Ayala Light Show 2011

Yesterday November 27, 2011, my family members Tom, Angel, Emil, Martha, Dylan, myself and the newly wed couple Junie and Letlet went to the Fort, to Greenbelt, then to Ayala for the light show.
The Nativity display this year is not as good as last year. But the light show is definitely more awesome.
I took some pictures from my phone camera. We were glad Junie and Letlet felt the early Christmas Spirit here before they leave for LA this week.

Forthcoming Class'68 Reunion

In the process of preparing for our forthcoming high school reunion, I have been meeting with my high school friends more often than not these days. We have had several group dinners since last year to discuss about possible dates and venues. After several brainstorming, we finalized our plans during the birthday party of Robert Tan last October. I wrote a class letter to inform all members about the general details of the affair. The letters were sent through emails, facebook, via classmates and through forwarders. Follow-ups were done through calls and text messages also. There was of course a few dissension,  but the organizers were firm with the majority's decision.
At this point, plans are already on the process. Imelda Bugayong, our class treasurer is the busiest person of all.
Mobilizing some few things this week, at ramdom:
1. Last Tuesday, we went for ocular inspection to many other possible party venues here in Quezon City. We have so far chosen one particular venue which is really pretty and functional.
2. Counting more than 23 classmates who responded to attend.
3. My daughter Martha has agreed to emcee the party for us.
4. Planning the trip and discussing about the programme make us all pretty excited.
5. Dateline for submission and confirmation of attendance is so close now, which is this November 30, 2011. Many of us in fact have submitted our contribution already even earlier before the dateline.
6. There are lots of things to tackle yet with the travel agency once attendance is more or less settled.
7. We need to communicate and meet more often.
8. So far everything is going smoothly until the big event......
9. On turning 60 this November, my friends Imelda, Anita and I are seemingly the happiest persons; we can now avail of fare discount for our trips, free parking, discount for food etc. A lot of help for our meetings and the forthcoming reunion!
10. Don't forget November 30, dateline for submission and confirmation of attendance.
 

Birthday, Wedding and Other Events

Hello! I am legally a senior citizen now. I celebrated my 60th birthday with a dinner in Davao City last Thursday with my husband Lucas, daughter Martha, nephew Eugene and his kids, and niece-in-law Carol and her kids at Garden by the Bay, Sasa, Davao City. The place was quiet and breezy and the food was good. It was a simple intimate dinner among family members and I love the serenity and normal atmosphere of the occasion.

Actually Lucas and I went to Davao for purpose of attending the wedding of Junie Ma and Honeylet Yap on November 11. They are officially Mr. and Mrs. Romeo Ma II now. Both the newly weds hail from Cotabato and both their parents are our good friends. The bride's father Efren Yap was my classmate at CCI and my late mom's first cousin too. (That makes him my uncle to the second degree. haha) The Ma's family on the other hand has been our long time neighbors and friends. The wedding was well attended. It was great to see the big contingent of Cotabatenios and those who used to live in Cotabato long time ago. It was some sort of a reunion of people from Cotabato. Two of my children, Emil and Martha enplaned from Manila to be with us for the occasion too.

Next morning, after the wedding, my family went to pearl farm resort for a day tour.

In general, my family loves the beach and we always take occasion to swim on the blue sea if ever time allows us. I have been to pearl farm with my family for more than 4 times already always on a day tour.

This time around I was pretty disappointed with Pearl Farm because their Mandaya beach was really murky. The other beach at the resort front, although better was itchy, swarming with jelly fish. I actually did not mind the little stings as I was used to beach swimming, but that day, I was painfully bitten by some sort of animal in the water. Where I was bitten, a spot on my leg became reddish and swollen. I swam in the pools too. The eternity pool was okay though, but I saw this slightly hunchback attendant supervising the pool and spitting on the water. That was around 3 in the afternoon when we were almost ending our swim and day tour. Next time I go to Davao for a swim, I would prefer to go to Paradise Island instead.

And one big sour note..............I booked my family for a 3 day stay at the Pearl Farm Marina Inn for the convenient location of the place. But the inn was under renovation when we arrived. Although I made reservation a month ago and I called them up for confirmation the night before our trip; yet they did not inform us about the renovation before hand, not until we arrived that very day. When the front desk offered to help us look for another hotel, we were just too tired from our long trip to go looking for another place to stay. By evening time, when they realized that we could not get any rooms around the vicinity for all hotels were fully booked that weekend, they decided not to give us any discount after the initial stay. Mind you, they did not even make any amends for not being able to serve us the package breakfast. There were also a lot of malfunction in the rooms and noise of renovation. It was too late for us to do anything anymore or our vacation will become a total wreck.

Lastly, this I would say to anybody..................................Don't stay at Pearl Farm Marina because the owners, the operating manager and the reception staff are vicious people. They are totally not customer centered nor customer friendly. I wouldn't want to go back there in 5 to 10 years time.