This past weekend, we spent our last chance at a vacation for the summer with my dad and his second wife ... and her children by her first marriage ... sounds complicated??? well, maybe I'll explain the relationship in a future blog --- if and when I find the courage to write about it...
Well, back to the weekend ... when my step-mom informed us a week ago that a trip was planned to Nasugbu, Batangas for the upcoming Independence Day weekend, the kids and I truly looked forward to a refreshing respite from the hustle and bustle of work. Plus I relish the thought of having a last chance to relax before the kids start their classes and I'd be once again forced to wake up early each morning to prepare breakfast, uniforms and baon... oh well...
The place we went to was not really a resort that pampered its guests with gastronomic delights and Swedish massages... (wish ko lang!!!) It was actually a family friend's house and she was generous enough to lend it to us for the weekend while they're away somewhere out of the country (lucky them!!!) ... but the food was still good and quite enough to be a dieter's nightmare (with the BBQ pork and chicken, rellenong bangus, embutido, dinuguan, and of course, lechon!!!) Just too bad I was unable to take pictures coz I was quite busy eating ~!!!
But more than the food and the company (of course!) I guess what really made me excited to go back there (coz we were there last December 2006) was the house which was prettily situated atop a rocky hill. The place was literally a dream vacation house... and had furnishings quite fit for a beach villa in the Caribbean that my daughter said she felt like a princess when sleeping under a canopied bed...
In fact, the entire atmosphere of the house was one of relaxation and rightly so since it is situated near the beach where you can't do anything but relax and just do nothing for the rest of the day... and that's just what we did the entire the weekend - the airy kitchen and dining area was quite conducive to eating so we all gained a few pounds after only two days of non-stop chomping (but we're blaming it on the ambiance of the place!)... the sala was equipped with a DVD where my half-siblings (certified DVD freaks!) spent their time just watching movies and some upcoming series while munching on chips. The kids' favorite part of the house was the game room with a junior billiard table which they enjoyed til past midnight... while me, my husband, sister, and cousin spent the night playing scrabble and trivial pursuit (we didn't really know how to play it so we just guessed at the rules)
Too bad though coz our neighbors had guests so we were unable to take a dip into their infinity pool (like last year!) well, we just took a dip in the beach --- even if it was rocky and left much to be desired, the water was clear and the area where we swam was teeming with corals and small fishes... which the kids truly enjoyed! Except for Kaye since she still has this fear of the water and only relents going in up to her knees...
Then, when the weather gets too hot we all retreat into the last bedroom of the house's lower floor (since it's the only one that has air conditioning) and spend the day doing what we do best - eating and chatting about 'people-we-don't-really-care-about' and eating and talking about our past vacations and then more eating and laughing at the antics of 'people-we-don't-like' and at some old pictures of relatives that we saw in our dad's camera.
All in all, it was a relaxing getaway for it gave us (my siblings, half-siblings and cousins) a chance to get-together once again and reminisce about old times and past vacations we had while we were still young (coz we do this quite often... the places change but the faces remain the same...)
We missed the other cousins though - one who's still in Norway, the other recently assigned to fulfill soldier duty in Samar, the other stuck in duty guarding the little chief across the river, the others suffering in cold weather in Russia and Canada... but then maybe we'll be able to see them again sometime soon...
Truly a perfect end to this year's summer season...
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