Old friends (reprising an old title for a blog post)

Mariano Garchitorena calls our group Good People of Hiraya after the gallery on United Nations Ave., Ermita, where we used to converge and connect in the 1990s. Missing in this post-Christmas reunion was ceramicist Shoko Mafune, now based in Australia. Miss you like crazy, Shoko!

That Sunday we came from different parts of Mega Manila--Karen Ocampo Flores and her children Aya Justiniani and Adoy from Las Pinas City, Noel Soler Cuizon from Manila, myself from Antipolo and Garch from Makati.

We chose Rockwell Power Plant Mall as assembly point. From there we decided whether we'd walk towards Poblacion, Makati, in search of Thai food at a place called Crying (?) or Crouching (?) Tiger. Or not. Garch, a mountaineer, would have found the walk easy peasy lemon squeezy. But there were Noel, whose leg was all achey and who was using an umbrella to prop himself up, and myself, certified PWD with osteoarthritis of both knees and with a cane to keep my balance.

Posing at our table, me holding up the rear and a bottle of brown Sheaffer Skrip found at a Noteworthy sale. Clockwise: Garch, Adoy, Noel, Aya and Karen

The mall was Garch's territory since he lives and works nearby. He decided for us--let's go to The Grid. The fried chicken and mashed potatoes came highly recommended--I had that as I was in no mood anymore to decide on what I was gonna eat. Noel had chicken, too, but with French fries, not mashed potatoes. Adoy's Mexican fare looked tantalizing but too late to change my mind.

Studying the cholesterol content, Nuks?

Yes, you dipped the boneless chicken in gravy, the mashed potatoes in more gravy. Bliss!

Mid-meal who should stride in but scriptwriter-director-actor-"almost tocaya" Bibeth Orteza and friends? There was time for a brief "Hi" and "Hello" before she told me of her schedule of appearance in all the performances of the play "Silent Sky" where, according to the Repertory Philippines press release, she will play "the brilliant and exacting astronomer Annie Cannon." (The play runs from Feb. 1 to 10 at the Carlos Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati.)

I learned a new word--"smocket"--for smoking pockets which the mall had outside for the ones who couldn't break the habit (I won't disclose who among the good people still indulged in an after-meal stick).

Selfie by Garch as we rested our feet before walking to our dessert destination

Group-fie with me photobombing Garch and Karen

We followed the leader Garch to Wildflour for apres-dinner coffee and tea, plus slices of coconut pie, carrot cake and chocolate cake. I was so full from dinner (no leftovers is my new motto) that I could only partake a portion of the sweets. Not that I was watching my diabetes. When I'm with friends, I hang loose.

And hang loose we did until it was time to kiss and hug one another good night and to pray for a very good year that would bring us together again.

Wallflower at a party

"It’s been a long year and it’s gone by in a flash…If you feel what I mean. Endless yet fleeting. Is it just me? I don’t think so." ~ Jane Fonda in her blog

Bebeth Timbol's camera caught me glum and unsmiling at The Peninsula Manila's celebration of "35 Years of Christmas Concert at the Pen." There was no reason to be the wallflower at the orgy, to quote the title of an early Nora Ephron book. It was supposed to be a joyous occasion.

I was in mourning for a friend who had just died and at the back of my talkative head, there was a voice nagging me about financial concerns (being a freelancer, I always have trouble collecting payables at the end of the year, but obligations had to be met).

Trust Mariano Garchitorena, the Pen's affable and indefatigable PR guy and Garch to all, to shoo such thoughts away. Even if my sister Ellen Suzanne D. Lolarga and I reserved our concert seats just a day before the show, there was space created by him for us. But he forewarned us to come early before the 5 p.m. start of the program to ensure we didn't lose those precious seats.

We did at 3 p.m. As we alighted our Grab car, who should I run into but Cecile Licad about to check in at The Pen? Here's the thing about her. Her smile was so contagious that I couldn't help but put on one on my unmade-up, gloom and doom face.

We chatted a bit, and I introduced my kid sister Suzy to her. She extended her hand enthusiastically and cried, "Oh! Your sister! Hello!" Then we went inside after having our bags checked by the security guards. She queued up quietly at the front desk, amazing my sister who thought a VIP like this world-class pianist should be spared lining up.

Suzy and I repaired to the Pen's Escolta restaurant for a late lunch. She had a humongous turkey sandwich which she thought was light, I had the reliable pancit luglug with a can of cold Coke. Soon I was feeling lighter and ready for the afternoon ahead.

When the University of Santo Tomas Singers, with tenor Arman Ferrer, sang "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, I realized that the certain sadness would be there, but it would write "finis" one day soon.

I let myself be carried away by other voices like those of guest soloist Christine Allado who sang, among others, "Never Enough" from the film The Greatest Showman (our New Year theme song, Joseph Uy?) and "Jingle Bells."

How could I remain the wallflower the rest of that evening that swept past me as I downed one flute glass of Moet & Chandon champagne after another.

Thank you, Garch, thank you, The Pen, for upholding a beloved tradition. May happiness grab us in unexpected places and moments in this young year of 2019!

Interlude

Rolly and I know that the month leading to the extremely busy 'ber months will be the only chance we can breathe together as a family so may as well take a staycation. Best place to take one is always an old and grand hotel. To the family The Peninsula Manila is that. It has taken a supporting role in our story from falling in love to courtship to marriage (no, we didn't have our wedding reception there but at Nielsen Tower across the street) to our 25th anniversary as a married couple to first weekend of this still fairly new month.

The bathrobe's so fluffy I can die! While sleepless in Makati, I took selfies.

The staycation was more gift to Kai than to ourselves so her taste in hotel rooms would level up to five-star from business hotels where her Grumpa Tats is assigned when he's in Manila. Here we are enjoying the breakfast buffet at the hotel's Escolta.

I've always wanted a picture like this while Kai is still small and cooperative: enfold her in a robe and we're two heads on one body. Grumpa Tats joins us in the second pic.

Other family members came to visit on our last afternoon: my sister Suzy and grandnephew Jared (who swam with Kai) and family friend Noel Soler Cuizon, visual artist and fine arts prof. The Pen's long-serving public relations person Mariano "Garch" Garchitorena dropped by our table at The Lobby to order bubbly champagne to go with chips. He can't drink temporarily so when it was time for a toast, he raised the flower glass. That should suffice. And we did come home with happy memories. Here's to staycations, to life, family and universal love and healing!
Photos by Kai, Kimi and Rolly Fernandez and Babeth Lolarga

The ones who never left my side

They're two of my favorite creative collaborators: Lynett Villariba and Marissa Ileto. Plus factor is they're my pals, too. But I haven't had a chance to do a project with Lynett since she became the extremely busy artistic director of Philippine Daily Inquirer. Marissa is now an international English-as-second-language teacher but is still based in Manila. We are doing our high school batch's souvenir program. Maybe it's part of aging but the process has become slower despite computer technology. Occasion for this social was the book launch of Bobi Valenzuela's essay collection, Minsan, sa Tag-araw, at the old Hiraya Gallery.

One of the three guys seated with me, Caloy Abrera (second from left), left this world abruptly and with a loud clanging of bells and steel. The other one, poet Jolicco de Cuadra (to my right), is gravely ill with Parkinson's disease. His long-time partner, Auggusta de Almeidda, is trying to find a way to keep his medications in steady supply. Apparently still in good form, especially where singing is concerned, is baritone Alex Dacanay (holding his lunch bowl). This was taken in 2002 at Jerry Araos's garden in Antipolo on the occasion of the sculptor's birthday.

Them were the days indeed when we could drink one bottle of beer after another and not even count how many. And we always chose to sit in the smoking section! Oh my, are we all, Sam Sarmenta, Cynthia Alberto Diaz, Dario Noche, Louie-an Pilapil, the blogger, Joel Sarmenta, Amadis Ma. Guerrero, Francis whose last name I've temporarily forgotten, and Rustie Otico, now paying our dues, health-wise. Sam I'd occasionally see in our Kapitolyo neighborhood taking morning walks. At least there's one exercise-conscious member of the Friday Club.

Obviously, from the color they're wearing, this was Valentine's Day in 2011 when Jacqui Magno, my favorite Pinay jazz singer along with Gou de Jesus (Gou, magparamdam ka naman), had a gig at Merk's Place on Pasay Road. Anna Leah Sarabia is my long-time friend from her Filipinas Foundation years when she was a Makati office girl and still carried a de Leon surname. She has come a long, long way from that, and if she weren't too busy with feminist,  anti-tobacco and pro-RH advocacies, she has many memories to put down on paper. I'm wearing a sling because I broke my elbow in January that year. It healed miraculously through the intercession of poet-healer Mila Aguilar whose book of poems, Chronicle of a Life Foretold, was launched to much acclaim recently.

Anna Leah calls this picture "The Baguio Mafia," although I am hardly in the city up north these days, except for the recent semestral and Halloween break. Baboo Mondoñedo on my right is  a frequent collaborator as far as mounting watercolor shows goes. Her own collection of personal essays should be out by the new year. It is Laida's eldest daughter, Padma Perez, who's more my barkada. Laida though is an inspiration because not only is she Ms. Serenity herself, her slow-food and organic market advocacies in Baguio have taken deep roots apart from her support for weavers of handmade textiles. These beautiful textiles she wears with elegance.Her Cafe by the Ruins guava jam and tart are up there in my to-die-for list.

The is the Babeth-Gilda duet, taken by Anna Leah in 2010 at the old Kiss the Cook Gourmet location during a concert for a cause, featuring baritone Andrew Fernando (no relation to Gilda), flutist Christopher Oracion and pianist Mary Anne Espina, to benefit the Free Ericson Acosta Campaign. Ericson is good friend Pablo Tariman's son-in-law, a political prisoner in Calbayog City, Samar.

Taken at The Peninsula Manila when Australia-based Japanese ceramics artist Shoko Mafune visited last. Mariano Garchitorena, the dapper-looking tisoy, always hosts our reunion dinners and long lingering coffee chats afterwards. Always present on these occasions also is Noel Soler Cuizon, whose time is taken up teaching fine arts full-time at the Philippine Women's University.

The Delightful Shoko-san

She is our Melbourne-based friend who visits the Philippines every other year, sometimes more frequently, depending on how homesick she is.

Homesick for the Philippines? Yes, she is one of those rare global citizens who appreciates this country—her ties of friendship here are deeper and stronger than in anywhere else in the world where she has lived, including Japan.

Shoko Mafune, 54, is a ceramics artist who can do reliefs, sculptures and tiny utilitarian objects like chopstick rests and bird flutes. She gave us the last on her last visit to Manila in February.

We met up at the lobby of the Peninsula Manila, then moved to the Spices Restaurant for a long, talky dinner with our other friends, Noel Cuizon and Mariano Garchitorena, the hotel’s public relations manager. Garch, as we call him, entrusted the choice of the evening’s meal to Spices’ maitre d’ so we didn’t have to waste precious minutes deciding on what to eat.

Except for the flecks of white on her hair, Shoko is the same, still wishing for that elusive love. I think she is my only friend who can state clearly what she wants on that score, and I admire her for that. I can only say I wish good health for myself so I can spend most of my time painting or looking at pictures and things and thinking how I can turn them into a work that has something to say. My wish is far more modest than Shoko’s.

She is back in Melbourne, Australia, conducting pottery classes. On weekends, she drives to different towns to join craft fairs at churchyards and barns. She sets up a table and puts up her wares. She makes friends this way, too, but admits the quality of her friendships in the Philippines is less superficial.

We agreed to put up a two-person show, she doing bigger works, me doing huge paintings. It was Noel’s idea, actually. He wants to act as curator for this dream show, and he’ll be issuing us the guidelines anyday. He is toying with the idea of correspondence.

Here is Shoko in her own words from her website www.shokoceramics.com

“Working with clay has been closely associated with me at almost every major stage of my life.

“I have played with clay since I was a child. My techniques were developed from learning under a traditional Japanese ceramics master for five years. However, my style has evolved and has been affected by living in different countries and encountering different cultures. Every new confrontation, every new challenge in my life has been translated through my medium of clay. My intention is to attract people to touch (not only look) and interact with my work, and in return I want my ceramics to connect the people together. I hope my art can, even for a slight moment, inspire feelings of delight in people.”

Photo shows Shoko's bird flutes.