"disoriented"

orienteering weekend came in the aftermath of typhoon millenyo.. the strongest typhoon i have ever seen and experienced.. it looked as if metro manila was a jungle in itself... uprooted trees, roads littered with debris... and killer billboards that fell..

thursday, i wasn't able to do anything but stay home.. to wait for the onus to pass.. on friday it was work as usual.. it was only after, that i was able to do our group groceries.. i discovered to my dismay that people were panic buying!! my list wasn't complete.. i had to change some menu there and then.. sun dried tomatoes were replaced with fresh organic tomatoes instead.. i couldn't find any other brand of hungarian sausage, all i could find was these mini hungarian sausages called swiss deli.. i figured, once a hungarian - always a hungarian?? hmmmm... i decided to cook pasta for our dinner.. and i just closed my eyes and picked all the ingredients and made a pact that i will cook with a lot of love and a lot of creativity in order to come up with something sumptous...

i came out rustan's greenbelt only to find out that there were no taxis anywhere on site! so here i was carrying three bags, wearing heels and walking under the rain going towards pasong tamo for a jeepney ride... arggghhh yeah what a wonderful way to start the weekend...

i arrived home and just sat there for 10minutes or so.. figuring out how to pack.. uppermost on my mind was swimming!!!! i haven't been to the beach since holy week in marinduque.. and darn if i didn't miss the saltwater... wanted to bring my snorkeling gear but ackh it was such a hassle.. fins, goggles and snorkel... not to mention my booties... so i decided not to..

za and jeng decided to pack there in the house and jeng took a bath there as well since power was still out in her place.. after all the frenzied packing, unpacking, laughing and packing again... we all sat down and relaxed with a bottle of beer each..

mike came to pick us up... i realized then that i needed to withdraw since my cash went into the groceries.. i had to go all the way to ayala to find a working atm.. whew!! bus station was in darkness... i loaded water and packed lunch in wendy's and finally finally boarded the bus for laiya.. i promptly settled and slept the whole way thru.. never even waking up for the stopover that aries promised... so i wasn't able to buy my breakfast!

adonnis promptly shared his breakfast with me.. No. 1!!! if ever we get to vote the best trainee i would say adonnis - his quiet unassuming manner and caring attitude makes him one of the best people to climb with.

exam came... thank goodness i still remember most of it, if not all.. at least zaza read out loud the LNT principle when we were drinking beer in the house! whew, that's 7points off the 100point exam.. :)

land nav came next... boy was i "disoriented!" james taught me how to do it, i think i can still remember some of it but the problem was looking for the actual station!! our group comprised of mawi, kla, adonnis and me..i think we wasted 2hrs looking for our first station, and darn it wasn't supposed to be that hard... we came upon the 4th station first instead of the fifth...

tent pitching station: we did it in less than 10minutes yey! at least i picked the thallus which i was very much familiar with.. it's my friend's tent as well as alman's so no sweat there.. though it was quite hard to insert the poles..

backpack loading station: no sweat.. since we have already arranged our loads accordingly..

Trail movement and trail signs: after overshooting and getting confounded for some time.. we finally decided to backtrack and follow the river upstream.. and then suddenly i saw trail signs on the other side of the river.. yahoo!... so we followed it and we found bajay and alvin in deep slumber.. how i envied them.. we finished the practicals and the oral exams in no time and so we proceeded..

First Aid Station: darn if we didn't get lost again.. after 30minutes we finally figured it out.. hayyyy finally alman's station.. first thing people there asked was for us to perform, asked for trail food and still insisted on group presentation.. and i was NOT in the mood.. i felt my "mataray" self surging and i had to swallow my irritation and just simply "rellllaaaaxxxedddd"... counting to ten and looking at a faraway distance does work.. but i aced bandaging.. no questions there.. thankfully no performance.. i think i would've walked out then and there judging by my mood at the moment.. i was quite grateful that alman never pushed the issue.. mwah!!! alman will definitely stay in my top 5 list!!

by the time we finished.. the sun was about to set... we took longer since we just walked all the way.. some groups rode a tricycle but our group made a pact that we will never take the convenient way out... we were of the same mind with aries' group.. so on and on we trekked until we finally found the darned rope station.. we found it just in the nick of time.. though we were asked to return to the beach, we still earned the station as our 5th for the day!

we wondered if we could've finished if we rode the tricycle as well... but then again, hey it was an accomplishment in itself! we kept saying HARDCORE! and laughing out loud.. i guess masochistic is a better term..

finally we were able to set camp and freshen up... aries and i decided to join forces... to camp together as one group so it would be more fun!.. we not only shared space but food as well.. their rice took too long to cook.. marc was missing in action coming back from time to time with a can of beer ("doood pare, i get free beer!), aries just bought softdrinks and generally announcing to everyone that we were actually groupmates (since he was eagerly awaiting the outcome of my pasta), jhoanna tried cooking the precooked meat and trying to make it into caldereta and lorna was their overall motherhen while peter was woefully holding on to his mess kit with a hungry look in his eyes..

i prepared the pasta in less than 30minutes... voila! everyone wolfed it down including aries' group! hahahaha i love cooking especially with very appreciative and "hungry" people around.. then came socials... oh la-la.. the things i saw, hahahaha

i wasn't in the mood to drink.. there were only a few bottles of beer left and they were warm.. gin isn't really my cup of tea (or should i say my kind of shot?) vodka is passable but not as a shot but as a mixed drink.. and i wasn't in the mood to drink tequila (i think it was el hombre or something)..

i did drink but only moderately... three beers and less than 10shots (i think) of james' vodka... uh, yeah this is MODERATE for me.. had i wanted to get the buzz i would've drank 6bottles of beer, all the vodka gin and tequila that i can possibly take!! hahaha but as it was, i had no desire to sleep and wake up with a hangover...

*abangan ang susunod na kabanata, at mga larawang nakakatuwa!!* ==> naks!! ;)