The Big Seven

The CAFAs came out in force to see Oni off at the start of the new decade in his life. The Balikbayans were  Tong and Rits, Rodi and Nore.  Old reliables present were Emi, Pearl, Baby, Alex, Hector, Dero, and the trio of Dinky-Milou-Teena.  Extension CAFA members Francis, Titus and Botchi were there too.  The other guests were Oni's family and classmate friends from high school and grad school.

Attending to the many guests, Oni was not able to listen much to the CAFA talk.  But from their guffaws, Oni surmise that they were making interesting (uncharitable?) commentaries about  CAFA absentees.  It's a good thing that the small musical program started right after dinner, otherwise the sniping might have continued unabated.

Oni had planned for a small musical program for the guests.  It was the kind of program where selected talents from among the guests were the performers themselves.  Alex Salva (Neo pianist) was there to make the "unplugged" performance happen.  Oni's grad school classmate Noni Dolera had the Diomedes Maturan sound when he dished out "Ako Ay  Nandito" (Oni's original composition).  Tachi Billano from Oni's Christ the King Music Ministry had everyone agape with her classy rendition (theater musical quality) of two other original songs.

The program actually started with a blast when Da Dero took over the 'stage' for the opening number.  He surprised everyone with a medley of his past jingles which he sang with gusto.  Ultimately he called the CAFASingers in to provide the singing for an M1 medley of CAFASinger standard songs.  Mind you, this was all unrehearsed.  Da Dero seemed to enjoy and had to be "dragged" away from the stage by Titus since their Rockin' 60s group had sets to do at Chef & Brewer.  They were already 20 minutes late for that!

After the rehearsed songs by Noni and Tachi, it was "open mic" time and Alex Salva had his hands full accompanying next singers who were remiss in the accuracy of their lyrics and tempo.  It was good to see that most of the audience stayed on to listen even to unrehearsed music.

The CAFAs talked about old times again.  (Hindi na nagsawa).  As Baby said, she is a masochist by remaining a loyal CAFASinger fan despite the fact that she is made to listen to only 4 standard songs every time the CAFASingers performed.  Tong was not spared by Baby who teasingly called him "Mr. Sound of Silence". Tong was defensive and said that he knew other songs but that this song is for a duet.  He apologized for his duet partner Ely who he said unfortunately knew only that song.

The CAFAs also contrived another inane game again that night.  It was called "matira ang matibay".  This means that nobody makes a move to leave the party!  Seated around one of the big tables the CAFAs continued their merry making ways drinking coffee and picking on cakes.  By 1:30AM Oni observed that the caterers were beginning to surround the table.  They were waiting for the CAFAs to vacate their table so that they can take it and leave.  It was only then that the party ended.

Oh, well.  That's one birthday bash Oni will never forget.















See slide show for more photos.