Hello, guys! I hope you are all doing well. I'm out of town to attend to some family matters and I'm squeezing some of my free time to write my blogs. I consider myself an introvert but there are times when I wished I could flip a switch and instantly become extroverted, especially during family gatherings. But here I am, typing on my laptop instead of socializing.
Anyway, in this post, I'll be sharing with you a special weekend trip I spent with my friends. That trip was in August and in Cebu City (Philippines), this month is marked by a lot of holidays with some of them falling before or after a weekend making it an ideal time to take some time off.
August is also my and some of my friends' birth month and on this trip, we decided to celebrate our birthdays by going on a staycation to Citi di Mare, a township project in the city with condominium units available for rent via Airbnb.
The place is located in the South Road Properties (SRP) which is a 300-hectare reclamation area with wide roads, open fields, and upcoming building projects. City di Mare is a 50-hectare project with multiple condominium buildings inspired by Italian resort towns. There are outdoor swimming pools and the buildings have a nice view of the sea and the mountains.
We booked a three-day stay and I was tasked to plan for the whole trip. I wanted it to involve some fitness activities and at the same time, some needed relaxation. One of my friends, Daphnie, brought a suitcase with her even though we wouldn't be staying that long. We all brought our yoga mats and running shoes because I wanted us to join a yoga class and do a morning run.
Daphnie and, my other friend, Ivana met earlier to take a bus to the place. Our other friend, Kim, still had to work and would later catch up with us. There was a mall across Citi di Mare and I saw on their Facebook page that they were doing a free sunset yoga class. I told my friends we should join the yoga before going grocery shopping for our food.
After arriving at the condominium unit, we left our things and headed for the yoga class. I was still a beginner in yoga and I was very eager to attend any class I could go to.
We went to Il Corso, an alfresco mall in SRP, to attend the sunset yoga class. The mall had a panoramic view of the sea. It had open spaces and a baywalk where you get to walk around or sit to enjoy the seaside scene.
The mall had an open space venue for events with those modern tent-like roofs. The construction of the entire mall was still not finished and there were only a few stores and restaurants open.
We had to cross a busy and risky wide road to get to the mall. The SRP road was not meant for pedestrians but we had little choice. We ran for our lives in between the fast-moving cars. Upon reaching the other side, we all agreed to take a cab on our way back to be safe.
We unrolled our mats in the open space and waited for the other participants to arrive. There were a lot who showed up. The class was free after all. The teacher went to the front and introduced herself. The class was going to be a beginner class. I've only attended beginner classes before and they were all vinyasa-based.
I was a bit confused when the class started because the teacher instructed us to move our eyes around and hold our stares in certain directions. We also warmed up our eyes by rubbing our hands together and placing our palms on our faces.
Then the movement part of the practice started. It was a beginner's class and I expected it to be slow-paced. But I found that the pace was super slow. The teacher instructed us as if everyone was a first-timer. I thought the pace would pick up because I was looking to get a few sweats from the class.
The pace remained slow and we only did a few basic poses. No sweats were broken. My friends and I were all disappointed once we went into Savasana. Now, I know it was a matter of expectations. No yoga practice is ever bad. That's why it's called a practice. We all gathered together for a group photo before going our own ways.
We went grocery shopping after the yoga class but more on that later. I want to talk first about our fitness activities. As mentioned, I planned for the whole trip and I included a morning run in our itinerary. Before going to bed, I told everyone we'd have to wake up early the next day. We all slept quite late and I trusted my alarm would wake me up.
Miraculously, I was able to wake early and convince my friends to get up and change into their running attires. One of the best things about Citi di Mare is the running and biking tracks around the property. You have it all to yourself and there are no cars or pedestrians to disturb you.
We walked-jogged for a few kilometers around the property. There were palm trees along brick roads and around well-tended grounds. The early morning sun heated and energized us. We stopped at a patch of ground and did a few yoga poses.
We did a group photo while posing and laughed at how pretentious we thought we looked. We walked back to the condominium unit for our breakfast and the rest of the day was spent watching movies and doing nohting.
There were three of us who celebrated our birthdays in August. After finishing our yoga class, we still had to go grocery shopping for the ingredients for the food we were going to cook during our stay. We decided to buy fast food for our dinner so that we could eat right away and save some money.
We bought food from Jollibee, the most popular fast-food chain in the country. It was quite late when we returned to the unit and we were very hungry. It wasn't the healthiest birthday feast but we enjoyed it all together.
We also bought a cake for ourselves with a dedication saying that Daphnie got it for us. There were three candles and all of us birthday celebrants blew them together. I was still starting my Master's degree and my immediate wish was to complete my coursework.
I'm not much of a cook and my friends aren't either. I listed down the food we were going to eat and cook but no one wanted to take charge of the cooking. Left with no choice, I did my best to follow the instructions online for the recipes I chose. Things didn't turn out perfectly but no one got hungry during our whole stay.
I made stir-fried vegetables for one of our lunches and the recipe called for a lot of ingredients. It was my first cooking it and I put in too much water that it turned the dish into soup. I also cooked Pancit Palabok, a rice noodle dish with sweet, savory, and sour shrimp sauce. I've cooked the dish a few times before and the sauce was ready-made. It turned out okay.
One of the last dishes I made was some pork chops. It wasn't the most good-looking dish I've made. The cut of the meat was small and I overcooked it which made it shrink and look smaller. The recipe was supposed to be lemon, butter, and garlic pork chops. My friends didn't complain so it must have tasted fine. I could have plated the dish better but I was already tired by then.
A staycation is still supposed to be a vacation, to be away from the everyday hustle and responsibilities although staying close to home. Aside from our physical activities, all we did was stay inside the room and watch movies and youtube vlogs. Sleeping late and drinking beer led to well-deserved naps.
The property had an outdoor pool and we initially planned on taking a dip. We all changed into our pool-side attires to check it out. We saw that there were a lot of people in the pool and we didn't want to be with the crowd. So, we spent our time roaming around and taking pictures. We thought we'd go back later in the evening before the pool closed hoping there'd be fewer people.
We returned to our unit and turned on the TV for some movies. We ended up sleeping again and woke up very late. The pool had already closed and we missed our chance of swimming. We had dinner and went back to doing nothing. We enjoyed more online content, some more alcoholic beverages, and a lot of downtimes.
The staycation ended and we went home feeling well-rested. I still had to face a few assignments for school and I worried a bit that I didn't finish them during the weekend. Turns out, my teacher gave me more time to finish them. It's been some time since I went on a staycation. I've been dealing with a lot of things and I'm also finding it hard to let go and do nothing. I'm afraid I'll lose a lot of time for work if I go on a staycation. But maybe that's just what I need.
That's it! I'm glad I am able to share this experience here. I hope I can go on another staycation and be truly at peace with doing nothing. I'm slowly dealing with my need to be always busy and accomplishing a lot of tasks. For one, I know Hive will also be here and I don't need to pressure myself into churning out as much content as I can.
Thanks for making it to the end and I hope to see you in my next post. Cheers!
Looks like you a great time bonding with your friends. The Yoga class looks fun and the place where the class is held looks great. A belated happy birthday to all.
Thank you! This was before the pandemic so people were more free to do so many things. Yoga classes could be packed and birthdays could be celebrated anywhere. 😁
Happiest birthday!! That looked like a blast! :)
Thank you! It was a blast and also very relaxing. 😁
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One happy birthday, I can see you enjoy a lot. My favorite part was the cake!
The cake was actually a joke. Our 4th friend has her birthday on December so we wrote on the cake that is was from her. 😅
Happy Birthday, looks you made fun on your special day 😊
wow yoga and staycation.plus short hair pa ka
Yes. And the next year after I grew my hair out. 😅