Seize the daY!

i called up gen, a friend from the airforce to arrange for our billeting. he was kind enough to reserve a room for us at blue bianco (more about blue bianco on part 2) and because he sponsored us, we got a good discount for the room.

i took a leave friday to attend to personal stuff before i went on a little get away during the weekend. i had to make sure that the house was in order before i left. i picked up the rest of the gang at the office after going through hell traffic! i travelled 1 and a half hours from manila to ortigas!!!! (para na kong nagpunta ng clark nun ah!)

anyhow, after suffering from traffic, i reached ADB (thank God!) i grabbed a quick bite and we're off to Clark. we were all excited about this activity, as it was our first "official" out of town gimik as a group (though we weren't complete. last minute, mia had to back out of the trip because she wasn't feeling well) it was a surprisingly smooth drive from along edsa and of course NLEX.

we we're planning to gas up at shell station along nlex, and to have dinner there as well. unfortunately, i guess because i was enjoying the smooth drive and the chat, we missed the shell station! (wah!) when i saw the shell station on my right, i was in the left most lane! and it would be a disaster if i even tried changing lanes! my first concern was the gas i had, kung aabot ba kami ng clark if there was no other gas station along the way, or magtutulak na kami to reach clark! hehehe. but i assured my passengers that we can reach clark without the scenario of pushing the car to reach there ;0) and so we continued the drive. at san simon, we saw a total gas station and we decided to gas up, even just for a little (as i usually gas up at shell), just to make sure we reach clark by riding a car and not pushing it, hehehe.

i think the gas station was fairly new, some of the establishments were still under construction and/or were still putting some finishing touches. as we were deciding where to eat, we saw an andok's restaurant. di ba the andok's that we usually have here in manila are take out counters only? but this one's a "full-blown" dine in resto! ang galing! sayang nga lang we didn't eat there as they opted for tapa king.

so we ended up gasing at total san simon and we decided to have dinner there. it was interesting because we saw an andok's resto there (yes! as in pwedeng mag dine in!) they usually have take out counters lang in manila. but we decided to eat at tapa king. after dinner, we headed to clark. we exited angeles and asked for directions from the toll guy, he just said just turn right and to straight. and that's what i did. thank God for signages we were able to find our way to clark.

from the road, we saw lots of tents in the festival area, but we decided to check in first. we met up with gen late in the evening, as he was still in the festival. he asked us to go to Coffee Overdose (which i had a hard time finding: it's either i was so bad with directions or that gen was not good giving them- later we found out that it was more of the latter! hehehe!)

it was a long time since i last saw gen (the last time was when i was still working at the little palace by the river and he was still aide to CSAFP). we brought him an oreo cheesecake from the ADB cafeteria as a token of our appreciation. we discussed what to expect from the festival. he asked us to be early in the venue so we can see the balloon take off. and so at 12, we called he a night. and before gen left, he gave me a free ticket for the show! yipee! thanks gen!

we headed back to our hotel with a warning from kuya jimmi that we should not sleep early as he was going to take our pictures. unfortunately, he was the first(!) to sleep, now who's picture was taken? hehehe