Into Africa, Day 0

I only have 30 mins free use of the Taiwan Beef Noodle Restuarant's internet service here in HK Airport, so naturally I went to Facebook (ditto the other 2 Pinoy ladies next to me) before logging on here. Flight to Johannesburg less than 2 hours away. The 2-hour Cathay Pacific flight from Manila to HK before that breezed by thanks to multiple viewings of Family Guy.

New plane, new controls, better video-by-demand service. Improved chairs even have sliding seats for leaning, a mini-hanger for your bag, and even an outlet for your laptop to charge in, but it's 110 volts.

Small world rears its way again, as 2 of my companions are Bacolodian Beijinoys --siblings Albri and Che-- who were in the same batch as my cousin AiAi during their China stint, so they know Beyz, Lyndon, Manol and The Contessa.

Currently reading Shootout: Surviving Fame and (Mis)Fortune in Hollywood by Peters Bart and Guber. MP3 function on the celphone has The Ricky Gervais Guide to: The Human Body.

Circle of Jet-Lag: South Africa Itinerary Inna Nutshell

Now if I was a celebrity (or worse, Marlene Aguilar), I'd be worried about posting my holiday itinerary for Holy Week next week, in this case a "South African Sojourn 10 Day Tour" (as it sez on the photocopied folded flyer) w/ 3-Ku, cousins TinTin and AiAi, and their friends.

But I'm not, so here's the breakdownsies:

Total time in the air = approx. 32.5 hours

What's killer is the 13+ flight from HK to Johannesburg (and vice versa a week after), otherwise the other 4 (out of 6) plane rides we'll be taking are a couple of hours each. I smell lotsa naptime.

Total # of lodgings = 4

Sun City Palace Hotel for 3 days, Mabula Game Lodge for 2 days (more like overnight), Johannesburg Crowne Plaza Hotel for 2 days and Capetown Le Vendome Hotel for 4 days. Mabula Game Lodge looks to be the most interesting of the 4, so of course we're not staying long enough to explore "12,000 hectares of malaria free reserve."

Total # of Chinese restaurants we're eating in = 4

Not sure if this is stereotyping the Tsinoy tourists, but lemme put it this way: we don't go to China to look for a Big Mac, so why would we go to South Africa for Chinese food? If it's for "familiarity" or a "taste of home" they're missing the mark. Show me a Jollibee in Johannesburg and then I'll be pleasantly surprised. On the other hand the Carnivore Restaurant offers the chance to taste "crocodile, zebra or giraffe and more. " Guess that's one way to control the safari animal population. Madagascar movie fans may wince.

Total cost of trip= Thank God I'm sponsored, coz at my current salary it would take me over a decade to even consider this.

Sunday, Dopeyz Sunday

Last Sunday half of the original Dopeyz met up at SM Mezza residences in Sta. Mesa to celebrate the 3rd birthday of one of their spawn. That'd be ZAC*, the girl on the right wearing the flower tiara.

The place was one jeep ride away from my house, and this was my first time to step inside the 4-Tower condo spread, where ZAC's 3rd birthday party was being held. When I arrived at the 5th floor (not that I had much of a choice w/their lobby elevator only having 3 buttons: G, 2 and 5) the party was slowly on its way. Mommy Anne and her family are set to move into Tower 3 while final ownership legalities are being finalized, w/c might explain why a lot of apartment doors were still sealed/wrapped in plastic and the inside covered in tacky show-curtains. In the meantime they get to use the "Amenities Floor," w/c houses 2 swimming pools (one swimming, one wading), a huge lawn and party area, and a bar section that was naturally empty since this was a kid's party. Game organizing could've used some improvement but the weather wasn't being cooperative as we were visited by drizzles and strong winds.

While walking around and shooting the breeze w/ Lynette I learned that LRT3 riders won't be getting a view of the Amenities Floor, just the other way around since the place was elevated high enough. (Take that, would-be locomotive peeping toms.) Dopeyz-wise I learned one of us was regretting getting married to who-turned out to be a controlling spouse. (That said, this is 3rd-hand info and non-libelous, but nonetheless intriguing to hear, since I use that Dopey as an example of how even the longest-lasting couplings among us don't end up they way you expected, i.e. together. Eight months is nothing compared to 7 years.)

*ZAC is an acronym of birthday girl's name, w/c I found out too late and had already gotten her an Iron Man action figure. Man, first I miss the kid's baptism, now this.

The Internet: Good for Porn, Bad for Romance.

Two days ago I met w/ a girl I like for coffee. She was running late so I killed the time browsing in-shop mags (though how Cebu Pacific's in-flight mag ended up here, who knows).

Finally she arrived and declined my offer to get her coffee, saying she had a late lunch. In hindsight I probably should have insisted of getting at least a cafe latte, but I was feeling more practical than chivalrous and took her for her word. I also didn't want to break our conversation, so I didn't order, either.

During the chat she mentioned Gymboree, and I said my friend from Cotabato (The Contessa) wanted to work there some time ago. When she asked for The Contessa's last name, it turned out she was "very good friends" w/ her older brother. (Competition? wink nudge)

And that wasn't the surreal part yet, small planet that we have. Just a coinkydink.

Cut to yesterday. On YM I relayed this tale to The Contessa. She said that yes, her brother "mentions her a lot" (wink nudge). Coupla minutes later guess who was texting her brother about a un-coffee date? And asking/telling him about me?

What got my attention was two things she mentioned about yesterday (as least what The Contessa's brother said she told him). WARNING: STOP READING NOW if you think this will take a turn for the voyeuristic. Got it? 'Kay, to continue...

One: I was "too observant" about her Facebook page.

Two: I didn't even order her coffee.

Now, two things I learned from that:

1. Gauging what constitutes as "disturbing amount of knowledge" when it comes to someone else's Facebook page info. I can be the curious and resourceful kind, but for her to be a little bamboozled about knowing common acquaintaces that Facebook itself published? It's not like I was hacking into accounts.

This kind of thing happens to me a lot, where it could start from something as odd as people asking me how I knew when their birthday was (school batch directory, etc.) or wondering how I was able to reach them (Uh, you gave me your card...). The amount the personal information my friends place online is not as odd as their callousness in keeping it unprotected

The impression I got was she was perturbed/perplexed by the amount of mutual acquaintances, even though she brought it up. (Her cousin is Jessel Monteverde, who's my batchmate and related to Mother Lily.) The one that genuinely surprised me was that she knew Aimee Uy from her days when she worked at PhilAm. Including Junius and Darwin, that brings the number of batchmates she know to four. (That said, I know her old batchmate Yvette, and by extension DJ and Goldy. Facebook snooping? No. Deductive reasoning? Yes.)

2. Insisted on buying her coffee.

In conclusion: while no fault of my own, hopefully I didn't blow it.

Ana G's Big 3(Oh)

Pink bear helmet. 'Nuff said.

Just ten hours earlier I came home from Ana Gonzales' 30th birthday party. For someone like me, getting home at a quarter-to-two inna morning from a late-night party held in Makati while my parents weren't out of the country and not unable to buzz/bug me on my whereabouts is about as ballsy an act of social rebellion can be. And for the first time I went stag, an idea that's partly liberating and risky, but came about due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e. my "wingwomen" flaked out).

The party was at 10pm, so I had lots of time to kill beforehand. Had an early-evening swim, got dressed up in line w/ the Pink theme Ana G. wanted (T-shirt for me), then hung out at Diana's place to shoot the breeze and exchange a used tube sunblock for dark chocolate imported from Hong Kong before driving out to Makati (w/ a pitstop for a Chicken McNugget meal).

One thing I like about Makati after 9pm is free parking on the sidestreets, something I don't take advantage of often, since I usually come here much earlier in the evening and park at the malls. But the party's venue at La Maison Condo was several blocks away from said malls, so I hoofed it after leaving the CRV along Legazpi Park.

As my first solo-flight to a late-night party, the term "fashionably late" was something I needed to work on. With bottle of wine and birthday gift at hand, I made it to roofdeck to run into the birthday girl --dressed in a pink halter-top and a white tutu-- and found out I was only the 2nd guest to arrive, next to guest dee-jay Bob. Another guest (human rights lawyer Jessica) was nice enough to pour open and share her bottle of Prosecco. The party's hardly started and already I was feeling a buzz.

It took another 15 mins for the guests to really start pouring in, and speaking of pouring in it was important to hold on to your first plastic cup, as those suckers ran out fast. Some guests were forced to finish whole cans of Red Horse before being able to refill on lighter fare. The place was now divided to a loud dance studio hall for revelry and the balcony for crowded conversing, and I dove in on the latter and managed to mingle w/ gusto. (Also, I may have met more English people tonight that I have my entire lifetime.)

There was the British Biology teacher (name escapes me but reminds me of Brendan Gleeson) who came here 6 months ago w/ his wife Meena (also British but of Indian descent). Francis the English webpage developer who moved here 3 years ago. His business parter Natalie, who lost her beer cup and almost reused someone else's before the original owner stopped her. Carol Sun of Cathay Pacific. Cookie, whose bowtie didn't get as much attention as his pink bear helmet in keeping w/ the party theme. Liz, who quit her job in advertiseing 6 months ago and dreams to work on a luxury yacht. Peter, the second person in the party who thought we've met before (we haven't), then hugged me by the head for some reason. (Pretty sure he wasn't even drunk.)

Anyhoo, I was an hour and fifteen minutes past my "Cinderella Time," and as awesome as staying longer would've been, I didn't. Boo. Hour later my allergy to "excessive" alcohol consumption acted up again. Boo and itchy!

Fulooking Around (An Ad EATremum Event)

For this year's EDSA Anniversary only students got the day off today to "celebrate." Luckily for Irene she works in a school, so she got to "celebrate" by sleeping late and bum around the house. Oh, and get a chance to see batchmates again for dinner.

It seems scheduling a small Batch '94 dinner around Irene's free day was just as good an excuse as any to get it done. (Hell, worked the first time.) This time it was supposed to be at Greenbelt 5, but I couldn't find a place w/ reasonably priced food and conducive for good conversation. Someone suggested Mann Hann, but the one near Glorietta was closed for good, and the main branch in San Juan was spacious but a b*tch to find sufficient parking. I settled for the SM Mezza branch across the street from Centerpoint.

After picking up Mona and Irene, we were the first to arrive at Mann Hann. When everyone else finally showed it was clear that we could not be fit at one table, plus those f#%kers were bolted to the floor so we couldn't move them. So imagine 15 adults, after some chatting and not ordering (but still holding the menus), getting up to leave after one of them explains to the manager that we'd opt to stay if they had longer tables and benches. Darwin's suggestion? Luk Foo Restaurant along E. Rodriguez corner Araneta Avenue. If I knew we'd be this close to my house I might have hosted this dinner there.

We selected Set Menu B, and out came Chinese dishes so unremarkable it was like they wanted to emphasize how less interesting their food was compared to Gloria Maris. But I've said it before: the quality (and price) of the food is secondary to the interaction around the table. Tonight I met Cheryl Dy and Wendy's husbands and Darwin's wife for the first time. Tonight I learned a bizarre rumor concerning the spawn of a couple of Ad Extremates. Tonight I learned almost all of them want to enroll their kids in Saint Jude Catholic School. Poor Irene, more paperwork for her.

School Ties

Free time last Friday found me going to Jehan's office at Tytana Plaza in Binondo to attend a meeting of the Saint Jude Catholic School Alumni Association website committee. (Good luck fitting all that on a business card.) Surprise, surprise, the website's been lacking in oomph and updates. I was there to offer some insight and suggestions, if not actual material worth publishing online. Jehan was nice enough to order Uno takeout for us in the form of various rice topping meals.

Speaking of suggestions, ones like having an open forum board or the site hosting some blogs were tossed around. Nice on paper, but as I told current SJCS AA President Johann Tan, things like a website require passion (or monetary incentive, w/c isn't likely here as the site was put up by volunteers) to keep it going. Hell, I have batchmates unable to sustain a maximum 140-character typing habit, much less updating blogs. And even if they did have the enthusiasm for it, the SJCSAA website would have to compete for attention of those who prefer using Blogger, Facebook and/or Twitter to voice their opinions.

That being said, the meeting was more of coming up w/ material for the site. Sports was a given, w/ all those games the alma mater's been winning (and losing) lately. (Johann was strangely fixated on highlighting cheerleaders.) Another was a monthly feature article of high-profile alumni, or at least those w/ interesting jobs. Tim Yap was mentioned twice or thrice, but I suggested holding off on that idea. He's a friend but it's not like he needs more exposure from us.

For the Features Section, I suggested --as a joke-- someone writing about what it's like marrying a Judenite. After the guffawing died down I suggested a more logical (and possibly less offensive) article would be about Judenites marrying other Judenites, be they of the same batch or otherwise. (Batch '94 has six and counting.)

Next meeting we should have selected someone to do the website's redesign (they're leaning towards Richard, whoever that is).

Thrice of Me to Love, Thrice the Love to Give

Pre-Weekend Come & Go

Meeting up w/ The Contessa is never boring, because it seems --at least from her anecdotes-- her own life rarely is. Many a time she had to learn the hard way about how "you never really know a guy until he's trynna get in your pants."

This Thursday night was our first meeting since last year's Quiz Night, and boy was there a lot to catch up on. In between her bites of ravioli laced w/ truffle oil and my salty crab sammich, tales of intrigue, money, betrayal, disappointment, outrageous spending, forbidden text messages, awkward confrontations, and breakups were shared. And all this was on her end. All I had was, "Well, she likes Nicholas Cage," and "She thinks I'm too smart for her?!?"

She also gets me to try new things, like Quiz Night or Smashed Potatoes, and my experience w/ the former definitely beat the latter. This time it was karaoke, and at the risk of sounding like a foreigner, it's the first time that I'll be doing this in The Philippines. (KTV was one of 3 things I first experienced abroad, along w/ getting drunk and passing a kidney stone.) After our gelato dessert we went to Red Box to pass the time while waiting for the rest of her friends, like Rhea who joined us after we ordered the comp drinks (though at P498 per head I'd call it really expensive SML and Coke Lite) and finished our renditions of Jay Chou and Barenaked Ladies songs. Unfortunately I had to leave "early," missing their subquent nightcap at M Cafe.

* * *

Tonight was special for me. I finally introduced 2 of my Favorite People to one another. They are fellow bibliophiles, movie-geeks and fans of British period dramas. All that and they traded girly shopping stories, too. This encounter can only by rivaled by Siskel's first meeting of Ebert, Scooby Doo to Shaggy, and to some extent Thelma & Louise, sans that suicide run ending. (Spoiler alert.)

We met up at the Shang Mall and in between bites of Wham! Burgers, one told her tale of horror working in the glossy publishing world. Water-cooler summary of this could be Dilbert-meets-Cathy-meets-The Devil Wears Prada (minus Anna Wintour's competence).

This morning she had just finished meeting w/ her bosses and came out unscathed, w/c was more than anyone could say about her immediate boss, an old-hand socialite who (IMO) is threatened by this young upstart, not appreciating the irony that she had a crusty old hand in her being hired in the first place. For every disparaging accusation of lack of professionalism, my friend deflected then w/ Brandon Routh Superman-like grace, only she used facts instead of her eyeball to stop the proverbial bullet(s). It didn't hurt that her boss's boss more or less took my friend's side, w/ almost The Apprentice-style tactics. ("Come sit next to me," her boss's boss said to her.")

After hearing her story both Lola and I encouraged her to stay longer, in only to see if she can outlast that big ball of Crazy called her boss.

Saturday Set-Ups & Sunday Weddings

SATURDAY: Imagine being in your early 30s and accompanied by both parents (and a cousin close to your age for "buffering") to meet a girl your mom's friend's friend wants to set you up with. As a beginning scene to a rom-com movie this would not have even left the story-pitch stage for its sheer complicated nature, but does get points for awkward scenario potential.

And true enough, as we all stood inside the ground floor Shang Mall, met w/ Ma's friend and her friend and that friend's mother and daughter (the kai siao) and all the introductions were made, the first awkward silence crept in. Coffee, anyone? There's Dome! Let's get some sammiches!

Whew, silence averted. We put together three tables but split into 2 groups by age. After the lady-of-the-hour (and her mom) came back from the ladies'-of-the-hour room we got to ordering and talking. The early dinner of sausages and sammiches went fairly well. She works in IT and is into photography, having recently upgraded her digital slr. Laughs were shared and expressed at the right jokes. "Western humor" (paraphrasing Ma) was not repelled w/ awkward pauses. Plus points. And she lives relatively nearby. Still learning to drive, though.

SUNDAY: My role as designated Sunday driver wall called out again, but this time it was for a family wedding of sorts. I'm barely related to Christopher Michael Uy (he's my first cousin's cousin-- that what they mean by once removed?), but I was keen to see old faces and schoolmates from my SJCS days. And as (my) luck would have it, I saw some not-so-friendly faces, like Venusian almost-blind-date from last September. Seems the awkwardness carried over from yesterday.

But back to the friendly faces. Charlotte (also Chris' cousin) was back in town --apparently since March-- and broken up w/ her Amerasian bf. Chris' awesome sisters Charmianne and Marichelle flew in from Philly and Ohio, respectively. Last time I saw both ladies Chris was my high school Chinese History teacher more than a decade ago, when they all lived in the same house in Kanlaon Street. For some reason I remember Achi Char being a lot taller (we're actually almost the same height), w/c was why I didn't recognize her when I first saw her at the church. Good thing she approached me first to jog my memory.

The entertainment provided at the reception in Century Seafood was unlike any I've ever seen at such events. Two ladies wearing might-as-well-be tights danced onstage before the principal sponsors were introduced. (they danced again during mealtime.) Oh-kay. With the newlywed's dance number Chris' expressionless countenance was doing its best Vulcan impression, as he was too busy counting his choreographed moves to crack a smile. Sigh, I love the man and he can bust'a move when needed, but I swear you can use his face to illustrate in dictionaries the definition of "stoic." As for the AVPs we were treated to Chris' holiday vacation pix while Go the Distance from Disney's Hercules Soudtrack playing in the background. There has got to be a cliche wedding song playlist out there I can tear up, burn and bury in my backyard.) Even his employee got into the act, literally, sporting pink barongs as The Singing V (for "Visaya") Group.

Note to Sound Guys: the romantic aspect of Chris serenading his new wife for the first time w/ John Denvers You Fill Up My Senses accompanied by his playing acoustic guitar was kinda diminished when you had him wear a headset microphone, making him look like he was either gonna sell her that guitar or go control airline traffic at NAIA afterwards.

Loved Charmiane's congratulatory speech, as she spoke in crisp, clear Mandarin and English. Having a script in her hands also helped, w/c is more than I can say for the Best Man's "speech."

And where was I? Well, since my parents were the ones officially invited and not moi, I had to look for my own seat. But even if the seating arrangement wasn't strictly enforced and there were 3 whole tables unoccupied, I decided to test the awkward waters and took a seat next to the Venusian. While she didn't shoo me off (how could she, she was her Mom's +1 to this reception), she wasn't exactly engaging in friendly-feeling conversation either. That hostile-lite tone in her voice from last year still carried over for some reason, but overall it was like she wanted things to be civil. Ma told me afterward she thinks Venusian's a snob. Pa wants me to call Camera Girl already.