I'm now in Makati and it seems internet can also be slow here, in the midst of "Modern Metro Manila." It's taking forever to upload pictures to this blog, so I'm sharing a few taken in Palawan. I'm also posting something I wrote there:
July 7, 2014
Oh Perfect Day
There is a dreamy quality to this stay here in Daluyon Resort in Palawan -- a giddiness, a happiness.
Let me write about "today" because "today" has a feeling of quiet perfection, a seamlessness, starting from the time I got up and pulled myself together and joined the other writers (Susan Evangelista, Nadine Sarreal, and Melissa Ramos) in the dining room.
First there is a feeling of joy and contentment that blankets all of us. We had jokingly said, while preparing for this retreat, that we felt like we were arranging a meeting with our lovers (not that we have lovers).
I imagine our dreamy, happy feeling is like the breathlessness that lovers feel - maybe. But I suspect that what we are experiencing may be less complicated and more satisfying because there is no angst, no close-up dealing with a man, just our writing, and our writing may be more generous, less demanding than a man.
So we sat on a big table and chatted away. We never run out of topics to discuss. Four voices rising and falling with still some other observation, some memory, some anecdote to share. And people nod and smile and absorb the words and bask in the experience or thought just gifted to all.
The breakfast buffet offered Filipino and/or American food (do you call French toast, American?) --- and fruit (papaya, pineapple, mango, watermelon). They sliced and arranged the fruit artfully on a plate with a fresh lemoncito on the side. I had two fried eggs, fish, garlic rice, fruit, coffee with "fresh milk", which I had hoped would be fresh carabao's milk and was mildly disappointed to hear the milk came from a box. (This, by no means ruined the "perfect day.")
After eating, the three rush off for their Mangrove Tour and Zip lining for Melissa. I arranged to have a full body massage - ah, another pleasure which I've recently discovered, these massages.
Out in a charming hut near the pool, Anne Lea waited for me and she kneaded my body, worked on the kinks, those knots of muscles that store our worries and concerns, ran her fingers over those ridges as if to smoothen them out, and she even flung her fingers outward several times as if to dispel any negativity.
I'm ashamed to admit that several times I dozed off and sputtered awake when I heard myself starting to snore. Back, front, legs, arms, neck, head, even my hair were worked on, and by the time I left I felt like melted butter, my body and mind relaxed and I felt ready to tackle even more writing, which I did later that morning.
~~~
This is all for now, if I ever get faster internet, I'll get those Palawan pictures up.
Facebook seems more accessible, so visit my Facebook site, dear Readers if you find no updates in this blog.
Read also
Palawan Pictures - Set 1
Palawan Pictures - Set 2
The Filipina Women Writers Meet Again
Journal Entry from Palawan, Philippines - Oh Perfect Day
Your Writing Workspace
The Importance of Sensual Writing
tags: travel, tourism, writing, Palawan, Philippines, Puerto Princesa, Sabang Daluyon
Stay tuned for more of my adventures,
Cecilia
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