and yet another cocktail party

Last night I went to yet another cocktail party this time hosted by T magazine to launch their 100 best restos book for 08. Wonderful SFDV* crowd. I say wonderful because sometimes it's actually refreshing to mingle with these AB market GB4-5 faces after slugging it out in the office trenches bent over your computer the whole afternoon. So with a clink clink of your wine glass, by osmosis you also become a bonafide SFDV face. And sometimes, just sometimes, I see some familiar faces from twenty five years, ten lifetimes and a gazillion trips-to-the-confessional-box ago. Like tonight. one, two....three! One greeted me warmly like nothing happened, which was good, (for after all, we keep bumping into each other at these gatherings anyway, as in, ho-hum) and I beso-beso'd his stunning wife and asked her about her r business. Wonderful couple. You've done well, L. Another - OMG - this I do not believe - just looked right thru me and not even a hair on his eyebrow quivered with recognition, maybe because I reminded him of the a.h. he once upon a time was, and not the big time business leader with the genteel and gracious wife he now is. Hmph...him with the family name that dates back to those sailors on the first Chinese vessels that sailed to Manila in the 1600's and intermarried with the natives. But I did catch him glancing my way a few times, maybe thinking, hey, we're supposed to be the same age, why does whats-her-name-again look absolutely sensational and ten years younger than me now (yahoo!!! hehe) . Oh T, eat your heart out. And finally the third, a very friendly third. At least he was friendly, but might I say a wee bit tooo friendly, who remembered too many things. So without further ado, at 7:55pm sharp, I said my adieus.. Adieu!!


* same faces different venue

NOTE: All initials have been changed.

There's always a first time -

But I didn't think it would come this soon-- certainly not on the first week! My son, one week into driving class at A-1 driving academy, had his first taste of the real motoring world the other day - an honest to goodness BANGGAAN (That's collision in other words but for some reason the tagalog translation sounds more dramatic.) All the elements were there, from hungry cop asking for lagay (for the benefit of my int'l readers, lagay is the filipino word for "put". As in "put the money in my hand so I'll let you go, but do it discreetly") to the traffic reaching a standstill not because of the accident but because of curious onlookers slowing down to stare, gape, and even sneer.. to the PEDICAB who rammed into the car...and finally to the ominous looking 'lynch mob' (the neighborhood in that little esquinita way deep inside Pasig) that sided with the pedicab even if he was obviously in the wrong. Luis survived it, loved every second of it, and took pictures for posterity...

Award winning!

May Anne my advertising manager celebrated her birthday and look what ended up on the IFC spread of her birthday card/magazine!! This is what you get for your birthday when you work with the MarComm Department of company S:
That's all of our heads on the spring/summer 08 ad campaign of brand L -- Princess, Biboy (May Anne's husband), Jeboy, May Anne, Sunday, Liza, Sunday again, and meeee!!!

Now, a closeup - Click to appreciate... How we WISH our legs were really this thin.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a door!

To see is to believe.... It really flew out!! I survived my graveyard shift and finally took a photo this morning.

Graveyard shift

Oh the travails of moving into an old new house. Old - as in built in the early 80's, and new - as in newly repainted, all white and sparkling. Like those rich matrons who've been around a very long time, but still have young taut faces. One huge gust of wind that came in through the open front door...and bam! the glass door leading to my mini garden flew off! Yes, folks, the offending door is now leaning peacefully against the concrete wall that separates my garden from Goldilocks bakeshop. Miraculously the glass is intact, but I now have a gaping hole in my old new house where this flying door used to be. This happened a few hours ago, at 7 in the evening. And as the workers can only come in tomorrow morning, we have decided to go on shifts guarding this house from cats and bats and snakes and rodents. Not to mention of course the akyat bahay's, magnanakaws, ex-convicts and rapists. Luis was in charge till midnight, then me till 3am (that's NOW), and Grace the maid from 3am to 6am. It is now only 1:40 in the morning and nobody's online in facebook, no overseas friends or relatives online in skype or yahoo to keep me company. I would take a picture of the hole left by the fallen door, but am too scared to, since it's very dark and spooky in the garden and that part of the house and who knows what may happen if I do. (Watch the movie "Shutter", you'll know what I mean.)

Fields of Gold

I can't stand it. It keeps ringing in my ears, so I might as well share it. Last Saturday, the ratwaks had a reunion at the University of Dama de Noche (the house of the principal Q) and just like high school students, somebody brought out a guitar.... and we started to... seriously...SING! Ricky surprised us all with his guitar prowess, while we surprised our own selves with our singing prowess after consuming a balde (balde as in orocan balde) of white wine. This song, this lovely, haunting song by Sting became our national anthem....



Of course the evening was not complete without the old favorites, which ran the gamut from James Taylor to Karen Carpenter to Minnie Ripperton and her high notes (where we sounded almost obscene during that famous climax!!) What an evening. See what a bit of wine can do to one's confidence and imagined talent.

A banana a day...

I feel so proud. Still can't get over the success of the BR launch we hosted last Friday, May 9. Simply amazing. Headcount an amazing 540, no rifraf, no gate crashers despite the mall venue. As Johanna of Biz World wrote, "it was packed with dignitaries and local bigwigs, more than the usual crowd of fashionistas and the odd rubberneck or two on the sidelines." (I LOVE that description! Rubbernecks!! hahaha)
150 bottles of champagne, 80 bottles white wine, endless tequila and vodka kept the cocktail party going till way, way past cocktail hour. Great music by Sinosikat, impressive fashion show, impeccable service (you see a waiter at every turn of the head!) and a delicious spread by Peninsula.. Everything perfect. The sales at the store over the first two hours was beyond belief!


Below are some very beautiful pictures taken by Rica of Heart2Heart online. I hope she won't mind my "stealing"... (Above likewise beautiful pics were taken by Daniel Tan)


And the rest of her entry on the BR party... Heart2HeartbyRica

And still MORE pics from the multiply site of one of the photographer guests that evening.... Banana Rep Launch

MJ!

At MJ launch last April 24 with Liza, blogger BB and Princess
with Liza, Princess and Karen

SSI, RMK, RCC unite!
me, Cessie Colayco of RMK and John Tanjangco of RCC

uy..kunwari daw...
And...ahem... so slim?

unsurprise surprise party

from ratwak classmate Jeannie:

Date: Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 9:23 PM
Subject: Details: surprise party for Q & Malu . may 3 saturday.715pm
Dear All;
Our surprise party for Q & Malu is confirmed.
Date / Day: May 3 Saturday
Call Time: 7:15 - 7:25PM
Venue: Carusso
210 Nicanor Garcia St (formerly Reposo)
Bel Air Village
Menu: Family Style
Basket of freshly baked breads
Espadellata (Clams in white wine)
Arugula Salad
Aglio' Oglio
Carusso Pizza
Est Cost: PhP 7,000 or approximately Php1,000 to 1,250 per pax (or
share whatever you feel like)
Contact Person in Carusso: Chai
We will also invite Chef Alain Raye to join us for dinner.
Ginny/Ricky: Request - can you pick up Chef Alain from Dusit? give you
details before then
Ginny:Pls bring me a copy of the Fields of Gold lyrics tomorrow during
the MJ event. what time are you going 2mro...? textan tayo.
All: If you think that Q is familiar with your cars, I suggest
parking them at the back of the building. Suggestion lang...
If you feel like it, bring a bottle of your favorite bottle- wine,
single malt, haradura ha ha

A lovely suprise-but-I-wasn't-surprised belated birthday party was hosted by my dear dear ratwak friends last night at Carusso... As you can see it didn't turn out to be a suprise for me, not with my having gotten a copy of the email one week prior. Q was my co-birthday celebrant since his birthday also fell within the same period. Now HE was surprised, and I was part of the surprising team that jumped from behind the bar. We were like mice crouching in the dark...Ginny, Carmi, Jeannie, Vicky, Nilo, Ricky, Krip and Chef Alain... Surprise!!! Happy Birthday!!! (to me!)

Another one so soon?

We're all gearing up for the BR launch (again, the acronym so everything's blog-proof. If you google it you end up with entries about Barbados and Brazil. Hint: it's a fruit with lots of potassium and comes in two versions, lacatan and latundan). And I do hope I got the right combination this time, unlike MJ where we had so much white left over, as everybody guzzled down the champagne. This time I'm having them deliver one hundred bottles champagne and only eighty of the white wine. Plus the sponsored vodka, tequila, scotch, mango rhum..We shall see if this kind of fuel gets the party going... Abangan... that's May 9! Photo by the way is the left side of the invite, which is the theme of the collection.

New post

I finally posted my March 2 entry. Scroll down. Took me a while to post all the pics I took that Thursday, with the house move and all. Plus our intermittent internet service, which only got fixed the other day. These are the pictures of my latest Kythe friends. It's been two months though, and I haven't had the time to go back. I hope to God they're still there.