pasyal

for my birthday weekend (first weekend of february) we spent virtually the whole day in tagaytay. i like tagaytay. it's the nearest place you can visit where you can still feel like you're getting far far away from the big bad city. away from all the greyness, the pollution, the drabness of our cement-encrusted city. even the 50-minute drive can be pleasant -- especially as you take the smaller lesser known roads. immediately you see the difference. you start seeing green -- beautiful trees, lots of grass, lovely flowers.

and then you get to the ridge where you see this view:

lunch at mano's taverna was great, save for the fact that you couldn't pay by credit card. the moussaka and the gyros were great. and special mention goes to the home-made yoghurt drizzled with honey from the neighboring farm. the olive oil was great too -- mano, the owner, claims it comes from his very own olive plantation in crete.

after polishing off two gyros and a small pot of yoghurt by myself (and sampling everbody else's food, of course), i was ready to move. needed a breath of fresh air so i suggested we visit the site of our future town home. all the roads are done. check. all the cables and wires were laid underground. check. nice view of taal. check. country club. check. all that's missing is our house. haha. which i'm planning to design myself. not that i'm an architect or anything. i just have an eye for things, if i do say so myself. it has to have a spanish meditteranean look (as per the building code in the village) so i'm thinking clay tiles and wood. kinda like the clubhouse:

and after that bit, it was time to go home. back to the big bad city. but not before we stopped at the roadside to buy fruits.

it was a great sunday, all in all.