That Little Isle

Pandanon.
Bohol Island.
Philippines
07 May 2012.

Finally. After a loooong time, we had our much awaited station outing. Being in the station for 2 years, I am yet to experience a full-blown outing. Now, I have. And I'm really glad. =D


THE PREDEPARTURE.


As part of the most active participants in the planning of the outing, we (meaning, me, mimi, tadoi and princess) had to stretch to our body's limits the day before to get everything prepared. We went from place to place, from store to store, crossing streets and back, to buy things we needed. Food, utensils, drinks. The whole charade. Of course, we were not the only ones bringing stuff but we had a LOT to bring, nonetheless. =p

So we decided to stay at Mimi's place for a sleepover the night before so we'd go to the meet-up place (Mandaue, KFC) together. =D I slept the earliest at around 10-11pm. Was sick and didn't have the energy to further my limits any more. =p Tadz slept about an hour or two after I did, finishing the movie "Unknown" first. And Mimi, our little fragible one (a term she, herself, coined for someone who's in a fragile state...aka pregnant), followed suit minutes later. Princess, always the last one to get some zzzz's, had her turn at a little past 2am. Or so they told me. By this time, I was already dead to the world. =D

Since call time was at 6am, wake-up time was two hours before that. So at 4am, alarms began buzzing on and off and on. =D We, however, slept through the alarms. Hahaha We only woke up about 30minutes after all the ringing and singing, forcing ourselves upright and off to the restroom for some freshening up.

We had lots to prepare, like heating up all the food and prepping our "things-to-bring's" (e.g. sunblock, swimwear) so it took a while before we were able to set off for some taxicab hunting en route to our meet-up place. But all this was not until after we had breakfast. Yummy buwad with pinakurat. =D

THE DEPARTURE.


We arrived at Mandaue at around 6.30am. Waaaay past the scheduled time but it wasn't a shock when we found ourselves alone there. Dottie, Becai, and Donna were the first ones to arrive (punctual as they are) but they decided to hang out at Jollibee across the street coz they were frying in the heat waiting for the gang to arrive. =D Mam Claire, hubby in tow arrived minutes after we did, and Mam Bashee closely followed. The viberator Bonchel and his darling Melai soon arrived after. =D

Dottie had a little dilemma though. She had her period and forgot some tampons. Since we were in the cab with all our "things-to-brings", we decided to call Bonchel and ask if he can buy some for the girl. The result? Bonchel and his Tampax. =D

Moving on. Since Papi and the gang with him were taking a while, we decided to just rendezvous with them at the bangka that'll take us to the island. We hired a jeepney to take us straight to the dock and off we went.

We met up with Ms. D and little Gewyne on the corner before reaching the dock and finally, we found ourselves on the boat, waiting for Papi's group, who absolutely took their time arriving. =D At some time past 8am though, they arrived and at last, we were making our way through the seas and toward the Island of Pandanon.

THE ISLAND OF PANDANON.


The island was small. It's more of an islet, if you ask me. But it was awesome. The beach wasn't smooth coz it had little broken corals that hurt your feet as you walk on them but the sea was crystal clear. It was bright and open and "beachy". Just the way we like it. =D

We swam, drank, ate, swam again, ate again, drank again, took pictures, took pictures, and did I mention we took pictures? =D Yeah. We had a great time. =D And we had a few good laughs too! =D

It was a bittersweet time because we knew that many of the faces we've seen that day we might not get to hang out with again in a few months. Many of our staff have their own plans in mind and are striving to make it into a reality. Come next year, these faces won't be in the same group. Probably.

But nonetheless, we took our time enjoying the place, the scenery and the company. =D

THE SNORKELING.


At around 1pm, we decided to head on to snorkeling. But snorkeling near the island was a no go. There are no good corals nor pretty fishes and the undertow of the water surrounding the island was pretty strong so those of us who weren't good at swimming could easily get dragged away.

We headed out to the deeper end of the sea to snorkel.  While putting on our lifejackets and snorkel gears on the boat, we sang our hearts out and literally let go of all the stresses we had. This did not do any good on my voice though (now I'm left with a broken voice and have to rest my cords for a few days to get it back to near normal). Tsk. =p

We laughed. We hung out. We swam. They dived. We ate. We snorkeled (although, there really was no point to the snorkeling since there were no colorful sights underwater). We sang. We took pictures. We bonded.

It was a great time and a memory that would last for quite a considerable while. =D

THE GOODBYE.


The sun was setting and it was getting late into the afternoon. The boatsmen were worried the low-tide might come and we were still in the sea. So we decided it was time to go home.

We made way to the dock but our boat can't move any closer to it coz the water level was too low. So we had to ride this miniscule boat that contained dozens of empty gallons and a single blue motorcycle that was being pushed and guided by this one lone old guy who has such amazing upper body strength. =D . I'm amazed it was able to carry the weight of everyone on board. Gallons, motorcycle, our gear, and us included.

On land at last, we stuffed ourselves inside Papi's multicab like canned sardines with a bunch of our stuffs while the others commuted. Finally, we were headed home. You could almost feel the fatigue that's slowly overcoming everyone inside the vehicle. But that's ok. Because we had a great time. =D

A little stopover at Mimi's place to get the rest of our stuffs, to freshen up and to get our last few shots and then we were headed home. =D

It's sad to note that many of our current and former station-mates weren't able to make it for personal reasons. Would've been great had they been there. Don't get me wrong. It was already great with the current people that attended. But it would've been much much better had we been complete. =D

Nonetheless, it was awesome. And I can't wait for the next one. Whenever, wherever it may be. =D

I love you CHH SIX B!!! =D You give us a bad migraine and a lot of aches every time, but its times like these that make you worthwhile! =D

Cheers to more 6b outings!!!! =)

xoxo

~hny~