CMS OUTING AT LAGUNA

This year, our unit had our outing at Pansol, Laguna since we opted to have it someplace near. It was just too bad though that two of our officemates were not able to join us – one had to stay home since they had just recently established an eatery and therefore could not take a day off! The other one had a wife and family who weren't so keen to swim at Pansol, Laguna.

Anyway, so we all left on Thursday, at around ten am because our boss had a bit of work to do before leaving. Our first destination was Pook ni Maria Makiling where we can have our lunch. We got there at around twelve (after a two-hour drive) and thankfully the place was dotted with trees and quite cool enough for us to eat on their provided concrete tables.

But what the kids truly enjoyed was their Olympic sized swimming pool that charged only PhP25.00 for entrance fees! Quite cheap huh! Just too bad that the hubby isn’t here, otherwise, he would have enjoyed the huge pool. He was feverish since last night and had difficulty swallowing and so this morning, he just took us and the van to the office and left promptly to go home and rest. The kids all had fun swimming and even I myself wanted to take a dip but then I wasn’t feeling well either and just took some meds to stave off my fever since I couldn’t be absent after all I was the one who prepared everything for this outing with Nel.

While the kids swam and since we still could not go to our rented house that we reserved from 6pm to 6am the next day, we decided to head off to UP Los Banos to buy some kesong puti and their other milk products. This is another thing that Los Banos is famous for and another reason to head off South to Laguna (aside from buko pies, of course). I bought fresh carabao’s milk, cow’s milk (they have choco flavor now!), kesong puti, pastillas and a new discovery yogurt! It all tasted yummy and my kids loved it! I just wish Los Banos is just nearby so we could buy all this good stuff whenever we just feel like it!

At around five, we left Pook ni Maria Makiling already and made a quick detour at SM Los Banos to buy a few more things we need before going to our rented place – The Bellissima resorts. Upon our arrival, they were already filling up the pool, so at least we know that the water is new huh? Of course, even if the kids just came from a pool and while the water is still knee-high they immediately dipped in the water and we just let them while we fixed our things / food to be cooked in the kitchen and the ref. In a short while, after cooking rice, grilling the marinated meat and hotdogs, cutting up fruits, and cooking the sinigang fish, we had a hearty dinner.

After eating, the kids still continued swimming while I decided to sleep in early to rest my feverish body, I just awoke after an hour to check on the kids and encourage them to get out of the water already after all they still have tomorrow to swim anyway?

The next day, I was up and about early to see if I could help them cook breakfast but it was already underway by the time I got down courtesy of Ping and Nel (with help from Crispin and Eric) So I just had them buy some bread for those who prefer to just have bread for their breakfast. Besides, the kids already ate up all the bread yesterday in between bouts of swimming so we need to buy more for their snacks later on. Ping also bought some additional fish to grill for our lunch later.

I would’ve wanted to take a swim in the morning but still I felt feverish and the fever would only go away whenever I would drink paracetamol and so I’d rather not dip in cold water lest my fever gets to be full blown. The kids, as expected, took to the water as soon as they awoke and only stopped to eat breakfast, lunch and then some sandwiches for snacks. We decided to leave early at around three because we will be passing by The Original Buko Pie to buy their ever-famous buko pie. We were quite surprised to see that there was a long line waiting to buy, I guess there were more excursionistas during the weekend unlike our last ocular trip here that was a weekday. But still we persisted and stayed in line to buy what we intended.

Just our luck that we got caught in the traffic at SLEX and EDSA so that it was almost six when we got to the office, thankfully we rode with Chito and family who will be taking the van home (since he would be the one to take over hubby’s task to pick up Ate Ne’s sisters and mom at Garay for April’s wedding). It seems that the hubby was still sick and could not perform his assigned task. So despite the fact that we (the kids particularly) had fun during our office outing, I couldn’t truly be happy because at the back of my mind I was worrying if he is OK, maybe tomorrow I’ll take him to see the doctor.