Da Didi’s Birthday

Leave it to Nore to throw an instant party when necessary. At his birthday party in Carte Blanche Resto (World Trade Center), Didi Lim admitted in his speech to the guests that he had not planned to have a 65th birthday party. He wondered aloud whether 65 years is an event that should actually be celebrated or kept vague with the public. But daughter Claire and her husband Alex were coming from Singapore for the occasion and so, why not?

The tables in the resto were set to accommodate different groups. The groups were: the Lim family including Didi’s brothers and sister who came from abroad; Raquel-Santo family led by Francis, Lynn and Rene Sunico; Balikbayan friends of Nore and Didi from Vancouver and NY; Didi’s friends in Manila; and the CAFAs. The CAFAs who celebrated Didi’s birthday with him were: Pearl and Vic, Myrna and her husband; Cecille; Mina Hernandez; Dinky; Alex; Emi; Fe Bareiro; Cynthia Henson; and Oni and Bili.

The resto facility was spacious and the Thai cuisine delicious. The sing-along with the band started after dinner where Francis, the CAFAs, and friends of Didi and Francis took to the mic. After a lot of prodding, Fe was finally convinced to perform on stage. Fe sang a Tagalog ditty which impressed the CAFAs and particularly Didi who did ballet-like moves on the dance floor as Fe belted it out. Overall, the CAFAs enjoyed themselves. A topic of conversation was the recent CAFA adventure in Negros and Iloilo land where the gastronomic weakness of the CAFAs was proven once and for all. (ang tatakaw kasi!)


See slide show for more photos.

The Ilonggo Adventure

Finally, the much-expected CAFA trip to the Visayas happened. Dinky and Milu Einsiedel played hosts to the CAFA group that stayed four days to experience wonderful Negros and Iloilo. Aside from Dinky and Milu, the CAFAs who went were Nore and Didi Lim, Pearl and Vic Ortega, Oni and Bili Mayo, Emi Mercado, Mina Hernandez and Cecil Ascalon. The fun started even at the Manila airport where the girls just had to do some shopping. Emi started it when she spotted the “Sale” sign at an airport shop and bought herself branded Flip-flop sandals. Soon most everyone followed suit. The girls had fun comparing their sandals of choice as they flip-flopped their way along the long airport corridors.

Milu’s hometown Silay had interesting ancestral houses to view. The Hofilena vintage house was practically a museum where art works of masters and artifacts were displayed. Our guide, 78 year old Ramon Hofilena, was not only eloquent in explaining the house but is an artist himself. In his prime, he engaged in theater and hobnobbed with famous art personalities. He explained that he was handsome and muscular once (a swimmer and actor) and who even posed in the nude for artists. Every time the eager-beaver CAFAs (particularly Emi and Bili) disturbed his spiel to make comments, Ramon gets so distracted that he berated the CAFAs for doing so. The group finally learned to keep their mouths shut after that especially when Ramon threatened to remove all his clothes (to be like the past model he was) if he was distracted again.

The other ancestral houses in Silay were the Gaston mansion and off course, the Locsin house. The Locsin house is Milu's ancestral house where the CAFAs were treated by Milu’s family to a special Silay-type lunch course. The first day in Negros saw the CAFAs head for Victorias to see the Church of the Angry Christ and the Wheels Chapel. Dinner was at Bacolod’s famous Manukan strip where all kinds of Inasal recipes abound for the public. The next day, the group headed for the Bacolod harbor to take the ferry to Iloilo City. For this stage of the trip, the tour guide role was assumed by CAFAs Cecil Ascalon. The Ferry ride turned out to be pleasant where Emi enjoyed the John Lloyd movie (complete with tears) during the one hour trip.

In Iloilo, the Ferry docked at Iloilo’s famous Looney Muele port. According to Cecil, Mr. Looney was a Brit who was responsible for building the Iloilo old port along the river mouth. The group then visited the Jaro and Molo church that contained specialized statues of saints. Cecil was an interesting tour guide. When queried for more details about Looney harbor and the churches, Cecil said she wouldn’t know since the info is not described in Wikipedia. If we accept what Cecil says, all vintage structures in Iloilo would be 200 years old and all locations would be just “five minutes away”. How about that for mathematical efficiency?

Lunch time in Iloilo was at Tatoy’s (an eatery place traditionally known for its native Ilongo cuisine). At Tatoy’s, the group was joined by another CAFA - Iloilo native and born comedian Megs Ortigas. Driving his new BMW, sporting sunglasses and wearing a nifty decal-laden jacket, Oni asked Megs if he was trying to impress the CAFAs with his get-up. Picking up on the cue, Megs said that he actually needs to go at 3PM since he has to return the rented car he is using to impress us! Known for his raunchy repartee, Megs also made an offer to take the boys out for massage service in lieu of Cecil’s suggestion to visit more traditional tourist places.

The final phase of the trip was not so convenient for some in the group. Mina, Cecil and later on Emi, fell ill. We were made to understand that it was a combination of vertigo attack and stomach problems; The fatigue and oysters, maybe? (But nothing serious, really.) In addition, Bili also had a vertigo problem (the night before the trip) while Didi is still recovering from flu (which he had prior to the trip). This situation led the group to consider the next outing to probably be best held in Dagupan. It seems that not only does Alex Villaflor partly own a beach resort there but also a hospital!

See slide show for more photos.

CAFA Birthdays

This February month is birthday month for several CAFAs. The guys who are now a year older are Nore Lim, Alex Villaflor and Milu Einsiedel. Coincidentally, a lot of US CAFAs happened to also be in Manila now. This was an opportunity to have that "Getogetha" – as Dinky would put it. A Getogetha was quickly planned out resulting in a pot luck party in Oni’s house on February 4, Saturday.

In the party, the guests of honor were the celebrants mentioned above. Meanwhile, the balikbayans are Tong Salgado, Rita Salgado and Tito Valbuena. Including celebrants Alex and Milu, the CAFA locals were: Dinky Einsiedel, Oni and Bili Mayo, Pearl and Vic Ortega, and Cynthia Henson. Nore Lim, Didi Lim and Emi Masigan are also in town but unfortunately, they couldn’t make the CAFA party for important reasons.

As the CAFAs were enjoying the party, the door bell rang. It was late-comer Tito V who strode in with a surprise guest in tow. The guest is Lydia Cruz - a retired MD and a balikbayan (out of Texas). Lydia was a HS classmate of Tito (Mapa High) so it should have been nothing extraordinary since the two came from their reunion. The CAFAs are always nice to extended friends of CAFAs. The CAFAs were however stunned when the beaming Tito introduced Lydia as his “kasintahan”. Ayos.

The party was lively from start to finish, and had a Part 2. The Part 1 plan was to take dinner in Oni’s house. The Part 2 would be to proceed to Chef and Brewer Music Bar after dinner (Dero and his Rockin’ 60s group). By 9:30 PM, Dinky, Alex, Tito and Lydia proceeded to music bar so as not to lose the reservation. The others however were not planning to go the show and decided to stay a while for coffee. Being the hosts, Oni and Bili stayed on. As expected the guys who remained behind immediately made intriguing chika about those who just left.

Everyone had a laugh when Tong admitted that their ‘sundo’ was there for some time now but they dared not leave for fear of being talked about. To resolve the issue everyone agreed to leave at the same time - the visitors back to their homes and Oni and Bili to Chef and Brewer to join the CAFAs there. The time was already nearing 11 PM and Dinky had been frantically texting for us to already join them since Dero had been wanting to put the CAFAs on stage.

At Chef and Brewer it was another kind of night life fun. The place was packed and the Rockin’ 60s were doing their thing. Old friends Titus and Botchi Santiago were there. Bili spotted her high school classmates from St. Theresa. (Nancy Reyes of the Rockin’ 60s is Bili’s school mate). At the CAFA table, Dinky and Alex were found finishing a bottle of wine. Through all these, Tito and Lydia, seeing the show for the first time, were enjoying not only the show but each other..

And then the CAFAs - boldly introduced by Dero as Pilita’s mainstays in the 60s - were called on stage. Objectively, I thought that the CAFA rendition was pretty good that night. The Boomer crowd was particularly familiar with “Summer Song” and “If I Fell”. And so it came to pass that the CAFAs came through once again. They ended each number to the applause of an appreciative audience considering the impromptu performance. One guy in the audience even approached the CAFA table afterwards to express his delight at hearing the memorable numbers once again. Ah, another night, another song.

See slide show for more photos.

New Jose Gallery Opening

Remember Alice Alfonso from Fine Arts? Alice then was the CAFA muse who sat in the middle of the CAFA flower-float during the Lantern Parade competition. And yes, CAFA won first place for that float thanks to the design and construction effort of Nik Ricio and the Fine Arts gang. Today Alice is Alice Jose, married to Eddie Jose, a very successful businessman. On her own, Alice is founder and owner of the famous "Jose" stores (leather accessories, shoes and bags) found in the major malls of Manila. Not only that, Alice today is also the proprietor of the Jose Art Gallery.

Originally, the gallery was established in the Jose’s old place in Pasig. Alice moved the gallery last year to their new commercial building in Marikina. Today, the Jose’s built another mixed-use building in Pasig and so the gallery is now housed there. The new building is a low rise residential apartment building with commercial areas in the ground floor. It is located in the Shaw Blvd area where the Shangrila Mall is located. The building’s apartments are for rent, but Alice and her husband retained the penthouse which not only contains a scenic open deck (wonderful view of the Shaw area high rise buildings at night) but which also contains her personal studio.

All this effort to provide a venue for the artistic works of friends just shows Alice’s love for the arts. As we know, Alice is a pillar of the UP Artists 60s group. This group is composed of the CAFASingers’ friends from the College of Fine Arts then. The CAFAs who were at the gallery soft opening night last Feb. 6 were: Nore Lim, Cynthia Henson, Pearl Ortega, Cat Belo and non-Fine Arts Architect Oni Mayo.

On hand to view the displayed (expensive?) works of reknowned artists like Cabating, Joya, et al were other guests of Alice such as Celestine Baretto, Angelian Pac Amado, Rose Tacorda, May Cruz and a Japanese couple – Mr. and Mrs. Suzuki. The group broke up at around 9PM but not until after partaking of the nice cocktail food (and laced drinks care of Cynthia), and a quick tour of the new building by Alice.

See slide show for more photos.