Happy Birthday April Celebrants!

This month of April awaits us of birthday celebrations.

I'll start of with April Fools day birthday celebrant, Melvin Esguerra. He's no more kid, though! So there no balloons, clowns, party hats, etc. He preferred a more romantic and memorable birthday celebration with me of course. Tagaytay in the city of Batangas is the destination spot. I took a vacation leave with my work and made his birthday a very special one. We don't have maps, tour guides or something. For us, the trip should be an exciting adventure discovering one of the Philippines' pride! It is 10AM Philippine time when we went off his house and traveled to Pasay City here in Manila where we can find the bus that will take us to Tagaytay City. With luck we arrive just in time that the bus still have lots of vacant seats, so we've had a comfortable place. I sat beside the window because I always enjoy watching the view outside. At almost 11AM the bus departed from Pasay City station. I never felt boredom because I was watching Charlie's Angels Full Throttle from the bus' television, but Melvin slept (he easily gets to sleep when he feels cold) on our way. When we are about to pay the ticket, we don't know where we're gonna drop off. So the "konduktor" (the one giving the ticket and collecting the payment for the fare) told us to drop off to Oliveros. Upon our arrival at Oliveros, Melvin felt stomachaches not because of hunger but because he was inside the aircon bus for a long time. Luckily we saw Jollibee! And another luck, we saw Chowking fastfood! I bought him soup to ease his stomach pains. After sipping few tablespoons he's back to normal and we continued searching for Tagaytay's tourists spot. After going around the beautiful Tagaytay we bought some "pasalubong" for the family and friends. Then we got home safe, tired but definitely HAPPY.

Next on the list of the celebrants is Miguel Yeshua "Migo" Prino (sorry if I'd spell it wrong) who celebrated his very first birthday at Jollibee, Shangri-La Mall in Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City last April 12, 2008. He's really born on April 9, he just celebrated his birthday on that Saturday. I arrived late, as usual, they were playing games already. A few more minutes we were served with the food, for the adults it is the "big gutom meal" and for the chikitings it is the spaghetti meal with chocolate sundae. As we eat the Langhap Sarap Jollibee meals, Jollibee mascot was introduced by the hostess. Jollibee entered the party place dancing and jumping with his or her eyelids twinkling! As he appeared, all the kids are happier! I saw someone clapping his hands with joy, but take note his an adult! After all the dancing, jumping and singing, Jollibee gave his wishes to Migo. J0llibee wishes Migo to be "mapagmahal, mapagbigay, magandang lalaki kagaya ng Daddy?, at madasalin at may takot sa Diyos." Is Jollibee mascot a gay, because he always twinkles his eyelids unto Migo's Daddy? Anyway, the party ended very well and happy, with Jollibee getting the biggest gift of Migo, food or bag of the guest with him??? Oh, Jollibee's very playful! Well, he really makes us happy with that! He looks nice when he does that shy, sleepy look on his eyes. The guests are delighted for this very special occasion. Thanks to Mommy Jho and Daddy Gerald Prino for inviting me over!

Finally, the most awaited birthday celebration of the two handsome guys that I met a year ago came. Their birthday is on April 12 but we made the celebration earlier to give way to Migo's first birthday. The celebration was just simple when it was proposed by one of the senior celebrant -- Rodolfo Cerrada Jr.. But because there are two of them celebrating their birthdays in one day, the younger one proposed for a birthday celebration on the beach. It took me, Jennifer "Kleng" Corpin, Jennifer "Posh" Canhe, and the younger celebrant -- Adrian Torres, almost a month in preparation for this big event of the month. We organized on where to celebrate, that includes sleeping around 2-3AM just to search all over the web for beaches and/or resorts that can accommodate around 30 participants. The celebrants gave pledges to include on our budget and lessen the amount that we'll be giving for our shares, some of the guys who already left our employer gave their kind pledges that we used for the rooms that we rented. We've looked in Laguna, Batangas, and finally Bataan. Laguna suffered from thypoid outbreak that can be incurred on drinking water around March this year, because of that we removed Laguna on the list. We don't want to take risks with this. Next option is Batangas, where we found lots of beach resorts. But unfortunately all of them are fully-booked, so the only option left was in Bataan. No one among us knows or is familiar with Bataan, it is clearly an adventure for us. And so it is decided, Morong Star Beach Resort in Panibatuhan, Morong, Bataan is our destination! Bataan here we come!

That was April 5-6, 2008, a fine day to travel. The call time is set to 5-5:30AM and the vans will leave at exactly 6AM. But the most important person arrived at almost 7AM, guess who's that! We're already on our trip when I asked "Kuya Driver" on where is Sta.Rita exit. He did not answer me not give me a glimpse that he understand even hear my question. Maybe "Kuya Driver" is so shy? Or he's mute? OMG, deadma ako!!! And so I did not talk to him and we just continued traveling the North Luzon Expressway to pickup Leon at Sta.Rita exit, the toll way that costs us additional P60.00! And Leon was there bringing a couple of mineral water (so that's the payment for the toll fee huh?!) We are near SM Pampanga when "Kuya Driver" finally speaks clearly even if he's not asked to speak! He already smiles and laughs with us while Olem (the very funny, Olem! Hahaha!) tells us his jokes! A few more hours of travel and we think we are lost, we cannot find the star! Oh, I mean Morong Star. And so "magtanong" came with us, now we're saved! We asked "Manong Guard" and a kid riding a bike to where is Morong Star. We've passed a jungle and farm like views of Bataaan, drove up and down the hills like Jack and Jill. Finally, the moment of truth has come -- we are now at Morong Star Beach Resort.

The vans are parked first on the parking space allotted for us, good thing we have a reservation now, right Kleng? I immediately went to the cashier/customer service/admin/resort owner, Marie, but Marie is not there that moment. So I talked with her staff instead, while the other participants went to see the beach (no, they are not excited! It was just their first time, hahaha! ) At last I have the keys to the rooms, I hurriedly gave Kleng the keys and she lead them to the rooms. After that, Kleng and Posh went to the canteen/resto to order food for our lunch. They ordered Sinigang na Baboy, Steamed Tilapia, and Pork Sisig. Wow, sounds delicious! We made additional order of Fried Chicken for some diet-conscious folks. Most of us rested on our rooms when we arrived, because we are hungry too! Around 1PM I guess when a crew called our attention that the food is already ready, so we went to the canteen and sat on the prepared tables. Our excitement was cut when we learned that the crew was not calling us but other fellows instead, and so we waited for more minutes until we eat our very first food on the beach resort. Oh my at last the foods arrived! But wait! Where's the pork sisig? You're kidding, this is pork strips covered with scrambled eggs?! NO, you're not kidding? So this is really the pork sisig? Ah ok, on our hunger we just ate the food that was served even on our dismay. The fried chicken was served late, we're almost done eating when it was served! But at least we were sort of delighted when it was served, we were expecting it to be different from the rest. But why are we really expecting that anyway? To make it short, we were all disappointed by the food on the canteen. Need I elaborate more? We just enjoyed our stay by swimming on the beach and pool, and the guys played basketball after swimming. It was a long day, but the night is longer. We've had a long table prepared in front of the rooms that we rented, Posh brought Mudslide and mixed Vodka with 7Up, the guys bought a case of SanMig Light, and Chris brought Tequila Rose. For the "pulutan"? What else, they are Boy Bawang and Corn Bits with Muncher Green Peas?! Aside from that we have Cheese Ring care of Posh, it's her favorite by the way! We've had a long night drinking, taking pictures with Adrian's beautiful DLSR, talking about each other, and making fun with the jokes most of the boys tell! I just cannot forget the alibis Leon and Marvin told us. Washing your feet or going to pee, right guys? We ended the session around 12 midnight, all of us are sleepy then but we all look happy. Are you guys, happy? Because I really had fun that time, not on the beach but with the quality time I had with all of the participants.

Early Sunday, oh I'm still sleepy but I need to get up and wake up the others because we will go boating and go to the island nearby. We are all set, we brought our breakfast there. I was very scared while riding the boat, it is even frightful when we reach the middle part of the sea where the waves are becoming bigger and bigger. "Andito na tayo! Andito na tayo?" That's what I heard when we arrived on the island. The next thing they heard was "Ayokong bumaba, buhatin mo ko!" Hahaha! I was very afraid of all the see creatures and see weeds or algaes that I can see on the water. I was shouting because of fear, I was even holding Adrian's digicam! So Melvin cannot do anything but carry me. We had our breakfast on that island, it was more beautiful than that of Morong Star Beach Resort, but on the island we cannot do anything and go anywhere else. We just ate the food, took pictures, told more stories. We went back to the resort afterwards, but wait we were stuck on almost near the beach front. "Manong, anong nangyari?" So "Manong" restarted the bangka's motor and we continued to reach the shore. We then get ourselves ready to leave the resort.

On our way home before lunch time the following day, we decided to have lunch at Pampanga --- where the food specially sisig is the best! We've had a different route in going out from Bataan to Subic, the roads are smaller --- it can accommodate only one vehicle at a time I guess. But there's no turning back, it was a long road hiding in between a tall mountain and farm or trees --- if not a mountain, it's a cliff so high! "Oh God, please let us pass this never ending trail without another car driving on the opposite side of us." OMG, I don't want to die now! While our van was on a slanting road we met two other cars opposite of us, the road in front of us to steep going up and at our back is steeply going down. On our right is a cliff, on the left is a land with lots of trees. I should have taken pictures of us in that situation, but I was too nervous being seated in front and able to see how difficult to move the van from that phase. But "Kuya Driver" was great, he was able to take us out of that dying situation! Finally we're out of there, we arrived Pampanga around 1PM. We've had Chicharong Bulaklak, Lumpiang Shanghai, Caldereta, Inihaw na Liempo and the very famous Pork Sisig! At last we were able to eat true food. After this delicious lunch, we continued our travel home. One by one each of us were dropped off to our destinations and we got home safe and in one piece.

I hope next year we can see each other again and celebrate your birthdays to remember. "Promise hindi na tayo sa Morong Star!" :)