Cheats Farm Trip | My Top Nine Moments of 2020

This is the third of my top nine moments of 2020. Here’s a list of the past ones I wrote about in this series:

• Dolomite Snow
• Birthday Farm Trip

Even with all the precautionary measures Jim and I normally take, we decided early on to really lock down our household since we wanted to be able to see our parents without any fears.

We are especially careful when seeing Jim’s parents because they are seniors and highly susceptible to COVID-19. Thankfully, as you may have read from my last post, our family trip to our farm in November was very successful. We had such a great time that we daydreamed about getting to host our best friends there someday.

It took a lot of back and forth but we eventually decided to do it! We were able to do it under the strictest guidelines and reassurance that everyone involved was taking everyone’s safety seriously.

Step 1: Quarantine

No matter how many swab tests you take, kung lumalabas ka pa at gumigimik, you might as well just save your money. We read up on it and apparently, if you take a test but you were out and about a few days prior, there’s a likely chance that your results will become a false negative. This is why we all stayed home (and didn’t make any close contact with anybody in our separate households who regularly goes out) at least 5 days before taking our swab tests.

Step 2: Testing

The golden standard for swab testing is RT-PCR pero ginto rin ang halaga. The most affordable option is the antibody rapid blood testing but I don’t think anybody does that anymore since it’s unreliable. We got the antigen swab testing which is highly accurate especially if you stay put days before your scheduled test. We separately scheduled drive-thru testing in Cubao via Hero Laboratories — Don’t be shocked if you see my face on their website, they asked me for a testimonial and I didn’t expect them to put my huge face (and Puddy’s cute face!) on the landing page!! Hahahaha! Ngayon ko lang nakita!!

Step 3: Squeezing Everything In Our Cars

We brought ALL of our music gear and equipment for band practice, free jams, even rough recordings. Kyle packed almost all of his millions (lol) of camera equipment so we could shoot stuff. Candy and Steven brought tooons of food because they were in charge of feeding all of us. And it was, by the way, amazing. If you wanna try Steven’s pecan pie (AND YOU SHOULD) head on over to @silvapies on Instagram.

Step 4: Interact

Man, it was pretty awkward especially at first. We all still wore our face masks inside the 3 vehicles we rode going to the farm. So when we finally got there and saw each other, it was a mixture of OMG I MISSED YOU GUYS SO MUCH HUHU COME HERE and OMG I DON’T THINK WE SHOULD HUG GET AWAY FROM ME??

But the trip made it apparent to everyone that we really are family. It was like a high school retreat and we jammed nine months worth of creative projects into 2 days. All in all, we made 3 entirely new songs and 2 music videos – both of which were conceptualized, and brainstormed up until the very last minute.

Sharing some more photos of our magical trip

Glad we were able to see each other – hoping it won’t have to take another nine months before we do it again. I’m well aware that not everybody has the luxury to do the same thing with their best friends and in no way do I encourage you to do the same but I don’t want to be a hypocrite and tell you not to carefully plan something like this. If anything, I want to remind you to stay vigilant and don’t trust even your closest friends kasi minsan lumalabas pa rin yung iba so wag niyo na muna silang isama!! LOL! Stay safe, everyone!

P.S. All photos shot on film by Kyle Quismundo and Manny Tanglao