Zalazar Annual Family Reunion (Dec. 30, 2006)

The annual reunion of the zalazar clan, relatives from my Mom's side was held last Dec. 30, 2006 at Hap Chan Resto veranda, Brittany Bay.

Zalazar originally included the Dadia, Ollada, and Tolentino families but now due to marriages included Ona, Lacson, Gonzales, Custodio, and many more.

Early this week, I accompanied Joy to various restos inside BF Homes but we ended up at Brittany Bay which overlooks the Laguna de Bay. It was our first time in that complex which includes other famous restos as Pancake, Dencios, Figaro, Grappas and even the newly opened In the Mood (which appparently was franchised by Larry Cruz to Villar).

We informed everyone that lunch starts 1pm so that it will not be too sunny and warm. Since I went home very late the previous day (around 2am and slept around 4am), I arrived almost 2pm.

Lo and behold, I was the first visitor after Joy of course who hosted the get together. Everyone arrived much later as what usually happens each year.



The food in HapChan was sumptuous and includes the all time favorite garlic fish fillet.

Timmy, Jon, Trixine, Emily and little marcus line up to take the very late lunch.

Joy checking on each of the dishes as she fears it might not be enough. Actually the waiters did well serving so we were able to take home the left over and had it for dinner :)

Enjoying the late lunch on center table Boy, Tito Jun, Ampy, Earl, me, Lulu, Tita Tessie

Patricia taking her turn.

Tita Maan's gifts for the clan. Took the photo before I gave them away :))

Ampy with Martin Miguel. This reunion I think has the most number of kids and babies.
A few years ago, in my first website (which yahoo geocities already deleted boohoo), Marcus, the son of Cath was the youngest member of the clan.

This time we have two! Besides martin we have the new baby of Cath. Photo shows the new baby with parents Cath and husband.

This is the gadgets corner during the party. Tita Marlo on her mobile phone with Teetap and Timmy busy with their new Mac and HP notebook.



Patricia joins the gadget freaks including the Tita's (Trix with her new DELL, Maan with the reliable mini fujitsu lifebook bundled with Visibility so we can all be connected, and Ampy- all with their respective nanos, video Ipods, portable speakers, externals filled with photos and mp3s!

Now its time for the traditional group photo!!!

Last year's reunion was really sad. Many not available. Some came very early and left. I arrived late so group phot was just a handful. This time it was fun.



We chose the bay as the backdrop instead of the restaurant bldg.



This last was the best and brightest since the waiter taking the shot stood on a chair and we were all asked to wave!!!

Hoping for a better, healthy, and successful New Yar for everyone!

Impromptu Get Together at Mendy's (Dec. 29, 2006)

Well that's how mendy termed the so called "after dinner"invitation....impromptu, but he informed us a few days earlier :) so paanong impromptu? :)

Naku kung hindi ka lang mendy, I don't think Lella and I will really go that far north on a late friday evening of december!

Lella and I took dinner at Zen resto in glorietta before we proceeded to Mendy's place at Retiro. When we arrived in his house, the table was overflowing with food! And I thought it was after dinner :)

Joel Limjap left earlier so he wasnt included in the photos. He had to go to another party. Gina said she arrived sevenish. Had we known some will be coming early we would have done the same so we can go home before midnight.

Had fun reminiscing the good old days as in past reunions. Mendy was so kind to give each of us CD copies of music during our era. Boi Rotea arrived late. The girls made baon some of the sweet mangoes and goldilocks mamon. As you can see from the photos, walang ginawa si mendy kundi mag tinker sa cellphone - texting and calling.

Nice shot from up the staircase! Actually it hides all the flaws since we had to look up :)

from left: joseph taking some shots, his wife, mendy perenially on the phone, and was that jimmy? or tony?

lella, sally, gina, moi and joseph co's wife

Gina and some of the chinese guys led by Joseph, went home around a bit past midnight. Mendy requested us to stay half an hour more which meant Lella and I bid our adieu shortly before 1am.

Christmas Celebration with the new Nuncio (Dec 27, 2006)

Last Dec 27 was the christmas celebration at the Nunciature with the new Nuncio (the Pope's representative to a country), Archbishop Fernando Filoni. He used to represent the Pope in Baghdad, Iraq from 2001 till early this year.




The first time he was introduced to the friends of the Nunciature, I was not around. The Pope's day was usually held June each year, and during that time I was still in europe. I made sure that this time I will not miss the event so that I can meet the new nuncio.

This photo was actually taken after dinner. Asela (representing Focolare) and I moved to the Interfaith table (buddhists, muslims, etc) to have a chat. I asked the waiter to take our photo together with Fr. Reuter, good thing His Excellency also joined us.





When we were supposed to takeo our seats at the start of dinner, I asked Asela which table we will be taking. I seemed to want to join the table of the Italians like last year. She wanted to take the one with the Inter-faith table but we lacked one chair so we settled for the next table which was actually at the center.

Well, well, well, we didnt know that this would be the table also of the nuncio so we were lucky indeed. Seated beside me was Her Excellency Vera, Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican. I asked her about Msgr Caputto and she told me that I could send a letter for him which she could hand carry. I told her I don't think he knows that dad has already passed away.

There was no program this evening unlike in the past but we had the usual sumptous dinner then His Excellency gave his christmas message to everyone.

PICS christmas party Dec 20, 2006

The Philippine Internet Commerce Society held its christmas party last Dec 20, 2006. The program higlight was the signing of the Charter with Phil Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE) which will determine the working committee for various projects of both PCE and PICS. Mon Lopez represented PCE and Teddy Kalaw for PICS. This was witnessed by DTI Undersecretary Carissa Cruz who earlier presented the One Town One Product Project of her office.

The fun part followed after composed of the hilarious games such as christmas carol songs, Paint me a picture and Maria went to town. See the various photos below.

at Mrs Beans

I accompanied my cousin Joy to check some restos around the BF pque area for our annual "Zalazar" reunion on Dec. 30. We ended up choosing Hap Chan at Brittany Bay. Didnt realize that we will finish late so I wasnt able to proceed to my planned massage at the spa.

We instead proceeded to Mrs. Beans, their coffee shop inside BF Homes. Photo above shows me, joy and Patricia who has grown so tall at 5'7!

Moving to the new blogger version

I have just moved two of my blogs to the new version of blogger. I had been hesitant in the past as I might lose so much data written through the years. Dennis however mentioned to me that the new version is really great.

Well I started moving my Travel Blog. Lesson: copy and paste the template scripts before moving. Of course all the data was there but then I need to find all the html tags once more for my counters, guestbooks etc

Last night, I did just that prior to moving this main blog. I should have started with my pilgrim blog since there was lesser data.

Nevertheless, I think the new blogger version is cool. I just have one problem. I need to categorize my post here and up to now I still cant find that feature.

Christmas day 2006

As the most important part of christmas, I went to Heritage Park to visit the most important people in my life, mom and dad. Aling Miguela and Beverly arrived after lunch so we brought the flowers I got the evening before and some chairs so we could spend sometime praying at the park.

There were lots of people at heritage when we got there, some having their picnic and one family had a mass said. Felt guilty since i knew thats what dad wanted but its getting too darn difficult getting a priest during the special holidays.

After an hour, we proceeded to makati to watch a filipino movie, Karma. Wanted to to see Kasal, Kasali but all the seats were taken. Had dinner before the movie at Capricssio a new italian resto at greenbelt 3.

Noche Buena 2006

Had dinner at Mirako Japanese resto with my former officemate Mel, the night before christmas. Had to bring her home after and traffic was really bad along aguirre near the presentation church. Fetched Rowena and her kids and proceeded to St Jerome in Alabang where Doc Bob was waiting for us then attended the 11pm mass.

Everyone spent noche buena in the house including the family of our helper.

Ateneo College Reunion (Dec 7, 2006)

Last Dec 7, 2006, thursday, the annual reunion of college batch 1978 was held at the Blue Room of the Ateneo Professional Schools in Rockwell Center, Makati, MM. The ocassion was started with the traditional mass said by one of our batchmates, Fr. Rene Mangahas. Our batch has a couple of priest graduates including Bishop Ambo David.



Philip Araneta flew from Bacolod, Marissa Segovia and Mayor Jerry Trenas from Iloilo, Cynthia Teodoro Totanes from Djakarta, Nick Celino from Sydney and Larry Gochioco straight from Texas, USA. Mandy Pascual who regularly commutes to Vietnam and India also made sure he would be in manila for this reunion.


A program was prepared by Benjie Laza with Corie Magsino Luz. A video which reminisces our past including our silver jubilee was shown. Cynthia Teodoro Totanes, brought the scholar who the batch has been supporting since 2003. She gave a short message to the group. The program was capped with a tribute to our batchmate Achoot Cuyegkeng who is the new Vice-President of the Loyola School


After the program some more batchmates arrived such as Joel Limjap, Dr. Renee Balago t and Clarisse Gener (who had to attend a party in her Innove office). Elma's husband CB Governor Say Tetangco joined us during the party as well as Bill Luz, Corie's better half.
Nini Santos Borja's son visited her mom's party. Nini hasnt aged since college so when she introduced him, at first I thought he was the husband? :) Took their photo but I cant upload more photos here so you can check out my Multiply site.


I dont have the list of attendees but from the photos you can see the bankers Lily Reyes-Lao (China Bank), Gina Rialp Tan (Metrobank), Joel (citibank), Jun Naranjilla (EBC), as well as call center stalwart Jovie Sison, our yahoogroup list owner, Yoyo Bongco-See who also works in a call center in Ortigas, Invesment bankers Norbie Ong and Benjie Laza as well as the guru Gener Mendoza. Others who attended are the famous lawyers Atty Pam lazatin, Atty Gerry Paras legal counsel of the expat community and the current counsel of Amy Perez and One Voice (yes told him I see him on tv) Atty Mel Sta Maria (without Ampy), Boyet Palma raking it in with his chain of Max restos and Via Mare franchises, his buddy Alex Cayaba going strong with his many businesses including an IT related one,




Tina Ribas, Carla Sison Siojo, Sonny Clutario, Johnny Co, Singapore airline executive Ella Salita and Nona Luisa Santos Aquino, Achoot and Joey Cuyegkeng, another IT guro Denny Natividad, the pawnshop magnate Tina Legazpi, Paeng Javellana, Mike Tan, Winnie Jimenez (whose mom just passed away that week), our treasurer Mon Jarencio, AIM marketing executive Ronnie Rivera who painstakingly invited everyone, shipping exec Mon Caballero, Mon Villarama, from the medical field Dr Sally King, Dr. Renee Balagot, Monarch's Boy Ramos, Chito Narvasa, our favorite, Conrad Favorito who almost became a priest, and the pride of the underground economy the finance wiz Rene Estandarte. I might have missed some other people since I just based the names from the photos. Will just update this blog when I can.