Get Together with TSG Friends
January 14-15, 2023
Lanie, Jhonah, Marky, Cecil, Dhez. They are my college best friends.
Every year, we see to it that we get to see each other to celebrate Christmas or New Year.
And what we usually do is we exchange gifts, give gifts to the kids and eat.
But this year, we went into a higher level of our typical meetups.
We had an out-of-town trip!
And this trip was saved up for a year.
Every month, we had a 400 pesos per head contribution
that will be used to pay all our expenses.
We literally saved up for 12 months.
And so, on the 14th of January at exactly 10 in the morning,
we’re off to a beach house in Batangas with the kids.
We’ll be staying there overnight.
The house we rented is a beach front, has a swimming pool,
large living room, kitchen and bedrooms that we all fit in.
We already bought food beforehand that we’re going to cook upon arrival.
Before reaching our destination, we had lunch first at Jaytee’s Tagaytay.
It also felt fulfilling to have dined in a pricey restaurant with my friends.
Back in college, we were already happy with siomai and rice as our food.
And throughout the years, whenever we have out of town trips,
we always go for the budget-friendly expenses as we don’t have much yet before.
But now, we are already able.
It is really humbling to experience all of these now
as we all remember our struggling beginnings.
And here we are, still together to share each milestone.
We’re still here for each other with our ups and downs.
I am really grateful to have these few friends
yet authentic and people whom I can really rely on.
An untoward accident happened just after
we had lunch and we’re supposedly off to the beach house.
Lanie’s vehicle had an accident.
A sleepy driver bumped them.
Luckily, my friends and their child were fine.
But it caused us inconvenience and delay.
Lanie was rushed to the hospital for a check up on her head
while Jac – her husband needed to go to the police station
together with the reckless driver.
Their daughter joined us in the van going to the beach house.
I took care of Daina for a few hours while waiting for them.
While the other kids already enjoyed the pool.
My husband, Giovanni – Dhez’ husband,
and Carl – Jhonah’s husband were busy preparing our food.
Marky was also with Lanie and Jac.
They are waiting at the police station for the mother of the driver to settle with them.
Three of them have joined us at midnight already.
I joined the pool by midnight with Jhonah and Cez.
I slept at 3 am and then woke up again at 6:30 am.
While Cez, Marky, my husband and Giovanni slept at 7 am
right after they cooked breakfast and also had breakfast.
By then, the kids were already awake
and it was swimming time again for them after they had breakfast.
Our check out time was at 11 am.
But before we left, we had our tradition of exchange gifts and photo ops.
Our trip was short and sweet but definitely a worth memory for keeps.
And we look forward to more trips together.
Hopefully in the future, it will be a trip abroad. Why not?
I’ll try my best to run down some of our yearly trips together:
2009 – Daranak Falls, Tanay, Rizal
2010 – Alfonso, Cavite
2011 – (can't remember)
2012 – Baguio Trip
2013 – Puerto Galera Trip
2014 – Sessions at Tide’s
2015 – Sessions at Tide’s
2016 – Calatagan, Batangas and Quezon Province
2017 – beach in Bataan
2018 – Lanie’s house
2019 – Oyo Hotel at Poblacion, Makati
2020 – SM Aura and Starbucks BGC
2021 – Lanie’s house
2022 – Hara’s birthday, Daina’s birthday, Damara’s Christening
2023 – Tagaytay and Reyna Beach House, Batangas
