When the songbird sings

This must have been one of the most physically taxing weekends I’ve had. Summer has officially started and that means there are a few good reasons to stay fit (being able to don bikinis is one of those), given the time and resources to do so. I played two sets of badminton last Saturday at IBC, with the second one nearly causing me to collapse due to exhaustion. I would have played more, but I decided to arrive late to avoid the gym’s heat. I had to leave by 7 to watch a stage play at Greenbelt 1 (Rep’s 7 ng Umaga). This morning, Rome and I visited YMCA for a couple of hours’ worth of laps on its olympic-size swimming pool. I forgot to stretch prior to hitting the pool so my leg muscles started to cry bloody murder by mid-afternoon.

By lunchtime, we visited Rome’s mom in Quezon City to have our weekly lunch with her. She served broiled bangus, beef sinigang and my favorite green mangoes with sauteed bagoong–she especially mentioned that she remembered me that was why she served mangoes. She even packed a few for me before we left.

As if we still hadn’t eaten enough, we visited next his aunt’s house nearby, which is often the venue for their clan’s Sunday feasts. They served beef stew, fried chicken, mango crepe and steamed Japanese corn. We only touched the chicken and the crepe as we were already too full to eat anything more. Rome’s Aunt Betsy packed “baon” instead so that we could still sample the other dishes.

We went afterwards to Megamall to buy “the perfect soap dish” and stackable plastic containers, as well as grocery that would last for two weeks. Buying all those grocery, pushing and pulling the shopping cart and deciding what to cook in the next few days proved to be more tiring than either badminton or swimming. I ended up with aching muscles and possibly varicose veins due to standing for hours on end. I’m quite happy with my food purchase, though. We’ll have healthy meals these days. Since we didn’t have much time, I decided to do the grocery shopping while the boyfriend canvassed for his latest gadget. I’ll leave it up to him to tell what it’s about. It’s gonna be great and I’m so happy for him. He came back with a few brochures.

It had been more than a month since I last played badminton. Since I’d be dateless yesterday, I decided to spend time on the court shooting shuttles. It was fun until someone requested a set with me against Amcy and Papei. While we were still warming up, he was already telling me to hit the shuttle. I did, of course, since there was no other way to treat the bird but to hit it back to the other side of the court. I wondered why he asked to have a set with me when we hadn’t even started the game yet and he was already telling me what to do. I was very very tired when our set was called since I had just finished a hard game with three other guys.

Anyway, during playtime, I knew that our opponents were mercilessly pi**ed off, so they kept sending the ball to him. On our part of the court, however, either he was telling me to stay in front to block drops or he would suddenly appear in front of me to do netting. In between he kept mumbling “hay naku!” to himself. Talk about sportsmanship.

Anyway, all other games were enjoyable and I got to play four sets that lasted about 30 minutes each. And as Rome wouldn’t be picking me up from IBC, I had dinner with the group in Ongpin. We had late dinner at Golden Fortune restaurant (rice, two viands, miso soup, sauces for a whopping P85 only). I was back at the apartment by midnight to re-design my blog.

I am heading off to Intramuros play badminton. I miss playing my most favoritest sport in the whole wide galaxy! I miss my Timog Titans family!

It has been more than a month since I last touched my racquets, donned my badminton attire and walked around in my badminton shoes. It felt like eternity. There were times when I found myself playing scenes of me hitting the shuttle (it didn’t matter whether I sent it flying to the other side of the court) with gusto in my mind. But then again, I’m afraid I might not be able to play well today due in part to the fact that I had no physical exercise for more than six weeks, last Saturday’s swimming session with Rome notwithstanding. Right, excuses, excuses! In EQ parlance, that’s expectations-setting. However, I like the version of my dear friend JR (whom I miss so much) would say: Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

There are ten million things about my life that make sense because I have something to channel my energies into. I don’t expect everyone to understand or to accept it so what the heck, I’m playing!

I’m getting back the book which I left with Rodel and, hopefully, the Caltex-sponsored windbreaker. It pays to have other jackets especially if your workplace is a walk-in freezer. I’m giving him back the RL baseball cap which he left at the apartment last December.

I arrived a bit late. I didn’t know that they were only waiting for me to get there so that we could come up with a semi-decent program. I rushed a list of activities for the night, tossed in a couple of games in between intermissions, short speeches and raffles. I left around 10 to proceed to Cubao X for the Terno Au Go-Go event. We introduced a new Gov and a set of site mods.

Congrats to Amcy, Budoy, Toots, Leio, Kit and Maricris.

Mike, ano yan ha?

“No woman, no cry…” Budoy’s national anthem.

Ang mga bagong alipin

Timog Titans Badminton Community celebrated it’s first anniversary last Saturday with the Anniversary Badminton Cup at Feathers n’ Strings Badminton Center and dinner party at Clamshell 2 in Intramuros. We did not expect that the celebration would huge, but everything turned out as planned by the BoG. The tournament was very organized, the venue was huge. Dinner party fun and we were able to raffle off loads of badminton items and special prizes. Rome won a racquet bag for me while I gave him the wine which I won. Fair trade. I’m also glad that they enjoyed the presentation that I prepared for the event.

I’m off to another party tonight. Ciao!

Below are photos of the event:

Opening program

With Leio, Mike, Cha, Jets and Anel

with EB partner, Mark (Mogins). I was still perspiring from a just-concluded match.

Manning the booth with Raffy, Rodel and Mike

Dinner party at Clamshell 2. Rome was my guest, of course.

Awarding of winners

The most photographed boyfriend.

Dinner party program was hosted by Pat and Raffy. Cool dudes.

Last-minute picture taking.

Photos by Raffy and Chris

I’ve been working on the Timog Titans presentation. I’m glad that I don’t have tons of work this week so I have spare time to work on other things. I hope it shows well on Vorty’s laptop tomorrow.

Anyway, this photo was taken by Wawi during the opening of Shalimar some four weeks ago. I wasn’t really in the mood that evening. However, Wawi can really work magic with the lens so feeling ko, maganda pa rin ang kuha namin.

Thank God it’s Friday. Lord, sana pumasok na ang suweldo sa account ko.

Leio posted on the threads that Apples and ChrisH have already tied the knot. I still can’t believe it, but it’s not entirely impossible. The two are obviously so in-love. Whether they have alredy got married or not, I still congratulate them for at least finding each other.

Now is the only time I have to write about the events of the last few days.

We watched Philippine Ballet Theater’s ‘Dalagang Bukid’ performance at the CCP last Friday. Saturday was spent mostly indoors, on movies and whatnot. And last night, I finally made it back at Blue Rackets again although I should make it a point to arrive a little earlier to have more sets.

I dropped by Wawi Navarroza’s photo exhibit at Store for All Seasons (parang Ate Vi!) on Shaw Boulevard and then proceeded to watch “The Constant Gardener” at Shangri-La Plaza. “Gardener” is a bloody gorgeous bit of work! Watch it if you want quality film. Avoid it if you are depressed. Ralph Fienes is an acting god and I still have that picture of him inside my head, running around the house stark naked as the bad guy in “Red Dragon”. Mr. Fienes’s acting range expands the Sahara Desert and the roles he plays are so varied that he must be one of the most accomplished actors of his generation as he gets offered roles that include tragic lovers (End of the Affair and The English Patient), hare-lipped serial murderer (Red Dragon), genocidal bigot (Schindler’s List), charming politico (Maid in Manhattan), grieving widower (Gardener), spiteful ex-lover (Wuthering Heights) and even He Who Must Not Be Named himself!

Rome brought me along to his family’s Sunday feast in Quezon City so I finally met his mom, his siblings, aunts, a couple of cousins and some of his nephews and nieces. Food was sumptuous. Perhaps like most girlfriends, I had some reservations about meeting “the family” as I had no idea whether they would approve of me or not. While it may not be the factor that could make or break our relationship, it is still better to have the blessing of Rome’s mother.

I will attend tomorrow’s badminton eyeball at The Zone (HOPEFULLY) and present our anniversary party slide show to the BoG, hopefully over dinner.

And speaking of dinner, I haven’t taken it. I’m v. hungry. Ciao.

I’m collating all the photos with Titans taken over the past year, and the first photos that I have to tackle are those taken at the 1st Titan Cup held on November 29 last year.

Check our webshots photo album which was last updated after our Lenten trip to Lipa.

Rome met me at Blue Rackets last night since I was already scheduled to attend the Monday EBs. It was a bit dyahe at first, but nothing beats getting inspired to play well when your loved one is out there watching. And he thought I didn’t want him to watch me on the court? Bah! I wish I could see him bike as well, but that’s a near impossibility for reasons I’d rather not blog about.

I plan to adjust a little my my badminton schedules, such that I would be present more often at the Monday BR EBs and play only when I can at IBC on Saturdays. We need more people at BR anyway. That also allows me to maximise Saturdays with Rome since it is his only day off. Hmmm…I’m glad I don’t work for MOD or EQ anymore.

Last week was one of my busiest so far at work since I was practically cramming for my 5-year income projection and the marketing plan that must be submitted, reviewed and implemented afterwards to meet the projections. By thursday, I was already burned out not only with paperwork but also with the myriad of details that needed my attention. Weekend was such a welcome respite especially since it was a payday weekend.

Rome and I didn’t have any gimmick plans for Friday night so we opted for a trip to Saguijo. Luckily, Jun Lupito and his band were among the performers for that evening; it was my first taste of Lupito’s music. We also hung out at I Love You boutique at the joint’s second during breaks in the performance or when the acts for the evening were setting up. It was a fun Friday evening that was also marked by my first purchase from I Love You, a torquoise blue bead bracelet that matched my blue shirt perfectly

The following night was Kimoni tourney’s awarding of winners held at the Alegria Lounge of Manila Pavillion hotel. The Titans was in full-force as usual to support its winning teams. The evening’s highlight for me was the badminton racquet that I won during the party’s raffle. It was only a lowly MP 2000 but what the heck, I got it for virtually free and that means that I can forego having to buy another racquet since I already have three. Yay! We capped the evening with a trip to Pier One on Roxas Blvd.