Cebu, too

Taken on the beach of Malapascua one late afternoon. The tree was still alive but it had me wondering where all its leaves had gone.

View from Shangri-La's lobby lounge. The resort has two huge, lovely swimming pools, a decent beach, and impeccable landscaping. Their gardeners must have neon green thumbs to maintain such lush and healthy plants.

Travel buddies Bebert, Clint, and Leah. Arjohn, Kay, and their friends stayed on at Malapascua while the four of us left earlier to spend a night in Cebu City. A night and a day of seriously loading up on cholesterol, thanks to Sunburst's crispy chicken skin, and CNT Cebu lechon. As if those weren't enough, we bought chicharon for pasalubong. Chicharon na may laman. Not the airy, boring ones.

We couldn't see the sunset at Malapascua but when the sun bade farewell, the sky turned pink, orange, and yellow. All that pink reminded me of cotton candy.

Cebu

It was Cebu from May 17-20 with Bebert and college friends. It turns out I've known my college blockmates for 15 years now. Gasp. We never realized time had zoomed past us since we met as freshmen. Blissfully thin freshmen. Now we're, well, still blissful sometimes I guess. Thin? Fresh? Let's move on. From Mactan Airport we hopped into a van until we reached Maya Port after 3 hours, then took a 30-minute boat ride. At last we were at Malapascua Island. It was beautiful and quiet. Our pricey room at the resort was a bit of a disappointment though - no ref, awfully creaky beds, salty and hard water from the tap, and no TV. The boys nearly lost it. Ha? Walang TV? Yes, life can be tragic.

Took this at around 5:00 pm when the tide was low - notice the patches of green. The local kids ran around and caught all kinds of sea creatures. They showed us fish called "tagu-tago", sea urchins, fish that looked like a seahorse and a snake, and many others. Bebert had a ball scrutinizing them; I meant the sea creatures, not the kids.

This was how the beach looked in the morning. Ain't she pretty? This was the same spot where the green patch was in the previous photo. The water was very clear, clean, and blue. Boracay's sand is still finer though compared to Malapascua's.

Sat on this nice, comfortable, red orange sofa at Shangri-La Mactan. I loved the color. Did we check in there? Someday we hope to. We settled for beverages that were priced like some dinner buffets in Manila. You can't imagine how oh so slowly we sipped them.

These happy, sunny flowers were Shangri-La's centerpiece at the lobby. Boy are they so...yellow.

Back to badminton

After a 1-year and 2-month absence, I'm finally back to badminton! My first day back to the sport was last April 21 at Greenhills Badminton Center. Imagine a totally wasted, bespectacled person with vertigo playing badminton; that was exactly how I played, except I don't have vertigo and was perfectly sober. After realizing that I was supposed to aim the shuttle anywhere within our court, and not at the neighboring court, my nerves settled down a bit.

I was unnerved again when my playmates started using the 21-point rally system. Saan nga ako tatayo, partner? Ano nang score? Until now I am still so confused; considering how dense I am, it looks like it's going to take a long while before I get used to this scoring system.

The three games ended Saturday night and I was alive and well. Alleluia. I woke up Sunday morning and I wished I were dead. Every muscle in my entire body (exagg), especially my legs and arms, was violently aching. With the flight of stairs I had to contend with in the office, Monday morning was no better, either. If there were hidden cameras in those staircases, I'm certain the security staff would have died laughing at how "gracefully" I went up and down the stairs.

Don't get me wrong. I still love the game. And I am so looking forward to the day when I can look and feel like a sober person playing badminton again. Hindi ako lassheeenggg...