We were invited by Apple, my brother's friend, for lunch in Tagaytay yesterday. She and her boyfriend, Clark, arrived an hour and a half late for your scheduled 11 a.m. departure for Tagaytay but it was still a good trip. She took us to "Sonya's Garden", a garden, bed and breakfast, restaurant, spa, etc, hidden from the main highway, very secluded and beautiful. To get there you will have to go through a rough, winding and rocky road. When you get there you cannot really see any building sticking out but lots of trees, bushes and a nicely decorated road. Their walkway is a mixture of slabs of tree trunks and white gravel and cement. The buildings are all made of old hard wood, capiz shell, screens, and recycled doors and much more. In between the buildings are beautifully landscaped "english"-type gardens that look wild yet planned. The restaurant is kind of exclusive as they require reservations in advance. It's a building with a high ceiling and looks like a green house covered with screens to give us a sense of being close to nature. The tables, chairs, chandeliers, etc. are all collected from old homes or salvaged from destroyed homes. All collected by the owner, Sonya Garcia. The restaurant do not provide a menu, they simply begin serving the food as soon as you sit down. It's a 4-course meal: first they serve the salad - a big bowl of salad greens freshly picked from their own organic garden, small bowls of toppings like crumbled hard boiled egg, mango, jackfruit, roasted lima beans, cucumber slices, pineapple and a Sonya's Surprise Dressing which was so delicious; second the bread - a basket of warm bread, small bowls of spreads like pate, anchovy paste, pesto, fresh pepper corn, sundried tomato pate; third was the main meal which was fettucini paste served in a huge bowl along with small bowls of toppings and sauces like marinara sauce, alfredo sauce, olives, shiitake mushrooms, fried salmon belly; for dessert we had turon - a sweet lumpia with banana and jackfruit, and sweetend kamote or sweet potato/yam. For drinks they gave us fresh fruit juice, kind of a surprise because the refill tasted different from the previous one but it was good; and with the dessert they gave us a simple hot water with three broken leaves of mint which was surprisingly refreshing and delicious. I don't know how much the cost for this meal was since Apple paid for it. It was probably expensive but the experience and the venue was worth it.

After the meal I went to their bathroom. It is located outside the main dining hall, perched on top of the edge of the hill, decorated with old hard wood, capiz shell doors and native items. As you enter the toilet you immediately see that the window is huge and is just covered with a white screen that looks out into the garden. So while you are doing your thing you could see everything outside. I guess Sonya wants all her guests to feel that they are one with nature. I took pictures of this toilet which I hope to download when I get back to Maui.

When I returned to the table I was given a special pink roses bouquet by the manager, of course, planned and paid for by Apple. She's such a sweet girl. I felt like I just had my debut holding the bouquet with me as we went touring around the property. :-)

We walked around the area checking out the garden where they plant their organic veggies, the massage rooms with it's own bathroom - the floor is simply stepping stones and gravel, really nice, their cottages and the Lavender house which has the 100 yr. old Chinese bed. The place is so conducive to retreats and for honeymooners and for people who simply want to relax.

We left Tagaytay at almost 5 p.m. I had scheduled a meeting with some of my friends that same afternoon solely based on the assumption that we would be back at 3:30 p.m. as per Apple's text message. I didn't take into consideration the "what ifs" like what if she came late, what if there was traffic and what if the weather was bad. Well, they all happened yesterday. Instead of returning to Quezon City before 6 p.m. we arrived at 7:45 p.m. due to the rush hour traffic and the heavy downpour caused by storm "Neneng". My friends were insistent that we still meet them that night but as we neared my brother's place the rains continued to pour and the streets were filling up with water. I decided to just go straight home asking my brother to take us. It would have been very hard and inconvenient for Peter and I to go to my friend's house in the rain, carrying a big bag of pineapples from Tagaytay, then returning home later than night via public jeep. It was a wise decision that we canceled the meeting, to my friends disappointment but I hope she understood.

We got back to Lagro at around 9 p.m. I didn't realize how tire I was. I wanted to start packing our stuff but immediately got so tired that I could barely move, I just wanted to just lie down. I think the exhaustion got to me after a week or so of assisting my aunty, accompanying her wherever she went and then the long trips. I could barely open my eyes or lift my arms. So I slept early hopefully to recharge my batteries.

This morning I still feel groggy and tired. I am not sure if I want to go out and meet with my friend this noon. Maybe this afternoon we could just meet at SM since it's near our house and I don't have to travel far. I'll have to text her....

Anyway, this will be all for today. Please pray that the storm "Neneng" will not pass by Metro Manila tomorrow evening. We leave for Hawaii tomorrow night. Pray for good weather. Thanks.