Wining & Dining galore! s'more!

Oopsie....! Looks like i broke my earlier promise of getting back to this blog like a regular blogger person. Oh but wait--now i remember why i wasn't able to: they took my PC away to the computer hospital!! But anyways, i'm baaack----and I hope this will get to be a regular thing from now on, remind me, ok?

A couple of interesting things happened to me last week. First, was our 'atik-atik lang' ladies' club monthly soiree. The party planners for this month thought we should have an ethnic theme this time around, hence the 'atik-atik' ....a spin-off from ati-atihan bala...but with lots of kalokohan (atik is loko in the vernacular here). So last Wednesday, we all trooped to the 2nd street where the party was being held at this lady Emma's home. She had taken the time to dress up her garage ala-ethnic museum, whereupon each person who brought an ethnic decor item added the items as they came .One of the staple activities we have at these parties is one where we have this 'bring an unusual plant (for green day), or tiniest ornament (for the Christmas bash), or ethnic decor' contest, where the most unusual item would be judged a winner.Another is a 'fashion parade' where everyone dressed according to the theme parades in front (lots of clowning around here), and gets judged as well...then there are the parlor games, usually also theme-related.

This time around, we were all diviied up into different Philippine tribes, and we played some kind of charade-style guessing game, where we'd have to guess the name of the native dance Emma, the hostess was dancing! Can you believe that lady? First she comes up with the garage museum, then she prepares the dances and dances them herself, and in the last game, to boot---"streetdancing", the different 'tribes' had to come up with ethnic dances (kalokohan lang) which had to be done to the accompaniment of the 'band'---made up of Emma on a bamboo drum, Marie with a bila-an guitar, and another lady with the gong! The fun was in trying to dance to a 'tune' by the band which was done impromptu pa gyud, with Emma bouncing about to the crazy beat of her drum! Hayy gid.

Please don't think we behave like this in all the parties we go to, ha? hehe.We let our hair down only when it's an exclusive Ladies Club party. But when it involves other people, very behaved gayud kami.
One example was last night at the Clubhouse. We had a bunch of billionaires who came on their own jet as guests (yep, you read right....millionaires & billionnaires, or so, we were told) we had to wine and dine and make chitchat with.They're part of the Wheelchair Foundation from somewhere in the US, and they've formed some kind of partnership with Dole...they're bringing in 250 brand new wheelchairs and Dole finds the beneficiaries for them through our civic/social people, the local government and hospitals. (The wining and dining happened Thursday & Friday night.)

Friday morning was the turnover ceremony which i also attended. It was quite touching to see terribly handicapped kids (and grownups) being brought to the ceremony---mostly quadriplegics with other complications. It was also moving to see their primary caregivers---mostly their mothers or fathers, struggling to carry them around (and some were like, 17 years old na?). The Foundation has been donating wheelchairs to countries like Africa, China, and lately na lang, the Philippines. As expected, all the guests made speeches and comments about how, only in this country have they met such a hospitable people (they were with your Uncle Fidel Ramos yesterday in Manila, by the way). Today at the ceremony, we had some high school kids do the authentic Singkil (the one with the Moslem prince and princess balancing on bamboo poles), plus the Tinikling. I was just so proud and happy we could showcase this part of our culture. The kids were so good at dodging the deadly bamboo poles pakpaking at high speed and force!

That evening was another wine and dine thingie with the guests, but this time, kasama ang mga kids. Unfortunately, i had scheduled Bible Study for the same evening as well, so ulaw kaayo if i forego that for the party. So Rene parties with Momon in tow, while i go down the hill to the BS. Saturday, the guy guests went golfing, while the non-golfing ladies were left to wander around or pack.others wondering what to do...but i left that problem for someone else to solve. I had another date in church---this time, to sort and package groceries and stuff for our church outreach on Sunday...and that's another story!