil, Morocco, London to Ibiza.. we changed to Cubao, Manila, Sabang to Bahia, Straight to Dica, Baler, Joybus to Aurora! Sakto yan! haha :)

On the other hand, Tribe Sangre patterned their cheer to Red, Red Wine - the melody is quite slow - so apparently we won over them! But I loved their performance, the lyrics go: Red, red tribe! Goes to Baleeeer. Gee, this cheer got us all LSS’d for a few days!

And sosyal, the Ambassador of Mexico is also in Dicasalarin, a private resort of Senator Angara, where we held our Survivor games and he was the one who judged our tribe cheer! Medyo sumipsip pako and had a bried intro of our tribe in Spanish, nagkaron din ng silbi ang espanol ko. haha =))

By far the best Christmas.

Christmas is not a favorite holiday of mine. Maybe because I have grown to associate it with repetitive Christmas traditions that I have grown tired of. We normally just gather at our house in Sikatuna with the rest of the Pelagio relatives and have our usual Christmas Dinner, Christmas Mass and Noche Buena.

This year, we decided to spend it in Baler, primarily because Let can’t go home, because in the hotel industry, December is normally a peak season, thus hard to take a holiday off with so much guests to accommodate. My sisters and I actually brought this up, since, yes, we also had our hidden motives of surfing in December. (but waves were too wild, I only had a half day surfing time.)

5 days, 4 nights in Baler. My cousins and I set up a meeting in CBLT Fort to organize this Christmas gathering to make it extra special. We considered it a bonding activity narin for the family after quite a few family issues and of course, break from work and stuff. We organized it, as in to the career level, complete with tarps, shirts, invites, theme, decors and all. :)

Christmas eve. Even though I was working until 11:43 of December 24, (yes, eve of Christmas!!), I enjoyed our simple celebration for several reasons: 1) Papa’s angus steak cooked to perfection 2) Everyone participated in our Safari theme 3) Gifts, gifts, gifts! :)

Almost all the girls came in leopard prints while the boys came in a la Kuya Kim get up. :) We then had our exchange gift in the family and my cousin Timmy, described me as may primary complex nung bata, cum laude, and high-earner (chos!). I was most excited about my gifts! Mama gave me a Rayban wayfarer, Let got me a Roxy beach bag, Ate got me a Sanuk slippers and Billabong top, and Mitch gave me a Roxy top. :) I got useful presents from relatives too, such as pantulog, tops, eco bag, pashmina etc. :)

After the exchange gifts, everyone slept quite earlier than we usually do every eve, in order to rest for tomorrow’s physical activities. :)

TO BE CONTINUED ….

DBL MML Fun Family Day :)

Bri’s employer had this Family Day going on for the employees where he can bring along 3 of his (ideally) family members for a day trip to EK, complete with buffet lunch and snacks. Lucky us, Brei and Bri picked me and Cholo to fill in the slots. :)

Free entrance plus may lunch and snacks na, but we still ended up spending quite a lot! Paano ba naman, nawili kami sa perya games, and it’s frustrating wala man lang kaming mapanalunan na stuffed toy. I went home empty handed :( Scam talaga yung iba dun, i believe. Haha

We were able to ride 4 rides - Flying Fiesta, Log Jam, Rio Grande and Wheel of Fate - the park was packed even on a weekday. Pero winner yung log jam and rio grande where Brei took a video of us getting wet and wild. Fun times!

After spending the day in Laguna, we decided to have a Christmas dinner at Vikings, but even the resto is full, they even stopped listing for the waitlist. We had our dinner at Fridays instead. Masarap din naman. :)

I’m slowly getting attached at clingy to this DBL MML group! :) I dunno where that came from, but apparently because it’s always the four of us who share the room whenever we go out of town. Jokes on momol and the like are always brought up, so there.

Photos stolen from Brei’s FB. Ugggh, i suck at uploading photos. Walang panahon. :(

A budding photographer taking practice surf shots. Thanks Neil! :) So thoughtful of you to make it to a collage. :)

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love.

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