Break Time

Before, my idea of a good vacation is one where activities are non-stop and our itinerary fully-booked to within a second. It’s youth’s idea of time not wasted—every second is maximized with things to do and places to see.

But after several years of being in the workplace (and in an industry that’s so not 9-5), I realized that a vacation is more of a break from the usual. And if the usual is a flurry of activities, then a vacation is a cessation of wall-to-wall activities. Nowadays I spell vacation as R-E-S-T.

I realized that when my friend Leigh and I went to Baguio for a weekend getaway back when we were still in Basic Advertising. We did nothing but eat, sleep, read and listen to our respective Discmans (okay, full disclosure: this was back in the early 90s). We ignored one another throughout the day except during meal times (we’d just pop open a can of spicy tuna and bring out crackers) and when we took photos of each other (we brought our respective cameras; her roll of film was full of pictures of me, and vise versa). In the evening we’d go out to Session Road, have a modest dinner, then we’d plunk our arses down in one of the bars and just drink and talk the night away.

Those were darn good times. Even now that Bagio retreat counts as one of my best vacations ever.

Minimum fuss, maximum food trip, and no sense of time or urgency—that for me is a luxury I can rarely afford these days. Having one right now is bliss.