Working Hard, Playing Harder

After lunch, we headed to the beach where we had to build sand castles with some of us “handicapped.” I had to pretend I had no legs. Most of us had never built a sand castle before so we were at a loss, but luckily, we had Manny, batang dagat, on our team. As he was supposed to be deaf, he just shouted instructions which we followed. In the end, we came up with the biggest and most uniquely-designed sand castle. Kudos to the talented deaf guy! Add to that Jenny’s explanation about how our sand castle was like the AP organization, and we won that round.

We moved up a bit and I was suddenly hit by nauseating stomach cramps so I had to sit the next game out. The resort nurse showed up and gave me meds, so for the game after that I was up and running again. It was an obstacle course that involved running over tires, wearing a lifesaver, eluding water balloons and jumping in a sack. I just volunteered to throw water balloons. Hahaha.

After this last game we went back to the conference room and had halo-halo before the winners (we placed second) were announced and awarded. Then we supposedly had 45 minutes of free time, and instead of spending it swimming in the sea or going around, we just stayed in one spot overlooking the ocean and had tons of pictures taken. We even had categories like per cluster or per color or per market. There were so many cameras, we didn’t know where to look. It was hilarious!

Then everyone else went home and some 15 of us stayed behind for an overnight. While we waited for Tog, Leah and Kris, former AP folks who were driving in to join us, we decided to swim in the sea. When they arrived, we headed to the house we were renting for the night.

The house was really beautiful, with three floors and lots of rooms. Kris cooked and we had a late dinner in the open area outside. After that, we concocted a batch of gin pom in the kitchen and brought that out along with tequila and a plate of limes. Then as everyone was made to drink shots of the tequila, Kris made like Kris Aquino and went round the table to ask controversial questions. In the end, some people confirmed our theories, while some people denied them (but we didn’t believe them anyway). Some people also said certain things that made other people have long hair that night. Some people who drank too much delivered the most memorable line that night. When asked why she was trying to open the gates, she said, “I was just testing the controls!” That was just one person actually, and that was me. I am a riot. Seriously.

The next morning I woke up really early, before 6am, so when Kris woke up later, I helped her prepare breakfast, which we all ate while discussing the previous night’s wacky events. At noontime we all rolled out in three cars. Sheryl, Manny, Hana and I were assigned to Jon’s car. None of us were close, so we really bonded, even sharing our life stories and discovering each other’s real nicknames. Then we all met up in Leslie’s Tagaytay and had lunch there before getting back on the road to Petron. At our last stop, Sheryl had the “singles car” pose for pictures before we bid goodbye.

That was fun indeed. We really lived up to the new AP motto of “working hard, playing harder!”