The Manila Peninsula Experience

It was a perfectly good Saturday night, and Val and I had made plans to stay overnight at the posh Manila Peninsula. Both of us were beside ourselves with excitement. Imagine -- the pulsing Makati night life just minutes away from where we'll be staying! We can go home late without worrying about waking up the entire house. We can stay out late and party all night! We can hit the bars! We can have post-party coffee at 4am, and nobody will give us a difficult time for it. Yay!!

BUT, there was one thing we forgot to take into consideration. Age! Ooops... I mean, stress! Stress! That's what I meant. After watching Whose Wife Is It Anyway, we were ready to hit the sack. Never mind the exciting Makati night life. Our tired bodies were more excited to lie on the 1000++ threadcount sheets of the Pen.

So we walked back to the Pen. Bad idea: walking from Greenbelt 1 to Manila Peninsula in the dead hours of the night. We were scared and walking much too fast, catching the attention of some construction workers in the process. (We're NEVER doing that again Val!) Once we reached the lobby, all I really wanted to do was to soothe my very sore throat, and sleep. But some bonding sessions first. My wedding was the major topic. Talked about the motif, the food, the venue, the house, the children, etc. etc. And at that point, I realized that my answer to most of Val's question was -- I don't know. Okay, should I be scared now?

Left the television on the whole evening. Was awake by 4 a.m., after hearing a loud banging sound outside our door. Or against our door. Or against another room's door. Again, that was a scary experience. For me at least. Val was still asleep then, and only woke up when I changed the channel on the tv. :)

The next day, we woke up at 9 a.m., and got out of bed at around 12 noon. :) As I said, the 1000++ threadcount of the sheets felt really luxurious! We had brunch buffet at Nielsen's, where I ate all the salmon sashimi I could eat. Yum! Before Paseo Uno and Circles, there was Nielsen's seafood buffet, with fresh shrimps and oysters. Too bad they were not able to keep up with the competition.

We couldn't believe how destressed we felt. Amazing, because we were still in the city after all. But our 24 hour mini vacation was spent without office related phone calls. We didn't have an itinerary either. We just decided to spend the day doing things we wanted to do. Maybe that's the reason why we both felt so relaxed -- the lack of structure. After all, spending every day waking up with a list of things that need to be done for the day can't be fun. Will keep the Manila Pen experience in mind everytime I feel stressed.

Highlights of our weekend:
1. Walking under the scorching heat from Manila Pen to Greenbelt, to avoid the hassles of looking for a parking space. And let's not forget, the very expensive parking fee of P40. :)
2. Powerbooks is on sale!!!
3. And so is National Bookstore!
4. Whose Wife Is It Anyway -- one of the funniest plays I've seen in a long time.
5. The kid sitting beside me seemed to think so too, as she nearly broke my eardrums with her squeals.
6. I remember seeing a PG sign on the doors of Greenbelt 1. Now, I know why. :)
7. Manila Pen's great service.
8. Waking up late on Sunday with nothing to do.
9. Nielsen's salmon sashimi. Really, really good! As in!
10. The white chocolate filling I had for my crepe. I can still taste it until now. Yum!

Good food. Good service. Bestfriend with me. No wonder I had such a great time. :)

Happiness really is inversely proportional to expectations.