I'm Selling My Stuff: Canon Items For Sale!

Hello photographer friends!

I am letting go of the following Canon items:

EF-S18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (Lens only) = Php 32,000

Speedlite 580EX II Flash (Barely used) = Php 22,000

Both items were purchased early this year and I can assure you that they are in excellent condition. They also still have active warranties. In the case of the Speedlite, I've used it less than 6 times.

Prices are all negotiable, of course. In case you or anyone you know are interested in purchasing the following items, please message me separately here or email me at bencabigas(at)gmail.com. Thank you very much.

Merry Christmas!

Potipot Island, Zambales

Funny how I sometimes feel that I need a vacation from this 'vacation' I'm already having. So when Tim and Baff decided to organize a short beach trip in Zambales over the weekend, I never hesitated.

We decided to head over to Potipot island which is accessible via Candelaria, Zambales. From there, it's just a five-minute boat ride to one of the 'steadiest' beaches I have ever been to.

Potipot island is a small, circular island roughly the size of a large outdoor park. The entire circumference of the island is covered in white sand and you can have a leisurely walk around it in just around 20 minutes. Aside from the nipa huts, tables, and little public toilets, there is nothing man-made on the island. No bars, no restaurants, not even the masahista manangs. Just you, your stuff, and the island. You can stay there for the night if you bring your own tent, otherwise, people stay at the resorts in Candelaria.

We were able to visit the island twice and both times were as relaxing and perfectly suited to getting that weekend break everybody needs. There were a few other people there, mostly young barkadas, campers, and some families (no foreigners!). Most of us stayed on just one side of the island where the beach quality is good and not as rocky as the other side. It, however, never felt crowded. In fact, while walking around the island, it will come to a point when you'll genuinely feel that you're absolutely alone. All I could hear were my footsteps on the sand and the sound of the water as it touches the shore. All I could see were gently swaying trees and an empty beach. Only a few things get better than that.

Words escape me as to how to properly describe how perfect Potipot island is for a weekend getaway. Then again, maybe that's exactly it: perfect.

TRAVEL TIPS

Getting there

The drive to Candelaria, Zambales took us five hours in total which included short stops along the way for some coffee. Leaving Manila at 4:00am required it. Once you reach Subic via NLEX-SCTEx, it's just a short and very scenic two-hour drive to Candelaria. Buses pass through this road as well.

Accommodation

We stayed at Sun Bloom Resort in Candelaria which is a simple, quaint little resort with nice rooms equipped with your basic needs: beds, aircon, toilet. All clean. They don't provide towels or room service but for the Php1,200 rate for a room good for 4 people, it's a great deal. They do serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner upon request although you're free to bring your own meals to cook if you wish. The caretaker, Ate Mercy, is very nice and accommodating and it really gives the place the feeling of living in a large house. Very homey and unpretentious. We'd definitely go back here.

Budget

Over-all, our trip cost us just Php2,400. Overnight stay for three people. This already includes gas expenses, toll, resort fees, boat fees, island entrance fee, and the indecent amount of liempo we ordered while we were there. If you want to save up even more, you can bring your own food to cook or even just camp at Potipot island itself.

Trivia

Apparently, nobody knows who owns Potipot island. It's privately owned but the people in the resort don't exactly know who owns it now. They said it was purchased around last year by a new owner who is said to be a politician. I asked the island caretaker who owns it and he only gave me a name like 'Ate Eva' or something like that. The boatmen, though, told me it is General Ebdane.

The owner of Sun Bloom Resort is actually from Antipolo. She visited Potipot island 13 years ago and stayed at the neighboring Dawal Beach resort. She loved the area so much that she bought the land where Sun Bloom is now located. Panalo.

Complete photos can be found on my Multiply.

This November, I Ran

Because when I look back, that's really all I ever did. After my first 10km run end of last month, I immediately joined two other 10km runs in two consecutive Sundays. I also increased the length of my regular run around the village to 7kms and I've found myself running almost two to three times a week. Unbelievable.

Animo Run 2009

I initially wanted to join the Timex Run at the Fort as a follow-up to King of the Road but I said to myself that if I'm really going to be joining these fun runs more often, I should get to participate in different kinds of runs for the sake of variety and experience. The Animo Run was the perfect choice then. It was going to be at the Mall of Asia this time, and compared to the adidas-organized King of the Road, this was going to be a smaller run. Then, of course, it was going to be organized by La Salle so how can I say no right?

Photos courtesy of Russ.

When I got there at around 5:00am, the sound system wasn't up yet, there weren't a lot of signages to show the runners where to go, and even the start/finish line wasn't properly set-up. I didn't mind though. For some reason, I felt that every one who went to that run didn't mind the lack of resources or organization. They were just there to run. It was unpretentious to begin with so it was great. When the run started it was all perfect from there. The nice flat road surface, the cool breeze, and perfect sunrise while running by the bay. Wonderful! I wouldn't mind running here all the time.

Del Monte Dare to be Fit 'n Right Fun Run 2009

I followed up the Animo Run with another Mall of Asia run. This was a much bigger run than Animo but at least everything was organized from the beginning. I got a bit annoyed though at the start of the race since the 3km, 5km, and 10km racers were all mixed on the starting line and there wasn't any clear separation. Thus, when I was lining up before my run, I had no idea that the 10km run had already started! Darn. 3:30 minutes had already passed when I started running. It got me a bit pissed off that I started late that I ran faster than normal. Thankfully though, I also finished at my fastest time ever at 54 minutes. I doubt, though, that the official time recorded by the RFID on our bibs would be the same. Oh well.

A more specific (and negative) run review can be found here.

I wish

I wish than these runs would set-up more portalets. Every one is bound to pee before a run because we've all been hydrating ourselves. It's also very clear as seen by the looooooong lines at the portalets even minutes before the race starts. During the Del Monte Run, I didn't want to line up so I found this potted plant somewhere far and pee-ed on that. Hehehe.

adidas King Of The Road (KOTR) 2009

After a few failed attempts to join an organized run, I finally got myself to run in the adidas King of the Road at Bonifacio Global City. Though this was my first run, I decided to take the bold step and run the 10km race right away. It was a risk since my regular runs around the village have never reached 10kms and I was an absolute newbie to these organized runs. However, the day turned out to be better than I expected.

The hours leading to the race didn't go so well for me so I lowered my expectations in terms of my performance. To begin with, I slept at 1am the day of the race and woke up at 4.30am to begin hydration and some food intake. Even if I stayed at my sister's place at Fort Bonifacio, I still arrived at the race venue just 30 minutes before the 10km race started. I felt so disoriented when I got there since I had no idea where I should go. It didn't help that every one decided to wear the bright yellow singlet provided by adidas. When I finally managed to get to the very back of the 10km racers, I realized that I had not stretched yet. Darn. Hello improvised stretching.

The start line was already packed when I got there so I didn't have enough space to really stretch. To make things worse, ten minutes before my race was supposed to start, I had this urge to pee. I immediately left the line and ran to the nearest toilet at Boni High only to find out that it was closed for maintenance. I then ran to the next toilet on the next block and saw a long line outside the men's toilet. After briefly considering peeing at a nearby bush in full view of the public, I decided to just go back in line and race with my complaining bladder. The thought of peeing while running was going through my mind up to a few seconds before the race started.

Then the good part. Ten seconds before I was about to race, I felt that energy that told me "this is it". I then forgot every bad thing that occurred up to that point in time and finally felt that I was really going to run. To race. Finally, I began to run. The weather was beautiful. The air was cool. The view of tall buildings lit by the warm morning sun was fantastic. I was breathing well and my legs weren't showing any desire to stop. I was experiencing a heightened sense of love for running.

I never stopped to walk, I never stopped for water, and I finished the race in less than an hour. I couldn't ask for more.

You can surely expect me to participate in more runs after this.

There are a few lessons I learned:

1. Don't start at the tail end of the racers. It's hard to overtake when there's so much people running. I think I could have finished with a better time but I'm not complaining.
   
2. It's important to be aware and to listen to the runners around you to avoid and accidents or collisions. I only turned on my ipod during the last 5 kilometers when the crowd got thinner.
3. Arrive early. More time to get a feel of the race would surely help.
   
4. Enjoy the run.

As an added bonus to participating in this race, I was entitled to a 50% discount for a pair of personalized and customized adidas running shoes as seen above. Since my old pair of running shoes have been with me for three years, it was simply time to get myself a new one. I love the fact that it has my name on it and I absolutely cannot wait to use it in my next run.

I Will Miss Unemployment

This morning I woke up at 5:00am, had my daily cup of hot Nesvita while I sat on the sidewalk outside our house taking in the cool breeze. Only a few things can ever be more relaxing. By 6:00am I went out for a run around the village and noticed that there were some new faces doing their morning run. That made me smile. I arrived home an hour after, took a warm bath, then went to Makati to catch the 9:00am yoga class at Bliss Yoga. I attended two awesome classes which finished at 12:00nn. Practice was, well, blissful. I then took the bus home in time for lunch with my parents. I took another bath, went online, then took a nap. I woke up after an hour and decided to skip boxing class and watch 500 Days of Summer instead at the nearby mall. I just got home from the mall and I'm now just waiting my current favorite TV show before I head off to sleep after having yet another laid back day.

You know what, I will miss unemployment.

Unemployment suits me. It's the kind of lifestyle that I wish I can have forever longer (assuming I have money saved up). People have told me before that after being jobless for just a month, you'll get bored right away. Not in my case. I've been unemployed for five months and I've never once been bored. Even if I just stay at home, I don't feel bored. Strange in a way but I sometimes find doing nothing as fun.

Unfortunately, life reminds me to be practical and getting a job is something of a need at this point in time. So a week and a half ago, I signed an employment contract. I will start work some time in November.

Joblessness for me will now soon end. Sigh. I will no longer be a statistic. Weekends will soon feel like weekends rather than just any other day. I will soon worry about not having enough 'me' time. I will soon have to juggle a busy schedule simply to have that work-life balance I place importance on. I will soon get annoyed about being on the road at rush hour every single day. I will soon get frustrated that I can't watch a movie after lunch. Or go to yoga in the morning. Or boxing in the afternoon. Double sigh.

I know that life has been good to me and I'm very thankful for that. But until that time when I'll have to go to work, I will cherish the days when I get to sip a nice hot drink on a cold morning and think about how privileged I am to be unemployed.

Volunteering After Ondoy

When Ondoy was here a few Saturdays back, it was largely just an inconvenience to me. I was pissed off that day only because I wasn't able to go to Makati to attend the wedding of a good friend. That's it. No flooded first floor, no getting stuck for 16 hours on the road, no tragedy, no brownouts, etc. In fact, before the news of flooding started coming out on TV, I went out on our street that morning and played fetch with our dog... in the rain (I love doing that). I know that I've been very fortunate.



That's the reason why I couldn't help but volunteer for the relief efforts. When you're in your late twenties, unemployed have lots of free time, strong and able, it becomes a moral obligation to help out. I first volunteered for the Philippine Red Cross Muntinlupa Branch with Russ. After giving some donations, I became little Mr. Kargador of deceivingly heavy alcohol boxes and other stuff that came out of the SUVs that stopped in front of the Red Cross office to donate goods. That went on for a few hours.

After effectively drenching my only shirt in sweat, Russ and I managed to join the actual relief operation in an evacuation center near Laguna lake. That's where you tend to put things into perspective and understand real situations as they happen. Seeing an entire school filled with hundreds of families sleeping on carton boxes with nothing but their most basic belongings is very sad. Though I must say, I had fun that day. I went home dead tired but I considered officially volunteering for the Red Cross. Let's see what happens with that.



A day or two after that, I went out with another group of friends for another day of volunteering. We first went to the headquarters of the Red Cross in Manila but since they already had too much volunteers on their hands, we decided to transfer to Enderun College in McKinley Hill. Enderun is a culinary school and they were preparing cooked meals for various relief operations. We found out about this only through Twitter and I was glad we went there.

At 11:00 AM, we were the first group of volunteers who got there and they told us that we had to prepare 3,000 meals by 3:00 PM. Wild. We made a pseudo-assembly line of of styro and paper containers where various people would either be putting rice, pasta, corned beef, sardines, or egg in them. I swear, I will never look at corned beef the same way again. More of this at the Inquirer.

Unfortunately, family duties keep me from volunteering on a daily basis. I am, however, still glad that I managed to help out in a small way.

Other thoughts on Ondoy:

1.) I feel that there's so much news and effort for the victims of Ondoy right now largely because most of the damage is in Metro Manila and secondly, because the middle class was directly affected. Look at the damage by Pepeng, there isn't a lot of online noise about it.

2.) The sheer amount of information released through Facebook and Twitter about relief operations is fantastic. Then again, if the damage was only limited to say, poor communities in remote areas, would the 'flood' of information remain the same?

3.) On politicians putting their names on relief goods like what Manny Villar did: is this a double standard? The Red Cross and other organizations and foundations have their names and logos printed on their bags to let the people know who is helping them out. And let's just say the people really want to know who is helping them out. How come it becomes so negative for politicians to do the same? Assume that there is no election in a few months.