Manila Day 1

Manila Trip
(Disclaimer: These are based on what was personally experienced. Some events may have been exclusive or appear to be evasive (hehehe). Comments are most welcome. Better yet, add your own blog. Much love-Tanya)

Much better idea - add to the existing blog to make it one long one. edit as needed. Tanya's color's are Yellow. Green is mine! - harry

Day 1

4 AM and everyone was at the building already! wow. Abi kay Manila sayo man jud. So all 15 fit in the pickup with luggage (amazing). We all board the plane with no problems. Everyone is still pretty sleepy at this point. Arrival in manila greets us with a message from cebu that a certain black bag has been left behind. I do remember carrying my wife's black bag around earlier in the morning.

Call time was at 430 for the girls. Everyone shows up on time save for guess who? The main man himself,Boss Jojo who had all our tickets and terminal fees.Faune, who happened to reside nearest the airport was still snoring soundly had she not been buzzed. The girls arrived showing off their golden highlights and flipping their shiny hair. Ching, on the other hand, desperately tries to cover up her own golden shiner.

Of course, Tomomi had to be Ritamae until we decided his legs were way too hairy to be named Rita and settled for Jessie's name.Michael's girlfriend Smile(did i spell that right?) was a dear in helping all of our sleepy asses out. She got our boarding passes for us and handed the May Ann's bag that got left behind by the first batch (sources say it was Harry touting the luggage, who knows?)

First time traveller Carlo was all restless and excited and couldn't stay put in his seat(the seatbelt sign is still on, please remain in your seats). and who could forget Joanah and Dimples? Not Dianne and Faune or Magz who won a souvenir. Surprisingly, No disasters worth mentioning in the arrival terminal.

We set up our first prank for the day, giving Mang Bert P50 to drop off the second batch in Century Park Hotel; we all have a front seat view of the hotel lobby from our 14th floor. As the 2 vans drive up and stop, everyone is giggling. We all can't wait to see the look on everyone's faces walking down the street chugging luggage along. However, after a short pause, the vans move on. Bummer. Then we remember magz and dodong are in the second batch. All veterans if this 2 year old prank.

So there we were absorbing the sights of Manila and saw our vans driving up to.... Century park Hotel.?!!? NOT! Good thing Magz knew where the place was and Jojo was on his toes to any of Boss Harry's legendary hauxes.

First part of the morning was spent crashing the guy's penthouse suites and spilling juice and food on the floor. The rest took some shut-eye to prep themselves for some serious sleeves-up shopping in Greenhills in the afternoon.

Everyone get's some rest and finds their own roomates for the next 2 days.

Buzz. 11:30AM guys! everyone scuttles into the vans and head for green hills. We have lunch at Bacolod Chicken, but it wasn't exactly the lechon manok we were hoping for. I guess they cook it dry in bacolod. Halfway through my meal, I notice that Erbagz right slipper had disappeared ( marky apparently knew who took it ). This prompted baguio to whisper to pamping while washing their hands that " way sukod sa baws ha ". Later on, marky pointed out to boss madz that he was very supportive since he was wearing his piranhas jersey. hahhaha.

Shopping !

I never realized the phrase, Shop til you drop, held true. But man, after countless rounds of searching, haggling, trying on stuff, carrying the loot, I was ready to DROP (a foot massage wouldnt be a bad idea, too) But harry had other plans. Marky comes up to us and shows off his new Nike's. As everyone is waiting for each other, marky's new nikes which is only about 18 minutes old, tears. With the front lip of his shoe sticking out, he is furious and pissed. After some tough convincing he was able to get it replaced with a new pair. Adhering strictly to the schedule, team practice would be at ULTRA, 4pm. It was eerie, actually. Seeing the place where the WOWOWEE tragedy happened. True enough, roughly a year after the event, candles and banners were held up in memory of the victims. Morbid thoughts aside, the ULTRA field was .... immaculate. If our very own Cebu City Sports Complex (Abellana) had a field like that,I could live in it. The grass was well trimmed (who wouldn't appreciate well-trimmed grass? tee-hee) and the stands were huge. Maybe I'm exaggerating but you have to admit it was impressive. We did walk-throughs of some of our plays in what Harry called a 25% tune-up.The rest of the time we spent walking around the oval and watching an arnis class doing an exhibition (Dianne, was that really arnis? It looke like a dance class to me.)

Practice was very light. In fact, it had to be light, since everyone had only 2 to 3 hours of sleep the night before because of the early morning flights. Add to that the jet lags and the shopping and all the excitement was slowly melting away as nighttime fell. And as everyone was packing up, Art-art has to scamper around looking for his slippers. Why is it that I am always the prime suspect? After questioning chockloy about his slippers, prinz chokz adamantly denies it. However, upon closer inspection of his bag, art finally found his slippers inside chokz bags! hahaha. Imagine the surprise in big mountains face!

Dinner woould be at the hotel and at this time, the girls finally had their own suite. We set camp and delegated kitchen duties to everyone.Last minute shopping was done in Shopwise.Clau, Rose and I took everyone's requests (1 carton of Chukie for Saki, Fresh Milk for Nina, tuna for Saintz, Strepsils for May Ann). We were wondering how we could all have everyone's requests transported from the shopping center to the suites. I was personally banking that the boys' own shopping delegation could split a cab with us.But no! Jojo was firm on this, "Ang girls kay sa girls, Ang defense ug offense sa laki lahi." So while we were trying to have everyone's list fit the budget and deciding if 5 cans of tuna and 6 cans of corned beef would be enough versus 20 pancit canton packs, Jojo would stroll past our cart carrying two beautiful watermelons. Watermelons?? The guys' are buying watermelons and here we are arguing about canned food. Peeking at our modest supplies, Jojo held back a laugh and said, "Nagpalit mog de lata? Mao na na inyo kan.on?".

That did it. Clau, Rose, Madolin (who was a real doll in helping us out. Thanks langga!) and I redid our grocery list and reassessed priorities.We could now afford to buy bananas, 4 cartons of Fresh Milk, a little for medical supplies, several liters of water. We made sure we had protein - tuna, eggs, corned beefs, meat loaf, carbs - pancit canton, plain and wheat bread, potassium - bananas, calcium - Milk and Chuckie, a supply of powerdrinks and multivitamins. and now, to transport our stuff. By this time we have completely depleted all of our funds, which means no more taxi money. We turned to Jojo, who said with a little wave of his hand, "Kamo na bahala ana."Bummer. We split the load with Madolin carrying the heaviest box and made a beeline for the hotel. Consider it a workout of some sort. The girls were all waiting in the lobby to help us out (why oh why couldnt they have waited somewhere nearer the store!?hehe) and since Clau had the key, that was the only time everyone had a chance to settle in and call it a night. So ends day 1.

DAY 2

I'm too buzy to write - anyone care to expound on the following :

* breakfast
* arriving at alabang country club
* the game!
* Partying in malate! hey's shirt stolen, paul eating balot, iannix on stage, marky going where???,

Day 3

*kinsay gi pangyab an ug tobig ? makol slipping as he attacks madolin, madolin coming back, naro getting wet, tomomi, makol!






(..to be continued..sooo sleepy)