Mary Grace-ing once too often

It seems Mary Grace is the bakery-restaurant of choice among friends who agree to meet at either Greenbelt Makati or Trinoma, the Ayala mall in Quezon City. When I'm early and waiting for my lunch companions, I like reading the little handwritten stuff under the glass-topped tables. I've often wondered if those are real notes addressed to real persons or they were just made up to add to the place's homey ambience.

While looking at these photos, the first taken sometime August, the other just at the close of this past month, I noticed how I ballooned and grew in heft. Well, you caught me there--enjoying once too often Mary Grace's deceitfully lightweight ensaymada and cheese roll!

With Pablo Tariman, Vergel Santos and Chit Roces Santos

Even Althea Sarmenta seems to say of Mary Grace, "I love you this much!" Others in picture are former colleagues and lifetime friends Bob Navarro, Amadis Ma. Guerrero, Cynthia Alberto Diaz and Althea's dad Joel.

Suddenly last Saturday...

... days before "Maring" caused a sea of devastation, old married couple Fe ("Peng") and Manny Arriola found themselves belatedly feted at a surprise party marking their milestones: her 70th, his 75th birthdays, their 45th year of togetherness.

Their daughters Oya and Ina must be congratulated again for pulling the whole thing off, leaving the couple clueless every step of the way. As late as July, their Tita Gilda (Cordero Fernando) advised Oya to at least give Peng a day's notice--the humane thing because Gilda had witnessed a surprise birthday party that really caught the usually impeccably dressed celebrator by surprise. The birthday gal was without makeup,  wearing her slippers and the Filipino woman's national dress, the daster.

The Arriola sisters kept the secret tight among at least 100 people who turned up at the Corinthian Gardens Clubhouse's east hall Aug. 17. Thanks to the cell phone, the coordinates--where Peng and Manny were at the moment--were telegraphed until the waiters dimmed the lights while the couple climbed down the steps towards the hall, expecting to pick up Ina for a dinner out. A straight-faced son-in-law led the way (later, he said he was tempted to dress down like Manny in tee shirt and shorts just to increase his credibility as bait). By this time, the guests were cackling at the sight of Manny in his get-up, down to his tsinelas. 'Twas like the daster incident, only this time a man was caught off-guard.

To whoops of "Happy birthday!", the couple strode in as the lights came on. The look on their faces was irreplaceable. When the excitement settled down a bit, Ina announced, "Now we can eat!"

Peng Arriola with Oya on her left wearing  a dress crocheted by her mom that fitted her thin frame to a T.

Manny gladly receives one of many kisses from women friends.

Peng hugs back her former classmates from St. Theresa's College.

Journalist Vergel Santos (left) heckles Manny, "Anong ginanaga mo dito?", sounding like a bouncer about to bar an intruder for not following an exclusive club's dress code.

Manny covers his  mouth, aghast at seeing fellow retired adman JJ Calero (in pink stripes). Vergel continues to ask, "Anong ginagawa mo dito?"

Yes, Manny, your words have come back to haunt you. Vergel sketches his pal and the missus.

Peng seen through the eyes of Vergel (those are his fingers showing)

Manny

The quick sketches serve as apres-dessert entertainment for those sharing this table: Chito and Mariel Francisco and Edna Zapanta Manlapaz.

Over dinner, there was a chance to read the aphorisms of Manny and the husband-wife exchanges that glued their marriage for 45 years. These were pried from the memory of Manny by Ina in the guise of her needing ice-breakers for a seminar she'd conduct. Here are some of those that decorated each table and put a smile on our faces:


"Nabalitaan mo ba yung may colon cancer na inoperahan para putulan ang colon? Semi colon na sya ngayon."

***

PENG (to a dinner guest): Some say I can't truly be a feminist because I'm happily married.

MANNY: Hmmm. Baka ako puede.

 ***

Habang nagmamaneho si Manny...

PENG: O, kaliwa ka dyan...Dito ka sa may kanan..Naman, ang mga tumatawid!...Tumabi ka...Naku, bakit tayo hinuhuli ng pulis?!

MANNY: Palagay ko backseat driving without a license.

***

SONNY: Manny, bakit tumataba  ka?

MANNY: Madalas kasi magluto si Peng ngayon, eh.

SONNY: Masarap magluto si Peng!

MANNY: Hindi. Madalas ako ngayon kumain sa labas.

***

"Old age is hereditary. And terminal."

***

"Heard about the man who told his wife that, like wine, a man gets better with age? He now lives in his cellar." 

This caricature by Manny Vailoces, reputedly the top graphic artist in the country, according to Adobo (magazine of the advertising industry), captures the chemistry between Peng and Manny. Chemistry? Let's just call it by its true name--love.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Brookside bibi & famille say thanks for the follow

"To be strong yet vulnerable--this is how we live on this earth. A big embrace."--New Year SMS from poet Marj Evasco 

Blood was no typo on your part
For in your words I recognize a life force
Where I find
The solace
That these days collect
Like impossible raindrops
In the frozen snow
Outside the window of this
My winter's discontent.

--Jorge V. Ledesma, writing from his Colorado isolation

With a bib tucked in her shirt, the blogger is ready for another Yuletide repast.

On our favorite couch by the Christmas tree at Mario's

Blurry photo of Lolarga-Fernandez family with house guests Sinag de Leon and Raya Amado. Sinag's son Dakila couldn't keep still and decided to play with Kai's toy car.

At the beginning of this year, I must say that our happily dysfunctional family has managed to stay intact through the decades. 

 

Has it been that long since Rolly and I decided to hitch our lives to a star and gamble (it does seem like a roll of the dice), take a chance on what Simone de Beauvoir called "an obscene institution"?  This year just past, I learned something new--that your chances of coming out a winner from a casino range from 30 to 40 per cent.

Ida Fernandez with her Tatay and her niece Kai holding the figurine of a lighted angel

Chit Roces and Vergel Santos, colleagues in writing and journalism, drop by for coffee and chat.

Hmmm. Call us Mr. and Mrs. Lucky Us then! And many a time it was our kids, Kimi and Ida, and now our granddaughter, who have helped keep the union intact. Add to that, the fellowship of friends and an extended family of children and grandchildren of our own co-parents.

In a country where Christmas is celebrated the longest, the Lolarga and Fernandez families wish to thank those who've stayed with us. The blogger, channeling Meryl Streep, also thanks her 21 ++ followers who saw her through her ups and downs, enjoyed the roller-coaster of life with her and screamed along with her, with arms and hands held high, as the ride swooped down.

Here's to more and more of the same!

Shall we dance after this meal at that Baguio classic, Cafe by the Ruins?

Source of topmost photo: "Here's the Thing," an online column by Ben Patterson

Photos taken by Suzy and Babeth Lolarga, Rolly Fernandez and an anonymous waiter 

A David Levine in our midst

I think his wife Chit Roces already issued a warning in print to beware when her husband Vergel Santos is invited to socials. I saw why a few evenings ago. After he cased the joint, he sat himself comfortably at the farthest end of the room, then spent the rest of the evening sketching away in his palm-size notebook. 

My own husband Rolly was an unwilling victim when he and Vergel sat across a table at a media summit. Rolly thought Vergel was taking copious notes as a panel of speakers went on and on. He was so admiring of Vergel's diligence. Later, Vergel went up to him and showed a pen and ink portrait of Rolly. That portrait used to hang in a prominent corner in our bedroom until our grandchild moved in and the room's design was rearranged, and anything as disturbing as Vergel's portrait of Rolly was moved elsewhere.

At the end of Friday evening last week, I think I was Vergel's last subject for his quick portraits after he was done with the party-goers and waiters. While I watched him work swiftly, I was looking at his notebook from upside down so I had to ask, "Are you sketching me or my husband from memory?" Jeez! That was when I had one of those Joycean ephiphanies. It's true what the old married folk say--after awhile couples start looking like one another.

What Vergel captures is not the exact likeness of the person. Nor does he do a flattering interpretation of the subject. Like David Levine of The New York Review of Books (I think only Solidaridad Bookshop carries occasional issues of it), he gets the person's essence and distills it. Not unlike what Vergel's late buddy, Onib Olmedo, used to do.

Some people just have it all. Vergel can write, edit, lecture, sing (he was one of our "wedding singers" when Rolly and I marked our 25th jubilee as a couple). And draw with a pen. No erasures there which is what drawing from life is all about.

So I know exactly what to get Vergel the artist this Christmas. And he better not pout, he better not cry.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Too busy to post anything new

I hate panic attacks, but they are slowly approaching as the weekend waltzes in. I owe my editors a total of six stories, all of which are still trapped in my notes, meaning, they still have to be transcribed, then the sentences have to be drafted, composed in a clear, coherent whole and proofread before emailing them to those concerned, apart from the responsibility, on my part, too, of identifying photos.

My former editor Vergel Santos said last night after seeing me take pictures at an event, "These days you cannot just be a journalist concerned about writing your story." He added that a journo's advantage is she or he can learn to take photos quickly. But it's a more difficult matter for a photographer to also learn to write the story for the photos she or he took.

Another colleague in this deadline-oriented profession, Pablo Tariman, likes to remind me when I rue aloud that I wish I had taken a masters in business administration instead of another degree in fine arts to add to my BA in journalism, "It's the only (good) thing we know how to do." The writing, he means, not the avocation of painting where I am still a newbie.

So today I am a unicorn that hopes my editors are likewise too busy to lean on me!

Quotations and illustrations from the World Wide Web