ALL GIRLS DAY OUT!

Last Saturday, some old college friends cooked up our own version of an all-girls day out wherein we all took a day-off from chores (being a Saturday and laundry day!) and just hung out at a friend's place - doing nothing but eat and chat and watch movies all day long!!!! It was truly a treat to remember coz aside from gorging ourselves with delicious food, our tired and aching bodies were rewarded with a much-needed massage and manicure/pedicure - all for free!!!

All this was courtesy of a long-time childhood friend who decided to give us these treats to celebrate her birthday. The day started at around 1 pm (coz that's the time she normally wakes up) when her driver picked us up within the vicinity of QC to bring us (two other college friends, a newly-wed sister and myself) to her place all the way up in Antipolo.

The house itself was huge... they say it was an ancestral relic from her hubby's side of the family. But, being a relic - the place still needed much repairs...although they're slowly doing this one room at a time. The showcase was their bedroom - it was done in all white and was reminiscent of the palatial bedrooms that can be seen in most luxury hotels... very pristine and elegant! Her dressing room and bathroom was also to die for - with its wide vanity mirrors and very unique bathtub. But the piece de resistance is their new video room ... with its huge wall mounted plasma TV (it took up an entire wall, I swear!) complete with seven Lazy boy lounging chairs that is truly designed to increase anyone's viewing pleasure (just check out the pics!)

Then, there was the food - I know this friend of mine is into the restaurant business so it is expected that she'd know her way around the kitchen or even where to get the best eats in town - and we were not disappointed! Upon arrival, we ate some snacks of homemade sandwiches (pandesal with giniling filling), Lord Stowe's famous to-die for tarts and Mary Grace's creamy cheese rolls! After watching a movie, a fruit and cheese platter arrives and we once again munch our way while watching and chatting/reminiscing on old times ... sorry, I'm not much of movie buff so I don't really remember the titles we watched but I do remember it was about Michelle Pfeiffer hooking up with a younger man. How apt... although the situation is still far off from our own personal lives- we're not even in our forties and all still very much married - we still enjoyed the movie's plot and laughed ourselves silly at their lovey-dovey antics!

We lost track of time, but I guess it was during the third movie that we decided to eat dinner. We weren't really all that hungry but we wanted to stand up and remove our lazy bodies from the lazy boys so we all trooped to the dining area where we ate a sumptuous feast of fresh salad, grilled sea bass in hollandaise sauce, pasta with olive oil and tuna /or longganiza. And though we said to ourselves that we weren't really hungry, we still managed to gorge ourselves to the brim, so much so that I felt so inclined to sleep already. After all, by that time it was already way past my bedtime (which is normally at ten pm) but I couldn't really sleep coz it was only the time when these people start to be awake (they're all insomniacs, by the way). But, what the heck! I decided to stay since the next day is a Sunday anyway and I rarely find the time to go out and enjoy myself like this so I just let myself savor the moment!

By the fourth movie, about the time after we had our dessert (mango torte) and coffee, I fell asleep a bit - I think around 15 minutes or so. By then, we were watching a stand-up comedy flick of some black guy (as usual, I have forgotten who it was??? ) and after the movie and after we all had our manicure and pedicure, we proceeded to the main theme of the party which is 'the OC' - yes, we're all in some way afflicted with it and my friend was generous to give all of us some loot bags complete with OC stuff like multi-colored boxes, folders, and envelopes for organizing our numerous bric-a-bracs. We were also given paper tapes to use with her electronic labeler - I wasn't able to list down some of the things I want to label so I just let my daughter make her own name labels and also for her brothers.

To cap it all off, we all had a very soothing massage courtesy of her blind masseuse and admittedly it was a very good way to end the evening... even if it was actually already 4 o'clock in the morning. We would've wanted to sleep over (well, my daughter did sleep a bit at her daughter's room) but they had to travel to Tarlac and visit one of their resto's there. So the driver once again dropped us off in QC and we made the long travel back to our home in Bulacan... but it was worth it. It was fun reminiscing with friends and having the time of our lives. It was fun to just let everything go and forget our day-to-day worries as moms, even for just one day! Thanks so much dear friend and here's hoping next year she'd spend her birthday the same way... it will be something to truly look forward to...