Travel Fatigue

5 cups of coffee and 7 half-sticks of cigarettes was all that kept me going for 30 hours straight this weekend on a road trip from Batangas to Clark to Subic and back to Batangas. It's a good thing that I got to share the driving load with Geland, otherwise I would have been forced to spend the night in Subic.

Woke up today with travel fatigue despite 7 hours of sleep. Lethargic thought processing and a sore-muscle-from-head-to-toe feeling.

Why do I ever find myself in this state? Oh... it's because we didn't really plan for the trip. It was a last-minute decision.

Nickelback's "Rockstar" playing over-and-over on my mp3 player is all that's keeping me awake today.

A really bad way to start a hectic week.

Abstinence Day 3

Hallelujah! A decent meal for dinner!

Breakfast was your poor-man's-staple of ginisang sardinas, lunch was an unappetizing tuna-sandwich-on-rye, but dinner was a feast! I had steamed fish, pepper-and-chili-fried cuttlefish and scallops with brocolli.

Well... I and a couple of my colleagues decided to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Hahaha.

Later on, after touring a friend on a "bar-hopping adventure" (five hours to barhop the Batangas scene), all three of us had balut near a convenience store to end the night, errr... begin the early morning I suppose. It's nearly 3 a.m.

Abstinence Day 2

I was craving for steamed crabs yesterday. I imagined picking 2 or 3 of the fattest crabs at the palengke, pincers still tied up in string and their beady eyes peering at their surroundings. I visualized myself giving the crabs a quick rinse at the sink, then dumping them into my biggest pot along with a bottle of Sprite and a generous sprinkle of salt. I could almost smell the wonderful odor of Sprite being simmered in the pot and that delicious odor of crabs being steamed until they turn to that delicious shade of red.

I could see myself with a big plate of steaming rice and a small bowl of patis before me, and steamed crabs ready to be eaten.

However, it's hard to get hold of a fresh crab here in my workplace hence my craving is left unsatisfied.

I had to settle for canned tuna last night.

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Benny and Anne hosted a thanksgiving dinner at Gerry's last night, but I begged off from their invitation. I'd rather sweat it out a bit last night -- a couple of laps around the compound, 30 minutes in the pool and an hour of badminton. I need to clear up my head a bit. In the last two days, I've been self-studying matrix manipulations and recursion techniques on a linear program I'm using blah-blah-blah... really geeky stuff that would titillate hardcore industrial engineers. (I'm not one, by the way!)

I wonder if I can credit this linear programming stuff towards my penitence?

2 days down, 38 more to go.

Abstinence Day 1

The first day of abstinence is always the hardest for me because it is also my self-obligated day for fasting.

I barely finished my running circuit around the compound last night. My regular running program is a 6 km jog to be done in 40 minutes or less (my best time so far is 38 minutes 12 seconds on my Timex). However, having nothing but a single simple meal for the whole day proved to be challenging on my endurance. I couldn’t stride as far as I used to, nor can I maintain a steady pace. I have that light-headed feeling associated with hunger. My stomach’s been growling the whole evening but I stuck to my commitment to fast and abstain.

I just wonder how those ultra-marathoners and ironman athletes are able to cope with their activities on no-meals/no-breaks events? Probably specialized metabolism.

After jogging, I had volunteered to cook for a colleague’s Chinese New Year’s Eve countdown party (my colleague has expressed that he is in serious financial crisis, but some of us guys were willing to chip in to have more fare on the table). The smell of bangus sisig frying in my kitchen was a great temptation.

Next time around, I won’t volunteer to cook on days when I go fasting.

1 day down, 39 more to go.

40 Days Penitence

I vow not to eat any meat from 4-legged animals nor consume any softdrinks as my abstinence and penitence for the whole of the Lenten season.

Except for cases of medical emergencies, if any. =)

Back to School, Back to Manila

1.

Human Resources invited me to be part of their contingent of speakers in their company-recruitment-career talk held at DLSU yesterday (Monday). Naturally, I agreed! I haven't stepped on the good old Taft campus for about 5 years, and a lot has changed.

To get inside the campus, students tap their ID's to a sensor at the gate. The IDs, I think, are already chip-embedded since those barcode scanners which were being used during my college years at DLSU can't be seen anymore. Once a student taps his ID at the sensor, the monitor being manned by security displays on-screen the student's ID photo, name and college. Neat! It'll put our immigration system to shame.

Ever since I graduated, the campus has undergone a major facelift. Pebble Wash isn't there anymore, and some of the Chess Plaza tambayans were demolished to widen the walkways. The campus also looks fresher, mostly because they've raised the heights of the walkways and changed the material from G.I. sheets to some translucent plastic. The LS Main Hall now sports a wide-screen LCD TV.

At the Agno gate, there are now seven street-food vendors offering a very great variety of cheap food. Before, there was only one foodcart in that area.

The Beach parking area is now a major throughfare for student traffic. Wi-fi is available at some study halls. The Yunchengco building, the former Brother Alphonsous Gymnasium, looks very imposing once you get past the LS Main Hall.

And of course, who couldn't notice all those cute college girls. I just had to sit at one bench along the LS Catwalk and the SJ catwalk and do some people watching, under the pretense of course of reading the latest issue of "Ang Pahayagang Plaridel."

I also made a quick visit to the Engineering faculty room to renew old ties with my former professors. To my surprise, some of them are well-informed of how my career is going mainly through my youngest brother who's currently with the Council of Student Organizations.

Oh, and the career talk went well. I gave my testimonial speech after the Country Chairman gave his career talk and Gino delivered his speech. I answered a lot of questions about internship, CGPA, academics, extra-curricular activities, why-did-I-choose-my-current-company, technical and non-technical options in the company... those sort of stuff that soon-to-be college graduates are so keen on asking. And I am more than happy to oblige.

One last thing: familiar faces in the campus still know me, and call me, as my college name -- Stiff.

For me, that was really nostalgic.

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2.

A quick sidetrip to Pasong Tamo brought me to MJ's office, and I treated her and the girls (Blos/Kat/Val) for coffee. It just occured to me then that I haven't really seen B-K-V dressed in their office clothes, and I was actually amazed at what I saw. You see, these 3 girls I get to interact with them mostly on my outdoor activities --- wall climbing, mountain climbing, etc... --- so I've only seen them in their 'rugged' beauty.

All I can say is "WOW". But I had a hard time reconciling Kat's surfer-chick look with her office attire, hahaha.

That's one of the things I miss in Manila. Dropping by at a friend's whereabouts for a quick chat, coffee, and a lot of laughing.

So girls, when are you coming over to visit?

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3.

Dinner was with Ube, and she brought me to BUDDY's at Escriva Drive (not sure if it was still Escriva drive though). Something was so familiar with the place but I just couldn't point it out. But when I saw the menu, I realized that I knew what Buddy's was. It's that big restaurant in Lucban! It has the same look, feel and lighting. One of the reasons why Ube liked the place because the motif of the restaurant's furnishings are sunflowers.

Aside from Lucban fare, there's the standard Pinoy offerings. I had lechon kawali and chopsuey while Ube got her wish of pusit sisig. It was a casual dinner, and it was great to just eat and talk, then eat and talk some more.

It's been a long, long, long time since I had dinner at a restaurant in Manila.

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4. [sidetrips/postscript]

a. Dropped by our house to pick up my barong. Ma and Pa had a surprise for me. My birthday is still a month away, but they handed me my birthday gift in advance. Nothing really fancy, but I was thankful for it. They know that I've a really busy schedule.

b. I had to make a stopover at a Shell station along D.Macapagal avenue to fill-up on gasoline. Coincidentally, Marj was on the filling station opposite me. Had a quick kamustahan and reminded me that Quito is still expecting me to make up for my absence at his New Year's Party.

c. On the way back to Tabangao, Bai and I decided to check out Padi's Point in Calamba and grab a beer each. Wala lang. Lakas talagang mag-trip hehe.

The 4 W's of a Weekend

Bai organized a whole day wakeboarding for himself earlier today and invited me and new guy Jay-Wyn along. I was there to get a chance of a change in scenery -- I desperately needed one because my creativity has been in short supply recently -- and do a bit of photography, while Jay-Wyn tagged along to try out Bai's favorite watersport. So on Sunday morning, the three of us left Tabangao and drove to the nearest wakeboard park at Calatagan, Lago de Oro.

And here are our 4 W's of what to do in a place such as Lago de Oro.

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(pictures for uploading... hehe... just wait for it)

Excellent weekend trip. Everybody happy. Wahahaha!

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Just to complete the weekend's events, I was either drunk, asleep or nursing a hangover for the whole of Saturday after bartending for Bai's SLY party last Friday night. Excellent party! Hic!

Despite being forced to interact with Stip's-unfavorite-person.