Lagro, Quezon City

At long last my parent's have internet connection! Now we won't need to go to Netopia in SM to check our emails and post on the blog.

Yesterday we had the privilege of being invited to The Farm or Agape Springs in Cavite. My Tito Peps have taken the responsibility of managing this property owned by a corporation (mostly CRL friends who are stockholders). Agape Springs is an event and rest house place located not too far from Manila yet isolated enough to be a perfect place for retreats, seminars, conferences, parties, etc. Tito Peps' vision for this place has now come into fruition with so many years of time, money and effort invested in this property. You can check the simple site which Mona,one of my oldest and dearest friend, put up for anyone interested in using the facilities. The address is http://agape-springs.blogspot.com

We were picked up early yesterday morning by Virgilio, Tito Peps' drivers. Picked up Tito Peps and Mona at their condo in The Alexandra in Pasig before heading on to Agape Springs. It took about 2 hours to get there. The weather was cooler than in Manila or Quezon City because of higher elevation and the tons of large trees surrounding the area. The main building houses the full-size kitchen, dining area, comfort rooms and main office on the ground floor; dormitory-style rooms on both ends with bathrooms on the 2nd floor; and an additional loft for extra bedspace.

Tito Peps took us on a tour around the place while giving us construction advice on our beach property. He is a geological engineer, the only one who graduated in his batch in fact, and was tapped to work at the BBFischer Mining Corporation. You could really tell his fascination for rocks because all over the property you can see a variety of rocks, boulders, monoliths, etc. He never took no for an answer especially if he wanted something done in the property, he will simply do it and if it proves to work then great but if it doesn't then at least he tried.

The property also includes a small public school for the village children, another property owned by an Australian who lets the visitors of Agape Springs use his swimming pool, fish ponds, an area where the spring goes through and where the village women come and wash their laundry. Tito Peps believe that if you allow the village folk, the neighbors to share in the abundance of the property then they in turn will repay you with respect when using the property. Simply prohibiting them from entering and using the area will cause problems.

We had a nice cool drink in the terraced area among the trees. After which an abundant spread of delicious lunch was prepared by manang Loreli and Lea (Tito Peps' helpers). There were four of us plus the 3 staff and 6 construction workers who partook of the sumptious meal. My brother came later and enjoyed the left overs. During lunch Peter was fascinated with Tito Peps' beginnings in the mining industry and the two of them talked up a storm about a variety of topics, while Mona, my brother and I talked about marketing strategies and important things we need to think about for the beach property. Very interesting conversations and information. Mona has lots of experience with the marketing and business side as she was employed by Tokyo Fashion for 4 years and moved up to a Sales Managerial position. Now she is the marketing director as well as the managing staff for Agape Springs.

By 4 pm we left for home. Manong Virgilio drove us back to Lagro after dropping off Tito Peps, Mona, then Manang Loreli. It was a long day but worth the time.

This morning I woke up as soon as my parents left for the airport to pick up my uncle romy and aunty prossy (from NY). I needed to clean the upstairs bedroom, my brother's room (where my parents will be staying) and my small room. It took me b5 hours non-stop to clean all rooms. They arrived just after I took a bath and set the dining table for lunch. Photo-finish!!! Fortunately, thanks to my brother came and took the resposibility of cooking food for our lunch. While Jovi helped with putting stuff away and fixing the downstairs toilet flushing system and dealing with the BayanTel DSL representative who just installed the connection this morning.

Now I can relax more knowing that I have gone through and cleaned all the rooms, all the closets and cabinets, all the spaces underneath the beds and other areas in the house. I just hope that when I visit next year it will be just simple cleaning and dusting. :-)

This afternoon, after my aunty and uncle wakes up from their nap, we will go to SM to cool off. I'll post later again.