Various Events and Visitors..

Donna’s family's old ancestral house in Del Pilar deteriorated to the point it was almost unliveable. When my father-in-law and Sister Gay went back home from the US, he decided he’ll have it renovated. We were against the idea of pouring in money to the place but I guess it’s their old house and he wanted to have some sense of home ownership so we pretty much got ignored.

Sister Gay and nephew Francis Jr. (Dodong) have been living in it for a while. A couple of months ago the floor tiles finally got installed. Leda and Donna decided to help Sister Gay out to celebrate her birthday and have a formal house blessing. We told her to invite her friends and last Wednesday, Aug 13, she had a party in Del Pilar. Leda brought a lot of food. We brought fruits, ice, drinks, some dinuguan that Donna had schoolmate Pat cook earlier and chairs. Father Mon Torres came late in the afternoon and did the blessing. Ayrin (who brought the cake) and Migs came with Lynn. Len also came with her daughters Erika and Ems.

Leda and Donna played kwaho off and on through it all!



Ate Nita's Visit

We got a call from Donna's cousin Atching Nora and she said her sisters Atching Nita and Atching Del who're from California are in town for vacation and to be with their brother Cong Fred who's wife Atching Zeny passed away recently. These are classmate Boy Dizon's sisters.


I also got a call from friend Roger Catalan who was here through his church on some fellowship mission along with a few of his church members. We didn't get to meet because their schedule was too hectic. He left for California last Sunday, I believe. We should have visited him at SoGo, the hotel they were staying in right across from SM but I was out with the flu at the time.

Panlumacan Elementary Pre Get-Together

When we were in London last year, friends Ric Bondoc and Roland Canlas were nice enough to show us around. Roland is my grade school classmate from San Jose/Panlumacan Elementary School and he's here on vacation. We've been text'ing each other and I've decided to organize a small get-together along with our other classmates most of whom we haven't seen since 1966! Within the last few days, friend and classmate Myrna and I along with Abel Lim have been frantically making phone calls and sending text messages back and forth. One classmate Loreto (Boy) Tumang is the current Barangay Captain of San Jose and we've included him in the loop because most of our former classmates still reside in the area. We were going to have it at the clubhouse of nearby Queesborough Subd. but Boy said we should have it at the school instead because the clubhouse will probably be infested with mosquitoes due to all kinds of standing water next to it.

Yesterday evening we met at the San Jose Barangay Hall right next to our former school and we started driving around trying to locate people and inviting them to our get together on Friday. I got to see some of them last night but didn't recognize most of them - after all it's been 42 years!

Here's our first group picture, from left to right: Aurora Gueco, Aurora Simeon, Myrna Mercado, Abel Lim and Boy Tumang.


Here's Myrna and Consolacion Gomez.


Below is Ruben Yutuc, Lerma Lising and Myrna.


And here's Boy Tumang and Armando Salas.


Holy Angel College

I think I've mentioned in a previous blog that in all my time hanging out at the SM Clark, and lately we've been going to church at the Angeles City Cathedral, I have yet to meet any of my classmates from college. I just find it weird that I was at Holy Angel for four years and not see any of them. Donna tells me that perhaps I'm not looking in the 'right direction'.

Last night I got this text message:
Hi rey Where are you?r u in pi?i called vangie this am if u r in pi hope we can meet beth quito

Let me give you a quick background scenario. Beth is a college classmate and she married another classmate Amor Quito. They live in San Diego. Vangie, another classmate, married another classmate, my college buddy Joven.

You can imagine my excitement, this is what I've been waiting for! To think that the whole thing will come from the US is so strange. Anyway..

I text her back but got tired of waiting for her reply, I called instead. She says she's not used to sending text messages and she was still in the middle of composing her reply when I called! She and Amor are here in time to celebrate her Mom's birthday tomorrow. I dropped by real quick at their place at nearby Villa Julita (across from the Coke plant by Baliti). When I arrived, their two beautiful daughters were watching some Telenovela. Amor was out drinking with her brothers a couple of houses away. They arrived last week and are going back on Sept 5. Before I left she gave me an invitation for her Mom's birthday and I've already saved Joven and Vangie's cell numbers, just in case!