High School was so-so. Saturday was EPIC.

My high school was alright. Whoever said that high school was the best four years of their life hasn’t been to college-although, yes, your friends in high school would be a different breed of friends. This epic night was cancelled two times and we’re just really excited to pull something off like this, so rest assured that there is more to come. Paolo Descalzo, who studied culinary in the states, took care of the house and food. Jared Briones, a nursing grad from St.Paul now taking law in Ateneo took care of my ride and a Johnny. Jiggy Marquez, (I forgot what you took in college) took care of the main booze, an Absolute Kurant and half a bottle of another Johnny. Emer was there for attendance, kidding, bro.

The night started around 9PM. We met up at the Antipolo city hall to follow Paolo via convoy to his house. We got to their house and all of us were at awe to see this beautiful house surrounded by just a few other houses. I would describe it as a Moroccan-beach house in a subdivision in Antipolo. I was really hoping there was a pool in the property just to complete the resort feeling. Every wall was painted pastel, red, maroon and other earthy colors. The feeling was complete, it was really cozy and comfortable for me that I can sleep wherever and I just feel so at home.

I'm not entirely sure what they were and what ingredients were included but they were damn good! We chowed down on these:

Bread with tomatoes, cream cheese, garlic(I think). It was so good!

Mashed potatoes, pasta with bacon and some papaya (i think, again), some chicken with lime (I'm still not sure) Haha

Cinnamon apple crumble with vanilla ice cream.

                Again, I’m not entirely sure of what it’s called but Paolo cooked really great; I would almost want to be there every weekend, or every other weekend just to eat what he cooks. I almost felt I was in a resto that I only see on TV since I just eat wherever-that’s the ambience his house and cooking gave us.

                After eating and before starting the drinking sesh, we took a stroll the subdivision and tried checking out the view from a hill near San Beda Taytay. It was awesome-so awesome that I can’t hold my pee any longer and peed on the hill while admiring and smiling on the view. The skyline was amazing and there was nothing like it I’ve seen. You can actually see Makati, Taguig and other cities buildings color the dark blue sky. It was perfect, the company, the food, the house-everything. It was so good in fact; we decided we should do it every month and try to add something new so we can grow as a crew. We will be doing this again soon, boys! 

Since I really wanted to share what we ate, here's the chef you made the wonderful food.
"Ano ung kinain natin?" = "What did we eat?"

Much Needed Break

                MAC Tycoon Medical Depot went on a company outing-slash-team building and it was so fun even for a newbie like me. It was wonderfully chaotic since it was the first time the company held such an event. We went to Laiya in San Juan, Batangas in Casa Dolores which is a very wonderful place. It had a snorkeling spot, beach volleyball courts, jet skis, banana boats and kayaks which I really enjoyed. The only thing missing are the bars lined up at the shore but the people were loaded so no worries. It was an overnight affair so we ate after travelling for about 4hrs from Bambang and everyone was dead hungry so we ate some binagoongan, grilled chicken and booze were flowing from 10:00pm to about 4:00am.

                We had hard drinks, to watch out for the girl’s figures and for the guys to get the right buzz. They had El Hombre tequila and a lot of Emperador Light I got hammered just after 2 bottles of tequila and 2 bottles of that Emperador, we were 6 in the rotation. Anyway, after getting hammered, I went to bed with a big smile on my face and some stories I really enjoyed. We woke up around 8:00am just to enjoy the beauty of the beach and upon waking up; I have the biggest hangover that I thought I can shake off after swimming. I got to a deep part of the beach, tried to tire myself on the cool water – didn’t happen. I went back to the shore and it got worst so I lay down on the sand, Islander slippers on my head and tried to keep last night’s dinner on my stomach. I succeeded after about 20-30mins of staying still. After getting well and enjoying more of the cloudy day, we went back to our cottage and we found Mr. and Mrs. Claus waiting for everyone. They bought lechon and I just thought that it was going to be a good lunch, but it didn’t turn out that way - it was better! Better in a way that we ate that lechon for breakfast, I mean, c’mon, who gets to eat lechon for breakfast. And the rest as they say is history. I had lechon, longganisa and some of that binagoongan leftover for breakfast.

The tasty binagoongan.

The wonderful breakfast scene after the morning swim.

The succulent lechon.

And some of the tastiest longganisa I've eaten. 

Photos taken by Pong Castillo.