Villa Valencia II for Boss Len

7:49 PM Sunday, September 24, 2006

Last May, we made plans for a department outing in Zambales... then tragedy struck and one of our colleagues was widowed. So, we did not push through with the planned outing since it didn't seem ok to be having fun while a wife and son are grieving in our midst.

Last August, we planned an outing in Pansol... as a despedida for our retiring Division Manager. Tragedy struck again, and a colleague lost a sister. Again, plans for the outing were shelved.

Then Boss Len got accepted in ADB and since she was a favorite among us, we made plans again for another outing. Then tragedy struck again... our other Div. Mngr. lost her mother. But with her blessing, we resolved to push through with the despedida thingie since it's starting to feel like the more we don't have it, the more people are dying among our loved ones. Superstitious crap, we know. But it's one of those coincidences that don't feel good when you ponder them.

Plus, it's Len... we love her!

So I recommended Villa Valencia II, a resort (049-8343201, Lolit) I used to frequent with internet friends years ago. And by golly, the memories rendered me quiet for at least 3 hours when we got there.

The gazebo where the videoke equipment is... where we used to dance to songs like HORNY... and where I once allowed to have a girl friend put some salt on me (and the saltshaker cover came off and I was showered with iodized salt all over my belly) for tequila bodyshots... the stairs where a former admirer asked a girl friend of mine to touch his pecker so she could tell him if it was really small... the rooms where quickies hapened... and commitments to relationships transpired... the room where I got my girl friends to let me take pictures of them in their brassiers... or sans brassieres... the nook where two of my favorite boys decided to lounge watching the girls kissing each other in the pool... myself dodging someone's tongue on my shoulder... on my ear...

Sigh...


Videoke Nook


Tables and sink downstairs, plus 2 bathrooms... bedrooms upstairs


bedroom with 8 beds (you just haver to duck when you're changing because people can see you from outside)


the pool


the falls that bring fresh, hotspring water


the star... not Mariang Makiling but a Mariang someone else


And that's only for Villa Valencia II. At the other side is Villa Valencia I (049-5451763, Remy), where a drunk girl friend decided to borrow someone's shirt and shorts and dive into the pool braless... to get the attention of this guy she was dating, but who started dating someone else... and watching their tug-of-war over that guy all night... and myself forgetting my towel and having to wait in the shower till I get dry enough to change into my dry clothes... and again, that sniffing nose and stolen caresses of this guy... who could have had the diver girl (who was Donita Rose pretty) but was just really so into me... and the whole night of dodging him and his seduction...


the rectangular pool with slide


the rooms


the room and beds


Anyway, for those interested to go... Villa Valencia II is neatly tucked away from the road... it's more romantic than Valencia I (but Valencia I has a bigger garage, and 2 rooms of equal size that fits 8 beds ea) and more compact... it's not hospital (or hotel) sterile but it's clean and nice and you can barbecue there. It costs P3,500 if you rent the place from 6 PM to 6 AM the following day... or P2,500 if you rent it during the day... or P6,000 if you rent it overnight and extend to the whole day, or even only until noon the following day. Cheap huh!

Valencia II has 8 beds in one room (one of which is queen-sized) while the other room only had 3 beds. We usually give that room to the guys since they can sleep wherever naman... and since they mostly drink till the wee hours, they don't require that much space. We've used the place several times already before for overnight swimming gimiks... and none were victimized by theft that has become common in Pansol, Laguna. Maybe because at Valencia II, there's no other way of going to the rooms except through the stairs, which everyone can watch from anywhere in the place.

Rooms aren't air-conditioned and there's no ref... but you can heat food because there's a gas stove... and you can pre-order San Mig Lite or Pilsen from them in advance (P500/case for SML). And use of the videoke is already covered by the rent (so yea, truly no possible way one can really sleep!).

The general direction how to get there is... if coming from Manila, watch out for the Binalot resto on your right (this food place comes after the 2nd set of railway tracks you'd cross). Just a minute from that place you'd see a sign for Wonder Springs Resort, but you turn RIGHT on the street before Wonder Springs. At the end of that street is a barangay outpost deadend, and you turn LEFT there... and then turn RIGHT again at the first corner. Valencia II comes before Valencia I on your left. (e-mail me for the map, which would only show you the directions I gave anyway).

The cooler thing is that... there IS a 24-hour Binalot resto near it, and for a measly P50 they're willing to deliver. You can also call ahead and pre-order food if you want. 049-5453193. What to order? :)




Yes, I love that place. Hubby is taking his team there to unwind this coming weekend.

*~*

A new week starts for all of us tomorrow... and one of the coolest Moms I know i'd ever meet will no longer be a regular part of my days. Gone are the talks about anything and everything and reminiscences about anything and everything... I'm sure going to miss her. And I still wish I can at least be half the woman she is. Because she's really great... really amazing... really wonderful... really cool... really loving... really wise... really principled... really admirable.

my sadness...

11:16 AM Thursday, September 21, 2006

Myabe it's really just birthday blues.

But I find myself very unproductive these days. I even have to be constantly reminded to do the littlest things... and my home is a mess. I'm just not really apllying myself to anything, or even if I do, it feels like am not there.

Like am not present.

Like I don't exist.

Ugh. How melodramatic.

I look around and see colleagues losing loved ones. Even in-laws are losing loved ones. My fave boss is leaving for ADB. Other friends have found new jobs, published a book, hooked up with someone new, tried a new sport, and gotten pregnant. Husband has Phuket and Singapore coming up, aside from his exams (which, when he's reviewing for them, drives him to not go home early since I prove so much of a distraction walking about naked at home).

It's like people around me are living active lives... and i'm just watching them. But I really don't have anything I look forward to, or feel passion for. The bit about digiscrapping and photography are things i've also already shelved.

(actually, am going to Davao on my birthday because of some Budget Hearing... but though I haven't gone there for years, it's still a routine thingie here at work... and yes, we do have a Palawan trip all planned up)

I have started scouring the net for vacancies because i've really been forced to confront my unhappiness and stagnation here at my present job. 6 years of the same bureacratic drudgery is bound to kill something in someone. But I have yet to send my resume to companies i'm targetting.

And still, there's no tingling feeling of being alive.

I am numb, detached.

Well, of course, Pyro and our cause (getting him to meet Batista) will always touch me.

But still... detachment. Ambivalence. Indifference.

a medical rant

3:53 PM Friday, September 15, 2006

My boss' Mom had a stroke and our division saw it fit to visit them at the hospital. I was admittedly appalled when I saw that they were occupying a charity ward at UST Medical (thinking that surely, she as a Division Manager will want better care for her Mom and pay for a room). Imagine how horrified I got to know that they were there because there are just no more rooms available, even ICU rooms, in 7 of the biggest hospitals here in Manila (including PGH and Madocs).

Why?

Because of the dengue outbreak.

Heck... another boss' Mom is at the ER in Medical City, waiting for a room too.

So it really pisses me off that the news last night still didn't sound ALARMING enough for people to be more vigilant against dengue.

There was a segment on how 3 schools in QC had ordered that their students wear pants and/or knee socks and that's actually nice. But how come DECS (or MalacaƱang) or DOH hasn't ordered it for the rest of the other schools? The news says that dengue is common during rainy season, but why does it feel they've stopped there? I'm not saying that they should drive people to panic... but I have yet to feel that the government is taking the dengue problem seriously.

Come on, enough to fill hospital rooms?

Or should I just rant about how medical facilities are sorely lacking in this country, nay, in this city?

All i'm saying is, if we don't have enough money for the facilities just yet... is it really too much to ask for other campaigns to be carried out against this outbreak?

My sis probably got dengue when she was travelling to and fro Novaliches before. It was just a stroke of luck that when high fever hit her, she was at a hospital.

Of course, i'm just sooo thankful that Pyro has been able to get a room when he had to be re-admitted in PCMC for E. Coli. But I now fret all the more because PCMC is also harboring so many dengue victims right now. It's a pediatric hospital and yet they had to admit high school and college students stricken by the disease too. Only one contaminated bite is all it takes...

Argh. I could go on and on.

Well, I guess it's either I get upset (angry) or sad...

*~*

Hubby had reassuring words for me again, knowing how such things get to me... how traumatized i've been by the medical services in the city.

I'm just praying dengue season will be over soon. My sister was lucky to have parents who could afford the lab tests and hospitalization... but it's the urban poor who are really at risk and dying...

And that's only dengue... I don't even want to think of kids who were born poor who are sick.

negligent

9:53 PM Tuesday, September 12, 2006

I have been horribly negligent of my blog. It's just that i've been in limbo for the past few weeks... delirious with happiness with a husband who worries over me, plagued by worry over my nephew's ongoing battle against cancer, terribly annoyed by an abscess-like something on my right leg (and truly, heaven knows what caused it!), and overly anxious about my fave, fave boss' resignation.

There's also me dealing with birthday blues, and suddenly finding that I'd have to go to Davao on the day of my birthday... and me planning a Davao weekend with JRA and a Palawan trip that same month.

I'm also still maniacally downloading digiscrapping kits that I haven't time to actually use.

And of course, immensely anticipating the next season of THE AMAZING RACE (which i'd miss for a week because of the Davao thingie).

Oh, and someone has thought to send me Tagalog Erotica... and goodness, I spent almost the whole of Friday last week surreptitiously trying to finish the 18-page story.

And yes, suddenly am hounded by ideas for a book (cross between memoirs and fantasies, inspired by Batjay's new book and egged on by friends).

And some guy I was polite/friendly enough to keep chatting with is walking about with the very false notion that he'd be sleeping with me soon... just because he's told me in every way possible that being young (turning 29 is still young) and horny (congenital, really) will eat at me until I give in and unleash myself onto men (all shapes and sizes, I think).

(this reminds me, i've finally gotten around to using the black strip of cloth I got as souvenir from the Bondage lecture... as blindfold)

Have I made a good job of providing excuses?

I hope so.

Because though am really not on hiatus, I just find i'm too preoccupied with different things to actually blog. (but I am trying to at least post every week!)

*~*

A good friend of mine is one of the few lomographers on exhibit at LOMO LOVE... at the old Marikina Shoe Expo in Cubao. Check them out!

BDSM (and fairs!)

11:18 PM Sunday, September 03, 2006

The thing that had my a$$ all excited and giddy since last week happened last Friday... attendance to a bondage lecture :)

the venue: The Living Room
Located in one of the obscure-looking buildings just past Aristocrat (Malate), 1991 North Syquia, the Living Room is very reminiscent of Old Manila... and of Spanish times...

Wide, big windows... wooden floors... lots of space... heavy doors... minimal furnitures. Actually, the place had a lot of chairs, wooden chairs and sofas that are huge and immensely comfy. Some walls had special lights mounted on them to better showcase art and stuff (at that time, a black leather outfit). I love, love the place! Of course, opening the windows meant the Philippine/City humidity will annoy you some more... but eventhough the lecture was at 9 PM, it felt like a sunny afternoon in the province, around the 1600s.

I know... as if I was already born then!

the attendees
The first words that came to mind were: black (their outfits), cono (people conversing in English), expats (lots of foreigners) and uh-oh (tequila greeted us at the door). I think about 2/3 of the attendees there were connected somehow through the amiga system... friends or people who move in the same elite or eccentric circles. The rest of us, bloggers who happened on Carlos' blog, were all sitting quietly in one area of the room... so quietly, you could hear a pin drop where we were.

But of course, everybody was just nice and friendly.

the refreshments
There was actually beer served too, along with the Tequila. Both SML and SMB. Plus, there were nuts in pretty crystals scattered about... they ordered pizza later too. And one sweet lady went around asking people to sample Swiss chocolates she brought with her.

the movie
A Wife to be Sacrificed - a Japanese BDSM movie (heck, I don't even know what the proper term for them is) was being shown while we waited for everybody to arrive. It absolutely made me cringe in my seat... the husband kept his wife tied up Shibari-style, rendering her completely at his mercy. Of course, the movie depicted a relationship that wasn't exactly consensual as the wife was being held hostage... and you couldn't help but pity the wife who had to endure stuff like having a huge, huge candle inserted inside her (think Unity candles... *ouch*)... being hung from a tree... having to move bowels while her husband was watching... etc.

the lecturer - Domina Jane
It was a very nice surprise when we realized that the girl who greeted us and asked for our payment of P450 at the door was the same girl who strutted in front of us, in the darkened room, in a red leather corset and stilletos.

She came off as strong, scary, intimidating, funny, seductive, honest. Her booming voice filled the room, her presence was palpable. She's now based in the US and you cannot help but either trust her, or give in to her demands. She admits to being a dominant ever since.

dominance
As she explained, it is the ability to get what you want when you want it and the way you want it. It's not exactly intimidating people, but getting them to respect you and give in to whatever floats your boat (provided of course that it doesn't violate other sensibilities).

It's not just a sexual quality. It's a personality.

BDSM
Bondage - anything about immobilization, partial or total
Discipline or Domination - elaborated on already
Sadism - deriving pleasure from inflicting pain
Masochism - deriving pleasure from being hurt

The idea was to give a rough introduction on what BDSM is... for those who are curious. It is with some trepidation that we accepted a blindfold each from Domina... I was actually worried that my friend Mari might be regretting that I dragged her to that lecture. But all Domina asked was that we blindfold ourselves and sit back and relax... as she seduced us with her words... as she challenged us to contemplate on our desires, our fantasies, our fetishes.

Later on, she did have us remove our blindfolds and went on to the more technical aspects of her lecture. Trying to explain as much as she could in the little time that we had, she defined terms for us and gave us a general idea of how things are.

She came up with a list of PINOY PERVERTABLES... stuff that's handy that Pinoys can use... like the simple tsinelas and walis-tingting in lieu of floggers and whips. She also gave an overview of deviant desires using a Fetish Map and entertained questions seeking to clarify and differentiate amongst them (like the minute difference between FURVERTS and PLUSHIES, one likes wearing the skin and fur, the other likes the plush stuff).

We were shown pictures of floggers and restraints and body bags (plastic bed-like thingies where one lies, and all the air is sucked out... and there's a tube near the person's mouth where he can breathe and his partner can control his breathing by covering the opening on the tube etc as 'breath play').

And then the much anticipated dreaded demo on flogging... and requirement for volunteers. Two souls were brave that night... and both swore that it was ticklish, soothing, a little painful, a little scary. Both also likened getting flogged to getting a hard massage... and the stinging sensations are easily replaced by soothing, wonderful ones when Domina responds to their "Ouch" comments by ceasing the flogging and caressing their back with the flogger (oh, of course Domina didn't deal with them simultaneously).

Domina expressly emphasized the virtue of respect and trust... that such a lifestyle requires that both (or all) are attuned to each other, their wishes, their feelings... she also stressed that people engaging in such play should pick a SAFE WORD, one that when spoken by the PERMISSIVE/SUBMISSIVE will not be mistaken for anything else... which would also end everything... and that THAT is ok. One of those present offered the word CHORVA :)

There was a recess of some sort where everybody was asked to partake of the refreshments while a volunteer offered himself to be tied up by Domina, with his wife assisting. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see how he got tied up (they did it in one of the rooms Carlos refers to as his DUNGEON) and since Domina didn't really have any plans of conducting a lecture when she visited, she didn't have her paraphernalia with her and they had to make do with what rope and telephone cord they could find (too bad I didn't think to bring my kernmantle ropes with moi). We were invited to the inner sanctum when the guy was already tied up in sample Shibari.

the advice
Domina's advice was to make something a fetish. How? Pick an everyday thing... and start thinking sensual, sexy thoughts about it, how it can feature in a sexual encounter... what sensations it could possibly bring etc. After a while, the body will most likely automatically 'respond' to the object.

Carlos' last words
Carlos thanked us all for coming and left us with these words:
If we want to change how Manila looks and feels... we have to change the way we see and feel about Manila.


*~*

Sunday found me and JRA (with sis, cousin and niece) attending two fairs.

One was the Wedding Expo at PICC... where we feasted on cake fountains.

And the other is at the Book Fair at the World Trade Center... where we spent hours buying children's books for Py and my niece... and getting susbcriptions to Readers Digest and Cosmopolitan... and buying a copy of beloved Batjay's KWENTONG TAMBAY book, a compilation of his best blog entries. I also bought a copy of his nephew's book entitled CITY LIGHTS.

Ooooh, we're all sooo happy for and proud of him!!! Hopefully, National Bookstore agrees to sell it in their shops so Batjay can reach more readers... feel free to e-mail National Bookstore, Powerbooks or Fully Booked for copies so that they'd know there's a market for Batjay's book :)

Anyway, those interested can probably contact Psicom because the book isn't really yet officially launched. I hope the book clicks and more Pinoys get empowered to write books.

(ako kaya, mapa-publish someday?)

Now, on a to a great week!

*~*

Tagged by MommyBa

SIX WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME
1) I put calamansi on ginisang munggo, and only really love tuna sashimi and siomai because I can dip them in toyo with calamansi!

2) I still eat powdered milk with some sugar... that childhood habit will never die, methinks.

3) The more I cum, the more I feel awake, and the more I can go on and on and on... but don't anyone dare wake me up from sleep, or initiate morning sex because I hate that.

4) I cried and cried when I watched THE EXORCIST.

5) I will eat raisins and carrots and tomatoes when they're uncooked... or unmixed with anything else. Once they're cooked, or mixed in some sald, I don't like them anymore.

6) I once fell in crush with Mr. Bean and Ron Perlman and thought them absolutely sexy!